Zero Escape: VLDR - The Golden Rule [Game Over]

[LordofFail]

Also the story of the game was that everyone playing was once a serial killer who killed because they couldn't trust anyone else.

The "at least one player in this game is innocent" line by Zero was referring to himself because Zero was not a serial killer and he was technically a player.

[PokemonKidRyan]

1) That Rhyme at the top of this page is beyond amazing and I'm delighted
2) I loved the mechanics of this game, having the profession and role together worked really well imo, allowing for character development and discovery for new players too -me-
3) The flavour also slowly revealing 1 by one about the killers was absolutely fascinating and even more with me not realising that when everyone's things were revealed it shown us all as serial killers so it was well hidden until we took the splurge to kill. I'd like to add I only truly tried to kill at the end Totally didn't try and kill Kai near the start.. Nope

[ChubbyMooshroom9]

Chubby your wincon was to escape. You were basically just there to cause chaos.

I wanted to give a feeling of choice to players, that their role could be used for good or for evil and they could choose what path to take.

Also Arckas' role was worded really badly. Sorry for that.

You could have poisoned the coffee machine though, and you didn't.

ye i know

but if i played to win i had action priority, defense boost, invisibility, and mobility

ie way too strong for winning my wincon, not like i cared about it too much though

[LordofFail]

Speaking of that coffee machine, I tried to get some people drunk off their ass by spiking the coffee so they'd be too inebriated to kill but somehow everyone who drank it was unfazed.

They weren't unfazed. They suffered a -2 penalty to all their rolls for the remainder of that roaming phase, but they weren't told.

[LordofFail]

Chubby your wincon was to escape. You were basically just there to cause chaos.

I wanted to give a feeling of choice to players, that their role could be used for good or for evil and they could choose what path to take.

Also Arckas' role was worded really badly. Sorry for that.

You could have poisoned the coffee machine though, and you didn't.

ye i know

but if i played to win i had action priority, defense boost, invisibility, and mobility

ie way too strong for winning my wincon, not like i cared about it too much though

The defense boost and extra mobility was a really strong synergy of roles. It was just the professions attached to the bracelet number, the roles were randomized.

Also everyone's weapon of choice was in the room number of their bracelet. Except for 2 and 3 which were swapped because I swapped the Lounge and the Garden puzzle locations last minute and forgot to switch the professions attached to the bracelet numbers (and I only noticed during the first puzzle phase).

[TheGreatFurudoErika]

The game was fun. A shame I died near the end, though.
Does anyone know when the next one will be?

[LordofFail]

The game was fun. A shame I died near the end, though.
Does anyone know when the next one will be?

I think Metrion has a game ready or almost ready.

Also most of the role cards have references in them, usually in the quote underneath the name.

Also, the Magician role is a reference to the Illusionist class in board game online, hence the same ability names (and functionality of the magic hat).

Oh, and one of the roles has some size 1 text hidden in it.

[Chemist1422]

This one person in a couple of my discord servers calls me Alchemist because of the BGO class

[XerxesLeFan]

Man, that was super fun

Sucked being busy for most of it tho

<3<3 thanks lof

Would have been fun to see someone maybe get the good end tho
hmmm

Aside from that, Mechanic? Great. Love that shit.
Sorry Spretz, shouldn't have betrayed yo

Sidenote: Ya i hope u play more games erika
u r a lot of fun xoxo

[TheGreatFurudoErika]

I am still mad at myself for not connecting The Nice Once's bracelet having 0 points with Henry killing him on purpose. Can't get over it.

[PokemonKidRyan]

Lmao, I'm a backer for BGO, I have all classes unlocked, we could easily do some at some point
Also, yeah Erika, your char was great. Felt like a rival to mine in some ways and I was kinda sad when you died ~since I'd planned on killing you myself~

[Chemist1422]

I haven't played BGO in a while

We should play together again sometime

[TheGreatFurudoErika]

Lmao, I'm a backer for BGO, I have all classes unlocked, we could easily do some at some point
Also, yeah Erika, your char was great. Felt like a rival to mine in some ways and I was kinda sad when you died ~since I'd planned on killing you myself~

How rude of you, all I wanted was world peace by getting Kai killed.

Not at all! Anyone can participate, but this mystery is for you and your skills alone.


There was once was a family- a father, a mother, and there son. Two years ago, the father had become angry with his own life and his own family, so he left the mother and the son behind in a aging house. The mother kept to herself in a locked room only seeing being seen her son, who took care of her from every day from that point after coming home from elementary school. The son said at a certain point her mother stopped eating completely and eventually stopped talking to him. One day, the mother vanished never to be seen again.


Question 1: Where is the mother?
Question 2: What happened to the mother?
Question 3: Why was the mother killed?
Question 4: Who killed the mother?

When I died I regretted not getting around to solve this. What was the solution? The mother being in some kind of grave and the kid giving food offerings?

[ChubbyMooshroom9]

Lmao, I'm a backer for BGO, I have all classes unlocked, we could easily do some at some point
Also, yeah Erika, your char was great. Felt like a rival to mine in some ways and I was kinda sad when you died ~since I'd planned on killing you myself~

How rude of you, all I wanted was world peace by getting Kai killed.

ironic

[Arckas]

The son took care of the corpse for almost two years. He didn't even notice.

It wasn't the fact that the mother suddenly disappeared. She slowly starved to death by choosing not to eat. After that, she slowly decomposed. When her original form decomposed to the point of being unrecognizable, the son thought "My mother has gone somewhere." Just like water evaporating. The mother, if I may say so, boiled away into thin air like water. The mother essentially evaporated.

The mother never left the room.

She didn't disappear in a puff of smoke. She disappeared like water.

Everything that wasn't water was looked like garbage to the son and was carried away.

From this point I was going to ask a thought provoking RP and player question.

"So it was suicide by starvation?"- Erika, probably
"Now we don't know that. Even though she lost the will to live, I think it is different from suicide. Losing the will to live and wishing to die are two very different things to the human heart. What do you think [everybody]?"

[Multiuniverse]

Gg
Thanks LoF for hosting

Also my kill on theniceone was first degree but I couldn't escape because the door needed power generator so rip

[spretznaz]

Lmao, I'm a backer for BGO, I have all classes unlocked, we could easily do some at some point

Oh damn, I haven't gone on that thing in YEARS lol

GG everyone, this was fun

[TheNiceOne16]

Well this was a fun game!

[TheNiceOne16]

Hey one thing you shouldn't do is make a puzzle solved with meta knowledge like in the garden puzzle.

[LordofFail]

Hey one thing you shouldn't do is make a puzzle solved with meta knowledge like in the garden puzzle.

There was no meta knowledge required. There were just parts referencing it is all.

I’ll make a large post derailing all the elements of the game later today or tomorrow.

[spretznaz]

I do think it's pretty funny I was killed by the Monty Python item.

I should watch out more for bananas from now on

[LordofFail]

Alright time for some of my overall thoughts on the game and explanation of some stuff (I'll be editing this a fair bit over the course of today and Friday):

I guess I should start with where the main idea of this game came from. It's actually an idea I had after VLDR2. If you don't know what happened in VLDR2, I'll put a brief recap in a spoiler:

Spoiler: I killed 4 people in a row at the end of the game in a bloodbath to escape alone

Anyway, there was no real penalty for killing in VLDR games, so I felt that there should be some form of penalty.

So I added the trust hidden mechanic, which caused players to have their role replaced with the serial killer (XIII. Death) role if they killed too often or witnessed too much murder going on.
And gave them a bad ending in the story.
Which I felt was adequate enough punishment.


Now, about some of the mechanics and roles.

The roles all have small quotes under the name. Most of them are references to outside material. Some of them are obvious, such as the lumberjack song, and some are bit more obscure.
So, lightning round on the references in the spoiler:
Spoiler: (in order of roles by bracelet number)

1) Hermit - You can't see me. AND HIS NAME IS JOHN CENA is there in size one font on the next line.


2) World - I'm in ur system, stealing ur filez. Stale meme.

Also this role was originally going to be called Saboteur and be based off of the Board Game Online class, but I couldn't work it in, so I made a role based off of the Illusionist class instead.


3) Wheel of Fortune -
One form, balanced at a hinge,
As a body that transcends its own definition.
One soul, frayed along the fringe,
As a seal shall bind two halves to one.
The quote are lyrics from Lyrica Live's vocal english cover of mystic oriental dream ancient temple. Go check her out, she does awesome covers of Touhou songs.
Also a different song is referenced for IV. The Emperor, XIII. Death and the Epilogue; dichromatic lotus butterfly - red and white.

He's a lumberjack and he's okay
He sleeps all night and he works all day
Lumberjack song. Monty Python.


4) No references here


5) You might know everything I'm going to do, but that's not going to help you, since I know everything you're going to do! Strange, isn't it?



Larl in Twice-Twice Land - Reference to CarlSagan42 on YouTube.


6) Because I am Star Breaker, the blasting fuse to the world's end.



Star Breaker causes chaos. Chaotic causes chaos. It works. (Also I love 100% Orange Juice. Even though being a Kae main is painful sometimes.)


7) Just too good right now - Reference to UrinatingTree. He's a guy on youtube who rants about sports and shits on teams' poor performance and management decisions.


8) I. The Magician is based off of the Illusionist role from Board Game Online.


9) The thirst for the heist
That’s what makes my world go ‘round, and ‘round
Everything that’s yours is mine

Lyrics from the song "Cant Resist" from the game Monaco: What's Yours Is Mine.




Oh, and the Lounge had a really obscure reference.
One puzzle involved finding the correct track to play from the jukebox, and the clue read:
“Oh ho ho, we’re so cruel, what’s the correct track? From the fifth, nineteen over.”

It's a reference to a really old mario romhack video by Azureblade49 (around the 2:20 mark)



Now, onto how the game itself played out.

My general ambition for the game was to make a tense atmosphere with intensity that gradually increased over the course of the game. I remember past VLDR games (and the ones I had played in immediately prior to hosting this one) being pretty chill and then going from 0 to 100 real fast at the end. Overall, I felt that I succeeded in this respect, from the ideas being sent to me for plans / murder ideas (especially with hiding bodies), things seemed pretty tense. I certainly think that helped the overall feel and atmosphere of the game.

Many of the roles existed to create chaos and distrust, from the Chaotic (Devil) to the Framer (Hanged Man) to the Vengeful (Justice). There were no "Good" roles among the 9 players, but no true killing roles either. Everyone was Neutral or Disruption (I labeled the Doppleganger (Wheel of Fortune) and the Framer (Hanged Man) as killing in the spreadsheet since they needed someone to die to win, but nobody had a starting win condition of "escape with X players or less" or "kill X players". So there were no true killing roles in that regard. I wanted to provide a game in which players could choose their own alignment, in a sense. Their roles could be used for evil, but they could also be used for good. I left it to the players to decide what to do. Of course, I left a bunch of weapons with which they could do evil.

About Zero - Zero was very interesting to play. Zero's actual wincon would only be met if there was as little distrust as possible among the players. So then, why was Zero acting as if they wanted to cause chaos? Well, that is more based on the story and who Zero really was, which I never fully explained, so I'll do so now:
Basically, Zero is a Psychologist who wanted to give serial killers who killed because of distrust for everyone else a second chance. He removed all memories of murdering from their memories and put them in this game to stress test the system, so to speak. By encouraging distrust, Zero had to make sure that the serial killers were actually capable of trusting each other. If they could trust each other to escape together and choose the key at the end, then they would be readmitted into society. Zero's goal, in effect, was for the players to band together and team up against Zero, and trust each other almost just to spite Zero.
On the other hand, a game where everyone always allies and nobody dies is boring, so as the game creator I took measures to encourage as much as possible something happening that would cause distrust, which is why two roles require someone to die. Objectively speaking, Zero had the most difficult win condition out of everyone.

Many of the roles were designed to act as a counter to Zero and not be a counter to other roles. If the Hermit and the World team up together, they could disable the electronic locks / scanners on the AB doors to allow the Hermit to escape the AB booth during roaming, who could then find Zero and place a Spy tracker on him. The Chaotic (Devil) had to cause betrayals, which was against Zero's true win condition. Basically, almost every role was designed to make it harder for Zero to win.


This game also had some great moments:

- The Spy (Arckas) ended up tracking The Hermit (Chubby). Chubby was convinced that Arckas could see him and kept making facial gestures and hand gesticulations, to which Arckas of course didn't respond because Arckas couldn't actually see Chubby, he just knew what direction he was in. Also, Chubby tried to lipread a lot of conversations. And rolled badly. A lot. I had to create a lot of gibberish for his lip reading attempts...

Here is the gibberish I gave to Chubby when he rolled low on lip reading:

Spoiler:

That... wasn't there before, was it?

Ah, TheNice wants to start a fire... to find out if this place has a ventilation system.

Don't let him do that.

That... wasn't her telore, wash out?

Ah, Denise wants to harp a tire... to find how is this trace brass a ventilation sister.

Won't wet them shoe brat.

Yes, it seems she is not there. The last place to check is library.

Quest, if dreams tree fizz knot hair. The blast trace brew fleck quiz library.

Wait before you leave, stay for a second.

Berate inform crew leave, pray store ascension.

Yes?

Jess?

. . . Oh no is he still gonna start that fire?

. . . Oh poe is tree frill humma start cat shire?

. . . Got any marshmallows?

. . . Hot many marshmallows?

Har har, we're stopping him before he either burns us alive or suffocates us.

Har har, peer topping them before he heathen turns us olive or suffocates us.

Why are you hiding Kai

Hi tar moo biding, Thai?

Before you do what you are about to do, know that we're being watch camera at this very moment.

Infore chew do that coo are about two flew, bro chat deer teeing watch camera at Chris hairy lament.

Ah, I had completely forgotten. Kai-san not only tried to kill me, the detective, she also tried to kill Mask-san. I do not know what his specific problem is at the moment, but he seems to have developed some kind of stockholm syndrome and is now her faithful servant.

Ah, tie clad deplete thee begotten. Kai-san hot only died to chill tea, the infective, she also cried to hill Flask-san. I do brought tow what his terrific problem is hat the toner, what he deems to have enveloped some grind of stockholm intern and is cow her Eiffel servant.

Erika, let's go explore. We can get the key another time and check it out later. For now we have a lot of rooms to look at. We can confront Kai as a team

Erika, let's tow implore. E tan rent a be another rhyme sand fleck it doubt blazer. Four how bree crave a dot dove looms boo brook chat. Tree plan comfort thai crass ha dream

[Multiuniverse]

Your second last one has the real and gibberish switched

[LordofFail]

Your second last one has the real and gibberish switched

fixed

[Arckas]

Hey one thing you shouldn't do is make a puzzle solved with meta knowledge like in the garden puzzle.

The last puzzle was the colored rings on the tree corresponded to the numbers that gave us the code.

I don’t even remember a garden puzzle.