Pokésona Blue Version

[Dr.Gunsforhands]

Someone pinged me asking whether we were still going to do a second Pokésona game, and I said I was still waiting to see what parts of the Red Version formula worked. Yet, I did promise to make this game soonish, and if there is one thing about the Red formula I can already be sure about, it's that I have plenty of time to relax between posts. Enough to make a recruitment thread, at least!

The Premise:

The Dark Hour. A period of frozen time, taking place each night between 12:00 AM and 12:00:00:01. Some of you have experienced it almost every night since a certain small meteor struck Mt. Moon a few months ago. For others, this will be your first time seeing it.

For most other humans, the hour is imperceptible, since they are frozen in time along with everything else. Their bodies become ghostly silhouettes surrounding glowing, heart-shaped cores. The mountain in the distance sprouts crystalline towers and stairwells. Strange monsters in the forms of bats and fairies invade the city, more of them each night, and steal away people's hearts. When time resumes, these victims are left listless and affected, almost robotic, a condition termed White-Out Syndrome by doctors who don't know better.

As some of the few people who can see what's really going on, it's on you to fight back the monsters and shut down the mystery dungeon that seems to be spawning them. Though, it seems that they're not all bad, necessarily - each of you has a monster that comes to your aid whenever you need it, which is certainly helpful. Not very informative, though. You have a lot to investigate!

The System:

Pokémon Tabletop United. There will be no Blessed/Damned content available at character creation this time. (But let me know if you want to pursue something in that vein, and we might be able to make it work later on.)

The Setting:

This game takes place, at least theoretically, in the world of Pokémon. The geography is the same as the games, but the Pokémon themselves are not present. Stories of the legendary monsters are still retold, of course. They have even made virtual pets based on the monsters, which have become fairly popular despite complaints that they're sacrilegious. Some people venerate the monsters' memories through various traditions, while others deny that they ever existed. In any case, humanity has long been adapted to a world without them.

If you're a teenager, you're a student at Cerulean Academy, a high school in the North of your country's Kanto prefecture. If you're looking at an academic future, the best universities are in Celadon City and Saffron City, known for their colleges of botany and engineering, respectively. Modern transportation means these cities are only a short train ride away, kept running by a huge multi-modal power plant East of town.

Character Creation:

Create a sixth-level trainer; I'm open to a wide age range, but you're all certainly older than ten. If you're an athlete or martial artist, you're probably part of a school or club for such things; if you have supernatural abilities, they won't materialize except during the Dark Hour.

Create a 10th-level Pokémon as your starter. It's spiritually bound to you, is perfectly loyal, and can be summoned at will during the Dark Hour.

You'll also make three NPC social links:

- Name one person who you see in your everyday life. You talk to them at least a few times a week. Who are they, where do you spend time together, and what do you do together?
- Name one person who's an acquaintance, but you don't know them as well. You see them maybe once a week. Now that you have this dungeon thing to deal with, it occurs to you that this person provides a service or sells something that might be helpful. What is it?
- Your country is home to three secret societies that know about the Dark Hour: the religious Pokémon League, the criminal Team Rocket, and the shadiest division of Silph Co. Whether you know it or not, you happen to know someone with a connection to one of these societies. Who is this person to you, and what is one fun fact about the secret society they're connected to?

[MCerberus]

*quickly hides the poking stick*
no comment.


Anyway, going to need to change some backstory and relationships since the current setup involves a character that may or may not be in this version
Monty - Dark specialist, support and team tactics. Not dealing with grief well

Survey stuff -

Name: Renault "Monty" Montblanc
Arcana: Tower
Background: A relatively new transfer student that was moved over to live with his aunt after his parents died in an accident en route to visiting family in Kalos. While normally proactive and outgoing he's in a really bad place, in a new place and faced with intrusive thoughts that it wasn't an accident.
Everyday Life: Charlie... Charlie makes him laugh, which is probably the only thing keeping Monty above-water, so the speak. Assigned to the same study hall, Charlie is the only one that's really been able to get through his shell. They don't really hang out much outside of school, with Charlie busy with her band and active social life. The two still get up to the occasional mischief.
Acquaintance: Scott is one of the regulars at the gym where Monty goes to blow off steam. They talk occasionally but never see each other outside of the occasional running into each other. However, Scott's dad did go through a recent "prepper" kick and now is trying to get rid of his folly (rations, clean water, first aid supplies)
Secret Society: Aunti Lizz is part of the League religion. Fun fact - there are competing faction. Lizz is 'speaker to the flame prophet' of the 'children of dome' faction.

[Buufreak]

I know almost nothing about persona, and even less about the ptu, but I know plenty about pokemon, so much so I regularly dunk on my students. What do I need to generally get started, because the concept sounds interesting.

[Dr.Gunsforhands]

Welcome! I guess someone really should make a starter kit for this game.

Here is the list of rule books. It's fan-made, so they're free to download. You really only care about the core rulebook (for almost everything) and a Pokédex (to look up your starter). You can also maybe look at Game of Throhs if you want your trainer to be throwing magic of their own. The system sorts things into classes to help define your character, but it's not really class-based; it's more about picking your trainer's Edges and Features each level.

Here is the fancy semi-automated sheet. Go to File -> Make a Copy to create a copy that you can edit and save for yourself. It lets you list all of your features and moves, and it brings up reminder text and damage calculations to make it a little easier to keep track of. The designers tried to incorporate every single mechanic in the games in some form or another, so... there's a lot.

As for Persona, if the premise in my opening post didn't make you walk away, you don't really need to know more about it. Anyone expecting perfectly-analogous stories or systems will only end up getting angry at me.

[Llyarden]

A question - could I make up some Poltchageist stats? Even the homebrew Paldea dexes I've found don't include the DLC Pokemon. (I'm assuming Ghost-type starters are allowed since it wasn't restricted in the OP, but if not never mind.) Not really a big deal if not, I just think the lil matcha friends are cute.

[ProgressPaladin]

I’m aiming to create a student who wants to become an engineer, and I want to use the mentor class. Instead of Pokémon Education, may I use Technology Education?

[Kareeah_Indaga]

Registering interest. Don’t have time to roll up a character ATM but considering a college student who’s a bit of a prepper (probably Celadon, Grass) or an adult whose career has something to do with security (Dragons).

[Ricka Draws]

Interested, I'm making a commander cheerleader, maybe psychic or something to give the character some flavor

[ProgressPaladin]

Background: Fletcher has always wanted to be a scientist. From elementary school, he's been hardworking and curious, always wanting to learn more about each topic. But when his mom died of cancer, he set his track on medicine. He wanted to help people with the same problems, and cure other diseases. He moved to Saffron City, where he got a scholarship to the University involving his research of medicine patches, which would make medicine cheaper and safer to use in higher concentrations on patients. Since then, he's been working long hours, researching and studying, hoping to solve problems.

Everyday Life: Prof. Claire is Fletchers mentor. She has helped him through his research, and guided him through tough times. Fletcher owes his success with the patches to Claire, and they are slowly becoming friends, which Fletcher definitely needs.

Acquaintance: Ryan Uptmore is a classmate who occasionally studies with Fletcher. He used to be someone he could talk to, but lately he’s been acting strange, almost… emotionless.

Secret Society: Prof. Claire is working for Team Rocket and wants to use the Patches to deliver performance enhancers at a high price. Fun Fact: Team
Rocket wants to establish a monopoly on the performance enhancer business.

[Dr.Gunsforhands]

A question - could I make up some Poltchageist stats? Even the homebrew Paldea dexes I've found don't include the DLC Pokemon. (I'm assuming Ghost-type starters are allowed since it wasn't restricted in the OP, but if not never mind.) Not really a big deal if not, I just think the lil matcha friends are cute.

I was about to ask why you couldn't just use the Sinistea stats, but then I looked them both up on Bulbapedia. You still needn't make anything up, their base stats are identical to Sinistea's and their moves and abilities can be pulled directly from the games:

Spoiler

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1 Astonish
1 Withdraw
1 Stun Spore
6 Absorb
12 Life Dew
18 Foul Play
24 Mega Drain
30 Hex Ghost
36 Rage Powder
42 Giga Drain
48 Shadow Ball
54 Memento
60 Leaf Storm

PTU doesn't have Hospitality as an ability and I don't trust myself to balance it, so you can either give it one of Polteageist's abilities or give it Heatproof.

I’m aiming to create a student who wants to become an engineer, and I want to use the mentor class. Instead of Pokémon Education, may I use Technology Education?

I don't think so. Tech Ed doesn't make much sense with what Mentor is trying to do. I do like Fletcher so far, so hopefully it won't kill him to be good at two things?

[Xavion]

It doesn't look like it's come up yet and I don't think it was officially errata'd, just recommended to be removed so I'll ask.

Does BSR apply?

[ProgressPaladin]

Oh, I abandoned that idea once I saw researcher.
I forgot to post the sheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets...rFA03Av0E/edit

[Llyarden]

To be honest I was going to call Hospitality the high ability anyway so it wouldn't matter yet, but I was figuring it would just be, like, 1/scene as a swift action heal 25% of an adjacent ally's HP.

Anyway, here's the beginnings of Paton, currently thinking that he has grown up in a family that very strongly worship whatever religion the League is.

[Argus0]

Definitely interested! Will draw something up

[Kareeah_Indaga]

Roland is obviously still in progress but I want to make sure the sheet is accessible.

Background: A part of the Saffron City police force for a couple of years now, he is currently on paid leave after he reported having strange dreams involving seeing monsters roving around at night and shadow people with glowing hearts - assumed to be trauma related by his therapist. His fiancée fell victim to White Out Syndrome shortly after the meteor strike: she is sufficiently listless that she stopped taking care of herself and is currently in long term care.
Daily Contact: Don't have one yet.
Weekly Contact: Roland's work therapist, Lara Midia to whom he goes for therapy about once a week. She's the one who recommended him for leave. She hunts for interesting rocks in her spare time - geodes, agates, occasionally pans for gold - mostly she just finds curiosities and she hasn't struck it rich yet, but it's a hobby she enjoys. She also has good general knowledge of the surrounding area where said rocks are found, such as campsites and lesser-known trails, and a working knowledge of who to contact if you or a friend are stranded in said areas in need of assistance. Ask her how she knows!
Secret Faction: One of his other co-workers moonlights as an acolyte at the Sky Dragon's Aerie (church of Rayquaza) faction of the League religion. There's a rivalry between the Sky Dragon's Aerie and the Temple of Time (Dialga) over who is the One True Dragon - nothing serious, it's mostly things like the Temple trying to one-up the Aerie's number of donors at the annual blood drive, the Aerie deliberately scheduling their bake sale on the same day the Temple has their craft fair, that sort of thing.

[MCerberus]

Thinking since the characters here are skewing a bit older than the other version, thinking about bumping Monty up to college. Maybe with the ability spread and the setting... forestry?

[Lokyar]

Name: Nui Londalt *
Arcana: The High Priestess
Background: PreMed Aspirant (MedEdu++, Intution+)
Starter: Harrow the Litwick

Everyday Contact: (I - The Magician) Rex Colton, Nui's eternal rival for top of the class and the chaotic yang to her ordered yin. At least to hear their classmates describe them. In truth Nui and Rex have been study partners since high school, exchanging expertises in biology and organic chemistry, and they find the speculation of their peers alternatingly amusing and exhausting.

Acquaintance: (XVII - The Star) Tanya works at the small health and wellness shop where Nui buys protein shakes on the way to and from school. The punk goth girl frequently badmouths the mainstream pharmaceuticals that makes up most of the store's stock, but is oddly upbeat about their homegrown supplements and herbal tonics. (Herbal Restoratives, Herbs, and eventually Vitamins)

Secret Society: (VII - The Chariot) Nui's mother, Jade Londalt, works as a paralegal for Silph Co's marketing and legal department. Unknown to most Silph Co owns a non-controlling but significant share in most of the major television channels, not enough to dictate policies but it certainly doesn't hurt with pushing advertising and reporting on any new product lines.

Spoiler: Build Notes

Show

Nui is a Medic, Commander, Firebringer, and Ace Trainer (the last largely for lack of better options that fit the concept). They focus on active support in the form of healing and multiple orders, and in a big fight can apply Burn for DoT and reduced defense. They will later gain the ability to spread those Order bonuses to allies.

[Seandiggersby]

Definitely interested, this looks like it could be a fun game.

[Kareeah_Indaga]

Question! I'm looking at Athlete, and for prereqs it has listed: One of Athletic Prowess, Mounted Prowess, Power Boost, Stamina, or Swimmer - I'm not seeing Athletic Prowess listed as a feature, does it mean Athletic Initiative?

Thinking since the characters here are skewing a bit older than the other version, thinking about bumping Monty up to college. Maybe with the ability spread and the setting... forestry?

I don't know if I should even comment, since I'm new to the system, but I have no objections. I'm planning to make Roland a city person so having someone around that can keep him from sticking his foot into a bee hive sounds lovely.

[Lokyar]

I'm about 95% certain that's supposed to be Athletic Initiative since the other four are Athletics edges, and that's the only one not there.

[Dr.Gunsforhands]

It doesn't look like it's come up yet and I don't think it was officially errata'd, just recommended to be removed so I'll ask.

Does BSR apply?

Good question! The base stat relation rules don't apply to your starters. Pokémon you catch later will be built with those rules in mind, but you won't need to worry about them for subsequent level-ups.

(I keep wanting to try a house rule where BSR's don't apply to stats if they're affected by a pokémon's nature, but I suspect it'd be needlessly complicated and get the same results.)

Roland is obviously still in progress but I want to make sure the sheet is accessible.

Spoiler

Show

Background: A part of the Saffron City police force for a couple of years now, he is currently on paid leave after he reported having strange dreams involving seeing monsters roving around at night and shadow people with glowing hearts - assumed to be trauma related by his therapist. His fiancée fell victim to White Out Syndrome shortly after the meteor strike: she is sufficiently listless that she stopped taking care of herself and is currently in long term care.
Daily Contact: Don't have one yet.
Weekly Contact: Roland's work therapist, Lara Midia to whom he goes for therapy about once a week. She's the one who recommended him for leave. She hunts for interesting rocks in her spare time - geodes, agates, occasionally pans for gold - mostly she just finds curiosities and she hasn't struck it rich yet, but it's a hobby she enjoys. She also has good general knowledge of the surrounding area where said rocks are found, such as campsites and lesser-known trails, and a working knowledge of who to contact if you or a friend are stranded in said areas in need of assistance. Ask her how she knows!
Secret Faction: One of his other co-workers moonlights as an acolyte at the Sky Dragon's Aerie (church of Rayquaza) faction of the League religion. There's a rivalry between the Sky Dragon's Aerie and the Temple of Time (Dialga) over who is the One True Dragon - nothing serious, it's mostly things like the Temple trying to one-up the Aerie's number of donors at the annual blood drive, the Aerie deliberately scheduling their bake sale on the same day the Temple has their craft fair, that sort of thing.

Good thing you asked - the sheet is giving me Access Denied. You still need to set it to be viewable by everyone.

Oh, I abandoned that idea once I saw researcher.
I forgot to post the sheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets...rFA03Av0E/edit

You too. It should be the Share buton in the top right, at least on my browser.

To be honest I was going to call Hospitality the high ability anyway so it wouldn't matter yet, but I was figuring it would just be, like, 1/scene as a swift action heal 25% of an adjacent ally's HP.

Anyway, here's the beginnings of Paton, currently thinking that he has grown up in a family that very strongly worship whatever religion the League is.

Your sheet works!

Spoiler

Show

Name: Nui Londalt *
Arcana: The High Priestess
Background: PreMed Aspirant (MedEdu++, Intution+)
Starter: Harrow the Litwick

Everyday Contact: (I - The Magician) Rex Colton, Nui's eternal rival for top of the class and the chaotic yang to her ordered yin. At least to hear their classmates describe them. In truth Nui and Rex have been study partners since high school, exchanging expertises in biology and organic chemistry, and they find the speculation of their peers alternatingly amusing and exhausting.

Acquaintance: (XVII - The Star) Tanya works at the small health and wellness shop where Nui buys protein shakes on the way to and from school. The punk goth girl frequently badmouths the mainstream pharmaceuticals that makes up most of the store's stock, but is oddly upbeat about their homegrown supplements and herbal tonics. (Herbal Restoratives, Herbs, and eventually Vitamins)

Secret Society: (VII - The Chariot) Nui's mother, Jade Londalt, works as a paralegal for Silph Co's marketing and legal department. Unknown to most Silph Co owns a non-controlling but significant share in most of the major television channels, not enough to dictate policies but it certainly doesn't hurt with pushing advertising and reporting on any new product lines.

Spoiler: Build Notes

Show

Nui is a Medic, Commander, Firebringer, and Ace Trainer (the last largely for lack of better options that fit the concept). They focus on active support in the form of healing and multiple orders, and in a big fight can apply Burn for DoT and reduced defense. They will later gain the ability to spread those Order bonuses to allies.

So does yours! I suspect I'll have to work hard if I want to keep with you all.

[Lokyar]

(I keep wanting to try a house rule where BSR's don't apply to stats if they're affected by a pokémon's nature, but I suspect it'd be needlessly complicated and get the same results.)

Conversely I've considered trying out a house rule where you don't assign your points, they're automatically assigned based on base stat ratios (ie if your BSR was something like 10 attack and 5 in everything else your points would automatically assign until you have 2 atk for every 1 point in everything else), and would probably give some bonus points to balance out the loss of efficiency.

It sounds complicated but it would just involve me re-coding the pokemon sheet to do it behind the scenes so there's no player side requirement (less than normal in fact, even reduces the effort in statting out enemy pokemon), and you don't get rage demon builds where every point is dropped into offense with some trait to ensure a round or two of survival. Or even just the rocket tag conundrum of higher level pokemon, and it would make DB a bit more important. Also makes Natures and other things that change base stats (like Vitamins) potentially game changing.

[Kareeah_Indaga]

I'm about 95% certain that's supposed to be Athletic Initiative since the other four are Athletics edges, and that's the only one not there.

Okay thank you, that's what I thought.

Good thing you asked - the sheet is giving me Access Denied. You still need to set it to be viewable by everyone.

Is it working now? It's hard for me to test since it works for me regardless.

[Lokyar]

Works for me.

btw, at a quick glance:

• You have Athletic Initiative under your Athlete features, it's an Edge. Which means you have one feature left to choose.
• You get bonus edges at Level 2 and 6, which can be any skill edge other than the new level of rank ups you get access to. So one Novice and one Adept (or non-rank up like Enhancement or Stunt). Since you need one edge for Athletic Initiative you could move one of your Novice and Adept rank ups into there and still have one to choose.
• You also get one bonus General Feature for Level 5, or a boost to your Attack or Special Attack (currently 3). If you choose the later you'd put the number into the Att or SpAtt column (E/F-33) and it'll add it to your stats.

[ProgressPaladin]

So sorry, mine should work now.

[Kareeah_Indaga]

Do we have starting funds, and if so how much?

Also I'm leaning towards one of the wait staff at the local coffee shop to be Roland's 'Daily' contact but it's not set in stone yet.

Works for me.

btw, at a quick glance:

• You have Athletic Initiative under your Athlete features, it's an Edge. Which means you have one feature left to choose.
• You get bonus edges at Level 2 and 6, which can be any skill edge other than the new level of rank ups you get access to. So one Novice and one Adept (or non-rank up like Enhancement or Stunt). Since you need one edge for Athletic Initiative you could move one of your Novice and Adept rank ups into there and still have one to choose.
• You also get one bonus General Feature for Level 5, or a boost to your Attack or Special Attack (currently 3). If you choose the later you'd put the number into the Att or SpAtt column (E/F-33) and it'll add it to your stats.

Thank you! I still need to pick between stats and a bonus Feature, but I think the rest is fixed/filled out.

[Seandiggersby]

Here is a work in progress sheet and background for Opal Sinclair

Spoiler: Sheet

Show

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets...it?usp=sharing

Spoiler: Background and Social Links

Show

Background: Opal is an aspiring journalist and a student at safron city university. She is a dedicated member of the student newspaper, titled the Safron Star, and is eager to find some big story that will kick off her career as a professional reporter. She is a particularly gifted reporter thanks to her wit and charm which she uses expertly to get information out of people.

One night when Opal was out late, the same night that the meteor struck Mt moon, she experienced the dark hour for the first time. To say the experience frightended and confused her would be an understatement but what was even worse was what awaited her when she returned to her dorm room. She found her roomate and close friend Abigail afflicted with what Doctors would soon start calling white-out syndrome. Opal knows that there has to be a connection between the strange hour she experienced and the white-out syndrome, it couldn't ne a coincidence. At least that's what her journalistic instincts tell her. She is determined to use her talents to get to the bottom of this mystery and hopefully find a cure for her friend.



Social Links:

Daily:

Weekly:

Secret Society: Marco, one of Opal's fellow reporter's for the student paper is also experiencing the dark hour but hasn't been keeping their experience as close to the chest as Opal. While they know they'd be called crazy and probably kicked off the paper if he tried to get anything about it published there, he has been posting about it anonymously online which has gotten the attention of silph co. who is eager to learn more about the phenomenon so that they can figure out how to profit from it. Silph co. has payed Marco and other's they have found who experience the darkest hour a large sum of money to investigate hat goes on during the hour and learn more about the monsters. Marco is also somewhat of a rival to Opal, the two often trying to beat the other to the next big story. She is still resentful of him for getting to the recent doping scandal in the college swim team before her.

[Ricka Draws]

Kinda busy lately, will try to get back at character creation, thing is, I don't like my character anymore x.x

May start all over again

[ProgressPaladin]

When do you plan on choosing players?

[ProgressPaladin]

Is this still alive?