I'm always generating new ideas, thanks to my overactive imagination, love of science fiction media and shamelessness in stealing a damn good idea. Reading the book The Musashi Flex by Steve Perry and participating in KissingT.Kiryuu's Duels for Poptartity have led me to create, some time back, a unique method of getting other forum members to duel each other. Interested about the premise? Read on!

The Premise
Ever since the departure of Anthy Himemiya from Ohtori Academy after the Duel Named Revolution, word of the duel game has been leaked from unknown sources. It is not relevant how this information came to be, but it is relevant in how it's affected the student body. A modification to the school rules regarding the carrying of weapons around campus during classes has been changed due to overwhelming support on a petition, and roses of all colors now adorn the chests of young men and women alike. Extremely popular in the middle and upperclassmen, this new duel game pits random students from across campus for glory and honor, and the elusive title of Kotetsu no Kettousha, or Steel Duelist. With power comes responsibility, though, and those faculty assigned to manage this new extracurricular activity are responsible for making sure that students hold to their word when they sign up with the newest after school club, the Ohtori Flex...

The Character Building
Gameplay is based on a five attribute system, similar to The Sims 1. Three of the attributes -- Agility, Accuracy and Strength -- are factors which each student specializes in. The fourth attribute, Stamina, is somewhat independent of the other three, while the final attribute -- Spirit -- is purely luck. Thirty "attribute points" are allocated to each of the five attributes. No attribute may be lower than one or higher than ten. At beginning, all attributes begin at zero. Once all five attributes have been properly accounted for and no points remain, the character is assigned a weapon (from Katana, sabre or rapier) which reflects their strongest attribute. Sharp eyed Flexers (as the faculty calls the club members of the Ohtori Flex) will know who to challenge and who to avoid after a few duels. There is a catch for revealing information only the faculty is supposed to know about publicly, of course, and the consequences will be detailed below.

Attributes cannot be changed once locked in. When a player creates their character (and it is OOC in the fact that, like in KTK's Duel forest, it will be your forum person who is playing), they must PM the Overseer (that would be me, by the way) their attribute spread and wait for confirmation about their character. Once their character is confirmed, they must wait until confirmation to duel, at which point they can choose anybody who is a registered Flexer to challenge. More about how a duel is handled will be explained below. Under no circumstances is the player allowed to reveal their attributes to any other forum member except me. I'll handle battle mechanics for both Flexers, as the information will be kept in a separate file stored on my computer and updated as new Flexers join or are blacklisted (more on that below). Also, you may not make such information as attribute strengths public, since it's supposed to be a secret. Anybody who is told the information in any form is expected to send me a PM stating who made the information public to them. If I find that everybody knows the hidden mechanics of the game, I'll simply cancel the game entirely because the integrity of the chance part has been compromised. I do keep some secrets about the game, and to have somebody who is not the GM just blurt out a passage from the master manual is a direct violation of the trust I'm placing into you when you play this game.

The Duel Protocol
When a Flexer makes a challenge, the challenged player must either accept the challenge to duel or decline and state their reason for doing so honestly. This is because there is a system in place to ensure that all Flexers are, at the least, semi-active. More about this will be explained below. When two Flexers duel, the challenger chooses either Accuracy, Agility or Strength as the attribute to play on. This attribute is matched to the opponent, then Stamina is factored in and whoever has the higher combined total wins the round. Whoever lost the last round gets to choose the attribute to play on, and again Stamina is factored in and whoever has the highest total wins. This goes until one Flexer has won three out of five rounds. If at any time both combined totals are evenly matched, Spirit is factored in and whoever has the highest combined total from there wins the duel without question. If they're still tied, whoever is the older participant (determined by registration date, which can't be hidden) will automatically win (presumably by greater experience in dueling with a tactical mindset).

If the challenging Flexer wins, he trades his weaker position with the losing Flexer. If the challenger loses, he trades his stronger position with the winning Flexer. Lower ranking numbers are stronger positions, while higher ranking numbers are weaker positions. The point is to get to rank number one, titled First Rank. Whoever holds First Rank is the Kotetsu no Kettousha and wields a special blade called the Shintetsuken, which simulates their normal blade and adds one point to Stamina for an absolute maximum of 11 points. When the current Steel Duelist loses to a Flexer of any rank, he loses the title and is kicked back to the lowest rank, regardless of whether or not the opponent was last rank or second rank. Whoever beats the Steel Duelist becomes the Steel Duelist, without question. The point of the Ohtori Flex is to maintain your position as the Steel Duelist for as long as possible, and in order to do so you must continue to fight those who challenge your station.

Penalties and Danger Points
Now, as I said before, if a challenge is refused, whoever declines must state their reason for declining, and not lie about it. This is where the incentive to remain somewhat active comes in -- the Danger Point System. If you decline for a reason I think is trivial (and don't worry, I can be rather lenient about what is trivial and what isn't -- I know that a lot of you have more important things to do than just bum around IRG at all hours of the day), you'll be penalized a single Danger Point. Earn three Danger Points and you can expect a PM from me asking what the heck's going on that you're refusing challenges left and right. If you can't convince me that it's for the best, I'll set your rank to something weaker. If you keep refusing challenges and manage to accrue five Danger Points, I'll blacklist you and you won't be allowed back into the game, ever. I will also make sure that it's known to all that you're blacklisted because part of registering as a Flexer is registering your profile ID number and name with me. So don't think you can cheat your way out of it by changing your name -- the profile ID doesn't lie. And a master copy of all Flexers, past and present, will be updated on the second post of the main game thread if this gets underway.

If you have a couple Danger Points and you want to get rid of them, simply fight a Duel with a registered Flexer. Even if you don't win, your Danger Points will be decremented by one, until you've fought enough Duels that you don't have any Danger Points. Simple as that, and you don't have to worry about Danger Points in the first place if you're an active enough Flexer.

Initial Ranking
I determine initial ranking by first looking at your registration date. Once I check that, I'll look at your post count and forum title. New Students are those who have made less than 15 posts after registering. Duelists are those who have made between 15 and 149 posts. Champion Duelists have made at least 150 posts. Now, here's where it gets tricky. Once you have been promoted to at least Duelist, the admins can change your title to just about anything. The way to earn a custom title is to do something noteworthy enough that you're the forum's specialist in that sort of thing. The admins won't saddle you with a title you don't like, and a polite PM to them saying such will be enough to have them remove it. This isn't a form of hazing, after all. It's considered an honor to have a custom title. If you're a Duelist rank by post count and you have a custom title, that'll mean more to me than a Champion Duelist post count with a custom title. Once those factors have been taken into consideration, I'll look at how often you log in, even if you're just lurking or are checking up on IFD. Combining these four variables, I'll determine from all the Flexers who registered at the start of the game who belongs where. The oldest, most prolific and active forum members who sign up as Flexers for the beginning of the game will be closer to First Rank than those who have made less of a presence on the forum.

I will warn anybody who plans to join now: if you get banned, you will be instantly blacklisted from the Ohtori Flex, at least until your ban is reversed.. If you get banned, come back and PM me with a petition to rejoin, I'll consider your request based on the merits of what got you banned in the first place. Before anybody says anything, I was the first banned member of this forum and I managed to return because I was able to clean up my act and keep my rage offline for the most part. Ask just about any veteran around here about Bio's banning and they'll gladly explain. I know what it's like to be kicked out of the community. I can be fairly empathetic about that sort of thing.

Challenging a Flexer
Because the nature of the forum is very dynamic and similar to an ever-evolving creature, I will do my best to centralize the game and limit it to the Shaved Ice Lounge. The official list of all Flexers and their status will be displayed on the second post, along with rank and Danger Point count. If a Flexer is blacklisted, their name will be in black. If they are still registered, their name will be blue. The list will be organized on a first come, first serve basis. The oldest players will be displayed at the top; the newest players will be displayed at the bottom. If you need to check your rank or see who you can challenge to get ahead, check the second post of the main thread. I will not post what weapon anybody is assigned, to maintain the secrecy of the game mechanics.

As a general rule, you may challenge any Flexer who is within twenty points of your rank, either way. If you wish to become weaker or you wish to give a fellow Flexer a chance at being First Rank, I won't stop you nor will I attempt to inquire as to your motives. Anybody can challenge whoever is First Rank at any time, regardless of the ranking system. Whether that Flexer wins or not, though, is up to debate.

The only thread you can challenge other Flexers in is the official game thread, which will be located in the Shaved Ice Lounge subforum and titled appropriately. Please don't flame or talk trash about another Flexer -- this is a game about honor, duty and pride, not a cutthroat Monopoly tournament.

And for the record, I will not be participating in this game aside from duel coordinator and Flexer registrar, as beyond that my ability to play and be objective is sorely strained. It's a conflict of interest for the Overseer to be a participant of the Ohtori Flex.

Other Questions and Miscellany
If there are any other questions somebody has about this game, ask me here and I'll do my best to answer them as well as I can. If I can't answer it because I have no contingency for your situation or if it would reveal game mechanics data meant to be private, I will let you know that I cannot answer your question and why.

Anybody who's looking to join, post here before sending me a PM! I'll gather attribute data once I begin work on the main thread once I have enough interested players.

Last edited by BioKraze (03-06-2010 12:34:29 PM)