Pokémon RPG (Non-CVnu)

This and great and all. But y'all being noobs, not Digivolving your Pokémon during battle.

So this isn't happening than? Cause if it is, I'm in.

OOC: Ok, I guess I'll moderate this. I've seen a bunch of Pokemon Text RPGs and i've seen what works and what doesn't.

Here're the rules. You get to start with 2 pokemon, each level 10. They can be any pokemon you want, but they have to make sense by your backstory. Your character application needs a backstory of significant length to explain where you got your pokemon, and share a little about yourself, and a picture. That's it. Backstory, 1-2 pokemon, and a picture. Afterwards, write a post (the picture and subtitle in a post is optional, i just added it because it was nice), your first post should have the region and the city/route that you're on so that I can know where you are. You don't need to include location afterwards unless you move. You cannot fast travel (unless you have a pokemon large enough to fly on, and even then, it's less teleporting and more an actual "fast-travel" system where you'll cross locations faster), so if you want to get from Goldenrod to the Whirl-Islands, you'll need to travel.

Rules regarding Pokemon moves. You can have 1 egg move of any origin for your pokemon, but just 1. You can know as many moves as you want, but don't go delighted about that. Having a hundred different moves can be just as difficult as having only 4. (We're using the ORAS move pool regarding learned moves) The "level" imposed is just to decide what moves you're starting out with and to ensure you don't go with a higher evolved pokemon. If you want to train a new move, you can train them to use TMs, learned moves, and other kinds. When you want to do so, mention it in your post and I'll use a dice system to decide the difficulty of the move. Rules regarding the dices are. Standard d20 DC of learning a move is 10. If the move is the same type as the pokemon, that's a -1 to the DC, if the move isn't, it's a +1. If the move is a learned move, it's a -2. Also the power of the move will decide how difficult it is also. Thunder will be more difficult to learn than thunderbolt. But this is more subjective and is harder to write down exactly how it works. Whenever the roll is less than the DC of the move, it's a failure. Every time you fail, you get a -1 to learn the move, making it easier to learn as you train more. PP does exist, so be careful when spamming low PP moves like that.

Determining Wild Pokemon Encounters: Wild Pokemon will be decided based on the route you're in. I'll be using Serebii to decide what pokemon can be found where. Not sure about what rules regarding trainers so far.

I'll decide how far you've walked before you've left a route. But as a note. Rushing through a route will be faster than lingering and training. Night/day will exist.

After you've posted, I'll, as a DM, make an update post in response. If multiple people post, I'll write an update for them both in the same post. If two players are just having a conversation, no update will be made until an action is Update worthy. If two people are battling each other, I will update, but mostly to referee. If I feel a fight is becoming too "dodge-happy" or whatever, I will intervene with an Update.

Example Character Sheet

Name:

Alex Kingsman

Backstory:

Alex was born in Orre and became a victim of his environment quickly. The strong amount of Criminal Activity in Orre lead to him taking up a life of Crime as well. He stole his first Pokemon at the age of 10: a Chespin. It belonged to a rich tourist who wasn't watching his pockets properly, and then all of a sudden it was his. He then used the Chespin to catch his own Pokemon in the Poke-Spot Rock area, There he found a Trapinch. He never really liked the big-time Criminal organizations that operated in Orre, so he decided to move south and see how much better Team Rocket was.

Pokemon:

Chespin. Moves: Tackle, Growl, Vine Whip, Rollout, Defense Curl(egg)

Trapinch. Moves: Sand Attack, Bite, Feint Attack, Bite, Mud Slap, Bulldoze, Signal Beam(Egg)

Example Post

Johto, Route 30

Alex was born in Orre, though growing up in deserts and barren farms made it clear that this land was dead. So he made his way south and into Kanto, and eventually Johto. He had heard about Team Rocket and decided to see how they opperated. Orre had a similar team to Rocket, Team snagem, but they were a joke, hiding in the canyons and stealing whatever they could. Cypher was more professional and reputable, but their methods were too questionable for him. So he decided to come out here to see what he could find. But first he needed to get some cred here in Johto. So he had made his way down to Route 30 where the notorious Mr. Pokemon lived, to try and steal a Pokemon from him.

@deathbymanga: Uhm, no you aren't. The second-in-command was Avatar. She is the mod.

@_deathmatch_: not a single mod has taken the reigns on this from what i saw, so i took over. is avatar even still involved?

I still need to create my character

@deathbymanga: Ask her. She's at Tails or Avatar or even Lila and her Pokemon alt is Brook.

The mods don't need to be involved, rather who created the idea, and those were me and Avatar.

O_o I see two pokemon rpg's which do I post in

@yasmin_aiza: Not sure who started the other one, but I'll be using this. There is a lot of effort put into this OP, while the other is... mostly a picture of the starters.

Right here.

I was a bit confused at first, but I'll guess I can take up the reigns.

But I have no issue with deathbymanga helping, as long as he doesn't try to force his own rules on people. The rules in the OP are the only ones we have to abide by.

@_brook_: I don't see any problems with him helping either.

Also, "effort put into the OP". The toughest part was finding pics and even that wasn't difficult lmao

@_brook_: I have no objections with the existing rules, however, the extreme lack of player-DM input feels like there's very litle push in this. If I may, I'd like to employ a system to have DMs (that's the best word for who we'd be, since I can't call us mods without being corrected) opperating in this world, governing the random elements like wild pokemon encounters, NPC trainers, and situations outside of the player's control. Simply giving every player power over this world might work in a massive RPG like comicvine, but in a singular thread like this, with very few trainers, a DM helping out is very important

@deathbymanga: And why would that help out?

A DM would just make trying to write your character going on their journey more tedious; you have to wait for the DM to write every single wild Pokemon, every single trainer, rolling for every step through tall grass, and in turn keeping people from getting into real stories and actually encountering other player-controlled characters.

DM-environments aren't something used often in vine RPs, and there is a reason for that. It's a slow system.

@_brook_: um, why "every step of the grass"

If a person wants to make it from one city to the next, a single post of going through the route is just fine. If the player wants to engage in battle, then while in that post, they can say something like "And I take a meander through the tall grass to find some wild pokemon." or "And I keep my eyes out for any willing trainers interested in battling me". If they do that, then we'll provide a battle for them. If they want to avoid battles, they can as well.

This isn't about Micro-managing the game. This is about Moderating it so that it flows properly.

If people want to stick with just player controlled characters, sure. but we only have, what, 10 players at most interested in this? Unless these ten people all plan on always interacting with each other, we're going to get stale moments where the player is wandering, by themselves, in the middle of a route. Say you have three going down a Ash-Misty-Brock situation, walking through the woods. Who are they going to battle. each other? that's going to be fun, for the first couple times. then it'll just get repetitive. even faster if the player wants to battle a wild pokemon.

I have worked with several Forum-based Pokemon RPs, i know what kills these things. the biggest thing? Leaving the player in the middle of a story, with no DM to help them out. Sure, in Comicvine it works great. but that's because you got a cast of 50 and this large cast, allows for people to mix things around. Sure fighting NPCs can be fun. but in the end, it's 100% in the player's control. they decide the actions, and it gets boring. I mean, it's like playing Chess. Unless you have both black and white as two fully fleshed out characters, then one of them is easily going to win. and then you get into the situation of two fleshed out characters, and in that situation, you just pick which one you want to win, and go from there. the challenge only comes from battling other players. but with such a small cast, battling them is going to get boring fast.

@deathbymanga: Alright then, you clearly know what you're talking about, and you do present a convincing argument. If you think this DM idea will help drive the RP, then I'm willing to give it a try.

However, when it comes to everything else you proposed in your first post, we aren't going to be using it; we go with the original rules, as I've said.

@_brook_: as i said, nothing i said in my list of rules contradicted with anything you said yourself. maybe the bits were i applied constrants on how many pokemon they started with and how strong they were, etc, but everything else was simply an elaboration on how the DM moderation platform worked. but i can work directly with you if you want to structure it in a way to make it work more in your favour

@deathbymanga: Not really.

All of this is what I'm referring to.

didn't realize how 90% of that had solely to do with training pokemon and what moves you were allowed. ok.

but do you have any objections to what i wrote about training for new moves? i mean, i get that they have to have only 4 moves, but in anime logic, TMs didn't really exist.

@deathbymanga: For simplicity's sake, TMs do exist in this version of the world. We don't need some overly complex system to figure out how to learn moves.

@_brook_: ok, fair enough.

To start this out I guess we can play together here or something.

Alex Kingsman (Trapinch, Quilladin)

Johto, Route 30

Alex was born in Orre, though growing up in deserts and barren farms made it clear that this land was dead. So he made his way south and into Kanto, and eventually Johto. He had heard about Team Rocket and decided to see how they opperated. Orre had a similar team to Rocket, Team snagem, but they were a joke, hiding in the canyons and stealing whatever they could. Cypher was more professional and reputable, but their methods were too questionable for him. So he decided to come out here to see what he could find. But first he needed to get some cred here in Johto. So he had made his way down to Route 30 where the notorious Mr. Pokemon lived, to try and steal a Pokemon from him.

But of course the guy lived way too far out in that remote house. There was no way to avoid the tall grass. So he pushed his way through, readying his Pokemon, and prepared himself for what kind of wild pokemon might come out at him.

Cryo Arctious, (Abomnisnow, Espeon, Delibird, Eevee, Castform, Amaura)

Johto, Violet City

Cryo wrapped his scarf around his forehead as a sweatband, glancing for a thermostat that he could hopefully plummet. Twenty one degrees Celsius, what kind of southern desert dwellers preferred this scorching temperature? However, as fate would have it, the Violet City pokemon center had no such device open to the public, leaving him to bake while he waited for the center to heal his pokemon.

He sighed and leaned back in his chair, fanning himself with his father's letter, drawing the eyes of the locals, who were apparently accustomed to such extreme heat. He paused to start re-reading the letter, only to change his mind and continue fanning. He must have read it a hundred times already, and could recite it from memory.

Before you leave Johto, make sure you speak to the professors in the south east. They are breeding experts, and if returning the population of your ancient pokemon to it's former glory is remotely possible, they are the ones who would know anything about it. Also, bring your Eevee, there isn't a professor in the world who wouldn't love to at least see one.

There were of course more parts to it, certainly more that were centered on research on Castform, but there wasn't a letter sent without some "suggestion" keeping him sidetracked. In his experience, more Amaura to keep track of was the last thing he needed, so this was in reality more politicing on his father's behalf than anything else.

A familiar jingle sounded and he eagerly went to the counter to grab his pokemon before going to the PC to make sure he had a team appropriate for the journey. Normally he would have felt uncomfortable leaving behind his Lapras and Weavile, but the paths around here were rather hospitable and the pokemon weak, a location best suited to beginning trainers. He grinned, remembering the beginning of his own adventure what seemed like an eternity ago.

He thanked the Nurse and left, immediately walking into the forest. As soon has was relatively far away, he released his Amaura, and felt the temperature drop immediately. The moisture in the air froze in place, forming into a snowstorm around the two. He grinned and pet her, pulling down his scarf to it's rightful position, now that the temperature was habitable.

"I suppose we should go deeper before people start complaining they aren't cooking themselves, eh?" He asked, which his pokemon responded to with a derpy nod. Out of habit, he reached for his Weavile to have him scout ahead, but blinked when the spot was empty. He shook his head and released his Delibird, and gave him directions to warn him of any large path blockers, look for any buildings that might belong to a researcher, and keep an eye out for berries that could be considered dinner. It looked at him sideways, as if wondering where his normal scouting partner was, but nodded and took off.

He started down the path, leaving a trail of frozen foliage that promptly melted once the duo got out of range of his pokemon's ability. He highly doubted any wilds would attack him in the middle of his snowstorm, let alone one that Amaura couldn't handle but habit had him fingering his Espeon's ball in case of an emergency.

OOC: @deathbymanga Don't worry, I don't plan on outright battling, but I can think of a few good RP situations with the two characters.

@superdrummer:just so you know, i'm not ignoring you, it's just i have no idea how to respond, since according to the map of Route 30, we're on two different sides of a large wall of trees, not like either of us are in the other's line of site. and i'm still waiting on @_brook_: to give me a wild encounter

@deathbymanga: Its all good, thats kinda how I planned it. You go do your Mr. Pokemon thing, and than I'll deal with the aftermath.

Guess I'll post in here later

BUMP

Bump? Is this still a thing?

It was supposed to be. I offered to take over the reigns but they told me Brook was going to still be in charge.

I'd be willing to start my own

Yeah, ok, I'm going to start my own Pokemon RP

Rip that dude's Pokemon RP

Also, who'd be up for me bringing this back after I figure out the freaking rules?

@_drake: Not a big fan of pokemon. However I'm certain some on here are, or fans in some way at least. Enough to come here.

@_drake: Well, I still have that alt I deleted after you dropped this... -_-

But yeah, I'll be in as a professor if this takes off.

@mourningsparrow: Awesome. I'm trying to figure out a system.

Btw, I'm hyped to do something on RPN with you and Dready!

@_drake: Agreed. You wanna set up, or what?

@mourningsparrow: Let's find something we're kinda used writing, share with the group to see if everyone agrees on making it, and then we enter :D

Yas

@_drake: Sounds good, man

@kai_aurelius: Cool.

=D

@_drake: *fostbunps*

(Yeah I know I misspelled that. So what?)

@mourningsparrow: *fastbonks*

@_drake: So here's that alt. I'm using an RL look, if that's ok, didn't want to make him a straight-up clone of Oak.

@prof_willow: I think it's okay >_____> You should always try to look around for looks, tho. There is plenty non-canon stuff.

@_drake: I'll browse, lol

@prof_willow: I can look up art on Pinterest tomorrow =)

wut dis?

@_drake: I'd browse, but it took forever to put the links in my bio, and editing it on mobile'd erase them.

@prof_willow: No problems.

Can you handle two profs? Or would you rather I do a scientist type guy

If Prof I was thinking Sycamore

@mth_: Of course! One Prof per area, man.

You can innovate, I'm making it so nothing on the animes and mangas is canon :D

Also: I'ma use a pokeball launcher attached on the arm, because it's cool.

@mourningsparrow:

That sounds dope af man.