Maxwell

A Pure White Beginning: Retro Pokémon Adventures

Well, if you have no specific idea, there's always Youngster. The classes aren't supposed to be straight jackets or force people into narrow archetypes, only to nudge players toward creating strong characters with simple high concepts.

A Pure White Beginning: Retro Pokémon Adventures

Hello and welcome to my little game.

This is going to be a classic pokémon journey, with a group of young children setting out from Pallet town to follow their dreams. I will take on the brunt of the work (and authority) as game master, although players are welcome to take control of NPCs and aspects of the game world as it suits their needs. Everyone should be working together toward a steady pace and an interesting adventure, so I'm trusting all players to behave. If anyone happens to end up significantly ahead of everyone else, we'll work to make sure everyone catches up.

Setup:
Another year rolls around, and a new group of 13-year olds are gathering at professor Oak's laboratory in Pallet Town to receive their pokédexes and - for some - their very first pokémon. From there on, they will travel along the routes through the Kanto region, searching for ever stronger pokémon as they pursue their dreams. This is going to be a First Generation pokémon role play, and as such all pokémon beyond the first 151 will be completely absent. I'm not as picky with other elements of later games - if someone is rich and wants to have a pokégear, fine.

As this is a role play, we'll do away with many of the more game-like elements from the games and series. There is no artificial limit to how many pokémon you can carry at once (although trainers often agree to use a limited number of pokémon in a fight) or how many moves your pokémon can learn, and your inventory size is just however much you think your character could realistically carry, for example. Likewise, if you're in a life and death fight against Team Rocket similar types, there's nothing preventing you throwing your entire team and them at once.

On the other hand, to keep a light-hearted feel to the game, we are going to play up the more cartoony aspects of the setting. Getting hit by a Thunderbolt or Flamethrower isn't going to kill or seriously injure anyone, for example, although it may incapacitate. Serious injury and death should be quite rare, and I'm hoping darker themes in general will be kept to a minimum.

Ideally, I would like a party of unique - but believable - characters with strong personalities. To aid in this, I'm requiring everyone to pick a Trainer Class (see the sheet below), which will hopefully help your characterization. Be sure to show some restraint, though - I would like to avoid something like a party consisting of Red's son using his father's pikachu, a psychic prodigy of unheard of power, and a kid who taught her shiny magikarp to speak.

On combat and conflict resolution:
Combat is going to be handled narratively. You'll win a few, lose a few, depending on your approach and whatever's dramatically appropriate - in order to ensure that there's some risk, I'll be the ultimate arbiter of who wins what. The important part is that the fights are tense and interesting to read.

If there's ever an argument that can't be solved through in character discussion, such as who gets to capture a certain pokémon, or who gets to keep a cool item, we'll solve it in true Japanese fashion - rock, paper, scissors. You'll simply each send me a PM with a series of plays - say, ten - which will be compared to one another, in order, with the winner being the first play that isn't a tie.

Character Sheet

Name:

Age: 13 (Keep in mind that your age is automatically 13!)

Trainer Class: Please select the Trainer Class that suits your character the best. Any class is open, within reason; you obviously can't play as an Old Couple, a Team Rocket Admin or a Gym Leader, and anything that requires a setting element that was introduced in later generations is off limits as well. But if you wanted to play a Super Nerd, a Psychic, Channeler, Ninja or similar, the field is open, as long as your character is a novice within his field, and you don't abuse your power.

Physical Description:
Decent text descriptions are what separates us from the animals, so I'll want one of those from each of you. I won't stop you from including pictures if you want, but the text has to be able to stand on its own.

Personality:
Be sure to give us a good idea of what your character is like. Be sure to make a character who would want to be in this group. Also include something about your character's personal goals. You don't have to be aiming for pokémon champion.

Background:
This can be fairly short, since your characters are only 13 years old. You may later want to amend this with ties to other characters' backgrounds. Your characters don't need to have been from Pallet Town originally - coming there specifically for the pokédex is fine.

Pokémon: Pick something relatively humble for your first pokémon. Children without their own pokémon are given one of the three usual starters by professor Oak - as long as supplies last - but there's nothing saying you can't bring your own.

Inventory: Your starting inventory should reflect your class. A Rich Kid is naturally going to have much, much more money than the average character, while no Hiker worth his salt would leave home without a backpack full of camping supplies. Losing a pokémon duel outside of a gym costs you half your cash, so stash some away - though if you get a reputation for carrying nothing, you'll have a hard time finding opponents.

PC Stash: You can only carry so many items before you collapse from the weight, but thanks to Kanto's strangely advanced digital storage system, money, items and even pokémon can be stored and retrieved anywhere with an internet connection. Don't lose your password!

You're welcome to ask questions and post interest with or without a filled out character sheet.

Let sleeping dogs lie.

Ogres aren't, though. Just a heads up.

Let sleeping dogs lie.

The Bretonnians do have a navy, although I suppose being on the open sea will make it somewhat harder for the inevitable army of pegasus and grail knights (or pegasus-riding grail knights) to catch us.

Honestly, I suspect our only realistic chance will be to capture this woman quietly and be far away before anyone realizes what's happening.

Let sleeping dogs lie.

If people are waiting for my introductory post, I figured it'd be more dramatically appropriate for us to meet in some harbor town. If you prefer, though, I can enter the castle like the rest instead.

Let sleeping dogs lie.

Sounds good to me. If you move near any coastal community, I can just have him land there.

Let sleeping dogs lie.

I'm going to sleep any moment and to work in the morning, so I probably won't post before you do.

Let sleeping dogs lie.

Thag, Ogre Sailor

Username: Maxwell

Character Name: Thag the Unwieldy

Race/Species: Ogre

Gender: Male

Age: 39

Career (if any) and Skills:
As an ogre, Thag is a natural fighter with an innate talent for causing spectacular damage to everything around him - sometimes even when he isn't trying. He has sailed the Old World's western coast from Sartosa to Erengrad, variously as a stevedore, deckhand and seaman, depending on how much his captains felt like paying. He can swear, demand food and threaten thinlings with violence in eight different languages (not that he can count that high).

While the finer points of sailing and navigation will forever elude him, Thag is a master of stowing goods, pulling the right ropes at the right time, and scaring off would-be attackers with his mere presence. He might not be the most elegant creature on the high seas, but he floats well, and falling overboard isn't much of a concern when you can climb up the hull of a Man O' War with nothing but rage and a blunt dagger.

As a staunch admirer of ogre culture, Thag is also an accomplished amateur smith; in the way of ogres, he has a knack for turning unassuming scrap into moderately functional pieces of gear, mostly by bashing them together until they assume a useful shape. After all, it's not like you can expect a weedy human smith to make a proper gut plate.

Weapons:
A chunk of mast strapped around a large anchor.

A pair of marlinespikes.

Attire:
Various fishing lures, shark teeth and small knives as body piercings, and a hook hand for an earring. A large ship's helm covered in scrap metal as a gut plate. A tiny vest and a pair of badly worn pants.

Equipment/Other:
Thag doesn't carry much, on account of him being poor and recently shipwrecked. He is sure to pick up anything valuable, damaging or shiny he can get his hands on, though.

Physical Description:
Thag is an ogre, with all that brings with it. Just shy of ten feet tall, he towers over ordinary mortals, and is at least three times as wide as a man. His limbs resemble tree trunks and his hands are the size of dried hams, their palms thick with callouses and knuckles heavily scarred. A lifetime spent toiling under the hot sun has tanned his skin to the colour and consistency of leather, where it isn't pale with old scars, or pockmarked by left-behind grapeshot and shrapnel. Several of his teeth and nails are missing, and his nose has obviously been broken on several occasions. On one cheek, he carries an Imperial tattoo artist's best impression of the symbol of the Great Maw, a terrifying torrent of teeth spiraling into a bottomless pit - Thag was disappointed to note it looks nothing like the traditional image of the Maw.

Sadly, life on board a sailing vessel is not conducive to overeating, and Thag is laughably thin by ogre standards. His jawline and adam's apple can still be made out within his neck flab, and his upper arms hardly even slap against his sides when he runs. Equally laughable is his gut plate, made out of a simple ship's helm with a handful of trophies strapped across its spokes, the whole thing held in place by half-rotten rope. He carries himself with the same general air of humorlessness and martial pride as most ogres do, until the violence starts and his face contorts into a yellow-toothed smile.

Mental Description/Personality:
Ogres are not the most astute creatures, beyond perhaps a certain animal cunning, and Thag is a model example of his race in that regard. Driven by greed, hunger and a lust for violence, he possesses little in the way of ambition, and only a very simple kind of initiative - if a problem cannot be immediately solved without violence, the solution must indeed be violence. He loves to eat, drink and fight, and while he has learned to abide the ways of thinlings, with their laws, politics, hierarchies and money, he admires the simpler ideals of the Ogre Kingdoms - the thought of following an almighty tyrant into battle fills him with a longing he can't quite describe. Having sailed the high seas for nearly half a century, he is sick and tired of water and ships, and would like an excuse to wreak some havoc on dry land. Last but not least, he suffers from an entirely unwarranted sense of insecurity over his physique, and a slightly less unwarranted worry that he might die before he achieves the bulk of his dreams.

Background/History:
Born after a chance meeting between two wandering ogre mercenaries, both come from the Mountains of Mourn to make their fortune fighting for the thinlings. Growing up, he watched as they killed and bullied their way across the Empire, and listened raptly to their tales of the ogre kingdoms - its harsh, unforgiving mountain ranges and the ogre tribes that ruled them. Their tales were numerous, fantastical, and oftentimes wildly exaggerated, and Thag loved them. Thinling society was a complicated mess of rules, trickery and secrets, but in those mountains, it seemed, life made sense. He came to idealize the ogre kingdoms, and though the realities of life forced Thag to adapt to the customs of the Old World, he resolved to emulate the traditions of the ogre kingdoms whenever he could.

After a little over a decade of mercenary work, Thag's parents finally went their separate ways, one sailing west with an Estalian explorer, one heading east with a Great Caravan, along the Silver Road to Cathay. As neither employer wanted a child along - even an almost-grown ogre whelp - Thag was left on his own in Marienburg, where he was immediately snatched up by the guild of stevedores and teamsters. A few years and countless bashed skulls later, Thag was among the guild's most valued members, doing the work (and committing the violent crimes) of an entire team by himself. He had all but settled into his cozy, simple lifestyle, and might very well have remained a small-time thug if a passing navy captain hadn't recognized his worth. An offer of a year's worth of gold per month, and plunder and food besides awakened Thag's wanderlust as much as his greed, and though the guild were most unhappy with his decision, Thag left to sail the sea of Claws in defence of Marienburg.

Many years of adventure followed, with Thag trading ships as greed and whimsy dictated until an unfortunate shipwreck saw him washed ashore outside of Miragliano, just in time a new call to battle.

Let sleeping dogs lie.

Well, I've sent in my character and am only waiting for a reply. In the meantime, let's chat. Anyone have any ideas for where they want to take this game?

Let sleeping dogs lie.

Alright. I'm reading through the IC right now, but for the moment I'm considering an ogre. One with a sailing background who's used to working with thinlings, but who idolizes ogre culture and dreams of one day having his own gnoblars and a fabulous gut plate. Does that sound acceptable?