FAQ

[modokuma]

Frequently Asked Questions: The Despair Edition

Just What Is This Place?

Welcome to Despair High! An alternate universe flavored, Danganronpa-themed roleplaying game hosted on Dreamwidth! For those of you familiar with the term, Despair High is similar to the popular "mafia" games that all you kooky kids are into, in that there's murder, betrayal, and trials. However, we here at Despair High follow the format of the actual Danganronpa games themselves rather than any sort of typical "mafia" styled gameplay.

Could you explain how it works in greater detail?

But of course! In Despair High, characters apped are treated as though they always lived in this universe. This is because...they actually have! Hence the mention of "alternate universe" or "AU" for short. While characters can have back-stories in this universe similar to their canon one, bear in mind that they will not be exactly the same. For starters, all characters must be high-school aged. So you want to bring in someone who's an old fart in canon? Great! They're bratty little teenager here. Also totally human with human experiences. We're a bit lenient with this one as Danganronpa's pretty whacky, but there are limits. No Super High-School Level Wrestlers throwing steamrollers around. Okay?

At any rate. Danganronpa is a murder mystery-themed video game. Characters are locked inside a school with a very unusual stipulation for escape. In order to leave the school, a student must graduate. How do you graduate? Good question. Murder. Or, to be more specific, the murder of a fellow classmate that you successfully get away with. Sound easy?

It's not.

After each murder occurs, there will be a period of investigation with which characters are free to explore the school in the effort to find clues that will pin who's innocent and who's the culprit. Once your beloved headmaster gets tired of waiting, he'll call everyone down for a class trial. This trial is used to determine who the culprit is via arguments, discussion, and interviewing. Once everyone's happy with the choices made, a vote will begin. If the majority votes correctly, everyone but the culprit will live. However, if they guess wrong...the trial will restart to a point from before the decision is made and the mods (via the every so generous Monokuma) will drop a clue. Failure to guess after this restart will lead to a BAD END in which everyone but the murderer is executed.

Wait. What was that about execution?

Oh boy. I'm so glad you asked. Once a culprit has been found (or a character voted incorrectly after the first warning has been announced publicly, or when a character has broken the rules) an execution will be held! Said execution will be hand-tailored to maximize the amount of despair the victim will feel! Don't worry, they're usually pretty quick! After all, can't have the students take too much time off.

...are you saying the other students are forced to watch?

Yep! This is to make an example of out of the poor sap or to show them just what exactly they were voting for!

That's terrible!

You're too kind.

At least the characters come back to life at the end...right?

Nope! People die when they are killed in this universe. If your character dies in this universe, they're really dead. For real.

Won't that effect the game's canon?

It will not. For you see, every round of Despair High takes place in a separate universe from the last. This means that there will be no continuity between rounds. Each round will share nothing in common from the last, save for the similar setting (hope's peak, unless we decide to change that somewhere later down the line) and other DR-related things such as titles, locations, etc.

Also worthy of note, the events of...literally every single Danganronpa game are non-canon. So basically, the Most Despair-Inducing Incident in the History of Mankind never existed. Or at least not the way we know it. Probably.

Wow...just...wow. That sounds incredibly dark and depressing... So who can I app?

Any character from a published canon, providing they have some semblance of sentience, personality, and a character design. Being IC is important, but we're more lenient on characters that lack a lot of screen time or personality for whatever reasons, or whose experiences make up a large part of who they are and thus cause them to differ from their canon counterparts. OCs are not allowed at this time, but will likely be allowed during a later round. Please do not app from a canon that is not out yet in English, unless there is no planned release for the canon overseas.

All Danganronpa characters will be allowed as they never attended Hope's Peak.

Could you go into a bit more detail about gameplay? I'm not sure I get it.

But of course! Like most DR themed games, deaths take place weekly, skipping the first week so all you kooky kids can get to know each other. After that, a murder will take place on Friday with an investigation following. OOC the investigation will end on Saturday and the trial will begin, ending on Sunday. ICly, all this will be wrapped up on the day of the murder--Friday.

Death rolls will be done a week in advance so you can have plenty of time to communicate with your would-be murderer or victim. Keep in mind the mod team has to give the go-ahead with the plan before anything is played out, to make sure the case is solvable.

Aside from that, there's obvious CR building, with a bonus reward! At the end of the week, you can submit links to threads containing comments of ten or more from your character and ten or more from another person's character (not including in-game NPCs) in order to receive a Monomono Coin for each! Monomono Coins can be used in-game at the Monomono Machine to receive fabulous prizes!

Or underwear. But isn't that a prize in and of itself?

So what about Super High-School Level Despair? Is Junko still their leader? Do they even exist?

Curious students are always appreciated, but let's not be hasty. I will say that it is very likely SHSL Despair exists in some form and will continue to exist despite the differences in universes that will occur during each round, but that's all.

Oh come on! You've gotta give more than that!

Upupupu! I don't gotta give you anything, pally! Join and find out for yourself!