Yugi is a real short kid who always gets picked on. His grandfather gave him a golden puzzle, which took him eight years to put together. When he did, he discovered it to be the Millenium Puzzle, one of seven ancient Egyptian items. Unknown to him, the Millenium Items were created when an ancient Pharoh locked away the magic of Duel Monsters (back then, it was a game played by magicians who conjured up real monsters to battle...it became a measure of war, and the Pharoh locked the power away because it was destroying the country). The power was locked inside the Millenium Items, as well as a few souls (for ex, a graverobber got trapped inside the Millenium Ring, which explaines Bakura's dark side, and the pharoh's own soul got trapped in the Puzzle, since he had given his life to trap the power). Anyways, Yugi solves this puzzle and gets stamped with the power from the puzzle, giving him a "second personality" who has a little bit more confidence, and also granting him with the power to punish evildoers and to become the King of Games (which is what Yu-Gi-Oh means, by the way). So, sharing souls with this wierd conciousness that has no memory of its own past, Yugi goes through various adventures (the reason they cut it out was because Yami Yugi, the spirit trapped within him, had actually killed and/or drivin bad dudes insane after he beat them in various games). The second series picks up when the game of Duel Monsters in introduced in card form. Yugi defeats the #1 duelist, Seto Kaiba, and then Pegasus uses his own Millenium Eye (which gives him Shadow powers as well, plus the ability to "see" into one's mind and read what they are thinking) to capture Yugi's Grandfather's soul. Yugi must go through the Duelist Kingdom contest and win 10 star chips in order to gain enterance to Pegasus' castle and rescue his grandfather. Along for the ride are Joey, his friend (although he was one of many bullies who picked on Yugi for a time, until Yugi stood up for him when a bigger bully picked on him), Tristen (same story), Tea (Yugi's life-long friend), Mai (a duelist they met who specializes in Girl cards and loves to argue with Joey), and Bakura (who was evil when they first met him at the Duelist Kingdom because of the evil spirit inside his own Millenium Ring, but now normal because the spirit had been banished...for a time).