Pokepunk: Somar. Recruitment, Worldbuilding, and OOC

[Rater202]

The Somar Region

Occupying an archipelago of two large islands with four smaller islands between them, the Somar Region is a mini region with very few unique native Pokemon species. However, over the centuries many pokemon from many other regions have migrated there and settled permanently or semipermeable, giving the region a great deal of diversity in wild pokemon.

The Somar region for decades suffered from severe poverty but approximately thirty years ago the, at the time small, "Pokemon Bio-Organic Research and Innovation Incorporated," or "PoBORI Inc" moved their main operations there. PoBORI Inc's mission statement? "Humanely and ethically studying the biology of pokemon and the flora that have evolved alongside them, discover the biomechanical and bio-physical mechanics behind them, and use them to create technology to improve the lives of both man and pokemon."

Their first major success was using the Somar Region's native, unique Apricorn species, one heartier than most other varieties, for crossbreeding experiments with other species. By doing this, PoBORI Inc was able to mass manufacture Pokeballs far more cheaply than many competitors. While PoBORI Inc has not been able to displace Silph Co's monopoly in the major regions, they've been able to make a killing in smaller markets and by selling certain specialty balls at more affordable prices.

This fortune was not only used to fund further research, it was invested into various parts of the Somar Region, building up prosperity for its people and investing in, emerging with, or sometimes, if necessary, buying out struggling local businesses.

Now the eight major cities of the region sprawl and bustle, with people riding around in their PoBORI Inc made Rotom cars, browsing the internet and doing business on PoBori Inc brand Rotomphones, Pokemon Centers using PoBORI Inc medicines and equipment to save the lives of the beloved Pokemon companions of the Somar Regions happy, prosperous citizens who live happy, stress-free lives thanks to PoBORI Inc Lobbyists influencing the Region's governments to keep the cost of living low and all of the high paying PoBORI Inc jobs(with great benefits!) and cheap, comprehensive education that can be easily obtained from any of a number of affordable PoBORI Inc sponsored schools.

Somarian people are entertained by tournaments, exhibition matches, and Leauge Battles held in grand PoBORI Inc sponsored stadiums, and League trainers train, battle, and test their might in PoBORI Inc sponsored Gyms(Located in All Major Cities!)

CEO Ace Helix, despite his aged appearance, projects a friendly and approachable demeanor and, when not at the office, is an avid Pokemon Battler... In fact, he's won the League Championship fair and square more than once and currently holds the position.

Other than occasional easily quelled terrorist actions by Team Greens, a bunch of ineffectual eco-terrorist whackjobs who claim with no proof think that PoBORI Inc is performing inhuman experiments on Humans and Pokemon. Things are great. But really, very few people ever get hurt and Team Greens is easily dealt with by the authorities.

All is well in the PoBORI... I mean, Somar region.No, no it's not.

PoBORI Inc's CEO and Board of Directors, as well as all major investors, are motivated entirely on Greed and lining their own pockets.

They didn't come to Somar to be generous, but because the laws in the Somar Region in regards to certain kinds of... Research, aren't as strict as in other regions.

Nobody talks about how trainers sometimes go missing in the caves between Hemoglo City and Mount Cranium, for example.

All of the kind, generous, 'sharing the wealth' actions they've taken were to get the people on their side as they slowly infiltrated, subverted, and took over every aspect of Somarian society. PoBORI Inc is the government, they are the league, they are the police, the firemen, the schools, the hospitals...

PoBORI Inc, over the last few decades, has become the Somar Region.

Only the upper-crust of the upper-crust know just how extensive their control is, but the Company has ways of making sure only the loyal or the buyable make it to any position of real power.

The Leadership of Team Greens consists entirely of PoBORI Inc paramilitary agents who find and radicalize anyone with valid complaints against the company in order to both keep control over potential dissenters and to discredit anyone who tries to expose their crimes.

The Elite Four all hold undying Loyalty to Ace Helix and the company, and the Gym Leaders are more or le loyal to the Elite 4.

...Though, one has to wonder how loyal some of the Gym Leaders knew what was being done in the secret laboratory in the heart of Osteo forest. Something that Ace Helix thinks will pave the way for the transition from dominating Somar to ruling the World.

There are so many loopholes regarding the international regulations on the use of Pokemon in the military after all. And very few regulations on the use of humans.

The Archipelago that makes up the Somar Region consists of Renal Island to the West, Respir Island to the East, named for their shapes, and between them Northwest Phlemg Island, Northeast Chole Island, Southeast Melaina, and Southwest Blood Island.

Collectively, the Islands between Renal Island and Respir Islands are called the Islands of Good Humor.

At the Northernmost section of Renal Island, there is a forest of bone-white barked trees that dominates as far as the eyes can see, all the way out to the cliffs that make up the northern shore. This is Osteo Forest, and entrance to it is strictly regulated due to the presence of many dangerous Pokemon that live in the area... Particularly some unusually aggressive Regional Variant Phantumps and Trevenant.

As an aside, most dusk stones in the region are found in Osteo Forest by carefully trained extraction teams employed by PoBORI Inc.Bark is White, they're able to learn dark type moves, particularly dark pulse, and a few minor poison type moves. They evolve from Dusk Stones instead of trade, creating a Dark/Grass Type Trevenant

South of Osteo Forest is Spinabase City, where most trainers taking the league challenge try to earn their first badge. A relatively small city, Spinabase's Gym Leader, Skelo, is friendly and specializes in common normal types, stating his personal belief that anyone and anything can be great with adequate care, hard work, and maybe a hand up. Many people who now work in the Gym started out as trainers who came to challenge him, lost for one reason or another, but decided to stay around because his kind words of encouragement made them feel like they could do more good working with him than going off on their own... This was, of course, not what he meant, but he won't turn down anyone who wants to join his Gym without a very good reason.

Further south are vast plains and rolling hills dotted with small towns and villages until one makes it to the southern shores of the kidney-shaped isle, where one finds a beach. Follow the path east and you'll run into Adrenal Town, home to another Gym and a free Ferry Service to Blood Island.

Blood Island's only major city is Lymphocyte Town, which hosts a Gym, though to the far north one may find a small town infamous in the region for "the Duke," an old man who it seems refuses to die. A surfer in his youth, in his old age he claims that he can teach anyone or anything how to easily traverse the seas on body or board... Though most dismiss him both for his ridiculous claims ("My Charizard knows surf!") and his open distrust of PoBORI Inc

Phlegm Island is similar, though almost a mirror image, one large town and one small settlement in reversed positions, and the pattern is repeated on Chole Island and Melania Island.

Strong natural currents and the presence of Whirlpools around the northern end of Lungshaped Respir Island direct all travelers coming by sea to the Southernmost section of the Island, a beach somewhat Rockeier than one on Southern Renal Island, which leads up into plains until arrives in the Twin Cities of Oxy City and Hemoglo City. Despite being right across the Pulmonary River from each other and built along similar plans, and despite being dependant on each other due to one city holding the factories that produce products the other needs, the citizens of each city hate each other with a passion each claiming that the other's Gym draws attention away from its own.

North of the city are a series of small mountains that are difficult to navigate on foot. Most people take the Tram north to Cerebellum City, home of both The Elite Four and PoBORI Inc headquarters, but it's tradition for trainers taking the League challenge to walk or bike through a series of tunnels that start just outside of Hemoglo City and take the trainer directly to Mount Cranium, a large but more navigatable mountain that has a trail that leads to Cerebellum City.

Legend Has it that a trio of Rare and Powerful Pokemon make their homes in the three caves near the rounded peak of Mount Cranium, which from a distance make the impression of a small skull at the top of the mountain, but everyone who has ever tried to find them ha either returned empty-handed or been lost in a mountaineering accident, leading to the paths towards the peak being chained off.

So here's the base setting, but obviously, there's room to flesh things out.

Gameplay will Start with the PCs escaping from the laboratory in Osteoforest and, well, surviving in the forest.

The PCs are all... Unwilling experiments of the least ethical of the company's means of research. The on's aimed towards... Military use.

I have several options planned out but don't feel constrained by them if you come up with something good.Created via using a modified strain of Pokerus to CRISPR a human subject with genes from Evee, Ditto, and one other Pokemon species and then exposing them to
a radiation chamber that emulates the aggregate radiations of all known types of evolution stone, the subject metamorphoses in a manner similar to Pokemon Evolution into a Hybrid of human and Pokemon.

Hybrids are humanoid enough to obviously be people, but are very clearly not fully human anymore. El Goonish Shive's "furry forms" would be a good ballpark for what I'm going for, EG (https://www.egscomics.com/egsnp/teddgameopinions-013)

New Hybrids are born in the initial form of the pokemon they are spliced with the genes of but are capable of undergoing evolution as their pokemon. They have access to all of the abilities of an exceptional example of their species, and can potentially learn any move that can be learned by that Pokemon....We've all seen or Played Detective Pikachu, right? Or played the first games or their remakes and met Bill?

You know how it goes, a human and a Pokemon fused together in such a way as to result in a Pokemon of human-level intelligence. Since there are multiple ways in the source material to do this and differing results, my preference is to lead the exact details up to the player, but don't go crazy and for convenience, the fusion should be able to talk.

In terms of power... all abilities, all moves, like with the hybridsThis is your more Frankensteinian option.

We've seen the Galar Fossil Pokemon right? The ones that are two fossils mismatched together?

The Revives are a human who was dead with pokemon body parts grafted onto them and then resurrected with Fossil Revival technology. The fusion should be relatively seamless and the central nervous system should remain human(So I'm gonna say no psychics unless you were psychic, to begin with) but otherwise feel free to go nuts, mixing and matching.It's not Cyberpunk Without Cyborgs.

The Enhanced are modified with genes from Rotom and Beldom which allow their bodies to seamlessly merge with implants and prosthetics with nervous-system like circuits and parts made of a synthetic "bio-steel," a regenerative living metal retro engineered from studying the physiologies of many steal-types and other living metal

Enhanced run the gamut from minor military-grade augmentations o full conversion cyborgs.

To the "living" nature of their prosthetics and implants, they do not require maintenance and possess a limited ability to self-upgrade.

The Hybrids and the Fusions have defined strengths and weaknesses, while the Revives and Enhanced are more Ala Cart, you pick what you want within reason. If Your revive is Centaur made from the lower half of a ponytail and the upper half of a human, your powers are probably gonna be pretty similar to a Hybrid or Fusion that's a Ponyta.

Starting Power Level...

So Imagine a Level 10 starter... That has perfect IVs and EVs for every stat and somehow has every ability its species can have. That would be the ballpark to go for.

And it is my preference to treat the "Four Move Limit" from the Pokemon Games as a gameplay abstraction. If you know a move then you know that move, period, even if you learn a couple more.

In terms of Tone and Theme, Obviously, there's the Cyberpunk Element. This is gonna be a bit darker than most of the franchise, but I don't want it getting too dark.

I kind of want to explore how individual characters feel about the things that were done to them. Nobody had this done willingly, or if they did it was under misleading circumstances, but how do they feel about it after the fact? Like it, hate it? Want it reversed, want to keep it? Do they develop sensations of dysphoria or dysmorphia or do they now feel like the "real me."

An example character sheet, and the character I intend to use, will be forthcoming

[Kareeah_Indaga]

Registering interest; I’m thinking ‘cancer patient who signed up for an experimental treatment and ended up part Kabuto’ and I’m also thinking gills (do Kabuto have gills? They’re Water types...)

[Lord Raziere]

here is my character, Rachel and her grunt partner Lizzie, so to say:

Rachel Nightley

Age: 16
Gender: female
Height: 5ft
Weight: 150pds
Species: Pokemon Hybrid
Station: Former Rocket Grunt

Description:
She looks like a hybrid of female nidoran and a human, with light blue skin, cyan blue hair, big ears, buck teeth, a horn on her forehead, two spikes jutting out of her spine,, two whiskers on both sides of her face, red eyes and wearing a rocket grunt uniform


Personality:
Rachel, being a former rocket grunt, is a cynic and thinks lowly of herself. She knows how much she has failed Team Rocket and how she is probably not getting accepted back in because of it. Furthermore she has an educated guess that if Team Rocket is still interested in her at all, it'll be as a specimen for them to experiment on and replicate so they can pokemon hybrid soldiers.

History: Rachel Nightley was once a pokemon trainer. But she couldn't even defeat a single gym leader and gave up the challenge. Feeling disillusioned and useless, Team Rocket came to her in her lowest moment: why follow the rules when you can just take what you want? So she joined up with them and became a grunt taking pokemon from others. She was partnered with a teenage girl named Lizzie. Together they did various small time crimes, until their superiors were impressed with them enough to give them a more high profile assignment.

It came in the form of a mission involving a Snag 'Em Machine: Team Rocket had recently acquired one from Orre, but their only division that could reverse engineer it to make sure they can make it larger numbers was in the Somar region due to how much control the mega-corp had there and therefore was protected from usual authorities. The original rocket member who took it were pursued by the police, so to throw them off the trail it needed to be handed off to others who won't attract attention. So of course Lizzie and Rachel accepted this mission.

Everything went smoothly getting into the region, they had completely lost the authorities. But then something went wrong: The night they were to hand off the Snag' Em Machine to their Somar division, they didn't show up. Then they were ambushed by corporate thugs, Lizzie got caught up fighting a few of them and she had to run with the machine , but got cut off by someone using hypnosis on her and falling asleep.

Next she woke, she was in a laboratory, the Snag' em Machine taken and her starter, a nidoran female not at her belt. Then a scientist in an experiment transformed her into a hybrid of human and female nidoran and she was thrown into containment to be studied as a lab rat in the mega-corps basement.


Story So Far: You can summarize and update here what has happened to your character during the game.

Abilities:

Rocket Grunt skills:
She has skills in burglary, deception, street smarts, as well as basic knowledge of team rocket organization and her place within it.

Female Nidoran Biology:
Is immune to being poisoned, can hear and smell better than humans, and is quicker and stronger than them as well. But is weak to Ground and Psychic type attacks

Ability:
Poison Point:
May poison those who physically attack her or touch her.

Known Pokemon Moves:
1-Growl:
a quick growl to intimidate people to get them to back down
2-Poison Sting:
fires poison needles from her horn
3-Scratch
slashes with her claws on her hands
4-Tail Whip
whacks people with her tail or feints a kick to catch people off guard to set up an opening for another attack



Other information:

Anything you can't fit to the brackets above, such as equipment or property your character owns.

Lizzie Duskley

Age: 16
Gender: female
Height: 5ft
Weight: 150pds
Species: Human
Station: Rocket Grunt

Description:
She is blonde, long hair with blue eyes, and is wearing a rocket grunt uniform.


Personality:
Lizzie, being a rocket grunt, is a cynic and thinks selfishly. She however cares for Rachel as a partner and wants to get her back so they can work together again.

History: Lizzie is a Rocket Grunt who has been doing this a few months. She was partnered with a teenage girl named Rachel. Together they did various small time crimes, until their superiors were impressed with them enough to give them a more high profile assignment.

It came in the form of a mission involving a Snag 'Em Machine: Team Rocket had recently acquired one from Orre, but their only division that could reverse engineer it to make sure they can make it larger numbers was in the Somar region due to how much control the mega-corp had there and therefore was protected from usual authorities. The original rocket member who took it were pursued by the police, so to throw them off the trail it needed to be handed off to others who won't attract attention. So of course Lizzie and Rachel accepted this mission.

Everything went smoothly getting into the region, they had completely lost the authorities. But then something went wrong: The night they were to hand off the Snag' Em Machine to their Somar division, they didn't show up. Then they were ambushed by corporate thugs, Lizzie got caught up fighting a few of them not sure where Rachel went, now returns to base and rallying other grunts to get her back, justifying the need by saying that only Rachel knows where the Snag'em machine went and they need to get that back.


Story So Far: You can summarize and update here what has happened to your character during the game.

Abilities:

Rocket Grunt skills:
She has skills in burglary, deception, street smarts, as well as basic knowledge of team rocket organization and her place within it.

Pokemon Caught:
1-Ratatta (tackle, tail whip, quick attack, focus energy)
2-Zubat (absorb, supersonic, mean look, astonish)
3-Sandshrew (scratch, poison sting, defense curl, rollout)


Other information:

Anything you can't fit to the brackets above, such as equipment or property your character owns.

[Rater202]

Name: Self Explanatory
Age: Be exact or give a ballpark. Preference would be for characters to be no younger than late-mid adolescents and no older than early 30s but exceptions can be made.
Type: Are you a Hybrid, a Fusion, a Revive, or an Enhanced? And If a Hybrid or fusion, with what?What do you look like?What are you like? How do you feel about what's happened to you? What was your life like before his?

Do you remember what your life was like before this?What special powers do you have because of your modifications?Anything else you feel like sharing.

And my characterName: Violet
Age: Late Adolescense/Young Adult
Type: Hybrid(Salandit)
Short and thin, Violet's skin is a smooth amphibian texture, grey except on her face where it's black. Her eyes are purple and slit, her lips thin, her nose small and flattish, her teeth sharp. The only sign that she was born a mammal is her shoulder-length purple hair.

Her fingers and toes are rather long, and somewhat adhesive, though not enough to hold up her weight.

She also has a long tail with an orange pattern on it, which serves as the origin of many of her abilities.

She's rather flexible, and prefers to sit crouched down on all fours.Violet is rather curious. She... Remembers, being human. She remembers her education, she remembers the taste of food, she remembers her name, but... Everything else is a blur.

She thinks she's an orphan, and she has vague memories of going to some kind of job placement thing? Then nothing until waking up in the laboratory.

Because of this amnesia, she doesn't really know how to feel about the changes in her body, but...

Mostly, she's just curious. She has an intellectual knowledge of most things but is effectively actually experiencing it all for the first time.

She hopes that something might shake her memories loose, but...Being combined with the DNA of a Salandit, Violet possesses the special abilities Corrosion, allowing her to inflict Poison on poison type and steel-type pokemon(or beings that function like them) and Oblivious, which prevents her from becoming infatuated or taunted by supernatural means.

She is able to use the Pokemon Moves Scratch, Poison Gas, Smog, and Ember.

Scratch: A highly accurate Normal Type move, a simple scratch with claws or similar, that does a small amount of damage.

Poison Gas: An area of effect attack that Poisons hostile enemies but does no immediate damage

Smog: A cloud of toxic fumes that harms a target susceptible to poison type damage, and has a chance to Poison them.

Ember: A line of sparks and small flames that harms opponents susceptible to fire damage and has a small chance to Burn them.

[Lord Raziere]

how do you feel about me making an additional antagonist: a scientist who helped make all the hybrid stuff, turns himself into an abra hybrid, and goes to teleport away and spread the hybrid transformation?

[Rater202]

how do you feel about me making an additional antagonist: a scientist who helped make all the hybrid stuff, turns himself into an abra hybrid, and goes to teleport away and spread the hybrid transformation?

That is absolutely fine.

[Lord Raziere]

Also: why did you take me so seriously that you stopped yourself from doing the magikarp character, rater? I didn't intend for you do that, I was just debating for the sake of it.

okay, got it, here he is:
Professor Turbert Stanwix

Age: 30
Gender: Male
Height: 5ft
Weight: 140pds
Species: Human
Station: Transhumanist Scientist

Description:
He is a human-abra hybird, with yellow skin, fox-like ears, yellow fox tail, wild black hair, brown-armor like segments around his chest and shoulder areas, and three-toed feet. He wears black pants a tattered labcoat


Personality:
Turbert is both a scientist and pokemaniac, and firm believer in transhumanism. He always wanted to become a pokemon. However he is pessimistic about civilization. At some point he grew to believe that all of the world's problems sprung from humanity's biology, and that by turning people into hybrids he can change them to be better-that if they are more like pokemon, perhaps they would be better people- even if he has to force them to.

History:
Turbert Stanwix is a verified genius, seeming understanding the fields of biology, genetics and biochemistry at a young age that most take a lifetime to achieve. His intelligence and interests made those around feel he was creepy, while he could not relate to anything those vapid morons ever talked about, seeing them as focused on unimportant frivolous things he had no time for. Soon however he basically sped through high school and college and got a Ph.D in Bio-Engineering at age 20.

He wanted to find a way to turn himself into a pokemon hybrid so he could transcend this imperfect human form. So he sent out proposals for projects to get funded by various companies. Most rejected it as nonsense that they couldn't understand....except for PoBORI. They instead loved the idea and hired him immediately, his theories and mathematics being miles ahead of anything they had thought up. He was brought, but of course, Turbert knew that the company only thought of this being used for its own greed. No matter. He would use them like they were clearly using him, so that he could take the opportunity to bring the world his unique gifts of transformation.

Ten years pass, and today after making sure his first experiments were a success, has transformed himself into an Abra, determined to go forth and spread his “gift” before the corporation can take his research and equipment away to be studied by others or something.


Story So Far: You can summarize and update here what has happened to your character during the game.

Abilities:

Genius Transhuman Scientist:
Is an expert on turning humans into pokemon-human hybrids, and the use of the Pokerus-2 virus.

Abra Hybrid:
Has the psychic powers and abilities of an abra, being resistant to Psychic and Fighting attack attacks, but weak to Bug, Ghost and Dark attacks

Moves:
1-Teleport
Teleports to someplace else within a region's distance.



Other information:

Anything you can't fit to the brackets above, such as equipment or property your character owns.

and are we still doing the Pokerus-2 thing, or not, and if we are are these strains okay? just let me know if any of them aren't, I'll take them out:

Pokerus Nekomimi Strain:
The most benign strain of Hybrid Pokerus, it transforms humans only slightly giving them a pokemon's ears and tails but little else and immunizes them to other pokerus strains.

Pokerus Werepokemon Strain:
This strain of Hybrid Pokerus instead of permanently transforming people instead alters someone to have a second pokemon hybrid form that they temporarily turn into when certain conditions are met, these conditions are:
-adrenaline is rushing through their body/they experience a fight or flight situation
-they go into heat at certain times of the year
-they give into their anger or fear depending on whether they are more predator or prey like

Pokerus Gender-Match Strain:
This strain has mutated to acquire psychic type properties and not only change people into pokemon hybrids but change people's sex to match their gender.

Pokerus Sex Change Strain:
This strain has mutated to not only change people into pokemon hybrids but change people's sex to the opposite one without consideration.

Pokerus Euphoria Strain:
This strain has mutated, now having psychic type properties, making people feel euphoria when they indulge in using their pokemon abilities to convince them to their new form so that they have a reason to not seek a cure.

Pokerus Uplift Strain:
This strain has mutated to instead infect pokemon with human DNA and and thus turn them into half human hybrids from the other direction.

Pokerus Division Strain
This strain with psychic tying influences the user to regard themselves as a new species of life separate from their previous form and to reject identifying as human anymore while hating humanity.

Pokerus Sleeper Strain:
This strain instead of having any immediate effect, instead infects people in more subtle ways. It changes the reproductive system of humans so that their children will be born as pokemon hybrids.

Pokerus Puberty Strain:
This strain infects children then when they experience puberty the child turns into a pokemon hybrid as apart of their growth.

Pokerus Tauric Strain:
This strain infects people in way that transforms their lower half of their body into a centaur like configuration of one pokemon or another, leaving their upper half untouched or mostly untouched. Often focuses on pokemon with four or more legs.

[Rater202]

Completly honest, there's very little difference between Violet and the Hypothetical Magikrp hybrid in terms of characterization.

"Kind of amnesiac, not sure how to feel, everything is new... Not really sure where they stand on it, and something that isn't fuzzy."

[Kareeah_Indaga]

I’m looking at the Gen VIII movesets/stats/etc. for my baseline, yell if I should be looking at something else.


Name: Pendra Myrddin
Age: Mid-to-late 20’s.
Type: Hybrid (Kabuto)


Average height, appears to be a normal healthy weight for her size (being part Rock-type she’s a good bit heavier then she looks). Brown hair, usually kept braided, with a growth of chitin/exoskeleton holding it away from her face like a headband. Her outline at first glance is a very tanned human but her movements are a little stiff since there are large plates covering much of her arms, legs and torso. Smaller plates on her face and hands allow more range of motion but give her a faceted look close up.
Her eyes are now red, apparently pupil-less, and glow faintly (brighter if she’s stressed, angry, excited or feeling some other emotional high).


She signed up for an experimental treatment she was told would re-write her DNA to remove the cancer. Well, it did do that…

She’s been through what she considers to be a rather traumatic experience but otherwise remembers who she is, where she came from, and how she got into this mess. As such, she’s prone to zig-zagging wildly between reluctant acceptance of the new body (reasoning that it’s too late to go back to the old one now and even if she could, cancer) and fits of crying, screaming and general distress.

She has family, but they live a region or two away, and no children or significant other. Which was probably how she ended up on PoBORI’s radar as a potential test subject.



What used to be skin is now a good bit tougher, functioning as built-in Battle Armor which makes it very hard for her to be badly hurt. Her new body has been reconfigured just enough to give her an impressively Swift Swimming speed as well as allowing her to make good use of wet, slick surfaces to move rapidly on land. She also has gills that let her breathe underwater and much better than human nightvision.

Her Pokémon attacks consist of Absorb, Harden, Scratch, and Sand Attack.


Nothing here yet.

Also fair warning: I’m in the habit of writing minor OoC comments (clarifications regarding actions, snarky remarks etc.) in double parenthesis (()).

[gmoyes]

It's been years since I've done a freeform Pokémon roleplay. It's where I first really started writing and I feel a nostalgic enough to revive an old character that seems right at home with this premise.

Name: Alex Morgan
Age: 35
Type: Enhanced (Magnemite inspired Enhanced officer)
Alex is a short, overweight man that -- unless you look at his head -- looks completely human on the surface. His head however looks as if took everything from the nostrils up and replaced it with a Magnemite's body. A single enormous, unblinking eye dominates his face and where he once had brown hair to match his scruffy beard is now a metal dome. Beneath his skin has also been laced with wiring to help support his electronics and reinforce some vital areas of his body.

He wears a old, slightly tattered fisherman's hat and a collared shirt and zip-up jacket, as well as long pants and hiking sneakers.
Alex was once a freelance researcher who travelled the world studying non-biological Pokémon in the wild. His research papers on the likes of Magnemite, Bronzor, Beldum and others attracted the attention of PoBORI Inc. They offered him a great opportunity to further his research and a generous (perhaps too generous) paycheck. He accepted and soon moved to their HQ in Somar Region. However, working along other PoBORI scientists soon revealed the types of experiments that they were undertaking, mutilating both humans and Pokémon. He started to gather evidence to shut them down, but was caught. Being too much of a risk to let, the scientists he once worked beside turned him into an experiment. Being in somewhat poor physical shape meant he wasn't a good fit for the soldier program, so they turned him into a prototype officer variant meant to command other Enhanced soldiers.

Alex remembers all of this. But part of his procedure included implanting an advanced combat AI into his brain whose protocols and analysis can sometimes overwhelm him. Still, he maintains most of his old personality. He's a smart and kind man, though a bit lazy at times. He has a great sense of humour and a large stomach.

Alex was born and raised in Sinnoh and despite being rather scientifically minded, he is also a follower of the Sinnoh pantheon. He has a side passion for theology and aura.
Magnetikinisis (Magnet Pull Ability)
Metal reinforced vitals (Sturdy)
Bio-Electricity (Thundershock/Thunderwave)
Voice Amplification (Supersonic)
Combat analysis computer (Analytic)

Alex is a decent trainer with some strong Pokémon, though he never was one for competitive battling all that much. His Pokemon were stolen by PoBORI when he was captured.
Team:
Theta - Magnezone, his starter Pokémon
Echo - Bronzong, often seen partnered up with Theta
Bravo - Metang, powerhouse of the team
Kilo - Klang
Oscar - Voltorb
Sigma - Slugma

[Lord Raziere]

could another possible cyberpunk concept be a robot made by making a humanoid robotic body then having a porygon downloaded into it, or a Rotom possess it?

this isn't for any specific character, I'm tossing out ideas.

[MCerberus]

Decided to see what happens if an old character from the old pokemon FFRP got mixed up with the wrong guys.


Name: Renault Montblanc
Age: 28
Type: Hybrid (Rockruff)


Subject appears to have reduced height compared to previous dimensions, while the limb circumference appears unchanged. Skin, while appearing unchanged at distance at close inspection is made of flakes of overlapping micro-sheets of silicate. Hair appears to have formed into similar hard substance of two colors. No advanced aging detected,the white segments appear to be marble-like. Similar ridges of marble appear to have grown on all limbs.

Clothing of previous form allowed for subject as it appears to keep him docile. Common cave-explorer outfit. Khaki. Marble ridges appear to have damaged right arm and left leg of clothing.

Face has been morphed to canid archetype including fangs. Documented more in document H.33.T during project V. Pupils and Iris retain human structure, both brown instead of the expected manifestation of heterochromia.



Vital Spirit - tests confirm genotypical immunity to forced sleep
Tackle - Skin hardening and increased strength has increased subject capability for... brute force
Sand Attack - Nails have calcified into hardened claws, which can be used on most terrain to kick up dust
Double Team - combat instincts taking hold, allowing subject to create 'duplicates' of itself
Rock Throw - subject attempted to use pieces of itself attempting to damage containment

Forme Potential - as noted in project goals subject has been chosen to study potential effects of forme on subjects. Endocrine system unstable. Emotional stress can bring about bouts of paranoia or rage. Expected stability if/when subject to evolutionary pressure




Subject native to Kanto region but known wanderer. Experience with regional... troubles. Engaged as an explorer or investigator in order to facilitate drive to keep moving. Subject was contacted by [redacted] on relation to missing persons case. Made accidental contact with internal security agent group [redacted]. Taken into custody as part of secure information initiative and moved to current experiment.

Subject retains fragmented memory of immediate events before procedure. Retains knowledge of previous moniker. Staff has taken to referring to subject by this instead of subject number. This implies potential memory recovery potential, but no progress towards this has been observed.

[Kareeah_Indaga]

could another possible cyberpunk concept be a robot made by making a humanoid robotic body then having a porygon downloaded into it, or a Rotom possess it?


Maybe do both at once, have them argue over what to do with the body.

[Rater202]

could another possible cyberpunk concept be a robot made by making a humanoid robotic body then having a porygon downloaded into it, or a Rotom possess it?

this isn't for any specific character, I'm tossing out ideas.

Yeah, that kind of thing would be fine.

And it looks like we've got a decent cast of characters to start with.

So, should we maybe flesh out the Somar region a little more, or just dive right in and flesh the region out as we get going.

[gmoyes]

Some fleshing out of the setting might be a good idea, though what is the most important things to focus on? It's always fun coming up with ideas for Gym Leaders and such, but the Gym Challenge isn't really going to be a thing in this game because we'll all be wanted by the authorities. Maybe focus on the Elite 4, as those have direct ties to the big bad of the game. Maybe they are actually leaders of different branches of the company?

[MCerberus]

Do we want to do any introduction/history coordination before we jump in? Set up some potential hooks like Prof. Stanwix breaking out the hybrids or having some of the prisoner types having been in jailbreak squad?

[Rater202]

Do we want to do any introduction/history coordination before we jump in? Set up some potential hooks like Prof. Stanwix breaking out the hybrids or having some of the prisoner types having been in jailbreak squad?

I've got an introductory adventure sitting up how the PCs all escape, which has a built-in plot hook that we can optionally explore later in the game.

Re: The Gym Leaders, whether we need to flesh them out or not really depends on how the PCs go.

PoBURI controls the region, but a good chunk of that control comes from making themselves look very good to the public so there's a bit of leeway in what exactly we do after the intro.

[Kareeah_Indaga]

Updated character sheet: Pendra has a name now.


Do we want to do any introduction/history coordination before we jump in? Set up some potential hooks like Prof. Stanwix breaking out the hybrids or having some of the prisoner types having been in jailbreak squad?

I don’t object to the idea, but I don’t know how to tie Pendra to the rest of you, given how she ended up in the program. That said, I’m open to suggestions.

I would like to start the game in a human-sized fish tank, if that’s all right. Otherwise it’s going to be a hassle to have her notice that the gills work, without contriving to have her drown herself or have an accident near water. Maybe have a couple corpses floating in there too, who were experiments that didn’t work out as well...though that should probably be the DM’s call.

[Lord Raziere]

I mean my idea was that Team Rocket would be attacking where they are held and its a whole "take advantage of the chaos" thing to escape.

while Stanwix's role would be to probably release them then teleport away while leaving some message- think of like like a recurring villain whose entire point is not to fight directly, but to evade and avoid while sending other threats after you and making plots as he runs, or make speeches about his plans from a distance.

but these can be adjusted as needed.

[Rater202]

I mean my idea was that Team Rocket would be attacking where they are held and its a whole "take advantage of the chaos" thing to escape.

while Stanwix's role would be to probably release them then teleport away while leaving some message- think of like like a recurring villain whose entire point is not to fight directly, but to evade and avoid while sending other threats after you and making plots as he runs, or make speeches about his plans from a distance.

but these can be adjusted as needed.

That... Could work with what I have planned.

My plan was that something... Else escape first, and in a way that's particularly... Loud.

That happening because of a Rocket Rade works.

[Lord Raziere]

did we agree on whether this world's combat would be pure pokemon or pokemon + guns? because I prefer the former and knew you talked something about the latter at some point and am not sure the latter would work, given that if pokemon aren't immune to guns that renders most pokemon meaningless.

[Rater202]

I don't think we decided.

I'm gonna say that guns exist and are effective on at least some Pokemon since that's what is implied in the anime, but they're not exactly common. Probably very rare outside of military use.

[MCerberus]

I think that the rule of comedy says the level at which conventional weaponry stops being effective is "magikarp". That's why you have to have bubble guns and bazookas.

[Lord Raziere]

@ Rater: yeah, thats fair

But why would you have bazookas in the first place? just fire voltorbs at things so they self-destruct and since they survive, they're basically reusable bombs.

[gmoyes]

It is one of those thing to consider when thinking about the maturity of this game. The anime has always operated under slapstick cartoon logic, which considering we're literally playing as twisted experiments of an evil corporation, might be a bit too comedic for the tone we're going for. Then again, I'm kinda on the side of humans having some sort of innate durability just so we don't have to worry about dying if a fire type Pokémon breathes in our direction. But hey, I'm good for whatever.

[Kareeah_Indaga]

@ Rater: yeah, thats fair

But why would you have bazookas in the first place? just fire voltorbs at things so they self-destruct and since they survive, they're basically reusable bombs.

You use the gun instead of the Pokemon because the gun won’t refuse orders, need to eat or be trained up to level *checks* 26; it’s exactly as powerful as you need it as soon as it’s manufactured. Some regions don’t have a lot of Pokemon (Orre). Not sure how long it will take a Pokemon egg to hatch in this game but it’s probably longer then it would take to manufacture a gun.

Of course, Pokemon have the advantage that they can use a wide variety of attacks, which the gun can’t. They provide companionship. The regions that have them you can carry around a small army of Pokemon and no one bats an eye where a gun would draw negative attention. But there’s definitely a niche for guns.

[Lord Raziere]

Yeah but that kind of runs into a "but that makes the world less different from ours" problem where its like, well yeah you can say that about guns, but now I don't want to play in those regions or with that logic as much because its less interesting.

[Kareeah_Indaga]

Yeah but that kind of runs into a "but that makes the world less different from ours" problem where its like, well yeah you can say that about guns, but now I don't want to play in those regions or with that logic as much because its less interesting.

...I'm sorry I'm have trouble following your logic, re: more options making things less interesting. Please clarify.

[Lord Raziere]

...I'm sorry I'm have trouble following your logic, re: more options making things less interesting. Please clarify.

yeah, but if your using guns and grenades at that point your just playing a shooter with pokemon there. I didn't sign up for a shooter. if the tech so efficient, why use pokemon at all? why not just shoot all pokemon so you don't have to deal with living with them and thus simplify the world for humans, it makes the pokemon world make no sense and less interesting. a world where all pokemon can die to guns is a world where humans will USE guns to kill them because they are dangerous and full of creatures that breath fire or shoot lightning, and thus most pokemon end up dead.

like its less interesting because sure its an option, but its a repeat option from the real world that makes exploring the thing we want to explore: pokemon, less prominent. but if instead its more based on pokemon, well that leads to actually figuring out how people get voltorb to be effective bombs, how do the institutions of the military and the world do instead of having a grenade, because they have to use pokemon instead and thus enhances the focus of the setting, which is how pokemon and people interact and work together. because if you just say grenades exist.....well you don't have anything to talk about or detail as different. its just there. its pointless.

[Kareeah_Indaga]

yeah, but if your using guns and grenades at that point your just playing a shooter with pokemon there. I didn't sign up for a shooter. if the tech so efficient, why use pokemon at all? why not just shoot all pokemon so you don't have to deal with living with them and thus simplify the world for humans, it makes the pokemon world make no sense and less interesting.

I'm reasonably certain I spelled out advantages Pokemon have over guns too. :smallconfused:

I thought about adding 'Pokemon won't go off accidentally while cleaning them' but then I remembered Pichu exist. :smalltongue:

[Lord Raziere]

I'm reasonably certain I spelled out advantages Pokemon have over guns too. :smallconfused:

I thought about adding 'Pokemon won't go off accidentally while cleaning them' but then I remembered Pichu exist. :smalltongue:

Yeah but....my logic is more "yeah pokemon is the focus, guns aren't" and "if guns were invented, they wouldn't be competing with pokemon since they were earliest gun designs and those wouldn't be real efficient over just making a pokemon fight for you." people wouldn't waste time with some gun when you can use a pokemon methods that has been tamed for probably since all of civilization and can do far more things. so guns wouldn't get to the level of being relevant in the first place, because this is a world where pokemon are relevant, not guns.

[MCerberus]

considering the need for an abstraction and what pokemon attacks would actually do to a person, would you say a gun attack would be about a 60 power physical attack with the make/model impacting damage and crit rate? That would make it useful against common low-levels but a sandslash is going to output the same level of pain as a well-made rifle while being able to tank more than a squishy human.

[Lord Raziere]

I mean it sounds reasonable but I also remember that this is freeform and that the numbers don't actually mean anything here? and that we can't exactly just shove the level or usual battle system into this? so it makes sense if we were strictly following pokemon videogame rules, but we aren't.

hm, I didn't mean this to become a discussion like this, you guys can have guns with your characters, but I'm not going to have any in mine or what I make.

[Kareeah_Indaga]

The Archipelago that makes up the Somar Region consists of Renal Island to the West, Respir Island to the East, named for their shapes, and between them Northwest Phlemg Island, Northeast Chole Island, Southeast Melaina, and Southwest Blood Island.

Collectively, the Islands between Renal Island and Respir Islands are called the Islands of Good Humor.

At the Northernmost section of Renal Island, there is a forest of bone-white barked trees that dominates as far as the eyes can see, all the way out to the cliffs that make up the northern shore. This is Osteo Forest, and entrance to it is strictly regulated due to the presence of many dangerous Pokemon that live in the area... Particularly some unusually aggressive Regional Variant Phantumps and Trevenant.

As an aside, most dusk stones in the region are found in Osteo Forest by carefully trained extraction teams employed by PoBORI Inc.Bark is White, they're able to learn dark type moves, particularly dark pulse, and a few minor poison type moves. They evolve from Dusk Stones instead of trade, creating a Dark/Grass Type Trevenant

South of Osteo Forest is Spinabase City, where most trainers taking the league challenge try to earn their first badge. A relatively small city, Spinabase's Gym Leader, Skelo, is friendly and specializes in common normal types, stating his personal belief that anyone and anything can be great with adequate care, hard work, and maybe a hand up. Many people who now work in the Gym started out as trainers who came to challenge him, lost for one reason or another, but decided to stay around because his kind words of encouragement made them feel like they could do more good working with him than going off on their own... This was, of course, not what he meant, but he won't turn down anyone who wants to join his Gym without a very good reason.

Further south are vast plains and rolling hills dotted with small towns and villages until one makes it to the southern shores of the kidney-shaped isle, where one finds a beach. Follow the path east and you'll run into Adrenal Town, home to another Gym and a free Ferry Service to Blood Island.

Blood Island's only major city is Lymphocyte Town, which hosts a Gym, though to the far north one may find a small town infamous in the region for "the Duke," an old man who it seems refuses to die. A surfer in his youth, in his old age he claims that he can teach anyone or anything how to easily traverse the seas on body or board... Though most dismiss him both for his ridiculous claims ("My Charizard knows surf!") and his open distrust of PoBORI Inc

Phlegm Island is similar, though almost a mirror image, one large town and one small settlement in reversed positions, and the pattern is repeated on Chole Island and Melania Island.

Strong natural currents and the presence of Whirlpools around the northern end of Lungshaped Respir Island direct all travelers coming by sea to the Southernmost section of the Island, a beach somewhat Rockeier than one on Southern Renal Island, which leads up into plains until arrives in the Twin Cities of Oxy City and Hemoglo City. Despite being right across the Pulmonary River from each other and built along similar plans, and despite being dependant on each other due to one city holding the factories that produce products the other needs, the citizens of each city hate each other with a passion each claiming that the other's Gym draws attention away from its own.

North of the city are a series of small mountains that are difficult to navigate on foot. Most people take the Tram north to Cerebellum City, home of both The Elite Four and PoBORI Inc headquarters, but it's tradition for trainers taking the League challenge to walk or bike through a series of tunnels that start just outside of Hemoglo City and take the trainer directly to Mount Cranium, a large but more navigatable mountain that has a trail that leads to Cerebellum City.

Legend Has it that a trio of Rare and Powerful Pokemon make their homes in the three caves near the rounded peak of Mount Cranium, which from a distance make the impression of a small skull at the top of the mountain, but everyone who has ever tried to find them ha either returned empty-handed or been lost in a mountaineering accident, leading to the paths towards the peak being chained off.


Rater do you want a map for all this?

[MCerberus]

I mean it sounds reasonable but I also remember that this is freeform and that the numbers don't actually mean anything here? and that we can't exactly just shove the level or usual battle system into this? so it makes sense if we were strictly following pokemon videogame rules, but we aren't.

hm, I didn't mean this to become a discussion like this, you guys can have guns with your characters, but I'm not going to have any in mine or what I make.

Fair enough, so I guess that's about how I plan on looking at them. However having stone skin may change Rogue's viewpoint.

[Rater202]

Rater do you want a map for all this?...Not particularly.

I dont' think we need one.

If you want to draw one you're more than welcome too, but we might need to flesh out the islands a bit more first.

[Lord Raziere]

...Not particularly.

I dont' think we need one.

If you want to draw one you're more than welcome too, but we might need to flesh out the islands a bit more first.

Well I like worldbuilding so thats no problem for me, anything in particular you want me to help with?

I had an idea that maybe since this regions so owned by corporations, that maybe there are things like poke-vending machines for things sold at pokemarts everywhere or that the pokecenters have a small fee to use them unlike other regions, or maybe even pokevending machines that you can pay to heal your pokemon if the centers are still free as if you went to one.

another possibility is that the Somar pokemon league's pro-trainers who participate in tournaments are becoming incredibly reliant on Pobori performance enhancing drugs to enhance their pokemon instead of the usual vitamins.

things like that that make the seemingly happy prosperous region have a few cracks in it that show that if this keeps going it will slide into something darker under Pobori's control.

[MCerberus]

Some silly thoughts about pokemon centers in the settings:

Under the careful watch of the Joysdottar foundation and funded with generous grants from you know who, pokemon centers are a model of efficiency. Director Joy Joysdottar has streamlined the pokemon healing process and associated trainer services attempting to both decrease serious medical incidents through the 'whole team care' initiative and to decrease healing time to make the centers less of a target for the ne'er-do-wells that have plagued less industrious regions.

In lieu of TM shops or local goods, pokemon centers will often have medical equipment to look after the trainers themselves. After all, who else would you trust your blood samples and medical history to? In addition, each center is stocked with not just battle essentials but traveling requisites like backpacks, trail bars, and towels.

These centers do not commonly focus of hospitality, but still provide meal service for traveling trainers. Nutritious and hearty meals are served, just like mom used to make (but 'love' is not a recognized ingredient so is left out). In some places, it has become custom for present trainers to share any flavor enhancers like cinnamon or hot sauce with all present. A trainer with an eye for berries soon becomes everyone's fast friend.

And don't worry, if worst comes to worse, the state-of-the-art Rotom systems take security VERY SERIOUSLY

[Kareeah_Indaga]

...Not particularly.

I dont' think we need one.

If you want to draw one you're more than welcome too, but we might need to flesh out the islands a bit more first.

Yeah we're probably going to want at least names for the major towns.

What about 'Leuko Village' for the Duke's town on Blood Island?

For Melania... 'Moross Town' and 'Khole City'.

For Phlegm... 'Larynxi Village' and 'Sput Town'.

And Chole... 'Gallstan City' and 'Biliary Town'.

...or anything else really, unless you want 'Small Town' and 'Large Town' to be their actual names, since that's what I've got down presently. :smalltongue:

[MCerberus]

Ideas for NPCs, what do you think? Trying to just populate characters to flesh out the place without touching on the main plot.


Name: Athena Mei
Age: 18
Profession: Pokemon Battler

History: A native of the region, Athena's parents initially attempted to steer her towards an academic future and a job in the bio sector. This plan was derailed when she scored prodigiously on pokemon licensing exams. Ever since then she's lit the gym challenge circuit on fire, creating a small but devoted fan base. Her outgoing nature and willingness to play up her role for the camera made her sponsorship by PoBORI inevitable. Big things are expecting of the young trainer as rumors say she's gunning for the championship.

Core pokemon:
Decidueye
Aegislash
Chandelure



Name: ????
Age: ????
Profession: ????

History: About a year ago a string of defacement of public property began when graffiti featuring Shedinja inside of a blue circle with nonsense text began appearing on high-sensitivity PoBORI buildings. The moniker "left behind" stems from the the text from the first instance "When I caught up I found out myself was left behind". Currently it is unknown if this is the work of an individual or group, or just a meme. Authorities are not worried.

This [redacted] has gotten the leak containment team working so hard suppressing information that we haven't been able to catch them. Each incident has corresponded to a data breach. Nickle and dime corruption stuff so far, but they're getting close to Pandora's jar.



Name: Charles Cyprus
Age: 38
Profession: Pokemon Researcher

History: A native of Unova, Cyprus is mainly known for his study on disaster pokemon migration after the Kyurem incident. Due to his fatalistic tone and slightly unpleasant specialty of studying disasters, he finds himself perpetually stuck in his career right before he is able to put down roots and create a permanent institute. He may be a downer but is generally helpful if you can get past his awkward phrasing. Somar has recently caught his attention as the waves of pokemon introductions provides an analog to a rapid series of environment disruptions. Cyprus is currently studying the regional forest pokemon formes. He seems to get along with them.

[Rater202]

Good, all of it good, except for centers having a fee for use because that goes against the "humanitarian" actions that the cooperation uses to esquise it's true motives.

Sorry for taking so long to respond.

[Kareeah_Indaga]

Ideas for NPCs, what do you think? Trying to just populate characters to flesh out the place without touching on the main plot.

Ooo, fun. :D Here’s one from me:


Name: Al Placer
Age: late 30s/early 40s
Profession: Prospector

Usually found wandering in the wilderness, especially but not limited to rocky areas, searching for deposits of metals, fossils, or anything else that’s valuable and can be found in the ground. An average-to-decent trainer on the side, he got that way through time and experience ((read: grinding)) rather than talent and creativity, has never seriously pursued any League challenge, and is prone to losing spectacularly when taken by surprise as a result - though as he’s been doing this for a while, that doesn’t happen as often as you’d think.

Pokemon:
Magnemite (and/or its evolutions) with Magnet Pull
Drilbur (and/or its evolution) with Dig
Alolan Geodude (and/or its evolutions) with Magnet Pull
Other Pokemon with Magnet Pull, or other abilities useful for finding valuables underground/mining. Sometimes has one or two that belong to the company he works for if it’s for a specific job.

And because we can’t have a proper island adventure without shipwrecks:


Freighter from Orre, ran aground north of Respir, spilling most of its contents into the sea as a result. It belonged to one of PoBORI’s rivals. The crew that survived have been largely stranded since then and are getting increasingly desperate to get home.


Research ship lost north of Respir during bad fog. Crew were mostly rescued unharmed, but their notes, samples and so on went down with the ship. They are currently petitioning the Somar League for permission (and people) to retrieve aforementioned notes, samples and so on.


Large, famous ship that wrecked, bizarrely, not in the whirlpool-ridden waters north of Respir but in the much calmer waters between Phlemg and Chole, and in calm weather to boot. Its wreckage was very highly publicized, all aboard reported to have been killed...and then all of a sudden hushed up about a week later. No concrete reason for the loss of the ship was ever publicized, but rumors abound.

EDIT: This has gotten really quiet, are we still doing this?

[Rater202]

NPCgood shipwrecks good.

So, everyone still here? I think we have enough to get started.

[Lord Raziere]

I am here.

I was just focusing on other things. I have ideas for things like some martial artist or athlete getting turned into a machop hybrid going mad with the super-strength it gives him and such, but nothing relevant to starting the thing itself.

[MCerberus]

I'm still here although in the extreme short-term at work

[Kareeah_Indaga]

I’m here. :smallsmile: And ready when the rest of you are.

[gmoyes]

Here I am, I was just busy yesterday. Good to go.

[Rater202]

Okay then, I'll make an introductory post in a little bit.

[Kareeah_Indaga]

So tentatively no one knows anyone else, at least on the girls’ side. (Yell if I missed a relevant line.)

Lord Raziere, I gotta say: I love that the motto is pre-recorded. :smallbiggrin:

[gmoyes]

So just checking, how much narrative control do us players have? For example, could we control the action of the baddies? I was thinking of having combat data from the fight being streamed to Alex from Enhanced soldiers. So would I be allowed to to do this and describe what and where enemy forces are?

[Rater202]

In a free form game, you control characters you create and narrative elements that you introduce, so like, in this example no that would not normally be okay.

We don't want to overly complicate the introductory adventure.

[gmoyes]

So I can introduce different classes of Enhanced soldiers and the general roles they would fill, but not directly control them, gotcha. I'm a bit busy at the moment for a full post, but I'll get a rundown in my next post. It was more of a question of if you'll allow Alex to know the positions of Enhanced guards through his combat computer link.

[Rater202]

No, you can control characters you introduce. So if you introduce enhanced soldiers, you can control those specific soldiers... Though I'd ask you don't do this right now, because this is gonna be complicated enough as it is.

And "knows the location of every other enhanced guard" is the kind of thing that they woulnd't have programmed into a cyborg they were keeping prisoner. Giving a prisoner superpowers is one thing. Giving them exactly what they need to escape is something else entirely.

[Lord Raziere]

So tentatively no one knows anyone else, at least on the girls’ side. (Yell if I missed a relevant line.)

Lord Raziere, I gotta say: I love that the motto is pre-recorded. :smallbiggrin:

Yeah its one of those things where its like, sure I want to include this but it makes no sense normally because everyone with a lick of sense will attack them during a motto, so instead I made them put a pre-recorded message on some loudspeaker device they just cart around for this and just corporatize its use because that is totally what I'd see an organization like Team Rocket doing after a while because their goal is profit so of course they're going to stop that after a while. it also shows them being smart about this and opening them to be more of a threat while still retaining that classic team rocket feel y'know? if Jessie and James exist in this universe they're probably the last ones who do it "the old fashioned way".

[gmoyes]

Fair enough. It seemed like an obvious system to include in an 'officer' enhanced, but you're right, they wouldn't be stupid enough to allow him to use it. I was thinking just a wide activation of Enhanced units to defend the base, Alex would be caught up in it. I'll reference it, but he certainly doesn't have the clearance for it.

Also, ideas for Enhanced Soldiers:

Beldum Enforcer: Mostly made of 'volunteer' corporate thugs and goons. Basic arm replacement with one that resembles a Beldum. The rarer dual arm replacement are nicknamed Metang Enforcers, but still referred to as Beldum class. There are rumors of a Metagross Enforcer class with 4 mechanical arms, but nothing confirmed.

Voltorb Sapper: Either zealots or deeply brainwashed to be walking bombs. I'm not sure if having actual suicide bombers are too much for this game, so having Pokémon style 'faints' could be an option. Used for sabotage operations or for deadman switches for things that shouldn't be allowed to fall into enemy hands.

Klink Worker: An non-combat class made up of mostly mindless worker drones. Designed for working long periods without rest and enhanced coordination with one another.

Magnemite Officer: Alex's class, an advanced, experimental class with a powerful combat AI. Designed to help command and organize other Enhanced units.

[Kareeah_Indaga]

Also, ideas for Enhanced Soldiers:

Beldum Enforcer: Mostly made of 'volunteer' corporate thugs and goons. Basic arm replacement with one that resembles a Beldum. The rarer dual arm replacement are nicknamed Metang Enforcers, but still referred to as Beldum class. There are rumors of a Metagross Enforcer class with 4 mechanical arms, but nothing confirmed.

Voltorb Sapper: Either zealots or deeply brainwashed to be walking bombs. I'm not sure if having actual suicide bombers are too much for this game, so having Pokémon style 'faints' could be an option. Used for sabotage operations or for deadman switches for things that shouldn't be allowed to fall into enemy hands.

Klink Worker: An non-combat class made up of mostly mindless worker drones. Designed for working long periods without rest and enhanced coordination with one another.

Magnemite Officer: Alex's class, an advanced, experimental class with a powerful combat AI. Designed to help command and organize other Enhanced units.

Skarmory Aerial Reconnaissance: usually outfitted with binoculars (more advanced models can have things like infrared vision or other goodies), some form of long-range communication (radio/phone), and of course wings powerful enough for flight. Usually only lightly armed.

[Rater202]

I think there's a fndemenatla misunderstanding.

The Enhanced don't have to have cybernetics modeled on or derived from a specific steel type.

It's just that the "living steel" that they're made of was created by studying Pokemon.

[Kareeah_Indaga]

I think there's a fndemenatla misunderstanding.

The Enhanced don't have to have cybernetics modeled on or derived from a specific steel type.

It's just that the "living steel" that they're made of was created by studying Pokemon.

So they're just generic cyborgs then?


and her higher brain functions recognizing she still had the uniform on

Derp, my bad, I'm totally writing this off as Pendra not recognizing it as she's only seen an outdated version of the uniform.

[Rater202]

They can be generic cyborgs... Or anything that counts as a cyborg.

[Lord Raziere]

for reference this is what Rachel looks like since everyone seems to be having confusion about that:
https://i.postimg.cc/4xzgymcG/Rachel-Nightley-2.png

I planned it all the way up to her Nidoqueen form and included her human form as reference to what she looked like before. as you can see, the rocket uniform hasn't changed, its standard black grunt uniform.

[Rater202]

sorry for the delay.

My intent here is that it's not actually that hard to escape in the circumstances because there's something very important going very wrong.

[Kareeah_Indaga]

"C'mon ya big pile of goop, come at me. Nyeh, I bet your mother was a clean-smelling ditto and your brother was a psychic type."

Best part of this is that it’s actually possible. :smallbiggrin:

[Lord Raziere]

Best part of this is that it’s actually possible. :smallbiggrin:

Yeah. Though, its also kind of dark, because uuh...it makes perfect sense for organizations like Team Rocket or mega-corps like this focused on profit over caring to start pokemon breeding facilities where they just take pokemon and breed them with dittos to produce their own supply of them to either sell or use as tools, to people who don't want to catch pokemon themselves either because its more convenient or because they want something bred a specific way, so Rachel knows exactly what she is implying here.

But yeah. generally calling a pokemon's mother a ditto is the easiest and quickest way to insult them, because it has all sorts of sordid implications.

Future antagonist idea: instead of direct pursuit by the corporation's goons, perhaps for a time they hire trainers willing to catch the hybrids for them, giving some variety, which will include some common trainer archetypes you see in the games.

[Rater202]

You all understood that conversation, by the way.

[Kareeah_Indaga]

Hello, everybody still here?

[Rater202]

Hello, everybody still here?

I'm waiting on a response from gmoyes. Gonna give it another day or two.

[Kareeah_Indaga]

Thought about trying to set off the fire suppression system but I’m not sure how having everything soaking wet will help anyone but Pendra. :smallconfused:

[Rater202]

Thought about trying to set off the fire suppression system but I’m not sure how having everything soaking wet will help anyone but Pendra. :smallconfused:

Well, for one, violet is a firetype.

[Kareeah_Indaga]

Well, for one, violet is a firetype.

Right, so, less reason to set off the fire suppression system. :smalltongue:

[Rater202]

gmoyes, are you still with us?

[Rater202]

So, there are two options here.

You can try and head to civilization, or you can try and find shelter in the forest.

[Kareeah_Indaga]

So, there are two options here.

You can try and head to civilization, or you can try and find shelter in the forest.

So Violet would not be in favor of burning the forest down? :smallbiggrin: (I'm teasing if it's not obvious.)

I don't have a strong opinion either way, nor I believe does Pendra. If we stay put I feel we put the odds of PoBURI finding us up, since there will be obvious signs we crash-landed in the vicinity. If we go our odds of running into trouble in the dark go up.

(I'm admittedly making the assumption here that anything living in the immediate vicinity either fled or is hiding, and moreover is not dangerous enough to threaten us or it would have done so already. Feel free to poke holes in my logic.)

Pendra can see any obvious physical obstacles, point out upper- or lower-case 'b' Berries, Pokemon that aren't hiding or invisible etc, but as was pointed out IC, one of the common types here can do exactly that.

I guess I should ask, does poison wear off in this game? If Rogue's going to die without a Pecha Berry, then I would change my vote to 'get moving' and hope to spot something useful.

[MCerberus]

There is an npc in the area, if the group wants to try and shake him down for supplies somehow. Rogue would probably vote for laying low

[Rater202]

I'm gonna rule that Poison doesn't wear off on it's own but also won't make you faint outside of battle, and... Well, know how going home and sleeping works the same as a pokemon center? Same applies for anykind of sleep. Just for convenience.

and, we might be going darker than Pokemon normally gets, but not that dark. Fainting is the worst that happens unless you specify that you're trying to go for lethal.

Sorry it took me so long to answer that.

[MCerberus]

sorry for the delay work and stuff all exploded at once

[Kareeah_Indaga]

Rachel comes screaming back chased by ghosts in 3, 2, 1… :smalltongue:

[MCerberus]

Would we want the group to run across not-professor Cyprus at this point or continue on in the shared-misery bubble?

[Rater202]

Would we want the group to run across not-professor Cyprus at this point or continue on in the shared-misery bubble?

Okay, what are you referring to here?

[Kareeah_Indaga]

Okay, what are you referring to here?

I’m assuming he means this guy:





Name: Charles Cyprus
Age: 38
Profession: Pokemon Researcher

History: A native of Unova, Cyprus is mainly known for his study on disaster pokemon migration after the Kyurem incident. Due to his fatalistic tone and slightly unpleasant specialty of studying disasters, he finds himself perpetually stuck in his career right before he is able to put down roots and create a permanent institute. He may be a downer but is generally helpful if you can get past his awkward phrasing. Somar has recently caught his attention as the waves of pokemon introductions provides an analog to a rapid series of environment disruptions. Cyprus is currently studying the regional forest pokemon formes. He seems to get along with them.


EDIT:

I'm considering giving Pendra a background in hydroponics. Rater is that going to smash anything to bits?

[Rater202]

Hydroponics background is probably ine.

MCerberus, are you still with us?

[MCerberus]

Hydroponics background is probably ine.

MCerberus, are you still with us?

I'm here, kind of wondering if we ever got an answer if we want to keep the group isolated or introduce Cyprus as above.

[Rater202]

I know I approve Cyprus... But the only people allowed in this forest, legally, are people employed by the corporation.

So he wouldn't be here. He'd be in some other forest in the region.

Plenty of unmapped space to place one.

[MCerberus]

I know I approve Cyprus... But the only people allowed in this forest, legally, are people employed by the corporation.

So he wouldn't be here. He'd be in some other forest in the region.

Plenty of unmapped space to place one.

Alright makes sense, the reason he was initially slated to be around this area was comedy relief in him dealing with/potentially getting along with the murder trees.

[Rater202]

If we don't figure something out soon, I'm gonna try and give the game a kick in the pants to get things moving.

[Lord Raziere]

well I do have one idea: how do you all feel about being offered a "deal with the devil" like situation with the abra-scientist guy who made you all pokemon hybrids in the first place, and knows teleport and thus could teleport you to the nearest town in exchange for something you promise him?

[Kareeah_Indaga]

well I do have one idea: how do you all feel about being offered a "deal with the devil" like situation with the abra-scientist guy who made you all pokemon hybrids in the first place, and knows teleport and thus could teleport you to the nearest town in exchange for something you promise him?

Are we sure we want to go directly to town, given that we’re obviously not human at this point?

[Rater202]

well I do have one idea: how do you all feel about being offered a "deal with the devil" like situation with the abra-scientist guy who made you all pokemon hybrids in the first place, and knows teleport and thus could teleport you to the nearest town in exchange for something you promise him?

Well, given the lack of response I'm gonna go with no.

[Kareeah_Indaga]

If no one comes up with an alternate plan by Wednesday Pendra’s going to panic and bolt. (…Or try to, seeing as we’re apparently surrounded.)

[Holy-hunter]

Has this got room one more?

[Kareeah_Indaga]

Rater just FYI I’m waiting on the feedback for MCerberus’ action because as-is I may as well flip a coin as far as picking a direction.

[Rater202]

Look, choosing randomly is...

Are people still interested in this? Am I doing something wrong?

Every time I try to run these games I keep expecting more engagement than I get and any attempt to spark more doesn't work.

Do you all still want to do this?

[Lord Raziere]

Yes, we want to keep playing

Its just that you put us in a situation where there is no clear solution. We don't want to particularly fight the phantump, they just want to live in their forest and don't like outsiders, no reason to fight them. while not really giving any direction to go other than "away from the phantump" because they're attacking.

So....unless we find a compass left by someone or something, what direction do we go?

like just being lost in the woods isn't really a plot unless there is a way to solve the problems we have. like are you going for a survival thing? what?

[Rater202]

There are two options: survival in the woods and try to head to town.

when this came up earlier, everyone said they didn't really have a preference for one over the other.

Everything since then has been trying to get things moving but... Nobody responded in a way to get things moving that involved progressing the story..

So just...

I don't actually know how to respond to Mcerberus's post beyond "it's too dark to see the end."

One road leads deeper into the forest, the other leads toward town. Since nobody expressed a preference just...

I'm clearly doing something wrong. This game might have been a mistake.

So just... Pick a direction. Just pick a direction, we'll handle it majority vote. I have something for both.

[MCerberus]

Look, choosing randomly is...

Are people still interested in this? Am I doing something wrong?

Every time I try to run these games I keep expecting more engagement than I get and any attempt to spark more doesn't work.

Do you all still want to do this?

I think it may be good to turn this around.

You seem to not have your expectations met, what do you think is missing?
Are things going too slow and rambling, so we should add a bit more structure?
Were you just wanting to get the intro out so we can explore the setting?

Less chat more go?
If you're not okay with the pacing or the like it's really okay.

[Rater202]

With a game like this, there's not really supposed to be a GM. People take turning telling stories, with the other players contributing.

right now it just kind of feels like I'm stringing people along from point to point and my attempts to get a bit more engagement...

Like, I don't think I have the words to explain it, but things like "okay, does anyone know how to tell direction by the stars" was shots in the dark to try and get people to make a decision and...

Most of all I feel like I'm doing something wrong. Like that if I was doing things right, people would b more active and engaged in the story.

[Lord Raziere]

Okay.

So. I have another idea.

one of the rocket grunts that fell here could have a compass and map and we have to get those from them. why do they have those? I dunno, it seems to be standard equipment for trainers in pokemon world, perhaps this particular grunt is just prepared.

HOW they are gotten is of course, up to whatever solution we like.

Also, Rater we were operating under the assumption that you had a specific idea or plot for this forest, if you don't just tell us in the first place and that we can make up whatever to get out of it or whatnot.

[Rater202]

I have a plot. Two actually. It's just, nobody seems to be taking the hooks.

You can try to try your luck heading to town or you could try to survive in the woods but...

But like, everything I do to push in one direction or the other tends to result in... Nothing.

Nobody showed any particular interest in either and nothing I do to try to make things move along ends up sparking the kind of engagement I...

I may have gone into this with the wrong expectations and I might just be bad at running these kinds of games.

I don't want o just come out and say what everything is and what you should do, bcuase that would amount to railroading and freeform games are supposed to have a sandbox element and regardless just coming out and saying OOC that "the phantumps are the ghosts of kids who died int he facility you just came from and engaging with them the right way might have given you a hint about how the Megacorp operates in the forest" breaks immersion.

At the same time, I don't want to just have Violet doing things and that being the primary means of advancing the plot. Then it stops being a game and starts being the story of my OC and these other guys who occasionally contribute.

[Kareeah_Indaga]

Okay, yell if this comes off as rude, but my feedback is:



Like, I don't think I have the words to explain it, but things like "okay, does anyone know how to tell direction by the stars" was shots in the dark to try and get people to make a decision and...


The issue with this line specifically was that Raziere/Rachel had already asked something similar and the response was a muddled ‘no, not really.’ No navigational skills to be had. So repeating the question doesn’t help much, unless Violet was supposed to be hinting at something we were overlooking which sounds like was not the case.



You can try to try your luck heading to town or you could try to survive in the woods but...

If this is what the right/left path is for, there is absolutely no indication in game of this whatsoever. The forest paths are featureless voids. Maybe the party can dimly see lights at the end of the town path? Or footprints that are obviously human and not corporate (child sized, say, or hiking boot prints when the facility staff all wear dress shoes). The forest branch of the path is more overgrown? Or Rogue can smell humans/Pokémon down one or the other? Do we hear anything? Strange noises down one or unnatural silence?

Thus, there is nothing to make a decision on because functionally the paths are exactly the same, from the perspective of the PCs. Whereas if we found, say, a child’s lost shoe down the left path, with maybe some crying in the distance, we could at least argue in-character ‘do we try to help the kid and risk getting captured or do we go the other way to avoid being found?’ It doesn’t matter if the kid turns out to be a Misdreavus with a sense of humor or the crying is a PoBURI trap later on, it gives us information to decide with.

If it comes down to it, I gave Pendra the hydroponics background with the intention that she’d be able to recognize edible plants and not be completely useless in a survival situation.

[Lord Raziere]

Yeah its kind of why I wanted to ask the Phantump a way out in the first place since we could talk to them and they have a better idea of the lay of the land than us, and when they said no, the only way I could see to really force the issue would be try to and beat them with force which would be kind of in character for someone like Rachel but likeability with the rest of the party and doing stuff like that is always tricky to balance, especially when the phantump just want to be left alone.

[Rater202]

So I listed out the options, find shelter in the forest or try to haad for town, one person responded that they did not care either way and nobody else responded at all.

Rachel goes off, finds a Ghost, and well... I had it act the way that the ghost of a child murdered in the forest and so pissed off that it can't think rationally would normally react.

It's a pokemon that approached you first as you were going into the wilderness, attacking it is a perfectly valid response. It is the traditional response in this situation.

If you'd attacked it, or if you'd kept trying to reason with it, eventually you'd have gotten something out of it.

And pretty much every post I made since then was just... Trying anything to give people an excuse to get going without it feeling like it was railroading.

The reason you don't know which route on the road is which is becuase, well, I've got one "don't care" and everyone else didn't respond either way. So I whittled it down to a binary choice just so that we'd be able to get going.

It doesn't matter now, you've all chosen one of the paths, we can try and get moving.

[Kareeah_Indaga]

So I listed out the options, find shelter in the forest or try to haad for town, one person responded that they did not care either way and nobody else responded at all.

That’s not precisely correct, the response to ‘shelter in the forest?’ was ‘find food first’ and once that was accomplished we got attacked by Trevenant.



It's a pokemon that approached you first as you were going into the wilderness, attacking it is a perfectly valid response. It is the traditional response in this situation.

Rater, would you go attack something when you’re already lost, have nothing in the way of medical supply if you get hurt, and have no type advantage and no immediate backup? That means no Pokémon Center, no Potions/Berries, and no intimidation factor, and no one to drag you to safety if you get in over your head.

A Pokémon trainer doing battle with their Pokémon doesn’t usually do the fighting themselves and thus can ignore most of those problems. Also the primary reasons to fight wild Pokémon are 1.) to capture them (not an option for us, no Pokéballs!) or 2.) to make the existing Pokémon team stronger which wasn’t a stated goal for anyone at this point.

EDIT: In case it’s not clear, I’m in favor of ‘send the scout first!’ :smallsmile:

[Rater202]

The Gate is like...

You ever see a really tall chainlink fence? Two regular chainlinks "doors" held together by a metal pole.

[Kareeah_Indaga]

I admit I was hoping for more activity from the rest of the party by now…but okay.


The Gate is like...

You ever see a really tall chainlink fence? Two regular chainlinks "doors" held together by a metal pole.

Okay, so not electrocuted or anything? Did I notice any security, locks, etc?

My tentative plan is to climb over it, but if there are obvious reasons why I shouldn’t, then I won’t. And if for some reason the door is unlocked and completely unguarded I have no issue with just opening it and walking out either. :smalltongue:

[Rater202]

So I can't actually post anything until I get a response from Rachel.

[Rater202]

MCerberus, are you still with us?

[MCerberus]

Sorry work is pulling OT because the boss promised on a timeline he didn't tell the project team about

[Kareeah_Indaga]

Sorry work is pulling OT because the boss promised on a timeline he didn't tell the project team about

Oh yuck, good luck! :smallfrown:

[Rater202]

Could I get a randomly determined number from 1-100 from each of you?

[MCerberus]

1d100

Filling up space

[Lord Raziere]

huh, the freeform forum doesn't do rolls. weird.

my number: 53

[MCerberus]

google's rng says 88

[Kareeah_Indaga]

59 from random.org.

[Rater202]

Raz if I don't get a response from Rachel in 24 hours I'm going to progress the scene.

[Kareeah_Indaga]

Something we might want to look into is to find a TM for Secret Power - then we could make a base of operations for whatever we decide to do down the line.

[Rater202]

Raz? You still interested in this?

[Lord Raziere]

Yes I am, sorry.

got caught up in other things.

[Rater202]

Raz we're waiting on you I think.

[Rater202]

So... This didn't turn out the way I pictured. I might just be bad a this kind of story.

Would you all be interested in finishing out this scenario, and then time-skipping to an end game?

And then... Either end it there, or time skip: The corporation is disbanded, the original character are wealthy do to pain and suffering payouts, but the tech gets appreciated, perfected, and dismantled resulting in a less intense but more traditional punk/post-punk setting becuase people think it's cool and/or useful.

Current characters are either retired or mentors for new characters.

[Lord Raziere]

Nah, come on. Rater. your giving up here. I don't want to give up playing Rachel. not accepting that.

you seem to have trouble coming up with things on the fly, and adjusting to how players react to things, as well as figuring out enemies to fight. me, I'd shake things up by having my rockets burst in trying to steal pokemon from this center, figuring they could steal more pokemon so they could take the pokemon hybrids. this does a few things:

1-makes a problem that needs solving by the players
2-makes it clear that ignoring the problem will only have bad consequences down the road (just running away is the easy option but would allow the rockets to have stronger 'mons later which would be bad)
3- if players succeed at saving the pokemon center, it gives the rescued Nurse Joy a reason to be on their side, thankful for them saving her and the pokemon. given that Joys are canonically all a family that love taking care of pokemon, its even possible she will let other Joys know about us somehow so that ALL pokemon centers could become some measure of "safe".

similarly back in the forest, we could've have the rockets attack the forest pokemon but be saved by us to get their trust. maybe, but I wanted to see what you had in mind before trying to suggest anything to help.

similarly we could have one of the results of the mad scientist npc I came up with come storming in mad with power to attack the center as well, if the rockets are too challenging while also being a plothook of how another pokemon hybrid showed up that wasn't in the lab with them.

there are ways to make this work, you just don't seem to know them.

[Kareeah_Indaga]

I'm up for whatever, just let me know.

I will note if we don't get a win scenario right away, Pendra's going to vanish into the sea and accidentally spawn a bunch of mermaid legends when she rescues people from sinking ships and the like.

[Rater202]

It's not that I want to quit it's more that I thought a retool might...

...Also if I'm gonna be honest I've got the mental image of an adolescent girl with Eevee mods whose goal is to find a water stone and hms for surf, dive, whirlpool, and waterfall because she wants to be a deep-sea explorer when she grows up. Like as just a plausible thing that could happen at some point later in the timeline.

Anyway, I think I figured something else out.

[Lord Raziere]

It's not that I want to quit it's more that I thought a retool might...

...Also if I'm gonna be honest I've got the mental image of an adolescent girl with Eevee mods whose goal is to find a water stone and hms for surf, dive, whirlpool, and waterfall because she wants to be a deep-sea explorer when she grows up. Like as just a plausible thing that could happen at some point later in the timeline.

Anyway, I think I figured something else out.

well if you really want the retool enough I can't really stop you, its just that me personally, Rachel hasn't developed naturally enough on her own as a character for me to see where she is going, so her being timeskipped now would mostly just involve her leaving the group because she'd believe they wouldn't want to associate with a former Rocket any longer than necessary....and get captured by Lizzie and her gang and taken back to Somar's Rocket HQ to be used to learn how this hybridization works. she'd essentially end up back at square one but with Rockets rather than the corporation, and emerge years later in a Nidoqueen form, trying to escape from them, having changed little other than being angrier and more willing to be forceful with a bigger form that can't be stealthy. meanwhile the Rockets would've grown in power and have hybrids of their own.

[Rater202]

Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you the Somarian Gyarados.

[Rater202]

So according to Legends: Arceus, all Pokemon have the ability to shrink to an incredibly tiny size and Pokeballs took advantage of this before digitalization came into effect.

[Lord Raziere]

So according to Legends: Arceus, all Pokemon have the ability to shrink to an incredibly tiny size and Pokeballs took advantage of this before digitalization came into effect.

Yeah that actually explains why they'd be called pocket monsters in the first place, its something thats characteristic to all of them and thus distinguishes them from other life forms. it might also explain how any pokemon could jump out of tall grass or wherever: they shrink down to hide then when they see someone come by they suddenly leap out while enlarging themselves or enlarge themselves to defend themselves from being accidentally stepped on, thus explaining all random encounters.

this might actually be one of the best pieces of worldbuilding for pokemon ever. and people don't talk about it because its like any other biology fact: its forgotten about with the new system and biology is complex so it makes sense if not everyone knows they can do that.

[MCerberus]

Yeah that actually explains why they'd be called pocket monsters in the first place, its something thats characteristic to all of them and thus distinguishes them from other life forms. it might also explain how any pokemon could jump out of tall grass or wherever: they shrink down to hide then when they see someone come by they suddenly leap out while enlarging themselves or enlarge themselves to defend themselves from being accidentally stepped on, thus explaining all random encounters.

this might actually be one of the best pieces of worldbuilding for pokemon ever. and people don't talk about it because its like any other biology fact: its forgotten about with the new system and biology is complex so it makes sense if not everyone knows they can do that.

And at least so far I have not seen a single 'mon do this except for through balls. Then again the deepest lore says that the guy who invented pokeballs found this effect by drugging a primeape to high heaven in an attempt to not get his face beaten in.

[Lord Raziere]

And at least so far I have not seen a single 'mon do this except for through balls.

I know you don't mean it, but doubt like that still feels like a raincloud over my parade man.

though I mostly meant older gens when I was talking about the grass thing.

[Kareeah_Indaga]

So according to Legends: Arceus, all Pokemon have the ability to shrink to an incredibly tiny size and Pokeballs took advantage of this before digitalization came into effect.

What’s the wording on that? :smallconfused: Because I feel like that’s something that should have come up before this. Unless it’s less ‘ability’ in the sense of ‘behavior or activity the Pokémon can perform at will’ and more physical trait like water bending in response to an electrical current.

[Lord Raziere]

What’s the wording on that? :smallconfused: Because I feel like that’s something that should have come up before this. Unless it’s less ‘ability’ in the sense of ‘behavior or activity the Pokémon can perform at will’ and more physical trait like water bending in response to an electrical current.


"you'll recall of course, that pokemon possess the odd power to shrink themselves down. With the pokeballs we craft, we can make use of that power to catch them."

like we don't know why or how, the scientist just says they can and that the old pokeballs exploit that somehow. its kinda vague.

[MCerberus]

I know you don't mean it, but doubt like that still feels like a raincloud over my parade man.

though I mostly meant older gens when I was talking about the grass thing.

Didn't mean it, was mostly looking for a path to bring up the completely insane original lorebook where the shrinking was discovered by just applying all the drugs to a primape.

[Kareeah_Indaga]

Question for Rater: Can Rogue and Pendra hear the conversation?

[Rater202]

Not if you stay in the front of the center but if you follow into the back you'd get there boefre it started.

[Kareeah_Indaga]

That Eevee knowing immediately that we could understand her is a mite suspicious, yes.

EDIT:



"There are no eggs here, this is a Pokemon Center not a nursery."

I want it on record that I tried to end this peacefully and with a minimal amount of property damage, but this idiot had to go and open his mouth. :smalltongue:

[Rater202]

I'm just gonna say it: "Eggs" is code for something.

[Lord Raziere]

Oh right, I kind of didn't focus on the meaning of that code because I've seen the Psychonaut games and Rachel is more focused on making sure the gyarados stays unconscious, so I know Rater is just repurposing that code for something, I just don't know what. though if I had to guess, the eggs are probably pokeballs probably with pokemon in them, the gyarados is supposed to gather them and then take them somewhere. its the only thing in the center that would make sense for anyone to take with that specific code (medicines might be valuable enough to take but that seems more like something you'd rob a Pokemart for).

I'll only say it IC if no one else will though. Rachel's a former criminal thug, she ain't thinking like a detective yet.

[Kareeah_Indaga]

"Get back, do you have any of the berries left"

Pendra has a Pecha Berry but she’s not in the room ATM.

On the flip side, we’re inside a Pokémon Center, maybe there are Antidotes somewhere accessible???

[Rater202]

Kareah, two things.

1: The hallway is linear and you weren't that far away. I apologize if I wasn't clear about that, but... Its' most definitely the same nurse. She might not have even moved from where you were to answer the question.

2: Please do not assume control of characters, even minor characters, that I am operating without clearing it with me.

[Kareeah_Indaga]

Kareah, two things.

1: The hallway is linear and you weren't that far away. I apologize if I wasn't clear about that, but... Its' most definitely the same nurse. She might not have even moved from where you were to answer the question.

2: Please do not assume control of characters, even minor characters, that I am operating without clearing it with me.

Then don’t leave me with no response so I don’t have to auto myself. And clarify in advance next time, especially given I’d specified I was carrying the civilian out of sight:



Once she is out of sight of the mask monster, Pendra looks for a Chansey to hand the nurse off to and asks it for directions for the kitchen.

And said I was out of the room here.

[Rater202]

Okay, point, I missed that, but...

Pokemon centers aren't that big. Even in the anime they're the part that you see in the games, a couple rooms for trainers to sleep in, and a small ER for pokemon who are too injured for the normal treatments.

Sometimes in the anime you'll see a very large Center but I recall that happening all of once.

[Lord Raziere]

Sometimes in the anime you'll see a very large Center but I recall that happening all of once.

honestly, pokecenter size and layout depends on the plot.

like I've watched more pokemon anime than most people, we never see the full layout of a pokemon center, some have rooms and facilities that don't make sense for others to have in some episodes, like just from first season alone, there are differences between the one in gringy city, the one that they go to heal charmander in, the one in viridian where Ash first meets Team Rocket, I don't recall them having a consistent layout, its just whatever looks good and whatever works for the current plot. I wouldn't assume what is shown is all there is, because thats assuming Ash and his companions are the only trainers in the world.

[Kareeah_Indaga]

Pokemon centers aren't that big. Even in the anime they're the part that you see in the games, a couple rooms for trainers to sleep in, and a small ER for pokemon who are too injured for the normal treatments.

Sometimes in the anime you'll see a very large Center but I recall that happening all of once.

Rater that kind of thing needs to be in the in game description. You’re basically expecting your players to read your mind. That doesn’t work.


honestly, pokecenter size and layout depends on the plot.

like I've watched more pokemon anime than most people, we never see the full layout of a pokemon center, some have rooms and facilities that don't make sense for others to have in some episodes, like just from first season alone, there are differences between the one in gringy city, the one that they go to heal charmander in, the one in viridian where Ash first meets Team Rocket, I don't recall them having a consistent layout, its just whatever looks good and whatever works for the current plot. I wouldn't assume what is shown is all there is, because thats assuming Ash and his companions are the only trainers in the world.

Also this. It would need, bare minimum, at least as much infrastructure as a real-world veterinarian or hospital, plus the stuff specific to Pokémon. Do we ever see Pokémon Center bathrooms? A break room for staff? I don’t recall a janitorial closet, though I allow it’s been a while since I watched the show.

[Rater202]

I'm posting mostly to avoid losing the thread but, again, I'm open to suggestions for what to do next.

[Lord Raziere]

okay lets see.....

I don't want to attack with the Rockets just yet given that haven't really had enough time to properly rest, just go from one thing to another.

I have no idea what your doing with the Gym Leader. maybe explain what his goals and motivations are specifically, in character?

the thing with Stanwix will take time....

I think what I'd suggest is the Gym Leader explaining what their goal/motivation is and why they are okay with us, as a start. from there it kinda depends. if you want to emphasize the being hunted by authorities part, have some corporate thugs come by tomorrow asking if they seen any big weird pokemon around. if we're focusing on investigating the mystery of the strange gyarados, I'd say have the Gym leader give us a few leads to look into it further, if we want to just travel for now and encounter things as we go classic pokemon style, just rest up then head out IC tomorrow to encounter whatever strange situation they get into whatever town they end up in next, there is a lot of directions you can go, these are just examples.

like you might have a combination of corporate thugs coming to try and catch us AND leads on the weird gyarados which gives us a destination and a reason to not stay here long. maybe there is a lead on something completely different you want to introduce that the gym leader can tell us about.

though maybe I should've made a character with a stronger motivation since you seem to not have much of an idea about the plot, which requires PCs to set their own goals so that they can make the plot. none of us seem to have any particular goals right now to pull us in a certain direction and you don't seem to have any particular goals in mind in the short term. thus I think the best thing I can do is give Rachel a goal now that she has a chance to think about something other than survival/hiding.

[MCerberus]

Would it be a good time for the rocket goons to run across a few pawns heroic league trainers out doing heroic adventures?

Rogue will pretty much just try and figure out what's going on with his brain and if nothing immediately sticks out stay with the group if possible. If we need a time-skip and the gym leader is friendly, training montage?

Depending on how much it wasn't able to be covered up, the explosion could get the attention of whatever remains of Flare, Galaxy, and whatever fills the underworld power vacuums in regions. Maybe even some trainers from regions that aren't so corrupt want to know what's up.

maybe the powers-that-be try to get ahead of this X-com2 style by announcing that it was a new gene therapy saving out PC's from terminal diseases or some other lie.

[Kareeah_Indaga]

maybe the powers-that-be try to get ahead of this X-com2 style by announcing that it was a new gene therapy saving out PC's from terminal diseases or some other lie.

I will point out in Pendra’s case that isn’t a lie.

[Rater202]

Kareah, I'm waiting on you IC.

[Kareeah_Indaga]

Kareah, I'm waiting on you IC.

I don’t have anything meaningful to add.

[Rater202]

I apologize for having so little after so long. I keep second-guessing myself on what you all may or may not engage with.

[Lord Raziere]

I apologize for having so little after so long. I keep second-guessing myself on what you all may or may not engage with.

Easy solution to that:
make them all plot hooks, and throw them all out at once in way so that the players will decide which one they want to pursue IC. you'll never know what players will engage with, so don't try to predict it and just lay all it all out on the table instead of going with one hook or plot or another.

[Kareeah_Indaga]

Easy solution to that:
make them all plot hooks, and throw them all out at once in way so that the players will decide which one they want to pursue IC. you'll never know what players will engage with, so don't try to predict it and just lay all it all out on the table instead of going with one hook or plot or another.

Very much this. And if it’s something major, throw more than one hook.

[Rater202]

Okay, I think I have something to go on, so there's that.

If no one wants to Interview the Gyardos then Violet will do it off-screen and summarize what they learn to the rest of you.

[Rater202]

Does anyone else have anything to add before I move the scene along?

[Rater202]

Okay, roll call who's still here?

[Lord Raziere]

oh, sorry still here, I just wasn't sure if I was needed for that scene and wasn't sure whether I was supposed to go to the next forest? I'll go and do either if need be.

[Kareeah_Indaga]

Here and waiting impatiently for something for my character to interact with. At this point I’ve spent more time checking the thread for updates than I have posting. :/

[Rater202]

You can talk to the Gyarados or wait for that scene to be done so we can move on to the next bit.

Sorry, there's only so much I can do to get people engaged.

Edit: I hope this doesn't come across as too aggressive.

[MCerberus]

I think it would be better to abbreviate the conversation to move forward.

[Gold Leaf]

Hey guys! I know it might be a little late, but got room for one more?

[Rater202]

Hey guys! I know it might be a little late, but got room for one more?

I don't thibk we do, honestly running this as is is more of a challenge than I thought it would be, but if the other players are willing to let you in I won't say no.

[Kareeah_Indaga]

Hey guys! I know it might be a little late, but got room for one more?

I’ll drop and you can have my spot.

[Gold Leaf]

I’ll drop and you can have my spot.

Sounds good, is that cool with everyone else?

[Rater202]

Okay, we're down a player, there's been no response from anyone on the potential replacement, and

I think that's it. I think the game is dead.

Sorry everyone.

[Lord Raziere]

sigh, sad to see. wish I responded sooner....maybe could've helped but...too late now I guess.