For anyone on this site that feels like RPing Yu-Gi-Oh, let's brainstorm something together.

[The Red Seelie]

@Grey
Appropriate all the cultures

To follow your format:

+1 to Scripted duels
+0 to Point buy (don't mind if its there or not, Though I would prefer a more "Plot related" progression like the anime usually does with individuals getting cards as a result of character progression or as a result of interaction.)
+1 to Super duper mega ultra special Soul cards (because they are a great cornerstone in most cases)
+1 to Appropriate Culture (because Yu-gi-oh)

[Kaggs]

Oh we're votin?

• +0 vote scripted duels.
• -1 vote for point buy (same reason as the rabbit)
• -1 vote for Super special magic cards (ya boi just wants to play that sweet sweet card game)
• +1 vote for cultural appropriation (imo it ain't duel monsters without this).

[The Red Seelie]

> Reminder that ZeXal II is the best yugioh anime.

Just wanted to make sure I was on the same page with everyone here before we got into the rp.

[Ammokkx]

Oh we're votin?

@Kaggs

i didn't approve of this democratic revolution what is this

Only real conclusion I can garner from this is "No lock on card progression, steal from a culture" so far. 50/50 on the "This card is my very being" schtick and while 2 people voted for scripted duels the vote's rigged 'cause I knew they would

[Grey]

you don’t control me

i change my vote from scripted duels to live action duels in real life at the nearest ycs

[Ammokkx]

alright I'm gonna go to bed

Not enough ideas for a full RP yet, but we're getting there. Keep brainstorming while I'm gone plz, or at the very least keep shitposting so it's an int. check topper and we can get a whole 1 additional person.

Or don't. I'm not your biological dad.

[Amaranthine]

+1 to everything.
So far I haven't read an idea I couldn't get behind here, so that's nice.
Been playing the game for a good 10 years now, on and off competitively, but never stopped to play casual. I watched some of every anime, but I can't watch any series unless someone drags me to it. I made it to Season 5 of the original one at least!
Would really like a Yu-Gi-Oh! RPG to happen, don't mind if the duels are scripted or not, as long as there is enough interaction outside of duels and an actual plot, I'm (card) game.

[Grey]

@Ammokkx

you ain't my adopted dad either, smh

[malmshodes]

I've got my eye on this. Just going to read up and see if I missed anything, after the intro post, so I can chime inw ithout repeating anything already talked about.

[malmshodes]

So what if the story revolves around actually getting the cards like for stores and stuff? Was always curious to see how in a culture completely dedicated to a single card game, nobody could really duel and the most mundane cards seemed amazing. Perhaps we could so something with that angel?

Either that or we'll start out as privates in a duel army, who are recruited to assist in a war against dimensional plains.
Just a few ideas.

Also as far as dueling goes. I'm for the two main parties discussing who'll win amongst themselves. Then, have the GM generate the draw order.
My main issue is visualization as its like playing chess over texts. Yeah, you can see where everything is and go back to look but its going to get pretty inconvenient at some points.

[webboysurf]

A perhaps unpopular thing that's worth noting, and it's a mentality that could help in this RP: The duels in Yu-Gi-Oh rarely follow the actual rules. If we treat dueling like the anime does, it's about character interaction and writing the drama and stakes of a duel, not so much making sure we are following tournament rules.

[malmshodes]

@webboysurf

A perhaps unpopular thing that's worth noting, and it's a mentality that could help in this RP: The duels in Yu-Gi-Oh rarely follow the actual rules. If we treat dueling like the anime does, it's about character interaction and writing the drama and stakes of a duel, not so much making sure we are following tournament rules.

@webboysurf

That is true, but if we're going to be rping together then there's got to be some form of basic rules or understanding to play our characters or it all becomes anarchy and chaos, and not the fun, joker kind, but playing a game of chess against a pigeon type of anarchy

[Loksfjoer]

Maybe we could let fate decide the outcome of the battle, the GM could roll a 1d2 dice and share the results.
But with several people already claiming they like playing the underdog, and my characters are rarely the powerful ones too, I think we could try to let the players duel and see how it goes.

Obtaining cards could be done like the anime, we all have our deck and had a few duels already. Special cards can be obtained during the RP, we could make a list of what super rare or ultra rare cards shouldn't be included in our decks and can only be obtained during the RP.
This could also be the reason we get together, instead of a Tournament we could be drawn to a Treasure Hunt for some unique cards. And battle each other either in friends duels or to try and obtain the special card they other won.

A perhaps unpopular thing that's worth noting, and it's a mentality that could help in this RP: The duels in Yu-Gi-Oh rarely follow the actual rules. If we treat dueling like the anime does, it's about character interaction and writing the drama and stakes of a duel, not so much making sure we are following tournament rules.

@webboysurf

I agree with this 100%. I'm in both the Pokémon fandom and the Yu-Gi-Oh! fandom, but so far I only RP-ed in the Pokémon fandom. You have competitive players there who count stats and everything, but most enjoyable are the RP's that do the Pokémon battles anime-style.

I'm not saying we should go full Duelist Kingdom, because those duels made the least sense of Yu-Gi-Oh! (although they were fun to watch), but the way duels were done since Battle City can certainly be used as inspiration for the RP.

[King Cosmos]

Why is it every time I start to think about getting back into Yu-Gi-Oh one of these RPs shows up?

+0 to Scripted duels - With my grand total experience of 2 duels in previous RPs, I could go either way. I've done a duel where everything was scripted in advance (hmm, that duel example looks familiar) and I've done a duel where we created the collab one turn at a time with the winner planned in advance but nothing else. My vote is for flexibility so people can duel how they want (except simulators).
+0 to Point buy - Point buy would be a good way of tracking when to add new cards to your deck. Maybe make it an OOC thing though rather than having characters actually earn points; I don't know how the old RP did it.
+1 to Super duper mega ultra special Soul cards - Because they're cool.
+1 to Appropriate Culture - Has Yu-Gi-Oh done anything with Mesoamerica yet? I'm feeling in a Mesomaerican mood today.

A perhaps unpopular thing that's worth noting, and it's a mentality that could help in this RP: The duels in Yu-Gi-Oh rarely follow the actual rules. If we treat dueling like the anime does, it's about character interaction and writing the drama and stakes of a duel, not so much making sure we are following tournament rules.

@webboysurf

I haven't properly watched the anime for a while but outside of Duelist Kingdom I can't think of many examples where they ignored the rules. Can you give some examples of what you mean?

[LunarStandard]

Full disclaimer that I probably won't be able to join whatever comes out of this since I'm just going to be far too busy these next few months, so feel free to ignore everything I'm saying. Still, being the patron of the arts that I am, I guess I'll give my thoughts on this contentious topic.

A perhaps unpopular thing that's worth noting, and it's a mentality that could help in this RP: The duels in Yu-Gi-Oh rarely follow the actual rules. If we treat dueling like the anime does, it's about character interaction and writing the drama and stakes of a duel, not so much making sure we are following tournament rules.

@webboysurf

Maybe they don't follow the tournament rules in the sense that you can't say, run out of time or have to play matches, but they still very much follow the rules of the actual game in the anime like Summoning rules or following card text. The most you can say about any anime not named Duelist Kingdom is that they occasionally flub a ruling here or there.

Maybe we could let fate decide the outcome of the battle, the GM could roll a 1d2 dice and share the results.
But with several people already claiming they like playing the underdog, and my characters are rarely the powerful ones too, I think we could try to let the players duel and see how it goes.

@Calle

Yeah, if you're going to leave it to chance anyway, then you might as well play it out. I'm always a proponent for playing out the duels since that's where a lot of the excitement of these RPs come from. Especially when you get into a back-and-forth duel and neither player knows what's going to happen next. Of course, deck balancing is really important for that, which brings me to my next point...

So I really like the point buy system for RPs where you have any chance of non-scripted dueling, and you can just give players special plot cards through the story, and then make them buy the boring staples or engine cards that everybody needs through the points.

A couple reasons I like this. The first is that it is honestly a good balancing tool. Certainly some people might abuse it, but by-and-large most players will be roughly at the same power level, and that level will be kept pretty low. And then whoever is falling behind can be given cards through the story or whatnot. The second is that it gives people a chance to use niche cards they've never heard of before. Case-in-point, in Ammokkx's RP, I had never heard of Chaos Burst before, but I liked it, so I threw it in. Finally, it just keeps people engaged because there's such an endorphin boost from actually getting cards and opening packs. Weird point to make in an RP, I know, but there really is another element of progression that keeps players engaged.

But if you're going to do full script, yeah ignore all of that.

[Ammokkx]

Lots of stuff to respond here, so I'm not going to quote individuals and instead address it all in one go:

-Point buy seems like the most pressing concern atm since it isn't very clear how it worked. Aside from how you saw it in the screenshot, I merged the OOC system with an IC card shop. Players were part of an academy that wanted to encourage dueling, so their point credit was tracked so they could get new cards from the on-ground card shop. The system was inspired by the DP system you find in videogames mainly, where dueling gained you points to spend on packs or password machines. If I re-use it, it's not without some major retooling. If anything, I'd give an equal amounts of points for winning or losing so you care less about the result and powergaming. The reason it was in place was to let players be on an equal playing field at all times, and while it didn't quite work the way I intended it to, a sense of progression helped retain some interest I found. I'm willing to do away with it, but that just means I'll be extra strict on how your deck is looking throughout the RP so you don't put in a Divine GO-D/D/D Zero King Zero G.O.D. Reiji right at the start.

-Rule fucking. Thing is, only DM was *really* bad about this, and even then, it was mostly because the game was only taking shape battle city forwards. It actually did have rules it followed, they're just not entirely like ours; Stuff like a Fusion monster being unable to attack the turn it is summoned. Most of the other stuff in the anime is them not entirely understanding how timing works and the like, but that's more on rules lawyering than it is not following concrete rules. Yuma wasn't able to activate Number 39's effect in half the situations he did, but the anime didn't really care too much. My take is: Stick as close to the rules as you can and don't try to fuck them on purpose, but if there's a minor error in the duel at some point, I'm not going to get on your ass for it.

-Duels: At this point I'm going to adopt a "anything goes" policy. Everyone seems to be pretty in favor of whoever the two individuals dueling are to be doing it in a way they both can agree to. While I'm a contrarian cunt, I'm not silly enough to go against a clear majority here.

-List of rare cards: I did that, once. It's not a very good idea.

-Story: I'm not 100% on board with any particular one idea proposed yet, but not everything isn't worth my time. I could set up a Battle City situation, only without a strict tournament. Basically invent a fictional city which is essentially the Mekka for duelists around the world. There's only one rule, and that's the Ante rule. Duelists compete to win cards off each-other, both to hone their skills and to upgrade their decks as they go. They go to one of the local (Company)-mandated stores to register themselves, their deck, and their collection of cards and be given a rating. The characters could have any one reason for coming to the city; Winning it all, becoming a true duelist, revenge for or on their father. Mysterious duelists show up in town and y'all end up saving the world. How's that sound for a pitch?

-Underdogs: Don't set out to be one, just become one if it works out that way. I've had a spot of trouble before where players expected to lose everything and then go on a winning streak, as well as players setting out to be the strongest duelist and then lose all their duels. Have your character adapt to whatever happens, especially if we're going to improv like some people here are wanting to. Besides, if everyone sucks, nobody does.

+1 to Appropriate Culture - Has Yu-Gi-Oh done anything with Mesoamerica yet? I'm feeling in a Mesomaerican mood today.

@King Cosmos

did you sleep through 5D's the entire first third was all about Nazca lines and a Quetzalcoatl knockoff lmao

[FujiwaraPhoenix]

I've actually been waffling a bit internally about deciding whether or not to throw my two cents in since I saw this go up last night, but I figured that saying something is better than saying nothing at all.

Going to be honest: never actually got that invested in the anime at any point during its lifespan. I've also been playing sort of on-and-off offline at school and at locals (though, given where I live, it was basically play meta or bust), and that's also shaped how I both view and play the game (which I'm only now starting to get back into). With that said...

I actually really like the 'Sealed Only' and 'From Scratch' series that broke out around last year, so I don't really mind a sort of 'buy' system in any capacity. Places some general limits at the start, lets players see their decks grow... Yeah. Also, pulling a big card from a given set can really cause some excitement, cashing in big cards for more rolls, whatever works, works. Then again, I'm a sucker for opening packs, so... Yeah.

Regarding plot: I think it might be best to establish the existence of buying or not before pushing for this, because a Battle City sort of scenario does mean that players are rolling in with their top decks at the very beginning. Growth is, as a result, tied more towards character interaction, which feels a bit shallow when, as far as I know, pretty much every recurring character's deck has seen some sort of change as their journeys progress.

I'm not sure if my opinions should even be considered at this point (I'm literally staring at my decklists and archetypes right now trying to find something I could make work that wouldn't break everything), but... Yeah.

[Ammokkx]

I think it might be best to establish the existence of buying or not before pushing for this, because a Battle City sort of scenario does mean that players are rolling in with their top decks at the very beginning.

@PKMNB0Y

Not necessarily. Only really Kaiba and Marik started with the strongest version of his deck; Yugi got his God in the middle of the arc while Jounouchi literally lost his strongest card (Red-Eyes) before the tournament kicked off, and the entire set-up was so that his deck grew as he won more and more rare cards. Oh, and Yugi was also shown pulling out Lightforce Sword from a pack, a card he went to use for the rest of the tournament, so make of it what you will.

Yes, they'll roll in with the best deck they have, but the best deck they have doesn't have to be full of top-tier cards. The idea was spur-of-the-moment and would definitely need refinement, not to mention I've no guarantee with sticking to it, but I don't think you need to worry about high-tier decks.

Not to mention an Ante rule situation being the perfect excuse to pick up more cards to begin with; by definition you'd be obtaining more stuff as the RP progresses, and theoretically your "top deck" would only be assembled at the very end.

On that note, I'm definitely not looking for a mainly "game-play" experience. For better or worse, I'm trying to stay as close to a playground free-for-all-format as possible. Even when I still played the game, I played a bunch of decks that don't really have any kind of meta relevance (Pure artifact, Red Dragon Resonator, Genex Super Quantum, Cipher etc.) but that allowed me to have fun playing against other low-tier decks. My most fun opponent is my friend who plays a deck of 37 traps and 3 Uria, so that's the kind of perspective I have on the game.

[The Red Seelie]

> If We playing Battle City, Does this mean I am allowed to use real people as tribute fodder? I mean why not am I right

Though the small issue with a battle city plot is that it could lead to players being spread out/Result in some players getting all the action and someplayers getting next to none. Ante Rules could also lead to some scenarios where a deck can be entirely crippled.

Buuut, If there is a trash pile filled with Ojama blue copies or something to fish in when my deck has been stolen/anted away. Thats fun too.

[King Cosmos]

Though the small issue with a battle city plot is that it could lead to players being spread out/Result in some players getting all the action and some players getting next to none. Ante Rules could also lead to some scenarios where a deck can be entirely crippled.

@1Charak2

The way I interpreted the Ante Rules for this is that it wouldn't necessarily be that you'd have to give up your strongest card like in the anime, but rather than you'd both wager a card upfront before the duel began. The fact that Ammokkx said you'd register your deck and your card collection as two separate items means you'd potentially be anteing a strong card that isn't vital to your deck and potentially something that you don't even use. I can see the Ante Rule mostly being a way to get your hands on off-archetype extra deck monsters.

I could be completely off base though.

You could also just pull a Joey and lose your best card right away and have to claw your way back. There's story potential there.