AKUDAMAX: Murdergame Interest Check

[akudamods]

Murdergames - they're all the rage! The temptation of the motive, leading to a clash between the innocent and the guilty... trust tested daily by each of the unwilling participants.

But what if your character found themselves in a world where their guilty verdict was decided on arrival? Dystopian authorities judging them based on some crime in their past, then the killing game made a televised spectacle for all the citizens under state control. Would they remain innocent and righteous above it all? Or would they, perhaps, raise some hell and mayhem?

AKUDAMAX is planned to be a murder game based on the Cyberpunk anime Akudama Drive (no previous canon knowledge required to play!) Set in a futuristic, crime-ridden version of Kansai, Japan, characters will join the feared ranks of the Akudama, a special classification of people labeled criminals who often have Suicide Squad supervillain-style larger than life abilities, and live among the general populace who are, shall we say, easily influenced.

Game Features

Scapegoat-style Murder Mysteries! This will be a short-term game in the murdergame genre, planned to run from 5-7 weeks with a cast size of 15-25 characters, depending on the level of interest!

Criminal Record Gimmick! AKUDAMAX will have a theme of characters who are considered criminals, be they actual thieves and murderers or the wrongfully accused.

POWER ON!!! We will be running this game with MINIMAL to NO nerfing on the character's powers and abilities, as well as allowing items from the get-go! Play your characters to their MAX! (By the way, characters who are completely normal may be given a cool gift to help them stand toe to toe!)

Variable endings! It is our intention for the ending to go in many possible directions based on how characters react to the setting... or perhaps, how it reacts to them! You damn Akudama!

And more! Our FAQ is here to show off all these features and provide more details about character/power eligibility!

Interested in joining?

Then thank you very much! Please fill out this form to help us plan for the future of the game. There are a few topics we'd like to hear an opinion on, such as the ideal time frame to run our game - we are considering a start date between July and September, and would love to hear your feedback. To create a welcoming environment for newcomers to the murdergame genre, we are also considering making a small portion of reserve slots that grant priority to those who have never played in one before.

Finally, AKUDAMAX is brought to you by Lenga crabgirl, Des deathdesu, and Nick creatorofathousanduniverses! Follow us at akudamax for updates!

EDIT: Thank you so much for all the interest! We have decided to start the game in August, with reserves August 7th and starting date August 14th. In light of this, the "when do you want to play?" part of the form has been removed See our FAQ for details. Everyone is still welcome to answer this interest post to share your character choices and ask any questions.

<b>Name:</b> Who is making this comment! <B>Are you a new murdergame player?</b> Yes, no, or feel free to explain. <b>Character Considerations:</b> What dastardly criminal would you app to this game? <B>Questions:</b> Even just things you'd be looking forward to, like gunfights andholographic art galleries, are welcome!

Comments

[fullswingkiss]

Name: Luna AppleBlossoms
Are you a new murdergame player? Nope, you all know me from the rodeo!
Character Considerations: Probably Adam SK8, skateboarding criminal of various skateboarding crimes and then some political corruption but the latter SURELY doesn't matter
When do you want to play? August or September, I'll need a recovery period after Faentasy or I'll DIE.
Questions:

When your two exes roll up.

[albelnox]

Name: Luminitrium
Are you a new murdergame player? Nah
Character Considerations: Albel Nox (SO3), Prince Lyon (Fire Emblem: Sacred Stones), Richard (Tales of Graces), WWX (MDZS), Siegfried (GBF), Rafiel (Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn), Yuber (Suikoden III), Kratos Aurion (ToS), Crow Armbrust (Trails of Cold Steel series)
When do you want to play? Preferably September due to commitments.
Questions: N/A

[crackedreflection]

Name: Doom, @ TheDoomkitten
Are you a new murdergame player? Right now I'm completely fresh, however I'm probably apping to WCB and maybe Faentasy if the schedule lines up.
Character Considerations: My primary consideration is MT, later known as Lake, from Season 2 of Infinity Train. Crimes include "not staying an obedient reflection to her prime counterpart" and maybe "straight up graphically murdering a cop in what is hypothetically a children's show" depending on her canon point. I'm also considering: Tyzias Entykk from Hiveswap and its associated Friendsims, whose felonies mainly include thoughtcrimes against the regime that rules her planet, and Kyrie Ushiromiya depending on if I finish Umineko: WHEN THEY CRY in time for this or Faentasy, whose crimes include some massively shady business deals and [REDACTED].
When do you want to play? September, so that it won't conflict with WCB.
Questions: please at some point during the game let me know if Big Brother and Little Sister are okay,,,

[nothingtomourn]

Name: Dani / danidanidanica
Are you a new murdergame player? Nope
Character Considerations: THE LACK OF AGE CAP AND POWERS ON MAKES MY HEART SAY Yuta Takizawa from Alive: The Final Evolution because sometimes you're 10 and also you have to raid a US military base? It's fine. Don't worry about it. Plus powers are cool and I have no idea when or where else I'd get to play with that. Otherwise, idk, it's probably going to be someone from Alive or Spiral on accounts of being the most full of crime characters. Sorawo Kamikoshi from Otherside Picnic is an option unless I end up tossing her somewhere before this has a chance to happen.
When do you want to play? September or later please!
Questions: None right now!

[curriculumachine]

Name: Achsah
Are you a new murdergame player? Yes. o/ At this point anyway.
Character Considerations: I only have one currently that fits the crime parameters well, so Akira from Togainu no Chi.
When do you want to play? Slight preference for summer, July or August
Questions: N/A

[macrophages]

Name: Ginshi
Are you a new murdergame player? Nope
Character Considerations: Overhaul from MHA is the strongest consideration rn
When do you want to play? Please have mercy I barely know what month I’m in now.
Questions: How does Nick manage all the modding? Not that I’m complaining about his beautiful contributions towards everyone’s desire to murder.

[dawnsung]

Name: Limon, a citrus and sometimes a basil plant or just 2 letters
Are you a new murdergame player? 👴
Character Considerations: Its probably 90% Shigaraki Tomura from MHA, but other considerations if I tilt off the face of the earth when the series ends:

Eiji Biwasaka, Caligula Effect: Overdose ✨
Bondrewd: Made In Abyss because Fyre looked at me
9s: Nier Automata

When do you want to play? Please have mercy on me even if Nick is a superhero, so not July. Would prefer late August if I had to pick.
Questions: Roles?

[akudamods]

No roles are planned right now. If this changes in the future it will be noted.

[foolproofs]

Name: A wild Fyre
Are you a new murdergame player? Nopeee
Character Considerations: This is an ambush my head is still spinning all I have so far is Suigetsu (or other) from Naruto
When do you want to play? For me probably sometime in the summer would be better? I'm looking at possible fall games otherwise.
Questions: Car chases? Inexplicable high tech casinos?? Murder aboard the mag-lev train?? Man idk what the setting is like but I'm looking forward to cyberpunk things always. ☆

[akudamods]

THERE IS A MAG-LEV TRAIN IN CANON AND ITS GREAT

[burgerprince]

Name: Jeff
Are you a new murdergame player? No but it has been literal years
Character Considerations: Contrary to the account I'm using: Archie Andrews from Riverdale. Or Gaige from Borderlands 2. Who knows man.
When do you want to play? Absolutely no preference, time means nothing anymore
Questions:

[overworker]

Name: Michi
Are you a new murdergame player? Nope!
Character Considerations: I'm not certain but considering Maki Harukawa (DRv3), Krysha Pendleton (Yx IX) or Haru Okumura (P5) right now off the top of my head
When do you want to play? September gets a vote for me because birthmonth rights, and it gives tourist season at work some time to Chill but I'm flexible
Questions: I can't think of any right now

[intimations]

Name: Fishy (fishytasty)
Are you a new murdergame player? I'm always a newbie in my heart because every game is a fresh new experience...! ...That is to say, I'm one of those people who reminisces about all the other murdergames I've been in, so this is just a longwinded way of saying no.
Character Considerations: Right now, I'm leaning heavily towards Belial or Beelzebub from Granblue Fantasy, but I'm liable to change my mind because I'm indecisive capricious!!
When do you want to play? August, probably!
Questions: Are character powers going to be documented anywhere (e.g. in the profiles)?

[akudamods]

Powers will definitely be in the profiles in some shape or form!

[your_best_friend]

Name: Goldude
Are you a new murdergame player? Yes. I've heard about them and loosely followed some, but never played in one.
Character Considerations: Asriel Flowey the Flower
When do you want to play? No preference
Questions: How will SAVING and LOADING work for Flowey?

[akudamods]

Hi there! Bad news: SAVE/LOAD definitely falls under the umbrella of powers we are going to nerf since it is even more powerful than seeing the future. Good news: we totally want to work with you! Let us know now or when you app what aspects you want to try and preserve so we can come up with something fair and fun.

[twirlicue]

Name: Eric
Are you a new murdergame player? Nope
Character Considerations: Possibly Mileena Weiss from Tales of the Rays as long as I'm canon reviewing this fucking beast anyway........... or just Rideaux again, you know my life
When do you want to play? I would sayyyyy August probably? Depends on what we end up going with for Fourevolution, we'd been looking at autumn for that and I'm definitely not doing two things at once!! So this is probably pretty tentative for me regardless.
Questions: actually j/k here's a question, what would be your stance on apping a character from a pre-canon point on their timeline, like if I were HYPOTHETICALLY looking at kid/teenage Rideaux... like, there's enough of a canon summary of his life + stuff like recordings from Julius back then where he references him and one little short story thing in a guidebook, so between that stuff and his current personality you can pretty much tell what he would have been like and what he was doing at the time, but

[akudamods]

Thank you for your question! Playing Rideaux before the events of Xillia is indeed a possibility, although we'd like to request you use a point in the short story as the canon point.

[preventedmurder]

Name: Nerdo
Are you a new murdergame player? No. Some combination of you guys have run like 75% of the ones I've been in I think?
Character Considerations: I've got this tabletop OC here who did a lot of what could be uncharitably be described as treason and terrorism. I might make some minor edits here since she's in the confusing situation of being a tabletop OC based on a canon, but really, the only connections are terminology and aesthetics. She's also a precognitive but her visions are vague and plot dependent farther out than about five seconds anyway. I also have a murderwitch, obviously, but I've gotten to do most of what I wanted with her in previous games and she's...really hard to powerscale. I'm lacking in crooks I've played any time in the last like six years.
When do you want to play? I'm indifferent between these options because I never plan things more than like a month out anyway.
Questions: I implied several in my Character Considerations and honestly I just want to apologize for rambling so much in an interest check.

[akudamods]

We do think a tabletop based on a specific canon would count as a fandom OC, but editing the canon parts out would be ok! Vague precognition is something we could likely work with as well. Just let us know.

[priori]

Name: dee
Are you a new murdergame player? no
Character Considerations: fishy said belial so lucilius?? lucilius
When do you want to play? august
Questions: lucilius is immortal or something and gets resurrected by having his head stitched onto someone else's body. except... that character is also applicable. would you prefer if he gets shoved into his original body/properly resurrected or keeps the other one or is it dealer's choice!!

ive got nothing have this

[intimations]

....oh my god that meme

the struggle with math is real

[guffawsungraciously]

Name: Ran
Are you a new murdergame player? Nope!
Character Considerations: I guess if all else fails there's Jasper, though I have Other Ideas. Maybe Malroth from DQB2? He'd be fun.
When do you want to play? September is probably best!
Questions: Shit, I'm excited for holographic art galleries! I'd rather have those than the flying cars honestly.

[alkahest]

Name: Shay (antiquating)
Are you a new murdergame player? Nah, though I'm probably less experienced than several people
Character Considerations: TBH I'm...not sure yet. As the mods and players who know me know, I play only characters who have done nothing wrong in their entire lives...

lmao (no but really I do have a lot of edge case characters who walk a thin line between morally justifiable and felon and I feel like I should take advantage of that. I'm open to requests or suggestions as I always aim to please.)

Maria from Symphogear went to jail for terrorism that one time but she got better, so maybe her? Or Marcille Dungeon Meshi for the...like...necromancy.
When do you want to play? September or August would probably work for me; I have a couple of big-ticket items on the schedule throughout the year - like a move and another game that needs running at some point - that I might need to Matrix-dodge around, but it should be fine.
Questions: I feel personally called out by the mods on matters of precognition in the FAQ :/ I dunno why :\

Anyway I've never done powers-on before, so I'm looking forward to seeing how that plays out in particular!

[akudamods]

Whaaaat? We would never! Probably. :3c

[thefifthchild]

Name: Kai or Cass is fine
Are you a new murdergame player? Yeah. I'm relatively new to Dreamwidth RP in general but I'd really like to play in a murdergame.
Character Considerations: Probably Damian Wayne from Batman Comics. He's the fifth Robin, and the biological son of Bruce Wayne and Talia Al-Ghul. Before becoming Robin he was a child soldier in the league of assassins and during that time his crimes were like. Many, many murders, the intentional extinction of an endangered species of mythical creatures, a lot of torture, terrorism, treason, attempted fratricide. The works. He was nine at the time.
When do you want to play? Any time is fine! I'm not busy.
Questions: None at the moment!

[conways_retribution]

Name: Memento Mori, myselfamhell
Are you a new murdergame player? I've played a murdergame once before, and I'm excited to play again.
Character Considerations: Jake Conway from Ride to Hell: Retribution (1%). Because I am capable of doing so and because every serious game needs a shitpost source.
When do you want to play? Whenever. I am always down to play.
Questions: Do you think God stays in Heaven because he too lives in fear of what he's created?

[dragonkoiquest]

Name: Victor

Are you a new murdergame player? Yes

Character Considerations: Ichiban Kasuga from Yakuza: Like a Dragon

When do you want to play? August

Questions: Do you accept people who use Discord?

[herusmachina]

Name: Morgane
Are you a new murdergame player? Yes! This would be my first murdergame.
Character Considerations: Karl Heisenberg
When do you want to play? August/September!
Questions: None that come to mind!

[badgal]

Name: Nix
Are you a new murdergame player? Nope.
Character Considerations: It's either going to be someone from the Tsukiblood franchise (Satsuki Yumizuka, Shiki Nanaya) or Warhammer 40,000 (Garviel Loken, Lucius the Eternal). Very different vibes, and yet...
When do you want to play? August/September
Questions: nope this is just a half-assed expression of intent

[improbablenotimpossible]

Name: Shini
Are you a new murdergame player? Nope, had played
Character Considerations: Sherlock Holmes - Fate
When do you want to play? July and August works best for me
Questions: Showing more interest here, no questions as of now.

[nor_iron_bars]

Name: Echo (EchoDoctor)
Are you a new murdergame player? I participated in a single two-week-long mini murdergame once, no further experience.
Character Considerations: My trashy crimegirl OC, Jailbreak. That's her up there in the icon, and I promise that she's even more obnoxious than she looks. Or, in a complete 180 of personality, Miss "no one has proven I eat people but everyone's pretty sure I do" Muffet from Undertale.
When do you want to play? I'd prefer September.
Questions: I have a lot of questions about what the city's like and how it works, but I feel like they're the sort of thing we're getting answers to as the game unfolds, so I don't want to ask for spoilers.

[akudamods]

Hi! We don't actually think this constitutes much of a spoiler considering we are basing the city setting pretty directly on the anime this murdergame's based on. Here's a few details of note.

- Geographically it takes place in the Kansai region of Japan, but a lot has changed because it was bombed to practically nothing and then rebuilt (and transformed into a "controlled society") by its neighbors in Kanto.

- No one is able to leave Kansai and the citizens seem to be barely even aware of parts of Japan outside of Kansai. They also have never heard of space travel.

- It's also a bit homogenized in ways that would mostly be noticeable to Japanese characters. For example in the real world, Kansai is known for having a certain accent, but none of the characters in the current Kansai have it.

- Citizens are regularly fed propaganda by an 'educational program' featuring cartoon mascots, Bunny and Shark. Any things they say are basically never questioned. Their main agenda is getting people to idealize and worship Kanto, but on occasion they also provide breaking news such as Akudama sightings.

- Kanto worship is expressed in a lot of ways, but one way is praying to the Shinkansen (a famous bullet train) that travels from Kansai to Kanto, although very few people are allowed to actually ride it.

- A rigid police state is enforced throughout the city, mostly by way of robots.

- Because of the police state, the citizens are very, VERY used to seeing public executions. It was a whole spectacle that people attended for fun. As of the current game's timeline this has become a little more controversial, but hasn't gone away completely.

- That said, all of the main Akudama characters in canon tend to run amok with little consequences for it, likely because they are skilled enough to avoid or defeat the robots entirely. Maintaining this spirit is one of the reasons we have decided to make this a powers-on game.

Feel free to ask any more questions you have, or if you're curious enough, watch Akudama Drive!

[curmemini]

Name: Orion (hotpants)
Are you a new murdergame player? Brand new! Yes!
Character Considerations: I'm considering Owen or Mithra from Mahoutsukai no Yakusoku/Mahoyaku. They have done... so much murder.
When do you want to play? I can't do anything until after July 25th, but anything after that is groovy! I would have to miss a single weekend (the first weekend in Sept) for a convention I staff for.
Questions: Uhhh... So there are some weird wizard power mechanics. Owen can't die because he hid his soul away somewhere so his body can be destroyed over and over but he just... comes back! So that's a thing. Both he and Mithra have weird afflictions caused by the moon in their world that might not be a thing if they're away from that moon... I'd like to keep those, but eh! Owen's is that he regresses to a childlike state that doesn't remember what his normal self is/was doing, and he's just kinda psycho in that form, turns out... Mithra's though is that he cannot sleep. Like at all, without magical intervention from one specific person. Mithra has teleportation magic via doors but I would limit that to the area of the game obv.

[akudamods]

- The current game schedule has been posted in our FAQ, with gameplay starting on August 14th. An absence September 3rd-5th should totally be acceptable.
- We have also edited the FAQ again just now to answer the question "My character is hard to kill! How will that work in a murdergame?" It seems that this is the pertinent section for Owen: "If your character can be killed but only in canon-specific circumstances, this will be nullified. God Tier characters from Homestuck are resuscitated in relation to the status on a clock; they will be out of range of this clock." So with the hidden soul in canon being the only cause of his recovery, without other magical healing, during the game his body would just be destroyed and stay that way.
- About the moon. Spoilers for Akudama Drive: In this version of Earth, the moon has actually exploded, though this is not initially known because a holographic moon is being projected up there. Surprise! As such we would like your opinion on how the character would react in such a "unique" lunar state. Do you think the holographic moon would suffice for the psychological aspects here, or does it have to be Genuine Moonlight? It is worth noting that the exploded fragments of the moon are still hanging around and they do glow, though that can only be seen from outside the area characters would be trapped in.