This post was last modified: Dec 9, 2023 at 5:41 AM by Spooks?.

Welcome to the Bureau of Paranormal Investigation.

The year is 2028, and a string of stranger-than-usual occurrences plaguing the Central Facility have resulted in partial, evacuation - and you've been recruited to investigate in the meantime. Once serving as the Whisper Valley Historical Society, the building and surrounding area housing the Central Facility has a storied past, with decades of stories old and new to discover within the prevalent gloom. At one time a small mining town in decline, Whisper Valley vanished from the face of the earth 20 years ago, leaving behind only this building, [REDACTED], and the foundations of the Bureau itself.

Explore the Historical Society, the Facility Grounds, and the Containment Labs, as you solve puzzles, meet unique characters, delve into the mysteries of the arcane, uncover what became of Whisper Valley, research Anomalies, learn about the Bureau's purpose, and perhaps even start a containment breach or two as you learn the secrets of the Codex Nocturnum.

Oh, and don't forget the Killing, of course.

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The Killing Game is an interactive forum-based murder mystery game based on... a variety of sources, at this point. As the 9th installment of the Minus World Killing Game, this game follows much of the same rules as the other entries in the series, as well as other Killing Games hosted on both this website and various others such as Awards Killing Game or the Kitchen KG.

In other words, your mission is simple: Commit murder, solve mysteries, and escape the Killing Game.

The game will consist primarily of two phases - The Day Phase and the Night Phase, with potential variations or additional phases depending on story conditions or a Role Power being used. Each player will receive their own unique role power.

Night Phase

During the Night Phase, you will be allowed to submit a set of actions in private to the host using the map, your role power, and any objects you may currently possess. There will be several incentives encouraging you to commit murder during the night, which will eliminate another player should you succeed in your plan. Nights may also have unique conditions, depending on certain factors. If you are new to the game, then a basic set of murder submission actions may look like this, for reference:

-I go to the Kitchen
-I pick up a knife from the drawer
-I go to the lounge
-I wait for someone to enter and stab them
-I hide the knife in the garbage and cover myself in wine to hide bloodstains
-I go outside into the courtyard and make snowmen
-I return to my bed.

However, actions can be much more than something like that as well. Feel free to send detailed actions in a more prose-like format as well, but remember to make them readable, even if you are playing as a gimmick character, otherwise you will risk your actions being misinterpreted.

You do not have to commit murder during the night, and can instead choose to simply do whatever you want. Explore, try to solve puzzles, investigate something weird you found the previous night, hang out with an NPC, go hunting for secret passageways or just be an asshole and go around knocking people out with a large pipe. Be careful though, too much senseless chaos might get you thrown in the Holding Cell.

Day Phase

During the Day Phase, you will be investigating a murder that occurs during the night - committed by another player, of course. Only one murder will happen per night unless otherwise stated under typical conditions. The post announcing the murder will contain a small number of clues in the “case file”, which can be used as a springboard for investigation. In the Day Thread, you may post investigation questions, for example:

• I investigate the area around the body
  
• I stab the body in the thigh with a steak knife, does it look like the wound in their chest?
  
• I investigate the Surgical Ward, are any tools missing?
  
• I hop on the lawnmower and ride across the courtyard. Does it take me approximately as long as watching one episode of hit TV show GhostQuest?

You can also use the day phase to investigate various other mysteries and discoveries around the map as you attempt to escape the the Killing Game, though you may only be able to make some discoveries during your Night Phase actions and consequences will typically occur if you fail to manage your time appropriately and do not solve the murder.

Partway through the Day Phase, you will have an opportunity to vote for who you believe to be the killer in the Trial Thread. You can vote by making a post naming who you wish to vote for, and preferably why. Whoever has the most votes is executed, and it will be revealed at that point whether they truly were guilty, or whether they were innocent.

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Each player in the game will have a special Role. In this case, roles will be divided into two primary categories, namely Agents and Anomalies. There may be some other, smaller groups as well, with their own objectives and goals but these two will serve the vast majority of players and their goal is largely just to survive the Killing Game or find a means to escape.

• The Agents are one half of the game’s "normal" roles, with the other half being the “Anomalies”. The Agent roles primarily focus on practical skills, tools, knowledge, weaponry, and raw determination. Few of them, if any, will have genuine supernatural abilities. In a sense, they are much like the Staff roles from Killing Game 8, a lot of supportive roles, high access levels, and a knowledge advantage. In exchange, their roles won’t quite be as offensively oriented or interesting mechanically as Anomalies, with a few exceptions.
  
  
• The Anomalies are the other half of the “normal” roles. These are mostly the supernaturally oriented “SCP” roles. Some of these roles will have a magical item, some will be inhuman beasts beyond the comprehension of mortals. Some might have a meme power that makes them curse the heavens above. Who knows!These are much like the “Experiments” of KG8, albeit with more of a spooky vibe. The magic nonsense roles, these are what you get. They also have a unique ability in the form of having a “Threat Level” as opposed to an “Access Level”, which operates similarly but differently at the same time. We’ll talk about that later.
  

Any Other Roles may not fit into the categories as seen above. Be aware of any roles that don't seem to fit quite right, there may be an impostor among you.

Each role will have a Forbidden Action. this is as the name describes, an action that will instantly kill you if performed. These serve as counterbalances or fun quirks to the role powers of a player, and should be paid attention to, as they can be either your greatest downfall, or a very creative murder weapon.

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Your roles will be marked down on your Facility ID, which acts as a combination rolecard and keycard for the various doors in the game. Attempting to steal and view the Facility ID of a living player will result in severe consequences. The exception being if your role or another element of the game explicitly allows you to do this.

Each Agent role in the game will possess its own numerical Facility Access Level, which will be marked on your Facility ID. Your Access Level allows you to freely open certain doors that others may not. With a large group of players, this should ideally help make cases less obnoxious to solve by restricting who can go where, at least initially. You may be able to find alternate paths or brute force your way into certain Access Level locked rooms, however, and players will have many opportunities to raise their Access Level through incentives and exploration.

The Anomalies, however, do not begin with an Access Level, instead beginning the game with a Threat Level. Threat Levels function similarly to the Access Levels, however rather than the numerical value of the former, they come in three categories, from lowest to highest: Blue, Yellow, and Red. Some doorways with high Access Level requirements may have low Threat Level requirements for access, and vice-versa. Threat Levels are not raised as frequently as Access Levels, but may provide access to more rooms.

Regardless of your role, you are allowed to choose to start in one of three Dorms that will become available for choosing when the map is revealed. When choosing a dorm, please list them by favorite to least favorite in terms of choice, in case autobalancing is required.

---

As the 9th Installment of the Killing Game, a few things have changed, even if the majority is similar to the previous game. I've mentioned a couple of them up above, but I'll go into more depth here regarding new mechanics or things that changed.

The Holding Cell
Historically in Killing Games, team kills are a known problem. It becomes nigh impossible to solve a kill if too many people get involved, and the Holding Cell is a solution to that problem. Introduced as The Brig in the Marioboards' Awards Killing Game Odyssey, this mechanic exists as a counterweight to discourage team kills by punishing accomplices without executing them.

There are various ways to get yourself locked up in the Holding Cell, for example...

• Being the accomplice to a killer who gets lynched for a crime. This is an automatic sentencing, there is no need to discover the accomplice during the case.
  
• Being notably disruptive or destructive during the game to the point of significantly annoying other players or ruining the game for them, including submitting random map destruction every night but never attempting murder or other useful activities.
  
• Various night incentives or role powers

When you are sentenced to the Holding Cell, your sentence lasts one night and carries the following penalties:

• You will begin your night in the Holding Cell and will be the last one to wake.
  
• Your inventory will not be on your person, it will be able to be retrieved from your dorm.
  
• You will be debuffed with the Breaching status, and more likely to die as a result, especially to targeted kills.

Team Kills will be restricted to ONE killer and ONE accomplice, regardless of the existence of the mechanic.

Bond Point Changes
Last game, people did not enjoy not receiving bond levels or other perks because of their changes, and some didn't want to engage with the system at all and were weaker as a result. Now, you will get two Bond Points per night and be able to spend them as you please across the NPCs, or a unique path of upgrades for players who would rather play a Killing Game without any of this.

Split Opinion
Replacing the "Scrum Debates" of previous Killing Games, where in the event of a tie, the players were allowed to argue between the two tied suspects, with the most convincing argument winning out, the Split Opinion system serves to settle a tie a different way. Now, tie games will result in a one hour extension and a new Trial Thread - with only the two tied culprits as options. NPCs will be unable to vote during a Split Opinion, to prevent NPCs piling on to force a last minute tie. This is subject to change based on how it goes in practice.

Personal Files
Every player will have their Personal File, which is a private channel just for them and the host in the discord server. They can post whatever they want in those Personal Files for safekeeping, and they may ask the host questions in that channel as well. Feel free to use it as a personal paste bin, or a place to workshop your account or post theories you want to come back to later. Group Files accommodating multiple players in a private channel can be created on demand as well, however if this is abused or used to plan kills with more than two participants, it will be disallowed.

New Ghost Mechanics
If you die early, make sure to stick around. While it'll become rather apparent as the game progresses, there is a new set of mechanics revolving around keeping ghosts relevant and even able to solve cases just like the living, to various effects. These will be revealed when the time is right.

The Mystery of Whisper Valley
This game will contain a secondary murder mystery plotline told across the various notes, items, locations, and flashback events scattered across the game. While you're waiting for the next Day Phase after submission, why not try to figure out who's responsible, and what actually happened 20 years ago?

Containment Rooms
Due to the nature of this facility, several Containment Rooms will be present on the map, each housing something mysterious - be it a helpful item, or a dangerous creature, or even an entire anomalous room. These rooms will be locked behind Access Levels like other rooms, but so will information about them, with each of these rooms having an in-depth description of what exactly lies in wait within locked behind a wall of [REDACTED] text unless you meet the level requirement. Be careful before you go barging into these uninformed, you never know what you're going to find

AFK Rules

• You are allowed one AFK per game, barring a good excuse for your absence.
  
• A second AFK will result in you becoming the victim of the next kill, or barring that possibility, functionally equivalent to a Forbidden Action death, albeit with no trial.
  
• If you AFK, it will be announced in the Case Files. As a result, faking an AFK is impossible.
  

Bedtime

• It is highly encouraged to return to your dorm at night.
  
• If you do not willingly return to your dorm at the end of the night, unless otherwise stated, you will be inflicted with a random Curse, which can carry a variety of debuffs. These Curses will accumulate until you return to your dorm.
  
• You do not accumulate Curses if you are KO'd for the rest of the night or otherwise kept from returning to bed by force.
  

Rerolls

• If you are not satisfied with your role, you may reroll it into a new one.
  
• Your reroll will be part of the same role group, to avoid spoilers in case you belong to a secret category.
  
• Any reroll options past the first will be disregarded.
  

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The game will feature several NPCs, each with a role in the game and its story. They function much like a player, but with a few differences and their own unique agendas.

Each NPC can commit murder, as well as be murdered and be lynched for a murder just like a player. This can occur under several circumstances, such as in a situation where no one else has committed a murder. There will however, be a heavy penalty for lynching an innocent NPC, to offset the player count not going down due to a player being eliminated. This penalty will not be something like a random death, so don’t worry too much.

NPCs will each have an account of their events that night that you can ask them for, though if they are hiding something they may lie or mislead you. Each NPC will also have an ability that can potentially aid in investigation somewhat, so keeping them alive vs. killing them is a delicate balance depending on whether your goal is to commit murder or not.

Finally, during your night actions you may elect to spend time with an NPC. This will take a large amount of time and will mean that you will be able to do far fewer night actions, but doing so will increase your Bond Level. Bond Levels increase on a scale from 1 to 10. You get two Bond Points to spend per night. The higher your Bond Level with an NPC, the more benefits you will receive, such as their willingness to lie for you, special items they may give you, favors they may do, or even additional bonuses or role powers. You may also learn something new about the game or world in the process, who knows?

...And for those who do not wish to engage with the NPC aspect of the game, you may instead elect to put your bond points towards the new Path of the Purist, a special option to spec your Bond Points into with 20 levels rather than the 10 of the NPCs. The Path of the Purist will unlock new abilities similar to the NPCs, but more aligned with the traditional Killing Game gameplay loop of just murdering and solving murders, as well as some role buffs specific to the roles of those who choose this path.

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Now, before we begin, there's a couple more ground rules to go over.

• This game involves murder and it can be violent. If you are against these things, don't sign up. You probably won't enjoy it.
  
• No cheating. Cheating in a Killing Game can take various forms, such as secretly bypassing the two-player restriction on team kills, or sharing your night results privately. This will get you removed from the game immediately.
  
• Please be active. Active players make the game progress, and if everyone refuses to post an account of their night action, or if everyone is late to submit, it ruins the game for everyone else. Being busy is fine and expected even, but try to do the bare minimum.
  
• Pay attention to your role. Everyone has an ability, and it would be a boring game if no one ever used it. Have fun with your role, go crazy, and make sure to pay attention to your forbidden action. At least read the role card, they are fun.
  
• Try to submit actions with substance. It is a KILLING game first and foremost, and while no one has to participate with the rest of the game elements beyond the basic murder mystery, it is expected that if you plan on submitting a long submission with a lot of shitpost actions, you will at least also murder.
  
• Please be respectful to the hosts and other players. You can get mad or even be a bit of a dick, but any harassment or usage of slurs or other things like that are explicitly disallowed.
  
• DO NOT copy and paste the account you are sent of what occurred during your night. This is considered cheating, and will result in instant death.
  
• Remember to join the Discord, as much discussion will take place there. Here is the link: https://discord.gg/gjy6TUhuss
  
• Finally, if you would like to request some sort of role ability, DM me about it and I will see what I can do. These are not all guaranteed to be granted. Likewise, if you would rather be in a specific role category, let me know either in private or your signup post.
  

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All you have to do to sign up is to post in this very thread, though you are also able to sign up as a Spectator if you are unable to play, granting you the same status and level of involvement as a ghost. Sign-ups do not have a set closing time or maximum player count, but I am hoping to begin the game in early December, with a very special Day 0. I will announce a start date once player singups slow down, but I'll need a week or two to prepare remaining assets such as role cards or the map, which are dependent on player count.

Just remember. Have fun, fear not the moment of death, and look ever onwards to the distant horizon.

For soon, we will walk towards the Heavens' Light.

---

Current Players

@Two_Finger
@Nightwheel
@Elyk
@DxHustler3000
@Alan Wake
@Lulu Azhal
@Amoeba
@Turb
@MCD
@Giffany
@Vruet
@Columbo
@Hearts
@Momoyo Himemushi
@Revy
@Kright
@Tinkaton
@Pea
@Chibi Ruby Rose
@Morgan
@Archer_Est
@Roxie Richter
@Kabuto
@Phenera
@Lily
@Yap
@Lita
@Goose
@Raregold

signed

Put me on the list, I will work on making a dupe.

gaming

It's time to invest.

My name is Alan Wake. I'm a writer.

I exist for once and am singing the heck up

I sign up

In, dupe later

This post was last modified: Nov 22, 2023 at 12:48 AM by MCD.

sign me in (dube tbd)

Edit : why tf did I write "dube"

In + will dupe

Sign me up, dupe later

Oh, pardon me. Have you seen my wife around here? She was supposed to join me for this event and- oh, never mind. I'll get out of your hair, you look pretty busy.

Dupe forthcoming

This post was last modified: Apr 17, 2024 at 12:09 PM by Momoyo Himemushi.

I don't know where I am.

I don't know why I'm here.

I don't know who any of you are.

All I know...

is that I must dig.

count me in, dupe tbd

Im in - Will dupe at some point

dupe later unless i regain my senses

This post was last modified: Nov 22, 2023 at 12:26 AM by Hot Cocoa.

fwd dragged me in here kicking and screaming so i guess im in

will reply with dupe soon

count me in, dupe tbd

Fuck me gently with an AR-15. This is what passes for a job these days? A middle school field trip to a glorified haunted house? If that Balalaika doesn't know what she's doing I'm going to play hacky sack with her soot-covered lungs.....Shit.