So /tg/, what's the best pokemon tabletop system?

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>>54456682
I too am curious.

PTU if you want crunch.
Pokerole if you want narrative.
All the others are shit or too obscure.

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>>54457069
is there any realistic chance of a person standing up in a fight against the mons in either of those??

I'm not OP, I'd play it like a "day after" apocalypse setting.

>>54457167
Can't speak for Pokerole but in PTU the trainer has a statblock like the pokemon do, and they can make "struggle" or barely-trained unarmed attacks (like bashing a pikachu with a nearby 2x4) that don't do GREAT damage, but with lower level mons is reasonable to get them into catch range.

If you expect a random person to go toe to toe with a TTar that's not going to happen. But a couple pidgey? Sure.

>>54457069
This

I played PTU for a while, but I didn't like the crunch too much. I switched to Pokerole because I'm much more into narrative games. Both accomplish what they promise, though.

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>>54457268
I mean something along the lines of...

>starving survivor
>trys to bag a bunnelby for dinner
>starts with an arrow
>ends up killing it in hand to hand with a long knife

sort of like, a trained or experienced warrior could take a marowak or a rapidash in a 1v1 fight.

so a party of 4 has potential to catch basic stuff and even then keeping them and their captures fed is still a lot of work.

While we're on the topic, what have you done for your campaigns or sessions? Looking for some ideas.

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>>54457452
bump because interested...

>>54457452
I always use the Divine and the Damned splatbook for PTU, because that's just how I always sort of envisioned the legendaries

>>54457444

I don't have any personal experience with the system, but that sounds like PTU to me.

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>>54460273
can you direct me to a link to the latest edition PDF?

does the game have splats for each generation?(or some other way to reduce variability so I can reduce initial complexity)

>>54460368

http://www.mediafire.com/file/lbbtmqi7e75k7td/PTU+1.05.zip

I haven't looked into the game enough to answer your question, though you could always just restrict the players' option to what you're comfortable with running or what makes sense for the campaign you had in mind.

>>54460368
If a player want to do combat as well as a Pokemon they basically have to spend all their levels committing to it by the way. If you'd like players to have an easier / more broken time use the Game of Thros book that has some crazy powerful classes, even outside of the elementalist.

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>>54460423
>Game of Thros book
???
a game of thrones book using the same system?

Also, while this isn't a slight on the game's design, Pokérole really needs a proofreader, and an editor would be really nice as well. I'm pretty sure English isn't the authors' first language, and it shows. The layout is gorgeous, though. Whoever did that really knows what they were doing.

>>54460442

The title's just a pun; it's a general fantasy supplement. There's also a science fiction one called "Do Porygon Dream Of Mareep"? They're both in the zip folder link in >>54460386.

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>>54460461
I see

>>54457069
PTU is like maneuvering through a labyrinth of ming vases blindfolded though, you have to be extremely careful not to break the game. Defensive builds are ridiculously OP. Make sure the GM only makes a few select Pokémon available each route which don't become too powerful too easily, and give out Trainer levels very slowly (I recommend a third of the average pokémon level).
Things like Magikarp are a noob trap. Because of the way Struggle is handled it's mediocre but far from useless in battles, also it gains XP at the same rate as everyone else so if you let a player have it they have a monster at lv 20.

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>>54460500
so it's really not a good system?

is it getting any active balancing or development?

>>54460530

There's apparently a full-on second edition on the way, but I have no idea how long that's going to take.

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>pic related
so, how likely is it that someone went out and wrote up lots of lore like this across all the pokemon?

>>54457444
All within the realm of possibility, but what you're really asking is does a human being stand a chance against a wild animal that's also a fucking wizard. The whole point of pokemon is you use your pokemon to defend yourself, why would you write a setting in which there are pokemon, but no you can't have any here is a stick go murderhobo that horse that's on fire???

>>54457452
>A Boss Templated level 40 Muk has made the county dump too dangerous. >The dump is a massive island, with it's own pokemon ecology.
>A huge nest of Beedrill and Durant amongst the trash makes traversing the island difficult.
>Atop a heap of junk cars and scrap metal, a Skarmory protects it's egg.
>The foundry melts down and recycles scrap autonomously, until recently. The Heatmor and Larvesta that live there are growing anxious.

I haven't gm'd it yet, still work in progress.

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>>54460643
more along the lines of.
>the introduction of pokemon through a portal FUCKED a world that previously had none with their physics breaking.
>no free starters
>no pokeballs
>take a sharp stick and go try and catch something to serve as a starter
>if you're lucky you've befriended something that can make survival easier.
>cause in a world that now has these creatures casually inducing earthquakes and fire-storms survival is a major concern.

>>54460724
cool

>>54460530
Our friend wanted to start with Shuckle, and our gm didn't know any better. At level 5, it was slowly constricting everything to death while being a relatively unkillable turtle tank god.

Broken at early levels, I'm sure it would've balanced out by 20.

>>54460770
It really doesn't. I'm playing in a group where our Pokémon are in their mid-30s.

>>54460750
>No pokeballs
>...go try and catch...

... Are we beating them into submission and then serving them eggs in the morning?

>>54460807
I mean, this is a tabletop game so the only thing stopping you from doing so is the GM

>>54460787
So what's broken about your pokemon and why? Legit curious, because I'd venture to guess your gm isn't putting in the effort to make your games difficult, which is not the systems fault.

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>>54460770
shit

>>54460787
DOUBLE-SHIT

>>54460787
>>54460770
I take it that flavorful choices are usually the shitty ones?

I like q-bone, sandshrew, scyther, or geodude

>>54460807
you know the historical methods for breaking the wills of wild horses?

>>54460818
also true

>>54460824
At later trainer levels the GM has to put tremendous amounts of work and strategy into the design of every trainer to counter the players.
Also since one point in defense costs as much as one point in attack and damage automatically scales a fair bit because of better attacks being available at higher levels, points in defense are more worth than offensive ones.

>>54460818
Sure, if you decide that that's how we catch pokemon now, assault and Stockholm syndrome, then players can find a way to make that work and derive fun from it.

But that is so far flung from the source material. I'm all for an apocalypse setting, but there's rules for making pokeballs out of apricots. Idk.. Good luck with your hyper realistic pokemon game for serious players.

>>54460850
Define flavorful? And shitty? Maybe it's the autism but I can't figure out how to answer your question.

>>54460893
>Define flavorful?
things I like for aesthetic reasons...
>And shitty?
...because they are mechanically sub-optimal?

>>54460861
Thing is you can build your poke around one offensive stat, choosing moves that best utilize it. But you can't choose what moves your opponent uses, obviously, making the two defensive stats equally weighted against a single attack stat.

>Inb4 don't send a special wall vs Machamp

Yeah but that's part and parcel to pokemon, choosing the right tools for the job. My point is it costs two points for each defense to get the same theoretical mechanical bonus that one point in your pokes preferred attack stat provides.

>>54460921
Sub optimal pokes, ones with lower base stats then other equivalently evolved pokes, usually have a capability called Underdog that gives them access to balancing features you can select. One, for example, increases it's base stats significantly, almost as if it had evolved, until it evolves.

I don't think there are any sub optimal pokemon, the system does a great job of mostly removing tier lists. I will admit, though, that I'm sure there are some pokemon that can be built alongside it's trainer to be game breaking under the right circumstance.

>>54460530
The game is a fun system for the people that like crunch, but my god is it easy to break right now. If you start a game of it I would say just try to learn the basics, but I don't know how much will be changed in 2.0

>>54460850
The PTU devs have put more effort than other systems to make normally shit Pokemon into useful ones with custom abilities.

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>>54461008
>The PTU devs have put more effort than other systems to make normally shit Pokemon into useful ones with custom abilities.
I see

>>54461034
Also simplifying the stat system and other things. Even route 1 trash can be useful in the later levels.

>>54457268
>>54457444
>>54460643
And now we're monster hunter

Man, I really want to play a Pokemon game. I keep missing them whenever they show up in the game finder.

>>54456682
The one where fucking Pokemon is the reason you get slightly more intelligent and responsive Pokemon that like humans more.

>>54460864
I mean, you could also do it like James does and just befriend every pokemon you come across and invite them to your team.
James is the best goddamn trainer in the whole franchise to be honest.

>>54461034
Yeah, one of the common things my players mention when talking about the system is how many pokemon are actually viable to use because of interesting ability combinations and expanded movepools.

>>54461592
I actually really want to run a Monster Hunter campain.

>>54457167
In PTU the trainers are better at fighting than the monsters are.

>>54457452
A floating patchwork island made from a giant Crustle that steals cities from other regions to make its home better.

>>54460530
It gets active development, but the devs can't take criticism for shit and they clearly don't test their own numbers so the balancing only gets worse over time. Also their books have terrible formatting so it's hard to find the rules in the first place, so a lot of games have homebrew or misunderstood rules that makes things even worse.

>>54460956
Or you could put it into HP or Speed and just dodge everything with better survivability than any tank. The game actively works against getting anything done.

The best is obviously Pokerole for out of combat and Pokemon Showdown for in combat

Monsters and Other Childish Things.

>>54467603
The problem with that is it's harder to do stuff like bosses or group battles

>>54467605
To elaborate, Pokemon much stronger than humans. Complete freedom over abilities. Pokemon equally statted so you can choose your faves. Literally designed for kid + monster play so requires very little house ruling for Pokemon. Just try it.

>>54456682
I skimmed OVA the other day and the main impression I got is that it would actually be quite nice for a Pokemon campaign. It even has the four special-move slots, which I imagine was actually deliberate.
Outside of that, I guess Open Legend would do alright because of its Attribute and Bane system could pretty thoroughly reflect attacks and status effects.

And of course you can throw anything at Fate and it can more-or-less work, if you enjoy Fate.

>>54457167
In PTU there are classes specifically for fighting Pokemon, like Black Belt or Psychic.

>>54467675
Sounds good. Any idea where one could find a copy of the rules?

>>54468632
http://pokemontabletop.com

>>54468809
Wrong game, Anon.

http://arcdream.com/home/monsters-and-other-childish-things/

>>54468929
Ak I'm a dumbass

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https://www.pokecommunity.com/showthread.php?t=349118

this is my go to. a good balance of adapting the series into the trpg format while still feeling more like pokemon than the systems that get bogged down in recreating the video games. good formatting as well.

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>>54471187
i should add that the summary he has for it doesn't do the game justice and actually kept me from giving the game a chance for a long while. i'd just read the rulebook it's pretty short.

Bump
Anyways what pokemon have you used as starters if you've played or DMed a game?

>>54457167
Nobody can reliably fight anything in Pokerole.

>>54472774
I've used a Scatterbug and an Eevee as starters in two different games that went nowhere fast.

>>54473009
FUCK

>>54473009
>I have never played the system but I'm gonna talk shit about it anyways!
/tg/ in a nutshell

>>54460640

it really bothers me more than it should that the claymore has a high attack but low speed, while Katana gets to have "incredible special attack and defence" at no penalty. I wasn't expecting to see the OG Katana meme in a pokemon thread, but there you have it.

>>54475244
What did you expect? Almost no one has played Pokémon rpgs

>>54467603
Would that *really* work though? Have you done it?

>>54456682
PTU is awful.

>>54467584
5 stat points = 1 Evasion. We're talking about the difference between +50 damage and +10 AC. You're familiar with the story about the young man who trained his whole life to be fast, and what happened to him the day he got punched just once?

Theorycrafting your pokemon to be unhittable is a hilarious way to make Swift (which is a burst AoE btw), and any other attack that Never Misses look broken.

But they're not. And neither are the core mechanics.

>>54472774
Duskull starter as a hex maniac. Duskull starts with Leer and Night Shade. Night Shade blows at low levels, so it's a good thing my trainer class gave my trainer Will O Wisp and Confuse Ray. Currently, my role in the party is a solid defense against scoundrels who cheat and rob people. Ironically, it's very likely Max will be joining Team Rocket any day now.

>>54457042
my ocd compels me to note that normal and ghost have their 'immune to' on the lower row while everything else has it on their upper row

>>54475244
He is right though. The GM would have to throw players a huge bone and makeup stuff to make trainers stand a chance.

>>54473009
They updated it so trainers can hit things with a stick a few months back.

>>54479457
Trainers using combat maneuvers can easily stand a chance vs low to mid level pokemon, what are you talking about?

>>54480189
Maybe if the Pokemon is maxed out on insight.

>>54480409
Trainers can start with higher attributes and skills than any pokemon around levels 1-20
Thus, being able to perform multiple actions from the beginning when pokemon are not.

The "Strike" maneuver may have Power 1, but it can be used multiple times in a sigle round and it ignores type dis/advantages.
And the Mystery Dungeon Supplement added weapons and traps, so yeah, trainers are able to stand a chance vs Pokemon but why would you do that when you can use your other pokemon? Doesn't make much sense to me to call a game "Pokemon" when you should call it "Trainer" instead.

>>54461008
>The game is a fun system for the people that like crunch

No, because it's so poorly balanced. It's past Shadowrun on the 'Lots of crunch+poor design' axis of the design spectrum, which is hard to beat.

Trying to mess around with PTU rules is like drowning a paraplegic in mud; you can do it, but it's messy and you don't get any fun challenge to make it worth it.

>>54467603
>Pokemon Showdown

Does that thing have a system for maintaining and leveling teams over time, with damage suffered/Exp earned carrying over between matches?

>>54482067
Pokemon showdown is a simulator of the video game, you basically re-create the pokemon with the IV's/EV's, level and moves you want and can fight other players online.

So it's basically using tabletop for the role playing and the video game for the battles. It sounds like a good idea to save time, but it has obvious limitations for group battles.

>>54467603
>use Pokerole for out of combat
Why just not freeform and only use Showdown then?

>>54482026
Listen there are 2 options. Pokerole and PTU. Both are shit. One is for narrative people and one is for crunch people.

>>54482134
Showdown is super boring though because then tiers will decide who wins. In the tabletop games the devs at least can try to make shitmons usable.

>>54482145
>Both are shit

You are shit :^)

>>54482134
Yeah, I'm looking at it now. I'm wondering if there is a good way to save a team over time, or whether you'd have to constantly recreate it.

>>54482163
Yeah, I wouldn't use it, sounds good on paper but the execution would be terrible, Pokemon is pretty unbalanced already.

>>54482234
You can make a text document for the team and just paste it over. Over make an account and save it.

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>>54482268
OK. That sounds very doable, we'd want accounts anyways to keep battles organized.

Damn it, I told myself I wouldn't fall into this trap and get hurt again.

>>54482300
I really don't suggest it because the balance is worse than either of the tabletops.

>>54482319
It is just a straight port of the Pokemon vidya rules, right? I know those games have problems, but my players are not into the competitive stuff (and I'd do it only Gen1 anyways, because I don't know shit about the rest of them).

>>54480916
>Doesn't make much sense to me to call a game "Pokemon" when you should call it "Trainer" instead.
because I want to portray that world a little more realistically. with some pokes exploited as/for resources and others used to murder people. teams of people roaming the land with their unregistered fully automatic assault-pokemon causing problems. travel being dangerous because of how common deadly pokemon are.

>>54484722
>Le edgy setting
jesus, why is this so prevalent in pokemon tabletop games?

>Wild pokemon make traveling dangerous
Yeah, that's why you need to travel with a POKEMON to protect you.

>>54485205
>why is this so prevalent in pokemon tabletop games?
It's also prevalent in fangames and the like. I guess a lot of Pokemon players go through an edgy phase.

>>54486540
>>54485205
of course its an edgy setting

1.) they are a series of games about training animals to fight against each-other for personal amusement. it's a core concept of the series.

2.) a fairly significant number of attacks and descriptions make some of the pokemon into literal weapons of mass destruction. this means that a halfway competent terrorist organization can easily get their hands on living WMDs.

3.) it's base setting involves sending children out into the world to gather combat animals for prestige, survive alone in the wilderness, and to settle disputes with violence.

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>>54485205
>Crawling in my skiiiiiiin

Yes, but you are trying to jump from this....

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>>54487544
To this...

>>54485205
>why is this so prevalent in pokemon tabletop games
Because, out of the three forms of media the Pokémon world is shown, only one isn't rated E

>>54487544
Meant to answer
>>54487454

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>>54487454

>>54487603
The manga is still rated E

>hurr durr that arbok sliced in half!
Cartoon violence is still considered acceptable for children.

>>54487634
He's not wrong, manchild

>>54487544
>>54487566
not that far a jump, but yeah I suppose I see your point.
but the usual portrayal is just way to sweet and kid friendly, there has to be some ulterior motive when life is that apparently good. I keep waiting for the other shoe to drop and it never does.

furthermore, given a setting like that I'd likely start an organized crime ring because it's so

>>54487634
>image meme
I am not familiar with this, why a can of coke?

>>54487723
Edgy Pokemon never ends with anything quality.

>>54487754
What noise does a can of soda make when you open it?

>>54487754
Coldsteel the hedgehog

>>54487454
More like the core concepts of the settings are kids learning friendship and caring for cute magical animals. You can misinterpret it as much as you want, but it is an extremely bright and happy setting.
It's not even hard to take a more mature angle with the whole journey and the struggle to become an actually good trainer and all that without having Scyther chop off some heads.

>>54487754
>given a setting like that I'd likely start an organized crime ring
Organized crime gets regularly beaten by 10 year-old admittedly prodigious trainers. The Gym Leaders and the Elite Four don't even bother wrecking their shit half the team because it's not really worth their time, but it's very much implied they could. There are some exceptions, of course - N was as much of a prodigy as the MC in Black and White, but that's pretty much it.

>>54487879
I mean the nice thing about a TTRPG is that you don't have to make crime groups weak as shit. As a GM you could make them a real threat or keep them close to the group's level.

>>54487940
But that is different than to make the setting a place of vice and corruption where everyone is out to murder you.

Violence is there, but the existance of potions and revives is proof that in the end no one is seriously hurt, it is a sport.

>>54488000
Or that medicine is just really advanced.

>>54487823
>What noise does a can of soda make when you open it?
something like
ptssshhhhhh-CRACK-fizz

>Edgy Pokemon never ends with anything quality.
not trying for edgy, just less bright and twee than the usual pokemon setting. it's so sweet and innocent it hurts my teeth.

>>54487840
nope, economically effective.
you wouldn't look twice at that plan if the game was Shadowrun, D&D, or most other settings.

>>54487879
>and all that without having Scyther chop off some heads.
unrelated question. I wonder how the courts handle things when that(or some similar event) happens, how many times in the anime have team rocket been attacked directly by pokemons?

on the actual subject, that represents some moral quandaries. things like surviving and finding food in the wilderness is also something I don't see much of...

>>54488000
>But that is different than to make the setting a place of vice and corruption where everyone is out to murder you.
see, thats already going darker than I intended the discussion to go.

>but the existance of potions and revives is proof that in the end no one is seriously hurt
except all the wild ones that you beat to "unconsciousness" and simply left in the wilderness

>>54487940
Yes, you could. But if you want to have murder and kill giant monsters, there are much better settings to use, with much better RPG systems to boot. I get that fun things are fun, but I just have to wonder.
Digimon is much better suited to those shenanigans, actually. Much more serious tone, the existence of special metals to craft armor and weapons and actual consequences and death are already showcased in the series.
Fuck, I wish Digimon had better games to go with all that.

>>54468632
http://www.mediafire.com/file/qd1vdsdijc8o62u

Here's the PDF. You just need 10 d10 to play.

>>54488035
I meant that Coldsteel the hedgehog is the meme being referenced.

"Psssshhh... nothing personnel kid"

You were being called Edgy.


Is that clear enough?

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>>54457268
>>54457444
Wait: are you tricking us into playing Kingdom Death: Monsters the Tabletop RPG?

>>54488037
I mean if you scale the bad guys like the games do players will just get cocky.

>>54488108
I will assume that you have never played in a pokemon setting or if you had it didn't last beyond the second session.
You are not the first who tries to be "original" with their "more mature" view of the pokemon world, it doesn't work, it will never work, use another setting, monster hunter, digimon, basic d&d because it's never gonna work otherwise.

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I hate how these fanmade Pokemon ttrpgs are made so that shitmons like flareon and farfet'ched can stand up to actual good and cool Pokemon like garchomp and mew

>>54488165
Different guy my man. I'm for a moderately more serious game, not the edge lord. I've ran multiple games and been playing in one for over a year.

I'm talking about when the bad guys have grunts with Pokemon around level 10 doing major jobs.

>>54488203
Definitely. That's why in my homebrew, everyone starts with a Lando-T, and builds the rest of their team from 40 other viable pokemon while all others are ignored

>>54488248
Not much different than security guards with a foam stick and a lantern to guard entire facilities and banks.

>>54488087
>Is that clear enough?
it is now, I was not aware the onomatopoeia was part of the meme.

and I'm not being edgy, edgy is needlessly over-dark for darkness sake. I just wanted a little more dark because as I have lived I cannot believe or trust a world as bright and always happy as the one in the games.

>>54488092
no idea, never played that. I was thinking more along the lines of Fallout: Pokemon Edition.

>>54488248
Well, obviously that wouldn't happen in anything but a game made with kids in mind. Even the anime gives the bad guys some threatening Pokemon. It's not fun if every battle is an easy win.

>>54488301
>I'm not edgy!
>proceeds to be edgy

You have to be at least 18 years old to be on this site.

>>54488301
>I cannot believe or trust a world as bright and always happy as the one in the games.
You better start believing, anon. That bright, happy, ideal world is a big part of the appeal.

>>54488282
Nice strawman but not all Pokemon are the same and honestly shouldn't be. Do you honestly think that a rapidash or a Mr. Mime should be a match for a fucking Tyranitar?

>>54488417
Well not Rapidash, but Mr.Mime should be with their Fairy type.

>>54488417
In both Pokerole and PTU choosing a Rapidash/Mr.Mime vs a Tyranitar is fighting a lost battle, the fact that the tyranitar won't go unscathed doesn't mean that the weaker pokemon are too buffed.

>>54488459
Oh right, Fairy-Type
Mr.Mime might have a chance

>>54488385
>That bright, happy, ideal world is a big part of the appeal.
but it isn't the only source of the appeal. for my friends and I it has more to do with the collecting aspect, for the most part it turns me off the games because you cannot CATCH all of the pokemon in any of the games, sure you can trade, but that's not catching.

I find Dark Souls fun because of the aesthetic, but have been told by a self titled "gamer" that the only appeal of those games is that they are hard.

>>54488350
27, and there is a difference between "a little darker" and "edgy". a little bit of moral ambiguity does a narrative good.

>>54488500
I mean thinking about it more probably not. With Sand Steam T-Tar's special defense will be boosted.

If we go even further against the base games Rapidash might be able to take down a slightly weakened T-Tar with Double Kick and Drill Run.

>>54488417
>Do you honestly think that a rapidash or a Mr. Mime should be a match for a fucking Tyranitar?

Outside of type disadvantages/advantages? Yeah. I tend to lean towards 'All final stage pokemon should be roughly comparable with each other'. It improves options for players and lets them pick the ones they personally like rather than going with optimal ones.

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>>54488512
It isn't the only appeal, of course. I love playing VGC, for one, but I can only hope there is something similar to the Pokemon world waiting for us after death. It's an absolute paradise.

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>>54488512
>Confirmed Man-child

Hardship and Moral ambiguity can be a central part of the narrative a and a very interesting one; but using a setting of vice and murder is a cheap and lazy way to add those themes to the setting.

>>54488577
>Angels and Demons like SMT, but with Pokemon battles
I can dig it

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>>54456682
Why play a shitty Pokemon Rpg when you could play a superior and more adult friendly SMT rpg.

>>54488577
>but I can only hope there is something similar to the Pokemon world waiting for us after death. It's an absolute paradise.
perhaps you will get that paradise, good luck.

>>54488604
>but using a setting of vice and murder is a cheap and lazy way to add those themes to the setting.
you seem to be over-exaggerating the levels I have been going for all thread. cause to have moral ambiguity you need(at least initially) there to be issues ranging from "bad" to "definitely worse than the players are willing to stoop to". it's so that you can put villains in the setting for them to oppose.

having the bad guys getting their funding just from some rich asshole is boring. so where do they get their cash? there needs to be a little vice and light villainy to oppose or it's just a game of grinding towards the goal of being the best trainer.

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>>54456682

GURPS with supplements is best

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>>54488811
Sir I'm gonna have to kindly ask you to leave this thread.

Do you think a general for these games would catch on?

>>54492838
No. It's a common topic but not one that really supports constant discussion.

>>54456682
I've only played PTTA, and I have to admit that as much as I like what the system can do that it has horrible flaws.

Also, it needs some fucking tools for generating and keeping track of shit. My main problem with it as a GM is that it just has too much crunch, without even taking combat into consideration. If somebody had generators/calculators, I would be willing to push through the rest of the problems.

>>54492949
PTA sucks ass. Also there is a wild Pokemon generator and roll20 has sheets specifically for PTU that do your entire attack in 1 click.

>>54488565
This isn't a bad mentality to have, it just doesn't quite line up with design for how many evolutionary stages a group has.

The pay-off for having three stages is that if you grind all the way to the last one, you end up with something really powerful.

One stage 'mons awkwardly are often powerful and have lots of potential too though, leaving two stage critters to be often not balanced right.

It should probably be a sliding scale of flexibility vs power.
1 Stage: Starts off strong, but is the weakest compared to finals of the same level. Widest possible moveset.
2 Stage: Starts off not too weak, and has room to grow. Medium moveset flexibility.
3 Stage: Starts off the weakest, but grows to be the strongest. Most narrow moveset.

>>54494206
Generally they still follow the power rule. The way it works in PTU is they left movesets the same, but simplified numbers and gave Pokemon more abilities. So instead of 80 speed you have 8 and Ice Punch has 8 base damage instead of 80 power. Also Pokemon can have 3 abilities through leveling from a list depending on their species which have 3 ranks.

The goal is to not have "early route shitmon" syndrome or just make other things usable that are normally trash.

>>54494356
And there's a lot more abilities as well, some of which are super flavorful.
An extreme example is Wobbuffet, who gets an ability that lets it react to getting hit by an attack by smacking someone next to it for a portion of the attack's damage, and then at higher level one that gives it an extra use of Counter or Mirror Coat each scene.

The changes to move frequencies also play into things a lot.

>>54494414
That feeling when someone loads up on a bunch of Scene and Daily moves and then you hit them with Surpression is one of the best ones I've had in an RPG.

>>54494453
And probably one of the reasons that Suppression got changed in the playtest packets, heh

>>54494469
It can still be very useful in boss fights or group battles. Also I love how good Spider Web is unlike in the games.

which pokemon system should i play for maximum lewd?

>>54494206
>3 Stage: Starts off the weakest, but grows to be the strongest. Most narrow moveset.

Unless you are bug.

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>>54495878

>>54493662
It may suck, but it's closer to the kind of system that I want to run. I can GM through the stuff that's absolutely terrible, I just have great need of the process to be streamlined.

>>54497387
Well PTA has no support, everyone else has moved on to PTU.

>>54497423
Or Pokerole, since PTU is too crunchy for some of us.

>>54488604
>String of posts whining about how someone else's setting is too dark
>Calls someone else a man-child

>>54499067
I meant the people that worked on PTA. My bad.

>>54499194
Wasn't PTA updated to alola already?
PTU still hasn't, and let's be real, 2.0 was announced 6 months ago and probably won't see the light this year.

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Weird that nobody has mentioned pokethulu.

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>>54457069
Pokerole sounds nice because goddamn PTU was a slot.
>help someone gm it for four players
>two of them are power gamers and want it like the games
>another one wants nothing but steel early on and constantly talks as if he knows where they are
>the three of them take every chance they get to roll around in grass at the same time
>they ignore trainers and obvious mini events/easy to get pokemon
>complain that there's nothing good in the equivalent of route 1
>give a pokemon with no attacks tackle to defend itself in a 2v3, get called a cheater
>gm foolishly says we'll restart when the new version comes out
It was pure suffering and they couldn't even be bothered to track their own pokemon's hp and stats.

>>54500948
Those people are going to be bad in Pokerole too. My group has been going for over a year and we are keeping it together.
>One player just doesn't do EXP unless they are forced to at gunpoint
>One player causes drama every other session, but knows the system the best
>One player gets lost on simple things sometimes
>One player built more for Pokemon combat more than the other trainers so has an easier time with everything

As the last one I still have fun with PTU, just have to have the right group. The most important thing for sure is to make sure everyone's expectations are on the same page.

>>54500948
Pokerole is nice and easy but i agree with
>>54501063
Insufferable players will be a pain regardless of the system.

Pokemon as a tabletop game is fucking retarded.
>Humans literally don't matter and all combat is played like shitty D&D summoners kiting as their familiars do all the work
>The only way to make it interesting is to make the setting edgy as fuck, which ruins the charm and point of the setting
>Rules eventually devolve to just copying what the actual games put forward with no regard for compatibility or depth
The only good Pokemon tabletop system would be a Mystery Dungeon one, where the players play as the Pokemon themselves.

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>>54501619
There is a mystery dungeon supplement in pokerole and ptu, shut up

>>54501682
What's your point, retard?

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>>54501619
>>54501697

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This thread is filled with a bunch of idiots. Wanna know how I know?

No one mentioned Maji-Monsters.

>>54501880
>>54501880 #
Maji monster's setting is everything wrong with edgy post-apocalyptic shit, this time with nu-Pokemon added into the mix.

Oh, no! Maji monsters killed everyone and now we live in this wasteland! But wait, they cannot attack you or the other player due to this magical mystic mist we pulled out of our asses!

Plus the designs are worse than the suckiest fakemon I've ever seen.

PTU's got an issue where every game falls apart somewhere around when trainers reach level 20
this is probably because you reach the end of progression at level 12 where you unlock your capstones and there's nowhere left to go
being a combat trainer is also kind of shit because you're only as good as a pokemon and when you get knocked out you're no longer able to use them
meanwhile, a decent support trainer can just control 2 pokemon anyway (when the entire draw of being a combat class is having two fighters on the field) and buff them to be even better than you
also if you try to be a hybrid of combat and support you'll fail at both spectacularly

as for pokerole, i lost all interest when it claimed that trainers can't be supernatural and it's all smoke and mirrors, because that's wrong as shit

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Do you like cute 'mons?

>>54502245
Another problem with PTU's classes is some of the capstones for classes are shit compared to just the first feature for some.

Also why the fuck does Hoobyist get the Trickster capstone before a Trickster can?

>>54502245
I just gave select trainers a special stat.

>>54502341
Only if they are willing to ride my back

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bump
What dungeons have you used?

>>54505616
I used an abandoned mine, dam, and an orphanage. My game didn't last long enough for any more.

>>54502418
Fucking hoobs

>>54506565
Hoobs and Hobbs takin our features.

>>54502245
Yeah, but you should be ending your game somewhere around that time anyway if not sooner. you shouldn't be giving players more than 5 exp a session max, and typically it'll be around 2-3 exp. Even assuming the max exp each session and milestone levels for gyms that's still about 24 sessions.

>>54507343
if you're running a league game, sure
but that's no excuse for the system to break halfway to max level, especially when it's built to do so much more

>>54507583
Unless you're GM is a god at planning they have to keep up with:

-3-4 trainers with several feats

-3-24+ Pokemon, each with their own movesets and sheets

One missed detail and a trainer or pokemon could stomp an encounter, or trivialize it.

>>54511256
This is a huge problem for any aspiring Pokemon rpg.

How could that be better designed while still keeping true to at least most of the source material?

>>54512280
i like pokemon pen and papers solution. offloading a lot of stuff onto the trainer.

>>54512484
Pokemon pen and paper basically made all pokemon cadboard tokens with no distinctive features on them save for the starter being a slightly-more-resistant cardboard token.
Effective solution or wasted potential?

Perhaps a bit of both.

>>54507583
Hardly any tabletop games are balanced at the "max". Unless you are doing too much trainer exp a session you won't have to worry about level 20 or higher for awhile.

>>54514965
Lvl 20 is not the max, it's halfway...
PTU is just the duct-taped version of PTA, the flaws of its source material seep through the smallest cracks.
Denying this is a problem just because it's not immediately evident is dumb, why do you think they wanted to reduce the level cap for 2.0?

I hope PTU fixes trainer stats in 2. Making a combat trainer now means going all in, since the non-combat features don't give stat bonuses, and support trainers have no reason to not pump it all into speed since it determines who draws their pokemon first.

>>54519613
PTU can be fixed by following these simple steps:

1. Throw it in the trash.
2. Play the video game instead.

>>54519912
t. Digimon Fan

>>54519613
Except Juggler, for some reason.

>>54512967
i don't agree with that. pokemon all have high stats typings and abilities (all which determine their movepool. to set them apart.

>>54524152
What is that worth when they can only take a single hit like disposable tokens? So much for variety...

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I'm writing a campaign rn and i've hit a surprising block when it's come to minor events along the way of the overall story. My players want to do an anime-style storyline and I have the main villain plot down but I need more minor events to pad out the journey. Anyone got any ideas for little one-session escapades and hijinks?

>>54531592
Well there are random trainers. Maybe one is a traveling chef that is offering money if the players help them get a rare ingredient.

One trainer may have had a Pokemon run off when they had an argument and needs help.

There could be scientist looking for any number of things.

PTU has a nice crunchy system, but if you run it I hope you're good at managing the massive amount of bookkeeping it requires.

>>54457444
If you really want to go with Pokemon: Monster Hunter edition, PTU allows the trainers to take combat-oriented classes that give them moves like Pokemon.

>>54531815
>>54457444
You probably want to look into the Game of Throhs book for that, it has a lot more fully combat oriented classes that would probably work well in a Monster Hunter setting.

>>54531780
I'd say the hardest part of PTU is having to make sure players get the simple damage formula right.

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So I'm reading over PokeRole and I'm really digging how similar it is to the way narrative stuff is handled in Fantasy Flight Star Wars games.

In fact, I'm kind of wanting to find a way to replace the d6 rolls with rolling the FF-brand narrative dice - I've got a pile of them laying around that I've been wanting to find a use for - Would it be simple enough to just replace the dice system and leave everything else as is? Or would some other numbers need to be adjusted?

Best Pokemon tabletop system: put your Gameboy or whatever on a tabletop and play the real game and not some piece of horse hockey.

>>54532345
Again!

>>54457452
I did a campaign that had the background cliff notes essentially being.
>Gym badges are shards of Arceus who broke when it created the world
>There's an evil team called the "Cult of Arceus" looking to revive Arceus so that they can create a new world.
>Lots of funky legendary abilities unrelated to the Blessed and the Damned splatbook.

I like it, but I also prefer giving weird "special effects" as story rewards rather than just giving them as part of a level up to the players. So the PC who was chosen by Darkrai got the ability to give people nightmares in exchange for buff each day, the PC chosen by mew got the ability to use any weapon/vehicle without needing training, the NPC "chosen" by deoxys was actually just DNA spliced with it and was gradually going insane and was in constant pain etc.

Overall we just had typical anime-style fun because we were all into that stuff, complete with a timeskip because one of the players was moving away and we wanted to finish up.

>>54500746
I have it in paper, from back in the day, never got around to play it. Is the system playable? It looked very "one-shot-ish" to me.

>>54485205
When I ran the game I made sure to run it with a touch of edge, in the sense of "People will order their pokemon to attack you, which is a bad thing because you are a squishy human, and winning a pokemon fight means nothing outside of competetions." But that's only relevant when they are fighting carnivorous wild pokemon who see trainers as easy pickings and evil teams.

>>54531592
Beach episode, japanese festival episode, bathing house episode... you know how it works. I did this in an Anima campaign and players loved it, specially when the bath house episode turned out to be actually the first contact with one of the main villains and his troupe.

Am I the only one who thinks that maybe (just maybe) the class system from PTA might be able to work out even if you removed the pokemon aspect? It would just delete a lot of classes, but I really like how the supernatural classes start you off with basic "Rain Walker lets you control X amount of water and freeze X amount at a time" type abilities rather than how lots of RPGs seem to focus on "you can now use 'fire spell no.27' which does these specific effects".

Are there any other systems that do simple things like that occasionally?

>>54532268
Pokerole uses chance dice, you could rework something from there maybe?

Or for rolling which attack a wild pokemon will make.

>>54532268
I'm guessing it would be simple enough if you keep the probability of success at 50% per dice and 16% on luck/chance dice, since those are the probability ratios of their d6 system.

Bump this
Please post adventures you've ran in any pokemon system

>>54536117
In PTU I gave my players the option of being good people and looking for a woman's kid when their coastal town got flooded in a bad storm.

>>54538970
How did it play out?
How did you run the obstacles?
What were the unforeseen complications?

>>54478117
Or you could get Blur which defangs Swift and go on with your day. Or just fight the majority of Pokemon which don't have auto hit moves.

>>54531907
I wouldn't call a damage formula that requires looking up a chart simple.

>>54540419
Maybe for casuals. But I actually just mean people not being able to even count neutral hits.

>>54539165
In the end the party saved the girl from a half flooded building. Their problems were finding her in the first place and dealing with flooded terrain which slowed them down. Pokemon wise at first there were just tentacool that got swept up by the tide, but after a few turns I threw a Gyrados at them. One party member managed to catch the Gyrados instead of finishing it off, but he just put it in the box and let the professor deal with it.

>>54540921
I meant the damage base chart, not the type effectiveness chart. Combat stages being percentile based doesn't help.

>>54541010
Oh that isn't an issue at all for us since we used roll20 which has sheets that do all the base damages and rolls it with the right stat. If it weren't for those roll20 sheets I would have never ran it.

>>54529397
>they can only take a single hit

that is factually incorrect.

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Ran first session of PTU campaign with some irl friends over discord. Went surprisingly well. Did a little beginner battle with the professor to get them used to the combat system, threw them the starters they wanted and had some fun interactions with terrible pun names and brands.

So far so good, hopefully I can keep this up once they leave the city.

>>54542882
Just make sure you have wild Pokemon ready in advanced. The generator online can will give you info, but if your players catch something you don't want to spend time making the sheet.

>>54542989
I got a few "random" encounters pre planned and with written sheets. I just wished the PTA .com site could make quick pdf files for the pokemon it generates.

Which reminds me, in my world I ended up making the canon format for pokemon storage .pdf files. I think this world is gonna have a lot of lazy explainations for sci fi concepts.

>>54467531
Pathfinder?

>>54497423
PTA just had an update for SunMoon Dex and it looked nice. The creator claimed to be working on streamlining the trainers and Pokemon.

>>54545483
I am, but I have a job and other projects I work on and basically only work on it when there's nothing else to do. I also not-so-secretly think my own system is clunky and needs a lot of simplification which means a whole lot of work to actually finish combining the two different stat blocks for mons and trainers. It will be done eventually, but give it years before actually checking on that.

Super last minute bump

What are some fun gym ideas people have had or used? They can be challenges or gimmicks they used to make the leader battle more difficult.