Fifteen little Disneys all gathered to die...

[monomods]

"The Hunger Games - "Hope" Clip" (Watch on YouTube)

The motive post this week is a little different from what you may be expecting from us. We said that endgame was coming, which if you've watched rounds 1 and 2 usually means to expect some kind of staged/botched/otherwise unwinnable trial.

But, well, that's not very Disney, now is it? So instead, in addition to the normal encouraging investigation, we've done the death roll and have the murder all plotted out except for one thing.

It's not guaranteed to happen.

Welcome to Dangan Roleplay's first Preventable Murder! It's time to put the player's sleuthing skills to work now even moreso than usual. We've written a little riddle and we have a form for you all to fill out. The riddle itself will be released on Tuesday as the week's motive. But because there's an OOC portion as well, we're putting it out today so that you can have the chance to mull over it. So here is the riddle in its entirety:

Fifteen little Disneys packed in like sardines,
one lost their head, then there were fourteen

Fourteen little Disneys investigating the scene,
the culprit was burned, and then there were thirteen.

Thirteen little Disneys, two already shelved,
one got lost in the stacks, and then there were twelve

Twelve little Disneys, three now in heaven
the culprit was hanged and then there were eleven

Eleven little Disneys had the chance to try again
one drank to forget, then there were ten

Ten little Disneys, now drawing the lines
the culprit got the point, and then there were nine

Nine little Disneys, still running from fate
one fell head over heels and then there were eight

Eight little Disneys, another trial in session
the culprit exploded, and then there were seven

Seven little Disneys, now learning the tricks
Jump neck-deep in hot water, and there will be six

Six little Disneys, survivors now tested
Will the culprit succeed? Or can this crime be prevented?

All you players have to do is fill out this form:

Victim: Who do you think the victim will be? Put on your thinking caps and use the poem to suss it out.
Means: Pick out what you think the means of death will be from the provided list.
IC Action: Will your character come to the same answer you do? (it's fine if they don't.) How will they respond to the hope of being able to actually stop a murder from happening? What actions will they take to protect their assumed victim/close CR? Be as specific as possible!

<b>Victim:</b> Who do you think the victim will be? Put on your thinking caps and use the poem to suss it out. <b>Means:</b> Pick out what you think the means of death will be from the provided list. <b>IC Action:</b> Will your character come to the same answer you do? (it's fine if they don't.) How will they respond to the hope of being able to actually stop a murder from happening? What actions will they take to protect their assumed victim/close CR? Be as specific as possible!

The possible means of death are:
-Exsanguination
-Thrown from a Tower
-Broken Neck
-Blue-Ringed Octopus
-Trampled
-Crushed by a Pillar
-Strangulation

These options will not be broadcast ICly, and the characters themselves are not expected to figure out the correct means of death. Only one of these is correct. Meaning, while you'd probably end up with a broken neck from falling off a tower, you don't get points for putting broken neck if the correct answer was tower.

But Monodad, how do we prevent the murder? After all of the forms are submitted, the mod team will be going through and judging them. If someone's IC Actions puts them in the way of the murder, and if over half (3/5) of the players got the victim right, we will contact the player whose character would intervene and arrange a surprise for what would be the body discovery. The players not contacted will not know the results until Friday, when either a body will be discovered or a murder prevented.

This does not mean that putting "My character patrols all the areas at all times" for IC action guarantees that you will prevent the murder, because we will assume that if they do so, they would be too exhausted by Friday to stop the murder from occurring, as Maybeck and Pooh demonstrated in the last motive (you tried, Maybeck). Whether your character is setting up a patrol or following one person in particular, think about whether their strategy is maintainable from Tuesday through Friday. We probably don't have to say this, but we are anyway.

But what if no one's character would be feasibly in the way? Then we still have an OOC win condition! If 100% of the players guess the Victim and the Means correctly, then we will either: contact the person whose character was the closest to the action and stop the murder that way, OR plot with the culprit and victim players to end the confrontation non-lethally instead, depending on how much of a stretch the closest is.

As always, if you have any questions, feel free to leave them here (comments are screened so you can post your forms) or PP one of the mods!

Players have until Wednesday, March 11th to post their guesses.