Pokemon Tabletop United

"I mostly just watched, so I don't think it'd be fair to take credit. It was all Charlie and... Mick."
Caroline's face contorts as she tries to hide a smile.

Tucking Svava's pokeball back into her pack, Ylva nods at Theo. Having overheard the conversation by the counter, she makes her way back around the barrier to end up by the chattering nurse.

"I couldn't help overhearing that you're looking for someone to make a secure delivery? I-" Ylva notices Nando and Caroline have arrived in the Center "- we're heading out of town momentarily, packed rather lightly at that. It wouldn't be much trouble for me to make sure your delivery reaches its destination."

"You're from the cadets? Oh! No! The pilgrimage, I see!"
The nurse was unused to people wandering into his conversation and had blinked a couple of times before taking in Ylva's uniform, and then taken a couple of more seconds to put two and two together.

"Well I... I suppose we could just ask the recent pilgrimage to do it? They're probably trustworthy and they'd be heading that way eventually anyway, what do you think Bob?"
The man next to him shrugged, "You've already paid for the goods it doesn't really make all that much difference to me how they get there."

"Alright! Well, situation we're in is that there's a shelter for abandoned pokemon a little way off the track from the passage between Stonebark and Deeplode, and we usually make a contribution for medical supplies every six months or so.
Only Bob's kid usually makes the delivery for us and he's lost his license apparently, so we're a bit stuck at the moment.

It's not terribly urgent, I imagine six people on foot will make better progress than our one on his own would anyway, but the collection's a little fragile and also fairly expensive. I'm... not sure what we'd pay you with though. Any ideas Bob?"

Bob shrugged and shook his head, obviously less invested in this scheme as benefactor rather than "person you buy medical supplies from".

"Well I'm sure I can scrape up something by the time you've made it there and back, they usually have something for David when he arrives too although I'm not quite sure how they'd stretch that to a group. It'd be awfully kind of you."

"You misunderstand, I- we'd be doing you a disservice if we demanded payment. We're heading out that way anyway, it's the least we can do in return for the hospitality the regions are providing."

Almost sighing in relief at Lucian's absence, Ylva turns her head and stares at Nando and Caroline to preclude any possible disagreement. Theo's surely sensible enough not to object even without added 'encouragement'.

Lucian takes this opportunity to storm in, all disdain and fury and vacant staring somewhere to his left. Really not so much a storm as a strong breeze, come to think.

"Coming to think" is, in fact, what he seems to be doing right now, standing on the welcome mat (parsed in sarcasm quotes, to be sure) and looking around with growing bewilderment. He's coming to think that this is not the place he wanted to be, or for that matter a place he would ever want to be.

All that before he's even noticed You Lot! Or that Boxbot is sorta kinda blocking most of the entrance. He's too busy muttering incredulously to himself about architecture and civic planning for any of that.

Aaaaand it looks like it might be time to pause for a moment, because as forecast in the OP there is now a new version of the sourcebook available.
Also available on my dropbox if you don't want to download every sourcebook.
I haven't had time to read the whole thing yet but just skimming the changelog, effects pertaining to people's plans include Botanist being merged into Researcher and Ranger being split into two different classes. And a couple more classes were added, and most of the other classes were poked a bit, and the skills have changed slightly.

This evening I'm going to give the character sheets a look and see if anything has become impossible if we suddenly system update and then if it has I'll ask you what you want to do about it, if you're up to reading the stuff yourself and changing your plans then by all means go right ahead.

And also there's XY pokemon wooo

Ok so I've been rolling through everyone's profiles combing for things this updates has touched and here are my findings + suggestions for how to keep things pretty much as they were.
If anyone wants to do a bit of retconning at this point so they can change character trajectory though, that's totally fine. Find me on IRC or Skype or something.
I've already sneakily stuck some of the most obvious changes in your character sheets, except for NTA's who I don't think I have write access to.

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SpoilerFor Ylva, Aura Guardian's base feature got nerfed slightly
Ylva ranked down a skill that doesn't exist, as it was merged into tech education (might as well just move that -1 point to tech education though)
Ranger no longer exists (Survivalist instead? She has the prereqs and it seems like what you were going for)
Scouting Trek no longer exists? I'm asking for clarification from the writers on this one though because it is referenced in text in another part of the book, but you might just need to take another feature entirely
Svava gains a fairy type

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Caroline can't take Coaching yet, she'd need to have Defensive Line first
Also she needs the new feature "Agility Training" before she can take Athlete
Tentatively going to stick in those last two on your character sheet but if you look at them and don't like them then pick something else, it's not like you used the feature yet anyway

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Theo: See Ylva wrt Ranger/Scouting trek.
As you already know because you read the changes I'll also need you to pick an album. I'll let you keep your current sketches but they won't do anything until you pick up the requisite album feature again.

The rules for selling photos have vanished but I don't think you were really planning on doing that anyway, so if it's alright with you I'm just going to skip rolling for value unless you specifically say you are drawing something with the intent to sell it.

Also I didn't pick it up before but I don't think you're actually allowed to take a point out of attack to shift somewhere else, so I'm just assuming your base stat choices were +5 HP, +5 Speed for now.

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Nando's pretty much untouched really.

Science education doesn't exist to level down but that's easily moved to Tech education.
The stat tags on Musician are "[+SAtk][+A different stat]" so you need to lose on SAtk and gain one of anything else.

You get another musician talent but I'm p. sure you already told me you wanted Bardic Flair so that's sorted already. Feel free to look the list over and change them again if you'd like though.
You wanted Noise Complaint too but you can't have that until Rank 3, taking Musician just gives you a rank 1 talent not a rank of the Musical Training feature.

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Lucian needs to change literally nothing.
Elemental Connection is now a bonus to socialising with said pokemon rather than damage reduction, no need to change anything but the description though.

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Ivy's got the most problems;

Botany is no longer its own class, but instead there are Botanist and Herbology branches to the Researcher class.

Unfortunately, while the two features you had, Botanist (now just a standalone feature to grow herbs, shrooms and berries) and Seed Bags still exist they require an Adept rather than Novice survival education so you can't get them at level one because you need to be at least level two to level something up to adept. And you'll also need Medical Education to grow herbs.

My suggestion for plant specialist would be to move a point of Perception into Medical Education, then take Researcher/Herb Lore at level one. At level two you can take two edges so you can pick up Adept Survival to get Seed Bags or Botanist at level 3, and then get that point of Perception you had previously. As your third feature you could take Shared Senses from Channeler or First Aid (I'm sure some party members would appreciate having some free healing)

This'd get you back on track by level 5, but might not be what you wanted to do. If you want to re-examine your options and retcon yourself a bit more completely though (like, to another class or something) that would also be fine. I'm available most of the time if you want to chat about options.

I think I've poked all of you about the stuff you need to give me already, and Bigro/Loather/NTA/Schazer are already pretty much sorted out so that just leaves two of you who need to give me a couple of features each I think.
We'd boiled down general directions but not actually the specifics of what you are doing.

I guess we don't even need to hold anyone up any more if it's just some little character sheet changes from two people left, the rest of you can go back to what you were doing and the stragglers can just tell me when they think they've filled in what they wanted.
Leaving town before we're midway into March would be nice wouldn't it guys? Please? ; -,

We started in this town, and by god we're going to end in this town

Welp, Theo's going to pretend that they didn't just fall asleep standing up for eleven days straight, and give a thumbs up.

"Yeah, there's no need for payment or anything. Although," Theo looks to the kids, before raising a finger in the 'wait' gesture and fishing out a notebook and pen, scrawling "Stonebark<->Deeplode."

"Right. You said that a Pokemon shook you down and stole your licenses? Can either of you describe it?"

Well, since he's here, Lucian figures he may as well get a look at whatever healing machines they're using. It's not his area of expertise, and wasn't much discussed in any of his classes-- manufacture's probably a trade secret or some nonsense, come to think-- but a machine is a machine, and anything he can glean about the design might help his own work. Sssssomehow. By looking at the outside of it and not actually any of the important bits. Maybe the nurse will know something? At least wherever the hell the correct shops are. He is not hopeful. He is never hopeful.

Of course, the best spot is taken up by a gaggle of slackjaws who really oughtn't block the treatment room door like that, and he'd rather not deal with Theo. And the rest of them are there, too. Probably best to avoid that particular corner of the room for the time being, then. He opts to block the Storage Access exit line instead.

The little girl jumps up and down excitedly at the Adult Attention.
"Ooh ooh! I know this! It was really big! And sort of... round! And it had arms like..."
"Katie..."
Katie performs some strange mechanical flexing gestures with her arms, as her rabbit claps politely.

"And it was really fast and it could Fly! And it punched down a whole tree and-"
"Katie!"
David Kid Jr. glares down at his giggling sister, which only seems to further increase her glee. He sighs.

"It wasn't our licenses, just mine. She wasn't even there!
She was right about bits of it though? I didn't get a good look at the thing because it just kind of knocked me over, started going through my stuff and then ran off as soon as I woke up, but it was kind of vaguely circular if you don't count the hair. And limbs.
Didn't see it knock down any trees but it was strong enough to put me out before Frankie could even react."

The kid scratches the back of his head in embarassment.
"Not that... that's a particularly stunning feat...
It took my trainer license, my backpack and my hat, but then left the food and shiny coins it had shaken out of my jacket pockets. Honestly have no idea what it was after. Did any of that help?"

This obviously isn't his first time telling the story but continual foot-staring implies it hasn't made him any less uncomfortable recounting his ignominious mugging. His sister continues laughing at him.

---

Tech Education vs 16:

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Spoiler3d6 +6 = 2 + 1 + 6 + 6 = 15
So close!

Lucian stares hard at the Healing machine but as a somewhat mass-produced device it's difficult to determine the inner workings through its colourful plastic casing.
Nevertheless, he thinks he's starting to get an idea of how it maybe works when the nurse behind the counter starts waving at him and breaks his concentration, his train of thought immediately derailing.

"Hello there? Do you need help with anything? You look a little unwell, I thought you were going to pass out there or something..."

Theo makes a few visual references for their later use. They'd be tempted to ask about colours, cries, a better indicator of size or whatever, but then notes that the kid is getting embarrassed.

"Nah, hey, that's enough. Thanks." Theo looks over their notes again, glares at the Chansey behind the counter for a bit, before underlining something. "I mean, I'm still not sure what Pokemon it was, exactly, but hey! Now I'll know what I'm looking out for. Assuming we find your license and what have you, can we contact you when we reach the shelter?"

If he looked unwell without anyone to direct ire at, one can only imagine how diseased he looks with his face intentionally all scrunched up. "I was," he begins to hiss, but a psychic flick at the base of his skull reminds him how pointless every conversation like this has ever been, "wondering where I might stock up on medical supplies. And who decided not to just have all shops in one place." More indecipherable grumbling about proper city layout follows.

Because obviously him getting lost is entirely the city's fault.

Caroline notices Lucian and shouts at him from across the room.

"If you're looking for a helmet, there's a place just down the road!"

"If all the punches you throw are that soggy," he spits back from across the room, "I already have an umbrella."

Caroline snorts very loudly before attempting to regain her composure, failing, and snorting again.

She eventually just falls over laughing at Lucian.

"Though, a helmet might help for when I inevitably start beating my head against a wall," Luce muses to the Nurse. "Medicine. Lots. Where?"

"Uh..."
The nurse looks around worriedly but decides it is best not to get involved.

"We don't sell portable medical supplies here but you'll probably be able to find what you need in the shop next door, on the left as you come out!
That man over there's the shop owner but I'm sure his partner will be manning the till. He doesn't like to leave the store unoccupied during the day if he can help it."

She gestures over at the other nurse and his friend, who are still chatting but seem to be almost done with their conversation regardless.
"I hope you have a nice day!"

The nurse hopes it isn't anything serious, but what seems to be a choking fit suggests to her that Lucian may need serious medical attention soon. "That," sputters the machinist, shaking his head, "is about as many as I expect."

Luce-- needs to give this stupid robot some way to walk backwards of its own damn accord-- edges past Boxbot and gets the fuck out.

The medical supplies store is roughly the same size as the capture shop, there's even a similar chalkboard sign outside!
Unfortunately instead of a special offer, it's merely listing the inventory.

Potion- p200
Antidote- p200
Paralyze Heal- p200
Awakening- p200
Burn Heal- p200
Ice Heal- p200
Revive- p300

The man behind the till waves at Lucian as he approaches but then goes back to reading a magazine called Magikarp Monthly instead of trying to engage in some form of social interaction. While they're not displayed on his outdoor stocklist, a rack of similar publications (such as Total Karp, Crafty Karp Fishing and Extreme Magikarp Enthusiast) is located on the left wall, in case that's your kind of thing.

It occurs, belatedly, that knowing where they were going to go first would have helped this purchase decision. Regardless, Lucian will take two potions, an antidote, an ice heal, and doesn't suppose you, too, have some inane task to inflict upon a bunch of hapless know-nothings?

(Someone needs to learn to stop thinking with his mouth.)

The man doles out Lucian's purchases, considers the question carefully, scratches his chin in consideration and finally says;
"Hmmm, nope."

He turns back to his magazine and flicks over to a full page spread of scented apricorn fishing lures, his conversational skills apparently spent.

On the one hand, thank goodness. On the other, thank goodness room and board is free. Hopefully everyone else remembers to meet at the bank, because that's where Luce is headed.

Caroline, still snickering and feeling significantly cooler than usual, heads across to the Outfitters.