[Dean]

50 STUDENTS ENTER,
BUT ONLY 1 WILL SURVIVE!



Kidnapped by the government and transported to a mysterious Battleground,
50 Japanese high school students are forced to fight to the death in a brutal
televised contest called Classroom Deathmatch!

Classroom Deathmatch is a viciously brutal roleplaying game that asks tough
questions and forces players to make difficult choices. A game of trust, friend-
ship, murder, and betrayal. And only one player can win.

Do YOU have what it takes to survive?

Game Master: Me! Hi there. My name's Dean. Actually, my official title will be "Superintendent", but, you know, same diff.

Number of players I'm looking for: Six to eight players, plus one or more Co-GMs. This totally depends, however. The mechanics of this game are capable of supporting a large number of players, but of course that would be a heck of a juggling act for me to do alone. I'm certain I can handle eight myself with no problems though. If we get lots of applicants, maybe I can find a co-GM, and we can accept more players. We'll see! Even if we have eight or fewer players though, a Co-GM would be more than welcome!

Game System: Classroom Deathmatch! Classroom Deathmatch is an awesome RPG published by Atarashi Games. You can download the full pdf FOR FREE on the Atarashi Games website, if you click on the link at the right of the homepage labeled "FREE CLASSROOM DEATHMATCH". How's that for a good deal? ^^ Of course, if you're impressed with the game, don't hesitate to buy the book!

WEBSITE LINK: Atarashi Games

It's really a very easy game system to learn. Piece o' cake! The system is highly narrative, which is perfect for telling a cinematic story, and the crunchy bits of rules work beautifully. Trust me, d20 would never work well for a game like this. Classroom Deathmatch is an RPG that was custom built to run exactly this story, and it works almost perfectly in that regard.

Rules Synopsis

• Depleting dice pool. When you roll dice, they are subtracted from your dice pool. If you have no dice left in a particular pool, you can't use that stat. This really amplifies the survival horror feel of the game.
• Dice are regained once per day, during morning announcements, but you'll only get SOME of your dice back. You can also gain a couple extra dice if you initiate a flashback scene during a conflict -- just like in the movies, having a flashback helps you do better in the heat of the moment.
• If you roll a 5 or higher on any die, your action succeeds. If all your dice are 4 or lower, your action fails. Unpopular students roll d6's, average popularity students roll d8's, and popular students roll d10's. Popularity is voted on by the players once per day. Yep, lots of backstabbing here.
• If you succeed in any conflict, your best friend narrates what happens. He can narrate however he wants. You choose which PC is your best friend.
• If you fail at any conflict (you don't roll any 5's or higher), your rival narrates the results of your action. He can narrate however he wants. You choose which PC is your rival.
• Character Traits let you roll a higher valued die when they're relevant. For example, if you're popular, you normally roll d10's. But if you use your "star runner on the track team" Trait to run away, you roll d12's!

The most important part of the rules is the mechanics for Best Friends and Rivals. It may seem odd at first, but after trying it out, you'll quickly find that it's one of the coolest parts of the game. You succeed or fail your actions according to the dice roll, but the actual margin of success or failure is left completely to the whims of your best friends and rivals. This means that you only die if your rival or your opponent's best friend narrates you dying. There's no tracking of hit points or anything! And did I mention lots of backstabbing?

House Rules

• We're not using many house rules here. All of the rules from pages 1 to 34 of the pdf remain unchanged, except we're not using the Special Techniques option. (Special Techniques are pretty cheesy, and tend to detract from the survival horror feel of the game.)
• Pages 35 to 40: Setting the Scene. This bit will be changed, in order to speed up play in a forum-based game. I (the GM) will set all the scenes myself. After the first game day has passed, and everyone is familiar with the rules, we may try out the scene-setting rules from the book, if you guys are interested.
• Pages 41 to 44: Flashback Scenes. I'd like to condense the flashback scenes, in order to speed up play in a forum-based game. The way it will work, is the player of the character having a flashback will write up the entire flashback scene themselves, describing it pretty much however they like. Once a flashback scene is posted, the other players have 24 hours to post an RP describing how their PC contributed to the flashback scene, if they wish. Any PC can jump in, even ones that were not originally present in the scene or the flashback. After 24 hours are up, I'll reward 1d3 dice to each participating PC, or 2d2 dice for exceptionally entertaining RPs (at my discretion), and play resumes in the original scene again. Sound fair?
• Pages 45 and onwards are GM information, so players really only have to bother with the first 34 pages, plus a quick skim of the flashback scene rules!

Game explanation: If you've ever seen the movie Battle Royale, or read the book or the manga, you know exactly what this is about. You don't need to know the movie to play though! This story is set in Japan in the not-too-distant future, where the corrupt government televises a brutal reality game show called Classroom Deathmatch that all Japanese citizens are required to watch. Every year, one class of fifty high school students is abducted and taken to a heavily guarded Battleground. The students are injected with nano-machines which can kill the students in a heartbeat if they try to escape their grisly fate. They are then given weapons and forced to kill each other over a period of five grueling days. Only one student can survive -- if there are more students still alive at the end of the five-day time limit, the students are all killed. It's dog eat dog, survival of the fittest. It's the most brutal contest ever created. It's Classroom Deathmatch!

Mood: The mood of this game is DARK. It is also frequently very funny, in a morbid sort of way. Classroom Deathmatch is a survival horror game, but it tends to draw out even darker themes than zombie movies do. After all, you're not just fighting for your life, you have a time limit and no way to escape. This game explores very mature themes, so please be aware of this if you intend on playing or reading. Of course, we have to stick to the PG-13 rating here at Mythweavers, but I think we can still have some fun exploring these dark themes together in a mature and responsible fashion.

One note: We DO have to keep it PG-13, folks. That means no sex or drugs. I know those things were in the Battle Royale book/movie/manga, but I think we can do without. The drugs I am just removing completely from the game -- they don't exist in the battleground or the characters' possessions. As for sexual themes, well, no need for the explicit details about what your character is doing in the bushes. I don't wanna read that anyways.

Play-Style: This might sound like a hack 'n' slash game, but it's really not. (Well, it is to a certain extent, but there's more to this game than that.) Classroom Deathmatch is largely about the interpersonal relationships and internal struggles of the 50 classmates, as they suffer together under extreme circumstances. As such, I would like players who are interested in actually ROLE-PLAYING a little. Or a lot! All 50 of the characters are pre-generated, and PCs WILL die (probably frequently), so players need to be able to get "in-character" with PCs they don't create themselves. Also, creative thinking is often very important in this game. You will find out rather quickly that just running around killing everybody will probably just get you killed too. The game mechanics place a big emphasis on survival, so you'll have to think outside of the box in many situations.

The story-threads will be a big mix of individual character threads and group threads as the characters explore the Battleground and meet each other, form alliances, fight each other, etc.. Multiple game threads may evolve simultaneously if the characters are separated. Each scene will have its own game thread, which will be linked to in the last threads the participating characters took part in. Don't worry, it won't be confusing at all. I'll make sure to leave an obvious bread crumb trail for the readers and players to follow as the story progresses through the scenes and the days.

Characters: As mentioned above, all 50 of the student PCs are pre-generated. You don't have to create anything. When we start the game, the players will roll 1d50 to determine the student they start with. If your PC dies, you roll 1d50 again and you get a new character immediately. Simple as that.

Here's an example of what your character sheet might look like:

Popularity................ Average
Best Friend.............. Name
Rival........................ Name

Elemental Dice
Earth...................... max 3 / current 3
Water..................... max 5 / current 2
Fire......................... max 1 / current 3
Air.......................... max 9 / current 6
Fear........................ max 7 / current 4

Traits
Hobbies: "excellent pitcher"
Friends & Family:
Personality: "very supportive of friends"

Personal Belongings
duffel bag, laminated map of the battleground, student roster, pen, compass, watch, bottle of apple juice, chocolate bar, sanitary napkin, makeup kit, money: 2000 yen, butcher knife

Kills
*

Notes
*

The top part of the character sheet will be visible to everyone, so all players know who the other students are, what they look like, and what clubs they belong to. The bottom part of the character sheet is editable and is only visible to the player of that character, so that your opponents won't know if you're weak and low on dice, or what kind of weapons you're carrying (if any at all!).

Battleground: I have posted a poll thread in the Classroom Deathmatch game forum, to let you all vote on which Battleground the students will duke it out on. Potential players, readers, and anyone else who feels like voting can all vote. Note that even if you choose the island, city, or high school, I will be custom-making a new map, and different kinds of hazards, etc. So, no, you can't cheat by reading the book! :P

Here's the link to the poll: CLICK ME! I'M A LINK!

Posting Frequency: I think 2 or 3 posts every 2 weekdays sounds reasonable, more if you have the free time. On weekends, just post as you can. I say 2 or 3 posts in 2 days because you not only have to post for your own character, but you'll sometimes also have to post adjudications for your best friend(s) and rival(s). If you don't think you'll be able to keep up with your own character and also sometimes post in other players' threads, you probably shouldn't apply. Sorry! However, it won't be all that hard, really. Most of the time, it's just RPing your own characters as normal, and I expect we'll likely be posting once per day during normal RP. When a contest breaks out -- a fight or some other kind of challenge -- then play might slow down slightly as we wait for the best friend/rival to jump in for a post. I'll have a thread on the main page specifically for alerting best friends and rivals when they're needed, so it should flow nice and smoothly.

If a player doesn't post at all in two weekdays, I will NPC their student, and will try to have them act as I think the player would act. If the player doesn't post within a week, their student will permanently return to my NPC collection. If the player returns later on, they can still play, but they'll have to roll for a new student. Sound fair?

Application: If you'd like to apply for this game, please write up a short RP in the simple-present tense with more than 100 words. Use the character sheet for Yoko Endo, above. I will be judging applicants purely on the merits of the application RP alone, so put some thought into it! You can put Yoko into any kind of situation your imagination can dream up, but if you're stuck for ideas, below are a few sample scenes you can reply to. Please copy the scene intro in your post if you use one of the samples, or write your own scene intro if you design your own.

The cliffs overlooking the ocean at the outskirts of the Battleground, late at night. A cold drizzle falls from the sky. No one is in sight, but distant gunshots echo in the background.

An empty cafe on a quiet street. The lights are on and music is playing. A pistol lies on the counter, and there are low moans coming from the bathroom.

The old shed behind an empty house, late at night. The air is cold and wet and water drips from the shed's roof. There are strange and disturbing sounds coming from behind the locked door, and a feeling of dread lingers in the air.

The basement of an abandoned house, deep in the Battlefield. The basement is dark and lonely, and the wind is howling outside. Naoto is sitting in the middle of the floor trying to open a can of peaches she found. As Yoko enters, Naoto yells out in frustration and throws the can at the wall. She looks scared. A boy's body lies in a heap in the corner. It is too badly mutilated to tell who it is.

A grassy meadow. The dark forest looms a few hundred meters to the left. To the far right stands an abandoned home. The Students are crossing the field. A sniper watches them from a vantage point nearby. It's calm and peaceful, and the Students are oblivious to their danger. Suddenly, there is a gunshot!

Yes, I copied those scenes from the book. Lol....

Application Deadline: 12 noon, Sunday, September 20th, TOKYO TIME. Yes, my game runs on Tokyo time. Get in-character and figure out those time zones!

Oh yeah, here's a link to the game. Feel free to browse around and OOC chat in the Schoolbus while we're waiting for the game to start.

Game Link: Classroom Deathmatch