[Interest Check] Non-sexual (or at least, non-furry) Pokemon-ish thing

[kongming]

I know, the title makes baby Cthulhu cry.

I've been playing Pokemon Diamond a bit, lately, on the Nintendo DS. A while ago, I read on the Gaming Den about Pokemon d20, and then adding Pokemon to D&D, taking into consideration the effects they have on people's lives.

Think about it for a minute. They are, for the most part, wild wandering monsters. They attack things that move. People can make a living capturing and training these - indeed, there are worldwide contests and Pokemon are essentially the one thing the whole world is interested in. Furthermore, people who fail as trainers as kids (or decided to, you know, go to school) have to live ordinary lives and put up with the crap that people in the real world do. But they get Pokemon to do any jobs for them. So now they're a wandering monster, a job, a pet, a helper, an occupation and who knows what else. Add in legalised animal fighting and you're gold.

The people couldn't get by without them.

Now, imagine that some of them are a bit scarier (sure, some are just plain cute, still). And magic roams free. Berserkers (let's not call them Barbarians) charge into battle right alongside their Ryhorns, and knights ride atop their Rapidash or Fearows. Sorcerers create mental links with their Abras and perform magic with them, or simply cast spells on/alongside their Pokemon. Rogues team up with Pikachu so that the stunned enemies are easier to stab in the back of the head. And druids turn into Pokemon, or sit there constantly healing their own.

It'd be pretty epic. You could have huge wars between nations, fought with Pokemon (which seem practically unable to die, they merely faint) to save lives. You could still have D&D adventures, and you could also have your standard Pokemon routine.

Yeah, I know, I'm clearly a full supporter of having numbers and rules, even if they get ignored half the time. Oh well.

Does this sound interesting to anyone? I was thinking a small group, each would be a fairly low-level adult setting out as a team to (do quest for someone / help out military force / investigate something / catch 'em all), and everyone would start with their own level-appropriate Pokemon (note: not only would the actual critters from the game/show be available, but various d&d monsters that seem appropriate would also be added, and also Pokegirls - see below). More could be caught later on.

Note: I'm not into the whole furry thing, and the idea of sex with just about any of the Pokemon squicks me a bit. Maybe I could warm to it after the individual things grew personalities - I was surprised with how I have no problems with dragons, after all. If you want that kind of stuff, we could incorporate elements from "Pokegirl" (I don't even have to explain what that's about). Still, I envision this as fairly low on the Adult scale, mostly just being a bit of fun incorporating elements of d&d and Pokemon, and having a bit of a laugh.

[Jefepato]

This...could actually be a lot of fun.

Do you have a link to the Gaming Den's take on Pokemon d20?  (And would you be incorporating all the other Dungeonomicon stuff into this?)

[Serenity Vixen]

Oh!!  Could I be a Princess with a Unicorn Pokemon???
I always wanted to be a Princess with a Unicorn


Errr... we don't have to keep to all that 'must be a virgin' nonsense I hope

[kongming]

Well, here is a link to what work had been done, though it's clearly incomplete: http://www.scshop.com/~ritaxis/

I'd probably allow for them to gain more attacks/abilities, too. Either through feats, part of the level progression, or by owners spending money to teach them (meaning wild ones wouldn't randomly be hitting you with special attacks).

I'll probably incorporate other Dungeonomicon stuff (along with Races of War, Tome of Fiends etc.), yes.

SV: Yeah, that could work well enough. And we can forget the virgin bit.

[Jefepato]

So in the game you suggest, everyone owns, captures, and uses Pokemon, rather than actually having to take the Pokemaster class?  Would they gain the Pokemaster's class abilities, or come up with some different rules for the capture of Pokemon?

This sounds pretty excellent, anyway.  There'll be all kinds of balance issues, but if it's played lighthearted it shouldn't be too big a deal.

As for sex...well, some of the creature types defined as Pokemon have humanoid members, especially outsiders.  Other than that, I'm not into too much of the weird stuff either, so for all I care sex can remain between humanoids and Pokegirls (if included).

[kongming]

Yeah, it'll likely be less than balanced, but it'll be light hearted and we'll all have fun, so I can't see that being a problem. I figure people can just have some of the Pokemaster abilities - at the very least, the ability to use Pokeballs and capture and train Pokemon (and similar creatures).

Mostly I hope for this to just be a bit different and fun, and for me to include a scene of "A wild Abra appears, roll Initiative! Abra gets a 30, it teleports away, combat over! Yeah, it's this fucking annoying for the video game, too."

[Jefepato]

"It has one hit point left and it's frozen fucking solid!  Why do the Ultra Balls keep bouncing off?  WHY?"

But seriously, this should be awesome.  I'm all for it.

[kongming]

Okay, I figure around level 5 sounds good (and that means you can have a Pokemon up to CR 4 - so Serenity Vixen could have her Unicorn).

Now, no matter what class, the following things are available to everyone as though they were a Pokemaster:
* Caster Level equals character level.
* Control Pokemon (and losing them, too)
Note: Once you have more than your Charisma modifier, they will automatically start vanishing into an extradimensional space that you can access from certain places (Pokecentres. Yes, there is the Nurse Joy family. Hmm, Cleric Joy?)
* Train Pokemon. Note that I don't believe in the existence of cross-class skills. Every skill is a class skill for everyone.
* Double Team
* Speak With Pokemon

Later on, there might be a Prestige Class that specifically makes people better at this at the expense of normal class abilities.
Anyone can buy Pokeballs for 200 GP each. Later on, they'll be able to buy better ones at increased prices.
Everyone can start with a single Pokemon. More can be captured later.

So, I guess for now, people can bounce character ideas off me and suggest things, as well as asking questions and whatever.

[Jefepato]

Are Pokeballs destroyed when used if they don't do enough to capture the Pokemon, or are they just unusable on any other Pokemon in the future (i.e. they could be picked up and thrown at the same one again, if you manage to get hold of it again while dealing with a still-conscious enemy)?

Also, can a Pokeball capture a Pokemon that's already unconscious?

Finally, what stat-generation method will we use?

I'm not quite sure what I'll be playing yet...

[kongming]

Hmm, some good questions.

Pokeballs that "fail" are destroyed on use, much like in the video game. As for a Pokemon that passes out, it can be captured more or less automatically (unlike the video game), but remains in that state until brought out and nursed back to 1 HP or more. Essentially, it can't just be healed up as normal.

For stats, let's call it 32 point buy, 9K for starting gear. Oh, and the Pokemon you start with has its Pokeball thrown in for free

[Jefepato]

Any rules on alignment?  I'm guessing evil characters don't really belong here.  Is it problematic for non-paladins to have Pokemon of seriously different alignments?

[kongming]

Evil characters probably aren't appropriate here, that's true. And it's okay to have Pokemo of different alignments - even if they have the [Evil] subtype or whatever.

Pokemon will, over time, grow to see things from their owner's perspective. They won't have the same personality or anything, they'll just be more likely to share the alignment, and understand where the owner is coming from.

[kongming]

So, Jefepato, Serenity Vixen and Jenny... three players works. I'm going to see if I can post in all of my games today, then start up an OOC/creation thread for us all.

[kongming]

Here we go!
https://elliquiy.com/forums/index.php?topic=12837.msg521629#new