History Sandbox / TheDevilsPlan

* Auction: The fourth main match, Zoo, uses this as its primary mechanic. Players bid on which of two animal combinations are placed onto the field. The combination with the lowest combined bid is the one actually placed, but the individual player with the highest bid on that combination decides it exact combination.

* ConfessionCam: Downplayed. It exists, but the bulk of the confessions are at the very beginning, when a player is eliminated or any situation where a player is working alone, opting instead to use conversations between players whenever possible.

* GameBreaker: Of course a game like this is full of them:
** The Rules Race's open format around designing rules seems like it was written for this. The one that seems most effective is [[spoiler: using a personal rule to hoard escape tickets, then using a group rule allowing them to be spent to gain an ExtraTurn in succession]].

* SmartPeoplePlayChess: Or TabletopGame/Go, in this case. One of the contestants, Yeon-woo Cho, is a professional Go player.

** Some of the players believed the board games stocked in living area were a hint towards later games. [[spoiler: They were correct - Nine Men's Morris is one of the games played in the final match.]]

* EnterSolutionHere: [[spoiler: A hidden component in the prison asks for a numerical code. Its solution was hidden in the Pieces - arranging them in a specific formation spells out a message explaining what to do with it.]]

* FreezeFrameBonus: Most of the individual matches are referenced somewhere in the title sequence.

* ManlyTears: [[spoiler:Seok-jin does this, clearly overwhelmed being successful at the [[SecretLevel hidden game]] when See-won was not.]]

* SecretLevel: [[The SecretUndergroundPassage in the prison leads to one of these, a match of Blind Five In A Row. Unusual in that it's the only "single player vs. AI" game and it's a [[DeathOrGloryAttack high stakes game]] - winning gives the player 10 Pieces, losing eliminates them from the whole game.]]

* ConfessionCam: Downplayed. It exists, but the bulk of the confessions are at the very beginning and when a player is eliminated, and very rarely while the game is in progress, opting instead to use conversations with players.
* CreepyCave: The prison is styled as one.

* EliminatedFromTheRace: Any player who loses all their Pieces is eliminated from the game.

** It's brought up again on the Scale Game, the fourth prize match, when players note that they unintentionally assigned one of their most math-brained people to each of the three teams: [[Seok-jin, Dong-joo, and ORBIT]]

* ShockingElimination: [[spoiler: One player is eliminated from prison, after losing their pieces in the hidden game. Also counts for the remaining contestants' perspective too, as none of them realized this was even possible and aren't given an explanation until the next main match.]]

* CallBack: During a discussion between Dong-jae and Joon-bin about who he's aligning with during Secret Numbers, the third main match, Joon-bin jokingly shares a bit of info: he's the Reporter, one of the roles from the Virus Game two days and four episodes before. The screen in the game even shows the same graphic for it.

* CunningPeoplePlayPoker: Dong-jae and Guillaume are both introduced as professional poker players, and Guillaume is better known as a pro VideoGame/{{Starcraft}} player. Both seem particularly good at the social aspect of the games.

* DoWellButNotPerfect: After each main match, the two players with the lowest Piece count are sent to prison. Once players realize Pieces can be won there through a metal cast puzzle [[spoiler: and, later, a high-risk-high-reward match]], there becomes value in trying to get sent to prison.

* GoodWithNumbers: The third main match, Secret Numbers, makes it pretty clear who is and who isn't. [[spoiler:Orbit]] in particular seems on the high tier on this, as he ends up more or less taking the lead with a group of people and helping them with some of the highest scores in the match. On the other hand, [[spoiler:Dong-jae]] is pointed out as one of the better mathematicians by other players after the fact, but ultimately ends up with the lowest score.

* OnTheNext: Tends to show up at the end of each day of competition rather than the end of actual episodes.

* RecognitionFailure: Played with in the introduction. As contestants enter the mansion - many of which recognize each other - Yoo-min challenges them to guess who she is. In actuality, she's one of the few non-celebrity contestants.

** Just before starting Secret Numbers, Seok-jin is compared to his role in Problematic Men, suggesting he unintentionally looked the part.

* SleepDeprivation: In an attempt to hide information they expect will be important from the rest of the players, Seok-jin and Yoo-min are up all night after day 3-into-4, after noticing [[spoiler:there were three different designs for the Pieces they've been accumulating]].

* TheStrategist: With a game targeting intelligent people and professional gamers, a case could be made most players are this. Orbit probably fits the archaetype most, as he frequently takes the lead in figuring out group strategies.

* WinsByDoingAbsolutelyNothing: Discussed. Orbit proposes this during the Virus Game to ensure the citizens win, suggesting none of the players would be able to take any interactive actions that would allow the terrorists to infect anyone. It's rejected by the rest of the players in the end, and the announcer points out that it wouldn't work fast enough to give the intended result.

* CubrStompBattle: The first round of Word Tower was this, in part due to correctly anticipating the category given the letters they could see during setup. The team was given 10 minutes per round; this one was solved in just under 1!

* RealityHasNoSubtitles: The Rules Race word blocks are left untranslated. While the rules eventually chosen, invoked, and seriously considered are explained and described, viewers who can't read Korean won't be able to tell what was available in the first place.

* SpiritualSuccessor: To Series/TheGenius, another Korean reality show produced by Jung Jong-yeon emphasizing intelligence.

* SleepDeprivation: Seok-jin and Yoo-min are up all night after day 3-into-4, after noticing [[spoiler:there were three different designs for the Pieces they've been accumulating]].

* GoodWithNumbers: The third main match, Secret Numbers, makes it pretty clear who is and who isn't. [[spoiler:Orbit]] in particular seems on the high tier on this, as he ends up more or less taking the lead with a group of people and helping them with some of the highest scores in the match. On the other hand, [[spoiler:Dong-jae]] is pointed out as one of the better mathematicians, but ultimately ends up with the lowest score.

* OnceMoreWithClarity: It's fairly common for a character to say something that reads as a jump in logic given what we're shown, then flash back to different scenes that happened before that showed how they were able to determine that.

* PyrrhicVictory:

** Some of the players believed the board games stocked in living area were a hint towards later games. [[spoiler: They were correct - Nine Men's Morris is one of the games played in the finale.]]

* CunningPeoplePlayPoker: Dong-jae and Guillaume are both introduced as professional poker players, and Guillaume is better known as a pro VideoGame/{{Starcraft}} player.

** The Rules Race's open format around designing rules seems designed around this. The one that seems most effective is [[spoiler: using a personal rule to hoard escape tickets, then using a group rule allowing them to be spent to gain an ExtraTurn in succession]].
* GameShowHost: His name and identity are never revealed and never directly interacts with the contestants, but instead conducts the games through a video monitor. He's constantly seen sitting on a recliner, wearing a hoodie and electronic mask highlighting menacing eyes and a SlasherSmile, and speaking with a slight vocal distortion and echo.

* GoodWithNumbers: The third main match, Secret Numbers, makes it pretty clear who is and who isn't.

* RecognitionFailure: Played with in the introduction. As contestants enter the mansion - many of which know of each other - Yoo-min challenges them to guess who she is. In actuality, she's one of the few non-celebrity contestants.

** In Fragments of Memory, one detail noted in the picture was that Series/{{SquidGame}} was on TV. As both shows are Korean Netflix originals, this also counts as a CrossCompanyReference.
** Just before Secret Numbers, Seok-jin is compared to his role in Problematic Men, suggesting he unintentionally looked the part.

* SmartPeoplePlayChess: Or Go, in this case. One of the contestants, Yeon-woo Cho, is a professional Go player.

* SoloCharacterRun: Attempted during Fragments of Memory, the second prize match. The rules state that players will answer questions one at a time, with one picking up where the last one left off. [[Dong-joo ends up running all 10 questions on her own.]]

* WinsByDoingAbsolutelyNothing: Discussed. Orbit proposes this during the Virus Game to ensure the citizens win, suggesting none of the players would be able to take any interactive actions that would allow the terrorists to infect anyone. It's rejected by the rest of the players in the end, and the announcer points out that it wouldn't work fast enough to actually work as intended.
** Played straight during the Cooperative Puzzle, where [[spoiler: Dong-joo]] had made the final move in solving the puzzle, but [[spoiler: Joon-bin]] got credited with the victory since the carousel moved just far enough to put them in front of the puzzle.

The format is this: twelve contestants, most of which are celebrities and all known for intellectual pursuits, play various games in which their results cause them to gain or lose the show's currency, Pieces. These games test player's strategy and intelligence and include abstract strategy games, social deduction games, logic puzzles, and other similar challenges. These matches are broken into two categories: a main match, which is a competitive game where Pieces are primarily won or lost, and a prize match, a cooperative game where money is added to a pot that serves as prize money for the winner. Any time a player runs out of pieces, they are eliminated from the game. The last player two players remaining in the game play one final match, and the winner of that wins the competition and all accumulated prize money.

* AllOrNothing: Only one player can win the prize money in the end.

* DoWellButNotPerfect: After each main match, the two players with the lowest Piece count are sent to prison. Once players realize Pieces can be won there through a cast puzzle and, later, a [[spoiler: high-risk-high-reward match]], there becomes value in trying to get sent to prison.

* RealityTVShowMansion: The contestants live in a set resembling one. It's divided into both a living area and a game area, and at no point do the players leave it unless they're eliminated. We even see a brief time lapse of it being built in the show's opening minutes.

* ChekhovsGun: [[spoiler: The Pieces end up being a pretty big one in the end. Arranging them in a specific way gives a clue to a password hidden in the prison.]]

* CunningPeoplePlayPoker: Dong-jae and Guillaume are both introduced as professional poker players, and Guillaume is better known as a pro StarCraft player.

* ManipulativeEditing: Used in conjunction with OnceMoreWithClarity. Episodes often show us a specific story or perspective and after the rewind to show us how the events came to be.

* TheSummation: Around many pivotal moments in the match, we'll see flashbacks towards how the players were able to determine the

The Devil's Plan is a South Korean reality show produced by Netflix.

In this show, twelve contestants, most of which are celebrities, play various games in which their results cause them to gain or lose the show's currency, Pieces. These games test player's strategy and intelligence and include abstract strategy games, social deduction games, logic puzzles, and other similar challenges. These matches are broken into two categories: a main match, which is a competitive game where Pieces are primarily won or lost, and a prize match, a cooperative game where money is added to a pot that serves as prize money for the winner. Any time a player runs out of pieces, they are eliminated from the game.

* Chekhov's Gun: [[spoiler: The Pieces end up being a pretty big one in the end. Arranging them in a specific way gives a clue to a password hidden in the prison.]]

* CunningPeoplePlayPoker: Dong-jae and Guillaume are both introduced as professional poker players.

* GameShowHost: His name and identity are never revealed and never directly interacts with the contestants, but instead conducts the games through a video monitor. He's constantly seen sitting on a recliner, wearing a hoodie and mask, and speaking with a slight vocal distortion and echo.

* RealityTVShowMansion: The contestants live in a set resembling one. It's divided into both a living area and a game area. We even see a brief time lapse of it being built in the show's opening minutes.

* SocialDeductionGame: The first main match, the Virus Game. It's closely related to Mafia and directly compared to it by a few players. Teams are separated into terrorists, citizens, and neutrals. The terrorists win if they can infect all players, the citizens win if they survive long enough, and the neutral players have their own objectives unrelated to those. These are even further broken down to specific sub-roles triggered by taking specific actions throughout the room (for example, [[spoiler: the Officer can kill by flipping a book in a particular room containing that player's ID number]]), and most players aren't aware of each others' roles or who has a similar role.
* WinsByDoingAbsolutelyNothing: Orbit proposes this during the Virus Game to ensure the citizens win, suggesting none of the players would be able to take any interactive actions that would allow the terrorists to infect anyone. It's rejected by the rest of the players in the end, and the announcer points out that it wouldn't work fast enough to actually work as intended.