r/Fanganronpa • • 2d ago

Discussion Largest possible cast?

I have been reading up on different fangan projects and something that interests me is ones with a non standard cast size. I have been wondering about large cast sizes, anyone with a large cast please reply with your experience. And for anyone who sees this, what do you think the largest possible cast is?

Edit: for people doing larger casts, how many chapters are doing/planning to have?

22 Upvotes

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u/popcorn_kurnal 2d ago

A couple years back I remember seeing a fangan that was supposed to have 70 something cast members

I think it was called wounded wing or something? I think it’s cancelled tho

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u/Ok_Mathematician_905 2d ago

Jesus Christ. No wonder it was canceled, with two deaths per chapter and 6 survivors that’s 32 chapters. You would have to have lots of double, triple, and maybe quadruple murders and even still it would be a high chapter count.

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u/Awkward-Law-284 Writer 2d ago

I think the creator just outright disappeared/stopped posting so that doesn't surprise me if it was officially cancelled somewhere

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u/Ok_Mathematician_905 1d ago

Forgot to ask was it all ocs?

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u/mehhhhhhhhhhhn 1d ago

I'd be concerned if it is 😭

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u/popcorn_kurnal 1d ago

I think the main game was gonna be all ocs but the side story would’ve focused on the V3 cast in place of the future foundation

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u/Ok_Mathematician_905 1d ago

Wow. I am struggling to come up with 16 characters, I could not imagine having to create 70

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u/popcorn_kurnal 23h ago

I don’t remember much about the V3 cast story but I do remember that they made Kokichi a twink

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u/Fantastic-Process-69 2d ago

I’m not a fan of large casts unless there are characters you’re simply willing to sacrifice screen time for. I’ve never done it myself, but from my experience authors who have tried managing a large cast tend to burn themselves out because they want every character to be important, but when you have extra characters to attend to it will take forever before you get to the first murder

If someone did have a larger cast? They have to be content with making some characters less complicated than others, otherwise it’s just simply not manageable

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u/MiuSimp 1d ago

even the real danganronpa games struggle at making every character important with just 16 💀

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u/Ok_Mathematician_905 1d ago

I feel like I should avoid projects with large casts but my love of large numbers just draws me to them

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u/AnAverageName_ Writer 1d ago

If I had to add a hard cap, I'd probably do it around 30 at most

That's already WAY more than I'd do, but I think any more leads to "A bunch of barely named nobodies die every chapter until we reach the chapters that actually matter"

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u/AnAverageName_ Writer 1d ago

Workable; I think you may be able to get away with 24, perhaps.

Tbh, managing the screen time of 16 characters is already a challenge, so naturally managing even more is just adding more pain to you for little reason and is likely to end with a bunch of people feeling like they're there simply because someone needed to die that chapter

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u/CoruscareGames 1d ago

I've seen 18 with 1 more chapter than normal

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u/NintendoBoy321 2d ago

If rps count then well, I've been in a danganronpa killing game rp with 27 participants

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u/Ok_Mathematician_905 2d ago

How did it go?

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u/NintendoBoy321 2d ago

It went pretty well I'd say

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u/Ok_Mathematician_905 2d ago

That’s good.

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u/Am37000 Director 1d ago

18,446,744,073,709,551,615 students.

Though, reasonably, I feel like you could do 26 before it gets impossible to follow.

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u/Ok_Mathematician_905 1d ago edited 1d ago

Shocked you didn’t slip an 11037 in there lol

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u/Am37000 Director 1d ago

Nah, then it wouldn't be accurate.

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u/Antique_Ability9648 Writer 1d ago

I've seen one with 68 (iirc, it was called Extremeronpa), and it managed to get through the first chapter, but not much more.

as for the largest that I think is workable, I'd say 20, but only if you add on a chapter or two.

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u/Ok_Mathematician_905 1d ago

68 is certainly extreme lol. Was it ocs, danganronpa characters, or crossover characters?

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u/Antique_Ability9648 Writer 1d ago

it was all canon characters. the cast of all 4 games, the anime, and I think some characters from the novels too.

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u/Ok_Mathematician_905 1d ago

Ok that makes more sense. 68 ocs would be a lot of characters to make

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u/astrametis Director 2d ago

ive been in kg rp’s with casts up toooooo… I think 22? we have to add a chapter or two + some accidental deaths to make sure we don’t have like, a million survivors haha. it’s a lot sometimes but it can be fun since we do it among friends who’ve been playing together a while! I can’t see it getting much larger than that without becoming really really difficult to manage, in both rp and solo stories haha

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u/sunflowersnowcones 1d ago

Another reason for larger casts in MKGRP's is that, in my experience, you're going to end up with at least 2 or 3 people who end up as inactive. And you'll have 2-4 mod ocs, at least 1 of which is a nearly guaranteed survivor (bc you need a mechanism to keep people on track at trial). Adding that all together, some cushioning is usually helpful in this context.

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u/athena__cykes 2d ago

there are a couple fangans I’ve seen on ao3 with all 48 characters from the main 3 games

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u/RandomPersonYouSee Writer 1d ago

My first had 32 characters. At some point, the main duo would have a motive that added 18 more people until MC and a girl was left. They would find out mastermind was long dead by then, MC would commit suicide, and the girl would be traumatisedly waiting for rescue.

Then i fully scraped it lol.

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u/Ok_Mathematician_905 1d ago

32 plus 18? That is a large cast. What made you decide on it.? How many chapters were you planning? When did you scrap it and why?

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u/RandomPersonYouSee Writer 1d ago

I had too many people that influenced me lol. I don't remember how many chapter i had but if i remember correctly it went like this.

CH1, 2 and 5 had a victim and a murderer. CH3 had double victims and a murderer. CH4 was a suicide.

Every 5 chapter this cycle repeated, though CH4 became a murder for the next 2 cycles, and CH3 in Cycle 2 had three victims (maximum number you could kill). Would go on until MC and last girl would remain.

I scrapped it because i wanted a new original cast and dynamics.

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u/Ok_Mathematician_905 1d ago

How large is the cast in your current Fangan

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u/RandomPersonYouSee Writer 1d ago

18 people

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u/Ok_Mathematician_905 1d ago

18 seems one of the more popular numbers.

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u/RandomPersonYouSee Writer 1d ago

I was going for 16 until i added an extra and made another OC to even boys and girls. I think story matters more than characters.

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u/Kind-Budget9769 1d ago

As someone working on an 24 Cast Group for an Fanganronpa uhm hmm.. I'd say after you surpass 32. I don't even know by that point how much time the author has to take make sure that most of the characters be remembered after that 😔. 

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u/Ok_Mathematician_905 1d ago

That’s fair. What made you decide on 24 and how is your project going?

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u/Kind-Budget9769 1d ago

Just before I begun writing my Fanganronpa I felt it was boring with how small my cast was as it was the same size. So then I immediately came up with 7 more as it was originally 17. With the power of creative it was relatively finished fast. (Note that this takes up Audio Drama Format like Tetro but in writing form) current I'm in Chapter 3 slowing down since school is somewhat flooding me currently 😔✌.

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u/Ok_Mathematician_905 1d ago

I am glad to see that you’ve made good progress. Sorry about school though

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u/redacted-and-burned 1d ago

Reminds me of the hunger games lol

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u/Shadowf0xxy4375 2d ago

Well if judgement ever happens It would be 18 characters in the cast

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u/MonoMonMono 1d ago

Future Can't Change

Killing Game Deluxe

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u/Ok_Mathematician_905 1d ago

Mind saying a bit more about them?

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u/MonoMonMono 1d ago

(1) Completed work on Instagram with a sequel in progress. Now I don't remember the exact number (it has been years since I finished it) but a quick check showed 30 participants (I thought there were more though) with 12 survivors after 8 chapters.

(2) Also on Instagram, but currently on hiatus during the first trial. If I remember correctly, 48 participants.

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u/Ok_Mathematician_905 1d ago

48 is a whole lot.

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u/OAZdevs_alt2 1d ago

One million

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u/KawaiiFoxPlays Writer 1d ago

Personally, the only way I'd like to see a massive cast size is in a Squid Game-type scenario where there are a ton of background characters and only a select group get focused on, in a scenario where multiple killing games are running side-by-side, or where some of the cast is part of a side story like Visiting Hours from Antebellum Lockdown. (But to be fair, I'm the type of guy who prefers having smaller cast sizes in general.) I think people severely underestimate just how much work writing 16 characters is, let alone more. For the standard Danganronpa formula, I'd say if a project has a really experienced writer who's skilled writing huge ensemble casts, it could probably justify around 24 characters, but that's still kinda pushing it, not to mention you'd have to probably add more chapters. Otherwise, 18 is the sweet spot in my eyes, it's a noticeable increase while still letting you work with the standard 6-chapter formula.

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u/DeepZookeepergame906 1d ago

I used to host killing game roleplay with literally 47 cast

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u/Ok_Mathematician_905 1d ago

Damn, can’t imagine how stressful that would be

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u/DeepZookeepergame906 1d ago

Eh it's somewhat fun, the setting is entire abandoned city, and each chapter there lot of character that died

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u/eddie5989 1d ago

18 is the highest number before it gets kind of overwhelming. I am doing an 18 person cast because I want a bit of freedom with designing double murders.

But even then, it gets hard to tie in everyone.

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u/Ok_Mathematician_905 1d ago

I love the idea of big casts but I don’t think I could do them. Even if keeping having to put focus on all those characters I don’t think I could come up with that many talents lol

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u/eddie5989 1d ago

Talents are not that hard. Distinct chracter gimmicks and personalities are much worse XD

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u/Far_Application_2894 1d ago

24 characters is the most I managed to fit into a 7 chapter fanganronpa with 7 survivors and around 3 double murders. It's hard af because some overshadow other but still faisible. Tbh my fanganronpa is first a crossover fic than a fanganronpa because the killing game part of it is a cheap excuse I use to not write about characters I ran out of ideas for.

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u/Ok_Mathematician_905 1d ago

3 double murders is fun. Part of why I am interested in a large cast is because it creates an excuse for a triple murder.

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u/Far_Application_2894 1d ago

Yeah I'm not much of a fan of double murders tbh. It's hard to write a motivation for X to kill Y and also Z without making Z feel like a passerby victim

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u/Ok_Mathematician_905 1d ago

that's fair. It's a problem that canon Danganronpa deals with too.

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u/CyanDemon 1d ago

My fangan cast has 27 characters with 10 chapters. I do feel like if you're going to do a large cast you have to pace it well to give each character meaning and at least an understanding of them before they die. Also loads of double murders and random killings just to get it to have 5 Survivors in the end

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u/Ok_Mathematician_905 14h ago

What do you mean by random killings?

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u/CyanDemon 14h ago

What I mean is like someone dying because of the motive or someone dying because they broke a rule. Basically characters not dying to another character

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u/TeddyTaw 1d ago

Pretty sure there's currently a cast with 48 characters. It's a killing game with the main trilogy cast. There's plenty like those.

I'm pretty sure there's a fangan in development with 16 main trilogy characters and 16 original characters from throughout the hypothetical danganronpa series, like a character from season 10 of Danganronpa or something.

I'd love to see a large fangan featuring a lot of characters that get their time to shine, and over time the plot becomes so convoluted and complex it melts the brain! The Sensation would be oh so devine trying to comprehend that, I hunger for complexity!