Pokemon Mystery Dungeons and Dragons

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I'll start things off with some of the sprites I edited for the PC tokens. We use MapTools, and taking inspiration from this Reddit post:

http://www.reddit.com/r/rpg/comments/1bm6co/i_love_using_roll20_for_gaming_but_i_horrendously/

I took some tilesets from the Pokemon games to make some maps, as well as the aforementioned sprites for the PCs.

That said, I introduce Tsukuda Kuro, the noble Pikachu Samurai, and leader of the party.

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Next up, Mizushima Satoshi, scholar, biologist, healer, poisons expert. He joins the party on a quest for knowledge, and to gather and study poisonous Pokemon in the wild.

I couldn't find or think of any actual, historic Feudal Japanese analogue to this class of character. I imagine him kind of like a Maester in ASoIaF / GoT, except he actually adventures and shit. Maybe like a medicine man? I don't know, it doesn't bother me if this kind of person wasn't real in feudal Japan, but it'd be cool if there were people kind of like this in reality as it gives me more ideas to work with.

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Yamaguchi Katashi, Samurai Sandshrew. Hotblooded, cocky, party-tank. Wields a massive Odachi.

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And finally, Tanaka Shiro. Ashigaru archer in the servitude of Tsukuda. Ambitious, bloodthirsty, crack - shot. Hopes to gain honor and notoriety through battle with the ultimate goal of being raised to the status of Samurai.

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I've also whipped up this guy, to be an eventual adversary. He's an as of yet unnamed Ronin Pikachu, probably going to be a leader of bandits or the like. He's seen some tough battles, with a scar over his right eye.

Color me interested. I love the MD series (Shiren more so than Pokemon) -- how roguelike-like is this campaign gonna be?

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>>35092617
Some more info can be found in the archived threads, but in short my inspiration came from the Mouseguard comics and the Mouseguard RPG, and other anons mentioned the MD games.

It's really up to my players where they want to take it, it can be very traditional Samurai / wandering Ronin, or could be very roguelike, depending on whether they want to deal with the civilized Pokemon, or delve into the ancient ruins of humanity in search of lost tech that could be salvaged and repurposed / rebuilt.

The game is going on the third session, and this is a copypaste from last night's thread:

The group's first mission is to assist a small village that's been continuously raided by a band of Mankey / Rattata bandits. Thus far they've defeated a couple bandits that appear to have been scouts, visited and briefly spoken to the villagers, and are now searching for the bandits' secret camping grounds / base. Eventually they'll find it within a network of Ekans infested caves. Thinking that the Ronin Pikachu might be the bandit leader, but haven't decided for sure yet.

I should add that originally my group was going to play a series of short campaigns (4ish sessions) using different systems or in different genres, however once this idea struck me I kind of ran with it more than I expected. My players seem to be having fun, and I think I'd like to continue. That said, I want to give them a real good hook at the end of this little mission to want them to keep going. I'd give them the option of rolling new characters, since like I mentioned these were all created by me, but in the very likely event that they just want to keep these characters, what's a good hook?

I was thinking something like the daimyo that gave them this task is killed / disgraced, forcing this group to become Ronin and wanderers, giving them the opportunity for revenge or to regain their honor, or perhaps they'll just say fuck it and become bandits.

>>35090802
>>35091364
I love how these two look.

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>>35092700
Yeah those two were spliced from sprites from a game called Phantom Brave, which unfortunately has very few Japanese / Samurai looking characters. I've actually found it really difficult to find suitable sprites, might you know of any games with Japanese / Samurai characters. A chibi style aesthetic or something would be a plus but isn't totally necessary, it's just easier to make work with the Pokemon character sprite proportions.

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>>35092832
Meant to link this one. It's what I used for Bidoof, and used as the pants / bottoms of Sandshrew, recolored in both cases.

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>>35092689
Color me more interested. I'll see if I can contribute some art n' shit. What system is this, by the way?

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>>35093948
A slightly modified Savage Worlds. Modified in that I've integrated the Nature mechanic from Mouseguard into it, and also implemented a way to skill Pokemon abilities from the games like Quick Attack and such, roughly following the Super Powers rules, but modified quite a bit. The system thus far doesn't seem too broken, but we'll see how it goes. I tried to keep it Fast, Furious and Fun, but advancements are a little complicated now since there's a few more options / restrictions / rules.

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Bumping with example of map I made of the village the group went to visit.

I haven't established much of the world, other than the PCs are from a major town / village located near the old Kanto powerplant, composed of an alliance between the races of Pikachu, Rattata, Sandshrew and Bidoof. There's also a separate sister nation located around the Viridian Forest, composed of Pikachu, Rattata and Sandshrew. Until recently, Meowth were a scattered race, forming small groups that would raid and pillage, or kill for hire, etc. However, they've since been unified by an unknown entity, and have gathered en masse around the ruins of old Saffron and Celadon city.

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Slow day or is there no enthusiasm for this idea?

Did I pitch it wrong? Is there like, a thread etiquette I can read or something?

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Bumping with another map.

On another note, might anyone know where to get Pokemon game assets, such as tilesets and such? I used a program called Tiled to make the maps, but had a kind of limiting amount of resources available since the few tilesets I found on spriter's resource had these annoying 1-2px spaces between each square, and thus I couldn't use them easily as far as I know.

Additionally, anyone know of any samurai / feudal Japan style games that have sprite graphics? The above PC sprites were modified characters from the games Phantom Brave and Dragon Force, but there's only a few characters that fit the samurai style I'm looking for and I don't want any future sprites to all look repetitive.

So... Yojimbo Usagi but with pokemon?

>>35098736
Never heard of this comic before. Is it any good? But yeah, basically.

Bump for interest, would do more but im at work '_'

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>>35101117
Work? What part of the globe you in anon? Unless you're graveyard shift.

Anyway, bumping for a few hours through the night (I'm in North America), would be helpful to see if the thread is picked up in the morning.

>>35090515
>that art

holy shit, I drew that fucking YEARS ago! blast from the past, man.

>>35101153
No way! It's pretty sick. It was the only thing I could find remotely relevant to what I had in mind when I made the original threads. Any chance you could do some more Japanese / Samurai themed stuff? As you can tell, my original idea has since changed. Of course, not obligation, but let me tell you, some quality art like the OP pic but more in tune with the samurai aesthetic, would be A-MAZING!

Anyway, that pic is awesome, thanks for making it oh so long ago.

>>35101151
3rd shift, new England area in US but i generally have time to dick about on my phone.
>>35090515
Hey op would u be willing to share a pdf of what u got? I would like to try it out and look it over, but if ur not comfortable showing then no biggie

>>35101187
Something like this, maybe?

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>>35101513
Whoops, wait, shit. That tail isn't where it's supposed to be.

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>>35101513
HOOOOOLLYYYYY SHIIIIIIITTTT.

FUCK YES. Love the Mewtwo.

Can you like, draw everything, the party, maps, everything?!??! I'm only half joking, but still very excited. This is sick.

Out of curiosity have you read the premise of the setting in any detail? There may be serious changes to the setting based on what you draw.

>>35101449
Unfortunately I don't have much organized in a presentable format, it's all mostly just notes for myself. I'll probably continue making threads to try and brainstorm ideas with other anons, so if there's still interest I'll try to somewhat organize what I have and post it.

We'll see how future threads go though, since yesterday and today's threads have been pretty lackluster until now.

>>35101658
Haha, well, I'll draw when I can; this seems like a pretty fun thing. Problem is I'm in school, so I don't have a lot of free time. I'd mostly only be able to draw during the weekends, assignments willing.

And actually, no, haven't read about the setting yet.

>>35101738
Hey man, it's cool. I'm just some guy on the internet. Regardless, cool shit so far. I'm excited to see what else you might cook up.

Well, the setting is basically Pokemon x Mouseguard with a Samurai flair. The party are mouse species Pokemon (Pikachu, Sandshrew, Rattata, Bidoof) in a post - humanity Kanto. Thus, cities and human towns are now ancient ruins. Few Pokemon species are civilized, most are still more like animals. Among the civilized, evolution is very very rare, some might say lost to them, since anyone who does undergo evolution is typically overcome by their wild / feral instincts. This is only true for level / stone based evolutions. Canonically friendship based evolutions from baby Pokemon can occur with no problem, i.e. a Pichu -> Pikachu is ok, but Pikachu -> Raichu is risky.

Anyway, going to art school or somethin? When I looked at your DeviantArt page it looked like you hadn't been active in a while

>>35100769
Son do yourself a favor stop everything you are doing and go read Stan Sakai's Usagi Yojimbo, don't even ask where to start, start on the first number and read EVERYTHING

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>>35101967
>forgot pic related

>>35101967
It's actually been downloading since I read that post. From what I've seen it looks pretty cool.

I mean I have been watching and rewatching a lot of samurai classics since I got this idea to get the feel, but I bet this'll help.

>>35101998
After you read it feel free to buy some issues if you are able/can afford it, stan's wife is very sick and needs every bit of help

>>35102249
Wow, that's rough. Will definitely look to pick up some merch / books. Anything in particular that is recommended? Maybe some special edition colored books, or particularly awesome posters / figures other merch?

Welp, final bump before bed. Hopefully this thread is still alive in the morning.

Survival bump

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Fag from earlier, turns out im a drawfag too.

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>>35107614


Sorry bout the shite quality. Posting from phone but will probably ink and post on da later

>>35107614
>>35107654
Got the rest of the party coming up, but I figured for people watchin or OP, some plot hooks an such.

So are there still pokeballs?
And if so do they still work?
My idea, what if the pokeball acts as a time capsule. While in it a pokemon does not age but stays in an almost stasis, so if a ball were to break it could be a legendary pokemon (Or a high level "trained" pokemon) from the "Old age" when there were masters and great warriors.

>>35108483
So in addition if the pokeballs DO work would the pokemon use them in a way like a prison to capture criminals of the worst kind and use it as a maximum punishment.

Side note, What would a pokemon from the Old age do if it woke up now, and even more so how would they be viewed, proud warriors, nightmares, slaves, sages?

Could have raids into human dungeons for rare candies etc.


Oh OP quick question, do you have a list of civil pokemon?

Are the pokemon still their same size or human size?

Also for a badass NPC you could have a Raichu as a feudal lord to show evolutions can be attained and managed as well show Pcs someone not to mess with.

Sorry for playing 20 questions but you asked for it

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Last one, may do boss mercachu

Holy shit, this thread is still alive.
>>35107614
>>35107654
>>35108984
>>35109020
These are amazing

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>>35112079

Ya had the day off mate so I figured help a gent out.

You know I've given this some thought and haven't settled on the best answer regarding Pokeballs. I like this fan theory, and might expand on it

http://www.reddit.com/r/FanTheories/comments/1a9dga/regarding_pokeballs/

That said, I don't think most Pokeballs would be in working order anymore, with their Pokemon having escaped long ago. There could be exceptions, such as the higher tier Pokeballs still working (Ultra and Master, etc.) and housing their Pokemon, but I think it should be a rather rare thing. Going out to look for old Pokeballs to release their captives shouldn't be a common job / mission. Additionally, it could also be that some Pokeballs / Pokemon are still digitized inside PCs or some shit, so if the PCs come back online, a whole bunch of Pokemon come out.

That said, if a Pokemon were to be awakened and released from within their Pokeball, they might be strong yes, but I don't think they'd quite be wise sages if they were of a civilized species. They'd be more like powerful forces of nature.

>So in addition if the pokeballs DO work would the pokemon use them in a way like a prison to capture criminals of the worst kind and use it as a maximum punishment.

This could be possible, but I think it should be done with Apricorn balls.

I also don't think I'd keep Legendaries in Pokeballs. Having the Gods of the world confined to these little balls for all eternity sounds kinda lame. I think if we assume their capture at one point was canon, then I'd prefer if they escaped once more. Maybe that was the great catastrophe, all the Legendaries were captured at some point, and either freed themselves or were freed by some radical group similar to the terrorist groups from the games, and wiped out humanity, giving the world back to Pokemon. Hell, maybe it was Mewtwo that did it all.

Anyway, as you can tell I have ideas but nothing I'm married to. Any more ideas or suggestions are welcome.

>>35113430
cont'd

>Could have raids into human dungeons for rare candies etc.

This is definitely happening, raids for rare candies, potions, etc.

>list of civil pokemon

I'm kind of making it up as I go, and I have yet to establish a solid criteria for civilized Pokemon, but so far I've established

Pikachu, Sandshrew, Bidoof, Rattata, Meowth, Totodile, Squirtle, Marill, Totodile are civilized in some way.

Mankey, Cubone and Machop are more like barbarians in that they haven't quite given up their feral side.

My criteria thus far is that civilized Pokemon should be a somewhat common species, that their base evolution should be no taller than about 3 ft. and the base evolution should be semi-humanoid in some form, using this as a guide:

http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/List_of_Pok%C3%A9mon_by_body_style

There are obvious exceptions, but it's how I'm doing it so far.

That said, Pokemon are their canon, in-game size according to bulbapedia (I say this since the anime portrays many Pokemon inconsistently with regards to size)

>Also for a badass NPC you could have a Raichu as a feudal lord to show evolutions can be attained and managed as well show Pcs someone not to mess with.

I was thinking that if Pikachu becomes a major PC race often, I'd play up the whole Raichu thing kind of like super saiyans were played up early on in DBZ, a lost achievement not seen for centuries. This would make sense in this particular case since Thunderstones wouldn't be easy to find most likely.

That said, I imagine Meowth being a lot like Yakuza when they were split up into factions, but it took the evolution of a Meowth into a Persian to become the Big Boss, and unite the Meowth clans, thus forming the Meowth led nation / alliance that is based in the ruins of the major cities Celadon and Saffron City.

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>>35113455
It would also be Meowth who are most interested in reviving lost human tech, since I'd imagine their species probably always felt the closest connection to humanity.

Speaking of lost human tech, another potential plot line that could be developed is that some Pokemon are descendents of humans that were turned into Pokemon. The potential for this machine is seen here:

http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Devon_Corporation#Inventions_in_progress

Now maybe these human - descended Pokemon are working something in the background, trying to reclaim the world? Become human somehow? Haven't developed the idea much more than that.

>>35112289
Any chance I could get scans of these, rather than phone pics? It's cool if not, figured I'd ask.

Still can't express how awesome these look. Great job man.

>>35113626
Thanks :) gimmie like a day or so, I want to ink them first, but I will repost them once i finish.

While im here though any other requests?

>>35114123
uh, like character portraits? character concepts? I'll just list some stuff and you can feel free to illustrate whatever catche your eye. I'll list character ideas, scenes, etc.

Let me expand on the party. Sandshrew wields an Odachi

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C5%8Cdachi

Pikachu wields a Katana, Rattata a hankyu or Japanese short bow, and Bidoof wields a crossbow of his own design (I imagine Bidoof being like beavers, natural engineers / scientists and generally a species of knowledge)

It would be super cool to get a battle / action scene of the party fighting an Arbok, since that'll most likely be the final encounter for this mission (The bandit's hideout is in some caves, and the leader and the remaining few bandits will lead the party into a trap - an Ekans den with a single big bad Arbok - as a desperate final attempt to keep the party busy as they flee).

A portrait of a band of Yakuza lookin Meowth, maybe with their Persian big boss.

Some portraits of some ninja lookin Pokemon. I believe ninjas historically came from the region of Japan Johto is based on, so while it doesn't have to be a Johto species, it gives some ideas. Originally I was just thinking it could be a mix of Meowth and Rattata or something. (I mention these Pokemon and not something obvious like Greninja because I'm trying to keep the civilized Pokemon's cultures corresponding to the region they're found in, so Pokemon from Kanto through Sinnoh will be Japanese in nature, whereas Pokemon from Kalos will be more European, etc. I realize this makes Froakie's evolutionary line stick out a bit, but I can explain that later, or feel free to throw out some ideas.

I also imagined that the smaller species like Pikachu, Rattata, Meowth etc. would use Nidorina as their mounts (Nidorino being much more difficult to control and ride, although certain badasses may be able to tame one enough to ride it) while Nidoran are more like pack mules since they're smaller and weaker.

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>>35114396
Additionally, elite cavalry of Pikachu and Rattata would ride flying mounts, most likely Pidgeotto.

I imagine Squirtle would be more like a band of sea raiders and pirates, similar to Totadile although Totadile would probably prefer to live in swamps and marshes.

The ruins of the Kanto Powerplant would be a sort of shrine to many electric types, worshiping the great bird god Zapdos. There would probably be Pikachu priests inside. That said, the whole powerplant isn't safe, as wild Muk and Grimer live deep in the powerplant, and Electabuzz occasionally appear to wreak havoc.

Those are some of the cooler ideas I've cooked up that come to mind. I'm not asking for anything in particular, feel free to draw what you think sounds cool if anything at all. Just figured I'd expand on the world as I've imagined it thus far.

Additionally, feel free to draw species that are not mentioned yet as samurai, or peasants, or merchants, etc. More ideas are always welcome.

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>>35114396
>>35114604

Kewl I can work with this. I might not do full scenes but I can do some group pics and such.

Might take some time but I'll get at least some sketches up

>>35115136
Awesome. I'm sure anything will be sweet.

For the record, I figured it's time to change my trip to something more appropriate

Anyone else interest in continued discussion of Pokemon cultures or potential plot hooks / story lines?

In other news, I've begun reading Usagi Yojimbo. It's pretty great so far.

Any suggestion for other media to consume to get in the mood for writing this kind of thing? Like I said I've been watching old Samurai flicks, any good shows or anime or something that captures the same feel?

>>35113552
I dunno; on one hand, I think the "humans turned into pokemon" angle is too jarring, since the main draw of this setting is a world completely given over to pokemon picking through the remains of human civilization. Suddenly having descendants of humanmon show up might change that too much, especially since it's been centuries.

I think a more interesting way to handle it would be to shift it over to a more religious bent- maybe have sects of pokemon who see humans as unknowable beings of godlike power. Or pokemon leaders who believe (or want others to believe) that they're descended from humans, like how various Asian emperors claimed to trace their lineage back to the deities themselves.

Remember, it's been centuries since humanity's downfall, so there can only be a very small handful of individuals who even know/remember what humans looked, acted, and sounded like. There's plenty of room for misinterpretation and guesswork; maybe pokemon sages spend their days trying to figure out which pokemon species humanity evolved from, or whether they're aliens, or why humanity built "theme parks" and strapped themselves to small metal carts running at high speeds on various rails.

>>35117970

I like these ideas quite a bit. The humans turned into Pokemon thing wouldn't be super duper prevalent, it'd be more of a behind the scenes endgame kind of thing. That said, with these new ideas, maybe it would make more sense for certain Pokemon hoping to become gods, trying to reverse engineer and rebuild a machine they believe will turn them into humans, thus gods.

>>35117677
samurai champloo for anime

Live action: zatoichi the blind swordsman is good


So would bulbasaurs be civil or feral, and chimchar because I would totally be a chimchar

>>35118231
I've watched the samurai champloo series through a couple of times, but it has been a while.

I've been recommended Zatoichi a couple times, will probs watch it tonight.

Umm, I think bulbasaur should be wild, but not necessarily feral. Probably protectors of forests and nature, gentle in spirit, but don't use tools or generally communicate in the same way civilized Pokemon can.

Chimchar would probably be civilized. I'd imagine more like secluded mountain monks or something, rather than part of a sprawling empire.

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Definitely gonna do a redesign but its a start

>>35118404
Ha, awesome. Reminds me of Giovanni in a way, but it might just be the association.

Survival Bump

Well, in the interest of keeping this thread alive, are there any areas of interest people want to learn more about? It'll give me pointed directions to brainstorm in if I haven't already, and keep discussion rolling.

Have you started writing a pdf of it with all the info and rules to play this?

>>35123769
As I mentioned earlier it's all mostly in the form of notes to myself, but I have begun to organize it.

Is there like a template or something I can follow for guidance, it would make organizing this a bit easier if I have something to compare to.