Pokémon: I Want To Be the Very Best Group One

[Paladin12]

OOC thread
Link to IC https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?661942-Pok%E9mon-I-want-to-be-the-very-best-Group-1-(UK)
(Rule Interlinking Threads)

[BaconTomato]

Question for Paladin12: Will we be handling characterising/RPing our own pokemon (once caught), or are you the kind of GM who'd like to RP our pokemon for us as we interact with them?

[Paladin12]

At times I will roleplay them, but you can also whenever.

[BaconTomato]

Ahem - your IC thread link in the first post currently goes to group two's thread.

[Paladin12]

So sorry, fixing that now.

[Lettuce]

Hey you lot! Can't wait to play a great game with you. I just thought I'd say hi in the OoC thread and set up some of the groundwork for a quick discussion, just to make sure we're all on the same page going in to our adventure.

Mainly:


1) What what we want our intraparty dynamic to look like? Rivals; bosom buddies almost immediately; growing into each other and becoming a better team over time like in OotS?

2) How do you feel about having any classes in common with each other? Should that be avoided at all costs?

3) How much do we want to focus on roleplay with each other vs combat and GM-led story?

4) How do we all feel about in-character arguments? Avoided at all cost; embraced fully, somewhere in-between?

5) Any topics you'd prefer none of us touch (outside of the ones already banned by the forum rules)?

Personally, I'm pretty flexible on everything and really just want to have a good time. :smallredface:


Also, here's our slice of the table I made earlier so we can easily find and reference each other's character sheets!:



Player
Character
Pokémon
Starting Classes


BaconTomato
Jill Blanc (https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/11qz5NceVkt8367DZNRmB2xIizSnSjzX3oEJb9he9b14), 15
Spheal (Water/Ice)
Juggler; Capture Specialist


Lettuce
Dash Greyson (https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1QxdDTK3n8V1LnHy0F3tgHx3uQGFuxeFHR8xYrPp4Z_s), 16
Wurmple (Bug)
Taskmaster; Type Ace (Bug)


Thunder999
Jonathon (https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Rr0BSLQXwmxVm9fDc1zZ1cZyjRZiGu4Gm5PPfOoRakc), 17
Popplio (Water)
Ace Trainer, Duelist, Commander

[BaconTomato]

1) Not much opinion. Mainly I guess I'd prefer to not have a specific end state in mind to work towards (as the "becoming a better team over time" option implies). I'd say let's just throw our characters at each other and whatever dynamic happens, happens.
2) Definitely don't care.
3) I lean towards "one post per player per preceding GM-post", roleplay included. But I'm open. I'd rather not be expected to post back and forth a bunch of times in a day, though.
4) I guess I'd say "have arguments when it makes sense" (as will surely be the case occasionally), "but keep them briefish." Presumably we're all mature enough to not interepret in-character attacks as out-of-character dislike, etc. If anything gets too heated we can always clarify our intent here in the OoC thread.
5) Nope.

[Paladin12]

2) How do you feel about having any classes in common with each other? Should that be avoided at all costs?
This is fine, other than specialist classes, such as types.
3) How much do we want to focus on roleplay with each other vs combat and GM-led story?
There will not be much GM driven story, as this is a league romp.
4) How do we all feel about in-character arguments? Avoided at all cost; embraced fully, somewhere in-between?
Somewhere in between. Keep them brief
5) Any topics you'd prefer none of us touch (outside of the ones already banned by the forum rules)?
No killing is a rule. Do not think this has to be said in a league romp.

[Thunder999]

So justy FYI, you linked to this thread as the OOC for both in the recruiting thread.


Hey you lot! Can't wait to play a great game with you. I just thought I'd say hi in the OoC thread and set up some of the groundwork for a quick discussion, just to make sure we're all on the same page going in to our adventure.

Mainly:


1) What what we want our intraparty dynamic to look like? Rivals; bosom buddies almost immediately; growing into each other and becoming a better team over time like in OotS?

2) How do you feel about having any classes in common with each other? Should that be avoided at all costs?

3) How much do we want to focus on roleplay with each other vs combat and GM-led story?

4) How do we all feel about in-character arguments? Avoided at all cost; embraced fully, somewhere in-between?

5) Any topics you'd prefer none of us touch (outside of the ones already banned by the forum rules)?

Personally, I'm pretty flexible on everything and really just want to have a good time. :smallredface:


1) No particular goal, the way I see it we're meeting for the first time, presumably travelling together and we'll see how the dynamics work out as we RP.

2) Really not an issue in PTU, most classes only really interact with your own pokemon so overlap wouldn't be an issue.

3) Our GM hath spoken before I posted.

4) No objections here if they make sense, I doubt it'll come up much from what I see of our characters.

5) Nothing comes to mind, particularly not with League romp as the tone.

[Lettuce]

Seems like we're broadly on the same page! That's good. That all works for me too.

The one thing I'll chip in with, regarding 'arguments'-- given my PC is a Taskmaster, the way he trains his Pokemon might be a bit controversial, especially in the early game. I'm cool with other characters being surprised or upset with the way he treats his squad-- heck, it's arguably important for his character growth. Similarly, I think I'm fine with our characters arguing or being mad at each other occasionally so long as we're ultimately still all on the same team and can pull together and don't let it bog us down.

Right, and another practical question for the GM and other players: Would you like us to colour our spoken dialogue, to make it easier to find/read/see if you want to respond to it? I know some groups do this and some don't. Glancing through the in-progress games on this forum, there doesn't seem a clear convention for GitP as a whole, so how do you guys feel?

[BaconTomato]

I certainly have nothing against colouring our dialogue, personally.

[Thunder999]

I'm fine with the colour thing.

If we do I think I'll take this one, Gold FFD700

[Lettuce]

I'll use 00993D green.

[BaconTomato]

I'll use this purple, 800080. The relative roundness of all of the numbers in the hex code seems appropriate for Jill. :smalltongue:

[BaconTomato]

I'll point out that part of why I haven't posted yet is that Jill will be arriving later still than Dash, so it seems to make sense to hold off a bit. Just making sure people aren't waiting for me or anything.

Also: After noticing the ruling that we can optionally choose to use stuff from the Editation, and meant to use specifically the Editation version of Juggler... and then entirely forgot to do anything about it before the game thread started, ahem. Mind if I still do that? Pretty small tweak, basically means I get one extra Feat (Editation-Juggler's "You Deserve A Rest").

EDIT: ...Also also, a belated question. From Capture Specialist I gave Jill the Curve Ball mechanic, the entire purpose of which is for Jill personally to perform ranged Struggle Attacks whenever she throws a pokeball (outside of League Rules matches, obviously). But given you banned Trainer Combat classes for this campaign, it struck me I should maybe ask if even Curve Ball is okay - or if you specifically don't want the Trainers here to contribute to combat at all​.

[Paladin12]

This is fine, just against wild Pokémon.

[Thunder999]

I never gave an exact time, do we want to have other people turn up? Woudln't want to leave BaconTomato and Lettuce out.

[Paladin12]

Yeah, we want everyone to turn up.

[Lettuce]

Yeah, I think we just kinda ended up with our wires crossed about how this first scene was going to play out! I think I figured we'd be meeting NPCs after we all arrived rather than when the first person did, or we'd all meeting different NPCs (like a whole rival team of three) so it didn't precisely matter when exactly we each arrived so long as we were all there by 8.

Ah well, it'll hopefully get easier after this. :smalltongue:

[BaconTomato]

I'd originally been figuring that Jill would arrive just before 08:00, but I can very easily adjust what I've written to have her arrive in the middle of the current IC conversation. Posting soon, as such.

Speaking of which, I'm going to be using This shade of purple labelled "Plum" (hex DDA0DD) for things expressed by my pokemon.

Meanwhile, here's a relevant question about the projected arc of the campaign: We're in Kanto. Are we using the same Gyms as in the gen 1 games, and what order are we tackling the Gyms in? In the games the only reason Viridian isn't done first is because of Giovanni shenanigans, which I would assume doesn't apply here. Seems like the kind of thing our characters might talk about. (And it also means we can prep our squads accordingly, of course.)

...Come to that, if you don't mind me asking: When is the campaign set, relative to the games? Is the original Professor Oak still around? Etc.

[Paladin12]

The campaign is set 20 years after red and blue, and no the, the gyms are not the same. The gyms will not always just focus on a type, for example a theme, or a stat. There will be a gym in Viridian. I am sorry if I did not make this clear before this. Also, I am new to role play, so compared to all of you, my posts may be short, as I do not know how to role play using pbp, I hope to get better at this in the future.

[Thunder999]

Can we apply our Training features before we battle? They're pretty important to most classes.

[Paladin12]

Yes, we can.

[Thunder999]

Just so it's all in one convenient post, and assuming league rules

Lyra has 15 Speed, Jonathon has 10, Dash has 10 and Jill has 14 we declare trainer actions in this order:

Jonathon=Dash>Jill>Lyra.

Then we actually take those actions in the opposite order.
(Lyra>Jill>Dash=Jonathon)

Jill's Spheal Div and my Popplio Poppy both have 9 initiative (5+agility training), Dash's Wurmple Beauty has 2, Ruki the Ninetails has 12, Treble the Cyndaquil has 11, and Lily the Lotad has 4.

So after the trainers act the pokemon go in this order:
Ruki>Treble>Div=Poppy>Lily>Beauty

I'll declare Jonathon's actions, he's going to Tag Treble as a swift action, then use Agility Training as an Order to boost Poppy's initiative all the way to 14 this round, allowing him to go probably go first.

Also which type of Ninetails is Ruki?

[Paladin12]

We are actually not doing initiative like that. We are doing initiative as though it is a full contact battle, because in pbp, that would take much too long. So Lyra would go first, then Ruki, then Treble, then Jill, then Jonatan and Dash, then Div and Poplio, then Lily, then Beaty.
To resolve speed ties, roll a d20, whoever gets the highest goes first.
Riki is an Alolan Ninetales. I will be driving up to Oklahoma for thanksgiving, so I will not be able to post for a few hours.

[BaconTomato]

Um-- Jill has 14 speed but also the Dynamism Edge (with 3 Guile). Shouldn't that make her initiative 17?

Given I only have a single pokemon, my Juggler feats obviously don't do much yet (unless I can recall and send out Div in the same round to keep him on the field, but I believe normally that's not allowed). So since I can't really do anything with my turn other than use my Agility Training as Orders, Div will effectively be running at +8 initiative for the length of the battle, for 13 initiative total. It might be less complicated just to note 13 as being Div's initiative for the initiative order now, since it won't ever change.

Paladin, where do you want us to roll dice? In the IC game thread, in a topic in the dice rolls forum to keep down clutter, or someplace else? I'm assuming we're using the forum commands for this.

[Paladin12]

IC would be great. Yes, Those both are true.

[Thunder999]

Just realised I never replied. I am paying attention, just waiting for faster people.

[Lettuce]

Likewise!

My post apparently needs to be longer for character limit reasons, so I guess since Paladin12 established that we're doing the 'full contact battle' initiative rules for ALL battles, I'll update us for at-a-glance turn order. Correct me if I'm wrong, but this battle will be:

(17) Jill
(15) Lyra
(14) Poppy the Popplio if Agility Training is applied as an Order
(13) Div the Spheal if Agility Training is applied as an Order
(12) Ruki the Alolan Ninetales
(11) Treble the Cyndaquil
(10) Jonathon
(10) Dash
(10) Poppy the Popplio if Agility Training ISN'T applied as an Order
(9) Div the Spheal if Agility Training ISN'T applied as an Order
(4) Lily the Lotad
(2) Beauty the Wurmple

I think the rulebook on p58 say Orders are Priority actions, so we Trainers should be able to declare them at the start of the round regardless? (Presumably in the order Jill -> Lyra -> Jonathon == Dash.) And we can take the rest of our turns on the normal initiative count if we have more actions (like Jonathon using Duelist to Tag opponents with his Swift Action).

Strictly speaking Dash/Jonathon/Poppy also need to do a roll-off since they're all tied at 10. We're all teammates though, so it likely doesn't matter a whole lot what order we go in. And I'm happy to go either before/after both Jonathon + Poppy, just so that way they have the option to take their turn together in the same post, and speed up the battle. Dash isn't going to be doing much other than using Brutal Training anyway (which again is a Priority Action and won't take place at (10) anyway) and some Free Actions along the way that don't correlate with his turn either.

That reminds me of another rules question I have:


In a pinch, any Trainer may spend 1 Action Point as a free action before making an Accuracy Roll or Skill Check to add +1 to the result. This cannot be done more than once per roll. This can be used to modify your Pokémon’s Accuracy or Skill Checks as well as your own!
I know that by popular convention (and including at every table I've ever played at) this is waived to a player being able to spend their AP after seeing the results of any given roll, rather than before it as per RAW. It prevents someone from spending their AP to no effect if an attack misses anyway. How would you like it, Paladin12?

[Thunder999]

Oh yeah, orders are all Priority [Limited]

I'm going to wait on what Lyra does before giving orders, since I'll do Agility training is she can't boost her pokemon's initiative, but if she can then I'll probably go Focused instead for that accuracy.

[Paladin12]

After rolled is fine. I will be doing inspired training.

[Lettuce]

Okay, awesome!

And um, you know it's Lyra who's next in the initiative count, right, Paladin? If you've decided what she's doing, is there a reason you haven't posted about Inspired Training in the IC thread for the battle? Is there something you're waiting on from one of us? (Or have I derped out and overlooked something?)

Or if you're caught on something ruleswise, I get the distant impression that we three players aren't wholly new to the PTU system, so if there's something you're puzzling over in the PDFs, we'd be happy to help work through it with you! (Or well, at least I would be.) The devs haven't exactly written everything in the clearest way, heh.

[Thunder999]

Sorry about this, I was wrong to say double, it's only 1.5x for super effective, I always forget it's different.

Resisted is half though. so 21-8=13, 13/2=6, 6 damage to Poppy, and Speed down 1 CS though that doesn't actually change anything.

[BaconTomato]

...If I'd known the Cyndaquil wasn't actually Fainted, I would probably have attacked them to finish them off rather than use Defense Curl. So what are this campaign's rules for retcons going to be, in general? Should people be given a chance to react? Etc.

EDIT: Meanwhile - in general, are we planning to acknowledge positioning in any way in this campaign's battles? When it was established we woudln't be using battle maps, I kinda assumed we'd be using the Abstracted Combat Distances approach on page 233 of the core pdf - but people just haven't been addressing the concept of positioning at all so far. Is that going to be the standard?

[Paladin12]

Yes, this will be standard. Yes, if a mistake is made, you can retcon. (Poor treble)

[BaconTomato]

If you're including mistakes made by others in that, then I guess I'll change Div's action to using Water Gun on the Cyndaquil to finish them off? (Which would, then, in turn, result in Beauty not getting KO'd...)

[Lettuce]

So, um, what's the ruling on this...? I need to know if I'm calculating damage for my Wurmple.

(Pretty sure they're not quite Fainted either way though, Bacon. Beauty is a tough l'il Buggie!)

[Paladin12]

Ruling Is treble was taken out before he could shoot the ember.

[Lettuce]

Wheee, first crit of the game!

I was a little unsure how to format the post with the additional die roll. Is what I did okay, or would you prefer in future for us to add in the first damage roll to the die roll of the crit?

Put another way, what's better, A or B?:


A: Add (1d8+8)[16] to the above Damage Roll of 19 to get Tackle's final damage output! (<-- arguably more transparent / easier to follow what's happening)

B: Tackle's final damage output is now (1d8+27)[35]! (<-- less work for you)

Put a third way: Who do you nominate to do math? :smalltongue:

[Paladin12]

We will go with option A

[BaconTomato]

Wow, those are some lucky rolls, Lettuce.

Onwards to turn 2! I hope you don't mind, but I've taken the liberty of updating your initiative count from last page now that Treble's been knocked out. I like having an easy list to refer to.



Initiative Count for Battle 1 (vs Lyra in Pallet Town): Turn 2


(17) Jill
(15) Lyra
(14) Poppy the Popplio if Agility Training is applied as an Order
(13) Div the Spheal if Agility Training is applied as an Order
(12) Ruki the Alolan Ninetales
(11) Treble the Cyndaquil
(10) Jonathon
(10) Dash
(10) Poppy the Popplio if Agility Training ISN'T applied as an Order
(9) Div the Spheal if Agility Training ISN'T applied as an Order
(4) Lily the Lotad
(2) Beauty the Wurmple

[Paladin12]

Oh thank god!

[Thunder999]

That amounts to 10 damage on Poppy, though I think we skipped Div.

[Lettuce]

Yeah, well, you know how it is. I have to use up all of my luck now when it's not super important, so I can roll nothing but 1s when we're in the middle of our Gym Challenge! :smallbiggrin:

I appreciate your turn order table, Bacon. It really can get confusing trying to remember who goes when (like how we just skipped Div's turn accidentally). I wonder if it'd be helpful to colour code the list-- either in our Trainer's speech-colours, or maybe colouring all Pokémon and Trainers in two distinct colours. Or would it be more helpful to post it in the IC thread (or in both places)? If anyone has any preferences there about what would help them, I can gen an updated table for next round. (Or Bacon can, if they get there first!)

Also I hope you and Thunder don't mind I'm helping chip away at the Ninetales instead of the Lotad, even though the latter has a Grass Move... given they have Absorb, I figured that most damage I'd deal to them would just get healed back if we weren't all focusing on them at the same time, to try to outpace their draining.

[BaconTomato]

The recent instance of Poppy missing Ruki reminds me: Paladin12, since you ruled earlier on that you'll be allowing AP to be spent to boost rolls after the result of the roll is otherwise known. With that in mind, you are going to be telling us when we've just-barely-missed and have an opportunity to do that, right? Since on our own we don't know what an NPC pokemon's Evasion is, and so have no way of knowing how much we've missed by... :smalltongue:


...Also, could we maybe please all commit to posting all "combat calculations" in the IC thread? Going back and forth between the threads makes it rather difficult to follow.

[Lettuce]

Sure, and I'll even second Bacon's request. I'm likewise a big fan of organisation and clean recordkeeping.

Edit to add an additional thought for Paladin:

This may just be a stylistic thing, but I know a lot of GMs like to describe what the exchange of damage looks like to our characters. We players obviously shouldn't have clairvoyance on the stats of our opponents or anything, but getting a little bit of feedback on our actions can helpful in keeping us on the same page about the shape of the battle. E.g. "The incoming attack knocks the wind out of the Cyndaquil, leaving them obviously bruised and worse for the wear" might give us a sense that they've taken an Injury, or "The attack lands, but leaves little more than a scratch on their arm" might tell us that we didn't manage to deal too much damage overall. Or if an attack misses, you might say things like either "They dive out of the way in the nick of time and dodge the Water Gun by a hair" or "They nimbly dance around the incoming Water Gun, making it look effortless". It's a miss either way, but it gives us a little more insight as to how much we missed by, and that can give us a better idea about how to approach subsequent attacks on them as we learn more about the fight. It gives us players an abstract understanding of what's going on, and that can help us recalibrate if something is unexpected. (Oh, that opponent seems kinda built like a wall; maybe we should focus on this other attacker first! Rather than just slamming against them over and over without really knowing.) And recalibrations like that make tactics more interactive and nuanced than just following the Type Chart. It's also just more fun to picture. :smallwink:

I hope you don't take this as criticism, just friendly advice, since you seem really interested in trying to improve! (Which is the literal best trait you can have in a GM, btw. Also probably the best trait to have in general as a person!) Either way I've been having a good time playing this game. It's really fun to be a player again!

[Thunder999]

I think you must have messed up the roll somehow, it's just showing roll0 and roll1

[Thunder999]

It kind of seems like our GM has just vanished, Paladin12 hasn't been online in ages.

[Lettuce]

Yeah... I don't think he's posted in the other group's thread lately either.

I hope he's doing okay. He took on a lot of work for a first time GM. Even running a game for one group can be a huge mental load to bear. When he gets back, maybe we can ask if he thinks there's anything we can do to make his job easier.

I hope he's just busy with the December holidays and real life stuff. But even if the game can't continue, it'd be good to know he's all right.