Virtual Distress
is a submission-based Danganronpa roleplay group located on Tumblr, which began in September 2014. Uniquely, the game contains a number of JRPG-esque elements, such as combat with various monsters, due to the nature of the setting.
The game takes place inside of a video game called The Nexus, which has recently experienced some rather strange glitches and Event Flags being deleted, an occurrence which led a number of Hope's Peak students to enter the game themselves and handle the situation so the game can continue to further development. Then everything changes, when Monobear shows up. What will happen in this heart-pounding adventure? Will the students succumb to the stress and kill each other? Or will they take a different approach, and continue playing this RPG of potential death? It’s up to the students to decide.
A chronological log of the RP's events can be found here.
Virtual Distress contains examples of:
- Anyone Can Die: Such is the nature of the game this roleplay is based on - pretty much no one is safe from being killed off.
- Elemental Rock-Paper-Scissors: The battle portion of the game utilizes an elemental system, with water, fire, ice, wood, wind, earth, lightning and water beating each other in a cycle and light and darkness being weak to one another. Every student and monster has an innate element, and attacks can have elements attached to them as well.
- Inside a Computer System: The premise of the roleplay, with the students voluntarily entering the Nexus in order to attend to the glitches within the system. Not that they remember doing so, as the start of the game reveals.
- JRPG: Heavily inspired by them - in fact, it's even set inside one, with all the tropes that entails.
- Mystery of the Week: Given the nature of the game this is based on, with a victim turning up every (in-game) week and the students being called forth to find the culprit.
- Trapped in Another World: The main cast has effectively become this. Granted, Usami claims they'll be able to go home after fixing the glitches in the game, but given the nature of the plot, escape won't be that easy for long.
- Your Mind Makes It Real: According to Usami, if you're hurt in the game, you're hurt in real life. This does not bode well for the people who will inevitably lose their lives once the game of mutual killing commences.
