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MMG How-To-Play and Base Game Rules
Mar 21, 2018 9:36:58 GMT -8
Post by The City [EclipseZwolf] on Mar 21, 2018 9:36:58 GMT -8
MMG Base Game Rules
and
How to Play
and
How to Play
Welcome to Murder Mystery Games! Here I will be taking you through the ropes of playing in standard rule games on Murder Mystery along with some tips and tricks to have you filling all the competition with despair in no time! From now on I will be referring to the games as Seasons so be sure to remember it. Every season revolves around the players being dropped into a Dangan-Ronpa style scenario and their journey to survive and escape. In order to survive in this terrible environment you need to be able to Move around the Map like the wind, Examine your surroundings like a hawk, and Act faster than the competition. So let us begin the first step in turning you into a hopeful hero or a despairing devil! But first, here are some important terms you need to know!
Important Terms
1. Season: The term for a game of Murder Mystery. These will be preceded or followed with a unique label for each season. EX: Season One, Season Two, Super Season
2. Mastermind: The person running and managing a Season
3. Player: Anyone besides the mastermind participating in a season.
4. Map: The collection of Room Threads that make up a single season of Murder Mystery
5. Room Thread: A thread that contains the information pertaining to one room and any necessary additions
6. Player Character: Any single person being controlled by you or another person who signed up for the game.
7. Non-player Character: Any single person being controlled by the Mastermind.
8. Inventory: The current list of items being carried on a person.
9. Inventory Size: The max weight that can be carried at any one time.
10. Weight: The weight of an object to determine the amount of space it takes up of your inventory
11. Movement Post: A post signifying your current location.
12. Movement: The process of deleting a movement post and creating a new movement post in your new location.
13. Examination: The process of obtaining more details on a specific item, location, or person through direct contact with the Mastermind.
14. Action: Influencing a specific item, location, or person through direct contact with the Mastermind.
15. Culprit: The person behind the current murder(s).
The Map, Movement, and You
Movement in Murder Mystery is performed through posting on a series of threads that represent the rooms that make up the map. Think of these threads as jigsaw pieces in a puzzle. A room thread will contain a bare minimum of three things: A room description, an item list, and “doors” to other rooms.
An example Room Post. It has been color coded to show what each section is. Blue is the room description. Red is the item list. Black is the door links.
An example Movement Post. A simple post with a dot to signal your being in the room. Only ONE Movement post like this should ever exist per player on the map at once.
This post is deleted when you leave that room and move to another, via the links. The step-by-step process is as follows:1. Create Movement Post in the room you are entering
2. Perform whatever you need to do in the room, be it actions or nothing at all (This time frame must be a minimum of 1 minute so that both the mastermind and players have time to notice you sprinting through a room.)
3. Delete your Movement Post and immediately
4. Follow one of the door links
5. Return to Step 1.
There are two special situations in which you will not have a movement post. One is when you are hiding, which will be explained in the Actions section. The second and more common is when you are talking inside of a room. In this situation you will have posts in the thread with what your character is saying. If you have said anything in the room after you arrive it takes the place of your movement post (so delete the movement post once you have said something). You will not delete any talking posts though when you leave. Instead you will edit in a –leaves- message at the bottom of the last thing you said before you left.
This is an example talking post with a leaves message. Simply edit in the Leaves message when you would normally delete a movement post. Examination
The next important thing you must do to survive the depths of these worlds will be to examine your surroundings. This part of the game REQUIRES the use of Instant Messaging, through Discord or Skype. As you saw above, rooms will have a number of items in them as well as a basic description. These items and even the rooms themselves may contain secrets that are hidden at first glance. In order to examine something in more detail you must alert the mastermind. Using IM send a Personal Message to the mastermind containing, “I examine __________ in the –insert location- in more detail.” You do not have to use this exact format, just be aware that the mastermind needs to recognize your message as a request for more information!
This is an example Examination Personal Message and the Mastermind’s response. Blue represents the player’s message while red represents the mastermind’s.
The mastermind will respond with the results of your examination. Just remember that the mastermind is doing this for every player and may take some time to reach you. Please be patient! You can examine anything and everything including the contents of rooms, the doors of rooms, and even the other players as long as they are within the same room. Just be careful! They may notice you eyeing them! If you examine an item where someone is hiding you will also discover them!Action
The next things you must understand is how to perform an action in the game itself. You have learned how to move about and learn more about the world, but now you must learn how to change it. Actions occur in the same manner as Examinations. You must Personal Message the Mastermind on IM with your action. Your action is only limited by your own imagination and the bodily limits imposed on your character. Here are some basic commands that everyone will need to know:
1. Pickup: “I Pick up the Hammer” : The Pickup command will have your character take an item and place it in their inventory. This will add the items weight to your current space in your inventory.
2. Drop: “I Drop the Hammer on the Shelf” : The Drop command will have your character remove an item from their inventory and place it where specified.
3. Attack: “I _____________________________ Player X” : A attack command refers to performing any kind of action against another player. This is again only limited to your imagination and what your character is physically capable of. Be careful! Other players may get alerted and have time to react! This is the standard way to attempt murder.
4. Hide: “I Hide in _________ at Location X” : This unique command allows you to hide from the eyes of other players. When you hide like this you send the message and upon receiving confirmation from the mastermind, will delete your movement post. No one will be able to locate you without a lucky examination Personal Message. Simply tell the mastermind and replace your movement post when you leave your hiding place.
So now you know how to move around the map, examine the world, and how to act and potentially strike fear into the hearts of your victims. This covers the basic mechanics of how to play in the world of DRMMO. Let’s move on to the basics of the game itself.
Game Mechanics
The Phases
Any one game of Murder Mystery is split up into phases where the rules differ slightly during each phase. Let’s start with the phase that the game will be in the majority of the time.
Standard Phase
The standard phase will be whenever the game ISN’T in another phase. In the standard phase there are no limits on your actions and will not change from this phase until a body is discovered. Standard Phase may be split up into Day/Night based on the discrepancy of the mastermind, but these kinds of minor periods will have effects on your abilities as determined by the Mastermind. Act in any manner you wish, because actions will become more limited in all other phases. Standard phase will shift to Investigation Phase when a Body Discovery Announcement* is made.
*There is an in depth explanation of the Body Discover announcement further down the rules!
Investigation Phase
The investigation phase begins immediately upon a body discovery announcement being made. Players will be provided a file[Equivalent of the Monokuma File] from the Mastermind containing basic information regarding the corpse that is either immediately obvious or cannot be effectively investigated. In this phase players are FORBIDDEN from killing each other and must investigate the murder. During this phase movement and examination are unaffected, but your actions are more limited so that the body count does not rise. As you investigate during this phase you will discover evidence as to the crime and important facts that you can use in trial. You will be required to use the information you find during this phase to solve the murder later on so make sure to examine everything! This phase will end after TWO full Investigation Sessions are hosted by the Mastermind. An investigation session us a single hosting session by the mastermind where players are told to investigate. The Mastermind will declare which two sessions are the Investigation sessions and what times they will be occurring. Once the second Investigation Session concludes, the game shifts to the Trial Phase.
Trial Phase
The trial phase begins upon the ending of the investigation phase. In this phase all players will be summoned to the trial room. The only excuse for not being in person at a trial is to be dead, as such hiding during trials is impossible. During this phase all players will be forced to discuss the murder(s) that occurred and the who, how, and why of the crime. This will be done in a specific thread created for the trial. The goal during the trial phase is to determine the culprit and then identify them via a group vote. During the Trial phase, players will have access to the Colored Truth System as a means to help determine the culprit. Colored Truth is purely a tool to assist debate in the trial and its use, or lack thereof, will have no impact on the trial's outcome. You can find a more in depth explanation of Colored Truth further down this page! A trial will last 48 IRL hours starting from the moment the mastermind creates the Trial thread and makes it publicly available.
The Right to Vote
After the 48 hours pass, the Trial thread will be locked and it will be time to vote. At this time, the mastermind will determine who has the Right to Vote. The Right to Vote is the ability to choose whom your character votes for as the guilty party. In order to gain the Right to Vote you must meet one of the following conditions:
- Be the Culprit
- Contributed to the trial in a meaningful way AND vote accordingly
The culprit always get to vote, whether or not they speak is irrelevant. The second condition is to prevent people who do not care about trials from ruining it for others. Contributing to the trial in a meaningful way means that you have made efforts to uncover who is the real culprit and played a part in the discussion. Voting accordingly means you vote for one of the characters that your character was pushing as the culprit. This is to prevent an alliance of players from working together to sabotage the vote, even if the murder is solved. If you do NOT meet the above conditions, the Mastermind will get to choose who your character votes for. The mastermind will take into account the trial and vote in your place. This means that any players who are AFK or are attempting to sabotage the vote without meaningful motivation will end up voting for the most convincing theory. Even if a player has extraordinary motive to vote for someone other than the culprit, it is up to the Mastermind to determine how that vote plays out.
I have talked a lot about the phases but there are some unique mechanics that have to be explained in more detail. They will be explained in this section
Final Notes
The Art of Murder
Murdering someone is as simple as sending the mastermind the personal message saying you do it. The mastermind will alert you if you do something completely impossible so that you can revise some of your actions to be possible. Once you perform a murder you are officially the culprit and will win the game if you make it through your trial without being voted as the culprit. This isn’t something the mastermind will do for you though. Setting up the murder, performing it, and cleaning up are entirely in your job. You must perform all these actions through Action Personal messages to the mastermind. Clean up to the best of your ability and make a safe getaway, if you get spotted you may find yourself in an impossible to win trial.
The Body Discovery Announcement
The body discovery announcement is what changes the standard phase to investigation phase. This is an announcement from the Mastermind confirming that a Body has been Discovered and the players will be required to investigate the death and determine who is responsible. This announcement will occur when ONE of the following conditions have been met!
- Three Players, either Innocent or guilty, Confirm the victim is dead directly.
- 20-28 hours pass after a kill without the Body being discovered by any players
- A piece of evidence indicating a death has occurred is shown to at least half of the playerbase.
To go into some specifics on these. The Three player condition is the standard announcement trigger and is fairly simple. Once three people have physically seen the victim and have sufficient reason to believe they are dead the announcement triggers. The confusion here is the Murderer! The Murderer can be one of these three, but is not required to be. If the Murderer does not directly witness the moment of death, they will have to physically confirm they are dead later. For example, if Eclipse slashes Sea with a knife and cuts an artery, but leaves the scene before Sea bleeds out, Eclipse HAS NOT discovered the body. Alternatively, is Eclipse waits until Sea finishes bleeding out or stabs him in a vital location and directly witnesses the moment of death, then Eclipse HAS discovered the body and is now one of the three.
The Time Condition is to prevent a murderer from killing someone and not having a trial. This is for those scenarios where a body is hidden too well or is perhaps destroyed or thrown off the map. The mastermind will randomly pick a time between 20-28 hours after death to make the announcement and reveal the body's location. This is to prevent this from being used to pinpoint the exact time of death.
The last condition is for evidence showcasing the death to be revealed to half the playerbase. This evidence must be extremely good evidence, such as a picture or recording of the body after death. Simply showing people a bloody sword will not satisfy this condition. This condition does operate on a within good reason basis in that if you can expect that half the playerbase CAN go see the evidence, it is satisfactory. For example, if I post the evidence to a online thread everyone has access too from anywhere, that is satisfactory.
The Colored Truth System
The Colored Truth System is a trial mechanic that gives the players greater freedom and flexibility in trials, and allows them to construct theories and evidence largely with their own knowledge and skill. This system primarily involves posting in different colors depending on the type of accusation, evidence, or theory one wishes to present. This system has no impact on who you can or cannot vote for, and is purely a method to organize your arguments, facts, theories, and alibis.
Mechanics
Inquisition Bullets are posted in blue. These statements are either questions directed towards the players, or theories provoking a response. These can be used in trial to gather more information, or to accuse a suspect. Inquisition Bullets can be responded to with either Testament Bullets, Verbal Bullets, or Flume Bullets.
Verbal Bullets are posted in red. These statements are pieces of truth a player can gather during investigation. In addition to finding them, a player can create their own Verbal Bullets with approval from the mastermind. A Verbal Bullet can only be created if hard evidence can be used to prove the statement is valid.
Testament Bullets are posted in purple. These are statements of truth that can be created by the players. Players may use these bullets to state the truth outside of evidence that has been found, such as when giving alibis. Testament Bullets can also be used to deny theories created using Inquisition Bullets. However, while every innocent player must state the truth when using Testament Bullets, the culprit and their accomplice(s) may lie using Testament Bullets. These bullets cannot be found, and can only be created by the players.
Flume Bullets are posted in green. These are statements of truth given by the mastermind. These bullets cannot be denied, even by Verbal Bullets, and are used to outline the rules of the trials in the game (i.e. the murder could not be committed using magic).
Mastermind Unique Mechanics and Rules!
Mastermind Levels and their Permissions:
Higher ranks of masterminds are allowed to adjust certain mechanics and add new ones into their games. The highest tiers of mastermind can scrap these rules entirely and write their own unique ones for their games. As such make sure to read ALL documents posted by any games you are planning to participate in that way you know if there are any differences in how the game will operate.
BASE GAME RULES
What are the Base Game Rules? Essentially these are a basic set of rules and mechanics allowed for use for first time hosts and to serve as a potential baseline for games. Effectively it is a game that uses EVERYTHING listed above in this thread. The movement, actions, and examinations work as described. The phases operate exactly as described here as well as the various bits and pieces such as the Body Discovery announcement! The Trial and its mechanics are also exactly as described. A base game meets these things and may have VERY minor tweaks to the formula if any. This is mostly for new hosts to learn the ropes and not bite off more than they can chew. If you are curious how much is too much, please ask me! I am way more likely to allow you to do something a bit overboard instead of letting you swing by for doing it without telling me.
