Maxwell

A Pure White Beginning: Retro Pokémon Adventures

Yes, although there are no fairy type pokémon.

A Pure White Beginning [Pokémon]

We've got some pretty great characters so far. Good balance of personalities and concepts, none too outlandish and all of them distinct. Exactly what I was hoping for.

Now, I have a million things to do and probably won't have time to kick this game off today, but with any luck I'll at least be able to add my own character sheet to the mix. If there are more prospective players who want to apply, I won't stop you, although we already have more than enough good characters to get started. If your sheets are anything like those we already have, it'll be a tough decision.

Everyone's inventory so far is approved, although you may want to give yourselves a little more cash. Red starts the game with ₽2000 and a potion, if I recall correctly. We'll be using the in-game prices for items (as well as having pokéballs be one-use), so you may need the money. As for items that don't have prices in the game, well... we'll work it out.

EDIT: Found my old game and checked. You start with 3000 and a potion.

EDIT 2: I am somewhat worried about the party chemistry the way things are turning out, though. We've got one character who'll inevitably look down on everyone else, one who'll run off and do obviously self-destructive things without considering others, and one who hates conflict. It seems like you're set up to hate one another.

A Pure White Beginning: Retro Pokémon Adventures

The OOC Thread is open. I cut a corner or two, but I figured we could get started faster this way.

A Pure White Beginning [Pokémon]

"Hello there! Welcome to the world of pokémon! My name is Oak! People call me the pokémon Prof! This world is inhabited by creatures called pokémon! For some people, pokémon are pets. Others use them for fights. Myself... I study pokémon as a profession."
-Professor Oak.

Pokémon: A Pure White Beginning

As springtime rolls around in Pallet Town, a new batch of bright-eyed young pokémon trainers-to be are lining up outside of professor Oak's laboratory, waiting eagerly to set out on their very own pokémon adventures. The success of the latest pokémon champion, Red, has put Pallet Town on the map, and people all over Kanto are scrambling to get one of the famous professor Oak's pokédexes. Children flock to Kanto from near and far to walk in Red's footsteps, up Route 1 to Viridian city and onward into legend.

Today, you and your friends are among those waiting for the Oak lab's fabled doors to open. Whether you go back a long way or made fast friends today, you've resolved to take on the perils of the road together, as soon as you get yourselves registered in the Indigo League.

Shades of your journey awaits!

Information:
You'll get a bigger intro in the IC thread. Hello, and welcome to my little game!

This is going to be a classic, first generation pokémon journey, with each of you portraying a thirteen year-old child about to receive their pokédex and Indigo League registration. You don't need to have a character who aims to be pokémon champion; you could set out to be a great pokémon breeder, or a cook, or a ninja for all I care, but your characters will all travel Kanto as a group while taking on the gym challenge. Along the way you'll have adventures, make friends and enemies, and hopefully capture some rare pokémon. This game will take place in the Kanto region only, and all pokémon beyond the first 151 will be completely absent. You can consider this game to be set between Pokémon Red/Blue and Pokémon Gold/Silver, so very few later inventions will be available.

I will take on the heaviest burden 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. While it's great if you want to have a rivalry going on in-character, this is not supposed to be a competition between players.

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. Likewise, if you're in a life and death fight against Team Rocket or similar types, there's nothing preventing you throwing your entire team at 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. Serious injury and death should be quite rare - getting hit by a Thunderbolt or Flamethrower isn't going to kill anyone, although it may incapacitate.

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.

Last but not least, I too will be playing a character in this game, although I will wait to make it until the rest of the party is finished, so I can be sure he won't step on anyone else's toes. I'm looking for three to four other players for this game.

Character Sheet

Name:

Age: 13 (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. 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:
Ideally, I would like a party of unique - but believable - characters with strong personalities. Be sure to give us a good idea of what your character is like, and be sure to make a character who would want to be in this group. Don't forget to include something about your character's personal goals.

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.

Síðasta: A Tale of Fantasy

Presents either an opprturnity to be lost because of an inability to let go of the past and desires for power they no longer have or to find a new way from the ground up which is arguably the worse of the two options.

@Hexaflexagon

I was gonna do both, although I figured it wouldn't be possible to find a new way.

A Pure White Beginning: Retro Pokémon Adventures

Ace trainers, bug catchers, battle girls, idols and bird keepers are all fine. I'll get to work on a proper thread, although I may not have time for it today.

Síðasta: A Tale of Fantasy

Posting tentative interest. I'm feeling a pull toward playing a once-mighty ice wizard on a vain quest to regain his power.

A Pure White Beginning: Retro Pokémon Adventures

I'm glad you asked - because that gives me a chance to elaborate - and the answer is yes, Aroma Lady is fine. As long as a class doesn't depend on any setting element that's been introduced in later media, such as Aura, Pokémon Ranger superpowers, being a member of a Team and so on, it should be fine.

Aroma Lady sounds like a great choice, actually.

A Pure White Beginning: Retro Pokémon Adventures

The line was originally written by the Japanese, so make of that what you will!

A Pure White Beginning: Retro Pokémon Adventures

Mechanical progression is definitely secondary, although I expect all our characters will want a solid team. There's no minimum number of paragraphs - while I enjoy a long, well-written post as much as the next guy, it's much more important that you post at a reasonable rate. I will confess, though, that I haven't been a regular poster on RPGuild since back in 2008-2009, so I don't really know how board culture works anymore, or what the various boards really imply. I put this in the Advanced section because I want a certain level of writing ability in my players - I want players who are capable of creating strong, interesting characters and make them come to life in their writing, and who have the communication and teamwork skills to create a story together without getting in each other's way.

As I wrote in the initial post, there's no artificial limit to the number of moves your pokémon can learn. This game will cleave closer to the conventions of the animé than to the games, and realism isn't terribly important to me. Perishable supplies we'll handle in any way that's convenient - little details like that are secondary to having a fun adventure.