122nd ♫ | phosphor burned a silent mayday, my hand slipped with a dirty splash

[phaiinein]

The Murder Game Meme



You know the script. You wake up in a place you've never seen before, with a whole bunch of complete strangers and there's a mysterious voice or a mascot or what have you ready to let you know how things are going to work around here.

The rules are simple: You're trapped here, with no hope of release or rescue. You've been provided with all the basic necessities you need to live comfortably, and all you have to do is settle down and live out the rest of your days here in peace. But if you can't do that -- if you're really so desperate to escape that you'll do anything -- then there's one teeny tiny thing you have to do first.

All you have to do is kill somebody.

But it's not quite that simple. Every death will be followed by a period of investigation, followed by a trial in which the survivors will attempt to solve the mystery and out the culprit. If the survivors guess correctly and out the culprit, the killer is executed and life goes on. But if the survivors guess wrong, then the culprit is free as a bird and everyone else is executed.

Even with the promise of freedom, can you really bring yourself to kill so many other people?

tl;dr: it's a murdergame meme. TIME TO HAVE A BIG OL' MURDERGAME BLAST.


Settings

1. High School A classic! Doesn't matter if you're too old or too young to be in high school -- you've been enrolled and the only way for you to graduate is to kill a fellow student. But hey, the faculties are nice!
2. Tropical Island Weren't you just hankering for a nice tropical vacation? No? Too bad! You're going to have a nice sunny vacation at the beach and if you don't like it, just kill someone and go home. Simple!
3. Prison It doesn't matter if you don't remember committing any crime; you've been tried and found guilty of something or other and now you can go ahead and rot away in jail. If you ever want to see the sunlight again, better put that criminal mind to good use and get rid of your inmates.
4. Mall A huge mall stuffed full of stores, places to eat and all the regular amenities like deadbolted doors and the threat of death. It's like Black Friday but even worse because you can't leave and all the rest of the shoppers might actually kill you for real this time.
5. City Holy shit, you've got the run of a whole city this time around! Maybe with all this room to keep out of each other's way, you'll be able to make sure no one starts killing people. But probably not.
6. Cruise Boat YOU'RE ON A BOAT, MOTHERFUCKER. The accommodation is all five star, even if there's no one around to act as wait staff. The only snag is that you still have this whole murder thing hanging over your head – but on the plus side, they have those little drinks with the umbrellas in, so...
7. Space Station THE FINAL FRONTIER... Maybe you're familiar with space stations like this or maybe all this future tech is fascinating to you. Not like it matters either way, of course, because you won't be getting out of here unless you lay down a murder on someone.
8. Wildcard! None of the above scratch your murder itch? Go wild and come up with your own setting!



Downtime

1. Excuse Me, Who Are You? You've just woken up in this weird place and you have no idea what's going on. But hey -- maybe this stranger's more informed than you. Or maybe you can put your heads together and investigate what's going on.
2. Social Link Go! Well, if you're going to be stuck in here for however long, you might as well get to know the people stuck in here with you. You've got plenty of rooms to explore together and there's enough to do to keep you occupied. How do you plan on passing time without killing each other?
3. Vending Machine Woes Somewhere in this place there's a mysterious vending machine that spits out all manner of bizarre items and occasionally dispenses items that belong to you and the other people trapped here. You've got a fat stack of tokens and nothing to lose.
4. The Corners of My Mind So as it turns out, your lovely hosts have been fiddling with your memories. Maybe you're just discovering this now or maybe you've had a particularly upsetting memory regain you're dealing with.
4. Wildcard! GO WILD AND BE FREE (or as free as you can be here, anyways)



PUTTING THE MURDER IN MURDER GAME

1. Motive Your mysterious overseer has decided there's not nearly enough murder going on and so they've ~helpfully~ given you a little push to do the deed. Maybe one of your loved ones is in danger, maybe they're offering more money than you could ever dream of or they're threatening to reveal your deepest darkest secrets. Whatever is it, would you kill for it?
2. Murder WELL APPARENTLY, YES. Are you a killer or are you being killed? Either way, someone's not walking away from this alive.
3. Body Discovery Rise and shine, murdergame! It's a brand new day and someone's dead. Better get investigating!
4. Trial You know how this one goes. Line up all your evidence and sniff out the killer -- or sit there and sweat and hope no one works out you're the murderer. Will they go down with a confession or put up a fight?
5. Afterparty You've survived another trial, but more of your friends have died. Even without the executions, trials are a stressful enough affair. It's time to destress and lick your wounds and support each other.
6. Mastermind It's the end. It's time to uncover all the mysteries behind this murder game -- and find out just who trapped you here. Are they really an unconnected party, or is the mastermind someone among you...?
7. Freedom Just as it says -- you're finally free, but at what cost? Have those you love been returned to you, or are you still reduced to just those who made it to the end? Are you on your own, or is anyone here to help you? And more importantly, how the hell are you going to get home?
8. Wildcard YOU KNOW WHAT TO DO


OPTIONAL FUN

Lots of murdergames have in-universe public profiles for other characters to get the skinny on yours. If you'd like to fill one out to post with your toplevel, peep at the code below!

<center><b>Name:</b> NAME | <b>TITLE (Super High School Level, Ultimate, Champion, etc)</b> <b>Age:</b> AGE | <b>Species:</b> SPECIES | <b>Occupation:</b> OCCUPATION <b>Likes:</b> LIKES <b>Dislikes:</b> DISLIKES <b>Traits:</b> A HANDFUL OF NOTABLE TRAITS <b>Trivia:</b> A PIECE OF TRIVIA</ul></center>

Comments

[scourgingstars]

Miss Hoshino?

[Two of a kind, even if neither acknowledged it--ever smiling, ever secretive. Although for how terrible a liar 'Ardyn Sidereus' was--often stumbling over his words with a nervous laugh, to the point people were beginning to doubt he was even honest about his own name--one of them was obviously far more practiced than the other.

[Nonetheless, the light knock to her door came some hours after the motive; the 'Fatebreaker's' own secret folded carefully and hidden in a pocket.]

I brought you something in case you were hungry. Do you like fruit, by any chance?

[liedol]

[ So. Everyone knows now. Or at least, everyone knows what Ai has deigned to tell them. She was one of the first to admit to her sin, giving her lies up freely to make it as clear as possible that she has no intention of playing along with the horrible game their captor's set them. She's a mother, after all, as she'd told the others - how could she go back to her beloved children with blood on her hands?

They're all so shocked and so earnestly sympathetic that not a single one of them realizes they haven't actually seen what had been hidden in Ai's envelope. Her stomach curdles with guilt.

Not that you'd know it to look at her when her door clicks open. Like always, her smile's bright enough that it rebuffs you from looking too close. ]

Depends on the fruit! If it's mushy or it's got seeds, I'll pass. But other than that, I'm not picky.

[ She wrinkles up her nose in a good natured, self deprecating sort of way. ]

Aren't you hungry?

[scourgingstars]

[With a gentle smile, he held up a plate with slices of cake sitting neatly upon it.]

It's made with oranges. I'm not particularly hungry, myself--but if you're worried about poison, I'd be happy to share it with you.

[There was no accusation in the words; it seemed a fair concern to have, in these circumstances. But...it was rare that he ate much of anything.]

[liedol]

[ Despite how objectively miserable just about everything in their current situation is, Ai's face absolutely lights up when she sees what's on offer. She can be bought with a silly little treat! ]

Ooh, it's so pretty! For sure I wanna try some.

[ She redirects her sparkly smile back up towards him. ]

And if it looks this good, we've gotta share! How mean would I be if I made you sit there and starve while I ate cake, huh?

[scourgingstars]

I had a very good cooking teacher, fortunately.

[heh]

I'd be happy to. Shall we?

[liedol]

You'll have to introduce me to them when we get out of here. I can make like, a sandwich and maybe toast if I'm feeling really adventurous and that's about it.

[ And then, casually as anything - even though the natural thing to do in a situation like this would be to just hang out in her room, Ai steps out and pulls the door shut behind her like the idea had never crossed her mind to begin with. ]

Anyplace you wanna go sit down? Or are we just taking up some kitchen space?

[scourgingstars]

Oh, I think you'd quite like him. [Mostly because timeline hijinks meant Ignis was barely a teenager at this point. Ai seemed like the type to get one look at him and deploy the hair ruffles.]

There weren't many people in the kitchen last I looked. It should be relatively quiet, if that's what you would like.

[liedol]

I don't mind either way! Anywhere you wanna go is good with me.

[ Expertly dodging the question of her own preferences, she starts off down the corridor, leading the way like it'd been her idea in the first place. ]

Is everybody doing okay? Today was kinda... [ She glances back at him over her shoulder and pulls a bit of a face. ] Yikes. You know?

[scourgingstars]

...I think that they'll be alright. People are resilient, after all--even if spirits are understandably low today, with any luck we'll all quickly bounce back better than ever.

What about you?

[liedol]

Who, me? [ She gives him a grin with 200% of her usual levels of sparkle. ] As if I'd let a little motive get me down.

[ ... then it dims into something softer and a little more... restrained, perhaps. ]

... I'll be fine. To be honest, I kind of saw this coming at some point. We're kind of a shady bunch, don't you think?

[scourgingstars]

...Hm. [Ardyn didn't deny it, stepping into the kitchen and taking out a second plate, splitting up the cake slices as he set them on a table.]

I think that everyone has secrets, miss Hoshino. Kept for myriad reasons, not all of them necessarily malicious. Do you prefer tea or coffee?

[liedol]

Secrets? Dunno what you're talking about. I'm an open book!

[ . . .

She says it so earnestly and so innocently and with such a totally clueless smile on her face that it's... probably just supposed to be a joke. ]

I'll have whatever you're having, though! I don't mind either of them.