MAYOI GAME
A private, three-week test run murdergame modded by Sarah and Coco.
PREMISE
The first thing you hear is the sound of waves. You are on a boat -- how did you end up here? You haven’t the faintest idea. You may be next to a friend or a total stranger, both of you coming to your senses as the ship horn blares, slowly pulling up to shore. There's a fog that thickens as you approach, though you can make out the silhouette of a tall building through the mist. Something about the building feels calming, inviting as opposed to the coldness of the sea -- and yet, you can't help but feel as though something isn't right. You feel a chill run up your spine, your stomach twisting into knots, your heart slowly sinking into your chest. Perhaps it is the cold, the fog, or not knowing how you wound up here that's making you feel uneasy.But there's one particular thought that you can't seem to shake: Something is waiting for you.Before you can discern anything else, the boat finally docks. It is time to disembark.
Mayoi Game is a three-week, murder-mystery style private murdergame run by Sarah and Coco taking place on a desolate, unpopulated beach resort. During the day, things are as they seem: The sun is shining, the ocean is crystal clear and the area seems relatively peaceful. At night, however, things start to shift and take a turn for the worse. Mayoi Game takes inspiration from canons such as Higurashi, Fatal Frame, and Spirited Away.
RULES
Go into the game assuming that your character will most likely die. Part of the fun of murdergames is that you get to hurt your CR when they find you dead. By joining the game, you automatically agree to that risk. However, don’t worry too much if you’re dead - we have something special planned for you :) It is a horror-themed game, after all.
Powers and all items that have been brought from home have been completely nerfed for the course of the game. If your character is non-human or has special stats, they will be at the same strength levels as everyone else in the game to make the competition fair(er).
Please keep all information about your roles secret as long as it is feasible ICly! Part of the fun is in the reveal and surprising people with what has happened behind the scenes of the game. However, should an opportunity arise in which you feel as though your character would reveal their role, give us a head's up!
That being said, killers and victims should keep their identities and any information about their cases a secret OOCly until after their respective investigations/trials.
Please be active - the game doesn’t work if players aren’t active. If you need help or are struggling with how to get your character involved in the setting, please talk to the mods and we’ll help you figure something out. In line with that, please make sure you keep up with our activity check requirements.
Please be kind to your fellow players and remember that IC drama =/= OOC drama. If you have an issue, please get in touch with the mods via the game plurk or Discord, and we’ll do our best to sort things out. We’re all here to have a good time, and that’s the most important.
SCHEDULE
Mayoi Game is expected to last about 3 weeks total. Here are some important dates and times to remember:
| Event | Start Date | Start Time | End Date | End Time |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Game Duration | 10/31 Sun | 12PM EST | 11/21 Sun | - |
(1) We will close reserves on 10/25 at 10PM EST or whenever slots fill up, whichever one comes first. Reserves are open initially to anyone on Sarah, Coco or Tori's plurk list.
(2) We will be operating on a limited +1 reserve system - if there are still reserve slots available on 10/24 at 8pm EST, we will allow players who currently have a reserve slot to invite a +1 to join our game on a first-come-first-serve basis. These slots are not guaranteed and subject to availability.
(3) We will open applications when reserves close or at the time stated above, whichever one comes first.The game's format is as follows, with 10/31 being an exception to the rule:
| Post | Start Day | Start Time | End Day | End Time |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Weekly Mingle Posts | Sundays | 8PM EST | Thursdays | - |
| Motives | Tuesdays | 6PM EST | Tuesdays | - |
| Body Investigations | Fridays | 6PM EST | Fridays | 12AM EST (latest) |
| Trials | Saturdays | 12PM EST | Saturdays | 7PM EST (latest) |
| Executions | Sundays | 3PM EST | Sundays | Varies |
There are other deadlines to make note of for things such as murder proposals; those will be detailed in their respective posts. Roles will also run on a different schedule and will be communicated to role holders upon acceptance of roles.
GAME INFO
Mayoi Game is a murder mystery-style, mass execution game - at its most basic premise, characters will be killed by other characters who are incentivized to murder on a weekly basis. Non-killer characters are tasked with figuring out the culprit(s) behind the murder each week in trials, with the warning that should the culprit(s) get away with murder, everyone else will take the fall for their crimes, while the culprit(s) walk away scot-free. Some characters will also be given roles and those roles have the potential to help or harm the group.OOCly, we will be trying out a murder proposals system, meaning that anyone interested in being a culprit can fill out a form with their potential victim list, a rundown of how their character would murder, and provide us with a motive to dish out to the entire game that would drive their character to kill! Some example motives are: Destroying a place characters may be fond of, exposing everyone's deepest darkest secrets, and so on so forth. If we do not get enough murder proposals, then we will use RNG to pick out the victim(s) and culprit(s).
DISCLAIMER
While a lot of murdergames contain major plot clues that can be uncovered via conversing with NPCs and setting investigations, due to time constraints on the mods' behalf (both Sarah and Coco work full-time and neither of us are in PST/CST/EST), in this mini-round, we will be limiting this mechanic to:
No private conversations with the NPCs except for roles - conversations with the NPCs will happen in public on the weekly posts.
Two sign-up based setting investigation/choose-your-own-adventure type explorations.
If there are any events for characters to investigate or interact with, we will announce them in the weekly posts and on Plurk and Discord ahead of time.
If there are any unexpected changes in times, we will do our best to give you a heads up. Otherwise, all timings should run according to what we set out in the schedule above!Furthermore, we realize that some of the times listed in our schedule may not work with everyone in the game, and CYOA explorations/other events may happen during atypical murdergame times. Please keep this in mind before you apply.
ROLES
More information on roles will be provided after applications have been processed - in this game, special abilities will be given out to certain members of the group who will be able to help or hinder the game. As this is not a mafia-style game, finding out who has a role is not essential to getting a good end - roles are meant to bring a different kind of dynamic to the game and make the game more fun for players.The following types of roles are available in this game:
INVESTIGATIVE ROLE - This case-related role will give one person the ability to investigate and discover what happens ICly on Thursday nights. They may find something that may help the case if they happen to run across a crime scene (but will not be able to affect it in any way, nor will they be able to discover the killer’s identity) or they may find nothing at all. This role rotates weekly.
PROTECTOR ROLE - Characters with the protector role will be given the ability to protect someone from being killed every week. This may mean that another character will simply be protected from harm, or it may mean that the protective role must risk sacrificing themselves in the other's place.
SPECIAL ITEM ROLE - Characters with this role will gain the ability to provide or use special items that may help themselves or the game at large. Items may range from weapons, supplies or trial assists. Use your ability wisely.
EVERYONE ELSE - Even if you don’t have a special role, you still have an important job to do - to find out who the killers are every week, and do your best to survive.
ACTIVITY AND VOTING
As previously mentioned, this murdergame is a test run for us (and the players) before we launch our main game sometime in 2022. As such, we would encourage everyone to be around as much as possible and to participate actively in the game, as we would like to see how some of our mechanics would work in practice.Our activity checks consist of the following weekly checks:
A total of 10 comments across 2-3 threads on the mingle logs, due on 11/9 (for week 1) and 11/16 (for week 2) by 6pm EST
A vote comment on each week’s trial voting post, due by the end of trial (Saturdays by 7pm EST)
Of course, we understand that RL may come in like a wrecking ball, so if it does and you see it affecting your activity, please contact us via PPing the game Plurk, or send a Discord DM to both Sarah and Coco so we can work with you. Given the short run time of the game and the limited cap, we’d prefer not to idle you out.
FAQ
Will there be private conversations with other player characters?
Nope! Due to the short game duration, there will not be private conversations for the mini round.What are the player/character/cast caps?
We are taking up to 20 players, 1 character per player. Casts will be capped at 2 characters per canon. Should there be any mod player characters, they will not count towards cap. OCs will count as one canon, so we will allow 2 OCs max.We will run the game with a minimum of 15 people.Do I need a reserve to apply?
Yes, a reserve is required in order to play. Reserves will open on Saturday, October 23rd at 12PM EST. We will close reserves on Monday, October 25th at 10PM EST or when all slots are filled; whichever one comes first.When do applications open?
Applications will open on Saturday, October 23rd at 6PM EST or when reserves close; whichever one comes first. We will not be asking for a full application for this round, but we would like to still get an idea of who your character is, hence why we are asking people to fill one out. They will close on Thursday, October 28th at 11:59PM EST to allow us time to evaluate applications, contact players who have roles, and take care of housekeeping before the game starts.Who can I app?
Due to the themes in Mayoi Game, we ask that all characters be 16 and above. If you're interested in apping a younger character (ages 14-15, no one younger than that please), please fill out the maturity clause section on the application! Essentially, characters should be able to handle themselves if they’re suddenly dropped in the middle of a haunted forest and have to fight or find their way out. Non-human characters are allowed but will be nerfed accordingly - we will inform players individually of any specific nerfs applicable to their characters.We will accept canon characters and OCs. We do not take canon OCs, CRAUs, AUs, or duplicates.Powers will be nerfed on arrival, but we will be allowing for characters to have a small inventory of items/weapons with them, within reason.Can we regain items from home?
Since this murdergame is only for three weeks, no, there are no regains or currency mechanics. However, we are allowing characters to bring a handful of items from home with them, which they will have on them at game start.What kinds of items are we allowed to bring?
Anything on the character’s person that is:
A small object (i.e. cellphone, pack of gum)
A bag to hold things in
Weapon-wise, we will allow small weapons such as knives and daggers. They will all be devoid of any magical properties but functional otherwise. Guns will not have any ammunition on them, sorry!
No more than three items max.What happens if we die?
Fear not! The game is far from over for you (though AC will only be check-in for players of the deceased). We will have a graveyard mechanic in place with some surprises :)What are executions going to be like?
After each trial, we will take volunteers for an executioner to finish off the guilty party. The executions will take place ICly and OOCly on Sundays. The chosen executioner will be contacted by the mods to let them know that they have been selected; the execution itself will be coordinated by the culprit and the executioner.Considering the players submitting the murder proposals will be deciding the motives, how is the motive going to be decided if there's more than one case/proposal for that week?
If there is more than one proposal for the week, we'd ideally group cases with similar motives together and discuss individually with the potential culprits who submitted a proposal. We are making our deadline for murder proposal submissions on Monday, so we have some time to organize the proposals.Additionally, our proposal form will also have a field indicating whether the potential culprit would need a motive to murder, or if they would still go ahead with murdering if they have their own motivations outside of a given motive (e.g. you are playing a Murder Gremlin who would just like to knife someone really hard).
Anything Else?
We have a Dreamwidth post dedicated for your questions! Please comment here if you have any that haven't been answered here; we will add all answered questions to our FAQ periodically.