Advice/Help How to Make Solid Killing Games

[Squad141]

After finishing Alice in Borderland and re-reading the manga, I’ve recently been inspired to create a group RP in a similar caliber (the killing games concept), but with a completely different story. The issue, however, is that I don’t know how I would exactly run each game while keeping the narrative between characters flowing, and stuff like that. Anyone have any advice on the matter?

 

[Idea]

First of all, let me stress this out: Be very clear about what this is meant to be. While I'm sure some people might appreciate the surprise, suddenly getting springed on you that you ought to expect your character to die is not generally something players will welcome. In fact, the players who would appreciate it are all the less likely to join the game if you don't make it explicit that it's supposed to be a death game (as someone looking for a death game would skip yours if they believe yours isn't that).

Next you ought to consider what players will do if their character dies- are they just out of the story, or is there something in store for them? You have a bit more leeway here, perhaps you want a mystery box and you could get away with saying 'something happens' rather than being specific. At the same time, you do also risk being very disappointing if you bank on that too much.

Third, make sure there is a reason with laid out clues for why these death games are a thing, why are death games being run specifically? If it's not a secret reason and it's more like "alien bad comes to kill for fun" then instead focus on laying out clues on how to push back against whatever entities are in question.

Beyond this, what I would advise is highly dependent on the characters:
1. Tailor the games to the characters, making use of their own personal backstories, personality and current dynamics. Put the characters in as personalized a way as you can. Don't treat characters like they are just replaceable tokens, pay attention to them and think about them, then show it in what you set up for them. People appreciate it when they see care for their own work and ideas.

2. Make sure characters have a reason beyond "I want to live". While a good motivation it's also one prone to creating very reactive characters, and you want them to be as proactive as possible.


Hope this helps, best of luck and happy RPing!

 

[Bugsy]

Much in the same light as what Idea has outlined, I would most likely have to concur with what has been said.

Make sure your players or potential prospects know exactly what they are getting in; if they realise its a death game after their character they've crafted and grown attached to has been killed off, it will leave quite a bitter taste in their mouths. Of course, you want to keep players on their toes, and such I would consider communication here is key. Check in on players who might have ideas or paths for their characters to pursue, incorporate that in and make sure that you don't catch them with a quick left hook in the face when you do intend to play out an IC death.

You want to have a backstory that people will invest in, most likely try to keep them coming back even if their character(s) have died in the past.

But again, I echo the question: will players be expected to just move on after their character has been killed or will they be able to make a new character and remain involved in the plotline? How much will deaths contribute to the game lore? Will they simply fade into the background?

 

[nerdy tangents]

So I actually joined a role play years ago where the entire premise was a kind of battle royale where characters would kill each other off one by one until only one person was left.

As mentioned this was made very clear from the start. But the GM also made provisions where people written out of the main thread could still use their characters. As a secondary theme of the role play was that all the characters had some kind of personal trauma they were hiding (unrelated to having to murder other people).

So the idea was the “ghost thread” would actually allow players to explore character traumas and maybe work on a separate plot with other killed off characters.

Now obviously the first person killed was kinda out of luck but by the time the role play really got going the idea was that players would be able to move between threads (depending on how many personal characters they had).

It was also made clear that the “ghost” thread was permanent. So there was no assumption that dead characters could come back to life (or for that matter a rule that you had to keep playing your dead character). It was mostly in place for people that wanted to continue working on their characters arc after being killed off from the main story.

 

[Squad141]

These are all great help! Yes, in fact the clues part was what I was wondering about the most, since the idea I had was to be several mini killing games, and not just one.
An idea I had a little while ago, though still in development, was that each character was assigned an icon in the universe of this story, and each game was leading up to a final match against all players (unbeknownst to them for a few early chapters). Each death affects the characters around them, how the games work, and even the strategy of if the players can win the Finale, making stakes interpersonally and lore-based as well.

After a players character dies, that’s it for the character. But the player has the opportunity to play as a close character when making the cast initially, but it’s all worked into the story. Since each player is a piece themselves, the party can help a character that might’ve been an NPC that someone made into a PC by giving them the icon.

Any thoughts on this?

 

[Idea]

Each death affects the characters around them

Unless you mean physically affects them you can't guarantee this. Never ever assume you know how the players or characters will act in response. Even assuming perfect goodwill from each player in cooperating, not every player has the skill or awareness to adequately create character development in response to unrelated events.

Closest you can get, I imagine, it take careful consideration of how the characters progress as you go, and build the finale based on the final result, rather than trying to build a final result matching your final game's stakes and methods.

After a players character dies, that’s it for the character. But the player has the opportunity to play as a close character when making the cast initially, but it’s all worked into the story. Since each player is a piece themselves, the party can help a character that might’ve been an NPC that someone made into a PC by giving them the icon.

And this second character are they in danger of dying too?

 

[Squad141]

Unless you mean physically affects them you can't guarantee this. Never ever assume you know how the players or characters will act in response. Even assuming perfect goodwill from each player in cooperating, not every player has the skill or awareness to adequately create character development in response to unrelated events.

Closest you can get, I imagine, it take careful consideration of how the characters progress as you go, and build the finale based on the final result, rather than trying to build a final result matching your final game's stakes and methods.


And this second character are they in danger of dying too?

Taking into account what you mentioned, yes. The idea is that the players are one of many groups of ‘players’ across the world, and there are many solo players who join others after their groups die.

 

[Idea]

Taking into account what you mentioned, yes. The idea is that the players are one of many groups of ‘players’ across the world, and there are many solo players who join others after their groups die.

Then I don't think it would work. Otherwise you create an infinite loop.

 

[Squad141]

Thanks for the advice either way! I'll have to go back to drawing board for everything involving this idea, but now I have advice to work with.

 

[Jannah]

I have considered hosting a high fantasy battle royale type game. I have a backstory and some worldbuilding already. I just need to figure out how to incorporate players once their characters get killed off. I also need to figure out how to determine the victor and all that since it's crucial to the storyline I have figured out.

 

[nerdy tangents]

I have considered hosting a high fantasy battle royale type game. I have a backstory and some worldbuilding already. I just need to figure out how to incorporate players once their characters get killed off. I also need to figure out how to determine the victor and all that since it's crucial to the storyline I have figured out.

So for your idea I think a ghost thread like I outlined above would work. I believe the thread had some kind of Random Number Generator that was used to determine who died (but that was when all combatants where roughly equal skill wise so it was more or less random chance on who would win in a fight)

So for how to handle combat I guess first figure out how complex you want their skill sets to be. Like do they have a health bar, combat stats, etc.

If you want to keep it simple (or just leave it up to your players) I would have them figure out OOC who dies in each round. When they can’t come to an agreement have them do an RNG (odds Person A wins, evens person B wins or something similar).