Pokemon Academy

As in like host the rp itself? I mean I couuuuuld. But, it would be the most lackluster GM job known to man.

Not gonna make any fancy looking character sheets. But I could get the ball rolling.
 
Well, all character sheets are basically the same right? No need to be fancy. If anything we can just use the one already posted in this thread as the default
 
I'm interested, pending more info. Could be cool mixing pokemon with a fantasized boarding school lifestyle (ex. Harry Potter). Just like too much travel can bog RPs down, too much focus on classroom education could do the same thing. I'd be curious to see how this was handled.

Other interesting idea: if this existed alongside the traditional journey setup. Instead of going on the journey across whatever continent, these 10 chose the classroom route. Why? How would traveling trainers treat them? Taunts like "You took the easy way out!", "A real trainer has to suffer the travel to be good.", "Buncha rich kid pretenders trying to buy their way into the pokemon league. First round fodder for sure."
How would such treatment affect them and how do they overcome it? Cool story elements like that could spice things up.
 
I *might* bite on this. Been looking for something somewhat light and I like school games as long as they don't get too massive.

I like the idea of combining it with a Hogwarts-esque house system/rivalry. Seems like it would be pretty easy to divide this among traditional starters. Maybe fire, water, grass, and electric with assorted other clubs and societies for students interested in exploring other types. A cool backstory might be to blend this with a villainous syndicate that has infiltrated the school or something of that sort.... with their own mysterious powers an advantages.....

Haha I could actually really easily convert a game I did a few years ago over to this model. I don't really want the responsibility of GMing something right now (real life = I'm a flake with writing at times) but I may have some ideas if they're needed.
 
Building off of what @Toogee said. Maybe the headmaster makes the trainers go out on missions outside of the school sometimes. For example, he might want them to go catch a certain Pokemon if you wanted something more sandbox, or you could just be a courier mission with some obstacles like some evil teams or some pokemon based obstacles.
 
I'm loving what you guys are thinking of! If you're going the route of Hogwarts-inspired, maybe monthly tournaments (think anime Pokemon League) or alternate tournaments with contests? It opens it to a more diverse cast.

@Neko_Green I like the idea of the headmaster sending trainers out on little missions. Maybe add on something like 'battle x amount of trainers/Pokemon', or just observe a certain Pokemon or type instead of capturing.

If this does get picked up by someone else before OP says something, would you tag me in it?
 
MelodicInferno said:
I'm loving what you guys are thinking of! If you're going the route of Hogwarts-inspired, maybe monthly tournaments (think anime Pokemon League) or alternate tournaments with contests? It opens it to a more diverse cast.

@Neko_Green I like the idea of the headmaster sending trainers out on little missions. Maybe add on something like 'battle x amount of trainers/Pokemon', or just observe a certain Pokemon or type instead of capturing.

If this does get picked up by someone else before OP says something, would you tag me in it?
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If I remember 3-3
 
I like the idea of tournaments and quests/missions. Especially if missions take place as part of a larger plot.

Hmmmm.... as I said I'm not sure I want to GM (and who knows, OP could pop in and then I'd feel bad) but if I did I'm thinking of ways to combine the storyline of a game I've made before (Take a look if ya want but don't judge me >_<) . I'm thinking a possible origin story for the crime syndicate in that game (Team Fusion). Perhaps, unbeknownst to the population, the young, beautiful, and mysterious headmaster is the original "prophet " of this organization. He's got a few disciples among the teachers at Celedon University and while the schools mission continues to be mass producing kick-a trainers, a new interest in the arts of Fusion begins to take over. The game would primarily take place below the level of these forces but as things progressed students may end up having to pick sides. Idk that I'd present either side as "the good" or "the bad" just different views on the world and its end. Mwahaha.

For the school itseslf, if it were me I'd write it along the same 7yr span as the HP books. No one would probably be playing first or second years so maybe we'd just leave them off the table for main characters. Perhaps students start out as just generalized trainers but are expected to specialize somewhat as their careers go on. For example, by the end of their third year students are expected to "pledge" to a house (water, fire, electric, or grass) which would lock them into a style or team (though I don't think it should lock them into a type so much that just seems a bit rigid). Each "Team" would have a sort of personality. I'm thinking:

Fire - Focus is on battling. Hot headed. Focus on Valor (tehe). Similar to Gryffindors in archtype but not always good guys. Perhaps their "territory" is some sort of school dojo or battle arena.

Water - Also focused on battling but also being smarties. Idk I don't want to be too rigid on the personalities but these are our Ravenclaws. Perhaps more inclined to fusion but who knows. Cool and collected. Territory is the pool.

Electric - Hardworking. Fun loving. Easy going. The Hufflepuffs but still pretty cool. I imagine their territory would be somewhere fun. Maybe a small amusement park in town.

Grass - A paradoxical group I think. Very smart but also ambitious. Not perfectly analogous to Slytherins but I've got a possible baddie I'd like to put in this group. Science geeks. Most Pokemon Proffesors were in this house. Territory is a park surrounding the Celedon gym.

Aw heck lets just be lazy and align them to Go! teams. XP So you've got Mystic House, Valor House, Instinct House, and ehhhhh hm... I'll think on the last one. "Tournaments" could happen between houses on a monthly basis, plus a couple of tournaments with trainers outside the academy, and a big "end of the year" tournament. A student who wins this tournament ends up with essentially the same rank as a master.... which makes for good rivalry as each house wants to have the champion.... Realistically I've never been sure how to run good tournaments in post by post games.

Before pledging to a group students are just categorized as "normal" type. They've got a territory of sorts but it's the student community center plus a coffee house at the base of a clock tower. Additionally, the clock tower hosts the "Student Council" a collection of talented students who were either voted in or hand picked by the headmaster meet (cause I feel like every school-based anime has a student council). They also get to go on smancy quests sometimes that connect to the larger plot. Perhaps our varied characters are all on or friends with someone on the council and thats why they get to do cool things.

I really don't want to hijjack this because I feel like there are a lot of people here who would be more dedicated to it than me and like I said I'm busy in rl but let me know if this seems like an appealing start because I could start mocking up something and then if the OP comes back (or someone else comes up with something) I'll just put it on a shelf for later.
 
I always liked a grayish more realistic depiction of Pokemon instead of the cheery peppy thing that it is. There is this really interesting theory wherein Matt from Game Theory suggests that the Pokemon Candy from Pokemon Go (Which he also suggests are rare candy in the games) are actually crushed up Pokemon used to feed Pokemon and the teams are ideologists responses to the moral questioning brought up by the people. I am just paraphrasing and I haven't watched the video in a while but I will link it here.
<-- Really interesting. I think we should work those into the canon.
 
You and I are on the same wavelength as far as the Go! theory haha. My crime syndicate idea is a little less "soylent green" but Fusion powers would relate to a certain harvesting of pokemon will/life force.
 
Lackadaisical said:
You and I are on the same wavelength as far as the Go! theory haha. My crime syndicate idea is a little less "soylent green" but Fusion powers would relate to a certain harvesting of pokemon will/life force.
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Where would their power's come from there God, you mentioned a Prophet?
 
My goodness, the amount of brainstorming is something I have never seen before...This might actually be worth my time for real.
 
^ Haha well for me I'm piggybacking off a fully fleshed idea. Plus, brainstorming is easy. Running a game? Notsomuch...

*** Major game spoilers, dun read if you don't wanna know or are gonna have a character who outs my organization prematurely but.....***

Basically the idea was in my game that a group of pokemon scientists discovered a way to fuse (hence team fusion) Pokemon DNA and human DNA. Along with this power, they also found a way to have a trainer "absorb" some (or all) of a Pokemon's life force. So like, imagine you had a Fusion Master who wanted to gain pyrotechnic abilities. He begins studying Fusion and eventually gains the ability absorb a Pokemon's power. Problem is, to be able to have any real ability that fusion master has to sacrifice a bunch-o fire type pokemon.

Beyond absorbing powers, these scientists were also able to fuse pokemon DNA with human DNA creating hybrids (think gijinkas). These didn't play a huge part in my game (because they had to be fused pre-natally) but tied in as a plot point because one of the original scientists was passing off one of the first of these creatures as either his daughter or sister.

That original scientist is the Prophet, and really the first fusion master. Now, he may or may not believe it but the prophet starts spreading the idea that the world is ending (because don't they all?). Basically, his idea is that humans are an abomination in the Pokemon universe. He has some sort of story about how man either created or colonized the pokemon world long ago but now this world created by them is devouring them. Humans, he argues, will fall to "the void" while pokemon with their superior energy (an energy that can be collapsed into a digital form a-la pokeball while humans cannot). The only escape is to gain pokemon energy yourself, either by being a hybrid or mastering fusion to at least a minimal form. In the end, only team fusion will be saved (according to the prophet at least).

Now the worlds all in a panic. People, particularly powerful trainers (in my game this included the original Red, and Green) disappear without a trace and people argue whether team fusion has something to do with it or if they're just dispersing into "the void" as the prophet predicts. Team fusion starts gaining steam. Perhaps they slowly take over a larger school (our game) and then open up smaller schools. People still don't really know what they do because you have to reach a certain "level" in their organization to learn fusion but they're are whispers.

And I mean there's a lot to work with here but there's also possiblities for more story development with the daughter. Introduction of an OC Legendary.... lots of good things.
 
(Not fire type...the sadness of losing my Ninetales or Delphox would be too much.)
 
Oh, I like this team idea. Like if most of the people would prefer to not be the team, for those who do maybe we can make a little gang similar to Jessi and James but more competent and not goofy and have them be a recurring antagonist into the semi-slice of life idea we are brewing here.

Like I normally double up on RPs I like. So I would be willing to double up on one antagonist's members and a student.

There was this one really interesting idea that I had seen in some other brews. Basically, you use the Smogon Simulator for battles in the game. This can be off-putting to some, so we can make it optional for both who want to use it or not. I hope we can get everyone on board for using it, then we can have the Smogon tears be canon have like a Pokemon library where student and use Pokemon from it to make teams for different Smogon tears of battle like:
OverUsed (OU)
UnderUsed (UU)
RarelyUsed (RU)
NeverUsed (NU)
PU
Little Cup (LC)
Doubles
That is a total niche thing that would be kind of weird to some. Like we could come up with our own canon for how it exists and stuff if people want to do slice of life instead of the connected missions from the headmaster then they can stay behind and this can be one of the things can do. Though I think if we do enforce the simulator thing it would kind of force people to collab into a post, or a least predeterminate the battle which some might not like.

Though predetermining a battle is a sort of important to prevent Godmodding or swingy battles in my opinion.
 
I like the idea of the school providing Pokémon for tiered tournaments, and having the concept of certain Pokémon being superior and others being "useless". I mean, everyone will choose to prove the worth of subpar Pokémon eventually, but I would definitely prefer to do battles through RP rather than through Smogon because that'll allow for more imaginative uses for moves and more fluid battling overall.

Who wins is an issue that we can figure out as players before any battles, as opposed to making it a writing competition where no one is willing to get hit.
 
Chaac said:
I like the idea of the school providing Pokémon for tiered tournaments, and having the concept of certain Pokémon being superior and others being "useless". I mean, everyone will choose to prove the worth of subpar Pokémon eventually, but I would definitely prefer to do battles through RP rather than through Smogon because that'll allow for more imaginative uses for moves and more fluid battling overall.

Who wins is an issue that we can figure out as players before any battles, as opposed to making it a writing competition where no one is willing to get hit.
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I am fine with not doing Smogon it was just an idea. As for those tiers they are the sites tiered ranks so I don't suspect them to be good for RP, but if you are referring to the fact that tiers or ranks might ruin RP I agree. I just flung that idea out of my ass, so I expect it to be kind of shiny. Like I said though we can have the players involved choice if they want to they would still have to post a RP though for the battle in either a collab or a series of posts.

As for the other idea, I agree, all of the battles should be determined beforehand by the players involved, I really don't like PVP rping since it just gets out of hand quickly when you have power gamers trying to just act like its the video games or something.
 
I think I'd be a good bit interested in this.
 
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