Harmonia United, the most prestigious Dueling Academy around the globe. Founded one-hundred years ago by the now-legendary man known as Hideo Hasao, this prestigious academy has fostered many of the greatest pro duelists since its inception. Students from around the world looking to make it big in the world of Duel Monsters have applied here and, each year, five graduates go pro instantly without any additional tests required! The only requirements are being a third year... and being the grand champion.
Haronia is divided up into eight dorms, each of them themed after something from Duel Monsters. The first six are themed after the six elements of the game: Fire, Water, Wind, Earth, Dark and Light. Each of these six compete over the year to be the best dorm, pushing each other to the limit. But they can't do it alone. There are, in fact, two more dorms, to help them in this goal: The Synchro dorm and the Xyz dorm. Centered around constant progress and never giving up respectively, these special dorms provide huge boons to whoever ally with them.
But how do they compete? Well, each dorm houses duelists, who each have individual ranks. The first years start off on a blank slate, the second years carry over the results from last year and the Third years have their own unique bracket separate from the first two. Only third years can represent an entire dorm, and only the five best students in them. Because of this, each dorm has a champion, one who rises above the rest. The champion is the single most important duelist in it and is often the determining factor for whether or not a dorm wins the grand title at the end of the year.
You all? You will be those third years. Those champions who aim to push their dorm to the top, who earn their keep... after all, the champion of whichever becomes number 1 earns their title as Grand Champion of Harmonia United. Not only will the entire dorm be recorded in the hall of fame, the duelist who pushed them that far will be given special recognition. They are the duelists who enter the pro circuit, becoming a beacon of inspiration for those who look to find their future in Harmonia United!
Locations
Harmonia is set on a remote island off to the coast of Japan. It's not too large, but houses enough space to accomodate a student and teacher population of about 500 people. Most of the students who go here are Japanese and do speak the language, but it's not unheard of for a foreigner or two to sneak in. Foreigners aren't looked down upon in Harmonia, and their inclusivity is known world-wide. Locations on the island include:
Right at the center of the island is the big bad academy itself, Harmonia United! It’s length and three-story layout make it incredibly imposing at first glance. It has two towers on either edge, one black and one white, easily adding another story with their length. The academy itself has a multitude of facilities, though most of them are classrooms of some kind. The classrooms themselves are each dedicated to one particular subject. The third floor houses all of the teacher’s facilities, as well as the principal’s office at the very center. Students are generally not allowed to go up to the third floor without permission.
Each dorm is scattered around the island in a place best suited for them, there to enjoy the island’s luxuries. They are not unreasonably far from the academy at the center, but they are far enough to give each of them their own space to enjoy their remote parts of the island. Each dorm also has a special perk or facility dedicated to them. Each dorm also has access to a Duel Terminal machine, situated in the lounge. There, students can hone their Dueling skills with simulated duels against a virtual opponent.
Located to the north-east of the academy is a large, rocky cliff housing the Wind dorm at the top. Due to being the highest part of the academy there is a large staircase built off to the side of it to get up there, and the dorm catches the most wind out of any part of the island. Due to this, a windmill farm was placed near the Wind dorm to supply the academy with excessive energy. Due to the high amounts of it, a theme park was installed near the Wind academy containing various aerial-themed rides, from tornado-shaped shakers to jet-modeled roller coasters. The wind dorm itself is made up of a lot of round shapes to show the twisting ways the air can blow.
Off to the east of the academy, in between a cliff and a forest, is a large waterfall. The water dorm is placed next to it and the flowing river that escapes from its mouth. It’s one of the more relaxing locations of the academy, with the Water dorm being simple, but spacious. This space is needed for their in-door pool, which has three smaller pools dedicated to bubble bathing, a long tube slide and a moving, oval pool. The main pool is olympic-sized and has some of the best swimming equipment available. Their fresh water also gives them access to “Tropical Tuesday”, a weekly event where the dorm gets served various fruity and non-fruity drinks.
To the south-east of the academy is a large, open forest which houses the Earth dorm. The Earth dorm has a path leading to and from it so students don’t get lost on their way, but wandering into the forest can lead to you going missing if you’re not careful. Due to nature’s blessing, Earth is home to some of the freshest food in the entire academy, with home-grown vegetables and fruit being easily accessible. They are the most well-fed of the entire academy. Their dorm’s interior is made up almost entirely out of wooden furniture of excellent craftsmanship.
To the south-west of the academy lay the ruins of an ancient, long-forgotten city. Spirits roam the haunted landscape at night, kidnapping travellers to make them never be seen again... or at least, so the ghost stories go. The dark dorm is built central to these ruins, and the tall but broken down buildings cause the entire building to be in constant shade. It’s easily the most eerily silent out of any area in the academy, which lends itself nice to the local library. The Dark Dorm has a wide variety of books and students of the dorm can stay in it as long as they like, reading to their heart’s content.
To the far east of the academy is a skyscraper building laden with fancy lights as if it came from New Vegas. It’s home to none other than the Light dorm, who’s built into this multiple-story central of commerce, right on the top floor like a penthouse. The building contains shops of all kinds and every Light dorm member gets a discount in them, as well as having generally having the most luxury goods out of any dorm. They’ve got foreign chocolates, the newest phones, you name it! Their style is also out of this world, with the Light dorm being dressed the best out of any single dorm.
To the north-east of the island is a large, imposing volcano. Seeming like it’s on the verge of erupting at any moment, it houses none other than the daring Fire dorm. They’ve got easily the hottest, most heart-burning location and this reflects in their architecture: Spiky shapes and a floor that can’t decide on which height it wants to be make it the most uniquely laid out. Near the volcano is a hot springs, which Fire dorm students have free access to. In contrast to the energetic students inside, it’s the single best place in the academy to relax and bathe. The Fire dorm also have Fiery Friday, a weekly barbecuing event where the Fire dorm gets to enjoy some of the spiciest meat this side of the earth.
The white tower to the left main building is dedicated to the Synchro dorm. The first three stories house an incredibly variety of technology, from large computer rooms to generators to process the academy’s power supply. The actual dorm is at the very top floor, laden with wiring and machinery at every turn. It gives off an incredibly futuristic vibe and the students have access to the most top-notch dueling gear money can buy you, for free.
The black tower to the right of the main building is dedicated to the Xyz dorm. The first three stories are actually a giant arcade, housing every kind of video game imaginable. Unlike the other dorms having only a singular Duel Terminal, the Xyz dorm not only has multiple of these but also a giant simulation room. In that simulation room students can face off against a holographic opponent, making them have the best dueling training out of any dorm. The actual student facilities and rooms are located at the very top. The paint job makes everything look very galactic and out-of-this-world.
To the very north of the academy, in between the Fire and Wind dorms, is a large open plains. On this plains the academy decided to build a large, colosseum-like building. Housing no less than 30 small fields and two very large ones at the center, this impressive arena is the go-to place for both official and unofficial duels. The audience seats are built in alongside the walls, two bars are installed along both entrances and there is a retractable roof that makes the academy able to choose whether or not it wants to duel in open air or inside when it’s raining. This is where the official duels take place, as well as where individual students are tested on the smaller fields.
To the south of the academy is a large harbor and storage area. This is where shipments from outside come in, as well as the place where students set off or arrive. There are a large amount of rowing boats available at one of the buildings, as well as fishing equipment. Under the surveillance of a teacher Students can decide to go fishing on the sea, though it is usually the Water dorm students who make active use of this.
Characters
Harmonia United is home to many different types of people. These are all of the relevant ones to our story:
The founder of Harmonia United. The man has long since passed away, but was a pioneer in the dueling field. His founding of Harmonia to be an academy based on healthy competitive spirit made him an extremely well respected individual in the eyes of many. A playful yet competitive environment would drive students to push each other to even greater heights, aiming to try their best. His school grew steadily during his time as a principal, but it did not grow to this size until after he had passed the baton to the next generation. He was an honest and earnest man, and is the only principal to have a statue dedicated to him in the courtyard of the main building.
Appearance: Hideo was an old man when his statue was erected in the courtyard, but he didn't look any worse for wear. His body was noticeably fit underneath that suit he always wore, with that stern face of his having a jolly smile that showed a truly happen man. His hair was long gone when this statue was made, but his youthful spirit was not.
The current head of Harmonia United, having been in charge for 10 years after the last principal has stepped down. Owner of the multinational company known as Noritaka inc., his funding helped the academy grow exponentially in the last few years. He was the one who remodeled all the dorms as well as renovating the entire school to be much more prestigious. He seems like an honest man, though he rarely engages with the student body and spends long amounts of time cooped up in the principal’s office. He also changed it so that some facilities, open to all students in the past, became unique to certain dorms. He also installed new facilities to make it more fair, such as the theme park in collaboration with Akira, the high-tech gear for Synchro dorm and the arcade for Xyz after some convincing by Noir.
Appearance: Yoshi is a middle-aged man with a more rounded figure, as if he's been drinking a few too many beverages. He has a scruffy brown mustache that fits in with his balding head, and the man's principal uniform is a chique violet. Yoshi is a very twitchy person when you see him, but he gives off an honest vibe.
A middle-aged and kind man, Wataru is the lead of the Water dorm. He is very calm and patient with his students, often engaging with them during lessons and sometimes not giving any classes at all. He is the one who insisted on the huge amount of rowboats available, as Wataru is an avid fisher at heart. As a mandatory part of his curriculum he sets aside some days to go fishing with a group of his students, thinking patience is a virtue. He insists you can learn a lot from fishing, keeping some of the more hot-headed members of his dorm in check. Wataru is generally regarded as the least skilled duelist out of all the teachers, but also the most competent in actually teaching.
Appearance: Wataru, despite his gentle nature, is a pretty big bear of a man. He towers over most teachers and students in the academy, with some visible muscle showing on his arms. That’s not to say he looks threatening, though. His hair is playfully scruffy and coloured a hazel brown, with a permanent stubble on his chin. He often walks around with a smile, almost always in a good mood. He’ll often walk around with his professional fishing rod, even during class.
Deck: Fish
Former pilot, resident engineer and the head of the Wind Dorm. Contrary to what most believe due to their short hair and flat chest, this ball of energy is actually a woman. She’s somewhat middle-aged, but looks really young for how old she is. Back in her piloting days she had the nickname ‘Akira of the Sky’ due to her last name, though she resigned to become a teacher of her favorite hobby. She actually designed the theme park next to the Wind dorm as well as being the main person to handle the upkeep. She’s really easygoing and lets her students goof off often, making some believe she’s not at all suited for her job.
Appearance: Akira, even though she’s a dorm leader, doesn’t actually wear her dorm leader uniform very often. Due to the heavy maintenance work she does around the academy she’s often met with dusty or greasy machinery, making her don a jumpsuit to avoid her clothes getting dirty. This obscures her feminine body build well enough already, but her short and blonde hair doesn’t help matters. Akira’s also slightly taller and has a more angular face compared to most females, further adding to her more masculine appearance.
Deck: Mecha Phantom Beast
Probably the easiest going of any of the teachers, and also the youngest. Being only 25, Izumi is actually a former Water dorm champion of the academy. After going pro for a year, she decided it wasn’t for her and studied to become a teacher. Her goal from the start was to teach at Harmonia United, but the only spot that opened up was that of the Fire dorm’s head. Because of her youth, Izumi frequently mingles and chats with the students of the academy, of which a majority are stunned by her beautiful looks. Her features are apt described as ‘prettier than the sparkles of a sun-setting ocean’.
Appearance: One of the shorter teachers on campus, she’s actually a bit of a dwarf compared to some other students. She’s not terribly short, but her below average height does make her have to look up to most people. That aside and contrary to what you’d expect, Izumi is very slender. Her facial features are very sharp and combined with her flowing, aquamarine hair she’s a beauty to behold.
Deck: Dinomist
The Earth dorm’s dorm leader and also their chef. She is the single best cook out of anyone in the academy, which is helped by the fact she can use fresh ingredients every day with ease. She’s a very charming, motherly figure despite her youthful and slender looks. Sumika is also easily the most compassionate out of any single dorm leader. Her philosophy is that a healthy and soothed mind makes you strong, so she makes sure her students are always well fed and able to come to her if they have any issues on their mind.
Appearance: Sumika is of average length and very feminine in her appearance. She’s the most classic of any of the teachers, having a slightly round and soothing face with long, black hairs. She often ties her hair into a ponytail and goes around in an apron a lot, even during some of her classes in which she’ll teach her students to cook. Her plain appearance ironically makes her stand out the most, since she’s the only ‘normal’ looking individual in the staff lineup.
Deck: Naturia
Leopold van Mourik: Every school has to have one teacher nobody seems to like, and Leopold is that teacher for Harmonia United. He is a stuck-up, selfish individual that looks down on any non-light student, because he is their dorm leader. He think Light is the supreme dorm and will push his students to their limits in order to live up to this self-envisioned standard, accepting nothing short of perfection. Leopold also has a deep-seated grudge against the Dark dorm leader, Thomas, as the both of them started teaching around the same time and Thomas’ Dark dorm currently holds more titles than Leopold’s Light dorm.
Appearance: He’s most certainly classy and has style, if nothing else. The almost regal suit he wears fit nicely on his tall, slender body and don’t conflict with his clean-cut, baby blond hairs. Despite dressing nicely, though, his permanent, judgemental scowl is anything but. If you happen to catch him at any random time of the day, Leopold will very blatantly look down at you, literally and metaphorically.
Deck: Monarchs
As a teacher, Thomas is very strict and to-the-point, with students having very little input on his lessons. He spends most of his time in the Dark dorm’s library, researching various subject for both his lessons and spare time, or just reading. Thomas, naturally, also acts as the librarian, so students have to go past him to loan books out of the library. Most of the time he will bite your head off when you try approaching or talking to him for anything that doesn’t concern his immediate job. Thomas does open up on certain occasions though. If you spy him playing with his pet dog, Snuggle, he is a lot more approachable and open for dialogue.
Appearance: Thomas, is a very intimidating individual. Even when dressing in something other than the dorm leader’s uniform, the clothing he wears are always dyed in dark and melancholic colours. This isn’t helped by his dark green hair, although it’s capped off with an uncharacteristically stylish fedora.
Deck: Spellbooks
The head of the Xyz dorm, Noir is the oldest teacher in the academy. His name isn’t actually Noir, but rather it’s an alias he uses. He’s wise and compassionate, but also distant and mysterious. He does not talk about himself and prodding him would only serve to get him to talk about the past and how you could learn from it. He also actively duels the least out of any teacher due to his loner nature, preferring to observe and help students grow instead. He constantly drives them to better themselves, but also warns them on a regular basis to not overdo it and that losing is sometimes okay, that you should not take things too far. As long as you keep standing up and trying again, you’ll get to the top eventually. That is Noir’s philosophy.
Appearance: Noir is an old man, and thus, has to walk everywhere via wooden cane. He’s always hunched over, which makes him appear a lot tinier than he actually is. Noir’s dorm uniform is constantly covered by a brown duster, like the ones you’d see in old detective movies. Noir’s one of the few people in the academy with a fully grown beard, but at the same time, also suffers from the unfortunate case of baldness by aging.
Deck: Generic Rank 4
Head of the Synchro dorm and local scientist. Whenever she’s not teaching, she’s cooped up in her lab in the main building. This alone already makes it extremely hard to get a hold of Aiko, but not only that, she’s also a cold and distant person. She has very little interaction with her students. She doesn’t take the student body into account and is extremely demanding with giving grades, making her classes some of the hardest in the entire school. Because of her attitude, the Synchro dorm has relatively few students compared to all the other dorms, but Aiko simply believes those who do not put in hard work do not deserve any accomplishments either. Strangely and rather contradictory, however, Aiko also believes those with potential will always wind up on the path of success one day, even if it takes them a while to put in the work required.
Appearance: Aiko is of average length and often walks around with a lab coat covering the uniform for the dorm leaders. She wears a black, full-rimmed pair of glasses and has a constantly fatigued face. Her hair is long and a slightly faded midnight blue. Aiko isn’t constantly maintaining her appearance, but still has a very mature look to her.
Deck: Crystron
Dorm members are to be revealed at a later date.
Now it's up to you!
At Harmonia, there is only one true victor. Will you beat the competition and come out on top, or will you crumble underneath it all?
EDIT: FOR ANYONE READING IN FUTURE, CHECK OUT THIS POST
Hey, whaddup nerds. As you can see, Satoshi's made a thing. A good thing. And, I'm helping. He'll be your GM, I'll be your co-GM, and this post will be to show all y'all the OOC information you'll need:
1: The world isn't set in any continuity of YGO. Anime, manga or otherwise, this is a completely separate universe. Therefor, there's way less restrictions on what cards are plot-important and, thus, allowed to be wielded by the player characters. Still, there's a few ones we think are important to leave out;
The God cards, the Wicked Gods and the Sacred Beasts. These cards are gods, anti-gods and corrupted gods respectively, and we believe they were a big enough deal to be a big deal in this universe too. Deal. Big deal.
Z-Arc: The Dimension Dragons are all regular cards, but their fusion has a legendary status in this world. It's unbelievably rare, and the few who hold a copy have a hard time summoning him.
Exodia: Exodia and his variants are more like a collector's item in this world. The few that have it don't like to play it, preferring to use a deck more tailored to them.
2: So uh, about dueling. I'll just give you the long and short of it: They're all scripted. Neither me nor sat want any RNG involved with the RP, and for that purpose, we have done away with deck lists and actually playing out a duel. Decks will follow certain guidelines rather than be a set list, think as how the anime decks all have a theme but keep shifting. This also means you can't actually play YGO, so instead you'll have to write up a script and write that out in RP form. We believe this is a lot less restrictive, gets across the character's play style better and makes the both of them seem competent (unless you want it to be a curbstomp).
All duels will be in 4k life format, too, as 8k is a bit too high to effictively script with and will cause the duels to be longer than they really need to be. Also, naturally, there will be a predetermined winner for each duel. If two players duel and can't decide which character wins, the GMs will decide.
3: You will all play one of the six dorm champions of the elemental dorms while we, the GMs, will play the Xyz and Synchro dorm. So this means you all will be able to play the Fire, Water, Earth, Wind, Light and Dark dorms but not the Xyz and Synchro ones. Aside from your champion, however, we also expect one more thing out of each of you: 4 NPCs. These NPCs will be the 2nd best through 5th best of each of your dorms and will serve the purpose of both giving your dorm some more character as well as tailoring each dorm to the player's imaginations. With approval, of course. By the way, the five that go pro? They're the top 5 of the winning dorm, so there you go.
4: Deck guidelines, eh? You can use any non-banned card that's available in the game, TCG or OCG. We'll go with the ruling that if it's not banned on one forbidden list but it is on the other, you can still use it. As for Anime and Custom cards... both only with approval. Me and Sat don't mind anime cards if they're not on Nibelung's Treasure level of crazy, but to be sure, we'd like to have them go through us for approval. As for customs, we'll allow each player to create up to 6 with GM approval. We don't want you to completely rely on them, so limiting it to just 6 will make it so you'll only have to create one if your niche isn't filled by another already-existing card.
Also, two more things on this: Just because a character's in a certain dorm doesn't mean their deck has to adhere to that dorm's typing. Dorms are based on personality rather than decks, so while characters with FIRE decks would naturally gravitate to the Fire dorm, it doesn't mean they couldn't have an EARTH or DARK deck. You can also include any extra deck method of your choosing, except...
Ohhey look who it is. Ohhey, look who I am. Been a while, eh @Ammokkx? I only just came in from the cold (literally) but I'll have a proper eyeball at this shortly.
*From the ashs of a fallen two roleplays rises a third tale. No Vincents no Ignia's only solid fun.* (Elemental lord fun. (Unless thats a bit too far with the system-)
Okay so, I would like to reserve Dark Dorm for reasons.
I was presuming we'd wait 'till the actual OOC thread goes out to pick roles. Well, guess if I snooze I lost, right? xD
Anyway, after discussion with Ammok, I've definitely got my eyes in and a prototype for a character (who could probably be the Kaiba to someone else's Yugi, if you catch my drift), although bearing as someone else seems to already be dark I'm gonna have to do some rethinking.
Yeah, we're not letting people reserve dorms here. It's not a 'first come first serve' type of deal. If two people want the same dorm, we'd let both of them post a CS and pick the best one.
@Plumbumthe island is too small for things like turbo duels unless you want to crash into trees drive into the sea or crashing into ruins or, you know what I'm suggesting I mean the island is big enough to race on but its a bit too dense, action duels I might consider for now lets assume not, speed duels won't be a thing.
erm or just ask @Ammokkx he might have a better answer I'm not good with words
I'm the same as Sat when it comes to Turbo dueling. As cool as it is to drive around on one of those things, the island's a bit of an ill-fit. We'd consider it if there was a big enough demand, but it would also be without speed spells most likely as it just adds another layer of complexity that isn't really needed.
I'd also say no to Action Dueling because while the tech is there, it often felt like an excuse to get lazy with the duel writing in Arc-V and I doubt it'd add much here either.
Action Dueling would've been nice, but I guess I can't ask for too much. I'm just glad we get to script the damned things. If duels were to be settled by actually playing the game, my char's loss record would rival that of Weevil Underwood's or Rex Raptor's... knowing my luck <_<
...
Speaking of scripting, what exactly will we be using in that regard? Piratepad? Etherpad? Whichever one of the two we and our dueling partners can agree on?
I'd personally create a skeleton on something like etherpad/gdocs/whatever (think how duels are summarized on the YGO wiki, if you go look at an episode synopsis) then RP the actual character work as would normally be done PbP so that spectators can still in essence see the duel unfold.
That's my two of the smallest currency denomination.
Alright, so to explain the scripting part, I'll use an example I've showed to a few others already. It was used for a different RP which is already dead by this point. The other guy's deck was pretty bad, so I had it so we scripted the thing so he didn't get to be shafted while my character dominated. I make all my scripts in a google doc, but there's other options such as PMing it or making it in a pad.
Of course, you can't post this in a thread and call it a day. After you've got your script, you've got multiple options. Either you make like Plum and play-by-play it in the thread (not a fan of it myself, but unless sat says otherwise, I'm not going to stop people from doing it), you can PM your posts to each other or you can set up a pad or google docs and collab it that way. I've done every method under the sun, they all have their ups and downs.
@AdmrlStalfos19good to see someone shares my sentiment, duels that play out as real duels are lame, this is not the game this is a roleplay it can turn a supposedly pro player into a loser
