Normally I'd just make the thread and hope that people sign up after I write up an introduction to the plot, but I want to see if anyone is even interested first because—if it were to stay somewhat true to the game—a role play would be somewhat difficult to pull off.
I recognise that a lot of roleplays in the general thread tend to sway towards using an established universe as their setting as opposed to setting it in an original fiction universe, making it hard for users not familiar with the source content to understand what's happening. I'm going to try to avoid that here by simply basing it upon the Danganronpa series, including only the bare-bones canonical elements. On that note, if you have absolutely no idea what Danganronpa is but are interested anyway, feel free to join in. This is essentially a murder mystery role play set in a high school (or at least the characters are high schoolers). If anything on this thread doesn't make sense due to usage of game-specific terminology, let me know so I can re-word it. (All of this being said, spoilers for the canon storylines are to be avoided).
The contents of the spoilers might be a bit word-heavy (the introduction to this was fairly wordy too, oops), so here's the short version of what I plan for this to be if you don't want to read them.
The stuff in the spoilers below go into more detail (as well as list some potential complications), but that's the gist of it.
The basic plot is kind of bare bones (x number of students are trapped in [location] and the only means of escape is to commit murder and get away with it), so the majority of story building would be done via character interactions. (Obviously there will be an overarching plot, but the characters' actions affect this). I do have some ideas on how to make this a more unique concept/a different setting, as well as some plans for possible branch endings, but I don't want to flesh them out too much if no one aside from myself shows any interest.
Have I lost you yet?
Yes? Understandable, I'll explain anything in better detail if need be.
No? Great!
This might be a little bit ambitious, I know, but would anyone be interested? If not, is there a way I could mould it into a better concept? (Additionally, if you have ideas on how to run it better please let me know. I'm open to suggestions).
I recognise that a lot of roleplays in the general thread tend to sway towards using an established universe as their setting as opposed to setting it in an original fiction universe, making it hard for users not familiar with the source content to understand what's happening. I'm going to try to avoid that here by simply basing it upon the Danganronpa series, including only the bare-bones canonical elements. On that note, if you have absolutely no idea what Danganronpa is but are interested anyway, feel free to join in. This is essentially a murder mystery role play set in a high school (or at least the characters are high schoolers). If anything on this thread doesn't make sense due to usage of game-specific terminology, let me know so I can re-word it. (All of this being said, spoilers for the canon storylines are to be avoided).
The contents of the spoilers might be a bit word-heavy (the introduction to this was fairly wordy too, oops), so here's the short version of what I plan for this to be if you don't want to read them.
- "Dungeon master" style approach to running the setting
- Primarily character-driven plot with occasional story progression posts
- Certain details left intentionally vague IC and OOC as to lead to murder mystery style speculation
- A fairly long-running story that will require roleplayers to stay committed for a greater span of time.
- "Rule/mechanic based" roleplay to keep the story moving
The stuff in the spoilers below go into more detail (as well as list some potential complications), but that's the gist of it.
- I will be the "DM," of sorts, for this game and control Monokuma (or a similar sort of semi-omniscient character) as well as describe the setting. I may control a student character as well for all of the down time between major story events, but that would involve you guys having to trust that I don't metagame.
- The mastermind will either be randomly picked or on a first come, first serve basis (who ever sends me a PM asking to be first; it'd be a bit too obvious if I also played the mastermind as will, after all).
- After a few days, I'll introduce a motive for everyone to react to (even if it's just saying "Wow, that's stupid. Who cares." and leaving the gym to go play video games or something).
- After everyone has replied and a bit of time has passed (maybe an IRL week) I'll randomly select a player to carry out a murder and a player to be murdered (myself included in both of these, if I make a character). I'll open up a private convo with those people and they can decide how the murder was carried out and what evidence was left behind.
- For investigations, I'll write out a description for the contents of the rooms where potential evidence may be found. Role players will write an IC post exploring the area(s) in order to gather evidence, and can then try to piece together what may have happened both IC and OOC. (This system is a bit shaky, but I'm not yet sure of an alternative).
- The trial will last for a day/whatever amount of time is agreed on, and players can debate among one another over who did it/ask Monokuma questions (within reason). The next day, everyone will cast a vote. I'll tally the votes and if the majority votes on the culprit, only they are executed and the rest of the cast continues the roleplay. If not, everyone is executed except for the perpetrator and the mastermind (this might have to be changed otherwise it could be a pretty short roleplay if everyone gets it wrong the first try, but hey, all in the spirit of the game).
- Number of roleplayers: While the Danganronpa games have a cast of sixteen students, that's fairly unrealistic for a roleplay on a forum that isn't Danganronpa based (and/or may not have much interest at all). A bare minimum number would have to be six people (two murders and then the remaining players can try to escape, any number above that would enhance the experience), but even that might be asking a lot. Unfortunately, any less than that and the game would be pretty much impossible to run and/or would be incredibly short.
- Character death: Obviously, everyone would have to give kill perms for their character, which some people might not be willing to do.
- Metagaming: Generally, role players on this site are good with this (I've only had a couple problems in the nearly two years I've been on here), but it'd kind of suck to have someone immediately call out the murderer/mastermind in a trial setting just because they found out OOC who it was. This one has a pretty easy solution (using PMs for stuff that other characters wouldn't know), but if someone still manages to find out OOC, this is important.
- Charms as a platform: This kind of ties into the metagaming problem, as there will only be one main roleplaying thread (with OOC matters discussed within PMs) which may make it difficult to distinguish what posts are only supposed to be between two characters, therefore making figuring out who the culprit is easier from an OOC standpoint. A solution is to use a mass amalgam of PMs for private conversations between a few players with only actions accessible to everyone posted within the main thread, but this might be too cumbersome. However, this would make it interesting in that players could quote evidence from their conversations during trials, and those who don't have evidence to quote could just as easily type whatever they wanted in the quote box.
- Staying committed: A role play like this would have a fairly set format for the flow of the plot, but it won't really work as well if one of the role players just drops off the face of the earth. I guess a solution to this would be to let me know if you no longer want to participate so I can have someone murder your character, but that's a pretty subpar way to fix it, at best.
The basic plot is kind of bare bones (x number of students are trapped in [location] and the only means of escape is to commit murder and get away with it), so the majority of story building would be done via character interactions. (Obviously there will be an overarching plot, but the characters' actions affect this). I do have some ideas on how to make this a more unique concept/a different setting, as well as some plans for possible branch endings, but I don't want to flesh them out too much if no one aside from myself shows any interest.
Have I lost you yet?
Yes? Understandable, I'll explain anything in better detail if need be.
No? Great!
This might be a little bit ambitious, I know, but would anyone be interested? If not, is there a way I could mould it into a better concept? (Additionally, if you have ideas on how to run it better please let me know. I'm open to suggestions).
