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Try not to get stabbed too early, okay?

Murder! is a game mode featured in Garry's Mod, based around, well, MUUURRRDDERRRRRR.

In each round, a single Murderer spawns. They are equipped with a knife that will kill anyone they smack it with in a single hit, and is completely silent. Their objective is to kill everyone else.

And by everyone else, we mean a bunch of completely defensless Bystanders that must explore the map in search of different items called clues that glow green. When a number of clues are gathered, the Bystander who collected them is given a Magnum that will kill the Murderer in one shot — but has a long reload time, and only fires one shot. A Bystander will also spawn with one at the beginning of the round, and their decision to brandish it or save it can either lure the murderer to them, getting a good shot, or forcing the murderer to be more careful around them. If they die, then the gun drops — if another Bystander can pick it up, they'll be armed.

If a Bystander with a gun shoots another innocent Bystander, they'll be severely incapacitated for a good 30 seconds, at which point they're ripe for a shanking. Be warned, however, that everyone is given codenames (which can be customized per server) and has a radial voice menu that can say jokes, sad musings, questions, and screams of terror.

A large amount of the fun in the game is the interactions between the different people, and the sheer terror of seeing someone brandish that terrifying knife.

The game mode can be found for free in Garry's Mod 13. See also Melonbomber, another gamemode made by the same user. Compare and contrast Trouble in Terrorist Town, which is very similar, and slightly more popular. The game has a Spiritual Successor in the form of Homicide, a game mode for Garry's Mod which takes many ideas from this game and adds a new twist to it.


Tropes used in Murder!:

  • Absurdly Ineffective Barricade: Played with. Bystanders have the option of barricading themselves in rooms with whatever they can find, which can be useful enough on occasion. However, most items can eventually be swatted aside and/or broken easily, and without a gun you're only stalling for time. The absolute worst possibility? The murderer is in your group and behind the barricade already.
  • Always Murder: You think?
  • Awesome, but Impractical: Both weapons. Sure, they're both one hit kill, but they have such crippling issues that they require skill.
    • The knife is short range, requiring the Murderer to get up close and personal, and while it can be thrown, once it's thrown, the murderer needs to go pick it back up, leaving them open to be shot. Skilled players can dodge the knife with relative ease.
    • The gun is accurate, intimidating, and easy to use — but has an exceedingly long reload animation after a single shot, so make it count.
  • Combat Pragmatist: The murderer can choose to be this, by picking off bystanders one by one and waiting for a trigger-happy gunman to commit friendly fire before going in for the kill. Unlike that other game, this isn't necessary per se, since the murderer can cut through swaths of people if they play their cards right, but it does help.
  • Death of a Thousand Cuts: Averted. It only takes one good swing or toss of the knife to instantly kill a Bystander.
  • Disposing of a Body: Once someone's killed, their body stays, leaving the murderer to either hide it or kill everyone else quickly. note 
  • Drunk on the Dark Side: It's fairly common for whoever plays the murderer to go over-the-top and start revelling in their villainous nature, though some make the mistake of doing this before they get discovered.
  • Friendly Fireproof: Averted. The gunman can kill other bystanders in a single hit. To penalise them, however, they will drop their gun and be unable to pick it up for thirty seconds.
  • Glass Cannon: The murderer. They can sprint, and their knife (plus the lack of armed civilians aside from one gunman, at least until other players pick up props) means they will be able to kill large numbers of people in a short period of time. However, they are as vulnerable as the other players and a single gunshot will kill them.
  • Instant Death Bullet: One shot from the gun will kill anyone else in the game. To compensate, there's only one bullet.
  • Lethal Joke Item: It's possible to kill someone by picking up an object and hitting them repeatedly in the face with it.
  • Military Alphabet: In the base, un-modified version of Murder, all of the players' in-game names are taken from the NATO phonetic alphabet.
  • Murder by Mistake: Happens quite often if the gunman either comes to the wrong conclusion or just feels like being a dick.
  • Non-Action Guy: Anyone who spawns without a gun is entirely helpless, unless they are able to loot a gun off the corpse of whoever had one first, or pick up enough props. Some mods do change this slightly by allowing Bystanders to hit back, although typically damage is low and the murderer will kill them after weathering a couple of hits.
  • One-Hit Kill: The knife and gun.
  • Red Herring Mole: Much like in TTT, it's possible for many people to be mistaken for the real deal. Numerous players will sarcastically declare that they are the murderer and then behave in a shifty manner, simply to grief with any gunmen.
  • Ten Little Murder Victims: This is the basic premise.
  • Throwing Your Sword Always Works: Played with. If the knife actually hits, it's an instant kill. Experienced players, on the other hand, can dodge fairly easily.
  • Video Game Cruelty Punishment: Decided to shoot a potentially innocent bystander for no reason? You'll drop your gun, be slowed down and almost blinded for thirty seconds, leaving you open to a quick stab.
  • Wolf in Sheep's Clothing: The murderer. Just an innocent bystander... till they brandish their knife with which they will stab you.
  • Word-Salad Humor: The Magnum's Alt Text in the Source weapon wheel is simply "The ice-cream." This has no point to anything (especially since Bystanders would have no real reason to check the wheel as the Magnum would be the only weapon in their inventory), but it's there for Rule of Funny.

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