[quote=@Calle]
As someone who watched the anime more than played the card game, I'd be in for a RP that doesn't focus much on powerful decks and duelling simulators. I'd join the RP for the character-interaction and adventures, not to have a lot of duels. And I dislike the academy trope too.

People could get together in non-duel related ways and discover they all like to play duel monsters. An expo at a museum or library comes to mind. Maybe we all happened to visit Sea World because of a one-time free entry (where Make Tsunami tends to the dolphins?

With a wink to the first Yu-Gi-Oh!, we could all be visiting Kaibaland, where I'm sure Kaiba made some arenas for casual duels. But who wants that if they can go in a Blue Eyes Roller Coaster, am I right?

Alternatively, we could go Ancient Egypt too, where we all have just one spirit that we can use to fight with. Except for the spirits that already belong to the Pharaoh and his Priests. 
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Mmm... I'd like to avoid canon as much as possible, since I'm highly uncomfortable taking the reins of these characters I love. At that point I'd be writing glorified fanfiction with them, so I'd prefer a setting that's as original as possible.

I'm perfectly willing to recycle ideas from the anime(s) (Shadow games, ancient egypt, spirit world, Ener-D, multiple split dimensions of which one got ultrafucked by a sad man looking for his daughter) but nothing that *directly* links to the canon.

I do need some kind of initial hook past "the characters met that one time" though, as there was always some immediate problem to kickstart the plot in the various animes. The thing is, I need something a group of people would be interested in rather than just 1 guy.

I could do the whole 'Everyone has a card linked to their very soul that draws them to battle for the fate of the world' schtick but that depends on if everyone wants to hold onto their one copy of Shapesnatch for dear life.