So I just wrote this up in an attempt to establish a basis for people to create their own Umineko Gameboards to challenge others with. Iām interested to hear peopleās thoughts.
Iād really love to create a game of my own sometime in the future.
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The manga definitely confirmed Yasu=Shannon=Kanon and the Yasu birth sex as a male.
A friend and I established a working system for creating Umineko gameboards, and we used them to roleplay against each other. (Basically exactly what you said.) The model we used is ālogic game 1v1 with assistant roles.ā
Sadly due to his inactivity we couldnāt finish, but I think the framework is pretty solid. (We made this around EP6 or EP7 release IIRC)
http://www.gaiaonline.com/forum/series-related-miscellaneous-role-play/umineko-no-naku-koro-ni-episode-a/t.66370011/ is the game he made. This one is legit Umineko-tier. He got me big time. (He eventually told me the solution and I wanted to beat the shit out of him)
http://www.gaiaonline.com/forum/series-related-miscellaneous-role-play/umineko-no-naku-koro-ni-episode-b/t.70447329/ is the game I made. He got pretty close, but he didnāt have enough love 8)
(In particular, the EPA rules work pretty well, but you might want to mold them based on your vision.)
Basically there are 4 roles: The Detective, the Witch, the Impartial Judge, and the Watson. The detective and the witch basically play in Umineko fashion, pretty easy. The Watson is there to act as an assistant to the detective. The Impartial Judge receives a copy of the Witchās solution is and there to make sure the Witch doesnāt violate any reds. (The solution is allowed to contain contingencies, a la EP6.)
The Witch controls all the non-detective pieces and molds the story. The Detective controls both the Game-Piece Detective and the Meta-Detective and is allowed to ask questions, but the Witch ultimately forces the events on the gameboard. (No bullshit duct-taping doors basically.)
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Also, I would love to play if you ever host a game 
I love the idea of including assistants and judges. I think thatās something I neglected to suggest in my post.
The idea that only two people are needed to make the game work is pretty naive, especially with all the variables floating around. At the very least, you need a judge or judges to make sure the gameboard is solid, and call the GM up on any violations. Without it, the game could end up a disaster.
Strictly speaking you could operate on a trust system within the game and keep it 1v1, I donāt think the GM would try to cheat, considering how easy it would be to call them out at the conclusion of the game. But it takes the stress off him a little to know that there are people whose job it is to make sure he doesnāt screw up.
At the very least the GM would want to confer with somebody about his own scenario for proofreading purposes.
EDIT: I mention the first part because I was worried when I was playing that the ājudgeā role might be unfulfillingā¦ they pretty much sit and watch the 2 main characters, and occasionally troll if they want to. But most of the action happens between 2 people in this model.
One thing we considered was having a separate HIDDEN āTea Partyā subforum where any non-detective characters could discuss the game while itās happening. So you could laugh at the incompetent detective while he screws up 
My Umineko experience began with the anime, after a friend of mine sent me a link to the opening theme. (Katayoku no Tori is still one of the best opening songs I know.)
I got hooked pretty fast since I like mystery stories. I read some books by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Agatha Cristie back in the days. But after the first arc was over, Umineko got magicalā¦ and very confusing. My greatest āwtfā moment was the entrance of bunny girls who could fire beams by holding hands.
Even though Umineko remained in my memory as an unfinished confusing mindfuck anime, I never forgot its good parts. So when I found out that the original is a VN, I knew Iād read it one day, which is exactly what I did a few months ago.
I canāt say I enjoyed all of it. The first four episodes were more of a chore than anything since I already knew what would happen. On the other hand, that knowledge granted me a different viewpoint on the events and a slightly more advantageous starting point to close in on the mysteries.
I actually pretty much marathoned the VN. I didnāt make breaks in-between the episodes. Instead, I made txt files where I wrote down everything that seemed important or suspicious to me, as well as some of my own theories. (I still have those files on my pc.) And I used those notes to ponder about the mysteries while reading. It worked pretty well for me.
Iām not sure what to say about Umineko overall. The concept was amazing. The voicing and OST were among the best Iāve ever heard. The mysteries were really good and there were enough of them to keep you more or less interested all the time.
What rubbed me the wrong way, though, was the length. 8 Episodes were a bit too much. 6 would have been sufficient with better text management. There was just too much text, many passages were repetetive or even downright pointless. So were certain characters, like the two demons of love farce (I give you a trial of love and grant you immortality). Some of the āfunnyā passages I didnāt find funny at all, they merely broke immersion. I think Ryuukishi needs to work on his comedy placement, because letting things take a ridiculous turn during a life-and-death situation (and then switch back whenever) just ruins everything. Iām referring to the āloser flag countā inā¦ I think it was ep4.
I love philosophy, so I can confidently say I learned some interesting stuff by reading Umineko. Trying to solve the mysteries was fun. I felt a sense of accomplishment whenever I guessed something right, but I sometimes got overwhelmed by the amount of confusion thrown at the reader. Overall, it was certainly a good read.
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Strangely, I thought the Krauss fight was one of the most awesome ones in the series, I might just be weird though
Read the manga for EP8, itās waaaaaaaay better and leaves a better taste in your mouth
Has the manga finished in Japan yet?
Iām about to start reading this VN since I saw how much @Aspirety seemed to love it in another thread.
From what Ive gathered, we have a pretty similar tastes, and Iāve been meaning to check out Umineko since a lot of people say this VN is pretty great. (That and Iām looking to find an interest in this franchise since I didnāt really like Higurashi anime all too much, and the author of both wrote Luciaās route [Rewrite] if I remember correctly)
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Speaking of game boards, thereās actually a subreddit that does something similar. Not exactly a game board, but /r/murdermysterygames has a narrative, followed by Blue/Red truth duels. Though itās definitely not fast paced lol. And itās inactive.
Itād be awesome to have a live-action game. It would take time to set up and a lot of interest. The GM would have to be really crafty to predict and make sure the pieces donāt go crazy and ruin everything lol. Still, Iād love to see that someday. Just need players.
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Iād love a game thatās like (Umi 8 spoilers:) the part where Bern/Ryukishi challenges the reader to a game, where you get a story, a set of rules, and a list of statements, and then have to figure everything out, I had so much fun with that that I wanted more
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Going all out with the shameless plugs!
In other news. Glad I started this novel, addicted already.
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A friend and I constructed an RP that followed the gameās rules up to EP6, because that was the latest game at the time:
Worked pretty well! Until inactivity happened.
EDIT : Spoilers duh.
Hiant constructed a closed room harder than anything in Umineko, so thereās that
Massive Umineko spoilers Umineko really has no hard closed rooms though, except maybe third game first twilight. Almost everything else boils down to the gold truth and once you know the culpritās identity you can cut straight through it all without even thinking about it too hard.
Still that makes me want to give that unfinished game another go. I did read for a while but tired of it when I reached the end of the roleplay and never constructed an actual theory.
Right now Iām stuck trying to figure out The Three Coffins though >_>
Oh man good luck, three coffins is tough. I was only able to solve around half of it, but itās a good one.
Just played Ougon Musou Kyoku against another player over Hamachi for the first time. It was awesome. If anyone else round here plays it and is ever up for a game, ring me up ^^
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@Skyzzed That was my favorite part of Episode 8. Itād be awesome if Ryukishi would release just a game with a bunch of those, but I doubt thatāll happen. Maybe someone will do it themself someday?
{(Probably spoiler)} :
[I am currently going through the VN which is,to be honest, much better than the anime adaption.
So I am in the Episode 2 during the discussion about the Chapel clsoed room .
Can anyone who remeber that scene, help me with a question I have?
Why didnt Beatrice say in red something like [ The key in the envelope ( that we already verified as unique) was used only once since it was placed in the envelope, this morning by Rosa ] to avoid check-mate
I know that a checkmate for battler there would halt the storyās advance ā¦ but it was a way out for Beatrice wasnt it ?
Just bought the Umineko Question Arc on the Steam sale, it will be a fair time before I get around to playing it though!
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