Pokemon: Tabletop Adventures

[doomdragon6]

http://pokemontabletop.wikidot.com/

So, I'm thinking on running a Pokemon D20 game for my friends, but I'm a little hesitant.

Why? Not sure. I'm not super familiar with the Pokemon world beyond Generation 1. I'm fairly familiar with Gen 2.

But once you start talking Gen 3+, Apricots, Aprijuice, contests, breeding, eggs, stats, etc, I don't know anything.

I'd like to include later Pokemon, but
1) I don't know them, so it's hard to implement what you don't know.
2) A lot of them are fucking stupid.

On the other hand, it's no different than DnD. "You're in a cave. Let me look up what monsters live in caves. Ummm... Troglodytes. There you go. Fight that." Here I'd just be looking up Pokemon and guessing how they act.

People I've talked to have said "Go ahead and run an original 151 game." Thing is, that's really limiting. That essentially means there are only 151 creatures in the game, unless I go the "regular animals exist too" route.

I'm not really asking a question here, I just wanted to get thoughts on a Pokemon D20 game. What are your thoughts on one?

 

[bhamv3]

Is 151 not enough? How many different critters do you typically encounter over the course of a game?

 

[doomdragon6]

Well, I mean like, let's say you're in a forest. With the original 151, there are no deer-like creatures in this forest.

But, with future gens, you could have sheep and deer-like creatures.

Unless you add regular animals.

 

[bhamv3]

True, true, you get wandering Bulbasaur instead.

 

[Ravenpoe]

No one has ever been excited to see a sawbuck.

 

[Hailey Knight]

No one has ever been excited to see a sawbuck.

Or a Deerling.

Or a Stantler.

I suppose Xerneas is an exception.

 

[doomdragon6]

So, we decided to go Gen 1 and Gen 2 only.

We had our first meeting to set up characters and get an understanding of the world.

The party currently consists of, with 2 character slots open to be filled, as such:

Johnny Kross
Age: 19
Class Direction: Breeder / Medic
Starting Pokemon: Lvl 5 Abra
Bio: Born the little brother of the world's most powerful Dragon trainer Lance of the Elite Four, Johnny has been overshadowed his entire life and has never been able to fill his brother's gigantic footsteps. He has now decided to undertake his Pokemon journey, with an Abra his cousin Claire absent-mindedly gave him as a birthday present, to prove to the world and his family that he can become more than just "Lance's Little Brother". He wants to make a name for himself, and untimately take down his brother without ever using any Dragon type Pokemon. Coming from a rich family, however, he has no idea how to take care of himself in the wild, and will need to rely on his party members for his survival.

Chelzor (Real Name Unknown)
Age: 15
Class Direction: Martial Artist / Dirty Fighter / Ninja
Starting Pokemon: Lvl 5 Cyndaquil
Bio: Orphaned since before she can remember, Chelzor has no knowledge of her previous family, or whether they're even still alive, and adamantly upholds that she couldn't care one bit. She has since run away to start her own Pokemon journey in search of wealth and a sense of belonging, something she can call her own. The first thing she did after stealing her Cyndaquil was run into a small group of Pokemon Trainers, and decided to join them to blend in and lay low for a while.

Melody Lane
Age: 17
Class Direction: Researcher
Starting Pokemon: Lvl 5 Squirtle
Bio: Having just graduated from High School, Melody now seeks to begin her journey of knowledge and understanding, wishing to learn as much as she can about Pokemon. She is, however, a sweet and ditzy type with an affection for cute Pokemon, and a terrible fear of bug types. Book-smart but not world-wise, she relies on her new team to take her through the most dangerous lands to study the rarest of Pokemon.

Aquavanni
Age: 18
Class Direction: Ace Trainer / Capture Specialist / Strategist
Starting Pokemon: Lvl 5 Dratini
Bio: The son of Boss Giovanni himself, he has been mostly disowned by his father and Team Rocket. Aquavanni despises Team Rocket and wants nothing more than to take them down OR take them over. He unfortunately realizes that he has nowhere near enough power to do this yet, nor alone. He must rely on his new companions, goody two-shoes though they may be, to help him rise to the top and take down Team Rocket once and for all.

So yeah. Band of misfits indeed.

 

[bhamv3]

Just a minor nitpick, from a roleplaying point of view, Pokemon such as Chansey, Blissey, or Miltank would appear to be better for a medic type character. They're all gen 1/2 too.

 

[doomdragon6]

Yes, but I gave everyone the choice of their first Pokemon, and the Johnny character is supposed to be an underdog loser type. His Pokemon is an afterthought gift from a relative, and is unable to do anything but Teleport for 11 more levels.

The idea of a mostly useless Pokemon that still could POTENTIALLY have some utility squeezed out of him seemed like a good fit for Lance's doormat of a brother, so I agreed.

 

[bhamv3]

Heh, I'm surprised Magikarp wasn't chosen then.

 

[doomdragon6]

Gyarados is too close to Dragon, so he didn't want it.

 

[Far]

I've got to start a game of this with my local guys. I only question how you get everyone involved in things like gym battles, typically those are 1v1 and I can imagine sitting there waiting for all to beat the gym would get tiresome. I haven't delved too deep into the rules to see how that is handled, or if it is.

 

[doomdragon6]

For all trainer battles, I've just decided to allow it to be a team battle.

For example, if my party of 4 come up on Random Trainer A, and RTA has 6 Pokemon, I will say that the battle is a 4 vs 4, with 6 total Pokemon allowed per side.

So RTA sends out 4 of his 6.
The party sends out 1 Pokemon each, for a total of 4.
When one of RTA's pokemon is knocked unconscious, he sends out his 5th Pokemon and eventually his 6th, but he never has more than 4 of his own Pokemon on the field.
If a party member's Pokemon is knocked out, then that party member can send in a second Pokemon (or even a third if his second is knocked out again), as long as the total number of Pokemon on the party's side doesn't go over 4.
If RTA is out of Pokemon, he loses.
If the party loses 6 Pokemon, no matter how many they have left, they lose. (This is in an official trainer battle. Obviously it would be different in non-official match, such as against Team Rocket.) If, during battle, a party member loses a Pokemon but has no more Pokemon OR decides not to send another out, the 4th slot is empty and only 3 Pokemon are on the party's side now. However, the other trainers may still send out Pokemon up to 6. (This allows a trainer to lose his level 15, but decide not to send out his level 3 Caterpie since it would be beaten immediately, and instead allow another trainer to send out a more formidably leveled Pokemon if their current Pokemon bites the dust.)

That was all confusing.

Anyway, for a Gym Battle I would do either the same thing, or see if the party would be interested in watching 1v1 battles. Sometimes they might.

I like my method because it allows everyone to participate, and creates a large battle consisting of many pokemon and elements that can interact with each other, as well as allowing for teamwork and strategy. (Koffing, use GAS! Now Tommy, make your Charmander use his fire to blow up the gas and cause an explosion!) Or something dumb like that.

It's pretty geared to the party's favor, but it's all for fun.

I haven't actually run a game yet beyond character building, so I really have no idea how it'll go. Guess we'll see!

 

[Ravenpoe]

I think a fun idea would be to have gym battles be a huge event with special rules unique to the gym. Like the water gym filling with water that changes the battlefield and the way pokemon behave, or the rock gym taking place on a shifting, crumbling mountainside, where the trainers and pokemon alike have to navigate the changing terrain.

But that's just me. I love special rules in pen and paper boss battles.

 

[doomdragon6]

Oh, absolutely. That crap will totally be happening, just like in the anime. That's why I'm so excited about a d20 system.

 

[bhamv3]

Out of curiosity, are you going to be following the stats listed in the wiki? Because when Aquavanni's Dratini eventually evolves into a Dragonite, he's going to be the nuke of the team. Dragonite is beastly.

 

[doomdragon6]

We go by the Pokedex included with the d20 system, which is a little different. But yes, Dragonite is a hell of a beast, but it doesn't evolve into Dragonite until Level 50, or even Dragonair by level 30, when most Pokemon have gone through their full evolution by 36. That's sort of the trade-off.

But who knows, maybe I'm just a bad GM.

 

[doomdragon6]

Had our first game and people seemed to enjoy themselves.

Unfortunately, things go really slowly. Need to figure out a way to speed up games.

So, a problem I'm having is that, as opposed to DnD, there are no orcs and goblins that can lay elaborate traps and treasures to be found. There's animals. You're beatin' up animals in their habitats, and most of them want nothing to do with you. How can I spice up combat and such like that?

Also, I'm finding that damage is extremely high. For example, a tackle is 2d8+6 + Attack Modifier (often highish, like 7), so that's a potential of 16+6+7=29 in one hit, with a minimum of 15. A 25 will take out almost any level 5ish Pokemon in one hit, so generally a Pokemon-- on the party's side or a wild, will last 1-2 hits. This is a problem for 2 reasons:
1) Multi-Pokemon encounters (You find 5 Pidgeys!) which the GM Guide suggests, can turn into a party wipe pretty quick.
2) It's extremely hard to catch a new wild Pokemon when your weakest attack is very likely to knock a Pokemon out.

And don't get me started on crits or type advantage. A Flying hit a Bug/Grass today and walloped it into the next plane of existence. That's an extreme x4 example, but still. Maybe the damage is to keep it all fast, but when the party can lose a Pokemon to a single hit, that creates a problem and discourages "big battles" which is the point of a D20 system.

Any ideas on how to deal with any of these issues? I could just take away that base modifier and keep the attack modifier, but I assume things are there for a reason.

 

[bhamv3]

For your first problem, I am reminded of certain dungeons in the Pokemon games, where you have to trek through the dungeon, fighting off random pokemon and solving puzzles, and at the end you get the chance to capture a legendary or rare pokemon. The dungeons are often given generic "created by an ancient civilization" backstories. Perhaps it's an option to consider.

For the high damage issue, this reminds me of the Black and White competitive metagame, which is basically blick-fest 2010. One shot kills are all over the place, due to how common powerful moves and powerful attacking pokemon are. This means that strategies to deal with such high damage have become common. For example, the held items Focus Sash and Focus Band give pokemon a chance to survive otherwise fatal hits. The move Substitute does the same, often coupled with the Leftovers item or a pokemon with healing moves, to mitigate the HP loss.

As for catching pokemon, you could find some way to give your party a pokemon with the move False Swipe. Check this page on the wiki you posted, it lists False Swipe's effects, but basically False Swipe will always leave the target with 1 HP left, no matter how hard you hit it.

So, basically, I suggest finding some way to give your party False Swipe, Substitute, and some Leftovers/Focus Sashes/Focus Bands, as well as strong hints that they're meant to use them.

 

[Dei]

Alternatively, you could just scale down the damage, then scale it back up as power levels get higher. You don't have to follow the exact rules.

 

[Ravenpoe]

People still exist in the pokemon world, you could have people setting up traps and being general troublemakers.

Basically, I'm saying your players should... Prepare for trouble.