Tomas Elliot

Two hours left! Who hasn't post yet please do!

4 hours to go guys! Who has yet to post should really hurry now!

You guys will be happy to know that I just finished planning all the events of the "After School" topic, including where all the NPCs are, which info each will give, and all the dialogue options. Let the countdown to 21 GMT+1 begin!

Anna smiled. With that final push to destiny, her duties for the day were over. Now she only had to wait and see what her precious students would do... AS OF THIS MOMENT, 7 HOURS AND 30 MINUTES ARE LEFT BEFORE THIS TOPIC ENDS. WHEN I POST AGAIN, IT WILL BE TO DESCRIBE THE BELL RINGING TO ANNOUNCE THE END OF LUNCH TIME, WHICH WILL OFFICIALLY MARK THE END OF THIS TOPIC. EVERYONE PLEASE WRAP UP YOUR CONVERSATIONS ASAP, I REPEAT, EVERYONE PLEASE WRAP UP YOUR CONVERSATIONS ASAP!

Originally my idea was the one you were afraid of, but I altered it keeping in mind the instances of the least experienced duelists. I want the bosses in this RP to be difficult, but "difficult" is one thing, "unbeatable and with atrocious penalties for losing" is another thing...

Wait, you mean a deck with all the cards related to the whole "tyrant" and "revolution" storylines? That'd be... I am afraid that's too much even for me: the various cards have little thematic synergy with one another, most are spells/traps, some are banned, and excluding Marauding Captain and (somewhat) Exiled Force, the few monsters related to the concept are atrociously sub-par... Making a functional deck out of it is beyond my abilities and believe me when I say, not for lack of trying on my part. I'm sorry

Well I guess you won't know if those countermeasures are effective or not untill you try right? Remember guys: trial and error IS an option. One of the most viable ones, as a matter of facts. Don't try and guess the right things to say to the NPCs in order to get them to give you info, just be natural and, if you fail, there's always next time. And don0t worry too much about overpreparing your deck, just duel with all you have, try your best to think out of the box and come up with creative tactics that can give you the edge in specific match-ups, and if you fail there's always next time. In Shadow Duels you die if you lose, but that is just in theory: in practice, Anna is going to rewind your individual time to bail you out, and all you are going to lose for it are your daily info, the ones you need to locate Rogue Number Holders. So yeah, losing a Shadow Duel is pretty much a "back to square one" penalty in the context of an "After School" topic, which isn't that terrible if you think about it...

To Setsuna and Dominic Anna gave the two students her best enigmatic smile. They were going straight where she wanted them to go, she wasn't even going to need that this time around... Is that so? Well as a teacher, I am proud to see that my students refuse the notion of mystery, and aspire to knowledge. However, I am afraid I cannot be of much help in this quest of yours: as I said, the myth you are interested in originated in ancient Egypt, and unfortunately I am not very knowledgeable about such topic, as it isn't really my field. I wonder if someone who has an interest for ancient Egypt could be of more help? Wasn't that... Janitor into this kind of stuff? What was his name again... Mister Van Dine?

If you are using the build I made for you, you should be ok-ish. I mean on one hand, my decks are never "one-trick ponies", and every time I've made a build for someone involved in this RP, I have obviously kept the specific instances of this RP in mind, up to and including sneaking in some tricks/combos you probably aren't even aware of but that, if you figure them out, might come in handy in specific boss battles (ehi I am the host, I would know about those). On the other hand it is true that pure Chronomaly builds tend to be overly reliant on two-cards combos to quickly Xyz summon their Numbers, but ehi, given how strong Numbers are in this RP with their anime-esque battle protection effect (and considering that, if you play your cards right, it shouldn't take you long to get your Arcana Numbers), that's not too shabby anyway, is it? And yes of course as tails12 said, each of you guys must stick to their respective archetypes throughout the RP, but as long as you respect this rule, nothing forbids you improve your deck over time, for example fitting in any new support your archetype might get in the future. Or altering your strategy to make it possible to summon the Rogue Numbers you might obtain, who knows?

Never wiser words were spoken. Unlike in the competitive scenario, where decks generally tend to be overly focused on a single strategy to improve consistency, banking on the fact that everyone will be running more or less the same stuff and thus there won't be anything a bit of side-decking can take care of, here you will be facing a very wide array of different decks, some of which might be focused on that one weakness you didn't think your deck had, while some other might look like complete jokes only to unexpectedly kick your unprepared ass, and some might take outright unfair advantages. So yeah, it is imperative that you learn to think out of the box, and you explore the full potentiality of your decks: I'll be trying my best to have the difficulty of the boss battles increase in regular fashion, so that the first ones can act as "tutorials" of sorts. EDIT: I should also point out that less than 24 hours are left before the first "At School" topic officially ends". Everyone please wrap up your conversations as soon as possible!

To Dominic and Setsuna Walking into the garden, Anna saw two familiar faces. And she also hear words about "illegal duels": her previous bait hadn't gone unnoticed, apparently... Excuse me for butting in, but I couldn't avoid hearing what you two were just saying. You were in my class earlier, correct? Well, I am sorry if something I may have said has put some weird ideas in your mind: I probably should have known better than mention a rumor as silly as the whole "illegal duels" thing in front of a group of young, easily influenced students... She paused, to make sure she had the attention of both students: it was time to give destiny that final little push. Still, don't you think it's fascinating how urban legends are the modern incarnation of ancient myths? Once upon a time, legends were used to explain the world, but now that we have science for that, they are relegated to an underground culture, to obscure websites and to z-series magazines. And yet, some may have much nobler origins... Take this "illegal duels" rumor, for example: I understand that there is a myth strictly related to that rumor, which goes as back as ancient Egypt! That's over 3000 years of history, don't you think it's incredible that a legend would survive for such a long time?

lol not all decks can afford Armory Arm. And sometimes you gotta exploit your monsters' abilities in unique ways: Copy Plant might be a tuner, but its effect just screams "easy Xyz", so there

I do use Copy Plant in that deck, overlaying Tuners is not a sin... But I should probably stop giving away info on a future Rogue Number Holder's deck. Well, I am going to sleep, goodnight!

Sorry, but that deck will be used by a Rogue Number Holder at some point, so untill then I cannot show it to players. Once the Rogue Number Holder in question is introduced and eventually defeated, please remind me to send you the decklist

You mean "the illegal duel thing becoming part of their investigation"? Well sure, I am actually going to drop a hint on that regard which may lead to you acquiring your Arcana Number soon. Also, was it you who wanted me to make a deck for Queen of the Night? Because I did. Meliae is really a gift from God to all Plant-centric decks... Deck is hella hard to play, but in the right hands it actually brings out princesses like nothing. Even if, once you manage to get 3 princesses out, I really fail to see why you would ever consider overlaying them, given the great control over the field you can achieve with their separate effects...

Found you. Eh, your latest post(s) surely go a while back... Once you have posted again, advancing your conversation, I'll have Anna swoop in. Garden is closer than classroom anyway considering when she's now, and besides going back to classroom would imply meeting Gawyn again, but that interaction should be over for the time being. Make sure you mention the whole "illegal duels" thing again when you post, so that Anna can overhear it and get involved

Where are you guys right now?

Don't confuse conversations with character arcs. Each conversation must be wrapped up by the end of this topic (that would be 45 hours, by the way), but a character arc, that is the way a character's personality is explored and expanded on, can very well span over several topics. Do keep in mind that this RP is going to consist of many "At School" topics, and at least as many "After School" ones, so nothing forbids that you hint at a development now and fully show it another time... Actually, that should be the best way to do things. It's too late to edit now as your exchange is already in advanced state (each of you guys would have to edit multiple posts), but please do consider this instance for future reference. Incidentally, I apologize for being too late in realizing what was going on: I should have warned you guys much earlier...

Good, now I have other things to do, but later tonight or tomorrow I'll have Anna drop by

You know, I just realized that, in 12 years of roleplaying, I've actually never played D&D. As weird as it sounds, it's the truth, so yeah, I would love to learn more about it and, if I get enough free time with the YGO roleplay and the real life, I think I'll start by joining this Graterras reboot of yours if/when you get it on the road. With this being said, I am not very knowledgeable of the matters you havetroubles with, so I cannot help you that much. One thing I can say however is this: as a non-expert of D&D, the idea of sub-classes, the very fact that it would be possible for two characters of the same class to be totally different from one another, is something that intrigues. In all these years of roleplaying, each and every roleplay I've seen that included classes was invariably plagued by the linear warriors, quadratic wizards trope, so yeah, I think that a sub-class system, and the versatility it would bring with it, would help mitigate this problem. This is literally all I can contribute: good luck!