Let's Play A Murder (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
letsplayamod) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
letsplayamurder2025-06-09 03:00 am
letsplayamod) wrote in letsplayamurder2025-06-09 03:00 am
Entry tags:
LPM Test Drive
Greetings, mortals.
I thank you for accepting my plea. From across universes, I have summoned you to aid me in bringing light back to this land. Here, though, in this small pocket, we are free to relax for the moment. Steel yourself, and meet with me soon.
There is much to discuss.
Welcome to the official test drive for Let's Play A Murder, an experimental murdergame! Characters will work together to unravel an oncoming threat that strikes each week with something new to tear them apart. For now, tag around with potential picks for the upcoming game and get a feel for that sweet sweet murder CR! If you have any questions, please DM
Threads from this TDM (and others if you so choose) will count towards the RP sample of the applications.
Wherever you were, whatever you were doing... you're not there anymore. Instead, you've awoken on an unfamiliar but very soft bed. The room is sparsely decorated, ornate carvings of heroic figures intermingle on the walls with hairline cracks. This place has seen better days, but, possibly, so have you.
There is a nightstand beside your bed, as naked as anything save for an envelope sealed in wax. Inside is a letter written in a careful hand, welcoming you to this place; a safe area, free of those that would cause harm. Your host had to step away briefly, but she will return. In the meanwhile, she expects everyone to obey the rules of this place.
Included in the envelope was a small bronze key - to your room, no doubt. And luck - it unlocks your door. You're free to venture out into a semicircle of these homes you've found yourself in. And you're not alone, either.
Perhaps you should say hello to your new neighbors.
You've all become acquainted with each other, and met with your gracious benefactor. She had to dip out again, but has left you all with a veritable island paradise to explore. In the center pantheon, large profiles of each of you have been cast in the stone walls, details of your life chiseled beneath them in perhaps too much detail. Along with a set of rules cast on a bronze plaque. Seems straightforward enough.
Beyond that, it seems whatever information you'll gain will only be found by your own hand. You have the free time now, and it's a beautiful day outside. There's plenty to explore among the towering obelisks and half-standing temples. Just avoid trying to leave the edge of the island - a golden barrier will very rudely smack you in the face.
Feel free to make up locations for this. The island is anachronistic with all the amnesties of a modern home.
Purple clown? What? None of that here. But once you've found out where to leave those tribute coins you've 'earned' there's a small pile of items waiting outside your door. Some of which you might even recognize from home.
Or perhaps you've been given twenty wooden cut-outs of... who the heck is this guy.
Training exercises! In order to discern your godly nature, what better way to start than a good, very old-fashioned obstacle course.
Balance across the beams, avoid getting beaned in the head by a swinging bat. Swing from a rope. Or, if you're really feeling up to a challenge, pick up a sword and meet someone's steel with steel.
Or you can sit back and prepare medical supplies. Someone's definitely going to get hurt.
The sky darkens. Lightning overtakes the calm summers day. It's not long before the whole area is under attack.
From the very earth itself, monsters crawl from the ground; undead hands clutching rusted swords and shields. Digging themselves from their graves so that they can put you in yours. Somewhere, distantly, your mentor yells to take up arms, and is already lost in her own fray.
It's up to you to defend yourself, or to defend others. There's no honor in running away, but if you need to survive, it's not like anyone would blame you.
Congrats! You've survived the onslaught. But even as the sky clears, an ultimatum has been passed down from on high; if one of your group isn't slain by the end of the week, then the world you belong to will be destroyed.
Surely, nothing would actually be able to accomplish that, but that faint hope doesn't remove the tension from the air.
Seems that someone didn't want to take the chance.
One of your fellows has met with a gruesome end, and if up to you and everyone else to play detective and figure out just who did it. The hourglass is running out. Just try not to trip over any evidence.
Investigation’s done, it’s time for a trial! Perhaps you nailed it and someone's already confessing to their crimes. Perhaps you've been running around in circles, looking for anything that could move the trial forward. Maybe you all just decided to strip down, even if it wasn't necessary. Whatever the case, tensions are still high. Not just because you have to point out a culprit... but you have to lay down punishment for them too.
Majority vote decides, of course. This is a democracy, after all, but you can still waste time dithering on what to do next.
iv
Isn't that the whole point of an obstacle course?
[While someone's being a nervous wreck playing CSHO, Ranma's currently hanging upside down from the balance beam Alex's inspecting, apathetic to the other boy's worries.]
It ain't really trainin' if there isn't some risk involved to push us, dude.
[Though he's honestly a little biased there with the regimen he was put through growing up.]
no subject
Risk and death trap aren't the same thing, dude. [ Alex looks up with a grimace, glancing between Ranma and the ground, judging the distance between them. ] You're gonna- that's a prime position to snap your back.
no subject
[because some people live life to the extreme instead of acting like the fun police alex!
Not heeding Alex's words for even a second, Ranma crosses his arms behind his head in a manner to someone lounging in a lawn chair. All the while pulling up with his legs.]
Pfft, I've fallen from higher places than this. Didn't get a single scratch on me.
[Saying that so nonchalantly like it's no big deal. Tilting his head, with indifference to the proposed "dangers" of a rinkydink obstacle course.
Yeesh. If this is what's got Alex all up in a tizzy, hearing about the training he's been through might send him into cardiac arrest.]
What's got you so pressed anyway, you're not even running the course.
no subject
What, just 'cause I'm not sticking my neck out there doesn't mean I can't look out for the rest of you yahoos? [ He rubs the back of his neck. ] You can do something a- a million times and still, just the wrong amount of...luck, and it'll fuck you.
no subject
[Yepperoni.
RIP in peace Alex, somebody please save this man.Oh brother. It's times like this Ranma wonders how this bundle of nerves got selected for deity duty. Were they scraping the bottom of the hat they use to pick them? What was Alex even the 'god' of, paranoia?]
Well-- [Releasing his foot's hold on the balance beam, the pigtailed teen catches himself with his hand without wavering or wobbling. Even though he's currently doing a handstand with just one, continuing to see the other boy upside down.] You don't gotta look out for me. I've been doing this since I was a tot. This ain't nothing I'm not used to.
[If anything, he's a tad bummed that this was the best they could impose. Oh well, it'll probably get the job done for the rest of these bozos.]
Besides, if not breakin' your neck boils down to luck, then what's stressin' out over everything gonna get you? Other than gray hairs.
no subject
There was this thing I read about a gymnast who'd been doing a routine since she was a kid, too, and one freak accident later she was bent over backwards, literally.
[ But... Ah, hell, he shouldn't have used the l-word. ] I-it's more than luck, I was just- that's the easiest way for people to understand it. You start talkin' about...everything else, and they look at you like you're some kind of witch.
no subject
[Alex can see the exact moment Ranma realizes that bent over backwards literally wasn't hyperbole. He... Well, he doesn't gape in abject horror like most teens would, but he still makes a face™ that screams Eugh... Thanks for that vivid picture that's going to be stuck in his head all day Alex.
Nevertheless:]
That's different. She was just a gymnast, I'm a martial artist. I can and have walked off worse than that.
[Now he wasn't in a situation where he ended up looking like a human stapler but. he's survived all sorts of things that normal people wouldn't.
Tilting his head, motioning with his other hand to convey elaborate.]
Go on. What's "everything else?"
no subject
Besides, he's still being contrary, and Alex barely fights back a frustrated sigh. ]
Nooo way, dude. You already think I'm some basket-case.
no subject
[He quirks his brow at that. Does he? Ranma doesn't have the foggiest idea where Alex's getting that impression. Okay, sure, maybe him asking why the dude's acting like a worrywart could come off that. But Alex's been like that from the get-go since they got here! It's just now it's been ramped up to 11!
Flatly:]
I doubt you can be anymore of a basket-case than the ones back in Nerima. Maybe.
[Talking about just the Kunos alone would make anyone reconsider their definition of crazy. And that's barely grazing the tip of the iceberg.
Pushing himself off the ground with his hand, Ranma rights himself up, standing on his feet.]
C'mon, tell me already! Out with it.
no subject
When Ranma straightens up, Alex goes tense. His eyes dart around. Is he too close to the balance beam? Is there something on the ground that he could catch himself on? Will him standing in some way put Alex in harm's way—
Every little stupid thing, he's always thinking. It's exhausting. It's a wonder he sleeps at night.
Ranma stands before him, and Alex still looks disgruntled and hesitant. He's tall, but he slouches, making them closer to the same height. ]
...If I say the word omens, what comes to minds? What's the first thing you think of?
no subject
He blinks, before closing his eyes and folding his arms over his chest. Leaning his head, clearly deliberating the odd question posed. Ranma... doesn't get why they're suddenly playing the word association game here, but if it gets Alex to talk, then he can play along.]
Danger, I guess.
[Superstitions would've been his next guess.]
no subject
What would you say if you were told that stuff like that, stuff meaning danger was all around us, every day? That, if we look hard enough, willing enough...we can see them?
1/2
[Nodding along and parsing what's being laid out here. With how hyper-vigilant Alex is with his surroundings, it might be a safe bet that he can see a look of understanding permeating over the martial artist's face, quietly mouthing an Oh.]
When you put it like that, I actually can get what you're sayin'...
[There wasn't a single hint of doubt in his voice, or any inkling that he thinks what Alex's saying is insane gibberish.]
I see stuff like that all the time too, on the daily. Bit of a pain in the ass at first, but they're not that hard to spot when you're trained well enough.
[Holy crap, does he actually--]
2/2
Especially since they suck at hiding their presence! It's like they don't know how to ambush someone without giving themselves away!
[... swing and a miss...]
1/2
2/2
Wh- no. No, I'm not talkin' about a- a person, or something like that, it's not a- a humanoid...physical thing, like, like that.