Pokemon Tabletop United

POKEMON

Map & Locations:

Town Summaries

Players List:

Schazer as Theo Foreman
Bigro as Maurry Nando Nandando
Mirdini as Ylva Vikstål
Loather as Caroline Williams
NotTheAuthor as Lucian Mandragora
Aves as Ivy Amaranth!

House Rules:

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Spoiler
Apart from the first two, these are all simply type changes from X and Y that are not in the official PTU rulebook yet.

• Trainer AP resets at the end of every battle rather than per "extended rest" (but also after every Extended Rest).
  
• Flying Pokemon are Resistant to Ground attacks instead of Immune, however:
  
• Any pokemon currently flying or using a levitate movement capability is immune to moves with the "Groundsource" keyword, which covers all but nine ground moves, three of which are only learned by the Cubone family.
  
• Steel Pokemon do not resist Dark and Ghost, unless it is from a secondary type
  
• Electric Pokemon cannot be Paralysed
  
• Grass Pokemon are immune to the effects of "Spore" moves
  (Sleep Powder, Stun Spore, Cotton Spore, Rage Powder, Spore, Worry Seed, or Poison Powder)
  
• Ghost Pokemon are immune to the effects of the "Trapped" and "Stuck" status effects
  
• Tripped targets have -2 to Speed Evasion because it's silly that gives no penalty.
  

Other Stuff:

Official IRC channel is #eaglemon if you want to chat, so that we don't annoy people in the actual #eagletime channel

Original OP:

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Spoiler
It's been a while since the last two pokemon tabletop campaigns and what with X and Y, it doesn't seem like the community has managed to escape the vicegrip of pokemon fever quite yet. And I've always wanted to try my hand at GMing, so here we are! Another attempt at play by post pokemon tabletop. I've even recruited Solaris as my beautiful assistant to poke me repeatedly if I'm slow at updating.


So, what's this all about?


(There's a short summary of each town's gimmick here, in case you want it for character background purposes)

Our game takes place in the beautiful, geographically improbable land of Regisalam, which as the map might imply has a strong historic connection with a certain group of legendary pokemon, who are said to have shaped the land itself into its current form (perhaps explaining why it seems to obey no known laws of climatology).
Once a land of three warring nations it was united under a common banner after a great catastrophe. Now, young aspirants from across the three kingdoms are sent on a pilgrimage to visit every corner of the continent in order to encourage unity and recognition of each land's individual strengths, rather than the jealousy that set them to fighting in the first place.

Which is where you come in!

As a citizen of one of the former three nations (the martial ice warriors of the north, artists and artisans of the west or inventors and free-thinkers of the east), or an outsider recently arrived, you've been given the opportunity to go on a some-expenses-paid trip around the continent! You get free food and beds in pokemon centres at every major stopping point, free public transport and even a not-unsubstantial cash grant to fund any supplies you might need to complete your trip. Having a fully-completed pilgrimage certificate is a boon to someone in any walk of life, not necessarily just the pokemon trainers that often take this route for easy access to the region's eight gyms.

For whatever personal reason (a fresh start, a good opportunity or a childhood dream), you felt like this was the thing for you and after passing the entrance exam (possibly not on your first attempt, but they can't just hand out money to any comer!) you've finally achieved your Official Pokemon Trainer's License, the first step on your journey, and have travelled to the Capital for today's presentation ceremony!
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So, how is this different from the previous pokemon tabletop games?
Well to start with, we're using the titular Pokemon Tabletop United system instead of the previous Pokemon Tabletop Adventures system. It's developed by the same community, as a response to several things that were seen as flaws in the original system.
A lot of the rules are largely similar but at the same time they're sort of different.
Damage bases are more streamlined, humans have the same stats and combat stages as pokemon, pokemon don't get a movepool of 12, and classes are less rigid and allow a greater level of mix-and-match. Personally I think it looks like a fair bit of an improvement, but it does mean that if you applied to a previous one and didn't get in but really really wanted to reuse your old profile you'll need to touch it up a bit.
It also alternates gaining features with gaining "Edges" which are like... mini features, with less impact than your big Feature choices. This lets you pick up things like "Rider" or "Pokeball Crafter" or "Get a bit better at running" without compromising on your class goals which I think is a nice addition.

The system does not yet have rules for Fairy Types and the various other changes in Pokemon X and Y, which are apparently going to be forthcoming some time in January. They also said that the new version might have fairly large changes in other areas too though, so while I'd like to be able to move to the new system as soon as it comes out we might just have to play the campaign as if we were playing Black and White. But we'll see when we get there!

Oh and on the subject of rules, the guidebook suggested a house rule of "Flying Pokemon are Resistant to Ground attacks instead of Immune, except for moves with the "Groundsource" keyword (like Magnitude and Earthquake)" which sounded good to me so we're arbitrarily doing that too.

What you'll probably want though is a link to the PDFs of the game system so that you can get acquainted and make a character.
The handbook is properly bookmarked so it should be fairly easy to navigate if you open that tab up!
Player's Handbook
Pokedex

If you want a personal copy you can download it from their site here, it also comes with a couple of splatbooks (based on weapons rules, advanced technology and legendary-themed player classes) which I wasn't planning on using but if you see something in them that particularly catches your eye I might be persuaded. Ditto if there is something on their forum's homebrew index that you think is far more enticing than the character choices on offer.

Also on top of that, while this is largely going to be a play-by-post roleplaying game like the other two, I was thinking about running the actual fights on a tabletop client called Roll20 in order to make them move faster, because let's be honest battles in a play by post system are glacial and trying to get it done in real time is going to make progress a lot faster. If the client doesn't meet approval we can just try IRC instead, but that looked like a really helpful visual tool.
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So I guess this is the important part, how do I sign up?
Well, obviously character sheets are going to be involved and I shall link a google document for you to make your own copy of below (google docs are very helpful for character sheets as they are easily accessed and edited!) but there's also some other things for your consideration.

Money: All the trainers are given a p5000 grant by the government as part of their pilgrimage. You can have a bit more or less if it fits your character background but that's the baseline.

Levels: All trainers start at level one, your pokemon can be somewhere from 8-12, if you have good justification for them being stronger than level 10 or if you want to say "they're a specially bred pokemon so they're a bit younger but I can get egg moves". Although you may want to note that egg moves also work slightly differently in this system and you won't get yours until your pokemon reaches level 20.

Character Background: You can have your character come from wherever on the continent or be someone who moved there recently/as a child/a second generation immigrant or whatever. Your character's birthplace might affect how NPCs (or other party members?) react to you though!

Starter Pokemon: You get one of these. Some good ground rules someone else gave me for starter pokemon were "No legendaries, pseudo-legendaries or pokemon with a base stat total higher than 42" so we can go with that. If you want to fluff it being a family pokemon that is fine, and if your character background is that couldn't be possible then the pokegovernment also hand out starter pokemon from a pool of shelter pokemon to new trainers who don't have one.

Classes: It's nice to know what people plan on making their character into when they sign up, so that we can have a good mix! You don't need to have your exact battle plan of which feature to buy when but a vague kind of idea of your character's role and goals is a good thing.

Desired Pokemon: If you can post a list of like, three to five pokemon you'd really like on your team I can try and make sure they appear at some point!

And finally... how many people are there going to be and how long do they have to sign up? To be honest I'm not 100% sure on how many people I'm going to end up accepting, it's going to depend on the number of signups that impress me but probably something in the region of four to six. Six is bordering on the edge of what I don't think I could easily manage.

This week is christmas and so people are obviously going to be busy, but at the same time I want to get started before my break ends and I go back to work. So I'm thinking... ten days is probably a good signup duration? So you have from today until the 2nd. That still only leaves me with about four days until I go back to work but that's better than none.
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So, character sheets!
The guide in the handbook about how to fill these out is pretty good I think, but if you have problems then ask me on IRC or in this topic and I'll try and give you a hand, it is quite a lot of information to process at once.

If you could make your own copy of this character sheet (File > Make a Copy), fill it in and then post it here with a sort description of your character concept then that would be grand.
Here's an example in case you get stuck. Make sure you set your sheet so that anyone with the link can view it!
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I think that is everything but there's almost certainly something I've forgotten to tell you! Please feel free to address any questions to me in this topic. Or on IRC. Either works.
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Edit:

Oh yeah two additional house rules which I just remembered, not particularly relevant now to :

Trainer AP resets every battle rather than per "extended rest", this is something they said they are planning to add in the next version of the rules anyway and it lets you feel a bit more confident in doing stuff.

Not really a house rule actually but reminder: you are not meant to know the pokedex inside out, but there is literally a stat for "knowledge about pokemon" which is "Education: Pokemon".
The more points you have in there the more lenient I'll be about metaknowledge, whereas if you take points out of it to put them elsewhere but can then recognise a pokemon's type on site then beware of falling rocks.
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edit the second:
Official IRC channel is #eaglemon if you want to chat, so that we don't annoy people in the actual #eagletime channel