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"Thrills, chills, KILLS!"
Let's begin with a basic explanation of the class trial!

The Dangan Roleplay Subreddit's Class Trials (not to be confused with the unaffiliated Journal Roleplay Dangan Roleplay) are a series of Reddit Role Plays based on the video game series Danganronpa for the Play Station Vita. In these games, a psychotic bear traps a class of students inside a school and forces them to kill someone and get away with it. The killer is known as the "blackened" and the students vote for the killer during the class trial, which is similar in gameplay to the Ace Attorney series. If the killer is able to convince the other students that they're not the killer, they're allowed to escape the school and all the other students get executed. If they get caught, then only the blackened gets executed.

This system is what the Dangan Roleplay Trials are based on. Players choose a canon character from the series and sign up, before taking part in a trial where they can interact with the other players in character, and use the evidence the host has given them, along with the discussions with the other players to try to figure out whodunnit. Trials can only last up to 1 week, though usually last around 3 or 4 days. A Subreddit extension was also made available to allow the easy use of visible sprites.

The first trial was in late 2015: Komaru's Trial. Ever since then, the Class Trial Scene has grown strong, and to date, there have been well over 60 Class Trials hosted on Reddit. The first six trials were posted on the Dangan Ronpa Subreddit before a dedicated Dangan Roleplay Subreddit was formed. An updating list of all the Class Trials that have been hosted is kept here.

The subreddit has expanded to include Sequel Trials, Experimental Trials (an archive of which can be seen here), and various Side Games that break away from the Trial Format to feature competitive games and narratives of their own..

Please Note: Since every time a new class trial features a new continuity and a new cast, each individual trial will be in a section of its own.

WARNING: All of the class trials, and therefore this page, contain heavy spoilers for the Danganronpa series. Because of this, all spoilers on this page are unmarked. If you have not played the games yet, go back, play them and come back.


Contains examples of:

    open/close all folders 

     General Tropes for Trials 
  • Adaptational Heroism: To keep her from being a Game-Breaker, Tsumugi was ruled not to be the Mastermind of her killing game in Class Trial Canon, making her plain otaku persona into her real personality.
  • Adaptational Villainy: Occasionally, the killer will turn out to be a character who'd never have committed murder in the game.
  • Angst? What Angst?: With rare exceptions, the characters tend not to dwell on the fact that they remember the events of the previous games that killed many of them off.
  • Anyone Can Die: Given the Negative Continuity and the nature of the Danganronpa series. Every character has died at some point.
  • Ascended Extra: Although they died in the games without ever seeing a courtroom, Sayaka, Twogami, Mukuro, and Rantaro have all been made into actual participants of the trials. Nekomaru's Mechamaru form receives this as well to a lesser extent, as he is available as a character too. Mukuro even makes use of custom sprites featuring herself out of her Junko disguise.
    • A downplayed example is Natsumi Kuzuryuu, Fuyuhiko's sister. She has been playable despite being dead by the time the games took place. However, she is only playable in Experimental Trials and has not been allowed into the main CT series.
  • Broad Strokes: The Class Trials take place in a continuity where the cast knows about the events of the Danganronpa series, but all of the characters who were killed off for real are nevertheless still alive and able to be put into more killing games.
  • Butt-Monkey: Hagakure, Kazuichi and oddly enough, Makoto are the most common victims of this.
  • Canon Discontinuity: The rules of the Subreddit dictate that the Final Chapter of Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony never happened and that all trials take place in a continuity where Tsumugi wasn't the mastermind and survived the killing game with Keebo, Shuichi, Maki, and Himiko. Surprisingly, this rule does not exist because of the divisive nature of the ending but in order to keep Tsumugi as a viable Killing Game Participant.
  • Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: As an unfortunate consequence of forum roleplaying, occasionally characters will simply stop contributing mid-trial and disappear from the conversation.
  • Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: Nagito's frequent habit of being involved with murders has only gotten worse. Trials where he isn't withholding some sort of information tend to be rare.
    • To a Lesser Extent, Sayaka and Celeste also tend to be frequent killers and attempted killers.
  • Cruel and Unusual Death: As per the tradition of the series.
  • Death is Cheap: No matter who dies, every character comes back by the next trial.
  • Demoted to Extra: The previous protagonists are all less central to the trials than they were in their original games as the nature of the game allows many other characters to take. Nagito averts this for the most part, as he is frequently selected as a character in trials and often receives a significant role.
  • Genre Savvy: The characters are generally aware of the events of the games and often refer to old tropes and previous plot points.
  • Hero of Another Story: For some time after the 7th trial, students who weren't accepted into the trial had been sending messages to the trial's participants, detailing their views on the trial and the misadventures that they are up to. These misadventures were phased out after 30 trials or so to avoid interrupting Trial Narratives.
  • Leaning on the Fourth Wall: Frequently.
  • Memetic Loser: In-Universe.
    • In the early days, Makoto was legendary for his bad luck, having been responsible for their first loss and facing some sort of misfortune in nearly every trial he'd been in. This began to phase out as time went on.
    • Likewise, after his near-conviction in the sixth trial, Kazuichi was frequently accused of murders for quite some time. Even when he wasn't participating. He still remains somewhat of a Butt-Monkey.
    • Hajime suffers from a particularly severe case of this, having been reimagined by some players as a pervert in reference to Danganropa 2's Underwear collecting mechanic.
  • Me's a Crowd: There's a running gag where some players like to have multiple Ibuki. In the community's April Fool's joke, they "Ibukified" the entire subreddit. One Experimental Trial series did this literally by turning the entire cast into Ibuki clones.
  • Motive Rant: Typically happens once the blackened has been exposed.
  • Negative Continuity: None of these deaths ever stick. However, everybody is aware of the events of both games and previous trials. Nobody's sure how.
    • Somewhat subverted as time went on with the creation of Sequel Trials. Some trials were expanded into ongoing series, with each trial in a series following up on the Killing Game depicted in the previous trial. However, these series are usually depicted as taking place in their own continuity.
  • Oddball in the Series: The Experimental Trials were created as a category for trials that subvert the usual Trial format in some way, such as a Trial Series featuring Body Swapping, a Killing Game featuring Ace Attorney characters, and another that was a Continuity Reboot of Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc in which players lack their usual memories.
  • The Show Must Go Wrong: Given the nature of the series, any show or party typically results in somebody dying.
  • Sidelined Protagonist Crossover: Given that all the characters of the cast are being controlled by their own player, the protagonists of the main games such as Makoto, Hajime, and Shuichi are no longer the ones taking center stage at each trial.
  • Sudden Sequel Heel Syndrome: By the nature of sequel trials, characters who were originally completely innocent can become killers in the follow-up trial.
  • The Summation: Nearly every trial features at least one Climax Interference where a character (sometimes with partners) goes over the details of their theory about the murder.
  • They Killed Kenny Again:
    • Makoto has become the most frequent victim of the Class Trials, having been killed in 9 separate trials
    • Along the same lines, Kazuichi is the most frequent Killer, having killed in 7 trials. He's also one of the most popular victim choices, with 7 trials featuring his murder.
    • Mikan once died four trials in a row! Three as a victim (Trials 14-16) and once in Trial 17 as an executed accidental killer. It reached the point where she was banned from Trial 18 as a mercy.

Class Trials (Main Series)

These are the mainline trials which make up the bulk of the Subreddit's content. Due to a large backlog of trials, Tropes for individual trials will be listed on pages divided by seasons. Each Season consists of 10 Class Trials and features any sequels that were hosted afterwards. Some of the significant Trial Series that received multiple sequels have received their own pages.

Experimental Trials

Although they follow the same format and rules as regular Class Trials, a special classification of Class Trial has emerged for Trial Hosts who find themselves getting a little creative. These Experimental Trials feature their own spins on the typical Class Trial, with some featuring twists on the rules, Genre Shifts or even unique characters who are not normally a part of the main Danganronpa cast.

Given the expanding archive of Experimental Trials, they will be separated into Seasons consisting of Ten Trials, plus whatever sequels came afterwards. One additional page also features special-themed Side Trials that were either hosted before the Experimental Trial classification was created or feature casts from games outside of Danganronpa.

Side Projects

As the subreddit has grown, various Side Games have popped up as well. These Side Games eschew the usual class trial formula to put Danganronpa characters through a variety of other games with their own rules. Some of the more extensive side games have received their own pages. Some of the smaller games will be listed below.

Whodunnit

In a blending of the concepts between Whodunnit? (2013) and Danganronpa, various Danganronpa characters are locked in a mansion and told to find out which one of them has been tasked with killing them. Players are killed one by one, with whoever presents the worst theory for how each murder occurred being the next to die.

    Tropes for Whodunnit: Season 1 
  • All Just a Dream: After months of competition, the game ends with it being revealed as a dream.
  • Crossover: Between Whodunnit? (2013) and Danganronpa.
  • Cruel and Unusual Death: Fuyuhiko is revealed to be the killer in this game and is punished by being starved by Monokuma while the insanely long final challenge commences.
  • Epic Fail: Hifumi mistakes Candles for Candies while investigating Kyoko's murder.
  • Genius Ditz: Hifumi Yamada, Sonia Nevermind, Kiyotaka Ishimaru and (to a lesser extent) Celestia Ludenberg manage to be the final survivors, with the latter two even managing to identify the killer.
  • No Ending: Nobody is actually crowned as a winner.
  • Thanatos Gambit: Knowing that she is going to be murdered next, Kyoko leaves evidence implicating the true killer that allows Fuyuhiko to finally be outed.

    Tropes for Whodunnit Season 2 
  • Butt-Monkey:
    • Hajime is bullied by children, abused, disliked by pretty much everybody, shot up with paintballs for pretty much no reason, and ultimately killed. The pet Tiger that Natsumi Kuzuryuu named after him quickly becomes more popular than him.
    • Masaru also becomes one for the Warriors of Hope after a couple of mistakes that get him ousted from his role as King (albeit, a puppet king for Monaca) and demoted to servant.
  • The Cameo: Nagito shows up from the Distrust continuity during an AB Game challenge to warn them all that they should never, ever vote Ally against Hajime.
  • Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: Toko and Jataro both sign-up and then disappear without having been eliminated. In Jataro's case, it becomes a Running Gag as the Warriors of Hope start to suggest that he's living in the Ballpit feasting upon anyone who enters.
  • Improbable Infant Survival: The Warriors of Hope form a strong alliance which keeps them alive over many older players. Finally Subverted more than halfway through the game as Kotoko ends up becoming a victim. Monaca, Nagisa, and Masaru, however, remain alive and well.
  • No Ending: Even more so than the first game, as it at least received an All Just a Dream conclusion while the second season simply fizzled out late in the game.
  • Retool: The game is set up as one for the controversial First Season.
  • Sacrificial Lamb: Leon plays this role, having been brought in to be the first victim
  • Sequel Escalation: While the first season featured a cast of 13, this season had 22 players.

Mastermind

Thirteen students find themselves on a boat, forced to compete in a Danganronpa version of The Genius.

    Tropes for Mastermind 
  • Crossover: Between The Genius and Danganronpa.
  • I Lied: After winning a challenge and being given the choice between sending Akane or Hiyoko to the Death Match, Nagito blackmails Hiyoko for all of her Gems to keep her out of the Death Match. When she pays up, he proceeds to send her to the Death Match anyways and even blackmails her into targetting a particular player.
  • Men Are the Expendable Gender: Averted. The first four eliminated contestants all end up being female characters. By the time the game was abandoned, the only female left was Celeste.
  • Mood Whiplash: Fuyuhiko notes that it's difficult to take this life-or-death competition seriously with such silly challenges.
  • No Ending: Yet another example of a side game which never reached a proper conclusion being abandoned nearly halfway through..

Dangan Survivor

The Cast of Danganronpa finds themselves competing in a nice game of Series/Survivor, hosted by Jeff Probst.

    Tropes for Survivor Season One 

  • Disc-One Final Boss: After building one of the strongest alliances in the game, Junko is suddenly traded off to the opposing Tribe and promptly eliminated without any trustworthy allies.
  • Ship Tease: The Game quickly devolves into having several characters having sexy adventures.

Dangan Mole

In a send-up to The Mole, Contestants compete to add money to a pot for a single victor while trying to weed out which of them is the mysterious mole trying to sabotage their games.

    Tropes for Season One 
  • Butt-Monkey: Hajime
  • The Comically Serious: Munakata is both the most comedic and most rigid character in the cast with his plethora of memetic quirks and straight-laced attitude.
  • Once Done, Never Forgotten: Makoto Naegi makes an unfortunately selfish decision to secure himself immunity for another episode while reducing the pot of prize money and earning the ire of many players.
  • Running Gag: Munakata is the cause of several, between his uses of the word "Platitudes", his insanely meticulous safe driving, his enforcement of Rule 3 (no Erotism), and his decision to sleep in a broom closet rather than the hotel room he's supposed to share with Hajime

Dangan Royale

The Students of Hope's Peak Academy are cast into a deadly game where only one can emerge alive.

    Tropes for Dangan Royale 

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