@Lasrever ... Pfffth. Haha. I like your exit.

@PlatinumSkink You'll need to start as everyone else has, without any berries, and find them along the way. If you could provide a header for your character name (I made a sample in the first post in OOC, but feel free to customize it as other people have been doing) as well as provide colored dialogue, that'd be great! I see people posting inventory as well, which is extremely helpful.

@Whimsley Got it, allow me to edit that, then. Hm.

....I have too much fun being a jerk with my characters sometimes xD

Changing Tesh's weight from 160'lbs to 175'lbs. Just realized that 160 for 6 ft is bordering on anorexic.

Question for y'all, in a battle with multiple Pokémon, let's say your Pokémon is defeated or vice versa. Should the trainer who's Pokémon was not defeated be able to switch out in response to the defeated trainer's new pick? I'm leaning towards no, as this might lead to constant type advantage and a snowball victory depending on who wins the first round, but I'd like everyone's input as this is your campaign.

Question for y'all, in a battle with multiple Pokémon, let's say your Pokémon is defeated or vice versa. Should the trainer who's Pokémon was not defeated be able to switch out in response to the defeated trainer's new pick? I'm leaning towards no, as this might lead to constant type advantage and a snowball victory depending on who wins the first round, but I'd like everyone's input as this is your campaign.

I agree with you on that. In official battles, that would be a little...advantageous for the one who wins. Would allow for more fair play, I think, for them to not be able to switch.

I like not being able to switch too much, but I also think pokemon switching in-and-out should be allowed sometimes. It allows a more dynamic sort of feel at times.

No meta-stuff like in legit pokemon games tho.

@Whimsley While they might not be allowed to RESPOND to the choice of the other trainer, I do feel that the winner should be allowed to bring their exhausted Pokémon out of battle in exchange for a clean slate. I personally feel the "best out of X" method would work much better in a real-life setting than a "we fight until one whole team has been defeated". What would you otherwise tell the first Pokémon you send out? If you can't take that one out of the fight, then you're essentially dooming it to be beaten up before the end of the fight as the enemy will just send something that can more easily fight it. XD

But yes, "Matt is about to use Poliwhirl, would you like to switch" clearly doesn't work. So, allow to take back, but both next Pokémon must be revealed at once, so none is responding to the other unless the winner is like "My Kakuna can beat anything you send out!". That's my suggestion.

And in case of battles against criminals without rules... They would be rule-less, wouldn't they? Hahaha...

@Whimsley I don't think a pokemon should be stuck in the battle the instant they're sent out, but I also don't think the identity of the other pokemon should be revealed. Similarly to what @PlatinumSkink said, I think it makes the most sense for the victor to be able to switch out their pokemon, but they don't get to know what pokemon the other person is sending in -- same goes for the loser, they won't know what pokemon the winner is sending in.

Perhaps there could be an overall limit as to the number of times your pokemon can be switched out? Maybe for shorter battles, you can only switch out once. Longer battles, you can switch out a few times... I feel like there's some sort of mathematical ratio we could find there, haha.

You should predecide the order you'll send your pokemon out.

Most fighting game toruney's I go to have that rule about games where you can pick a team of characters. You have to tell the tournament organisers before hand the team of characters you will select and the order before the tournament starts. Everyone is then locked into those picks.

You can do the same each battle, where each trainer/player pre selects their teams order and then sends the list to an independent witness who can post the order that was pm'd to them.

I'll agree with @PlatinumSkink. The bit about the pokemon switching at least, not so sure about the 'best out of x wins' or something. Seems a bit...eh. Out there.

I am, however, against pre-deciding the order you send out your pokemon in whatever fashion. That is a very inflexible system and after thinking it over a bit more and reading the others suggestions, I think it would be neat to be able to switch out pokemon in some manner to allow for some creative strategies.

Every strategy I go down seems to arrive at a dead end. Predetermined is inflexible, best of x doesn't feel like traditional Pokémon. The not knowing what the other person will choose seems ideal, but that wouldn't work in thread. It might work if I were to choose a Pokémon before you posted and go with it no matter what, but it doesn't work for PC battles. One person will always post after the other, and the only way to keep them from choosing another Pokémon is the honor system. The only way I can see that working is if both players message me their starting Pokémon before a battle.

Maybe this will work, at least for players vs. me: You choose the Pokémon you're battling with first to avoid selective bias, and I'll throw out what I wrote down on a word document, as described before. I don't think there's an organized system for this, but maybe switch outs are only possible in SAFE situations. No mid-move type change to surprise maneuver. More like if both Pokémon aren't attacking and are a decent distance away, and/or if terrain is separating them. Thing is, though, with this knowledge the strategy to just blitzkrieg the opponent becomes infinitely better, in my opinion. They can't switch out in that instance.

Another direction to take it in is that switch outs can be performed whenever, but the Pokémon switching in is vulnerable to attack. So if you're switching out on a live opponent, prepare to take a hit. Thoughts?

Perhaps the first pokemon you send out is always the one who is at the front of your roster in the pokemon line-up in your post before the battle starts?

The same way it works in the games, sorta? I wouldn't mind it, and it realistically could reasonably be the first pokemon on your belt/wherever you keep your pokemon, so in a sudden battle situation it's likely to assume you'd grab them first.

Just my thoughts, though.

But yeah, only being able to switch if it's a relatively safe environment (not being attacked at the moment and stuff like that) Makes the most sense. It'd be sort of hard to recall and send out pokemon like that.

I do like that suggestion for surprise situations, let's go with that. But for battles that gives away who you're choosing first, and a player can still change their line up accordingly once you post first.

Hmm...

Well, there's honestly not much you can do to...fix that in PvP situations, unless there is a way to have the players send out their pokemon at the same time.

A collab might be the best solution to fix that, but I'm not sure how everyone here feels about them.

The two battling could also maybe decide what pokemon they would send out first in the OOC, and come to a compromise or decision that their character would send out 'x' pokemon and the other would send out 'y'. Relies on the honor system a bit, but I tend to give people the benefit of the doubt in such situations. As long as it's reasonable that their character would chose said pokemon first for a battle, I don't see the problem with it.

I'm still more of a fan of each player messaging me and holding to that choice. I think it removes all bias and doesn't take up that much time. It also doesn't have to rely on an honor system, as I'm the only one that knows the answers.

On the matter of battle switching, it will always need a penalty in my opinion. You're gaining an advantage by switching out and need to take a disadvantage elsewhere. I'm sticking to the rule that a Pokémon will get a free action against you if you attempt to switch out on a Pokémon that has not fainted. Or, they also get a free switch. That's how it works in the games and I think it works here as well. Just so long as people don't infinitely switch for type advantage. In trainer battles against me, I will have a set Pokémon to go out first or next and players will state who they're using before I reveal my choice. This removes all possible player bias.

OR we could just say no penalties for switching, and everyone agrees not to lolspam switch. That being said, opposing trainers would have as much free reign as you do to switch.

Hey, you're the bossman and I have no problem with any of these systems, so these work for me.

Now I go back to getting me arse kicked in bloodborne because I haven't played for a month and I am so terribly out of practice and I'm on NG+5 I think.

Since Mara's spoken to, I'll wait for her post before I do something. Saying it out loud so people know I'm waiting. Haha.

I'll post soon! Studying for AP exams, sorry!