INTERMISSION
A guide to Before the Big Bang
Another Danganronpa Another has no affiliation with LINUJ, and is a stand-alone fan-made work which is unconnected to any other works inspired by LINUJ’s projects.
CONTENT WARNING
Before the Big Bang repeatedly discusses: child abuse, child neglect, child abandonment, child labor, and parental death. Suicide, gaslighting, toxic dynamics, ableism, classism, homophobia, and transphobia are present in the story. Substances (drugs, alcohol), religious abuse, and (attempted) child murder are mentioned, but not depicted. The game begins with a scene depicting Before the Big Bang being “booted up”, and struggles with dissociation, depersonalization, and derealization are portrayed; readers who struggle with unreality are advised to exercise caution
IN-UNIVERSE
Another Danganronpa Another: Before the Big Bang! is the first “installment” in the Gods Will duology, the Sun Side of the two games. A scrapped first draft of Danganronpa Another ~ Another Despair Academy, upon trying to launch the completed game… this is all the computer would run. Contains the same characters, with the same names and talents- but it will quickly become clear this is the most they have in common. Class 79-B was set to start their first year at Hopes Peak Academy, but have now found themselves participating in a game of mutual killing. We follow Maeda Yuki as he tries to navigate gifting his classmates during their free time events, keeping the conversation on track during class trials, and ignoring his constant creeping feeling that there’s something he’s missing.
OUT-OF-UNIVERSE
Before the Big Bang is an AU of Danganronpa Another started on August 23rd, 2019. Colloquially referred to as “Beta AU” after a Danganronpa Distrust AU I was writing in 2018, Another Danganronpa Another deals with the mirrored reflections of the DRA cast- different personalities and behaviors, but something at the core of the character that rings true to their original writing. The original account was deleted in April of 2020, but quickly remade, and while most original posts were lost to the ether, this was handled… by rewriting what had been deleted at a speed of four posts/day. “Rewrite 23” is the tag used for posts which have been rewritten since that happened, so if one post suddenly seems to be a bit more polished than the posts before/after it, check to see if it’s tagged with that- it’s possible it’s a higher quality because it’s more recent!
MECHANICS
At the end of most posts, you’ll be given {two or more} {options} which you can pick between. If no asks are sent in, one of Maeda’s classmates will take matters into their own hands, and make the choice for Maeda. If multiple asks are sent in, majority rules- in the case of an even split, the ask that was sent first takes precedence. Occasionally, you’ll be given the option to freely roam the school, instead of being given options.
As this is a Tumblr ask blog, and not a coded video game, there’s a person reading your asks! So long as I can see what your intent is, I’ll do my best to follow along within the parameters of the game. This applies to both free roam, and to asks selecting options. Maeda may not go for your exact suggestion, but, for example- if it’s time for Free Time Events, and an ask is sent saying “we should go throw hands with Tsu. or we could give him item 104 ig”, Maeda will go spend his FTE opportunity with Tsurugi, and will give him Item #104. Don’t worry about needing to be formal!
HOW-TO
Following the “Start” link below will allow you to read every post, in chronological order. Visiting the Chapter Chrono page (through the “Exit” link) will allow you to read posts in chronological order, starting at the specific chapter you choose. Every post is tagged with “dra”, which is used to read through every post chronologically. A similar format is used to read chapters chronologically, however, these links aren’t currently fully functional. Eventually, you’ll be able to read specifically daily/deadly lifes in chronological order, however, posts from the first two chapters aren’t tagged properly for this. Re-tagging is a work in progress, but chapters as a whole can still be read individually, and the daily/deadly life specific tags are in place for Chapter 3.
Especially beginning in the third chapter, posts can be lengthy, and the work is extensive- though an official word count is currently unavailable, an example: the third chapter's investigation was 36 posts, and over 95k words. Those with the free time to spend a few hours a day to spend on reading can generally get through beta in ~five days. For those who aren’t looking for that sort of undertaking, the current recommendation (as of August 2024, during the third trial) is to use the “Replay” link below, read up until the final introduction, then utilize the Chapter Chrono page (through the “Exit” link), and either begin reading at the start of the third chapter, or the start of the third deadly life. Visiting the Synopsis Page (through the “Exit” link) will provide you with summaries of what happened on different days of the killing game, to catch you up on what you’re missing- without having to read through everything immediately.
LINKS
Tumblr hates showing the extra pages on this blog.
E-Handbook is a navigational page. Meant to model the E-Handbooks in Danganronpa games, this page contains the following.
“Class 79-B” is a navigational page which contains profiles on each of the students. These pages should contain synopses of any completed free time events, but this is a work in progress. “Items” is a page listing how many Monocoins Maeda currently has, the things he’s won from the Mono-machine, and other things he’s received. “School Rules” is a list of the school rules the students must abide by. “Truth Bullets” is a page only available during the deadly life segment. It has descriptions of any truth bullets Maeda has, and links back to the post he got them in.
Exit is a navigational page, which contains bonus pages that don’t align with the E-handbook.
“Help” contains a list of any notes/explanations which are given during the game. Primarily, this consists of trial mechanics. “Synopsis” is a page which summarizes what’s happened so far in the game, breaking it down on a day by day basis. “Account Info” contains a more detailed explanation of the AU, links to other relevant blogs, and contains some other miscellaneous details. “Chapter Chrono” allows readers to revisit specific chapters, and view their posts in chronological order.
Replay allows readers to read the entirety of Before the Big Bang from the first post.
QUESTIONS
Please send any questions to @another-dra-anew! Asks which are unrelated to the ongoing story, but get sent here, will be answered and kept up for a week, before being reblogged to Anew, and deleted from this account.