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

[hexalding]

Still, it would harm nothing to sit down rather than hover, I assure you.

[The corner of his mouth twitched into something almost a smile, just for a moment.]

This, no--it is just a mechanism of pure clockwork. It functions through a matter of tension; that is, winding it up allows it the ability to move until it fully unwinds itself. However, there do exist machines on Runeterra with similar form, but given motion by magic instead of any manual factor or other power source.

[crypddyd]

...

[ a bit more shuffling, and finally he sits, straight backed and proper]

I see... does the magic need to be maintained often?

[ as amazing as magic can be, it is expensive in a way. Skilled mages can't be spared on things like maintenance and... well if he was honest the nobility of his home had little interest in any magic that wasn't useful for killing. But if he wants to improve things once he's crowned he needs to think of these things]

[hexalding]

Not always. It is mainly a form of energy generated by a particular kind of crystal, and manipulated through the application of various runes. [Viktor gestured vaguely with the small set of pliers in his hand, before returning to slotting a delicate gear into place.]

In some forms it can prove finite or even dangerous, but maintenance has not been strictly necessary in most smaller uses.

[crypddyd]

I see...

[ he nods to himself, deep in thought. Yes. If things settle like he hopes he definitely needs to make sure the school of sorceery is well funded. It would be a careful balance with what the Church allows, but well... the Church was likely to be very different after the war.

But that was something to keep to himself for now. Even with no one else from Fodlan here... well, better to not get into bad habits. Still, pondering an 'after' at all is a new and surprisng thing for him, and he smiles slightly to himself]

Well, even if I do not fully understand the details, it is clear you are quite skilled.

[hexalding]

It is far from a simple concept even in my world, no one could blame you for lacking understanding. It took my partner and myself close to a decade to gain any real mastery of the field, and even then...

[He trailed off with a thoughtful hum that sounded like the idling of a quiet engine, connecting a few pieces in the delicate metal in his hands with a soft click.]

As for this, it is little of significance. I only prefer to keep my mind and hands occupied, and I thought that girl with the augmentations--Labrys, I believe her name was--might like a distraction from the current situation. Here, you can see how it works for yourself.

[Viktor turned a small key a few times, before holding the palm-sized box between them in a faintly glowing hand--the gears started spinning to move tiny mechanisms in a short melody.]

[crypddyd]

[ Labrys, like Viktor himself, is a fasinating and alien being to Dimitri. He has SOME concept of walking machines between the Empire's dark mage allies' titans and tales of the Church having ancient dolls that could fight all on their own. But a machine with personhood was so outside his scope he had, without realizing it, slotted her into a person with amazing but understandale prosthetics at most. Even if explained it would likely not mean anything to him in any real way.

The box though he could understand, having seen a few similar toys from Almyra or elsewhere in his youth. His eye glitters with a surprisingly youthful delight for how worn he always looks]

Oh! What a charming tune!

[hexalding]

[Ironically, Viktor was having trouble wrapping his head around the idea of a fully mechanical automaton with free will for wildly different reasons. For the moment, he chose to interpret her as having heavy augmentations a little less organic than his own, deciding to reckon with the alarming truth at a time when it didn't make him decidedly uncomfortable.]

[Which might have been 'never', honestly.]

It's something that was popular in my hometown some time ago--I only heard it a time or two, so it is possible I have the melody slightly wrong.

[crypddyd]

But isn't that the way of music? It never plays or is sung the exact way you first heard it.

[hexalding]

Is it? I would conider a composition no different from a mathematical equation; designed with each note in its exacting order and placement. To have one out of place would be to perform the entire melody wrong, would it not?

[...He seemed to hesitate as he said as much, as if thinking about something else entirely.]

Or...hm. Perhaps it is more complex a matter than that.

[crypddyd]

[He chuckles slightly, almost wistful]

Well, yes. But even outside practical issues like different singers or differently tuned instruments or acoustics... well, memory is never completely accurate, is it? Especially if it's something important to us. It's always either more beautiful or... more terrifying.

[he knows now much of how he remembers Duscur is not completely true. But it feels real to HIM after a decade of brooding over it.]

Though perhaps I am not the best example of such a thing. My memories are far from trustworthy. For you it may be crystal clear- I've heard some people can recall things in such a way.

[hexalding]

...Human memory is flawed, even for those with so exacting a recollection. There will always be something out of place or forgotten. That is simply the imperfect nature of humanity.

[He slowly set the music box down, delicate fingers moving with the precision of a mechanized doll.]

My own is no different. Some things remain with clarity, while others are lost or faded by time and distance.