History Main / LotteryOfDoom

** You come across the town of Nipton where Caesar's Legion has recently held a lottery. Roughly half the town are enslaved. Most of the other half get ''[[CruelAndUnusualDeath crucified]].'' The second-prize winner gets his legs broken, with only one person getting the lucky ticket to walk away unharmed. [[AffablyEvil Vulpes Inculta]] explains that it was all a [[BatmanGambit test of character]]; he had paid the mayor to turn in both the NCR and Powder Ganger members that visited the town, and he was seeing if the townspeople had any redeeming value at all to the Legion by seeing if they'd rise up against him and his legionnaires after seeing what the prizes were as they worked their way up to the "Winner". [[spoiler:Except inspecting the town even further shows Vulpes was lying; you can see several Nipton residents fought back, but were immediately killed and the lottery continued anyway.]]

''[[VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas Who won the lottery?!]] [[TheStinger I DID!]]''

* ''Manga/{{Bokurano}}'': The kid who gets to pilot the giant robot gets selected at random. [[spoiler:Unfortunately, the robot runs on life force and the pilot dies after the battle's over.]] Kinda moot point with the lottery, since [[spoiler: all the pilots will get their turn. It's not a matter of who so much as when they will bite it]]. In the manga, Koyemshi says that [[spoiler:when his Earth went through the game]], there was a larger pool of pilots, and thus, any given pilot had a reasonable chance that their turn would not come up, which resulted in a fair amount of discord in the group.

* In ''Manga/IkigamiTheUltimateLimit'', future Japan has rebuilt its economy and education system around this one: every person is injected at childhood with nanomachines that have significant health benefits. However, for 1 in a 1000, the nanomachines are programmed to destroy the heart at a random time between before the age of 25... And you only get 24 hours of notice before that. The intention was to make every Japanese person live his life to the fullest knowing that every day really could be his last. [[spoiler: Handily enough, the lottery is also rigged so that people who annoy the government are more likely to end up with the killer nanomachines...]]

Also in the Whole Cake Island Arc [[spoiler: where one of the Four Emperors Charlotte Linlin aka Big Mom uses this as her means for anyone, whether a citizen of her country or a resourceful ally, that requests to leave her country. It is later revealed that not only the spinner would lose something (a limb or high-portions or their life span) but it would extend to anyone the spinner was close to, their crew or their country.]]

* In the graphic novel version of ''Podcast/ThrillingAdventureHour'', Banjo Bindlestiff and his fellow hobos are made "citizens for a day" of [[ShoutOut Jacksonville]] just in time for one of these. [[spoiler: Banjo manages to fast-talk the townsfolk into making stone soup instead; the police chief didn't like this idea until he learned that ''he'' would have been the lottery winner.]]

* In ''Fanfic/AlexandraQuick'', [[spoiler: every seven years, a pureblood child is chosen from a lottery of those who are too young to have a wand to be sacrificed as part of an ancient treaty.]] This did not go down well and was the major cause of the most significant uprising in the Wizarding World.

** Ditto with Fluttershy in ''Pattycakes''. [[spoiler: Granted, they probably get off easier by ONLY having to pretend to be Fluttershy's baby, but given the MindRape she put Rainbow Dash through, and considering the foalmula...]]
* In the ''WesternAnimation/KimPossible'' fanfic ''Fanfic/DeadManSwitch'', something called a "Dragon's Lottery" was used to [[spoiler: chose 15 teenage girls to be taken to Lorwardia to be beheaded]], as part of their annual tribute to the [[TheEmpire Lorwardian Empire]].

* ''Film/TheIsland''. The people apparently participate in a lottery, the winner of which is relocated to a paradise island. [[spoiler: Only the people are clones, the lottery's a sham, there is no island, and the winner is harvested for body parts.]] If this sounds familiar, know that ''Clonus'' came first and yes, there was a lawsuit.

* In Creator/PhilipJoseFarmer's ''Attitudes'', a gambler from Earth happens upon a group of non-human locals playing a game similar to roulette and convinces them to let him join in. Since his success as a gambler is the result of psychic powers, he does very well in the game [[spoiler: until the last spin, when his power is suddenly overwhelmed and one of the locals wins. He then witnesses the fate of the winner; it isn't pleasant.]]

* In [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Carnival_(short_story) "The Carnival"]], a regular [[AFeteWorseThanDeath fair]] is held well outside of town, run by Populace Control. The sixteen-year-old protagonist gets to attend through a lottery, and continues to be excited about the rides even after a worker dragging a large black garbage bag into a huge pit tells him "The odds are one in eight you'll make it kid". [[spoiler: This lasts right up to the point where he gets flung off the "Whirl-Away" and into the ground at over two hundred miles an hour while yelling [[BigNo "It isn't fair! They said one in eight!"]].]]

* In the ''Series/EerieIndiana'' episode "Mr. Chaney", the town uses a lottery to pick a "harvest king" every few years: Supposedly all that happens is that they're sent into the woods with Mr. Chaney as a guide, and if they see the "Eerie wolf", the town will have plentiful crops. Of course, every harvest king seems to mysteriously disappear (it's a running gag that they're all allegedly "in Spain"). [[spoiler: It turns out that Chaney unknowingly ''is'' the "Eerie wolf" - the town regularly sacrifices one of its own to Chaney in werewolf form, presumably so he won't run rampant]]. The lottery is apparently always fixed, and you can be picked to "win" whether you actually entered or not: In this case, the mayor had it rigged so Dash X would win, but Dash X in turn rigged it for Marshall.

* In the adventure game adaptation of ''VideoGame/IHaveNoMouthAndIMustScream'', Benny's scenario involves a village of cavemen who have to sacrifice one of their own to AM. The key to the good ending involves [[spoiler: Benny saving a mutant child from being sacrificed by offering to be killed in his place.]]

* In the first ''VideoGame/MarioParty'', Peach's Birthday Cake has the Flower Lottery, which determines whether players will visit Toad or Bowser whenever they reach the junction. Players are [[CashGate forced to pay ten coins]][[note]]the fee is waived if the player doesn't have enough coins[[/note]] to partake in the Flower Lottery, where they must pick from a group of four seeds. As a [[EvilMinion Goomba]] is running the lottery, he'll claim that the three "loser" seeds are the ones that send players to Toad, while the "winner" sends a player to Bowser. It's [[LuckBasedMission completely random]] as to which seed will be the "winner". The Goomba will only refresh the seeds once all four have been sold, meaning that if the "winner" is not picked last, the other seeds will invariably be safe. Likewise, if only the "winner" is left, [[FailureIsTheOnlyOption too bad for whoever's stuck with it]].

* ''Literature/TheWasteLands'' by Creator/StephenKing. The ruined town of Lud has [[CannedOrdersOverLoudspeaker speaker towers]] that play mind-searing music at random [[CargoCult actually a vocals-less rendition of]] Music/ZZTop's [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F89McWFENTs Velcro Fly]], and whenever it does, its residents hold a lottery to decide who to sacrifice to the 'ghosts' that are putting forth the horrible sound. Several times a day, somebody's name comes out of the hat and is set to dancing the jig at the end of a hangman's rope. Creator/ShirleyJackson's ''Literature/TheLottery'' is directly referenced.

* ''Literature/TheWasteLands'' by Creator/StephenKing. The ruined town of Lud has [[CannedOrdersOverLoudspeaker speaker towers]] that play mind-searing music at random [[CargoCult actually a vocals-less rendition of]] Music/ZZTop's [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F89McWFENTs Velcro Fly]], and whenever it does, its residents hold a lottery to decide who to sacrifice to the 'ghosts' that are putting forth the horrible sound. Several times a day, somebody's name comes out of the hat and is set to dancing the jig at the end of a hangman's rope. Creator/ShirleyJackson's ''Literature/TheLottery'' is directly referenced.

* Creator/StephenKing
** ''Film/StormOfTheCentury''. The parents who get the "winning" rune stone have to give their son up to a wizard/demon.
** ''Literature/TheWasteLands''. The ruined town of Lud has [[CannedOrdersOverLoudspeaker speaker towers]] that play mind-searing music at random [[CargoCult actually a vocals-less rendition of]] Music/ZZTop's [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F89McWFENTs Velcro Fly]], and whenever it does, its residents hold a lottery to decide who to sacrifice to the 'ghosts' that are putting forth the horrible sound. Several times a day, somebody's name comes out of the hat and is set to dancing the jig at the end of a hangman's rope. Creator/ShirleyJackson's ''Literature/TheLottery'' is directly referenced.

* ''Franchise/TheDarkTower'': The ruined town of Lud has [[CannedOrdersOverLoudspeaker speaker towers]] that play mind-searing music at random [[CargoCult actually a vocals-less rendition of]] Music/ZZTop's [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F89McWFENTs Velcro Fly]], and whenever it does, its residents hold a lottery to decide who to sacrifice to the 'ghosts' that are putting forth the horrible sound. Several times a day, somebody's name comes out of the hat and is set to dancing the jig at the end of a hangman's rope. ''Literature/TheLottery'' is directly referenced.

* "Literature/TheLottery" by Creator/ShirleyJackson is about a town that has a yearly lottery. The TwistEnding is that whoever wins the lottery gets [[spoiler:stoned to death as a sacrifice for the next harvest.]] Some have claimed it's allegorical of the draft. WordOfGod says, "It's just a story."

* Creator/StephenKing's ''Storm of the Century''. The parents who get the "winning" rune stone give their son up to a wizard/demon.

* ''Franchise/TheDarkTower'': The ruined town of Lud has speaker towers that play mind-searing music at random [[spoiler: actually a vocals-less rendition of ZZ Top's [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F89McWFENTs Velcro Fly]] ]], and whenever it does, its residents hold a lottery to decide who to sacrifice to the 'ghosts' that are putting forth the horrible sound. Several times a day, somebody's name comes out of the hat and is set to dancing the jig at the end of a hangman's rope.

* In ''Anime/YokaiWatch'' TheGrimReaper-esque beings hold a lottery where someone dies randomly. Jibanyan's owner Amy 'won' the lottery and was almost hit by a truck, however Jibanyan [[HeroicSacrifice shoved her out of the way]].

* In ''Fanfic/{{Cupcakes}}'', Pinkie Pie chooses her victims by lot. [[spoiler:Then she kills them and bakes them into the eponymous cupcakes.]]

* Taken UpToEleven in ''Franchise/TheDarkTower'' series. The ruined town of Lud has speaker towers that play mind-searing music at random [[spoiler: actually a vocals-less rendition of ZZ Top's [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F89McWFENTs Velcro Fly]] ]], and whenever it does, its residents hold a lottery to decide who to sacrifice to the 'ghosts' that are putting forth the horrible sound. Several times a day, somebody's name comes out of the hat and is set to dancing the jig at the end of a hangman's rope.

* ''Film/{{Dragonslayer}}'': To appease a dragon, all of the virginal women in a small kingdom must take part in a twice-yearly lottery: the "winner" is [[ChainedToARock chained up outside the dragon's lair as a meal]]. Wealthy families are able to bribe the king to leave out their daughter's names. Virginity is a requirement, but in those times, being unmarried and not a virgin was terribly shameful, so...

----

* In the ''TabletopGame/{{Ravenloft}}'' campaign, Barok Urik von Kharkov, the Darklord of Valachan, chooses his wives this way; every year, a lottery is held in one of Valachan's four towns. It doesn't ''seem'' so bad until you start to contemplate why he needs a replacement every year. (Kharkov is a vampire, and while he has made an honest attempt to keep at least ''some'' of them from dying from his feedings, they never last more than a month or so. The common excuse is that they died from white fever, a disease that Kharkov uses as a scapegoat to explain ''any'' deaths from him or his vampire servants, which his subjects are either too gullible to disbelieve or too afraid of him to deny.)

-> ''"Hi, everybody. This is Mickey Cantor reminding all the fans in the upper deck to check their ticket stub against the results of our population control lottery after the game tonight. Hey, good luck, everybody. We hope we see you tomorrow."''
-->-- '''Mickey Cantor,''' ''VideoGame/MondayNightCombat''

** The amazing thing is that Josephus, an obsessively image-conscious writer who did everything he could to make himself look good, apparently didn't realize how bad a light this story put him in.
*** According to Josephus, and there is archeological evidence to support him, the [[BadassIsraeli zealots under siege by the Romans at Masada]] picked lots to decide who would be in charge of killing the rest of the men after the men had killed their families, and then which of those men would have to kill his fellows before committing suicide.

* ''Film/{{Clonus}}'': The people apparently participate in a lottery, the winner of which is relocated to America. [[spoiler:Only the people are clones, the lottery's a sham, they don't go to America, and the winner is harvested for body parts.]] If this sounds familiar, know that ''Clonus'' came first and yes, there was a lawsuit.

* ''Film/TheIsland''. The people apparently participate in a lottery, the winner of which is relocated to a paradise island. [[spoiler: Only the people are clones, the lottery's a sham, there is no island, and the winner is harvested for body parts.]]

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Squidbillies}}'' had the Tricky Two Jackpot. The winner gets torn in half by monster trucks. [[spoiler:Granny wins, but the Monster Trucks are incapable of tearing her in half, Granny stretching for hours as the trucks try. During this, Dan Halen mentions Literature/TheLottery anbd even reads it to the crowd.]]

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Squidbillies}}'' had the Tricky Two Jackpot. The winner gets torn in half by monster trucks.

Well, you wouldn't want to, if it was one of ''these'' lotteries. The Lottery of Doom is a lottery where the prize is something ''really'' bad happening to the "winner," usually death. The reason for the Lottery of Doom varies, ranging from an attempt to keep the population down, appeasing a dragon, wrathful god or MonsterOfTheWeek, [[GotVolunteered select a "volunteer"]] for some [[WhoWillBellTheCat dangerous or outright lethal task that needs to be done]] or just to be creepy. Sometimes the lottery players know that it's a Lottery of Doom, sometimes they don't. On occasion there's a pretty significant prize alongside the horrible doom, or at least you will get pleasant accommodations until the fatal moment, but you really shouldn't get too comfortable...

* In ''Manga/IkigamiTheUltimateLimit'', future Japan has rebuilt it's economy and education system around this one: every person is injected at childhood with nanomachines that have significant health benefits. However, for 1 in a 1000, the nanomachines are programmed to destroy the heart at a random time between before the age of 25... And you only get 24 hours of notice before that. The intention was to make every Japanese person live his life to the fullest knowing that every day really could be his last. [[spoiler: Handily enough, the lottery is also rigged so that people who annoy the government are more likely to end up with the killer nanomachines...]]
* Played for laughs in ''Manga/OnePiece'' whenever Luffy wants to venture to a ominous looking island. The crew draw straws to pick who'll go with him. Usopp, Chopper and Nami, being the weaker and less brave members, always dread this. This was particularly driven home when they first met Brook on his broken ghost ship. They drew lots for two to follow Luffy onto the ship. To her dismay, Nami was one of the "winners" (Sanji was the other), and she immediately complained, even though ''just minutes ago'', she, Usopp, and Chopper begged Zoro to use the straws when they learned that the alternative was being left alone aboard the ''Thousand Sunny'' while ''everyone else'' went with Luffy to the ghost ship.\\

* The 1950's SpaceOpera ''Rick Random: Space Detective''. Lampshaded and averted in the episode "Kidnappers from Mars!" in which SpacePirates are caught in a [[SpaceX space]] [[SpaceIsAnOcean tide]] with the only hope of escape being the [[ColdEquation two-man space shuttle]]. After a pause to consider the implications, everyone starts blazing away at each other.
-->An escape bid -- but only ''for two!'' For a tense minute, the eight people in the doomed space ship watched one another in cautious silence. There would be no lottery of ''luck!''

* In the graphic novel version of ''Podcast/ThrillingAdventureHour'', Banjo Bindlestiff and his fellow hobos are made "citizens for a day" of [[ShoutOut Jacksonville]] just in time for one of these. [[spoiler: Banjo manages to fast talk the townsfolk into making stone soup instead; the police chief didn't like this idea until he learned that ''he'' would have been the lottery winner.]]
* In Peter Milligan's relaunched ''ComicBook/XForce[=/=]ComicBook/XStatix'', Orphan, Anarchist and U-Go Girl are trapped in a spacecraft with only a two-person escape pod. They roll dice to determine who gets to use the pod.

* In ''Fanfic/AlexandraQuick'', [[spoiler: every seven years, a pureblood child is chosen from a lottery of those who are too young to have a wand to be sacrificed as part of an ancient treaty.]] This did not go down well, and was the major cause of the most significant uprising in the Wizarding World.

* ''Film/{{Dragonslayer}}'': To appease a dragon, all of the virginal women in a small kingdom must take part in a twice-yearly lottery: the "winner" is [[ChainedToARock chained up outside the dragon's lair as a meal]]. Wealthy families are able to bribe the king to leave out their daughter's names. Virginity is a requirement, but in those times, being unmarried and not virgin was terribly shameful, so...

* In ''The Goblin Tower'' (and sequels) by Creator/LSpragueDeCamp, the king of Xylar is beheaded every five years and his head thrown to the spectators. Whoever catches it is the new king. The protagonist is Jorian, who happened to be passing through Xylar when someone threw a head at him; against the odds he escapes the universes' cushiest death row, and is pursued by his subjects ever after.

* Creator/StephenKing's ''Storm of the Century''. The parents who gets the "winning" rune stone give their son up to a wizard/demon.

* The Creator/AndreNorton novel ''Literature/TheZeroStone''. Gem dealer Vondar Ustle and his apprentice Murdoc Jern are in a bar on an alien planet. A group of priests from the local religion enter, set up a wheel and start it spinning. Jern knows that whoever the wheel is pointing at when it stops must be sacrificed to the local deity. The wheel ends up pointing between Ustle and Jern: Ustle is quickly killed by the fearful locals, and Jern barely escapes with his life.

* In ''Series/AgentsOfSHIELD'' it is revealed that Hydra was initially founded to bring back to Earth the powerful Inhuman Hive, who survives by consuming normal humans, and for centuries members of at least one faction of it ceremonially drew stones out of a bag to decide on a "traveller" who goes through the portal to the planet Hive is on. This is considered an honor and it's hinted not all the people participating even know what's on the other side of the portal, but they do know that no-one who goes through the portal ever returns. Although at one point one character rigs the stones to keep himself from ever being chosen (all the stones are supposed to be perfectly smooth, but by switching the deadly white stone with one that has a small but noticeable notch on it, one can ensure that he doesn't pick it so long as he doesn't draw last), and at another Hydra arranges for some astronauts to be sent through the portal instead.

* In the ''Series/EerieIndiana'' episode "Mr. Chaney", the town uses a lottery to pick a "harvest king" every few years: Supposedly all that happens is that they're sent into the woods with Mr. Chaney as a guide, and if they see the "Eerie wolf", the town will have plentiful crops. Of course, every harvest king seems to mysteriously disappear (it's a running gag that they're all allegedly "in Spain"). [[spoiler: It turns out that Chaney unknowingly ''is'' the "Eerie wolf" - the town regularly sacrifices one of it's own to Chaney in werewolf form, presumably so he won't run rampant]]. The lottery is apparently always fixed, and you can be picked to "win" whether you actually entered or not: In this case, the mayor had it rigged so Dash X would win, but Dash X in turn rigged it for Marshall.

* In the ''TabletopGame/{{Ravenloft}}'' campaign, Barok Urik von Kharkov, the Darklord of Valachan, chooses his wives this way; every year, a lottery is held in one of Valachan's four towns. It doesn't ''seem'' so bad, until you start to contemplate why he needs a replacement every year. (Kharkov is a vampire, and while he has made an honest attempt to keep at least ''some'' of them from dying from his feedings, they never last more than a month or so. The common excuse is that they died from white fever, a disease that Kharkov uses as a scapegoat to explain ''any'' deaths from him or his vampire servants, which his subjects are either too gullible to disbelieve or too afraid of him to deny.)

* In the InteractiveFiction game ''VideoGame/{{Suspended}}'', your character was selected in a planet-wide lottery to be buried deep undeground in hibernation for 500 years while your subconscious mind regulates the planet's computers. At the beginning of the game, you've been woken up because things are going haywire. Good luck fixing things with your barely-functional robots before you get terminally disconnected.

** There is actually a maths puzzle similar to this (Josephus' Permutation; featured in ''VideoGame/ProfessorLayton''). A given number of people get in a circle, and starting at a specified person and for a given N, every Nth person is killed and removed from the circle until only 1 remains. The puzzle is to figure out who the survivor is. [[spoiler:Whoever the count starts on will be the survivor.]]

* In ''Fanfic/{{Cupcakes}}'', Pinkie Pie chooses her victims by lot. [[spoiler: Then she kills them and bakes them into the eponymous cupcakes.]]