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CKirk
2014-08-20, 12:58 PM
I'm planing on setting up a Play by Post game set in the world of Yu-Gi-Oh!, but I want it to have at least some modicum of logic to it. This means I need to come up with a reason why people duel for the fate of the world and whatnot. This poses a problem, as I can't think of any particular reason why. I can reason why people would duel in a more common sense, such as good advertising, tournaments and the like, but not for the whole fate of the world thing that Yu-Gi-Oh! loves so much. If anyone has ideas that could explain why people are playing card games for the fate of the world, I would appreciate it if they were thrown this way.

CarpeGuitarrem
2014-08-20, 01:07 PM
Fairies. No, seriously. The Fae are known for being capricious and for delighting in games. The stakes of a game are a promise or forfeit on the part of the loser. The Fae love high stakes.
The cards actually form extraplanar connections to powerful sources of magical energy. Winning lets you claim cards from an opponent. With the right cards, you can summon cosmic power for yourself.
Those who play cards are the human forms of powerful beings, e.g. the Greek pantheon, and they play with mortals as the stakes.
The cards are imbued with the Language of Creation, and the card game is how a duel between two Masters of Creation is manifested.

Sith_Happens
2014-08-20, 01:45 PM
set in the world of Yu-Gi-Oh!
...
modicum of logic

:confused:

More seriously, I think you might have it backwards. It's not that people constantly bet the fate of the world on Duel Monsters, it's that Duel Monsters is the game of choice whenever the fate of the world so happens to hang in the balance. Why Duel Monsters specifically has everything to do with its in-series background of being based on Egyptian black magic, thereby making it the closest modern-day equivalent to an actual wizards' duel.

Millennium
2014-08-20, 02:02 PM
I'm inclined to agree. Pretty much the only way it would make any sense to make it such that people resolve matters of weighty, global importance by playing a children's card game is to somehow tie it deeply into the past.

My thought is to swipe a page from Phantasy Star III and tie this into ancient religious lore. Long ago, the world's three major religious figures -Obelisk the Tormentor, Slifer the Executive Producer, and Mega Ultra Chicken- fought a terrible war that, had it continued, may truly have destroyed the world. Then, one day, in a sudden turn, these three figures abruptly ended the war and left the world together. To this day, no one knows why; it is one of the world's great and enduring mysteries. But before they left, each of the three left the same command to their followers: never kill anyone again, not even the followers of the other faiths.

And so the war ended, but conflicts remained. In PSIII, the result of this was that the followers of the two religions created androids and monsters to fight their wars for them. But it could be that in your game, the followers of the three religions decided to re-create the ancient battles by proxy, using a card game that could be taught to children before they developed the instincts to fight directly. Centuries have passed, and it might even be that the three religions are now extinct. But the children's card game remains, and remains the conflict resolution method of choice.

Legato Endless
2014-08-20, 04:56 PM
You also don't need to literally have the fate of the world at stake. Children's card games are simply the world's most popular hobby, and thus attract all the gambling and corruption of the modern sports world. Nothing in the franchise is more ridiculous than FIFA. Maybe one of your players owe money to the mob, maybe one of them need to win a tourney for their home country. Just plug the card game into Tye conventions of a dark sports drama. Or go with Carpe's excellent listing.

CKirk
2014-08-20, 04:58 PM
I'm inclined to agree. Pretty much the only way it would make any sense to make it such that people resolve matters of weighty, global importance by playing a children's card game is to somehow tie it deeply into the past.

My thought is to swipe a page from Phantasy Star III and tie this into ancient religious lore. Long ago, the world's three major religious figures -Obelisk the Tormentor, Slifer the Executive Producer, and Mega Ultra Chicken- fought a terrible war that, had it continued, may truly have destroyed the world. Then, one day, in a sudden turn, these three figures abruptly ended the war and left the world together. To this day, no one knows why; it is one of the world's great and enduring mysteries. But before they left, each of the three left the same command to their followers: never kill anyone again, not even the followers of the other faiths.

And so the war ended, but conflicts remained. In PSIII, the result of this was that the followers of the two religions created androids and monsters to fight their wars for them. But it could be that in your game, the followers of the three religions decided to re-create the ancient battles by proxy, using a card game that could be taught to children before they developed the instincts to fight directly. Centuries have passed, and it might even be that the three religions are now extinct. But the children's card game remains, and remains the conflict resolution method of choice.

Thank you. That's a really good idea, and I can definitely work with this for the game.

Hiro Protagonest
2014-08-20, 10:03 PM
-Obelisk the Tormentor, Slifer the Executive Producer, and Mega Ultra Chicken-

...Is this a Robot Chicken sketch?

Sith_Happens
2014-08-20, 10:07 PM
...Is this a Robot Chicken sketch?

Close, Yu-Gi-Oh: The Abridged Series.

Orderic
2014-08-21, 03:45 AM
One thing you have to be on the lookout for is the one guy who will want to shoot or stab his opponent or do anything else physical to him. I know that one of my first actions would be to try to acquire a knife or firearm.

And the characters should have a good reason to play the game when the fate of the world is at stake. Maybe all of their opponents are stupid enough to duel, even if they completely outnumber the heroes and could easily win by having them shot.

Or you just give the cards actual magic powers of summoning monsters and casting spells. In that case, people would play it instead of hitting each other because it is safer for everyone (If your opponent summons some monster, You should really summon your own, instead of fighting them on xour own) and it just looks so much better. Although I would still be tempted to just shoot the enemies.

the OOD
2014-08-21, 01:43 PM
fate of the world?, please. I just want to win the worldwide decentralized tournament to get the money to help my sister get cancer treatment. the fate of the world is not the only level that you can play at.

If you want to go big(and are a mythology geek) though,figures from Egyptian legend are awakening with strange powers and are fighting to rule the world. they are strong, durable and have various powers(start with Loki in the opening of the avengers and work up from there), but will always accept a duel(witch can/will reseal them? give you power over them?). guns aren't working, and provoke physical attacks on a larger scale, so duelists are the best way to take them down(not all do it for selfless reasons, though).

oh! oh! y'know those tablets? where they draw pharaohs and the like so they can go to the afterlife? complete with riches and mooks to serve them in their next life? well the time for that next life has come round, and everything else they drew is coming back to(complete with Ra playing a deck centered around him/herself).
and with that one funky dung beetle(scarab?) that rolls the sun across the sky playing a deck around helois, the primordial sun. mooks for Anubis run gravekeepers, and throw in as a few card that pop up in most Egyptian decks for a sense of playing against entities playing from a different meta.(most Egyptians running at least one xing zen hu, for example). that would also distinguish human opponents(witch you should have to) from the entitys, and allow for interesting tweaks in strategy once they catch on.
how bout and organization that wants to tap the power of the pharaohs and gods fro their own ends? is Pegasus starting a dulest boot camp to help counter the waves of afterlife servants? is anyone still trying to fight them with guns/bombs?(heros can convince them to duel, they are just getting people killed) are their human cults worship the new gods/embracing the end of days?
(side note: man, I *really* want to see a clown deck somewhere in this game.)
what else?, I think this is a good start, you have various tiers of mooks, easts/west pharaohs and high pharaohs of diff generations(holysh**,(evil?)yamiyugi), mythology to draw from for the myth geek players, a stylish overarching theme, themes to build decks around(I know you like deckbuilding), the three god card as final bosses (or throw a human in ther to mix things up, maby mr. smith beat the heros erley on, and has now gone on to beat obilisk and slifer, adding them to his deck), (I just figured it out, when you beat an ancient, you get a card of them(ie. ra gets you the ra card, sun beetle gets you... something)), and (recurring?) human opponents to break up the egyptian fights.
oh! researching your opponent beforehand could let you guess their deck and plan accordingly!

(edit: oh! a two v. one duel with john smith and the hero(s) vs Ra, you need to beat ra, but if the superpowerful mr. smith deals the final blow, he claims Ra, making the eventual duel against him even harder:smallamused::smallbiggrin:)
(edit: is there a hoarder/collecter-ish figure in egyptian myth? muka mukas!
wan pegasus to be a bad(ish) guy? his "resurect dead wife" plan involves harnessing the god cards:smallamused:. you could even power him up enough that you could describe slifer trying to flee him rather than duel:smallbiggrin:. perfect way to make the players go from ohyeah to ohcrap when the realize that they need to fight him:smalleek:)

apologies for cluttered stream-of-consciousness format, run-on sentences, a general lack of periods, and an abusive volume of parentheses.
feel free post any like/dislikes and tweaks on this idea, I would love to hear them(and I bet kirk would to.)


(edit: 10 points per mythology mistake you can catch)

drew2u
2014-08-22, 09:56 AM
Wait, so if the cards are imbued with the ability to summon legendary gods and perform powerful eldritch magic, wouldn't the first thing you'd do would be to raid the company that actually makes the cards?

Sure that Obelisk Leg card or whatever is a super-powerful secret-ultra-reverse-rare that's found only in 1 in a 1,000 boxes, but the factory that prints the cards must have hundreds at the very least.

Bluydee
2014-08-22, 10:02 AM
There were only one egyptian god card of each in existence, if I remember correctly, and they weren't even printed by Pegasus.

CarpeGuitarrem
2014-08-22, 10:34 AM
Wait, so if the cards are imbued with the ability to summon legendary gods and perform powerful eldritch magic, wouldn't the first thing you'd do would be to raid the company that actually makes the cards?

Presuming that they're cards printed by a company (and not ancient artifacts of some sort), um...

...do you really want to be raiding the factory that has the capability of PRODUCING said cards? Just stop and think about all of the power they must have access to. They literally have the capability of using every single card they've ever printed, because you know they've got spare copies laying around. I'm sure it's been tried, and the results were messy.

That assumes that one can just flat-out print the cards (and also implies that whoever is behind the factory is part of some shadowy cabal controlling the circulation of the cards). It may be that the cards aren't actually part of a commercial endeavor, but have slowly been crafted over time in disparate parts of the world.

It might even be the case that the cards which have actual power are "Legendary" and very rare artifacts; you have to use them in a deck with powerless cards in order to activate them.

Radar
2014-08-22, 11:44 AM
Production of the cards does pose a problem. I'd assume that the mass-produced cards are similar enough to the real thing that they allow the users to summon likeness of various mythological figures, but it's just an imitation and thus much weaker then the real thing. They might also draw the power from the user, since the card itself is just a piece of colored paper. This interpretation would allow for progress not only in terms of obtaining new cards but also enhancing ones capacity to use them. You could also use energy cards to pay for the summoning cost and recharge them later from your own stamina.

There would also be unique cards actually imbued with essence of those creatures or gods, or whoever else you want. Obviously overpowered by normal standards.

DontEatRawHagis
2014-08-22, 01:17 PM
Watch Gamers 3 hands of fate.

The cards are used as tarot cards to recreate what is happening on another plane of existence without the players knowing.

Might be interesting if the players knew they were and manipulating the alt universe to their own ends.

AuraTwilight
2014-08-22, 03:13 PM
Re: The Production problem: Maybe they're not cards at all. Maybe they're two-dimensional planes containing extradimensional entities ala the Phantom Zone. They're not products, they're EVENTS, and sometimes extraplanar creatures don't fully cross over properly.

Friv
2014-08-22, 03:49 PM
...Is this a Robot Chicken sketch?

Explaining the joke time! The original three Legendary God Cards from Yu-Gi-Oh were Obelisk the Tormentor, Slifer the Sky Dragon, and the Winged Dragon of Ra.

When Yu-Gi-Oh Abridged reached the cards, they played Obelisk the Tormentor straight, mainly. But in a remarkable coincidence, the name of the guy in charge of 4Kids when Yu-Gi-Oh season one was ported to the US was Roger Slifer. So the Abridged Series renamed the card "Slifer, the Executive Producer", and having made one renaming they decided to go all-out and give the goofiest name possible to the third card, turning the Winged Dragon into the Mega-Ultra-Chicken.

Sith_Happens
2014-08-22, 09:27 PM
Okay, we really need to settle here, are we talking about the actual world of Yu-Gi-Oh or just one based on/inspired by it? Because if the former then most of these questions have answers already.

Elana
2014-08-23, 02:39 AM
What if the company actually just produces blank cards.
They only become specific cards when the first person takes them out of their booster packs.
(and the specifics depend on their magic aura)

That means you can only get rare cards by either defeating a powerful gamer, or having a strong aura yourself

CKirk
2014-08-23, 04:05 PM
Okay, we really need to settle here, are we talking about the actual world of Yu-Gi-Oh or just one based on/inspired by it? Because if the former then most of these questions have answers already.

Actual world, specifically, Zexal era. And if there are reasons, I have never heard them.

Bluydee
2014-08-23, 09:34 PM
If this is talking about the real yugioh world, then the way the egyptian god cards exist that they are one of a kind cards possessed by the spirits of the gods themselves, as that counterfeits even killed and crippled their users.

EDIT: It's also to note that all these cards are played through holograms, and only through some evil magic do these card games turn into stakes of life and death. As well, the card game in the series was created after Maximillian Pegasus adapted some old combat magic eqyptians used with tablets to a cards.

CKirk
2014-08-23, 09:50 PM
If this is talking about the real yugioh world, then the way the egyptian god cards exist that they are one of a kind cards possessed by the spirits of the gods themselves, as that counterfeits even killed and crippled their users.

EDIT: It's also to note that all these cards are played through holograms, and only through some evil magic do these card games turn into stakes of life and death. As well, the card game in the series was created after Maximillian Pegasus adapted some old combat magic eqyptians used with tablets to a cards.

But what I need is a reason why people use these card games for life and death things.

Sith_Happens
2014-08-23, 11:22 PM
But what I need is a reason why people use these card games for life and death things.

In the original series it's because the plot consistently revolves around the Millennium Items (discounting filler), whose origin is intimately linked to that of the game. I don't remember if it's ever outright stated, but the implication is that the items themselves basically demand that any conflict involving them be fought via Duel Monsters.

G/X changes up the nature of the supernatural element each season, but the common factor keeping the card game tied to each is the fact that each card is tied to the essence/spirit of an actual monster or spell residing in an alternate dimension, making them a convenient source of magical firepower. Matter of fact, when the season two Big Bad turns out to be dueling everyone just to divert attention from his real master plan of taking control of a brainwashing laser-satellite, Jaden/Judai sends out some of his monsters Pokemon-style to destroy it.

I haven't seen 5D's or Zexal, but I'm assuming the principle stays mostly the same.

So basically, decide what sort of magic is at work in your campaign plot, and then figure out in what way said magic is aided by having a collection of potent spirits literally in your pocket.

Bluydee
2014-08-25, 06:58 AM
In the original series it's because the plot consistently revolves around the Millennium Items (discounting filler), whose origin is intimately linked to that of the game. I don't remember if it's ever outright stated, but the implication is that the items themselves basically demand that any conflict involving them be fought via Duel Monsters.

G/X changes up the nature of the supernatural element each season, but the common factor keeping the card game tied to each is the fact that each card is tied to the essence/spirit of an actual monster or spell residing in an alternate dimension, making them a convenient source of magical firepower. Matter of fact, when the season two Big Bad turns out to be dueling everyone just to divert attention from his real master plan of taking control of a brainwashing laser-satellite, Jaden/Judai sends out some of his monsters Pokemon-style to destroy it.

I haven't seen 5D's or Zexal, but I'm assuming the principle stays mostly the same.

So basically, decide what sort of magic is at work in your campaign plot, and then figure out in what way said magic is aided by having a collection of potent spirits literally in your pocket.

5Ds has the main enemy in the second season be an evil gang of people who sell their soul in exchange for revenge, and their goal was to release the eldritch abominations they were bound to. The third and second then were more about futuristic cyborgs who came to stop an event that would destroy the future, namely the card game itself.

Ravian
2014-08-25, 04:27 PM
Personally if it was me, I would set the world in a more fantasy setting than the common modern to sci-fi settings used in the show. Card games are considered an actual magical discipline taught in the world. Cards are made, but it is a long and intensive process involving binding extra-dimensional creatures and vestiges of old heroes into the ink and paper, and the more powerful the monster, the more dangerous the risk is in making the card.

Decks are considered heirloom items and artifacts to be passed down, not bought in some booster pack.

The rules and numbers are more like laws of the magic, ones that can no more be broken than one could cast a fireball spell as a flamethrower.

And the monsters are without a doubt real, but constrained in their actions as long as they are operating within the scale of a duel. Outside of one, they can do as much damage as you want them to. You can certainly try to kill the duelist, but without another duelist to contrain their monsters, it would go as well as you'd expect it to if a low-level fighter decided to charge a high-level conjurer head-on.

Anyway my two cents, since most of the silliness of the setting can be removed if you replace kids with trading cards with powerful wizards.