Grod_The_Giant
2023-06-04, 04:21 PM
PTUg
Last year, one of my oldest gaming friends was really excited to run a Pokemon game of some sort. On the advice of a friend of his, he settled on PTU. It was... not the most successful system, and I got pretty frustrated with a lot of the things the system did. I also have deeply-seated mental disorders, so I wound up rewriting the whole damn thing, even though my group wound up switching systems altogether. Still, I figured I'd put it out there in case anyone else is interested, so...here it is: Pokemon Tabletop United, Grod's Edition (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1qia12X2IoaVJdCp36e9hdk9_QMxpcGls/view?usp=sharing). My main design goal was to simplify the game though consistency, along with basic quality-of-life improvements. The big changes are:
Trainers now use the same set of rules as Pokemon for character creation and advancement.
Any kind of consciously-chosen action is now a Move.
Features have been almost entirely rewritten; pretty much everything now plugs into the new "Assume Stance," "Commanding Shout," and "Train Pokemon" moves.
(Disclaimer: this is an old project I've mostly moved on from)
PokeSTaRS
The one thing I couldn't really do was make the game lighter or faster, and my friend was quickly burning out. We discussed a few options, and I remembered that I once wrote a generic rules-light system our group has enjoyed more than a few times--STaRS (https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/268061/STaRS-The-Simple-Tabletop-Roleplaying-System). One of the example magic systems was sort of Pokemon-esque, and I had a bunch of important assignments I needed to work on, so I offered to work out a STaRS-based Pokemon hack. I wrote it up in a flurry of procrastination, showed it to my group, and we agreed to give it a shot. We went through a couple iterations of revision over the first few months, but the changes have been getting smaller and smaller as I home in on the game we want, and I figured it was time to share with the world.
So... introducing PokeSTaRS (https://drive.google.com/file/d/15rhk4wenEUBGlJLXpmzrRJDEf7Pueu2g/view?usp=sharing)! Major features include:
More of an anime aesthetic to battles and training, rather than trying to directly ape the games--I want to encourage creative tactics and highlight dramatic moments.
Bounded accuracy, sort of! Nothing is level-gated--instead of learning new (and more powerful) moves as they accumulate experience, Pokemon get to improve their existing moves to better match their inclinations. A brand-new Pokemon is certainly at a disadvantage compared to a highly-trained one, but can come out on top with a little luck.
Pokemon are defined mostly through their moves and abilities-- no complicated level-based progressions or hidden variables.
Trainers each pick one iconic class, which gives them a unique mechanic to play, and a handful of moves and abilities they can teach to even Pokemon who don't normally learn them, and a short list of thematic special features (there's also a much longer list of generic features available to everyone)-- meaning that the Hiker, Super Nerd, and Cooltrainer will be guided towards, but not pigeonholed into, unique battle styles. They advance by gaining badges or other honors, with no experience tracking necessary.
I'm pretty proud of how it's turned out, but a few disclaimers before you download: this is an incomplete draft, with only a few classes and a subset of moves and abilities written up (though I'm happy to take requests). Also, it's not (currently, at least) really written as a stand-alone system, since my group is pretty familiar with STaRS. I quickly copied the "rules in brief" section from the base STaRS rulebook and tweaked it to match PokeSTaRS changes, but it might not be super-clear, so you'll probably want the original rules (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1_4DL66nbET_LoNrUcIReu4-b__iqwhEN/view?usp=sharing) on hand.
(And if you discover you really like said original rules, consider picking up the full (https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/268061/STaRS-The-Simple-Tabletop-Roleplaying-System)or lite (https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/268062/STaRS-The-Simple-Tabletop-Roleplaying-System-Lite-Edition?src=hottest_filtered)rulebook on DriveThruRPG; my poor empty piggy bank would sure appreciate it.
Last year, one of my oldest gaming friends was really excited to run a Pokemon game of some sort. On the advice of a friend of his, he settled on PTU. It was... not the most successful system, and I got pretty frustrated with a lot of the things the system did. I also have deeply-seated mental disorders, so I wound up rewriting the whole damn thing, even though my group wound up switching systems altogether. Still, I figured I'd put it out there in case anyone else is interested, so...here it is: Pokemon Tabletop United, Grod's Edition (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1qia12X2IoaVJdCp36e9hdk9_QMxpcGls/view?usp=sharing). My main design goal was to simplify the game though consistency, along with basic quality-of-life improvements. The big changes are:
Trainers now use the same set of rules as Pokemon for character creation and advancement.
Any kind of consciously-chosen action is now a Move.
Features have been almost entirely rewritten; pretty much everything now plugs into the new "Assume Stance," "Commanding Shout," and "Train Pokemon" moves.
(Disclaimer: this is an old project I've mostly moved on from)
PokeSTaRS
The one thing I couldn't really do was make the game lighter or faster, and my friend was quickly burning out. We discussed a few options, and I remembered that I once wrote a generic rules-light system our group has enjoyed more than a few times--STaRS (https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/268061/STaRS-The-Simple-Tabletop-Roleplaying-System). One of the example magic systems was sort of Pokemon-esque, and I had a bunch of important assignments I needed to work on, so I offered to work out a STaRS-based Pokemon hack. I wrote it up in a flurry of procrastination, showed it to my group, and we agreed to give it a shot. We went through a couple iterations of revision over the first few months, but the changes have been getting smaller and smaller as I home in on the game we want, and I figured it was time to share with the world.
So... introducing PokeSTaRS (https://drive.google.com/file/d/15rhk4wenEUBGlJLXpmzrRJDEf7Pueu2g/view?usp=sharing)! Major features include:
More of an anime aesthetic to battles and training, rather than trying to directly ape the games--I want to encourage creative tactics and highlight dramatic moments.
Bounded accuracy, sort of! Nothing is level-gated--instead of learning new (and more powerful) moves as they accumulate experience, Pokemon get to improve their existing moves to better match their inclinations. A brand-new Pokemon is certainly at a disadvantage compared to a highly-trained one, but can come out on top with a little luck.
Pokemon are defined mostly through their moves and abilities-- no complicated level-based progressions or hidden variables.
Trainers each pick one iconic class, which gives them a unique mechanic to play, and a handful of moves and abilities they can teach to even Pokemon who don't normally learn them, and a short list of thematic special features (there's also a much longer list of generic features available to everyone)-- meaning that the Hiker, Super Nerd, and Cooltrainer will be guided towards, but not pigeonholed into, unique battle styles. They advance by gaining badges or other honors, with no experience tracking necessary.
I'm pretty proud of how it's turned out, but a few disclaimers before you download: this is an incomplete draft, with only a few classes and a subset of moves and abilities written up (though I'm happy to take requests). Also, it's not (currently, at least) really written as a stand-alone system, since my group is pretty familiar with STaRS. I quickly copied the "rules in brief" section from the base STaRS rulebook and tweaked it to match PokeSTaRS changes, but it might not be super-clear, so you'll probably want the original rules (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1_4DL66nbET_LoNrUcIReu4-b__iqwhEN/view?usp=sharing) on hand.
(And if you discover you really like said original rules, consider picking up the full (https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/268061/STaRS-The-Simple-Tabletop-Roleplaying-System)or lite (https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/268062/STaRS-The-Simple-Tabletop-Roleplaying-System-Lite-Edition?src=hottest_filtered)rulebook on DriveThruRPG; my poor empty piggy bank would sure appreciate it.