[X] My Assistant

[Eryth]

Hope's Peak Academy



On a prime plot of real estate in the center of a large city in Japan sits this prestigious private academy with several hundred years of history, known for consistently sending its top students into leading roles in every professional field. Each year, Hope's Peak hand-picks fifteen exceptional high school students who excel in their respective fields of expertise. Starting this year, the school has also decided to select one additional new student chosen by lottery from all of the country's average high school students.

The general opinion is that graduating from this academy leads to success in life. Now that you have been chosen for and accepted into Hope's Peak Academy, you must be prepared for --

*DING DONG DING DONG*



Ehh... welcome to Hope's Peak Academy! This is a school announcement.
I'm Monobear, your new headmaster! Nice to meet you all!
You bastards are most certainly all geniuses filled with overflowing talent. You bring hope to the world! And in order to preserve that hope, you will live a communal lifestyle inside this school's walls from now on! In other words, you bastards will live here for the rest of your lives, completely shut off from the outside world! Don't worry: we have plenty of funding, so anything you bastards could possibly require for a normal lifestyle will be provided for you!
But as this school's headmaster, I've decided to make a special rule for people who want to leave the school. It's a rule called "graduation"! That is, if one of you bastards decides to break the order of the communal school life by killing another student... that person alone is allowed to leave the school.
If a student is murdered, a School Trial will be held! Here, you bastards have a chance to figure out the culprit behind the murder. If you are successful in doing so, the culprit will be executed!
However, if the murderer keeps their crime a secret from the rest of you bastards... they will graduate, and the person you falsely accused will be executed! Then you'll all be murderers!
Are you prepared for this high school life of hope and despair?

This RP is based on Dangan Ronpa, which belongs to Spike. Much of the wording in the introduction, as well as Monobear's rules, were taken from orenronen's translation of the games on the Something Awful forums. I claim ownership to neither of these things.

If you're already a fan of Dangan Ronpa, you may have noticed that there are some things (specifically, how trials are handled) about this RP that work differently than in the original game. I've done this to make it work better as an RP.

Also, I would like to give very special thanks to Toogee, Gorgon, Wishful Jirachi, Dorito Ninja, and Yzal for helping me out with this. For doing this, they get automatic character reservations.

I'd additionally like to apologize for the all the images in this thread. I think they look cool, but I'm sorry if they caused any annoyances.

ROLEPLAYING RULES

1. Obviously, all GTS+ forum rules apply. Don't break 'em.
2. Be reasonable. No god-modding, bunnying, power-playing, etc.
3. Being rude to other roleplayers will not be tolerated (although your characters can be as rude to each other as you please). This includes (but is not limited to) constantly bugging them about posting. Some people have lives - shocking, I know - and you have to respect the fact that not everyone is capable of posting at the speed of light. Of course, if someone hasn't posted for a week or more without giving prior notice of their absence, it's fine to give them a friendly reminder.
4. This RP is rated a 2-1-2 on this scale. See the link for details.
5. You can do whatever you want in OOC posts, but your RP posts must be in prose, with correct English grammar, spelling, and syntax. Additionally, your RP posts must be at least one paragraph (3-5 sentences, depending on the length of each sentence). And please separate your posts into paragraphs, oh my god
6. Try to give some notice if you won't be able to post for a while. If you want, you can allow a willing RPer to take control of your character during your absence.
7. Most of the OOC discussion should take place in this thread. If you have to make a quick OOC note in an RP post, make sure it's clearly separated from the rest of the text. You can use double parentheses (()), brackets [], braces {}, slashes //, or whatever else works for you. Posts that are purely OOC are not permitted in the RP thread.
8. Spoil any part Dangan Ronpa or its sequel for anyone (without putting it either in a spoiler or like this (mouse over!), with a spoiler warning) and I'll punch you in the throat. Actually, no, you'll just be asked to remove it.
9. For reasons that will hopefully become apparent as you continue reading this post, you're not allowed to quote directly from any PM you get from me that relates to this RP. Paraphrasing is your friend.
10. Specific rules on creating characters can be found in the next section.

MONOBEAR'S RULES

1. The students will live a communal lifestyle with no time limit inside the school walls.
2. The time between 10pm and 7am is called “Night Time”. During Night Time there are places that are forbidden to enter, so please take care. ((I will decide when to change to Night Time based on the current events in the RP.))
3. You may investigate the school as you please. There are no special restrictions on your actions.
4. No violence is permitted against the school’s headmaster, Monobear. Destruction of the surveillance cameras is forbidden.
5. A “culprit” who kills a fellow student will graduate the school. However, they must not let any other student know they are the culprit.
6. If at least three students discover a body, an announcement will be made and the other students will be given freedom to investigate. Later, another announcement will be made about a School Trial, in which all students are required to gather and discuss the murder. After the discussion, they will vote on a culprit, who will be executed even if they were not the true culprit.
7. In this school life of mutual killing, one culprit can kill one person at most. ((Depending on the situation, exceptions might be made to this rule.))
8. If multiple students conspire to kill another, only the person who actually committed the act of murder will be allowed to graduate.
9. Additional rules may be added by the school at any time. ((I'll try to do this as little as possible.))

If your characters break any of these rules, Monobear will punish (i.e. execute) them. Don't do it.

BASIC INFORMATION
Hey there, everyone! I'm Zapi/Touko and this is the first RP I've made in years, so please don't judge me too harshly.

This RP is based on Dangan Ronpa, a video game that is semi-popular in Japan but has yet to be officially translated or localized. However, by no means do you have to be familiar with the game to join this RP! In fact, it might be more fun if you don't know anything whatsoever about the game, considering all the twists and turns.

Currently, the only way for people who don't speak Japanese to access Dangan Ronpa is by reading orenronen's Let's Play of the game on Something Awful Forums. (SA's paywall is currently up, though, so unless you have an account on the forums you won't be able to read it right now.) A lot of the wording in the introduction for this thread was taken straight from his LP because I'm lazy to make it more authentic-sounding. Sorry. There's also an anime adaptation coming out next month, which you can watch trailers for here and here (although that one contains possible minor spoilers? possibly?? but probably not) if you're interested. Dangan Ronpa also has a sequel, Super Dangan Ronpa 2, which has nothing to do with this RP although I might mention it occasionally. I abbreviate the two games as DR and SDR2, respectively.

This RP will also feature a few aspects similar to online Mafia. Although there aren't opposing factions like there are in most Mafia games, each character will have a "role", and the murders take place in PMs. (All of this is explained in greater detail later, don't worry.) If you don't know how the game Mafia works, you can check this out for a brief overview.

For those of you who have read Dangan Ronpa, this RP will essentially follow the plot of the first game, but with a completely different set of characters. There will be a mastermind (more detail later) who controls Monobear, the mechanical bear who acts as headmaster of the school; but other than that, the details are completely up to the RPers!

The RP will begin with the sixteen students waking up in a classroom in Hope's Peak Academy, thinking that they were late because they fell asleep. They'll head to the entrance hall and introduce themselves to one another there. Once that's over with, they'll hear Monobear's voice (although they won't be familiar with it yet) over the intercom telling them to gather at the gymnasium for the "entrance ceremony". There, he'll explain to them about the "school life of mutual killing" that he's set up, and the RP will continue from there.

Just to clarify, there are no teachers, classes, or other students at Hope's Peak. The students are free to do whatever they want using the resources they have in the school. Also, a map of the school will be provided in the RP thread for reference. At the beginning, the students will only have access to the first floor of the school, but as the RP goes on they will gain access to more. There are five floors in total that they can access normally, plus an underground floor where the school trials take place.

In this RP, there will be three phases. (The current phase, along with whether it's Day Time or Night Time, will be written in the subtitle of the RP thread.). They are Normal Days*, Abnormal Days, and School Trial, and they are detailed as follows:

1. Normal Days: During this phase, the characters are free to explore the school and interact with one another. This is the phase where much of the character development will probably take face. The Normal Days phase ends when a dead body is discovered.
2. Abnormal Days: This phase begins when the students discover a dead body and an announcement is made. During this phase, the characters will likely spend much of their time investigating the murder, trying to figure out as much information as they can about the culprit before the School Trial begins. If any character discovers evidence during this phase, it (along with the name of the character who found it) will be added to the "Evidence Bullets" spoiler in the RP thread, which all the characters will have access to during the School Trial phase. The Abnormal Days phase ends when Monobear makes an announcement that the School Trial is about to begin, and all of the characters gather in the elevator that will take them to the trial room.
3. School Trial: This phase begins once all the characters have gathered in the trial room. During this phase, the characters sit in a room (which will be described in further detail once we get there) and discuss/argue about their ideas regarding the culprit, using evidence that they found in the previous phase. It's a very informal trial that involves mostly discussion, arguing, accusations, etc. Monobear will be observing the trial and occasionally interjecting to correct something that the students said. Once the trial ends, the students must vote on who they think is the culprit... and, well, you should know by now what happens next. After the culprit is voted on, they will be executed (usually in a rather flashy, expensive matter), the real murderer will get to graduate if they weren't discovered, and the RP will return to the Normal Days phase.

*In the actual game, this phase is called (Ab)normal Days, but I'm changing the name for this RP in order to minimize confusion.

If enough time passes in a Normal Days phase without a murder happening, Monobear will sometimes provide a "motive" for the students. This can either be a reward for someone who gets away with murder, or some kind of punishment for all the students if a murder doesn't take place soon. For example, he might promise the murderer a large sum of money if they get away, or he might threaten to reveal embarrassing secrets about all the students if a murder doesn't happen. It's up to the RPer controlling the mastermind to come up with these motives.

By now, you're probably wondering how exactly murders are going to work. Here's how: Sometime during a Normal Days phase, I'll make a post in the OOC thread that we need a volunteer to be the murderer. Whoever PMs me first saying that they want their character to volunteer will get to do so - anyone else who PMs me after that will get put on hold until the next Normal Days phase. If I don't get any volunteers, or if I run out of them, I'll pick someone at random using a random number generator.

Once you've been told that you get to kill someone, you get to choose a player to kill. Since your victim doesn't have a choice in the matter, at least early on, please try to pick a character belonging to an RPer with more than one character. You'll need to discuss how the murder is going to work thoroughly with the victim, either in PMs or some sort of instant messaging. You can even RP the entire scene out if you prefer. Note that murders can happen during the day or night, but if it's during the day, you'll have to be much more discreet about it. Also note that you can conspire with another character about the murder if you want - just keep in mind that a) only the person who committed the act of murder can graduate and b) there's a possibility that the character you're conspiring with could betray yours.

After you've finished discussing everything, PM it all (or at least the most important things) to me. If there's anything I want you to change about your plan - for example, if another character's ability (explained later) causes the murder to go differently than you planned - I'll say so. Once I approve your plan, the RPer controlling the victim is free to make a post in the RP thread that describes the crime scene in as much detail as possible. You don't want your murderer to get away, after all. For example, if there was hair pulled during the murder, there might be traces of hair at the crime scene. There might also be blood splatters, broken glass, etc. If you're good with some kind of digital art program, you can even sketch the scene if you want, though this is not required and must be coupled with a good description.

If your character gets away with murder, they will leave the school (and therefore, the RP), while the character everyone thought was the culprit will be executed. But if the murderer gets found out during the trial, they'll be executed. When your character is executed, you get to write out their execution and make a post about it. These executions are rather over-the-top and gruesome, and are specific to each character - usually, it's the very last way that your character would ever want to die. Feel free to go all out with writing these. (Just remember the rating for this RP - you don't have to explicitly describe every gory detail.)

I think that's everything, but if you have any questions, feel free to ask.

So you're thinking of joining this RP? Great! But be sure to read through this section first.

CHARACTER CREATION RULES

1. For now, each RPer is allowed up to three characters. I encourage you to take at least two, since we are going to have permanent deaths in the RP, but it's not a requirement.
2. Prior to the "entrance ceremony", none of the characters (aside from the mastermind) are aware of the "school life of mutual killing" that Monobear set up. They just think it's a normal (albeit very challenging and prestigious) private academy.
3. I don't think I should have to say this, but your character can't be a character from Dangan Ronpa or its sequel, nor any other series. This ain't a massive crossover; these should be your own characters.
4. Your character can, however, share a SHSL title with one of the DR/SDR2 characters if you want. I'm not going to tell people who know nothing about the series to change their entire character just because someone from the games already has the same title as them.
5. By the way, your characters don't necessarily have to be super-academically gifted. The requirement for being selected to attend Hope's Peak is excellence in a respective field, which can mean literally anything - playing baseball, singing, leading a gang, writing doujinshi... basically any talent you can think of.
6. No two characters in the RP can have the same SHSL title.
7. One student will have the title "Super High School Level Good Luck". This student probably won't have any special talents, as they were the one who won the lottery to get into Hope's Peak. If you want to reserve this character in particular, say so.
8. Your characters might know some basic information about each other at the start of the RP, from looking at message boards about Hope's Peak Academy (it's a famous school, after all), or just from general knowledge if one of the characters happens to be famous (which is a possibility).
9. This isn't exactly a rule, but I like to keep the male-to-female ratio fairly even in RPs. If you notice an overwhelming majority of one gender in the character list, it would be pretty cool of you to make a character the opposite gender.
10. If you use a picture for the Appearance section, I would strongly prefer it to be either drawn/made for you or by you. However, if you decide to pull one of Google Images or Photobucket or wherever, I encourage you to find the original artist/source (and if you need help doing so, ask me).
11. You're allowed to reserve one spot at a time. You can specify a SHSL title in your reservation if you want, but you don't have to.
12. One student will be the "mastermind" - the one who controls Monobear and is responsible for the "school life of mutual killing". No one except me (and them) will know who this is, and you have to submit a special application to me via PM for your character to be the mastermind. This is all detailed in the next section.

You're probably wondering what exactly a "SHSL title" is. Basically, it's a title that reflects your character's field of expertise, which as I said before can be literally anything. For example, Touko Fukawa from the original game is a writer, so her title is "Super High School Level Literary Girl".

Your character's title will determine (to some extent) what "role" or ability they have. Some examples of possible roles are being able to ask the GM for a hint about the culprit, having your vote in the trial count twice, being able to block someone's role or make their vote not count, etc. For more examples, see the Mafia wiki I linked to earlier. Some time after all the character slots in the RP are full, I'll PM everyone with details on their roles and how to use them. You cannot ask for a specific role or heavily hint about one.

Any characters I make won't have a role, nor a vote that counts in the trials. Since I'm the GM, that would be a bit unfair, wouldn't it?

And here's the moment you've all been waiting for, if you've read this far: The sign-up forms! Please delete the stuff in parentheses when you go to post your form. It will make me extremely happy if you keep the SU formatted the way I have it below, but I won't kill you if you don't.

CODE

[b]Name:[/b] (First and last. Since this RP takes place in Japan, the names should probably be Japanese in origin, unless your character is a foreigner or uses a pseudonym (which should be detailed in the Background section).)
[b]Gender:[/b] (As long as you know what you're doing, you can have a transgender/transsexual/nonbinary character if you want. Or not. I don't care.)
[b]Age:[/b] (Keep in mind that these are all high school students. Most are going to be 14-18, although if they skipped years/were held back they might be younger/older. Be reasonable.)
[b]Super High School Level:[/b] (Your character's area of expertise. Some examples from the games include: Fortune Teller, Gamer, Baseball Player, Idol, Fashion Girl, Hacker, Gangster, Nurse, Literary Girl... really whatever you want).

[b]Appearance:[/b] (What your character looks like, physically. Minimum of two paragraphs, whether you use a picture or not.)

[b]Personality:[/b] (How your character acts, thinks, etc. Minimum of two paragraphs.)

[b]Background:[/b] (Your character's life prior to being accepted into Hope's Peak Academy. At least three paragraphs.)

[b]Other:[/b] (Anything else you'd like to add.)

SO YOU WANNA BE THE MASTERMIND?
As I mentioned before, the mastermind is the student responsible for locking all the other students into the school and setting up the "school life of mutual killing". They also are the one who controls Monobear - though I will be the one posting as Monobear and deciding most of what he does, you can always PM me if you want him to do something in particular. You also get to make up the "motives" that Monobear gives the students if I ask you to do so. There is a central control room from which the mastermind will control Monobear as well as watch the activities of the students via the many security cameras located around the school, and they will have to disappear for long periods of time to do this. The mastermind has access to the entire school, including locked rooms.

If want your character to be the mastermind, here's what you do: Send me a PM containing the character's name and a detailed description of the plan your character has for keeping their true identity a secret, as well as their motive for setting all of this up. Your plan would have to compensate for being absent in every school trial - maybe they faked their own death, maybe they have an identical twin who they swap places with, maybe they're a SHSL Roboticist or something and they created a realistic looking robot of themselves; it's up to you. The more in-depth, clever, and creative this is, the more likely I am to accept you as the mastermind. You have five days after your SU is approved to send this to me. Eventually, I'll PM you back saying whether your character will be the mastermind or not. If we don't get any volunteers, I'll RNG it, I guess.

(format: Character Name, Super High School Level _____ [Username] )

1. Hotaru Hazata, Super High School Level Stage Actress [Touko Fukawa]
2. Nanami Hatori, Super High School Level Hacker [Toogee]
3. Phillip George, Super High School Level Good Luck [Gorgon]
4. Ruri Ushiko, Super High School Level Musician [Wishful Jirachi]
5. Kiyoshi Mizuki, Super High School Level Surfer [Dorito Ninja]
6. (Reserved), Super High School Level Chemist [Yzal]
7. Ren Hatori, Super High School Level Medic [Toogee]
8. Shiro Kobayashi, Super High School Level Card Shark [Dorito Ninja]
9. Megumi Kohaku, Super High School Level Baker [Gorgon]
10. Tanoshi Rakkan, Super High School Level Optimist [Arceus Awakened]
11. Chikyu Hokuro, Super High School Level Gardener [Arceus Awakened]
12. Iwao Kyo, Super High School Level Thief [Wishful Jirachi]
13. Natsuko Uemura, Super High School Level Mechanic [Dorito Ninja]

This post has been edited by Touko Fukawa: Jul 1 2013, 07:13 AM

[Gorgon]

Dorito, it is your duty as a citizen of [insert your country's name here] to make a Super High Schoo Level Brony. You must.
I saw on the form they should be Japanese, at least in name... Is that absolutely necessary? I'm not very familiar with Japanese names.