Roleplay / Class Trials Experimental Trials Season 1

Tropes from the First Experiment Trial Season (Experimenta Trials 1-10) of the r/DanganRoleplay subreddit.

---

Experimental Trial 1

Seventeen High School Students meet for the very first time in the halls of Hope's Peak Academy. They soon find themselves facing a deadly Killing Game, with the Ultimate Swimmer, Aoi Asahina, ending up as the very first victim after the students receive videos depicting their loved ones in trouble. This trial has received two sequels.

Tropes for the First Experimental Trial

• Continuity Reboot: Acts as one for the first game, as none of the players know of any other Class Trials.
• Despair Event Horizon: Mukuro passes it after finding Junko's body
• The Friend Nobody Likes: Mukuro starts off as this after her true identity is revealed prior to the trial.
• Mask of Sanity: Nagito maintains one throughout the trial, never quite letting his full Hope obsession be exposed.
• Murder by Mistake: Mondo meant to kill Mukuro, only to unwittingly kill Hina in a struggle when she came upon him with a murder weapon.
• Not His Sled: Junko's body is found prior to the first trial, implying a new Mastermind.
• Rejected Apology: Leon refuses to forgive Sayaka after she confesses that she lured him out with the intent to kill him and then couldn't go through with it.
• This Is Unforgivable!: Although most of the group forgives Mukuro, Hina's best friend, Sakura, pointedly refuses to.
• Turn the Other Cheek: After confessing, Mondo requests to the group that they forgive Mukuro, feeling that she deserves to be given a chance to be everybody's friend.

Tropes for ET 1- 2

Chihiro Fujisaki is found dead after Monokuma threatens to reveal the darkest secrets of the survivors.

• Abhorrent Admirer: Natsumi picks one up in Leon, who obviously isn't ugly but nevertheless annoys her with his advances.
• Death Trap: Hagakure sets one up to try and kill Natsumi, although Byakuya ends up using it on Chihiro's corpse.
• Driven to Suicide: Chihiro
• Failed a Spot Check: Hagakure unwittingly allows Byakuya to see him setting up his fire trap, allowing Byakuya to make use of it.
• It Amused Me: While Byakuya did have a reason to set up Chihiro's death, he decides to complicate the mystery by moving Chihiro's body into Hagakure's death trap for his own amusement. He also lets the trial go on despite knowing the full truth behind the case.
• Once Done, Never Forgotten: Leon is caught getting romantic with a mop while practicing his seduction techniques, which Natsumi proves to always be quick to remind him of.
• Ordered to Die: Byakuya blackmails Chihiro into committing suicide to cover up a dark secret.
• No Sympathy For Grudge Holders: Despite his insistence that Chihiro was an accomplice to the mastermind and thus a threat, nobody is willing to forgive Byakuya for manipulating him into committing suicide.
• To Be Lawful or Good: Upon revealing the truth behind Chihiro's actions, Byakuya tells the others to decide whether they want him to share the Secret that he was blackmailing Chihiro over or let Chihiro keep his secret as he'd wished. They choose to be told the truth.

Tropes for ET 1- 3

Hallucinations overtake the students of Hope's Peak Academy until Makoto Naegi's body is found dead in the suit of Justice Robo.

• Cannot Tell Fiction from Reality: The hallucinations shatter Chiaki's grasp on reality, leaving her convinced that the world is just a videogame.
• Driven to Madness: Chiaki
• Even Evil Has Standards: Despite his role in Chihiro's suicide, Byakuya is still disgusted by Monokuma driving Chiaki insane.
• Mask of Sanity: Chiaki manages to feign sanity until being forced to confess.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: In her delusional state, Chiaki was aiming to cause a mass execution in hopes of restarting the supposed game and bringing back their dead friends.

Experimental Trial 2

Tensions flare on Jabberwock Island as obnoxious sounds are played every hour. An otherwise petty Monokuma motive soon gives way to a shockingly brutal case when Peko and Sayaka are found murdered.

Tropes for the Second Experimental Trial

• Asshole Victim: Sayaka proves to be one, having tried to murder Natsumi in a plot unrelated to Mukuro or Junko's.
• Cold-Blooded Torture: Mukuro tortures Peko to the brink of death on Junko's orders.
• Hijacked by Ganon: After her role in Peko's torture is revealed, Junko replaces Monokuma as the Trial's Host.
• Karma Houdini: Mukuro and Junko face no repercussions for what they did to Peko.
• Mercy Kill: Fuyuhiko performs one for Peko after finding her tortured and mutilated body.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Ibuki leads an effort to tie the vote, unwittingly dooming both Kuzuryuu siblings to die.
• Plot-Irrelevant Villain: Sayaka's attempt to murder Natsumi proves to be very disconnected from the grander case involving Peko's torture and murder.
• Take a Third Option: When Monokuma provides an opportunity for the class to vote for only one blackened to die, Ibuki leads an effort to tie the vote.
• Televised Torture: Mukuro films Peko's torture and it is ultimately played for the class.
• Together in Death: Fuyuhiko and Natsumi.

Experimental Trial 3

Imprisoned within an MMORPG and fighting to escape before the game's Free Trial period comes to an end, the Players are recovering from a long day of adventuring in a local village inn when Shuichi Saihara is suddenly killed in an explosion.

Tropes for the Third Experimental Trial

• Despair Event Horizon: Mahiru's motive for committing murder, having realized that their progress was too slow to have any chance of reaching the end.
• Good Bad Bugs: An in-universe example. Mahiru makes use of an exploit which allows her to cast spells that she doesn't know by recording another player casting them.
• The Most Dangerous Video Game: Dying in the game world causes one to die in the real world.
• RPG Mechanics 'Verse: The gimmick of the trial.
• Single-Attempt Game: As to be expected of a game designed by Monokuma.
• Suspicious Videogame Generosity: Prior to the trial, Monokuma has everybody's Health and Mana restored to full in order to prevent the Mana Meter from pointing at a culprit
• Trapped in Another World: The Danganronpa cast find themselves in an MMORPG setting of Monokuma's design.
• Unwinnable by Design: After Mahiru is found guilty, Monokuma admits that there was a level cap in play that would've made completing the game impossible.

Experimental Trial 4

While imprisoned on Jabberwock Island, the participants of this latest Killing Game find themselves gaining new Psychic Abilities passed on from Four Great Heroes. The newly empowered students are only just discovering their new powers when Fuyuhiko Kuzuryuu is found murdered. This trial has received a sequel.

Tropes for the Fourth Experimental Trial

• Batter Up!: Fuyuhiko's murder weapon.
• Cast from Stamina: Shuichi ends up being implicated by his exhaustion after secretly using so many of his powers.
• The Coroner Doth Protest Too Much: Shuichi is caught lying about the cause of death in his autopsy, although he tries to pass it off as an amateur mistake.
• Dark Secret: Shuichi discovers one that convinces him that a mass execution is required, although he decides against sharing what it is.
• Death Is the Only Option: Shuichi tries to convince the class to vote incorrectly on purpose, although he isn't able to get quite enough votes.
• Force Field: Shuichi uses one to temporarily hide the body in the airport's baggage carousel.
• Gadgeteer Genius: Students who inherited the Third Hero's "Powers" become this, lacking any psychic abilities but becoming gifted mechanics and inventors.
• Meteor-Summoning Attack: One of the abilities hypothesized as a potential murder method was one.
• Sure, Why Not?: Nagito's immediate response to Shuichi's plea to throw the trial.
• Whole-Plot Reference: The trial, and ensuing sequel, are clear references to Videogame/Earthbound

Tropes for ET 4- 2

Having assigned her cult to paint the whole island blue, Angie Yonaga is found dead in the Diner.

• Dark Secret: Sonia claims to have learned of the reason behind Shuichi's crime and decided that he was right all along about the need for the Killing Game to end with a mass execution. Like Shuichi, she refuses to share this secret though.
• Death Is the Only Option: Sonia follows in Shuichi's footsteps with the same plea.
• The Extremist Was Right: Sonia claims that the horrible truth that Shuichi discovered was indeed worth killing everybody over.
• Four-Temperament Ensemble: The four players decide to go along with Sonia's request fit these roles nicely, with Aoi being the optimistic and trusting Sanguine, Koichi being the brash and cynical Choleric, Nagito being the mood-swinging loner Melancholic, and Korekiyo being the calm and logical Phlegmatic
• In-Universe Catharsis: Keebo admits that accidentally shooting Nagito with a block of ice was very cathartic.

Class Trial 5

An Ibuki from another World who fell into Despair is brought back to life and proceeds to transform the participants of a Killing Game into clones of herself. It isn't long before one of the new Ibukis is found hanging in the Music Venue. Not only must they find out who the killer is, but the participants now must solve the mystery of who the victim among them even is.

This trial featured several sequels and now has its own page at Class Trials ET 5

Experimental Trial 6

Kokichi and Nagito are found dead in the halls of the Ultimate Academy for Gifted Juveniles.

Tropes for the Sixth Experimental Trial

• Asshole Victim: Nagito turns out to be an accomplice to Kokichi's murder
• Continuity Nod: Despite the ending of V3 being considered Canon Discontinuity on the subreddit, Himiko still notes her displeasure with Sakura's claim that they are all fictional personas with Fake Memories
  Himiko: Nyeeh... I think I've heard this twist before and I really didn't like it the first time!
• Disc-One Final Boss: An in-universe example. Sakura turns out to be the Mastermind, but ends up being executed after the very first trial.
• Fake Memories: Sakura reveals that the entire cast possesses fake personalities as a callback to Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony.
• Not Himself: Sakura
• Required Party Member: The gimmick of this trial revolved around letting Participants choose another player's character for them.
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: After successfully killing Kokichi, Sakura murders Nagito to silence him.

Experimental Trial 7

Monokuma summons the pets of the participants of his latest Killing Game, mutating them into abominations until Gundham Tanaka is found dead.

Tropes for the Seventh Experimental Trial

• Bad People Abuse Animals: In addition to having temporarily turned the pets into abominations, Monokuma decides to execute Ryoma's cat as well as Ryoma.
• Big Damn Heroes: After spending much of the trial Out of Focus, Kirumi received a new player who almost immediately identified the method of Gundham's murder for everybody.
• Body Horror: Monokuma transforms various pets into abominations.
• Brainwashed and Crazy: In addition to their mutations, the pets are given a strand of Despair Disease that effectively turns them into living weapons.
• Chest Burster: Gundham's death turns out to have been caused by Toko's Stinkbug bursting out of his stomach.
• Force Feeding: Ryoma feeds Toko's stinkbug to an unconscious Gundham.
• Improbably Female Cast: With 11 female characters and only 5 men, Kokichi spends the trial accusing women of being the killer out of sheer probability.
• Living Emotional Crutch: Ryoma's cat turns out to be his, as Monokuma's abuse of it is enough to drive him to commit murder.
• Right-Hand Cat: Kokichi tries to call dibs on Ryoma's cat prior to execution to fulfill this trope.

Experimental Trial 8

The newly introduced students of the 77th Class attend a School trip with their teacher, until a fiend calling himself Monokuma forces them into a Killing Game. Despite trying to keep her students safe, their teacher Chisa Yukizome ends up being the victim.

Tropes for the Eighth Experimental Trial

• Accidental Murder: Hiyoko turns out to have accidently caused Chisa's death by getting her struck by a cow in the barn.
• Continuity Reboot: Acts as one for the second game, featuring the entire cast in a killing game without any knowledge of the games.
• Honor Before Reason: Fuyuhiko attacks Monokuma in an attempt to save Hiyoko from execution.
• Implausible Deniability: Teruteru continues to refuse to believe that the game is real up or that Chisa is really dead until the very end of the trial, even deciding not to vote for a culprit.
• Left Hanging: The trial ends with Hiyoko having yet to be executed and Fuyuhiko having attacked Monokuma.
• Mentor Occupational Hazard: The first victim winds up being the cast's teacher, Chisa Yukizome
• Sacrificial Lion: Chisa acts as one, participating in Pre-Trial threads with her students before being announced as the victim.

Experimental Trial 9

The survivors of the three Killing Games find themselves gathered together for yet another Trial in the Ultimate Academy for Gifted Juveniles. With a one-week deadline to commit murder before they all time, the survivors try to avoid turning on each other until Makoto Naegi is suddenly murdered.

Tropes for the Ninth Experimental Trial

• Back from the Dead: Monokuma offers a chance to resurrect the fallen friends of whichever survivor commits murder.
• Divided We Fall: The motive pits the three classes against eachother to some extent, with the killer's classmates exempt from execution.
• Drama-Preserving Handicap: The use of accomplices was forbidden in the rules to prevent students from be able to directly conspire with their classmates for a murder.
• What You Are in the Dark: Despite being safe from execution and having a chance to restore their classmates to life, two of Hina's fellow Danganronpa 1 survivors still vote for her guilt.

Experimental Trial 10

Sixteen Ultimate Students awaken in the halls of a strange school known as the Academy for Gifted Juveniles, only to find themselves tossed into a twisted game of Hope and Despair.

Tropes for the Tenth Experimental Trial

• Continuity Reboot: Acts as one for the third game, as none of the players know of any other Class Trials.
• Schedule Slip: Has been on hold since 2020.