I'd like a pokemon RP, but honestly, starting right from square one I don't think will work. Since it's an RP, you have to give people a reason to stay involved right from the beginning, but when that beginning is even including what essentially amounts to the tutorial levels, I think it's likely to die. The problem with Pokemon in an RP format is that there's an awful lot of walking around. You have to constantly trigger new events or people get bored - just as the anime will introduce new and usually completely irrelevant side-plots every episode despite them really just walking down a road. As an RP though, constantly triggering a new irrelevant sideplot the moment the previous one is completed will become tedious very quickly and may cause disengagement if people feel they're getting nowhere with the actual plot. On the other hand, having them only beat all the gyms in order would be too quick. As an RP, you can't have the wandering aimlessly to catch pokemon thing that the games do, because it's boring for everyone else to wait for someone to wrap up a description of them stumbling around for ages. Additionally, waiting for pokemon battles to conclude is boring too, so dice won't work for that. Whatsmore, we've all played the games, we know what it's like to start from a starter and work up. Most pokemon RPs have to let people use any pokemon they want (excluding maybe the super-legendaries) or some of their players may start off only half invested, because people like to shake it up a bit and try something new.
Unrelated note, do you have any ideas for this new region yet or are you still planning it?
Unrelated note, is that Zelda RP going to be a thing or did you drop it?
So basically, what I'm trying to say is:
- I don't think forcing a start from absolute zero and working up is a good idea (individuals are perfectly free to do so if they want, but others may wish to start with more advanced pokemon and I feel you should let them as long as they can create a convincing reason that they have stronger pokemon, and can find a way to balance it - disobeying orders for example, like traded pokemon do)
- Dice will stagnate battles as they will force a constant stream of one-liner posts. I recommend rolling only one dice at the beginning to decide who will win (the one who rolls highest wins), then have the players involved do a collab post using PMs and paste it in only once, to prevent the thread becoming cluttered with one-liner responses. You could also factor in level and type into the dice roll using modifiers. EG: [spoili] Anna is using a level 20 Onyx against Bill's Level 15 Squirtle. Each rolls a 10 sided dice in an OOC post, Anna rolls 12, Bill rolls 12. Level threshold is 3 (a pokemon within 3 levels of another can easily defeat it). Onyx is 5 levels higher than Squirtle. 5-3 (threshold) = 2, so Anna's roll has 2 added to it, total 14. Squirtle is a water type, which beats Rock, so has 2 added to its roll. Onyx is also a ground type, which is weak to water, for another +2 to roll. The end results are 14 for Onyx and 16 for Squirtle, so Squirtle beats Onyx. Anna and Bill then make a collaborative post using PMs and fight out this battle, then one of them pastes it into the IC thread, making any necessary edits. [/spoili]
- Limit the number of PVP battles that happen, and let PVE battles carry out without dice rolls to vastly improve speed - because let's face it, PVE in pokemon is really easy and we'll storm through it. You can always say at the top of the post whether the battle initiated in that post is against a particularly difficult enemy after all, and people can damage themselves as necessary.
- The fourth point was the most important one so I'm really annoyed that I forgot it...
