Pokemon Tabletop RPG: Dreams of Kalos [Signups]
So! I've been discussing this with dudes on IRC and Skype, and I've currently got at least two interested players, which is a pretty nice place to be in.
That said, what we're running here is a Pokemon RPG using the PTU roleplaying system (itself a fork of the older PTA system, which is itself derived from the broader d20 system, which of course comes from Dungeons & Dragons), which you can grab the rulebook for here (that download also contains some nifty splashbooks that, while we won't be using them, are nice for other campaigns with your friends). The rules are not super complicated, but they do require some number-crunching, something I'm notoriously bad at, so this campaign will require both a lot of cooperation and a degree of patience. As a result the RP will probably move quite slowly, I haven't decided yet if we'll be doing play-by-post or session-based gaming, and I may give both a try.
Anyway, onto the fun stuff:
What You Need:
Ideally, you should have your character sheet filled out, and a single Pokemon sheet filled out for your starter (more on starters later). In addition, you'll want a Battle Title. This is a nifty flavor bit of my own invention that simply denotes what your trainer would be called if he were the opponent in a Pokemon game. Examples of battle titles include things like "Hex Maniac", "Ace Trainer" and "Aqua Admin". Your title need not actually come from the game. For instance, if you choose to be an Ace trainer specializing in Steel types, you could make your battle title "Steel Ace". This is simply for flavor purposes.
Your starter! Starters can be virtually any Pokemon with a few exceptions (they should not be Pokemon with extremely limited movesets like Beldum, Togepi, or Pokemon who start out unable to attack, like Abra or Magikarp, and they should not be Pokemon that are extremely powerful even at low level such as Deino. Legendaries, obviously, are forbidden). Otherwise, the sky is the limit. Starter Pokemon are highly recommended to have at least one evolved form, preferably two. This isn't a requirement, but it helps give the game a sense of progression. Keep in mind also that this RPG is less competetively-focused than the video games, so the "meta" does not apply here. Feel free to pick your favorite Pokemon without thinking too hard about how "good" they are.
Your relationships! Before game start, we will work out who among the player characters knows whom, and how and why, if anyone. This is important, since it sets the tone for the game.
Now then, there are some relatively small, but important things to note about the setting that this campaign will take place in, I have made these notes below.
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Geography: Due to A) being the most recent region and B) having an extremely high level of Pokebiodiversity, a modified version of the Kalos region will be our physical setting.
Time period: Specifics aren't important right now, but the game takes place roughly 10-15 years after the period of heavily organized criminal activity that defined the reign and eventual takedown of groups like Team Rocket, Team Flare, Team Plasma, and Teams Magma and Aqua.
Your Goals: Unlike the games, the goal of every PTU player is not necessarily to catch 'em all, or to be the very best like no one ever was. Depending on your class and background (see the rulebook) you'll have a wide variety of personal goals between you, and it's pretty unlikely that any of you will ever become the champion (although you will doubtless take place in many League Rules Battles!), so set somewhat smaller-scale goals. Keep in mind, that small scale relative to becoming the regional champion can still be pretty ambitious (you can, for instance, create artificial life with a certain sub-class, to give you an idea).
Points of Clarification: The games leave a lot of things vague, and some other things don't make a lot of sense. Here are some clarifiers and changes to help bring the exact subcontinuity of Dreams of Kalos into sharper focus
That said, what we're running here is a Pokemon RPG using the PTU roleplaying system (itself a fork of the older PTA system, which is itself derived from the broader d20 system, which of course comes from Dungeons & Dragons), which you can grab the rulebook for here (that download also contains some nifty splashbooks that, while we won't be using them, are nice for other campaigns with your friends). The rules are not super complicated, but they do require some number-crunching, something I'm notoriously bad at, so this campaign will require both a lot of cooperation and a degree of patience. As a result the RP will probably move quite slowly, I haven't decided yet if we'll be doing play-by-post or session-based gaming, and I may give both a try.
Anyway, onto the fun stuff:
What You Need:
Ideally, you should have your character sheet filled out, and a single Pokemon sheet filled out for your starter (more on starters later). In addition, you'll want a Battle Title. This is a nifty flavor bit of my own invention that simply denotes what your trainer would be called if he were the opponent in a Pokemon game. Examples of battle titles include things like "Hex Maniac", "Ace Trainer" and "Aqua Admin". Your title need not actually come from the game. For instance, if you choose to be an Ace trainer specializing in Steel types, you could make your battle title "Steel Ace". This is simply for flavor purposes.
Your starter! Starters can be virtually any Pokemon with a few exceptions (they should not be Pokemon with extremely limited movesets like Beldum, Togepi, or Pokemon who start out unable to attack, like Abra or Magikarp, and they should not be Pokemon that are extremely powerful even at low level such as Deino. Legendaries, obviously, are forbidden). Otherwise, the sky is the limit. Starter Pokemon are highly recommended to have at least one evolved form, preferably two. This isn't a requirement, but it helps give the game a sense of progression. Keep in mind also that this RPG is less competetively-focused than the video games, so the "meta" does not apply here. Feel free to pick your favorite Pokemon without thinking too hard about how "good" they are.
Your relationships! Before game start, we will work out who among the player characters knows whom, and how and why, if anyone. This is important, since it sets the tone for the game.
Now then, there are some relatively small, but important things to note about the setting that this campaign will take place in, I have made these notes below.
------
Geography: Due to A) being the most recent region and B) having an extremely high level of Pokebiodiversity, a modified version of the Kalos region will be our physical setting.
Time period: Specifics aren't important right now, but the game takes place roughly 10-15 years after the period of heavily organized criminal activity that defined the reign and eventual takedown of groups like Team Rocket, Team Flare, Team Plasma, and Teams Magma and Aqua.
Your Goals: Unlike the games, the goal of every PTU player is not necessarily to catch 'em all, or to be the very best like no one ever was. Depending on your class and background (see the rulebook) you'll have a wide variety of personal goals between you, and it's pretty unlikely that any of you will ever become the champion (although you will doubtless take place in many League Rules Battles!), so set somewhat smaller-scale goals. Keep in mind, that small scale relative to becoming the regional champion can still be pretty ambitious (you can, for instance, create artificial life with a certain sub-class, to give you an idea).
Points of Clarification: The games leave a lot of things vague, and some other things don't make a lot of sense. Here are some clarifiers and changes to help bring the exact subcontinuity of Dreams of Kalos into sharper focus
- Ghost Pokemon, while they have an association with death and souls in folklore, are not actually the spirits of the dead, possessed objects, cursed, etc. They can certainly be dangerous, but touching a Honedge's hilt for example, will not actually sap your life energy.
- The Kalos Pokemon League is part of the larger Interregional Pokemon League Union. The Union is responsible for regulating all Pokemon battles within member Leagues' territory, and as such, unsanctioned use of Pokemon is illegal by default. The Leagues have some legal authority that transcends national boundaries. That said, Kalos' actual government is a largely-offscreen affair that does not really concern this campaign.
- Pokedexes within this particular subcontinuity are much more thorough pocket-encyclopedias, containing different sections on scientific data, folklore, and urban legends. Each Pokemon also has a brief "Summary" section that is read aloud when they are scanned by the Pokedex.
- Legendary Pokemon are Pokemon like any other, but their extreme power and rarity has led to them being associated with divine or primeval forces in many places.
- "Pokemon Professor" is an earned title of great respect and pedigree. Each region has quite a few of them, and generally each trainer who owns league-sanctioned Pokemon, whether they are actively aware of it or not, has a sponsoring Professor. Although, as Professors are busy people, they only generally interact with trainers face-to-face in exceptional cases.
- Such exceptional cases include "Sponsored" Pokemon journeys. Broadly, these involve the Professor in question giving a trainer or trainers a Pokemon and a Pokedex for any number of possible purposes. This campaign does not involve Sponsored journeys.
- Some regions have a "Head Professor", who oversees the activities of all other Professors in the region in addition to his own research and duties. Professor Augustine Sycamore fulfills this role in the Kalos region.
- "Boxed" Pokemon are sent to one of the region's sponsoring Professors. It is common practice for Professors to own at least a small Pokemon ranch where "Boxed" Pokemon are fed and taken care of, that said, if withdrawn, they may not recognize their nominal trainer at first.
MECHANICAL CLARIFIERS:
- TMs are DVD-like discs as in the games, they will occasionally be given as loot or quest rewards.
- I'm going to waive most of the more complicated evolutionary requirements. Levels will usually be sufficient unless the other requirement is something fairly simple.
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Lastly, players who have expressed an interest in the RP so far:
- Professor Gator ( ? )
- ignatius2722 (Researcher or Dark Ace)
- Yarrun (Medic, Ralts)
Classes are not "exclusive" to anyone, and anyone may pick any class.
At present, I'm going to advise you to stay away from the "Supernatural Classes" section.
edit: Your characters should be teenagers, or young adults at oldest.
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Comments
Assassin poems, Poems that shoot
guns. Poems that wrestle cops into alleys
and take their weapons leaving them dead
Assassin poems, Poems that shoot
guns. Poems that wrestle cops into alleys
and take their weapons leaving them dead
Assassin poems, Poems that shoot
guns. Poems that wrestle cops into alleys
and take their weapons leaving them dead
Assassin poems, Poems that shoot
guns. Poems that wrestle cops into alleys
and take their weapons leaving them dead
I have no idea how they work, but I'm not a scientist so I don't need to.
I might give you TMs as like quest rewards or something.
Also, I may want one in the future, but not yet.
I'm not saying you can't have one, you just need to think of a good reason if I'm going to let you have one.
Noibat as a starter would probably be better honestly if you're trying to become a Dragon Ace. It's a dragon but it's not insanely OP like many dragons are.
Goomy would also be a good choice because it has three evolutionary stages and isn't particularly strong early on.
I added some mechanical clarifiers to the OP.
Also I am going to again beg your patience. Mechanically-heavy systems, especially derivatives of the d20 system, ten to turn my brain into grated cheese, and I may enlist a co-DM at some point.
You da bes.
I advise everyone to use that if possible.
Assassin poems, Poems that shoot
guns. Poems that wrestle cops into alleys
and take their weapons leaving them dead
Assassin poems, Poems that shoot
guns. Poems that wrestle cops into alleys
and take their weapons leaving them dead
Assassin poems, Poems that shoot
guns. Poems that wrestle cops into alleys
and take their weapons leaving them dead
Assassin poems, Poems that shoot
guns. Poems that wrestle cops into alleys
and take their weapons leaving them dead
Assassin poems, Poems that shoot
guns. Poems that wrestle cops into alleys
and take their weapons leaving them dead
That's an issue, I'll look in to what I can do.
Assassin poems, Poems that shoot
guns. Poems that wrestle cops into alleys
and take their weapons leaving them dead
Assassin poems, Poems that shoot
guns. Poems that wrestle cops into alleys
and take their weapons leaving them dead
Assassin poems, Poems that shoot
guns. Poems that wrestle cops into alleys
and take their weapons leaving them dead