Big Brother 4: House of Horrors

> *"As you enter the house, the doors lock behind you. Your heartbeat quickens as you see someone approaching. A young girl? She beckons you forward, and once you take another step, a blade is held to your throat. “Welcome…” she says, “If you wish to escape alive, you must play my game.” Your only escape is to win. You’ve found yourself in the House of Horrors..." - VioletValkyrie, BB4*
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***Big Brother 4: House of Horrors*** was the fourth season of PokéBeach Big Brother. The first season to adopt a story aspect, as well as the first to lack a comeback opportunity, after four attempts Blakers was crowned the winner over TE and Lorde in a 4-3-1 vote (Lorde breaking the tie between the two former players). This marks the first season where the winner was a returning player.

## Flavour

House of Horrors was the first game in the series to feature a story alongside the game. The story was created to be enjoyed "not only as a forum game, but as an actual horror story". This is why weeks were marked as chapters, and why the game has a story epilogue.

The game takes place in a haunted house, with the houseguests trapped inside and The Hostess of the house promises that the last houseguest alive may leave, leaving the house to fight to the death in a twisted game of murder for their freedom. The game takes inspiration from other horror games, such as Castlevania, Doki Doki Literature Club, and Danganronpa.

## Twists and Mechanics

* The Hostess
* The Graveyard
* End of Week
* Instant Eviction
* The Cursed Idol
* Leap of Faith
* The Murder Trial
* The Red Moon
* Massacre
* "UMA"

## Advantages

#### Normal Advantages

* Trusty Pocket Knife
* Axe of Judgment
* Naginata of Suspension
* Mace of Misfortune
* Estoc of Faith

#### Red Moon Advantages

* Gungner, the Lightning Spear
* Dainslef, the Cursed Sword
* Silver Gun and Bullet

## Returning Competitions

#### Forum Games

* Ready, Aim, Fire!
* Loserosis (Renamed "Axe of Despair")

#### Flash Games

* Swirlix's Cotton Candy Catch
* Color Switch
* Inkay's Topsy Turvy World
* 2048
* Winterbells

## New Competitions

#### Forum Games

* Hall of Knives
* The Murder Trial
* The Knife Game
* Face Your Fears

#### Flash Games

* Bounsweet's Bouncy Adventure
* Poom!
* Box Tower
* Multitask 2
* Avoider
* Squares 2

## Houseguests

 **Winner**

 **Runner-Up**

 **Third: *Blakers***

 **Jury: *TE***

 **Jury: *Blakers***

 **Jury: *Lorde***

 **Jury: *Blakers***

 **Jury: *TE***

 **Expelled**

 **Jury: *TE***

 **Expelled**

 **Jury: *Blakers***

 **Evicted**

 **Evicted**

 **Evicted**

 **Evicted**

## Game History

### Week Zero

House of Horrors was the first and only game to contain a "Week Zero" in which houseguests were introduced to the new End of Week mechanic, offering only a simple prompt.
Week Zero offered the houseguests an opportunity to become acquainted with the mechanic in a safe environment that would show The Hostess how they would respond to the situation they were in. As every houseguest submitted their actions, the game began shortly after.

### Chapter One - New Houseguests

 **HOH**

 **Pre-Veto NomineePOV**

 **Nominee1 Vote**

 **Post-Veto NomineeEvicted12 Votes**

Kicking the game off, the sixteen houseguests who had entered the House of Horrors were met with their first challenge: the 'Hall of Knives', a seemingly luck-based competition consisting of 10 sets of two doors, and picking the proper door through each or earning a stab wound. Uncertainty filled the house as it was revealed their first competition seemed to be completely luck-based, and few houseguests created strategies to survive the hall. As pools of blood filled the room from various stab wounds, Little Cherrim managed to escape with the fewest stab wounds, earning him the first title of Grand Reaper through the game.

Claiming the game was still in its early stages and enemies hadn't been established yet, LC chose to nominate Draskk and Lily, starting the Idol of Life competition: 'Swirlix's Cotton Candy Catch', a returning competition chosen to "frustrate the veterans who had to play it in BB1". Ironically as only one returning player from BB1 was chosen to play in it, Draskk had won the competition and chose to free himself using the Idol. LC chose to nominate Jade as his replacement after suspicions Jade was attempting to retry her hazardous early-game strategy from BB3, causing the new nominee to make a call out to keep herself in the game. Jade's efforts wouldn't be rewarded, however, as after a 12-1 vote her corpse was the first to be discovered in the house's Ceremony Room.

As the next End of Week approached, different houseguests were beginning to be offered different options. Some houseguests were offered insight into the Hall of Knives, revealing it wasn't random, but a game of prediction, and that it had only been used to convince the houseguests that winning the competition was out of their control and they had no choice but to be lucky or give up. Blakers was given a special option to visit the Graveyard after being the only player to take an interest in it, a decision that would continue further into the game. Soon after, Hermes discovered a secret door, leading into a room containing the 'Axe of Judgment', the first advantage to be obtained in the game.

### Chapter Two - Idol of Lifeless

 **HOH**

 **Nominee3 Votes**

 **Evicted8 Votes**

Although the second week started quiet with two warnings given out, strategies were beginning to establish themselves in the game's alliances around the beginning of Week 2. Starting the week was 'Bounsweet's Bouncy Adventure!', a simple flash game that Lorde more than excelled at, winning the Grand Reaper title with more than 11x the score of the second-place finisher. Nominating double o squirtle and Brave Vesperia for being strong competitive threats in past forum games, the house was shocked to see the lack of an Idol of Life competition and entering straight into the Death Ceremony, removing any potential for a backdoor on the remainder of the house. With a vote of 8-3, double o squirtle was the next victim found dead, swiftly ending the second week.

With the End of Week prompt cutting off at the very end, several houseguests were unaware of the implications of the complete mess the mechanic would later become. As the rest of the house took their actions as normal, Blakers was able to find the 'Trusty Pocket Knife', the second advantage of the game, in the graveyard.

### Chapter Three - The Leap of Faith

 **HOH**

 **POV**

 **Nominee1 Vote**

 **Evicted9 Votes**

Week Three began with interesting announcements, the first of which beginning the Leap of Faith twist, where another houseguest plays a competition for you, using their score instead of your own in order to win. The second publicly confirmed the existence of advantages in the game, as both Hermes and Blakers had been in possession of them.

Teasing that "more than the title of Grand Reaper" would be given that week, the houseguests put their faith in each other and began the first competition of the week: 'Poom!', a simple but frustrating game of bouncing a ball off different sets of tiles. As both Hermes and Blakers put their faith in NP, they had tied for first, leaving them to break their tie with their personal scores. Hermes took the title and announced his nominations by RNG of the people he had yet to speak to, being TheR3DX and Draskk. With the nominations chosen, the houseguests began the Idol of Life competition, 'Box Tower'. In a three-way tie between mirdo, TE and R3, TE had a higher personal score than the winning score itself, and chose to stab the Idol, leading to a 9-1 vote to find Draskk as the third corpse in the game.

As End of Week began, houseguests were given their first opportunity to engage and start discussion with The Hostess, leading to the introduction of another advantage...

### Chapter Four - The Naginata of Suspension

 **HOH**

 **Pre-Veto Nominee**

 **Post-Veto Nominee4 Votes**

 **POVEvicted5 Votes**

Week Four held the biggest and most surprising event the game had seen up to that point. After four weeks of End of Week prompts becoming crazier and scarier, the houseguests entered the Ceremony Room to find the dead corpse of TOTAL\_EPICNESS, and Ninja Penguin, who had just woken up from sleeping the previous night, starting a panic in the house, and leading into one of the most unique competitions of the entire game: the 'Murder Trial'. During a lengthy period, multiple arguments were made but none stood quite as tall as the ones proposed by Blakers, earning him the spot as fourth Grand Reaper where he nominated Brave and R3, leading into the Idol of Life competition: 'Color Switch'. Though it was an easy win for R3, he chose to instead use the Idol to save his ally Brave, leading to a close 5-4 vote in which R3 was found dead.

At the end of the week, the house had learned that TE had not been killed, and instead was given the 'Naginata of Suspension', an advantage that allowed him a complete week off, with the backlash of being killed at the end of the week if he had mentioned it. TE stayed silent and was invited back into the game.

### Chapter Five - Dead Men Tell No Tales

 **HOH**

 **POV**

 **Pre-Veto Nominee**

 **Nominee3 Votes**

 **Post-Veto NomineeEvicted4 Votes**

Hot off the heels of the biggest twist of the game up to that point, things seemed to return to normal for Week Five, starting with 'Inkay's Topsy Turvy World', a previously used Pokemon.com game the house was familiar with. Hermes pulled off another victory, running RNG for his nominations, and choosing to tag mirdo and Lily.

In the Idol of Life competition, mirdo found himself as a nominee for 'Ready, Aim, Fire!', a strategic forum game about predicting your opponent's movements. Though Blakers and mirdo worked together to come out on top, Blakers won the competition and used the Idol to free mirdo. Hermes, in response, tagged Quaking in order to set up for a backdoor. With a 3-3 vote, Hermes used his power as the Grand Reaper to kill Quaking in the first vote tie of the season.

Although the Death Ceremony was over, the influence of the Axe of Despair had not left the houseguests' minds, giving them a strange prompt for end of week, unable to drive the thought of the axe out of their minds. With the houseguests in panic over what this would mean for the future of the game, the curtains closed on the fifth week.

### Chapter Six - "Clusterheck"

 **HOHPOV**

 **Pre-Veto NomineeExpelled**

 **Nominee0 Votes**

 **Evicted4 Votes**

 **Expelled**

 **Expelled**

Beginning the sixth week, it was revealed that Nick had been expelled for not submitting at the end of Week Five. Continuing on, the houseguests awoke to start the next competition, a game of tricks in which one houseguest must pick up the Axe of Despair for the next part of the competition. Greeted with several coffins containing the bodies of the killed houseguests, those alive quickly agreed the competition had to do with bringing back one of them from the dead. With this in mind, discussion ensued, with the house agreeing to nominate Little Cherrim as the one to pick up the Axe.

Upon grabbing the axe, it was revealed the competition was in fact a returning forum game from BB2, 'Loserosis', and completely unrelated to any pre-jury comebacks. Passing the axe around the house ended with Lily receiving a third warning and an expulsion. This eventually left NP as the Grand Reaper, with Brave becoming tagged for death instantly. NP tagged Nyan as the remaining nominee, beginning the Idol of Life competition, 'Multitask 2'. Although NP won the Idol of Life, Nyan had failed to submit for the competition, earning the third expulsion over the course of the week. LC was chosen as the replacement nominee and the Idol was not used, setting up for a one-sided 4-0 vote to find Brave as the next victim.

With Brave's death and the modkills during the week, it was revealed that Nyan, Lily and Brave would be joining the game as the Haunted, the game's jury. The house was given the opportunity to communicate with them at the end of the week, though no one's calls were answered.

### Chapter Seven - Judgment Day

 **HOH**

 **Pre-Veto NomineePOV**

 **Nominee2 Votes**

 **Post-Veto NomineeEvicted3 Votes**

Starting off the seventh week, it was revealed alongside the Grand Reaper competition, 'Avoider', that the End of Week Six led to an advantage being unavailable, and was "shown off" by the Hostess before being broken and revealed to be the 'Estoc of Revolution', the reveal causing distress among the houseguests. Proceeding with the competition, Lorde earned herself another win and came out on top, nominating Hermes as a strong newcomer proving himself in a field of veterans, and mirdo for not being part of any strategic discussion with her.

In a throwback to an old challenge, '2048', Hermes was able to free himself by winning the Idol of Life, with NP becoming nominated as a pawn. After a 2-2 vote even between mirdo and NP, Hermes used the 'Axe of Judgment', killing NP in a hijacked tie-breaker and ending the week.

After an End of Week prompt sending several houseguests into unconsciousness, Hermes and Lorde recovered their energy from an earlier Axe duel, beginning the eighth week.

### Chapter Eight - Once in a Red Moon

 **HOH**

 **POV**

 **Pre-Veto Nominee**

 **Nominee3 Votes To Save1 Vote**

 **Evicted0 Votes To Save0 Votes**

 **Post-Veto NomineeEvicted0 Votes To Save2 Votes**

The beginning of the eighth week marked a large change in the game, the 'Red Moon', destroying every previously earned advantage and instead activated new ones. The first of which being 'Dainslef, the Cursed Sword' which was earned at the end of the previous week by Blakers, TE and LC. This advantage allowed the remaining members of the house to view the scores of the receivers as the house entered its Double Eviction Week, starting with 'Squares 2'. After the creation of specific group chats and scanning for scores, Blakers won his way to the top and was given the opportunity to tag three houseguests, being TE, mirdo and LC.

As the entire house entered a six-person Idol of Life competition, it was revealed that the competition was none other than 'Winterbells'. However, during the competition it was revealed that mirdo possessed 'Gungner, the Lightning Spear', a specific Red Moon advantage that could be used to stop any player not tagged for death from competing in the current competition, stopping Hermes from playing for the Idol. This allowed Lorde to win the competition and pull LC from the block, with Blakers tagging Hermes in his place.

In a strange double eviction in which all votes were made public, TE was given votes to save his life, and Hermes to kill, leading to Hermes and mirdo becoming the next to join the Haunted. With a short and sweet End of Week prompt, the game continued.

### Chapter Nine - Fun and Games

 **Immunity**

 **HTR Winner - 1st**

 **HTR Winner - 2nd**

 **Evicted Via HTR**

Week Nine began the start of the Final Four as the remaining members of the 'Fab Five' alliance
were introduced to three statues inside the Ceremony Room, being offered an instant win if they could find their secret. While no correct guesses were made, the paranoia from this event shakily lead them to begin 'The Knife Game', a strange jury questioning competition in which the houseguests had to remove one of their fingers before completing a jury quiz, becoming unable to select the answer correlating to the finger removed. LC won the competition, revealing a shocking turn of events as he received the 'Silver Gun and Bullet', the third and final Red Moon Advantage. Using it to shoot Blakers, he had accidentally given Blakers invincibility, sending the remaining three houseguests into a sudden death challenge.

'Face Your Fears' was a unique twist on BB1's 'Choose a Game' competition, by selecting the competition each houseguest performed the worst at, forcing them to play it again and comparing their score to that of the competition's winner. Lorde received 'Hall of Knives', LC received 'Swirlix's Cotton Candy Catch' and TE received 'Multitask 2'. While Lorde matched the previous score and TE towered above it, LC finished just under the previous winning score, and was instantly killed as a result, leaving LC as the last Haunted in the game.

### Final Chapter - Beginning of the End

 **Winner4 Votes**

 **Runner-Up3 Votes**

 **Third Place1 Vote**

The Finale of PokéBeach Big Brother: House of Horrors sparked a true battle between the finalists for supremacy. Lorde opened quickly with her reasoning to earn the victory as a two-time finalist, Blakers following soon after with his own highlights, with a rebuttal to one of Lorde's claims, quickly starting a debate between the two. As the two fought for the winning votes, TE joined in and revealed his victorious strategy, amassing a following from the Jury. In complications with the jury, Nyan abstained her voting privileges, giving her spot to the next in line, Quaking, who rounded out the jury.

While the jury was slow to move their votes, they ultimately settled at a 3-3-1 split. With Hermes settling on his single vote for Lorde, it was up to her to break the tie, ending the game by crowning Blakers the winner and survivor of House of Horrors. The Epilogue then followed quickly after, revealing some secrets behind the game's production.

#### The Jury

 **Blakers**

 **TE**

 **TE**

 **Blakers**

 **Lorde**

 **Blakers**

 **TE**

 **Blakers**

## Trivia

* BB4 is VioletValkyrie's first game solo-hosted, but not her first position as lead writer for a game.
* Due to a decision by the hostess, all of BB4's updates were written using gender-neutral pronouns. The game was written this way to feel comfortable for all players the writing would concern, and to ensure less editing.
* BB4 was planned to finish on October 31st due to its significance as Halloween, but was changed to October 30th due to how long the finale had taken to finish. The Epilogue was considered for the release date of the 31st, but this was scrapped due to "not wanting there to be any posts from other people between the end of the game and the epilogue".
* The game's twists were balanced in a strange "backwards" sense, as the ideas were proposed in a crazy "This would be ridiculous" way of thinking, and then balanced to make the ideas believable without disrupting the game unfairly.
* The entire game was created for veterans, with the idea of giving players a false sense of security. This is why the Red Moon was created for the late game and why information and discovery played a large part in understanding the game.
* BB4 began production on January 3rd, 2018 and ended production on August 16th, 2018, giving it the longest production time of any currently released game of PokéBeach Big Brother up to that point. However, the game was considered to be in a finished state by the hostess during most of production.
* BB4 is the first game to feature a returning player as a winner, being Blakers, as well as the first game to feature a two-time finalist, being Lorde.
* Combat scenes were written into the flavour of the game despite the hostess having a lack of experience writing scenes containing such imagery, they were purposely written sparsely and short, and are the "worst part about the game's writing" according to the hostess herself.