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Roleplay / Fifteen Strangers

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15 Strangers is a murdergame in the same weekly format of Trustfell or Dangan Roleplay, though in this case the game is intended to be much shorter than the average murdergame. So far, there have been six rounds of play.

The premise is that 15 people wake up in another place entirely. Each person is given a title and a power and has any previously existing powers are taken away. There is no means of escape except to commit murder and not get caught.

The first round began on May 15, 2017, while the second round began on November 25th, 2017. The third round began July 15th, 2018, and the fourth began on April 21st, 2019. The fifth round began July 15, 2019. The sixth round began January 26, 2020.

Currently, an official seventh round has been announced with a start date of June 12th, 2023...

This game in general provides examples of:

  • All or Nothing: The characters have to figure out who the culprit is and vote for them or face mass execution instead.
  • Always Murder: Pretty much a genre staple. Obviously no one is going to die for more petty crimes, but even accidental death or self-defense is still murder.
  • Amateur Sleuth: So far, all of Round 1 and most of Round 2 qualify, as while some characters have investigative experience, only one has been a proper, professional detective.
  • And Your Reward Is Edible: Some of the regains are food items, with several acting as clues to the setting of each respective round thus far.
  • Arc Number: The number 15, of course, as there are always 15 Strangers.
  • Color Motif: A meta example, as the community's various HTML colors change with each round to reflect an important aspect within the round.
    • Round 1 was gold and grey, reflecting the architectural color scheme of the Dwemer, who had somehow built the Depths long before the Round began.
    • Round 2 was pink, red, orchid and green, associated with the Masterminds of the round: pink for Kana, red for Yotsuyu, orchid for Japhet and green for Seven.
    • Round 3 was red for Marie and the Red Army.
    • Round 4 was green again, for Maka's eyes.
    • Round 5 is a very bright purple-pink color, for irrigo, the color of forgetfulness.
    • Round 6 has black. Nothingness. Void. Ending.
    • Round 7 seems to have purple and yellow accents, for reasons unknown.
  • Crossover: So far, each round of the game has inserted the characters into a premise based on another existing canon.
  • Cruelty Is the Only Option: Even in the case of a Sympathetic Murderer, characters in Rounds 1 and 2 still had to vote to have them executed. They could abstain from voting, but if no majority was reached, they would all die and the murderer would get off scot free. Starting in Round 3, the characters' only options besides voting to execute the culprit are Heroic Sacrifice and voting for an innocent to die.
  • Discard and Draw: Anyone with canon powers loses access to them. Also at the end of round 3, the group loses their powers after growing back to normal size.
  • Dwindling Party: A genre staple; as the game goes on the number of characters in it grows smaller.
  • Laser-Guided Amnesia: The characters all have lost memories. Though unlike most other games, they don't have to forget their actual canon point and can forget things from before even their presumed canon point if the player opts to have them think they are from another canon point.
    • And in the case of Round 1, the NPC watching over them also has amnesia .
    • Fake Memories: Round 4 changes this to characters having certain memories corrupted in various ways, usually in a negative way.
    • Round 6 builds off of that, with false beliefs implanted in the characters' minds.
  • Nerf: Everyone who has powers has them taken away and superhuman stuff is brought down to human levels. The only power they can have is the one they gain from the game itself, and many only work for 5-10 seconds at a time, if that. Round 2 also introduced powers that evolve with every successful trial.
  • One-Hit Kill: Nearly everything that wasn't an execution is an example of this.
    • Round 1 had Laslow being killed with a single knife stab, Harley being killed with a single blow to the head by a giant hammer, and McBurn's punishment of being impaled by a sword.
    • Round 2 had Akechi's throat slashing of Torri and Helena's punishment.
    • Round 3 had Richard's punishment.
    • Round 4 had Bangladesh Dupree torn in two to kick off week 4....
    • Round 6 had Vita being killed with a single blow to the head with a laser bat and Jonathan being killed by a single stab from a spear.
  • Past Experience Nightmare: When the Laser-Guided Amnesia wears off, the memory is often regained overnight in a dream, so when it's a negative memory that's shared within italicized bracket text, it's this trope.
  • Public Execution: Culprits are executed in front of everyone else.
  • Story Arc: Rounds 4, 5, and 6 are all connected to each other. Both Round 5 and the third Mock Week has also confirmed that Rounds 1-3 are connected to this story arc in some way as well.
  • Waking Up Elsewhere: Everyone woke up suddenly in the Depths (Round 1), the Mall (Round 2), the Base (Round 3), the Mansion (Round 4), the Train (Round 5), and the City (Round 6).

Round-Specific Examples:

    open/close all folders 

     Round 1: The Depths 

  • Apocalypse How: Class Z. The Thalmor's entire reason for existing is to initiate this on a borderline Original Negation scale, bar none. And they would have succeeded if it weren't for those pesky Strangers! Thankfully it ends up just as an Omniversal 404.
  • Backstory: There is a ton of it to this round, and understanding all of it (even with the mods' help) is no easy feat.
  • Black-and-White Morality: Despite the setting's many tools for committing medieval violence, any outbursts from the Strangers are very directly forced by their cruel circumstances, and a necessary defense against the highly destructive mastermind.
  • The Future: The immediate backstory has two flavors of future, due to the actions and choices of Alexis, the Intercessor who is also the Skyrim player character, approximately 30 or so years ago:
    • The Future Will Be Better: Alexis has settled the matter of the Skyrim Civil War by using their goodwill from defeating Alduin, and their leadership and influence within every major Skyrim faction, to have Elisif formally marry Ulfric Stormcloak with caveats to ensure their cooperation. This resulted in Alexis eventually being crowned Emperor of Cyrodiil, upon which they ensured that Talos worship was officially reinstated and began to aid and re-ally with Hammerfell against their enemies. This results in a renaissance that causes the Empire to once more regain its strength and standing in the world, even undoing some of the damage done long before they were born. Sounds great, right? However...
    • Bad Future: Elenwen, an ambassador who held animosity towards Alexis since canon proper, also went up through the ranks, becoming Sapiarch, i.e. leader of the entire Third Aldmeri Dominion, and eventually learned of the Tyranny of the Sun prophecy. She led a surprise attack on the Imperial City and sacked it, capturing Alexis, their spouse Serana, who was integral to the prophecy, Auriel's Bow and its arrows, also intregal, and lastly all but two of the Daedra artifacts which Alexis held all by themselves. They then proceeded to blot out the sun, hastening the world's (and especially humanity's) demise, and destroyed or desecrated as many of the remaining spires of reality as they could to further ensure the end. Oops?
  • Heroic Sacrifice: During the Week 3 execution. [McBurn] and Babette lead a charge to destroy the Krosis, and succeed in injuring it severely. They are both killed for this.
  • When It All Began: Season Unending, a main story mission from Skyrim.

     Round 2: The Mall 

  • Affably Evil: The Life Coach, as well as some of the other masterminds but not the one writing the motives, leading some of the strangers to differentiate her from the bosses.
  • Anchored Ship: Dio and Helena. Perspective Reversal occurred over the course of their relationship. Helena initially perceived Dio as flirting with her, while she was ambivalently "not minding" amorous advances. However, she eventually gathered that he was a self-proclaimed Celibate Hero, and she decided that his overall issues meant that she definitely shouldn't broach the possibility of a romantic relationship between the two of them.

    Meanwhile, Dio initially saw Helena's companionship as occasionally beneficial but basically a detour from his mission in life. Having a very specific and cynical perspective on many topics including romantic relationships, he really thought he was just acting cordial and had no emotional investment. Helena's actions of support and even sacrifice gradually made Dio see her as important, though, and question his own reasons for enjoying her company.

    They returned to their separate homeworlds, while contacting each other somewhat regularly through the smartphones and feeling a vague mutual significance.
  • Animal Motifs:
    • Wake and Torri: Doves/lovebirds.
    • Dio compares himself to a wolf, casting an interesting light on his fondness for cats.
    • Yuuri's fondness for dogs is a recurring theme.
    • Akechi is a crow according to his codename.
    • Helena is a mouse, small and lowly prey but ideologically mighty.
    • Kurama is like a fox on several levels.
      • Note that wolves, crows, and foxes all eat meat.
    • Cats are literally everywhere in this round. Given the setting, it makes sense.
  • Apocalypse How: Class X-5 at the most if left entirely unchecked, according to what the Strangers uncovered. Class X-4-level endings are already a normal threat and have already happened to Japhet's and Coco's universes and, judging by what is known in canon, the Another Day universe has become victim to this as well.
  • Couldn't Find a Pen: Downplayed in the "very hastily-scrawled, blood-speckled note" left by the door to the Hall of Liberation.
    BOSS IS THIS WAY. -L
  • Easily Forgiven: The second and third culprit are forgiven by the majority of the strangers, to the point that several people immediately start physically fighting to prevent each of the executions. Over the course of the fourth week, the first culprit is retrospectively folded into this category as well, showing the conscious use of Tropes As Tools. Serial Escalation occurs in the final trial. The surviving characters by and large forgive all of the masterminds and grow away from their intentions to physically punish the composer.
  • Evil Is Hammy:
    • The first culprit sets a tone by drawing attention as A Fool for a Client who regales the courtroom with hundred-word self-centered speeches that meander into nitpicking the definition of such highfalutin concepts as greed and premediated murder.
    • The second culprit qualifies as the variant where earlier composed behavior was the mask covering a true nature of Large Ham, cursing much more and condemning society.
    • The third culprit is sure to stick in some weighty invocations of despair and friendship.
    • Some of the gamerunners also have a flair for the dramatic.
    The Producer: So, can I listen to your prayers one more time?
    • The Life Coach frequently strikes "tryhard" adorable poses, even occasionally when it doesn't suit the mood. She also interrupted the Composer's speech to make a dramatic entrance with the members of the graveyard in the endgame post.
  • Exact Words: Helena said "See you soon" to the first culprit, who had already been executed and existed in a plane where the dead people only came close to being seen by moving a coin in the board game Reaper Creeper, the power of which Helena had just exhausted. She already expected to die for attacking the life coach the next day, with the additional result of moving to that plane of existence and seeing Dio there.
  • Get A Hold Of Yourself Man: Karma does this to Akira and has no compunctions about doing it again if necessary.
  • Heroic Sacrifice:
    • In week 2, two of the strangers put their lives on the line in an attempt to bodily protect the second culprit from execution. Then the trope is subverted as those two are simply knocked unconscious, and that culprit still dies. The strangers are also told that subsequent interference execution attempts will only result in their own execution.
    • In week 3, in an attempt to increase the survival odds of the group despite having almost no attachment whatsoever to any of the surviving strangers, Helena incapacitates the Life Coach long enough to appropriate a phone that unlocks an entire section of the mall. This leads to a fatal punishment by the executioner. In the Justified Trope variant where suicidal urges were already present, the decision was aggravated by her preexisting disillusionment with society and her disappointment at the acceptance of Akechi, who acted as the second culprit.
    • Later in week 3 after someone else is murdered, and they identify who did it, the strangers almost all move to protect the third culprit from execution despite the risk of being executed themselves. Then the culprit commits suicide to prevent that outcome... meaning that there was no direct positive outcome at all from committing the murder earlier. Zig-Zagged Trope and Stupid Sacrifice are both in play.
    • In week 4, Loewe cuts open the door to the Hall of Liberation, knowing that he will be punished for this and die. This is *also* the Justified Trope variant where suicidal urges were already present, with the added bonus of a forboding photograph of a gravestone.
  • Losing a Shoe in the Struggle: The cufflinks and the gold chain, lost by the first victim and first culprit respectively.
  • Meet Cute: At 3 in the morning Dio snuck out of his room to feed the cats in the cat cafe without being seen. Around the same time, Helena snuck out of her room to gather supplies without being seen, and she found him instead. After snarking past the initial awkwardness, they went on to have a conversation about the overall situation and found their belief systems surprisingly compatible. This is how Helena had a much better first impression of Dio than most of the strangers did.
  • Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: If someone had made sure Sho was dead back in the day, there would be no problem now.
  • Portmanteau Couple Name: Invoked in universe when the Life Coach begins referring to Dio ("The Bodacious") and Helena ("The Nasty") as Nastacious.
  • Punished for Sympathy / No Sympathy For Grudge Holders: In the second trial. Ursula and Croix perceive Helena as excessively sympathetic towards the first culprit Dio and excessively judgmental of the second culprit Akechi; Helena harshly snaps "shut up, you herb" and insists her actual statements were much more neutral. At one point Croix slaps Helena in the face, and Helena spits at her.
  • "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Dio to Akechi in Week 3, summarizing that Akechi's melancholia, rather than just an understandable emotional response to the tragedies in the mall, makes him "look like some loser who never wants to do anything hard or worthwhile ever again". While Dio is nominally encouraging proactive action in the variation of this trope that has similarities to a Rousing Speech or Dare to Be Badass, triggering Character Development, the speech doesn't really qualify as any of those other tropes in its own right since Dio's main intention is just going on the record as thinking Akechi sucks.
  • Shoo Out the Clowns:
    • The first victim was an All-Loving Hero, even extending friendship towards the Life Coach, despite having some serious issues at home. The first culprit had been known to interact lightheartedly with the first victim and was if not charming then at least amusingly incompetent, but after conviction veered way off that course to make callous, cryptic remarks, even Laughing Mad at the execution, leaving the others confused and upset.
    • The second victim was a complete sweetheart, with nary a harsh word for anyone but the culprits and captors, and often clumsy to the point of Moe and Cringe Comedy. The third victim was comedically literal and endearing, but started experiencing Break the Cutie after the death of the first victim spelled an end to amusing interactions like they'd had with the Life Coach; going on to actually die constituted Kill the Cutie. The second culprit was not so much a comic relief character as a Straight Man, still decreasing the total number of comedic moments by getting executed. This set the mood for the sixth death that was followed by a very somber funeral.
    • The trope is most directly deployed when Ren organized a party featuring such goofy moments as Britt and Karma holding hands for several minutes straight. Kurama poisons Ren with his own cigarettes and is dead by the end of his trial. Twenty-four hours after the party, the remaining survivors have become almost exclusively focused on working to get out of the game.
  • Smoking Gun:
    • The first trial is the version of this trope where the participants dramatically assess evidence that had already been entered into the system, as some strangers start to suspect that a piece of jewelry at the scene belonged to a certain person, who wages a counterargument (that it was coincidentally "misplaced") in such an unconvincing and antagonistic manner that the deductions screech to a halt.
    • The second trial is closer to the second version of this trope. The strangers start assessing one another's scents in the middle of the trial. One of them smells like smoke, and the conversation immediately shifts to incorporate a consensus that this person is guilty, though it takes a few more minutes before the words "I killed them" are said.
    • The third trial once again features a midtrial scent check; this time one person smells faintly like the poison used on the victim. Serial Escalation occurs as this time the strangers move to protect that person from execution before even saying the case is solved; the culprit moves to outright confess within seconds.
  • That Liar Lies: Dio about Akechi being an accredited detective. Dio is completely incorrect insofar as that Akechi's accreditation is genuine. Likewise, Akechi's interrogation of the other participants was an entirely benign attempt to help the group. However, Akechi does have several omissions from his self-introduction and eventually commits the second and third murders.
  • Trauma Conga Line: By definition a murdergame is a series of traumatic events for all parties involved; however, the narrative use of this trope, with the character experiencing multiple traumas that seem specifically targeted, applies to Akira. He is rather saddened to see so much as one of his friendly acquaintances being killed by another who went on to get executed. Then Akechi, a character from his world who had become his boyfriend, kills two people, leaving Akira wondering if he should have used his knowledge to act differently. At least Akira has Kurama... who helps him try to protect Akechi from getting executed, and they discover intensified psychic powers in a Hope Spot, but Akechi still dies. In the aftermath Akira and Kurama also admit possible romantic feelings for each other, but then Kurama commits a murder . When Akira and the others say they'll risk their lives to defend Kurama, he shoots himself in the face. Akira's face is splattered with blood.

    He is The Woobie subtype of this trope in the sense that he retains a strong moral core and optimism but is rather traumatized by the events to the point of some maladaptive behaviors such as Survivor Guilt.
  • What the Hell, Hero?:
    • The characters are completely shocked that Helena attacked the Life Coach from behind, also knowing she would die. Joey and Ursula say outright that it was the "wrong" thing that "shouldn't have" been done.
    • An even more severe example occurs after Loewe cuts open a door with his sword; despite reaching a dead end and planning to die in this situation, he refuses to let Nyaf-ya kill him peacefully, attacking enough to leave her in acute physical pain. The characters are too busy to say it out loud, but doubt can be read in their thoughts.
  • When She Smiles: When Helena smiles for the first time in several days, it's the last straw pushing Dio to his fucked up approximation of a Declaration of Protection.
  • White-and-Grey Morality: The majority of the strangers are very good people; there are a few Knights In Sour Armor among the ranks who are still working for the welfare of the group most of the time. All three of the culprits had some type of Freudian Excuse as well as a self-proclaimed altruistic component of their motive. And as for the masterminds? Their intentions are to protect the multiverse from an existential threat. After the end of the game, the masterminds and the strangers are practically a contiguous team. All of them even act Affably Evil, except for the Composer, who is similar to the culprits and gets personally forgiven by some people.
  • Your Approval Fills Me with Shame: Joey towards Dio.

     Round 3: The Base 

  • Apocalypse How: A Class X-4 at least for the "inhabitants" of Ivy's body, and otherwise a Class 1 at the very least and a Class 3a as a worst-case scenario.
  • Computer Equals Tapedrive: But of course, since that was how one played for the Tape Mix!
  • Egg Sitting: The week 3 minigame.
  • "Fantastic Voyage" Plot: Not that anyone can remember how it started, but they made sure no one would forget how it ended.
  • Graying Morality: It was eventually revealed that the fifteen strangers literally started off as a unified team that agreed to cooperate with the doctors, neutralize the virus, and save Ivy. However, conflicts were generated by Marie's killing game, the virus revealed herself as a Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds, and many of the strangers felt a sense of coercion having lost their memories of being recruited. Pick your shade of gray.
  • Knight, Knave, and Squire: Nagisa, Yurick, and Jonathan.
  • Lethally Stupid: Let's just say that the majority of the people responsible for Project Diatron aren't exactly in the habit of thinking things through very well. Justified because they were rock stupid in their canon...
  • Savvy Guy, Energetic Girl: Rosenkreuz and Angela, particularly when juxtaposed as designated roommates and some of the oldest in the base. Rosenkreuz focuses on investigating the mysteries, while Angela brings a lot of physicality and warmth to their confinement.
  • Take Off Your Clothes: The second trial... which may well be Best Known for the Fanservice now.
  • Team Dad: Take your pick, honestly.
  • Zeerust: Oh so very much. This is the Rip-Off Pseudo-Anime 1980s Future of (possibly) 1996...or 2071... we're talking about!

     Round 4: The Mansion 
  • Black-and-Grey Morality: The stewards want to use them as tools to wreak havoc on innocents, and the organization trying to stymie the stewards has its own dubious authoritarian tendencies. And when the surviving strangers fight their way free of both factions, literally every single one has some type of blood on their hands. Combined with the Sequel Hook confirming that the traitor role came from yet another source, the tableau is virtually a secular version of Angels, Devils and Squid.
  • Chastity Couple: Nothing but heavy kissing and cuddling happens between Franciscus and Osomatsu, despite them spending the night together several times. Though this is mostly because of how close all the "bedrooms" are as well as the lack of doors.
  • Closet Sublet: The characters' "rooms" in this round are basically coffins with beds in them.
  • Declaration of Protection: Osomatsu makes one towards Franciscus, who returns the sentiment.
  • Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: When Arthur kills Asura.
  • Experienced Protagonist: Three of the characters have been through murder games before.
  • Failure Is the Only Option: The remaining strangers make a valiant attempt to save Emma in the final week, but there's no way to return a soul to a body once it's been ripped out.
  • Go Out with a Smile: Emma, when she is attacked by Asura in the final week, is relieved that her friends even attempted to save someone like her.
  • I Never Said It Was Poison: Accidentally in the first trial. Osomatsu writes on the evidence list that the note said to meet in the dining room, but Felicity then mentions that it said to meet in the garden, despite not having seen the actual note.
  • Lady and Knight:
    • The Younger, Louder Steward thinks of himself and "Big Sis" as a duo like this. (Given their circumstances, there's some Dulcinea Effect inevitably mixed in.)
    • Krone and Eric; invoked by both parties.
  • Living Emotional Crutch: Franciscus and Osomatsu act as this for each other, even before their Relationship Upgrade. Franciscus' death basically wrecks Osomatsu emotionally.
  • Living Weapon: Part of the Strangers' powers turn out to be the ability to transform into a Weapon themed around their power.
  • Love Makes You Evil: Averted hard and with extreme stubborn effort by Osomatsu after Franciscus is killed. Embraced by the Stewards.
  • Loving a Shadow: The younger steward is doing everything just to resuscitate "Big Sis", who hasn't actually contacted him in years.
  • Meat-O-Vision: Thanks to some very poor perception checks in the second investigation, multiple people end up seeing the locked library door as food of some sort. Arthur even tries to eat it.
  • Murder by Mistake: The second murder basically happens because Eric hallucinates Franciscus as Dracula, and since Franciscus is seeing him as Azura he doesn't realize the mistake.
  • One Dialogue, Two Conversations: Happens in the second case's kill log, since Franciscus and Eric are both hallucinating each other as someone completely different.
  • "Open!" Says Me: Eric kicks down the door to his room the instant he wakes up, and Bangladesh kicks down the door to the meeting room. Exaggerated when one of the Stewards kicks down every door to throw a scroll of profiles in.
  • Our Souls Are Different: They're glowing balls that seem to differ in color based on whether someone is guilty or innocent, and are the only food provided by the Stewards. They can also be used to temporarily summon people back as mummies.
  • Relationship Upgrade:
    • Happens between Franciscus and Osomatsu the night before the first investigation, since they both realize they could die at any point.
    • Happens between Eric and Krone the day after the third trial, since they both realize they might not die at any point.
  • Replacement Goldfish: Harriet by her own admission mostly cares about Bangladesh due to being reminded of someone combative in her last murdergame.
  • Serenade Your Lover: During the first week, Franciscus ends up playing the harp for Osomatsu, though they're not together at this point.
  • Set Right What Once Went Wrong: What Maka and Soul tried to do, though they ended up failing. In the end, the group's actions during the final trial create a completely different timeline from both the Bad Future and the original Soul Eater timeline.
  • Shipper on Deck:
    • Double Subversion. Ambrosine is happy to see Krone get a Love Confession from Eric at the second trial, only to start thinking he'd be a bad partner upon discovering his involvement in the case at hand. Yet later that same night the younger steward goes out of his way to call Eric and praise his devotion to Krone.
    • Emma acts as this for Franciscus and Osomatsu, hoping that they'll eventually get a happy ending.
  • Take a Third Option: In the end, the survivors decide not to side with Arachnophobia or Shinigami, but instead kill both of the Stewards and leave before Shinigami shows up.
  • What Does He See in Her?: Thanatos tells Krone that Eric is too good for her right before he gets executed in the third trial.

     Round 5: The Train 
  • Blue-and-Orange Morality: The masterminds of this round are woven into a complex web of space, time, magic, memory, and xenobiology; they are truly indifferent to the actions of the Strangers. To the point that the murder games on several other trains were allowed to have different outcomes.
  • Body Horror: A prevalent theme, not only among the Strangers' powers, but with several important NPCs as well.
  • Call-Back: The various stops seem to be referencing previous rounds in some way.
    • The first stop has the dragon executioner from the first round, somehow still alive and in pain until Mithos and Atsushi gave it a Mercy Kill.
    • The second stop has a whole plain full of dead Madoka-style magical girls, as well as an actual Witch barrier.
    • The third stop has a space jail that includes computer consoles taken straight from the 1980s and graffiti left behind by Nagisa.
    • The fourth stop was Excalibur's cave. It also had soul eggs.
  • Cute Kitten: Six different cats were rolled from the baggage claim within the first week, only two of which apparently belonged to some of the Strangers. For the most part, the cast was absolutely delighted with their cuddly new friends, though one orange tabby was a notable subversion.
  • Dead Person Conversation: The fourth stop, due to Mr. Eaten's Reality Warper influence, allows the dead including those from previous rounds to briefly manifest and speak with the living.
  • Deadly Euphemism: The Conductor refers to murdering a fellow passenger as invoking the "Little Courtesy."
  • Declaration of Protection: Eliza makes one towards Ris almost immediately after meeting her.
  • Disappointed by the Motive: Eliza flips out in deadland upon learning that Tali killed Zack for a motive that only involved meeting the Empress, without any guarantee of gaining anything else from her.
  • Gilded Cage: Sure, the ride is smooth as silk, the lodgings are on par with first class hotels, and the food in the dining car is to die for, but none of the Strangers are on the train of their own free will.
  • Historical Domain Character: Aside from Empress Victoria herself, some of the Strangers met her eldest daughter, rendered here as the Empress' Shadow, in Week 2's Deep Cut. Week 3's Deep Cut found RGB and Mc Burn stumbling on most of the others, who are still struggling with their monstrous appetites from Fallen London in this timeline.
  • I Have Your Wife: The first motive had the Strangers given video feeds that showed their loved ones trapped in a dreary and dismal prison. The second motive upped the ante by threatening to subject the hostages to the Rapid Aging effect of Vampiric Draining if no one took advantage of the Little Courtesy.
  • Luxury Prison Suite: The third stop is at a prison so luxurious that not only will prisoners commit petty theft in order to get their sentence extended, but it also doubles as an honest-to-goodness tourist attraction where the wealthy get to experience what it's like to be locked up. There's a waiting list just to get on the waiting list.
  • Noodle Incident: The HML Galahantine incident for the Strangers, the fate of the HML Vespertine for London at large.
  • Serial Escalation: The weekly body discovery keeps getting more and more over the top:
    • The first case's victim was found almost immediately in the dining car.
    • The second case involved a stampede of creatures freed from a petting zoo, three fakeout "bodies," and culminated in the victim finally being found without his head.
    • The third case had an explosion in the dining car, something akin to radiation on the second level of the dining car that would kill anyone who went up there, and two dead bodies. Four, if you count the two minor NPCs who were collateral damage.
  • Steampunk: The general aesthetic of the train and the clothing the Strangers all wear upon arrival.
  • Schizo Tech: Despite the Steampunk decor, the train also boasts modern details like flat screen TVs and memory foam mattresses.
  • Token Mini-Moe: Ris and Towa.

     Round 6: The City 
  • Back from the Dead: Several dead Strangers, both from this round and previous ones, showed up in a van during week 4, having gone through a portal in the Graveyard and come out on the side of the Living. Several reunions ensued, but everyone who had died was pulled back to the Graveyard after ten minutes had passed.
  • Black-and-White Morality: IT is trying to kill or brainwash everyone in the universe. The characters, in turn, do not want that to happen. It's that simple. Though the hosts are morally ambiguous in that they are hoping for torture as an alternative to being killed, they fall under this trope in the sense that by the end they have unilaterally returned to the normative good side.
  • Both Sides Have a Point: The Vita/Akira arguments. Akira is right in that he's not the version of himself that actually killed Vita, but Vita also is right that he still has the potential to do so. Akira is also right to be upset about being blamed for something he didn't do, while Vita is right that most people who weren't in the Base went straight to supporting Akira and insulting her for being traumatized without even knowing what caused it.
  • Brainwashed and Crazy: The Hosts are not just clones or alternate universe versions of Link and Hiyori from Mock Week 2; they're this trope.
  • Chekhov's Gag: The contacts Karma received from the gacha. They fire eye beams powered by feelings, making them seem like a joke item, until they deliver the killing blow on IT who is critically weak to love. The item is a reference to "I'm Sorry For Liking You" by Utata-P.
  • Cut-and-Paste Suburb: The cul-de-sac where the Strangers woke up, in identical prefabricated houses, fully stocked with identical "comforts of home" like linens and a radio and TV set.
  • Desecrating the Dead: In trial 1, where the two dead bodies discovered turned out to have killed each other, their bodies are consumed by Noise.
  • Hope Spot: The dead Strangers taking a van into the realm of the living initially assumed that they could stay indefinitely, only to be sucked back after ten minutes had passed. Invoked by the hosts, who rush over with weapons and claimed that they just wanted to personally tell both the living and the dead that this development was within predicted levels and doesn't change anything.
  • The Power of Love: Similar to A Wrinkle in Time, love is the most powerful force against IT. The final battle basically has all the characters using the power of their love to combat IT.
  • Together in Death: Jonathan and Vita. They both died in week 4 and their bodies were found together holding hands. Akira and Kurama as well since Kurama joined Akira in death in week 3.

     Round 7: The Ship 
  • Bloodier and Gorier: There's blood everywhere in this round, from the nonparticipants of the first minigame bleeding from every wound inflicted in the game, to all of the inanimate objects around the ship that bleed when stabbed, not to mention the whole ship smelling like blood at all times. And that's just before any of the actual deaths started!
  • Chekhov's Gag: Hermes, during week 3, created a "Hermes Coin", where one side was a "H" and the other a "=]", to give to the Gimme. The coin is used by the Gimme multiple times afterwards to indicate camaraderie and a desire to join in later.
  • Comically Small Bribe: The first motive was $50, a trip to an amusement park and a cheeseburger.
  • Dysfunction Junction: A majority of the cast can have their antics be described as being "aggressively themselves".
    • Multiple players OOCly can't believe they managed to find the culprit during the first trial.
  • Female Gaze: During the first trial, a strip search was held and a good majority of the men were revealed to have surprisingly jacked muscles and abs. It was a little too much for Anya.
  • Genius Loci: Several, actually. Zack and the true Mastermind in particular.

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