What cards does Nick Gallant have in his hand?
The Deadliest Game is a murder mystery-themed book and one of the many stories under the Choices: Stories You Play collection. It was released on March 15, 2024 on VIP early access and will be released on May 10, 2024 for everyone. A prequel story, titled "The Deadliest Gambit", was released as a VIP exclusive on January 12, 2024.
The Deadliest Game and The Deadliest Gambit include examples of:
- Abusive Parents: It's inferred that Dante's father is this. His full name is listed in Dante's phone contacts, implying the two of them aren't close. Dante also says he's one of "those kinds of dads".
- The Bartender: Dante's role in the murder mystery party.
- Breaking Old Trends: This is the first Choices story in which a VIP-exclusive side story is released before the main story.
- Character Customization: In the January 2024 Choices Insiders, Pixelberry confirmed that the main character's gender is customizable. This is also one of the books that lets you pick your character (Finn's) pronouns.
- Content Warnings: Chapter 2 has a warning about discussion of suicide.
- Deadly Game: Invoked by the title; the story is about a murder-mystery party that will soon turn into something more...
- Detectives Follow Footprints: The book revolves around the search for Nick's killer.
- The Don: Jun's role in the murder mystery party is the "Mob Boss".
- Femme Fatale: Farah's role in the murder mystery party.
- Hate Sink:
- Although it's currently not known if he's the killer, Steve is so far the most detestable of the suspects. He has no qualms over stealing from Nick, someone who considered Steve his friend, after he had been murdered and selling his ideas to his competitors. Jun also reveals that Steve has conned several people out of their money, including a single father who was trying to put his child through college.
- Crystal is just as bad, if not worse than Steve. She hawks a skincare product that she knows is dangerous, not caring that people could have died from using her products. She has also bribed Journalists to keep the resulting lawsuit out of the news, caring more about her reputation than other peoples' safety.
- Hello, [Insert Name Here]: As with all Choices characters, you can name your character. The default name here is Finn Mason.
- Jerkass: Steve quickly establishes himself as rude and unpleasant.
- Loan Shark: Pete's role in the murder mystery party.
- Never Suicide: At the end of Chapter 1, it appears that Nick has committed suicide by jumping off a three story balcony, complete with a typed suicide note. In Chapter 2, Finn, Dante, and Jun discover that someone had killed Nick with a blunt object before tossing his body off.
- Out-of-Character Alert: During Chapter 3, a pair of men's boxer briefs are found in Angelina's separate room. She states that they belonged to Nick. However, the players had already searched Nick's room and determined he wears boxer shorts, not boxer briefs.
- Prequel: The Deadliest Gambit is one to the main story, entailing the host, Nick Gallant, setting up the murder mystery party. At the end, there's a message that reads "The story will continue in The Deadliest Game".
- Queer Establishing Moment:
- Farah is revealed to be queer in The Deadliest Gambit; she, Nick, Jun, and Dante are discussing dates they went on, and Farah mentions going out with a duchess. Chapter 4 of The Deadliest Game explicitly reveals that she's bisexual.
- During a premium scene with Dante in Chapter 7, he mentions being bisexual while discussing his upcoming movie with Finn and how the queer representation in it is important to him.
- Recycled Premise: Not from an entire book, but from The Sophomore, Book 2, Chapter 10 where a party with a Murder Mystery theme took place where the participants try to find the killer among the participants.
- Skeleton Key Card: Subverted; after getting locked in a room, Dante tries using this trick to unlock the door. The credit card he uses ends up snapping in half.
