Pocket System
- Thread starter theaceoffire
- Start date
- Crossover Fantasy
The Public thinks that John and the girls are some company's PR stunt.
We need another POV from a local faction that's more tune on behind-the-scenes stuff. I'm curious about what they'd believe. Would they think it is a PR thing or something else?
I'm stunned that someone didn't accidentally get him into a duel on camera.
Hmm, I wonder if Jessica could automate the buying of property and uplifting the locals? Now, that she has agents, it might work.
Jessica needs to have her own chuuni spy mistress outfit.
We need another POV from a local faction that's more tune on behind-the-scenes stuff. I'm curious about what they'd believe. Would they think it is a PR thing or something else?
I'm stunned that someone didn't accidentally get him into a duel on camera.
Hmm, I wonder if Jessica could automate the buying of property and uplifting the locals? Now, that she has agents, it might work.
Jessica needs to have her own chuuni spy mistress outfit.
- Location
- Planet Earth
Kinda want the MC's next world to be something like ASOIAF or something. Would be hillarious if the MC is thought to be an "Old God"... Or if he gets kinda adopted by the Old Gods... Or maybe there would be some time hijinks when he arrives and he IS an Old God...
Could see them winding up in Bloodborne, but with the MC perfectly understanding the "Great Old Ones", helping them out and sympathizing with them.
Could see them winding up in Bloodborne, but with the MC perfectly understanding the "Great Old Ones", helping them out and sympathizing with them.
. . . . can we hump something other than the trite, contrived, derived, cliche trash that is the violent, hypocritical, bigoted three; if we're going to hump anything at all? (Warhammer xxK, Nasuverse any series; and the Songs of Ice and Fire dumpster fire that has Tolkien spinning in his grave, and Shakespeare taking mortal insult being compared to the hack author that wrote this series)
I wonder if Jessica's Spyral will set up a whole movie franchise. I mean, at this point having an over the top 'truth' wouldn't make the situation much worse. And muddies the waters a bit.
And make it seem like it was advertising for an 'obviously' fictional/not based on a true story movie. Probably a whole universe setup, with multiple movies coming out at once. Or maybe just make it a video game. Coming out 'soon'. With setting up information on expansion packs, or events (if it's an MMORPG type setup). Really depends on what's believable. (Having ten movies come out at once... never gonna happen, since they'd be 'competing' with each other. Maybe a staggered release on 'hey the next one is coming out soon', but not same day release.)
Reworking of that in-verse virtual reality game setup might be possible. But it'd be a bit weird, since usually there'd be something to show before the ad campaign gets going. Though... sneaking in backdated paperwork/approval, implying that it got done earlier than the reality might work. A bit more difficult if it involves other companies and agreements there. Outside of stuff like 'licensing the use of x, that a bunch of other companies do as well', where just forgetting about an additional one isn't easily noticed.
Pegasus and his researchers would likely take notice of the claim, given that they can see the effects first hand. And blatantly announcing it to everyone.
Poor John, doesn't realize that 'keep it on the down low' doesn't really work when you're pretty much telling the people you're trying to keep it secret from. Just because people joke with that, doesn't mean it's actually still secret.
And make it seem like it was advertising for an 'obviously' fictional/not based on a true story movie. Probably a whole universe setup, with multiple movies coming out at once. Or maybe just make it a video game. Coming out 'soon'. With setting up information on expansion packs, or events (if it's an MMORPG type setup). Really depends on what's believable. (Having ten movies come out at once... never gonna happen, since they'd be 'competing' with each other. Maybe a staggered release on 'hey the next one is coming out soon', but not same day release.)
Reworking of that in-verse virtual reality game setup might be possible. But it'd be a bit weird, since usually there'd be something to show before the ad campaign gets going. Though... sneaking in backdated paperwork/approval, implying that it got done earlier than the reality might work. A bit more difficult if it involves other companies and agreements there. Outside of stuff like 'licensing the use of x, that a bunch of other companies do as well', where just forgetting about an additional one isn't easily noticed.
Pegasus and his researchers would likely take notice of the claim, given that they can see the effects first hand. And blatantly announcing it to everyone.
Poor John, doesn't realize that 'keep it on the down low' doesn't really work when you're pretty much telling the people you're trying to keep it secret from. Just because people joke with that, doesn't mean it's actually still secret.
Jhon: I am the milkman my milk is delicious
Pond memories.
- Location
- Here
The following car rides turned out to be an unexpected learning experience.
So there was a whole BUNCH of information, apparently, about how to be a distraction!
And even MORE data about 'Things you shouldn't do as a distraction', to boot!
For example: A distraction is not supposed to inform your observing distractees about how the ongoing distraction is a distraction, unless (And this was important) said information was actually a GRANDER distraction from your initial 'attempts' at distraction and…
Well, it got a bit confusing honestly.
John figured it was sort of like double negatives. Like how the meaning could flip flop a dozen times or more with each additional condition or flag added to the statement… Similar to the 'But he knows that I know that he doesn't know that I knew that…'
Anyway, the point was: Jessica gave him a whole BUNCH of data about being 'subtle' and 'secretive' and 'not blurting out information to everyone who asks' and all sorts of stuff, as they traveled from potential new home to theoretical new base.
But in the end, most of it went over his head. "If I tried to do all that, I'd lose track of what I was lying about."
His sister huffed. "You don't even need to LIE most of the time! Just don't talk about certain topics!" She pointed at his outfit. "You could have talked about your costume, or that fake swamp, or even that picnic you had earlier! All SORTS of stuff can be used to keep yourself busy WITHOUT exposing sensitive information?"
Um. "How do I know what information is sensitive?" Was it like teeth? "Is some information easily embarrassed?"
Jessica grumbled. "Well, it can certainly be embarrassing to others, if nothing else. But, no… In general: If a conversation topic would inform people about what you plan to do or if something you say could detrimentally affect future goals or methods? That is sensitive information."
John considered that carefully… "That seems awfully broad, to be honest."
She sighed. "It is… The term 'small talk' applies here, and covers a bunch of information that is either mildly interesting or covers socially expected talking points such as how the individuals are doing, if they have plans, how the environment currently is, has been, or will be… And honestly, even THAT little bit of 'meaningless fluff' conversation might reveal something compromising if the person analyzing it is clever enough."
Yeah, no. "I can't do that. I can barely converse with people as it is: Being that cautious and self reflective seems doomed to failure. At least, for now… And for me and Grace. I'm sure Temptation could pull it off easily, but she'd likely fail on purpose just for the fun of it."
It was a little annoying at times, but honestly John sort of liked how crazy his demoness could be sometimes… Her pushing boundaries was basically her core state of being, and asking her to alter that would be like asking her to change who she was. Or something like that.
Or maybe he just liked her teasing?
Either way, it looked like 'common sense' was off the menu. "Could we at least set up some sort of time table? Have practice sessions and stuff?"
Because John was pretty sure he wasn't going to nail any of this on his first few tries.
His sister sighed. "Maybe next Realm… Here, it's already too late. I've had your System alter the car's color and shape several times between property visits, we've altered our routes a lot, and even tried teleportation a few times… And we are still being tracked."
Aww. "Sorry sis."
She chuckled as they turned down another road. "Don't worry about it. It has already happened and I'll deal with it… But yeah, not a good environment to practice 'common sense' in when my agents have detected dozens of unrelated information gathering teams working their way down here. I'm afraid your first few duels will be against 'undercover' reporters and contractors."
Hmm. "So no matter what we do, or what place we grab… Secrecy is off the table?"
Jessica nodded. "Yep."
Heh. "Then can we go loud?"
She raised her eyebrow.
Oh, this would be fun! "Forget the other stops: Let's find the largest property for sale with the fewest neighbors. I've got a plan!"
It was an AWESOME plan! And it was going to go great!
~~~Pocket System~~~
Cynthia hesitated when little Jasper stopped yanking on his leash, froze, and stared to the left. "Jasper? You alright boy?"
The tiny dog didn't move an inch.
That… That didn't seem right.
…Maybe he saw a squirrel or something?
Almost absent mindedly she turned to look left as well and…
The Johnson house was gone. Yard too. All of it.
Not like.. .Blown up or anything. Just as if some hand of god reached down and said 'This isn't here now' and so it be.
Way off in the distance, she could see the walls of the pit like some giant had sliced up the world like a huge pice of cake. The layers of grass, soil, gravel and sand, rock… The various sheered pipes and wiring, all suspiciously clean and somehow not draining or dripping or crumbling or…
She closed her eyes.
So: What was going on here?
Most likely, she had gone the wrong way when walking Jasper, and this was NOT the place where the Johnson house was supposed to be. Didn't exactly explain why her dog was now pretending to be a statue, but it felt MUCH more likely than other options.
For now, she put aside not knowing about this clearly bizarre construction project, and her brain helpfully pushed aside inconvenient details like 'that amount of material would take months to ship out' or 'construction crews would have been messing up neighborhood traffic for weeks now' or… All of that.
She also carefully glossed over the whole 'How did I mess up my daily walking route THIS badly' as a much lesser over all concern as well.
Then Cynthia heard Jasper whimper and her eyes flew open. "Are you… All… Right?"
The pit was gone.
Now the massive Johnson property, if this WAS the Johnson property, transitioned from cookie cutter house/yard/house/yard to house/yard/house/yard/SWAMP/yard/house, etc.
Like the air pressure actually shifted, the change was so sudden.
And on some sort of 'floating' metal sculpture of a massive lily pad was a castle.
Some odd part of her mind considered the artificial floating log bridge/driveway a nice touch, but the rest of her was done for the day. "Going home early today, Jasper."
Not forward though, she was going RIGHT back the way she came. Just in case.
Thankfully for once: her dog DIDN'T run around like a nutball as they both strategically retreated from whatever the hell THAT had been.
Cynthia was ALSO going to call out of work today and go take a nap or something. Just in case.
~~~Pocket System~~~
John grinned! "Alright, that should fix the pipes and power lines and… We are good!"
His sister however seemed concerned. "I am SURE we are not zoned for something like this. No way city hall would ever approve of anything this crazy."
Meh. "You'd be surprised, people here get a bit ODD when their Souls get reinforced to a certain extent… The laws are VERY flexible in some ways when it comes to eccentricities like this."
Though it was pretty darn bizarre to see paperwork fields requiring a 'documented deck matching said theme' in the approval process. Being a real estate agent here must be a nightmare.
Not that it matters much. "Anyway, this is now our [[Home]] so she sort of retroactively files it all away to make this sort of thing either approved or added to various exception lists. It's pretty darn convenient!"
The massive castle suddenly glowed a little more, the torches were a touche more bright, and the sounds of the surrounding swamp soothed slightly as the world grew more hospitable.
Daww, we love you too [[Home]]! "Anyway, the girls and I can hang out HERE now while YOU go out there and be all secretive and stuff! This way we can continue our ongoing 'distraction' mission which I would argue is TOTALLY a real thing, and you don't have to worry about where we are or us getting into… Well, not getting into as MUCH trouble as we might wandering around the city."
And he could get his whole outfit on again! Frog Emperor for life, Frog Emperor forever!
His sister huffed as Grace giggled in the background and Temptation… Uh. Shit, where did she go? Pocket?
[[Temptation is directing further modifications to 'The Pad' castle. Current location is now marked.]]
Oh dear. "Grace, could you please stop your sister from adding more dungeons? I'm sure five are enough." Although why someone would need so many odd chairs and stuff with all that leather was beyond him… Oh. OH! Yeah, best get that handled quick.
His angel lit up with a smile! "Will do, my Lord! My Lady, if you will excuse me?" And she was off, skipping her way towards the welcoming structure.
Jessica herself was walking back to the car. "I'm just going to go park this… This place DOES have a garage or something on the other side of the log bridge, yes?"
Hmm? "Oh yes, see the ramp over there? The log bridge itself is basically a hollow parking area, for some reason my Pocket System is really good at designing those things."
Kind of a complicated setup really considering they were only using one Crafted car at a time right now, but at least visitors and future Duel Monster Duelists would have somewhere to park when they came over to challenge the Frog Emperor: Lord of Amphibians!
He he he he! This was going to be so FUN!
~~~Pocket System~~~
What was his life? "Falcon this is sparrow, the Target is now entering the castle. Over."
The radio spike static. "...Say again? Over."
Damn it. "The Target is at property location code Tango, the one confirmed as purchased as of 1833. Property has been altered: Is now a castle. Target is… Target has now entered the castle. Over."
The pause was longer this time.
Eventually, the static came back, the field officer on the wire now. "Orange 8 onion 3 sand 7? Over."
God damn it, NO I haven't been compromised! "Crow 2 Cheddar 9 Pine 12! Tango is compromised and altered, Target has entered the castle, visual lost! Get recon to observe Tango, update birdhouse NOW! Over."
The radio clicked. "Roger. Shift early in 10. Over."
Fuck it, he didn't care if his shift was cut early. Let a few more observers come out here and be called crazy, he couldn't care less! "Roger. Over."
Why did he always get the strange observation taskings? First that one kid who wandered about dressed like a giant squirrel and now this frog kid! Sheesh.
~~~Pocket System~~~
Pegasus blinked at the report. "I'm sorry?"
The minion reiterated the incredibly long amount of nonsense that he had already been subjected to already.
…Alright then. "And does this 'Frog Emperor' have any obvious or referenced connections with any of the known Millennium Items?"
Not that he had any clue which one it would be. Nor did this show ANY indication that it was related to his ongoing, past, or future goals…
The man shook his head. "No sir!"
Well, that's that then. "Keep a token observation of this new 'Emperor', as he has decided to… 'Build a castle'? Honestly, what is this world coming to…" It wasn't even a toonish one, just a boring normal castle that he had dozens of already.
Considering if he should alter one of his own existing properties to more properly display the sort of style one should aim for in life, Maximillion Pegasus realized he had been fully distracted at some point.
Oops!
Focus. "As the boy has shown up in the same city as Yugi-boy, let me know if they end up interacting in any way or should the situation change. I'll see if the research team has any additional sensing equipment they deem useful for further investigation, but that should be the end of this."
And they saluted and were off and he finally had a moment to himself to consider this oddity. "...Perhaps I should focus on updating my castle on Duelist Kingdom island?" A bit more color wouldn't be that bad of an idea after all…
So there was a whole BUNCH of information, apparently, about how to be a distraction!
And even MORE data about 'Things you shouldn't do as a distraction', to boot!
For example: A distraction is not supposed to inform your observing distractees about how the ongoing distraction is a distraction, unless (And this was important) said information was actually a GRANDER distraction from your initial 'attempts' at distraction and…
Well, it got a bit confusing honestly.
John figured it was sort of like double negatives. Like how the meaning could flip flop a dozen times or more with each additional condition or flag added to the statement… Similar to the 'But he knows that I know that he doesn't know that I knew that…'
Anyway, the point was: Jessica gave him a whole BUNCH of data about being 'subtle' and 'secretive' and 'not blurting out information to everyone who asks' and all sorts of stuff, as they traveled from potential new home to theoretical new base.
But in the end, most of it went over his head. "If I tried to do all that, I'd lose track of what I was lying about."
His sister huffed. "You don't even need to LIE most of the time! Just don't talk about certain topics!" She pointed at his outfit. "You could have talked about your costume, or that fake swamp, or even that picnic you had earlier! All SORTS of stuff can be used to keep yourself busy WITHOUT exposing sensitive information?"
Um. "How do I know what information is sensitive?" Was it like teeth? "Is some information easily embarrassed?"
Jessica grumbled. "Well, it can certainly be embarrassing to others, if nothing else. But, no… In general: If a conversation topic would inform people about what you plan to do or if something you say could detrimentally affect future goals or methods? That is sensitive information."
John considered that carefully… "That seems awfully broad, to be honest."
She sighed. "It is… The term 'small talk' applies here, and covers a bunch of information that is either mildly interesting or covers socially expected talking points such as how the individuals are doing, if they have plans, how the environment currently is, has been, or will be… And honestly, even THAT little bit of 'meaningless fluff' conversation might reveal something compromising if the person analyzing it is clever enough."
Yeah, no. "I can't do that. I can barely converse with people as it is: Being that cautious and self reflective seems doomed to failure. At least, for now… And for me and Grace. I'm sure Temptation could pull it off easily, but she'd likely fail on purpose just for the fun of it."
It was a little annoying at times, but honestly John sort of liked how crazy his demoness could be sometimes… Her pushing boundaries was basically her core state of being, and asking her to alter that would be like asking her to change who she was. Or something like that.
Or maybe he just liked her teasing?
Either way, it looked like 'common sense' was off the menu. "Could we at least set up some sort of time table? Have practice sessions and stuff?"
Because John was pretty sure he wasn't going to nail any of this on his first few tries.
His sister sighed. "Maybe next Realm… Here, it's already too late. I've had your System alter the car's color and shape several times between property visits, we've altered our routes a lot, and even tried teleportation a few times… And we are still being tracked."
Aww. "Sorry sis."
She chuckled as they turned down another road. "Don't worry about it. It has already happened and I'll deal with it… But yeah, not a good environment to practice 'common sense' in when my agents have detected dozens of unrelated information gathering teams working their way down here. I'm afraid your first few duels will be against 'undercover' reporters and contractors."
Hmm. "So no matter what we do, or what place we grab… Secrecy is off the table?"
Jessica nodded. "Yep."
Heh. "Then can we go loud?"
She raised her eyebrow.
Oh, this would be fun! "Forget the other stops: Let's find the largest property for sale with the fewest neighbors. I've got a plan!"
It was an AWESOME plan! And it was going to go great!
~~~Pocket System~~~
Cynthia hesitated when little Jasper stopped yanking on his leash, froze, and stared to the left. "Jasper? You alright boy?"
The tiny dog didn't move an inch.
That… That didn't seem right.
…Maybe he saw a squirrel or something?
Almost absent mindedly she turned to look left as well and…
The Johnson house was gone. Yard too. All of it.
Not like.. .Blown up or anything. Just as if some hand of god reached down and said 'This isn't here now' and so it be.
Way off in the distance, she could see the walls of the pit like some giant had sliced up the world like a huge pice of cake. The layers of grass, soil, gravel and sand, rock… The various sheered pipes and wiring, all suspiciously clean and somehow not draining or dripping or crumbling or…
She closed her eyes.
So: What was going on here?
Most likely, she had gone the wrong way when walking Jasper, and this was NOT the place where the Johnson house was supposed to be. Didn't exactly explain why her dog was now pretending to be a statue, but it felt MUCH more likely than other options.
For now, she put aside not knowing about this clearly bizarre construction project, and her brain helpfully pushed aside inconvenient details like 'that amount of material would take months to ship out' or 'construction crews would have been messing up neighborhood traffic for weeks now' or… All of that.
She also carefully glossed over the whole 'How did I mess up my daily walking route THIS badly' as a much lesser over all concern as well.
Then Cynthia heard Jasper whimper and her eyes flew open. "Are you… All… Right?"
The pit was gone.
Now the massive Johnson property, if this WAS the Johnson property, transitioned from cookie cutter house/yard/house/yard to house/yard/house/yard/SWAMP/yard/house, etc.
Like the air pressure actually shifted, the change was so sudden.
And on some sort of 'floating' metal sculpture of a massive lily pad was a castle.
Some odd part of her mind considered the artificial floating log bridge/driveway a nice touch, but the rest of her was done for the day. "Going home early today, Jasper."
Not forward though, she was going RIGHT back the way she came. Just in case.
Thankfully for once: her dog DIDN'T run around like a nutball as they both strategically retreated from whatever the hell THAT had been.
Cynthia was ALSO going to call out of work today and go take a nap or something. Just in case.
~~~Pocket System~~~
John grinned! "Alright, that should fix the pipes and power lines and… We are good!"
His sister however seemed concerned. "I am SURE we are not zoned for something like this. No way city hall would ever approve of anything this crazy."
Meh. "You'd be surprised, people here get a bit ODD when their Souls get reinforced to a certain extent… The laws are VERY flexible in some ways when it comes to eccentricities like this."
Though it was pretty darn bizarre to see paperwork fields requiring a 'documented deck matching said theme' in the approval process. Being a real estate agent here must be a nightmare.
Not that it matters much. "Anyway, this is now our [[Home]] so she sort of retroactively files it all away to make this sort of thing either approved or added to various exception lists. It's pretty darn convenient!"
The massive castle suddenly glowed a little more, the torches were a touche more bright, and the sounds of the surrounding swamp soothed slightly as the world grew more hospitable.
Daww, we love you too [[Home]]! "Anyway, the girls and I can hang out HERE now while YOU go out there and be all secretive and stuff! This way we can continue our ongoing 'distraction' mission which I would argue is TOTALLY a real thing, and you don't have to worry about where we are or us getting into… Well, not getting into as MUCH trouble as we might wandering around the city."
And he could get his whole outfit on again! Frog Emperor for life, Frog Emperor forever!
His sister huffed as Grace giggled in the background and Temptation… Uh. Shit, where did she go? Pocket?
[[Temptation is directing further modifications to 'The Pad' castle. Current location is now marked.]]
Oh dear. "Grace, could you please stop your sister from adding more dungeons? I'm sure five are enough." Although why someone would need so many odd chairs and stuff with all that leather was beyond him… Oh. OH! Yeah, best get that handled quick.
His angel lit up with a smile! "Will do, my Lord! My Lady, if you will excuse me?" And she was off, skipping her way towards the welcoming structure.
Jessica herself was walking back to the car. "I'm just going to go park this… This place DOES have a garage or something on the other side of the log bridge, yes?"
Hmm? "Oh yes, see the ramp over there? The log bridge itself is basically a hollow parking area, for some reason my Pocket System is really good at designing those things."
Kind of a complicated setup really considering they were only using one Crafted car at a time right now, but at least visitors and future Duel Monster Duelists would have somewhere to park when they came over to challenge the Frog Emperor: Lord of Amphibians!
He he he he! This was going to be so FUN!
~~~Pocket System~~~
What was his life? "Falcon this is sparrow, the Target is now entering the castle. Over."
The radio spike static. "...Say again? Over."
Damn it. "The Target is at property location code Tango, the one confirmed as purchased as of 1833. Property has been altered: Is now a castle. Target is… Target has now entered the castle. Over."
The pause was longer this time.
Eventually, the static came back, the field officer on the wire now. "Orange 8 onion 3 sand 7? Over."
God damn it, NO I haven't been compromised! "Crow 2 Cheddar 9 Pine 12! Tango is compromised and altered, Target has entered the castle, visual lost! Get recon to observe Tango, update birdhouse NOW! Over."
The radio clicked. "Roger. Shift early in 10. Over."
Fuck it, he didn't care if his shift was cut early. Let a few more observers come out here and be called crazy, he couldn't care less! "Roger. Over."
Why did he always get the strange observation taskings? First that one kid who wandered about dressed like a giant squirrel and now this frog kid! Sheesh.
~~~Pocket System~~~
Pegasus blinked at the report. "I'm sorry?"
The minion reiterated the incredibly long amount of nonsense that he had already been subjected to already.
…Alright then. "And does this 'Frog Emperor' have any obvious or referenced connections with any of the known Millennium Items?"
Not that he had any clue which one it would be. Nor did this show ANY indication that it was related to his ongoing, past, or future goals…
The man shook his head. "No sir!"
Well, that's that then. "Keep a token observation of this new 'Emperor', as he has decided to… 'Build a castle'? Honestly, what is this world coming to…" It wasn't even a toonish one, just a boring normal castle that he had dozens of already.
Considering if he should alter one of his own existing properties to more properly display the sort of style one should aim for in life, Maximillion Pegasus realized he had been fully distracted at some point.
Oops!
Focus. "As the boy has shown up in the same city as Yugi-boy, let me know if they end up interacting in any way or should the situation change. I'll see if the research team has any additional sensing equipment they deem useful for further investigation, but that should be the end of this."
And they saluted and were off and he finally had a moment to himself to consider this oddity. "...Perhaps I should focus on updating my castle on Duelist Kingdom island?" A bit more color wouldn't be that bad of an idea after all…
Last edited:
- Location
- Sol;Terra;EU;D;NRW
Oh noes. now a new current flows towards the Ponds!
At least they will have a lot to talk about... like internal expansion and geometry above four dimensions.
But first, Frogger 3D Adventures; Castlevania of Duelling!
At least they will have a lot to talk about... like internal expansion and geometry above four dimensions.
But first, Frogger 3D Adventures; Castlevania of Duelling!
- Location
- Paradise, Hawaii
If John ends up interacting with Toon world or Toon psychics, is it out of the question of Grace or Temptation going Toony? As in large anime eyes? Or more exaggerated features?
Or if the cartoon bunny does silly things as examples will it be okay for John and Co to do even sillier things to outrageous crazy?
Or if the cartoon bunny does silly things as examples will it be okay for John and Co to do even sillier things to outrageous crazy?
- Location
- Montana
- Location
- Here
Sorry everyone, I apparently put the D in it. Oops! I rodgered that right up.Can I offer you this document:
Procedure word - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
- Location
- Australia
I'm loving the story and all the interactions, but I have to admit, John's mindset and reactions are always a bit of a mindbend for me. I understand WHY and I wouldn't change anything, it's just, it's so different from my own it stands out.
- Location
- Sol;Terra;EU;D;NRW
If you invoke the D. there will be monkey business in the future, beware!
Nah, that's in the past. Though there might be some remnants in the Pocket System pertaining to it. (Parking Garages made it through, after all.)
Rules to the Duels!
- Location
- Here
With his new Castle constructed and his Sister off doing secret agent stuff (Probably), John finally had time to get down the important stuff: Preparing to have his first Duel!
…He was just hitting a few snags along the way.
John winced. "We can't use this."
Grace looked up. "Hmm?"
He pointed at the list. "These rules, we have to change them for our games. They just… They don't make sense with the cards I have access to! It wouldn't be a game, it would be a slaughter!"
Seriously, no restrictions on using 'The Heart of the Cards' to manipulate your card selection? No limits on what cards can be played when? Only allowing one card to attack per turn, and losing if you are unable to summon at least one monster by the end of each round? At least you can't attack the opposing Duelist directly under these limits, but even THAT felt fundamentally wrong…
It was all ridiculous! "Some magic and trap cards seem to cause life point damage when they destroy a monster… For no reason at all. Field spell cards can do nearly ANYTHING, and almost anything can be equipped to anything else, including monsters equipping other monsters to themselves!"
Like look at THIS crazy shit: In a duel, someone used a card called 'Living Arrow' to activate a 'Polymerization' card, fuzing their zombie monster with the opponent's creature. Who then got a strange attack draining poison like effect, because… Zombies don't mix with living creatures?
But only in THIS case, because in OTHER situations you could fuze zombies and normal monsters and get whole NEW creatures all the time with NO penalties.
This was all just pure madness and chaos.
Sigh. Just move on John, just move on. "Leave the rule wobbling stuff alone for now… And let's forget the biggest issues, like my Soul being so powerful that if I played unrestricted my opponent might have a heart attack before we can even draw our first hand…"
Grace was still trying to prevent problems like that. "With how these rules work NOW, I'm pretty sure I can win BEFORE they have their first turn! Even without how broken my stuff is, it would be trivial to crush anyone!"
Seriously, half his cards were able to steal monsters or cards from his opponent, the other half revolved around his frogs hopping from deck to field to grave and all over the place, causing all sorts of effects and…
Right. "Give me a different set of rules… No, all of them! This is my field and I'm going to pick rules that will at least allow my opponents to play before they get smashed out of existence."
Let's see… Higher starting life points were a must. Change the rules for summoning a bit… Why would you ever summon a monster in FACE UP defense position? Maybe there were some special effects that required that?
Either way, THAT was getting tossed out. Otherwise, every single face down defense monster would scream out 'Kill me quick, I am a flip effect monster!' Sheesh.
He grumbled again, staring at paused video footage. "I'm going to add another custom rule here: Any damage done will get rounded up to the nearest increment of 100. A monster causing 1,794 attack damage makes ALL following math complicated and annoying, and I don't consider that to be fun."
John felt more and more frustrated as he moved through the rulings. "I basically need to design my own custom Duel format here… That's kind of messed up."
His demoness huffed from her lounging chair. "Have you SEEN the local duels? Half the morons actually shout out with pride, 'I summon my weak and wimpy monster in attack position!' Why would you EVER summon a non-effect monster with low attack stats in attack position!?"
He absently responded while still reviewing these odd rules. "Maybe to lure them into attacking?"
She grunted. "They are going to attack anyway! Because half the damned deck is composed of random low attack, low defense monsters with no abilities!"
Grace was growing ever more amused. "I thought you didn't care about 'a stupid card game'?"
Temptation stabbed towards her sister with an accusing finger! "I DON'T care about the card game, I DO care about idiots doing stupid shit! Being too weak to pull good cards or build a good deck is one thing, shoving your own privates towards the incoming blade is infuriating!"
…Ew. "Thank you for that mental image." Hmm. "And from what the data says, it seems that requiring qualification challenges and stuff is common here. Almost every tournament has a few layers set up beforehand, to weed out the idiots or kick out the wimps. Several won't let a Duelist even TRY to compete if they don't have at least one monster with a sufficiently powerful level rating in their deck… We could do that, I think!"
After all, if you didn't even have a Soul capable of including a 7 star monster (At least!), then how could you even approach some of the more powerful Duelists who could cause organ damage just by being angry enough when sending a Duel Monster to attack?
After all, even if most of John's Deck was composed of low level amphibians, even HE had a copy of the level 8 star 'D.3.S. Frog' lazing around his card collection…
And he was only an 8 star monster! There were frogs and toads that technically didn't even exist yet that had reached all the way up to 12 stars according to Substitoad!
…That said, the huge chonky 12 star monster, Toad-thulu, spent most of her time sleeping and was unlikely to come along with the rest of the pond migration, so maybe she shouldn't count?
But even then, there were dozens of high star amphibians that could theoretically hop up if they were needed! And the same was true for every OTHER archetype out there!
What then was THEIR excuse for not even being able to scrounge up a single 7 star or higher partner to fight for them? 'Oops, I suck so bad I am unable to even get a pity card'?
And some of these people wanted to actually compete using only a 3 star normal monster with 600 attack? John pulled up the video clips. "Grace, look at these people PLAYING that poor weak thing against big beefy dinosaurs! At least have that poor plant be part of a combo, or work together with powerful spells or SOMETHING!
While he worked himself up into a huff, Grace by comparison was FAR more hesitant. "Maybe these Duelists chose low star monsters to better accommodate some sort of strategy? One they just didn't have a chance to show on camera?"
John couldn't help but snort as he shared a data stream. "I wish, but I have far too many examples here… I mean, look at this moron! He played an 'Ancient Brain' in attack mode, and that poor thing only has 1,000 attack! According to his deck list, ALL his monsters are normal monsters! No special effects, no magic cards, no field spells or equipment or traps… Just a bunch of these little guys."
Those poor little dudes in the video were being summoned one after another and being obliterated by some random guy using dragons.
It hurt to watch… Turn after turn: 'I summon another baby!', SMASH, 'OH NO! How could you destroy my {fill in latest victim}!? I better summon out my NEXT baby, and then YOU'LL be sorry!'
John stared at the video stream. "Like… At least summon those tiny things in defense mode as chump blockers or something…" Sigh. "Not that it matters, the idiot has nothing stronger to support them and no tech options AT ALL to handle anything his opponent may do."
Why were people like this even ALLOWED to call themselves Duelists?
Right. "We have GOT to find a middle ground here… Some set of rules that will filter out anyone like that while reducing the chance of supernatural effects from dominating every game."
Hmm. Best address deck construction first then. "I'm thinking about allowing only one copy of each card unless duplicates are required for special effects or summoning criteria to properly operate. That would put powerful and underperforming decks on more equal footing… Ban direct card draw entirely? Maybe. The cards could get 'drawn' by a neutral assistant or an automated system, so no one can alter probability with their will power to always get the perfect card..."
John's fingers began tapping. "We can let one monster be designated as the Duelist's Spirit Partner as compensation, some rules allow that. Keep that one card separate from the deck, so it can be cast as needed initially? That should make up for not being allowed to just draw it on demand like usual."
Wait, no. "Some monsters WANT to go into the grave, so that MIGHT be very abusable if you always had access to them at the start of the Duel… Maybe? Hmm. We need something else."
Then again: In normal gameplay the opponent would always have access to their monsters when needed ANYWAY, so maybe that didn't matter? This would just formalize the effect so weaker opponents wouldn't be surprised when a massive bomb dropped on them out of nowhere.
John slumped. "Girls, we will need to workshop this a few times. And that's assuming anyone even bothers to build a new Deck to come out here and challenge the Frog Emperor in the first place!"
The lazy temptress snorted. "Nah, this Realm is obsessed with this card game… If you make the challenge and rules clear, our swamp will be swarmed in minutes."
Grace also winced. "If anything my Lord, having the rules actually listed and available BEFORE any such tournament would probably cause a frenzy of excitement… It is very common for major fights to just introduce rules that only exist with specific board states or real world scenarios adding unofficial restrictions or effects."
Really? "Are people actually allowed to just… Add rules to a game mid fight like that?"
Temptation nodded. "Not just game rules… Sometimes they change the card text itself! Keep looking at the data I"ve been feeding you this stuff is crazy."
No, this was already a bit too much. "Maybe later. Anyway, from what I can tell? We can set up a tournament and then establish custom rules to begin with and that should cut out like… MOST of this crazy stuff."
True, he'd gain information about Soul enhancement from Dueling slower, but at least there would BE Duels to learn from! "I think it will be fine as long as we emphasize that half the actual fight will be all about Deck construction and the other half gameplay. And considering how BAD most of these Decks have turned out to be already, I'm pretty sure this will filter out the trash players pretty easily."
Like, maybe John was spoiled by all those awesome example Decks that the card shop grandpa sold his sister, but seriously! There was horrific amateur crap in some of these Decks!
Not just weak creatures with no synergy, some decks included powerful cards WITHOUT including the needed support cards required to summon them!
It was literally a brick, unplayable and wasting a card draw. Why include it in the Deck then? Or more importantly, if there were other cards that the Duelist needed to gather or collect FIRST, why had they competed in an actual tournament or expo BEFORE fixing that shit!?
Maybe Deck construction was less emphasized here because most of the time it didn't matter?
After all, if you were weak, you'd never make it beyond two turns ANYWAY.
And if you were strong, your Deck would just alter reality itself to ensure you just happened to have what you needed for any situation.
…Still, it felt lazy and unforgivable. "Maybe we should make 75% of this about constructing your Deck… Yeah, let's do that."
Drawing cards done by a third party should cut down on the crazy.
Require only one of each card unless another card demands otherwise, to prevent someone just stuffing a dozen copies of one big monster in there or something like that?
But how to emphasize deck building… And not being allowed to draw would really piss off some people, but getting around that cheating ability was going to be rough… Hmm.
Mentally tumbling the idea around, John blinked. "Proxies."
Grace looked up from the ongoing piles of paperwork needed for this. "Proxies?"
John grinned! "Yep!" This wasn't a perfect solution, but it SHOULD create a sort of bridge allowing the weakest and strongest Duelists to play against each other despite supernatural advantages… "Girls, let me run this by you, alright?"
Temptation waved away the 'hilarious' videos of idiots smashing their baby monsters against literal walls and Grace sat at attention.
John was drawing up his ideas on a virtual display. "We will do this by using card piles and proxy cards."
He pointed at the screen. "In my tournament, each player will split their Deck up into piles, or pools of cards: Monsters 4 stars and below; Monsters 5 stars and above; Spells; Traps; and Field Spells."
John waved to one side. "Anything that belongs in that 'Extra Deck' mess gets set aside in its own pool that we ignore for now."
A pile of nearly identical white cards were Crafted. "Then before each Duel, the players will construct a proxy deck using these! Each white card has the name of one of the sorted piles we already set up here... So in an actual game you may end up with a hand with three Spell cards and two Low Monsters, or one High Monster and some Traps or whatever."
John tapped the screen. "You can trade in your Proxy card for anything you want out of the pile it matches… And if that pool is already EMPTY, you take 500 life points of damage."
He couldn't help but grin! "This will allow the weaker Duelists to 'always draw the perfect card' like their opponents while also penalizing the powerful Duelists who never bothered to learn how to set up a Deck in the first place!"
Sure, you could only have spells and monsters to avoid getting dinged for 500 burn damage due to uncautious deck construction… But that TOO was part of building a Deck!
Heck, if someone was clever enough they could include a single very important Trap or whatever and a BUNCH of Trap proxies to ensure they draw it as soon as possible, while just accepting the ongoing injuries afterwards as a part of doing business. Or something similar with the other piles.
But if you built a whole deck around one or two cards and just let the excess proxies burn you alive in the process, that was kind of hard core… And in John's opinion, you EARNED a victory if you win like that.
After all, burn damage here didn't just mean the Life Point counter goes down.
It actually hurt the Soul on some level. Hurt like a bitch!
So the penalty would likely be respected, probably. "Cards will go into the graveyard or get banished like normal, but if any get sent back into the Deck then they get replaced with a matching Proxy card instead. And not one that matches their CURRENT star level or card type or whatever, because some cards can change that stuff, but the proxy card that originally had been used when it was pulled from the pools."
This should fix SEVERAL problems! "Heck, since the proxy cards don't interact in any way with the Soul Fragments, this means I can do that awesome dramatic 'I DRAW A CARD' thing they do on T.V.! This is going to be awesome!"
Grace hummed. "We should have three rounds of gameplay per Duel I think… And let them adjust the ratio of proxy cards between each one. Best of three rounds would be the winner of the overall Duel… Should we let them change the actual cards in their deck as well?"
Hmm. "...Tentatively yes. But only between major Duels I think, not between each round. After all, building a good Deck is the whole point of this change." In fact, this was ringing a bell somehow…
Hadn't he seen something like this in the earlier data? Oh yeah! "Some areas have something called a 'Side Deck', or a limited selection of cards that are submitted to the Tournaments before anyone starts playing, so that people can't just replace all their cards half way through a series of matches. Right?"
Grace hummed. "Yes, a 15 card selection that can be exchanged with cards from your main Deck between rounds of gameplay."
John grinned! "Right, we limit the total number of total cards in the pools to the lowest amount allowed in a Deck, so 40 in this case. The Side Deck will be capped at 15 cards, and the Duelists can swap them in and out between rounds of the Tournament only… Probably will have to have them list all the cards in their Decks at the start of this mess too, to prevent cheating or cards altering themselves due to the power of their owners."
Temptation was lounging even harder at the side, her attention not really focused on either of them as she relaxed nearly to the point of falling out of her chair entirely… "Does the 40 cards limit include that 'Extra Deck' thing? The one all your Frogs are moving into? Cause you got like a few million in there right now."
Oh right, shit. "We will slap a separate cap of 15 cards on that too, and I'll just pretend the ones NOT on my Deck List aren't there. As long as I don't play the others, it should work out the same." Right?
Yeah, toad-ally!
As John continued crafting his upcoming 'Frog Emperor Presents the Fight of the Ground Fable' Tournament, some absent part of his thought process began considering what sort of prize the champion should get.
Or should he bother? If he won, wouldn't he just be rewarding himself? Then again, that felt pretty darn cocky and overconfident.
…Meh, might as well just give prizes to the top like, 100 or so people. No, wait… There might not be that many people!
Lets see, best work this backwards… A final Duel for a winner, another for the ones choosing who is in the finals, another and another…
So like what, seven rounds would make sense right? And that would end up needing… 128 Duels involving 256 Duelists? …That seemed a bit much for a tournament… And a lot of work…
Best cut it back to five rounds.
After a bit of mental wrangling, John nodded to himself and sent a mental note to his sister.
[[From HOST: Hey sis! Just a heads up: I think after we have an elimination round we will end up hosting 32 Duelists for this tournament. It might take a few days after we get all the rules established and start the advertising campaign, but they shouldn't stay much longer than a few days at most unless we do something fun and awesome during the first chaotic bit.]]
As for the prizes… Meh, might as well just take suggestions. Didn't some other tournaments offer vague stuff like wishes or whatever? He could probably fake that ability with a bit of effort, or just hand over his account full of cash when they left this Realm.
Oh wait.
[[From HOST: ~PS: ALSO a heads up! I've decided to throw a tournament at the castle.]]
Whew! He nearly got in trouble there!
…He was just hitting a few snags along the way.
John winced. "We can't use this."
Grace looked up. "Hmm?"
He pointed at the list. "These rules, we have to change them for our games. They just… They don't make sense with the cards I have access to! It wouldn't be a game, it would be a slaughter!"
Seriously, no restrictions on using 'The Heart of the Cards' to manipulate your card selection? No limits on what cards can be played when? Only allowing one card to attack per turn, and losing if you are unable to summon at least one monster by the end of each round? At least you can't attack the opposing Duelist directly under these limits, but even THAT felt fundamentally wrong…
It was all ridiculous! "Some magic and trap cards seem to cause life point damage when they destroy a monster… For no reason at all. Field spell cards can do nearly ANYTHING, and almost anything can be equipped to anything else, including monsters equipping other monsters to themselves!"
Like look at THIS crazy shit: In a duel, someone used a card called 'Living Arrow' to activate a 'Polymerization' card, fuzing their zombie monster with the opponent's creature. Who then got a strange attack draining poison like effect, because… Zombies don't mix with living creatures?
But only in THIS case, because in OTHER situations you could fuze zombies and normal monsters and get whole NEW creatures all the time with NO penalties.
This was all just pure madness and chaos.
Sigh. Just move on John, just move on. "Leave the rule wobbling stuff alone for now… And let's forget the biggest issues, like my Soul being so powerful that if I played unrestricted my opponent might have a heart attack before we can even draw our first hand…"
Grace was still trying to prevent problems like that. "With how these rules work NOW, I'm pretty sure I can win BEFORE they have their first turn! Even without how broken my stuff is, it would be trivial to crush anyone!"
Seriously, half his cards were able to steal monsters or cards from his opponent, the other half revolved around his frogs hopping from deck to field to grave and all over the place, causing all sorts of effects and…
Right. "Give me a different set of rules… No, all of them! This is my field and I'm going to pick rules that will at least allow my opponents to play before they get smashed out of existence."
Let's see… Higher starting life points were a must. Change the rules for summoning a bit… Why would you ever summon a monster in FACE UP defense position? Maybe there were some special effects that required that?
Either way, THAT was getting tossed out. Otherwise, every single face down defense monster would scream out 'Kill me quick, I am a flip effect monster!' Sheesh.
He grumbled again, staring at paused video footage. "I'm going to add another custom rule here: Any damage done will get rounded up to the nearest increment of 100. A monster causing 1,794 attack damage makes ALL following math complicated and annoying, and I don't consider that to be fun."
John felt more and more frustrated as he moved through the rulings. "I basically need to design my own custom Duel format here… That's kind of messed up."
His demoness huffed from her lounging chair. "Have you SEEN the local duels? Half the morons actually shout out with pride, 'I summon my weak and wimpy monster in attack position!' Why would you EVER summon a non-effect monster with low attack stats in attack position!?"
He absently responded while still reviewing these odd rules. "Maybe to lure them into attacking?"
She grunted. "They are going to attack anyway! Because half the damned deck is composed of random low attack, low defense monsters with no abilities!"
Grace was growing ever more amused. "I thought you didn't care about 'a stupid card game'?"
Temptation stabbed towards her sister with an accusing finger! "I DON'T care about the card game, I DO care about idiots doing stupid shit! Being too weak to pull good cards or build a good deck is one thing, shoving your own privates towards the incoming blade is infuriating!"
…Ew. "Thank you for that mental image." Hmm. "And from what the data says, it seems that requiring qualification challenges and stuff is common here. Almost every tournament has a few layers set up beforehand, to weed out the idiots or kick out the wimps. Several won't let a Duelist even TRY to compete if they don't have at least one monster with a sufficiently powerful level rating in their deck… We could do that, I think!"
After all, if you didn't even have a Soul capable of including a 7 star monster (At least!), then how could you even approach some of the more powerful Duelists who could cause organ damage just by being angry enough when sending a Duel Monster to attack?
After all, even if most of John's Deck was composed of low level amphibians, even HE had a copy of the level 8 star 'D.3.S. Frog' lazing around his card collection…
And he was only an 8 star monster! There were frogs and toads that technically didn't even exist yet that had reached all the way up to 12 stars according to Substitoad!
…That said, the huge chonky 12 star monster, Toad-thulu, spent most of her time sleeping and was unlikely to come along with the rest of the pond migration, so maybe she shouldn't count?
But even then, there were dozens of high star amphibians that could theoretically hop up if they were needed! And the same was true for every OTHER archetype out there!
What then was THEIR excuse for not even being able to scrounge up a single 7 star or higher partner to fight for them? 'Oops, I suck so bad I am unable to even get a pity card'?
And some of these people wanted to actually compete using only a 3 star normal monster with 600 attack? John pulled up the video clips. "Grace, look at these people PLAYING that poor weak thing against big beefy dinosaurs! At least have that poor plant be part of a combo, or work together with powerful spells or SOMETHING!
While he worked himself up into a huff, Grace by comparison was FAR more hesitant. "Maybe these Duelists chose low star monsters to better accommodate some sort of strategy? One they just didn't have a chance to show on camera?"
John couldn't help but snort as he shared a data stream. "I wish, but I have far too many examples here… I mean, look at this moron! He played an 'Ancient Brain' in attack mode, and that poor thing only has 1,000 attack! According to his deck list, ALL his monsters are normal monsters! No special effects, no magic cards, no field spells or equipment or traps… Just a bunch of these little guys."
Those poor little dudes in the video were being summoned one after another and being obliterated by some random guy using dragons.
It hurt to watch… Turn after turn: 'I summon another baby!', SMASH, 'OH NO! How could you destroy my {fill in latest victim}!? I better summon out my NEXT baby, and then YOU'LL be sorry!'
John stared at the video stream. "Like… At least summon those tiny things in defense mode as chump blockers or something…" Sigh. "Not that it matters, the idiot has nothing stronger to support them and no tech options AT ALL to handle anything his opponent may do."
Why were people like this even ALLOWED to call themselves Duelists?
Right. "We have GOT to find a middle ground here… Some set of rules that will filter out anyone like that while reducing the chance of supernatural effects from dominating every game."
Hmm. Best address deck construction first then. "I'm thinking about allowing only one copy of each card unless duplicates are required for special effects or summoning criteria to properly operate. That would put powerful and underperforming decks on more equal footing… Ban direct card draw entirely? Maybe. The cards could get 'drawn' by a neutral assistant or an automated system, so no one can alter probability with their will power to always get the perfect card..."
John's fingers began tapping. "We can let one monster be designated as the Duelist's Spirit Partner as compensation, some rules allow that. Keep that one card separate from the deck, so it can be cast as needed initially? That should make up for not being allowed to just draw it on demand like usual."
Wait, no. "Some monsters WANT to go into the grave, so that MIGHT be very abusable if you always had access to them at the start of the Duel… Maybe? Hmm. We need something else."
Then again: In normal gameplay the opponent would always have access to their monsters when needed ANYWAY, so maybe that didn't matter? This would just formalize the effect so weaker opponents wouldn't be surprised when a massive bomb dropped on them out of nowhere.
John slumped. "Girls, we will need to workshop this a few times. And that's assuming anyone even bothers to build a new Deck to come out here and challenge the Frog Emperor in the first place!"
The lazy temptress snorted. "Nah, this Realm is obsessed with this card game… If you make the challenge and rules clear, our swamp will be swarmed in minutes."
Grace also winced. "If anything my Lord, having the rules actually listed and available BEFORE any such tournament would probably cause a frenzy of excitement… It is very common for major fights to just introduce rules that only exist with specific board states or real world scenarios adding unofficial restrictions or effects."
Really? "Are people actually allowed to just… Add rules to a game mid fight like that?"
Temptation nodded. "Not just game rules… Sometimes they change the card text itself! Keep looking at the data I"ve been feeding you this stuff is crazy."
No, this was already a bit too much. "Maybe later. Anyway, from what I can tell? We can set up a tournament and then establish custom rules to begin with and that should cut out like… MOST of this crazy stuff."
True, he'd gain information about Soul enhancement from Dueling slower, but at least there would BE Duels to learn from! "I think it will be fine as long as we emphasize that half the actual fight will be all about Deck construction and the other half gameplay. And considering how BAD most of these Decks have turned out to be already, I'm pretty sure this will filter out the trash players pretty easily."
Like, maybe John was spoiled by all those awesome example Decks that the card shop grandpa sold his sister, but seriously! There was horrific amateur crap in some of these Decks!
Not just weak creatures with no synergy, some decks included powerful cards WITHOUT including the needed support cards required to summon them!
It was literally a brick, unplayable and wasting a card draw. Why include it in the Deck then? Or more importantly, if there were other cards that the Duelist needed to gather or collect FIRST, why had they competed in an actual tournament or expo BEFORE fixing that shit!?
Maybe Deck construction was less emphasized here because most of the time it didn't matter?
After all, if you were weak, you'd never make it beyond two turns ANYWAY.
And if you were strong, your Deck would just alter reality itself to ensure you just happened to have what you needed for any situation.
…Still, it felt lazy and unforgivable. "Maybe we should make 75% of this about constructing your Deck… Yeah, let's do that."
Drawing cards done by a third party should cut down on the crazy.
Require only one of each card unless another card demands otherwise, to prevent someone just stuffing a dozen copies of one big monster in there or something like that?
But how to emphasize deck building… And not being allowed to draw would really piss off some people, but getting around that cheating ability was going to be rough… Hmm.
Mentally tumbling the idea around, John blinked. "Proxies."
Grace looked up from the ongoing piles of paperwork needed for this. "Proxies?"
John grinned! "Yep!" This wasn't a perfect solution, but it SHOULD create a sort of bridge allowing the weakest and strongest Duelists to play against each other despite supernatural advantages… "Girls, let me run this by you, alright?"
Temptation waved away the 'hilarious' videos of idiots smashing their baby monsters against literal walls and Grace sat at attention.
John was drawing up his ideas on a virtual display. "We will do this by using card piles and proxy cards."
He pointed at the screen. "In my tournament, each player will split their Deck up into piles, or pools of cards: Monsters 4 stars and below; Monsters 5 stars and above; Spells; Traps; and Field Spells."
John waved to one side. "Anything that belongs in that 'Extra Deck' mess gets set aside in its own pool that we ignore for now."
A pile of nearly identical white cards were Crafted. "Then before each Duel, the players will construct a proxy deck using these! Each white card has the name of one of the sorted piles we already set up here... So in an actual game you may end up with a hand with three Spell cards and two Low Monsters, or one High Monster and some Traps or whatever."
John tapped the screen. "You can trade in your Proxy card for anything you want out of the pile it matches… And if that pool is already EMPTY, you take 500 life points of damage."
He couldn't help but grin! "This will allow the weaker Duelists to 'always draw the perfect card' like their opponents while also penalizing the powerful Duelists who never bothered to learn how to set up a Deck in the first place!"
Sure, you could only have spells and monsters to avoid getting dinged for 500 burn damage due to uncautious deck construction… But that TOO was part of building a Deck!
Heck, if someone was clever enough they could include a single very important Trap or whatever and a BUNCH of Trap proxies to ensure they draw it as soon as possible, while just accepting the ongoing injuries afterwards as a part of doing business. Or something similar with the other piles.
But if you built a whole deck around one or two cards and just let the excess proxies burn you alive in the process, that was kind of hard core… And in John's opinion, you EARNED a victory if you win like that.
After all, burn damage here didn't just mean the Life Point counter goes down.
It actually hurt the Soul on some level. Hurt like a bitch!
So the penalty would likely be respected, probably. "Cards will go into the graveyard or get banished like normal, but if any get sent back into the Deck then they get replaced with a matching Proxy card instead. And not one that matches their CURRENT star level or card type or whatever, because some cards can change that stuff, but the proxy card that originally had been used when it was pulled from the pools."
This should fix SEVERAL problems! "Heck, since the proxy cards don't interact in any way with the Soul Fragments, this means I can do that awesome dramatic 'I DRAW A CARD' thing they do on T.V.! This is going to be awesome!"
Grace hummed. "We should have three rounds of gameplay per Duel I think… And let them adjust the ratio of proxy cards between each one. Best of three rounds would be the winner of the overall Duel… Should we let them change the actual cards in their deck as well?"
Hmm. "...Tentatively yes. But only between major Duels I think, not between each round. After all, building a good Deck is the whole point of this change." In fact, this was ringing a bell somehow…
Hadn't he seen something like this in the earlier data? Oh yeah! "Some areas have something called a 'Side Deck', or a limited selection of cards that are submitted to the Tournaments before anyone starts playing, so that people can't just replace all their cards half way through a series of matches. Right?"
Grace hummed. "Yes, a 15 card selection that can be exchanged with cards from your main Deck between rounds of gameplay."
John grinned! "Right, we limit the total number of total cards in the pools to the lowest amount allowed in a Deck, so 40 in this case. The Side Deck will be capped at 15 cards, and the Duelists can swap them in and out between rounds of the Tournament only… Probably will have to have them list all the cards in their Decks at the start of this mess too, to prevent cheating or cards altering themselves due to the power of their owners."
Temptation was lounging even harder at the side, her attention not really focused on either of them as she relaxed nearly to the point of falling out of her chair entirely… "Does the 40 cards limit include that 'Extra Deck' thing? The one all your Frogs are moving into? Cause you got like a few million in there right now."
Oh right, shit. "We will slap a separate cap of 15 cards on that too, and I'll just pretend the ones NOT on my Deck List aren't there. As long as I don't play the others, it should work out the same." Right?
Yeah, toad-ally!
As John continued crafting his upcoming 'Frog Emperor Presents the Fight of the Ground Fable' Tournament, some absent part of his thought process began considering what sort of prize the champion should get.
Or should he bother? If he won, wouldn't he just be rewarding himself? Then again, that felt pretty darn cocky and overconfident.
…Meh, might as well just give prizes to the top like, 100 or so people. No, wait… There might not be that many people!
Lets see, best work this backwards… A final Duel for a winner, another for the ones choosing who is in the finals, another and another…
So like what, seven rounds would make sense right? And that would end up needing… 128 Duels involving 256 Duelists? …That seemed a bit much for a tournament… And a lot of work…
Best cut it back to five rounds.
After a bit of mental wrangling, John nodded to himself and sent a mental note to his sister.
[[From HOST: Hey sis! Just a heads up: I think after we have an elimination round we will end up hosting 32 Duelists for this tournament. It might take a few days after we get all the rules established and start the advertising campaign, but they shouldn't stay much longer than a few days at most unless we do something fun and awesome during the first chaotic bit.]]
As for the prizes… Meh, might as well just take suggestions. Didn't some other tournaments offer vague stuff like wishes or whatever? He could probably fake that ability with a bit of effort, or just hand over his account full of cash when they left this Realm.
Oh wait.
[[From HOST: ~PS: ALSO a heads up! I've decided to throw a tournament at the castle.]]
Whew! He nearly got in trouble there!
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- Location
- Sol;Terra;EU;D;NRW
I imagine a lot of confused duelists making huh sounds in a bit.
Also, that brain above? It is actually not terribly bad since its a fusion material for a decent beater while the other half got an effect.
Mind you, not a great effect but still.. any fusion monster stronger then Dark Magician during that rough timeframe is noteworthy.
Also, that brain above? It is actually not terribly bad since its a fusion material for a decent beater while the other half got an effect.
Mind you, not a great effect but still.. any fusion monster stronger then Dark Magician during that rough timeframe is noteworthy.
- Location
- Phoenix, AZ
Did you just...remake an entire deck building battle game into something better just for this part of the story? Props. Kinda want to play that.
I'm confused about how anyone is supposed to play that game anyway. It's less an actual card game, and more just I'm flexing my soul so I win. The cards can do crazy things. If they can move on their own or possess people not strong enough... Sighs. It's not a card game. It's an eldritch mess.
Oddly, John is trying to make some rules so he'd have fun playing against those regular folks. The real issue is that the normal folks are those background people that are utterly weak that don't seem to be able to play the game. John has high standards and if you met them, you are a high-end bad ass by default.
I'm less interested in all these rules and crap. I just want him to finally get around to you know playing a game. He overthinks this stuff far too much. Well, the girls have had fun dressing him up at least. I can see him handing out various cards and decks to many runners-up. His accidental background stuff is always impressive.
Oddly, John is trying to make some rules so he'd have fun playing against those regular folks. The real issue is that the normal folks are those background people that are utterly weak that don't seem to be able to play the game. John has high standards and if you met them, you are a high-end bad ass by default.
I'm less interested in all these rules and crap. I just want him to finally get around to you know playing a game. He overthinks this stuff far too much. Well, the girls have had fun dressing him up at least. I can see him handing out various cards and decks to many runners-up. His accidental background stuff is always impressive.
- Location
- Here
I felt pretty proud about it too...
Anime Yu-Gi-Oh Format!
- Only one of each card could be included in the 40 card deck. If multiple copies are needed to show an effect of said card, they are limited to three unless the card specifically says otherwise.
- Actual gameplay is done with the token deck, with token cards that act like currency that you can redeem for something from the pool/pile designated.
- When a card is supposed to be sent from anywhere back to the deck, it gets sent back to the pool/pile it originated from and a token card is inserted back into the deck instead.
- If you draw a card that references a pool/pile that you've already emptied, the card burns you for 500 life points and evaporates.
- Your extra deck is limited to 15 cards, and there are no proxy cards pointing toward it.
- Your side deck is limited to 15 cards, and there are no proxy cards pointing toward it. You can only switch cards from your deck to your side deck between tournament rounds.
Most of the other rules are the same as you expect, although I think they're going to play with 8,000 life points instead of 2,000 from what I can tell.
I feel like this really simulates what it's like to play a game in this world, since in the anime no one ever has six copies of pot of greed for example. It's extremely rare that anyone has more than one of the same card, the major exception of course being the blue eyes white dragon which needs three to bring out the big guns...
But if you play this in our world you can pull off strategies that their Soul couldn't support there, like having only powerful magic cards... Or limiting their entire deck to exclusively containing deadly combos of monsters.
Although I'm interested to see what kind of all powerful decks people would be able to build when they know that they would always be able to get what they needed...
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Ended up getting ninja's while writing all this up. Ah well, it's putting down my thoughts/comments on what was in the story itself. And some of it was implied as working the way Ace clarified, but not actually outright stated. (Such as when the life points get deducted for Proxies. Works pretty much how I expected.) But here the post is as is...
The chapter talks about 'one copy of a card barring exceptions' twice. I mean, John might well have forgotten he narrowed down that to being part of the tournament ruleset he was setting up, but it is notable... And it is one of those bits that is informally 'enforced' as an unspoken rule by powerful duelists anyways. Might even end up resulting in weaker duelists building up strength faster, with having 'better' connections to cards.
It's a bit unclear on when the proxy gets swapped out for the relevant card. As soon as it's drawn? When you play it? And does the opponent know which pool you grabbed from?
Because knowing your opponent drew a trap card specifically, and played it would be important information. Though deck-peeking cards/ones that have special effects based on what the top card is are also messed with by that system. Heart of the Cards also messes with it to be fair. Excepting 'category of card', which the proxy cards outright state.
Not changing proxies to the relevant card type immediately means that you would be able to 'avoid' taking damage by simply not playing it. Doesn't feel like it'd be the right choice either.
Something that might explain the 'stupid decisions' those weakest duelists are doing is that they don't have the training wheel rules helping with the connection. They're going for the best growth for their soul that they can blindly figure out, even if it's barely anything. In addition to the bit where 'weak soul is barely there', meaning they might well be the equivalent of poorly programmed AI. And there's not much they can do to fix the cards they can obtain. Small increments of Soul Growth by playing, even badly, with the Soul Pain 'helping' a little. And it being little because of not properly connecting due to no victories/not lasting very long turn wise. (And only throwing weak monsters into attack position to be ground up doesn't really 'connect' a Duelist real well, even if the 'Oh no!' reaction hints that there is a connection with the emotional worry.)
The rulechanges mid-match might be something that they're hoping for, actually. Just that they're not strong enough to force it to go through, it's their best shot.
I wonder if there is Soul Growth simply by having them in your 'carry around' deck, regardless of if you actually Duel.
However, this proxy deck system actually also might help get others out of the 'avoid a card type' Deck building. It outright points out that there's more. And different types of cards, would likely allow different 'types' of Growth. Not to mention I'm pretty sure all Archetypes have more than one category of card type. Or at least strongly associated with others that fill in the gaps. Not like I've looked at all of them.
With the Tournament, I can see the Frogs end up 'returning to normal-ish' in terms of Realm. In that they don't only stay in John's Swamp. But instead just have multiple connections. The whole hopping around with other decks. Stuff that happens in Duels, that John hasn't been able to do yet. It's probably also going to build up connections on that side, as Spyral does for Sandra's side.
John's also helping solidify the Extra Deck. The pools are kind of outright acting like versions of them anyways, in an attempt to fix the Heart of the Cards issue. And with the Fusion Deck being the 'original' version of it, and having it specifically done that way (since I don't recall offhand how it was handled in the anime back then), it codifies it a bit more. Links built by shared understanding of a specific ruleset. That stays. Or at least is more stable. Allowing better growth.
One future rule change I can see already, would be a 'even if you have exceptions that allow multiple copies of a card, the Hard Cap is three copies', per real world, and I think 'official ruleset' shown had that in verse. It's just not something John would even consider, since he's a powerful Duelist and the links of the cards already mostly preclude that. And he's likely not even imagining Card Effects that would break that at all.
He might end up changing things as well, for strategies that do need multiple copies of a card, outside effects. With instead of being 'specific card is specific Monster', and go for more of a 'aspects of the monster'. For Spyral, different agents that fill the same role, even outside the 'counts as x card'. Wouldn't work with every card, but then there's already rulesets for 'only one of this card may be in a deck'. This would already help solve the 'all the frogs leave with John', in that they do go, but they also stay behind. And might well solve the issue of 'split focuses' that was mentioned earlier in story outside cards that work well with the having multiple copies.
Maybe even pulling on that, to codify things so more monsters can take advantage of that. Because it points out via the rules that there are ways to keep Soul Growth going like that. Might end up causing Card Effects to pop up that fill in the niches. What with 'card descriptions can change midmatch', it might well end up being 'card descriptions change while already obtained, outside of matches'. Or just cards 'evolving'. All copies of 'Jam the Frog' might end up getting converted to its newer name, causing a cascade on the descriptions no longer having that 'Except Jam the Frog'. Representative of mended fences. But the effect being the same, in that 'Slime Toad' doesn't get effected either. Not invited to the Family Gatherings, but they are at least talking.
It would be kind of hilarious if having a codified, thought through ruleset that is consistent, ends up causing Soul Growth as well. Just the low level duelists reading through it, and suddenly making epiphanies. Maybe looking through the cards they didn't put in their deck (but still may have) and 'properly' building it out, rather than going for 'strongest connection they have' and ignoring cards they have something like 95% strength of that connection.
As for why Pegasus' setting things up didn't work that way, well it's clear that whatever rules he has set out, aren't universally accepted, other than maybe the base set. The fact of the 'rules change mid match' is proof of it. Though that's kind of 'Soul Power on the ground overrides Soul Power way far away'. Which John's ruleset might well help with, as it soldifies the rules, rather than what is probably Pegasus' having implicit rules. A side effect of things being 'obvious', given the already stated bit on how people just know the local rules no matter what. Whereas John has that needed outside perspective of Worlds where that isn't the case.
And Pegasus is outright having to pull card Archetypes out. So Rule interactions aren't fully solidified. The specific tournament rules might well be attempts at strengthening connections, by various people. And John is getting a better look at the whole picture. He's glimpsing at the cards that aren't available yet. The cards Pegasus and his workers have yet to find. But still actually exist. Not to mention the Archetypes that might well exist pulled by other Duelists, outside of his view. (Though them doing so likely also brings them to be more visible to Pegasus and co.)
The chapter talks about 'one copy of a card barring exceptions' twice. I mean, John might well have forgotten he narrowed down that to being part of the tournament ruleset he was setting up, but it is notable... And it is one of those bits that is informally 'enforced' as an unspoken rule by powerful duelists anyways. Might even end up resulting in weaker duelists building up strength faster, with having 'better' connections to cards.
It's a bit unclear on when the proxy gets swapped out for the relevant card. As soon as it's drawn? When you play it? And does the opponent know which pool you grabbed from?
Because knowing your opponent drew a trap card specifically, and played it would be important information. Though deck-peeking cards/ones that have special effects based on what the top card is are also messed with by that system. Heart of the Cards also messes with it to be fair. Excepting 'category of card', which the proxy cards outright state.
Not changing proxies to the relevant card type immediately means that you would be able to 'avoid' taking damage by simply not playing it. Doesn't feel like it'd be the right choice either.
Something that might explain the 'stupid decisions' those weakest duelists are doing is that they don't have the training wheel rules helping with the connection. They're going for the best growth for their soul that they can blindly figure out, even if it's barely anything. In addition to the bit where 'weak soul is barely there', meaning they might well be the equivalent of poorly programmed AI. And there's not much they can do to fix the cards they can obtain. Small increments of Soul Growth by playing, even badly, with the Soul Pain 'helping' a little. And it being little because of not properly connecting due to no victories/not lasting very long turn wise. (And only throwing weak monsters into attack position to be ground up doesn't really 'connect' a Duelist real well, even if the 'Oh no!' reaction hints that there is a connection with the emotional worry.)
The rulechanges mid-match might be something that they're hoping for, actually. Just that they're not strong enough to force it to go through, it's their best shot.
I wonder if there is Soul Growth simply by having them in your 'carry around' deck, regardless of if you actually Duel.
However, this proxy deck system actually also might help get others out of the 'avoid a card type' Deck building. It outright points out that there's more. And different types of cards, would likely allow different 'types' of Growth. Not to mention I'm pretty sure all Archetypes have more than one category of card type. Or at least strongly associated with others that fill in the gaps. Not like I've looked at all of them.
With the Tournament, I can see the Frogs end up 'returning to normal-ish' in terms of Realm. In that they don't only stay in John's Swamp. But instead just have multiple connections. The whole hopping around with other decks. Stuff that happens in Duels, that John hasn't been able to do yet. It's probably also going to build up connections on that side, as Spyral does for Sandra's side.
John's also helping solidify the Extra Deck. The pools are kind of outright acting like versions of them anyways, in an attempt to fix the Heart of the Cards issue. And with the Fusion Deck being the 'original' version of it, and having it specifically done that way (since I don't recall offhand how it was handled in the anime back then), it codifies it a bit more. Links built by shared understanding of a specific ruleset. That stays. Or at least is more stable. Allowing better growth.
One future rule change I can see already, would be a 'even if you have exceptions that allow multiple copies of a card, the Hard Cap is three copies', per real world, and I think 'official ruleset' shown had that in verse. It's just not something John would even consider, since he's a powerful Duelist and the links of the cards already mostly preclude that. And he's likely not even imagining Card Effects that would break that at all.
He might end up changing things as well, for strategies that do need multiple copies of a card, outside effects. With instead of being 'specific card is specific Monster', and go for more of a 'aspects of the monster'. For Spyral, different agents that fill the same role, even outside the 'counts as x card'. Wouldn't work with every card, but then there's already rulesets for 'only one of this card may be in a deck'. This would already help solve the 'all the frogs leave with John', in that they do go, but they also stay behind. And might well solve the issue of 'split focuses' that was mentioned earlier in story outside cards that work well with the having multiple copies.
Maybe even pulling on that, to codify things so more monsters can take advantage of that. Because it points out via the rules that there are ways to keep Soul Growth going like that. Might end up causing Card Effects to pop up that fill in the niches. What with 'card descriptions can change midmatch', it might well end up being 'card descriptions change while already obtained, outside of matches'. Or just cards 'evolving'. All copies of 'Jam the Frog' might end up getting converted to its newer name, causing a cascade on the descriptions no longer having that 'Except Jam the Frog'. Representative of mended fences. But the effect being the same, in that 'Slime Toad' doesn't get effected either. Not invited to the Family Gatherings, but they are at least talking.
It would be kind of hilarious if having a codified, thought through ruleset that is consistent, ends up causing Soul Growth as well. Just the low level duelists reading through it, and suddenly making epiphanies. Maybe looking through the cards they didn't put in their deck (but still may have) and 'properly' building it out, rather than going for 'strongest connection they have' and ignoring cards they have something like 95% strength of that connection.
As for why Pegasus' setting things up didn't work that way, well it's clear that whatever rules he has set out, aren't universally accepted, other than maybe the base set. The fact of the 'rules change mid match' is proof of it. Though that's kind of 'Soul Power on the ground overrides Soul Power way far away'. Which John's ruleset might well help with, as it soldifies the rules, rather than what is probably Pegasus' having implicit rules. A side effect of things being 'obvious', given the already stated bit on how people just know the local rules no matter what. Whereas John has that needed outside perspective of Worlds where that isn't the case.
And Pegasus is outright having to pull card Archetypes out. So Rule interactions aren't fully solidified. The specific tournament rules might well be attempts at strengthening connections, by various people. And John is getting a better look at the whole picture. He's glimpsing at the cards that aren't available yet. The cards Pegasus and his workers have yet to find. But still actually exist. Not to mention the Archetypes that might well exist pulled by other Duelists, outside of his view. (Though them doing so likely also brings them to be more visible to Pegasus and co.)
Vhalidictes
(Verified Demon)
- Location
- Las Vegas
As a former M:TG player, can someone explain this mess? Because I legitimately don't understand what's Story insanity and what's yugioh insanity.
IIRC there is an actual real-life TCG, right? How in the hell does it normally play if simple things like 'having to draw cards', 'deck construction', and 'sideboards' aren't a thing?
Something that only now occurred to me is the Lifepoint change. Given that it's literally representative of Soul here, that might cause issues. With Lower Lifepoint being the 'safe' range, how does that effect things? Pulls from more of their life force? Each point is worth 'less', effectively giving strength limiters on how much it effects each Duelist (but not the cards which stay the same point values), or is John subsidizing the Soul, unknowingly, and providing a 'shield' that clings to the relevant part that gets hit? If it's that last one, then how will it work when John leaves? He ends up creating a version of himself that stays left behind? An OverFrog Soul, given how Frog connected John is? That might slowly encompass all of the Archetypes. Which... might cause changes with John? Might mitigate the issues of the presence he is having. Where instead, with all the Archetypes it becomes more a 'Act Normal' field, where it projects the closest match o the surroundings. Leaving more a 'this is power' feeling, if anything.
Alternatively, a 'Gaia Soul' gets formed to fill the role. A more consistent Arbiter of the Rules. 'Gaia' in that, so far, Duelists only exist on Earth. Would eventually become more Universal, as Duelists expand elsewhere. With the Alien Archetype, it's bound to be more than just Earth eventually, but it's more a 'formed on Earth first'. Heck, I can see future students asking about that very thing decades down the line. And it just being a remnant of how it first worked. Barring John actually hooking up into a pre-existing setup and just massively expanding out from there.
There's already good evidence that, judging by the 'Frog Archetype will eventually recover from John leaving the Realm', stuff like the Alien Archetype formed because of Human Belief. Not that there are Aliens around. Which does bring to mind interesting ideas, in that Sandra's Spyral/MiB mix 'fixing' the Alien archetype is somewhat representative of solving issues that end up happening on new Archetype formation. Namely, starting at a higher power level than other Archetypes, to the point of destabilizing the balance already existing. Needing a quick 'bring into line' before really getting summoned regularly, if at all.
So that's another point of the system left behind starting from a Gaia-type entity. Something formed that would 'keep balance', an idea that already exists to lean on, strengthening up to eventually reach 'Realm-wide' status. If not on a 'interlocking system of Entities', to manage things. Heck, maybe an 'Archetype council' eventually. Something to help manage Soul Strengthening for everyone. And helping keep a balance. (And mitigate certain other issues as well.) Along with keeping Rules managed, rather than letting the Strong be the ones to force rules to favor them. Keep the workload from overwhelming.
I doubt that it'd be anything that ends up on cards, just because, well, I think John would be the only one to be able to support them. But maybe a bit of a tithe from each Archetype member, goes to the 'Archetype Coucilmember'? Which then goes back to Strengthen the members of the Archetype as a whole.
Likely also some sort of system for individual card types as well. Probably more of each, maybe some pertaining to specific Archetypes (Since there's examples of Spyral having sub-archetypes for gear and the like), but I'm imagining more it's like a team, covering the cardtype as a whole, with maybe advisors from each relevant Archetype.
Might end up resulting in Archetypes being 'larger' than they are in the Real World version. And maybe even overlap, just 'themed' differently. Since some strategy niches would share similar cards. Or 'Over Archetypes', which would be built up off of combinations, given that Archetypes aren't enough by themselves to fill a deck. Nor do they really work on their own. Possibly represented by a Powerful Duelist, that used a specific mix, what they were known for? That might well be a possible Soul Strengthening bit, leaning on something else to provide the power, before a Duelist finds their own niche. But also possibly a 'Duelist gets to try different deck builds themselves'.
Another possible change would be outright to have Archetypes ending up listed on the card, which frees up having to rely on the 'Japanese card Name'. And would allow 'multi-archetypes' more easily. Opens up interesting card effects, that would really only work due to the fact that there isn't really a limit based on printing specific cards/designing artwork. And being able to have balance changes done much more easily, rather than having to rely on Errata patches/reprinting of cards.
So having the Proxy system, that can't be influenced by the Heart of the Cards gets everyone on a level playing field. Turning the "I can draw whatever I want" into something everyone can at least mimic to a certain degree. Since all the powerful Duelists have decks that kind of rely on that to some extent (and for reasons of Soul can't exactly build what would be a normal deck for the Real World version), it keeps them reasonably close to how they actually play. And thus continuing to Strengthen their Souls.
One big thing as a consequence is that it really messes with how deckbuilding works. So John's ruleset is somewhat forcing Duelists that are weak to actually start thinking of Deck Construction, rather than 'throw a bunch of cards in a deck and call it a day'. But to do so, he has to find some way of disrupting the Heart of the Cards since it's pretty much "A powerful enough Duelist can literally cheat" with getting what is essentially automatic search through their deck for a card at will. Rather than being a card effect that ends in reshuffling the deck after. Not to mention the mention of outright rule changes midmatch. Which is crap that only works in the anime/manga because it's more for dramas sake than being a playable game. (See also Pegasus and his Toon cards.)
Yu-Gi-Oh does have sideboards, and did so in the real world at the time the anime originally aired (big example is the Blue Eyes Ultimate Dragon, both in the card game and the anime); at this point in the timeline it's limited to the Fusion Deck. Named because it's only Fusion Cards right now. John just sort of... grabbed the rest of the Extra Deck stuff ahead of time because of the wonkiness of the setting in that the cards actually 'exist' outside of being cards. These cards shouldn't exist at this point in time, at least not in their card form. So they're not really stable. And literally no one else has them, as far as I'm aware. Except maybe Pegasus since he's the one who owns the company making the cards. He'd certainly be one of the first to find out. Unique to Ace's interpretation of the setting is that they're printing blank cards that get settled upon opening, so theoretically there could be wild ones out there. Ace's interpretation also works better for John to pull the stuff he's doing, and does make sense in that he would be interacting much more with the area that the Spirit Shards are hanging out when they aren't Summoned.
For the 'real' anime version of things, it's probably something like: Pegasus has his teams research the Spirit/Monster/Whatever it's actually called Realm monsters, figure out what exists, and then proceed to create cards to match. These are then printed, and sent off in packs as would be normal. With actual fate making sure the right cards go to the right people. It's just other oddities with rulesets due to the series not quite having to rely on making a consistent ruleset that would actually be playable/fun. Instead of going 'what would be dramatic'.
John himself is in a weird position in that if he doesn't do that, he'd likely end up autowinning, due to not having rigid rules set up ahead of schedule to prevent rule changes mid-match. Or even 'minutes before match'. So he's codifying everything, closing any and all possible openings for shenanigans like that. Some of the rules taken from the real world version, some are taken from 'regional variants' that are essentially House Rules for entire areas (Since there have been 'the rules have changed' arcs, for specific tournaments and the like. Not all of that is 'time has passed, new rules revisions'.)
tl;dr: Anime Card card game has Issues that the real world version just doesn't have, and John is making rules to mitigate what if it happened in the real world would be Literal Cheating as best he can. While trying to ignore the Extra Deck trying to claw in from the Future, way ahead of schedule.
Alternatively, a 'Gaia Soul' gets formed to fill the role. A more consistent Arbiter of the Rules. 'Gaia' in that, so far, Duelists only exist on Earth. Would eventually become more Universal, as Duelists expand elsewhere. With the Alien Archetype, it's bound to be more than just Earth eventually, but it's more a 'formed on Earth first'. Heck, I can see future students asking about that very thing decades down the line. And it just being a remnant of how it first worked. Barring John actually hooking up into a pre-existing setup and just massively expanding out from there.
There's already good evidence that, judging by the 'Frog Archetype will eventually recover from John leaving the Realm', stuff like the Alien Archetype formed because of Human Belief. Not that there are Aliens around. Which does bring to mind interesting ideas, in that Sandra's Spyral/MiB mix 'fixing' the Alien archetype is somewhat representative of solving issues that end up happening on new Archetype formation. Namely, starting at a higher power level than other Archetypes, to the point of destabilizing the balance already existing. Needing a quick 'bring into line' before really getting summoned regularly, if at all.
So that's another point of the system left behind starting from a Gaia-type entity. Something formed that would 'keep balance', an idea that already exists to lean on, strengthening up to eventually reach 'Realm-wide' status. If not on a 'interlocking system of Entities', to manage things. Heck, maybe an 'Archetype council' eventually. Something to help manage Soul Strengthening for everyone. And helping keep a balance. (And mitigate certain other issues as well.) Along with keeping Rules managed, rather than letting the Strong be the ones to force rules to favor them. Keep the workload from overwhelming.
I doubt that it'd be anything that ends up on cards, just because, well, I think John would be the only one to be able to support them. But maybe a bit of a tithe from each Archetype member, goes to the 'Archetype Coucilmember'? Which then goes back to Strengthen the members of the Archetype as a whole.
Likely also some sort of system for individual card types as well. Probably more of each, maybe some pertaining to specific Archetypes (Since there's examples of Spyral having sub-archetypes for gear and the like), but I'm imagining more it's like a team, covering the cardtype as a whole, with maybe advisors from each relevant Archetype.
Might end up resulting in Archetypes being 'larger' than they are in the Real World version. And maybe even overlap, just 'themed' differently. Since some strategy niches would share similar cards. Or 'Over Archetypes', which would be built up off of combinations, given that Archetypes aren't enough by themselves to fill a deck. Nor do they really work on their own. Possibly represented by a Powerful Duelist, that used a specific mix, what they were known for? That might well be a possible Soul Strengthening bit, leaning on something else to provide the power, before a Duelist finds their own niche. But also possibly a 'Duelist gets to try different deck builds themselves'.
Another possible change would be outright to have Archetypes ending up listed on the card, which frees up having to rely on the 'Japanese card Name'. And would allow 'multi-archetypes' more easily. Opens up interesting card effects, that would really only work due to the fact that there isn't really a limit based on printing specific cards/designing artwork. And being able to have balance changes done much more easily, rather than having to rely on Errata patches/reprinting of cards.
A lot of it is trying to mitigate the weirdness of the Anime ruleset. Namely that, being a fiction setting, the anime/manga outright has the ability of players to outright draw whatever card they need whenever they are in tune with The Heart of the Cards. Ace pretty much logically built from there using examples shown in the series, as to what that would actually look like. Along with the 'connect with the cards' explaining really weird decks that you would only see in fiction, and no sane person would actually build. Like the examples given in the chapter of 'all weak monsters'.
So having the Proxy system, that can't be influenced by the Heart of the Cards gets everyone on a level playing field. Turning the "I can draw whatever I want" into something everyone can at least mimic to a certain degree. Since all the powerful Duelists have decks that kind of rely on that to some extent (and for reasons of Soul can't exactly build what would be a normal deck for the Real World version), it keeps them reasonably close to how they actually play. And thus continuing to Strengthen their Souls.
One big thing as a consequence is that it really messes with how deckbuilding works. So John's ruleset is somewhat forcing Duelists that are weak to actually start thinking of Deck Construction, rather than 'throw a bunch of cards in a deck and call it a day'. But to do so, he has to find some way of disrupting the Heart of the Cards since it's pretty much "A powerful enough Duelist can literally cheat" with getting what is essentially automatic search through their deck for a card at will. Rather than being a card effect that ends in reshuffling the deck after. Not to mention the mention of outright rule changes midmatch. Which is crap that only works in the anime/manga because it's more for dramas sake than being a playable game. (See also Pegasus and his Toon cards.)
Yu-Gi-Oh does have sideboards, and did so in the real world at the time the anime originally aired (big example is the Blue Eyes Ultimate Dragon, both in the card game and the anime); at this point in the timeline it's limited to the Fusion Deck. Named because it's only Fusion Cards right now. John just sort of... grabbed the rest of the Extra Deck stuff ahead of time because of the wonkiness of the setting in that the cards actually 'exist' outside of being cards. These cards shouldn't exist at this point in time, at least not in their card form. So they're not really stable. And literally no one else has them, as far as I'm aware. Except maybe Pegasus since he's the one who owns the company making the cards. He'd certainly be one of the first to find out. Unique to Ace's interpretation of the setting is that they're printing blank cards that get settled upon opening, so theoretically there could be wild ones out there. Ace's interpretation also works better for John to pull the stuff he's doing, and does make sense in that he would be interacting much more with the area that the Spirit Shards are hanging out when they aren't Summoned.
For the 'real' anime version of things, it's probably something like: Pegasus has his teams research the Spirit/Monster/Whatever it's actually called Realm monsters, figure out what exists, and then proceed to create cards to match. These are then printed, and sent off in packs as would be normal. With actual fate making sure the right cards go to the right people. It's just other oddities with rulesets due to the series not quite having to rely on making a consistent ruleset that would actually be playable/fun. Instead of going 'what would be dramatic'.
John himself is in a weird position in that if he doesn't do that, he'd likely end up autowinning, due to not having rigid rules set up ahead of schedule to prevent rule changes mid-match. Or even 'minutes before match'. So he's codifying everything, closing any and all possible openings for shenanigans like that. Some of the rules taken from the real world version, some are taken from 'regional variants' that are essentially House Rules for entire areas (Since there have been 'the rules have changed' arcs, for specific tournaments and the like. Not all of that is 'time has passed, new rules revisions'.)
tl;dr: Anime Card card game has Issues that the real world version just doesn't have, and John is making rules to mitigate what if it happened in the real world would be Literal Cheating as best he can. While trying to ignore the Extra Deck trying to claw in from the Future, way ahead of schedule.