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

[peaceinthewater]

A shame. There are many in Zaun who would have found hope seeing that.

[Silco goes oddly silent for a moment, lost in his own thoughts.

Two young, bright-eyed innovators. One with the base, the other the spark needed to push it to more than just a pipe dream. Working together to make that dream a reality. One of them more charismatic, better at selling the dream to everyone while the other sits in the shadows. Both still working, their own problems eating at them in different ways until...

It's familiar in a way that makes his scars ache.]

There are a few others who have mentioned using magic. I will send them here in case they have insight.

[hexcrafter]

I do not...necessarily disagree with that. [He huffed out a sigh before taking another bite of the pancakes in front of him.] But I had to approach the matter realistically given our audience. That, and I have no mind or personality for public speaking. [like really silco you've talked to viktor, how do you expect that would work.] I am content enough letting him be the forward-facing aspect of our work.

Either way, the runic system is not a difficult one to learn. I can show that much to anyone capable of manipulating magic, and if I can not construct a substitute for a crystal we may be able to work something out.

[peaceinthewater]

[Silco lets out a laugh at the mention of Viktor's...less than charismatic nature. An understatement from what he's experienced, but then again, the boy does have good reason to not like him. The logic makes sense, even if it still chafes knowing another Zaunite is being overlooked.]

Well, I do understand the importance of a good face. [An attempt at humor that probably sounds more sinister than he intended, but Viktor seems unaffected by his attempts at being imposing so far, so he's pretty sure it will land.]

I believe Gerta said something about runes the other day. I will send her to you first while the rest of us explore the newly opened portion of the school.

[hexcrafter]

[Viktor couldn't quite help but let out a brief snort of laughter, despite the surreal circumstances of the conversation. He tried not to think too hard about that right now.]

Jayce may carry the common Piltovan affliction of a deficiency in common sense, but he is...hm, better than most. Good enough that he fails to see what others tend to focus upon in my appearance. If I thought putting myself alongside him in the spotlight would do any good, he would no doubt happily drag me along to every miserable investors' meeting and party across Piltover. Perhaps eventually I will entertain the thought, but certainly not the way things are now.

[Shrugging, he set down the fork and immediately picked up a pencil, hand moving in rapid and barely decipherable words across a nearby notebook.]

...This might actually be plausible. A promising concept.

[peaceinthewater]

[Silco squints at Viktor a little as he starts to scribble as if trying to focus on something just out of sight.]

You care for him a great deal, don't you?

[hexcrafter]

...He's my research partner, and has been for years now. [Not looking up from his notes--which was not an unusual thing for Viktor to do in a conversation, admittedly.] I only thought it better to dispel any ridiculous assumptions you might have before presuming I was kept in a lab without a choice in the matter.

[peaceinthewater]

Of course. Just a 'research partner.' [Must be what the kids are calling it these days.]

[hexcrafter]

[With weapons-grade sarcasm:] You're right, I'm fucking Piltover's perfect golden boy, because that is certainly a plausible thing. You caught me, my plans for Runeterran domination are ruined.

Here I thought you were clever, do you hear yourself?

[peaceinthewater]

[Sure, Viktor.]

It was a joke. Surely you haven't been topside long enough to forget those. [Not entirely true, but Silco does get to file away some more interesting information about Viktor.]

I'll leave you to your work. Hopefully our exploration yields good news.