Is the "death game" trope overplayed?

My current project is a dark, gritty, serious, fantasy series set in a world that has magic on the level of modern/slightly futuristic technology. This includes TV/radio/computers/internet using magical principles instead of science (for example, illusion magic to create holographic videos, communication magic to send internet signal, etc)

Within this highly magitek setting, the book I'm currently working on is about a neutral military academy that nations all across the world send their promising young soldiers to for officer training. Think university level studies, average student age is in the mid to late 20s, most already have military background and possibly even combat experience.

One way or another, the end result of the story is that one of the Gods of this world is preparing to make war against the other Gods, and has decided that since this military academy has a very diverse collection of soldiers with high leadership potential, he is going to recruit them for his army whether they like it or not. The students will be undergoing a year-end training exercise, and during it they must capture a portal. The evil God's cultists have infiltrated the school staff and connected the portal to the God's Divine Realm, where he has absolute control.

Upon entering that Divine Realm, the students are given an ultimatum: serve the God as officers in his army in the mortal realm, or die and become corrupted into demons to be fodder in his army in the upper realms. Those who wish to join him must prove their worth and loyalty by killing 10 of their fellow cadets. Chaos ensues, with some trying to murder others, some trying to flee, nobody trusting anyone except their close friends (maybe not even them). When the initial chaos ends, the God announces that several people proved themselves, but those who remain will still join him even unwillingly. The corpses of those slain become twisted into demons that begin to prey on the survivors.

My problem begins at this point. I can go a few different routes from here, but the main ones I'm considering are:
- zombie route: they aren't zombies, but the general idea is the same. Nobody can be trusted, survival is all anyone has time to think about, the fallen become the enemy, the focus is on character development via who retains their humanity by protecting others and who gives in to baser instincts to sacrifice others for their own safety

- traditional fantasy route: we've all read plenty of "mad God trying to destroy the world" stories, but that doesn't mean there isn't room for one more. Standard fantasy concepts of assembling the band of adventurers, avoiding the BBEG's minions, finding a way to escape the Divine Realm and possibly do some damage on the way out (far too early in the series for the BBEG to be defeated)

- "death game" route: an homage to stories like Ark, Legendary Moonlight Sculptor, The New Gate, 1/2 Prince, Yureka, the .hack franchise, Sword Art Online, Log Horizon, Overlord etc... basically, imitating the feel of an online multiplayer RPG complete with towns, NPCs, quests, monsters, etc. The Divine Realm has an entire civilization of its own, unique from the world the cadets hail from. While most of these people are loyal to the Mad God in some way, they are not inherently hostile. In fact, the God himself, being completely mad and overconfident since he has absolute control in this world, decides to toy with the survivors by promising that if they fulfill his requirements he will allow them to go free. These requirements basically resemble a game, with the end goal being to explore the Divine Realm, defeat powerful enemies to obtain key fragments, and use them to open portals that will allow them to go further, with the portal back to the Mortal Plane being in the final city after all key fragments are recovered.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Whichever route I go with the story, the feel of the story will be very dark, with quite a bit of death. I'm not interested in/not capable of writing a lighthearted adventure story, so that's not even a consideration here. With that in mind, what route do you folks think would work best? Are "zombie" stories too cliched lately for that to work out? Is the "virtual reality game" concept too cliche and trendy at the moment due to the massive popularity of stories in this genre among young adults? Especially, is the genre too connected in the public eye to the idea of nerdy anime loving tweens for it to be considered a serious piece as intended?

Edited to add: the focus of the novel isn't to go the route of military fiction, but since the characters are cadets at a military academy and I personally served 10 years in the US Army, it will definitely have aspects of military fiction. In the end, though, most of the main characters are first year students, and from independent military outfits/mercenaries rather than career soldiers.

Treehouseman said:

Until the novel is written you can't really make any assumptions on how it will turn out.

A great many manuscripts have changed endings and even GENRE before their final draft.

People will tie themselves up in knots on little petty details (after a few years here, I've noticed folks will post HUGE detailed synopses on their novel, but never actually write the novel). Yes, military cadets and gods and magic are all minor details. Nice details, but not important enough to worry about. What you need is one strong character who has a desire, and a threat that prevents him/her from getting it. Everything else in your story is just window dressing.

Go forth and good luck!

Click to expand...

This gives me literally nothing -_-

I'm not really worried about the genre, no matter how I write the latter half it's still going to be a dark fantasy novel; sub-genre would probably change but that doesn't change the story, only who readers will compare it to.

I'm well aware that things change as you write, which is why my trilogy has turned into a 9 book series and still reworking things lol. But I have to have a direction to head in at least, and right now I have 3 equally valid options that all seem to be far too stereotypical to me. The world setting itself is extremely developed, the characters are (in my opinion) unique and likable; the basic premise of the story is decent; the only thing missing is how I want to flesh it out. Which is why I was asking here if these concepts seem too stereotypical, especially since the one I personally prefer is the most overplayed at the moment in the target demographic.

noirdood said:

It is not what you do it is how you do it. A top Hollywood director told his studio boss he wanted to make a film about a couple of people riding on the interstate bus routes. "You wanna make another bus pictures?" was the answer. A lot of films about the new interstate bus routes were being filmed in the 1930s.
He made it anyway, with Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert and the picture won the top five Academy Awards -- best picture, best screenplay, best director, best actor, best actress. It was the first time one movie had won all the top 5 awards. All on account of just "another bus picture."

Click to expand...

This is quite reassuring I can't help but think that I really don't have the confidence in myself to expect results like that, though, lol

themindstream said:

Giving the evil overlord role in the story does address the main issue I have with such stories: I don't find it realistic that a human society would willingly tolerate their own people being chosen for these games no mater how dystopian and authoritarian it was. We have had bloodsports in our history, sure, but anyone actually condemned in them were prisoners (whether of war or of crimes) or slaves (if that; it would be impractical to waste a good slave). Even the Roman gladiatorial games, we are learning, were probably more akin to professional wrestling today: a lot of stuff was staged.

Click to expand...

Yeah, that's something I have had an issue with a lot in series I've encountered so far. For example, the Tower of God series by Lee Jonghui (SIU)... everyone cheerfully participates in a competition that literally guarantees death to the vast majority of participants; they murder competitors without ever once considering the thought that they themselves could be killed just as casually by a bigger fish; nobody cares about death at any point except when they believe the main character died, then there's tons of tragic mourning and they just can't believe he's dead even after a SIX YEAR time skip. It's ridiculously unbelievable, incredibly shitty writing. And yet it's consistently one of the highest viewed and most referenced webcomics on both the original Korean and translated English versions of LINE Webtoon, which hosts hundreds of other series...

I didn't really give the BBEG the role of instigator in order to escape that, it's more like the BBEG is central to the entire series so it would inevitably have to involve him anyways. And since he's completely insane, corrupted by power, very overconfident, and has absolute authority in that Divine Realm, he can afford to toy with them, and I feel it's in his character to do so.

folclor said:

Maybe instead of an MMO it reads like a one player RPG or perhaps a squad based tactics game

Click to expand...

I picked the MMO style concept because it would focus on working together with others to complete quests, defeating bosses, etc. I definitely can't go single-player RPG route feel because that would lead to a primary main character and the rest just feeling like sidekicks/party members, rather than feeling like distinct characters with their own motivations. They're other players, not NPCs

The death game, done well, isn't bad, zombies are a bit stale on their own (in my opinion), but I can't see this story lending itself as well to the traditional fantasy route.

Click to expand...

This is definitely how I feel as well lol. Some of the other stories in the series go the traditional fantasy route (well, as much as you can in a high magitek setting, but I mostly mean the traditional concept of BBEG, gathering allies, quest to get something to use against BBEG, etc) but this one definitely just doesn't feel like it to me. I can see options for making it go that route, but I feel like the characters and the setting are leading me more toward "zombies" or MMO.

I like your suggestion of mixing the two! I don't really know just yet how that would turn out, but that could be an interesting combination. I mean, either way, there's still going to be zombie-like elements with the fact that anyone who dies becomes a demon that is hostile to the other characters, but an MMO story where they also have to be constantly on guard, the occasional overwhelming horde of enemies, the paranoia about who may or may not be turned/turning, etc, could definitely lead in a different direction than most MMO style stories.

It could even get you to go down the route of a darker sort of game.

Click to expand...

Idunno if that's really much of an option? I mean, I'm not saying that I have the darkest writing style, but this entire series has a gothic horror/Ravenloft influence, at least in tone. The realization that death is always only a mistake away, and failure is more likely than success, is always at the very front of the characters' minds. And I fully believe in the "expendable main character." If it feels appropriate to the situation, I will kill off the main character, and I'm not very quick to write "disney deaths" or resurrection plots. I also don't believe in a hero coming out of a fight unscathed, no matter how big the power difference; if the hero can just slaughter them without thought, then it's the same as a generic travel scene: unnecessary to the plot and therefore removed/relegated to the background as a one-sentence mention of an unimportant event that happened between scenes. So these characters are going to come out on the far end with real scars, both physical and mental. A lot won't make it at all. And there's no resolution of the BBEG getting beaten to get revenge for all those tragic deaths/injuries; the only reward at the end is survival and escape.

Camellia said:

Looking over your summary, it occurs to me that the antagonist's actions would make a lot more sense if he was looking for the strongest of the pack to become his avatar/champion. This would naturally lead into a PVP sort of scenario, where, if you wanted to make it an ensemble story, your favorites could survive and team up in defiance. You mention that several were approved by the god - do they have a role in the story, yet? Perhaps they're hunting your leads?

Click to expand...

The God doesn't care about finding the strongest, because he's confident they will all fall to him before successfully escaping. I'm sure he would assign them ranks based on their strength though, so that would probably inspire those who already turned to prove themselves against the remaining survivors. There will definitely be former-allies-turned-demon hunting the main characters, though. The main characters will mostly be teamed up, but due to circumstances along the way there will be times where they work separately. The following novel in the series will be told from the point of view of one of the other characters who doesn't travel with the main party, following that character's journey that has very different goals than the current mains. That character appears in the first occasionally, sometimes as a reluctant ally, but often as an antagonist.

at what is apparently early in the arc of a series.

Click to expand...

It's not really the beginning of the series, honestly; it's currently planned as a 9 book series and this will likely be published 4th or 5th, although order is not incredibly important as most of the books are stand-alone novels with separate casts and circumstances, that all tie together and cross over to create an overall image of the world setting. The only one that has a solid position in the series is the final book, which resolves the issue of the BBEG, closes out most of the sub-plots, and sets the stage for the next series. All of the books are in various stages of rough draft except one; most are about 1/3 to 1/2 written.

Knowing more about the characters involved would be helpful, as well as how you intend to handle the NPCs involved in option three. Any chance of them switching sides, for instance?

Click to expand...

I could certainly do that as for switching sides, do you mean the NPCs or the characters? Either way, some could change sides

(edited to add: ) The "NPCs" in question would be actual denizens of the Divine Realm, which possesses its own unique cities, cultures, and races. The Realm itself is only as large as a medium-sized nation in the Mortal Realm, though (my mental image of it is something like the size and population density of Quebec province) The only reason I compare them to NPCs is because their motivations and backgrounds are irrelevant to the story, and most interactions will revolve around quest-giving and trade. They are not innately hostile to the characters, but they serve their God who is hostile, so there is the possibility of some turning on the characters. The demons of the Mad God's army are 100% hostile to the characters, however, and are in much higher population than the civilian "NPCs." They will not harm the "NPCs" though.

The main cast:
(keep in mind that in order to even attend the academy, one has to demonstrate significant potential, so while these characters are skewed somewhat above average for the setting, they are not extraordinary in comparison to their peers)

The primary point of view is Padraig (24), a street rat whose father was supposedly a hero of some sort but was just a worthless drunk by the time he was growing up. His father's friend and former adventuring partner, a Paladin and also the local Provost Marshall (chief of the military police force) bullies him into doing something with his life, therefore sponsoring him to go to the military academy. Padraig is of a race that has the natural ability to communicate with spirits, and he puts that to work as a swordsman, using the knowledge of the spirits to show more skill than one would expect.

Second point of view is Essania (28), a young woman who was a team leader of a special operations team, and only survivor of that team when a mission went completely wrong. Because she was successful in eliminating their target, she gets "rewarded" by being sent to the Academy to train for a higher position. In truth, the mission was intended to fail and the whole team was supposed to die; so this is an attempt to shut her up by pretending to reward her, and would result in her getting a permanent desk job if her superiors have their way. She specializes in high level defensive magic, with slightly below average ability to use poison, acid, and fire based offensive magic; she's also decent with a sword or rifle.

Third point of view is Beruin (27), a nobleman from a nation that is extremely xenophobic and insular. His people are a race of shapeshifters who live in domes under the ocean, accessible only via changing shape into sea mammals (or water-breathing spells or submarines, etc). They are extremely warlike and hostile to other cultures, with a shoot first policy for any humans found within their nation's borders. Beruin is a rebellious, adventuresome young man who believes that his culture cannot survive if they do not learn to interact with the other peoples of the world, and has traveled a lot outside his homeland to learn more about other cultures. He is well admired among the younger population for his "daring journeys to the savage world of the still-forms" and due to his family's position in the nobility, is pushing for a higher position in his people's government so that he can become a voice for progress and reform. He mainly fights via shapeshifting into various forms he has picked up in his travels, his favorite being a grizzly bear after he learned that their name is similar to his own.

His name is pronounced Bur-roon; I honestly didn't name him after bears, his original incarnation was as a big burly warrior type, and then re-imagined in his current state. Friends keep telling me it's lame that I made a bear shapeshifter and named it Bear-ruin and it's honestly getting too frustrating explaining that they've got it backwards T_T seriously, bears didn't get connected to my mental image of him until I suddenly envisioned a scene of him saying "Hey, you mean this strange giant beast is named 'bear?' Interesting....hmmm... I like it! It's big and strong, like me! The similarity of our names was surely destiny!" and then I was like "wait, I already have a shapeshifter race, and his current race doesn't really have any significance to his character, so I should change him to that race" (even though this is a dark/serious novel, I felt that image of him was really cute ^_^ )

Major supporting characters:
Takura (age unknown) is a sometimes reluctant ally, often minor antagonist, who is the main character of another book in the series. He shares very little about his background or motivations, besides that he is determined to kill one of the party members, a woman named Teia. He is of a winged race that are normally able to fly, but he can only glide short distances or move at ground level in powerful bursts; however, he uses his wings to make short hops in combat to gain an advantage (quickly dodging away from an attack, spinning around behind an enemy before they can react, etc). He is the most talented swordsman in the cast, and has a very basic use of simple elemental magic. Although he appears to be younger than Padraig, he claims to have personally known Padraig, Essania, and Teia's parents, even though they are all from different countries and had never met before. (behind the scenes, Takura is actually a vengeful spirit possessing a mortal body)

Jase (age unknown) a fae being of indeterminate origin encountered in the Divine Realm that cooperates with the main characters. She has the ability to eat, unravel, or reproduce magic of any type, but cannot produce mana herself and doesn't know any spells, so she must recycle spells used against her. (behind the scenes, she is one of many thousands of fragments of the Mad God's shattered mind. She does not possess any of his memory or Divine Will, and it is not possible to collect them all and restore his sanity. She and the others of her race are completely independent entities with their own lives and goals now.)

Anhel (36), a human druid who is skilled in mediating contracts with animals. Before attending the Academy he lived in the Grasslands, a vast pseudo-nation formed of hundreds of tribes, villages, and independent city-states that are all spread out. He made his living by coordinating arrangements with a colony of giant ants (like, picture the size of horses) to assist two nearby city-states with developing infrastructure such as aqueducts, quarries, roads etc, in return for the ant colony being given all food waste from the cities. He joined the Academy at the request of the colony's Queen, in order to learn the art of war in case the cities would ever "forget" the debt they owed the colony and decide to take their land. The ants are huge and powerful, but don't have access to magic or technology, so they are at a disadvantage unless they have someone skilled in tactics and strategy. In the story, Anhel serves as the party tactician, as well as dealing with wildlife they encounter. In combat, he is an archer and spearman, as well as having some ability at healing magic. He has a pet wolf named Dragonfly Dancer.

Ar'rien (34 in his culture, 17 by human standards) is a naginata fighter from a race that literally experiences life at nearly twice the speed of humans, but lives half as long. Because their mind operates faster than humans, they make excellent melee fighters, able to dodge and attack faster than a human could ever manage. However, it puts a lot of strain on their bodies and they are therefore very delicate and easily injured if a hit manages to land on them, as well as tiring much faster than humans. (I wanna stress, he's literally 34... he has experienced 34 years worth of life... he just happened to do it in 17 years by our standards. I'm not a fan at all of the super-powerful teenage hero trope...)

Teia (29), a mysterious young woman who is not a student at the Academy, but rather a ward of the school who is allowed to participate in classes. Her circumstances are not known by any of the characters except Takura who seems to know more about her even than herself; he claims that she is a threat to everyone no matter what side they stand on, and cannot be allowed to live. Her skills revolve around healing, summoning minions, and limited ability to teleport herself, others, or items, but it leaves her drained for quite a while. As the story progresses, her physical condition rapidly deteriorates and she is eventually too weak to get out of bed, which shocks even Takura.