Midnight, in Old Domino City. The moon was shining, bright and full. The night-life crowd would never know, of course, what with all the bright lights as they bustled this way and that. So absorbed in their own activities, they hardly noticed one in the crowd that didn’t seem to fit. A middle aged man, with parted, wavy blonde hair that had a grey streak in it, and a 5 o’clock shadow, stopped. Most outstanding was some kind of bracer with an unknown item mounted on top of it. The sleeve of his green trench coat was rolled up to the elbow, to fully display it, and it looked… Anachronistic; misplaced in time. It looked like it had moving parts, but all clockwork. Strangest of all was that it held what close examination would reveal to be a deck of Duel Monsters cards! The crowd parted around him as he reached into his trench coat and produced some kind of spy-glass designed to look like a Duel Monsters Card! Holding it up to his eye, he looked through the lens, slowly scanning across his range of vision, and narrowing his eyes when his gaze paused on the opening of an alley. He put away the spy glass and made his way to the alley, a gust making the trench billow like a cape for a moment. He stopped just outside the reach of the light, and spoke out loud, in a Brooklyn accent, “Alright, I know you’re down here...” After a moment of silence, he began slowly walking further down the alley, the noise and light of the city quickly fading until his boots seemed to echo with each step. He paused when a shadow darted out from behind a dumpster and some rubbish, and scampered into the deeper darkness of an empty parking garage. He called out, as he followed, even though his instincts warned against it. “You know, you shouldn’t run- it doesn’t help you [i]win[/i]-” He stopped for a moment, calling out, “You just lose [i]tired!...[/i]” With no response, he drew a hand of cards, and his bracer extended something that resembled a ouija board, albeit only aesthetically. Narrow and curved, and instead of letters, it simply had rectangles the same dimensions as a card, and some of the symbols one expects of a spirit board. A glass bauble on the top of the bracer began to glow, green mist inside of it swirling and casting a bright enough light to illuminate the area in a 6 foot radius around him. Just beneath the bauble, a flat arrow, like the hand of a clock, turned from zero to 8000, numbered by the thousands. The echoes of his footsteps were very loud, now, and it didn’t change as he cautiously made his way to the 2nd level ramp. Just before he turned to go up, he stopped, and turned to face several pairs of glowing red eyes in the darkness. They were all around him, and he couldn’t see any way out but to get further cornered on upper levels of the structure! He smirked, “Ah-[i]ha[/i], you’ve been making friends, I see!” Quickly giving up on trying to work out just how many there were, he continued, “And between the lot of you, you found enough brain cells to lay a trap without setting a card!” He couldn’t hide that he was sweating, in spite of his bravado. One pair of eyes stepped forward, into the light of his duel board, causing him to gasp once the individual was fully in the light. She had long, blonde-brown hair, and an unnaturally pale complexion. There was scarring around her eyes, which had stopped glowing in the light. A wide grin spread across her face, revealing a pair of fangs, and she said, “Oh, no more quips? Not even a ‘jeepers, creepers’?” She laughed at that, her voice hoarse; as though she’d done an awful lot of screaming. She gestured to her eyes as she laughed, and followed up in a deceptively sweet tone, “W-what? Isn’t that funny? I can see, again! Aren’t you happy for me?” She then took on a pleading tone, “Y-you didn’t help me, you said you’d always look out for me! W-where were you when they came for me?” She couldn’t keep up the act, however, and resumed her raspy laughing, mocking the anguish on his face. He fought back tears, straightened up, and replied in a cold tone. “I should warn you, I [i]am[/i] a Duelist.” She straightened up, herself. She suddenly looked bored, and said, “Kill him.” With that, the other eyes surged forward to overwhelm him, all of them clearly half rotted corpses; [url=https://www.db.yugioh-card.com/yugiohdb/card_search.action?ope=2&cid=6473]“Reborn Zombies”[/url]. Wide eyed, he acted quickly, slapping a card down on his board- motes of light quickly appeared, grew and morphed into the shape of [url=https://www.db.yugioh-card.com/yugiohdb/card_search.action?ope=2&cid=4354]swords[/url], criss-crossing to form a barrier between the duelist and his assailants. He was quick to turn and run up the ramp- he didn’t have much time, and he wasn’t going to be able to beat them by summoning monsters of his own! That rasping laughter seemed to be right behind him, mocking him, “Run, rabbit! [i]RUN, RABBIT! HAHAHAHAAAAA!!![/i]” They were coming, now; he could hear them giving chase, howling for his flesh, or whatever they were going to do to him. He pulled his “Swords of Revealing Light” and put it in his graveyard slot- the magic wouldn’t let him just slap it down again, and it wouldn’t do him any good, even if that would’ve worked. He could only stall for so long, what he needed was a [i]plan[/i]- He tried to get a clear look at the rest of his hand (good thing he kept his cool enough to keep a hold of them), and his eyes lit up, [i]Praise the Heart of the Cards; YES! I’ve just got to get them all up to the roof before they rip me apart![/i] He finally burst out into the open air, awash in the pale blue light of the moon! He never thought it could look so beautiful to him, but he didn’t revel for too long- he ran to the far end of the parking structure, and hoped there weren’t too many. They swarmed up, like ants! There must have been at least a couple dozen of them! He grit his teeth, [i]Stupid monsters; they never play by the rules![/i] He waited until he was sure they were all up there, and than slapped another card down, raising his hand to the sky, and shouting, “You goons should’ve checked the weather report; [url=https://www.db.yugioh-card.com/yugiohdb/card_search.action?ope=2&cid=14876][i]Lightning Storm![/i][/url]” There was a heavy clap of thunder, that shook the structure beneath them, and in spite of the sky being clear, several arcs of lightning shot down from the sky, bursting and burning the hideous creatures, and blowing out the lights and windows surrounding the structure! As the horrible creatures crumpled and burned, rapidly turning the ash and blowing away on the wind, a shadow passed over him. He flinched, and looked up, ready to play a card, but the vampiress didn’t swoop down with her new vampire bat wings, content to mock him one last time, "Hahaha, you promised! You pro-mised, and they sti-ill got me~!” With that, her laughter faded into the distance as she flew away. He didn’t stare after her for too long, unable to keep his head up. His shoulders shook, and even the night couldn’t hide the shine of tears falling as he walked down and out of the place. Sirens could be heard as a ringtone went off. He wiped his face and produced the phone, seemingly un-surprised that it survived the blast as he answered, “Yeah?… Nah- well, yeah, but, I took care of it… Yeah, I’m… I’m fine… Yeah, you too, Mai… See you at the next meeting…” With that, he hung up, and quickly disappeared into the crowd as what seemed like… Either a bunch of cards swirling on the wind, or way too many bats, moved across the sky against the moon... [center][h2]Welcome,[/h2] [h3]to[/h3] [h1][color=red]“Perils of the Night”[/color][/h1][/center] What if we took Yu-Gi-Oh! In one hand, the World of Darkness in the other, and made them kiss? :P if my not marking this as “18+” didn’t make it obvious, this rp will lean much more towards the former side of the mix than the latter, with just a darker/heavier tone, while also not leaning quite so heavily on the card battle angle. Oh, the card battles are still there, but as this intro post made it clear, similar to the shows, how strictly the rules are followed (especially if your enemy is a monster running wild, without a duel disk) is going to vary, depending on how well it helps or hurts a good narrative (don’t be so surprised; season 1 Yugi cheated his ass off by current standards :P) That being said, when the narrative doesn’t demand it, [url=https://yugioh.fandom.com/wiki/Master_Rules#Master_Rules_2020/2021]Master Rules 5[/url] is what we’ll be working with, and the current state of the [url=https://www.yugioh-card.com/en/limited/list_2024-01-01/]ban list[/url] applies. Oh, and here’s the [url=https://www.yugioh-card.com/eu/play/tcg-rulebook/]full rules[/url] for those who simply [i]must[/i] have them. [hider=Setting Specific Details] Monsters are real, and they stalk mortals like any predators in the animal kingdoms; they lurk in the shadows, knowing that if they’re too brazen, they could be driven out by force, or otherwise see the prey scatter, and they like things just the way they are. The card game is real and popular, just like the real world we all live in, but most people don’t know that a little magic can literally bring the game to life! There are good and evil factions that know this, and use it- The Duelist Society, dedicated to mastering magic and the game, for the protection of the world, and the Conspiracy, a shadowy, nebulous group that seeks not to protect the world, but seek to use the monsters to manipulate and control the world behind the scenes. Both factions seem to be able to sense people with the potential to be Duelists/Conspirators, and have worked out special gear for their activities, namely the stylized duel disks, called “Duel Boards”, and the Spirit Viewers; a bit like a planchette from a spirit board, it’s a magnifying lense set inside of a bit of wood or plastic modeled after a duel monsters card, and when you look through it, you can see glowing green trails of mist called “Ectoplasm” as a way to track monsters, or see through the disguises some monsters take on in order to stalk the nights among unsuspecting mortals. The “Life Points” are effectively a personal magic force field, the counter a result of effectively measuring it’s strength so a Duelist can be aware of how bad a duel is going for them, and if possible, cut and run to avoid being captured, or killed! This shield is not just magic, but draws on the duelists’ life force, hence why repeated duels in rapid succession can be physically taxing, on top of the normal physical exertion that can be demanded of them! The monsters themselves, namely those that remain un-captured and at large, don’t care for either faction(the zombies in particular have a mean streak, as displayed in the intro); they do not like how the Society interferes with them, and they certainly don’t want to be used by the Conspiracy; they’ll attack and try to eliminated either faction where they cross paths. Nobody really knows which came first, the monsters or the game, and to tell the truth it doesn’t really matter to either faction. When rogue monsters(those that were either set lose or otherwise not being actively commanded by a duelist) are defeated, there’s a brief moment where it’s possible to capture their essence within a card, adding to a collection that can simply be stored, or added to one’s deck! Defeating wild monsters consistently presents this opportunity, and is handled the same as in a duel, play a card that would send a monster to the graveyard in the game! Attack with a stronger monster, a spell or trap effect, it all works the same, [i]but[/i], unlike the game, if you’re not specifically facing off against another duelist, there’s no turn system protecting you from the attacks if a group of them decide to jump you, so you need to be quick on your feet and fast on the draw! Similarly, mastery of the game and the magic in particular can be a way to gain spell and trap cards, outside of just buying them in a shop.[/hider] [hider=Characters] Give yourself room for the character to grow and progress; remember, this is rp, a character with no room to grow is a character with nowhere to go. If they’re already as awesome as possible, they are boring. I’d like a minimum of 1 player to start as a mundane individual, unaffiliated with either faction to start, since exposition comes with the territory (anime and manga), and a character who doesn’t already know everything is an easy explanation for why it’s happening. No monster characters, please.[/hider] [hider=Character Sheet] Character Name: Personality: Background: (delete this line when submitting your character; include an asterisk next to your unique card, and include a description) [hider=Deck List][/hider] [/hider] please submit characters to me in pm’s, no more than two characters per player, one unique card per player. Upon approval, post characters in the character’s tab, per usual. If it becomes apparent the applicant did not read any of the provided material before applying, that’s an automatic rejection with no re-submissions.