In reply to Inoue (msg # 184):

Heracross is boss.

Ribombee is queen

Expanding a bit on the MissingNo lore. He's fringe, literally, but an important player in the grand scheme of the setting.

Using a term acquired from That Other Board, I would say this game should end up having a Noblebright feel to it. Exploring for the hell of it is certainly valid in this game world, and an individual can change the world one way or another with great effort. Even an area as dangerous as the Chaos could be explored by an intrepid enough team, and some teams have made a point of going deeper and deeper, and recording the strange horrors and wonders they encounter.

It was from those regions, in fact, that a deeper understanding of Elemental Connections was gained, and where the Type Sync technique was first learned.

Well now I'm curious

Well, I detail the parts of the world you are not expected to go to. Inoue's character has been through it, so she'd be able to talk about it, if she knows what questions to ask about it. It's not quite a darker version of Toontown...but its closer to that then reality as this universe accepts it.

I do have to remind myself once more that this is a setting best described as NobleBright, meaning that a single person with force of will can exact meaningful change on the world they live in (good or ill), and that going on an adventure "because REASONS" is perfectly valid in this setting...unlike Westeros, which is GrimDark because neither of these are true there.

I'm putting off Frisia's description, which is holding Roman back (who likely needs a description of all seven kingdoms to make informed decisions such as "where he wants to start or be from") and working on the actual bad guys of the story, which I can spoil the name of at least:

In keeping with the spirit of Pokemon, I present Team Victory. They will be your antagonists, no matter where you are. HOW they operate will change depending on the Kingdom, and their goals are not a united front. The end result, however, is identical no matter which of them gets what they want - very bad for everyone.

So right now, I'm focusing on the chapters operating in Helvatia, Massalia, and Democia. We have completed Democia's BBEG statline, and his team! The concepts for the rest have been drawn up, and we are (admittedly off course from what we should be doing) working on the statline for the BBEG of the Empuries chapter.

I've built 90% of all the BBEG's Pokemon teams, a fascinating exorcise as some of them have clear out-of-combat utility as well as being horrifying death monsters. Currently working on their underlings, and on their underlings' underlings, which is thankfully where the hierarchy stops for the sake of my sanity. Everyone (save one, who is a reality warping cheater) adheres to the three Pokemon limit, and most don't have that. Thugs in particular (the bottom rung) just tend to throw their guys out there with little regard for things like TMs, HMs, Tutors, steroids vitamins, and things like that - you know, filthy casuals.

Not all villains will be these guys, but they will have a tendency to be involved in whatever is going on, to varying degrees of subtlety. The Family (the present go-to bad guy group) is actually running into some trouble with these new guys.

Very intricate, I'm excited

So, OOC is more or less a Dev Log at this point. Still, I'd like to at least give everyone around me the impression I am doing things.

Roman has a high chance of being in Helvatia, so I'm focusing Helvatia, Messalia, and Democia first. I tend to create the characters populating them first, and then retroactively try to figure out how in the world they are the way they are.

Example: I want to put the party against a Fire Bringer/Fortress. So I make him, give him his team, and then I go, "Wait...why does my universe give a crap about this guy?"

So, I find out why this guy with high ranks of Combat and Focus exists. Why is he here? What is he like? (Random Pokemon personality generator apparently works on humans, too. Resourcefulness!) Which gods did he anger to cross the party?

Not me, that's for sure. His soul is probably so lightweight, if he perishes now. But given proper care and a harvest of weaklings, he might fortify the boundaries of the universe in a meaningful way, and maybe one day wall that...thing...out of what will one day be my world.

Of course, you heroes have a knack for "mercy," which usually means they stop accumulating darkness if they actually take you up on it. Of course, if they were cowards, perhaps they weren't going far down my road anyhow. I do misjudge your kind occasionally, and potential is nothing more than things you have not done. By itself, it is worthless.

For the record, he is probably a knight. Looking at my records, he has a decent chance of being a Hammer of Justice, one of the orders of this world, and he's probably got an Arcanine or a Ponyta (or bigger) that he rides on. This means a side in Athletics or Acrobatics, and an Edge dropped into Mounted Combat.

Anyhow, I'm writing up the lowest rung of command in Helvatia, and making sure I have a "crunch zone" for when you guys begin dismantling these guys. Goons have no more than three guys, and often only have the one. Their bosses generally have two rather strong Mons. Their boss usually is on par with a Gym Leader without a Dial Badge (a device meant to weaken their Mons to allow a more even fight between the challenger going for their Badge), and generally pack three very, very well funded Mons on top of their own bad selves.

Still, I am not expecting to overwhelm anyone, and if it happens, I probably planned for it and will pull the punch unless certain conditions are met. Bear with me.

In reply to Giratina (msg # 189):

  I wouldnt go so far as to say holding me back as it is making it tougher. I thought I had a grasp on the base setting now not so sure. That being said I still see the basic idea the same. A low noble turned almost saber rake. He and his Chimchar are trying to make the world a better place, but at what cost....

Depends also on "better place."

Bear with me on the setting thing. When the game was first created, Yveltal (who is still with us) basically had something pretty generic in mind and lacking in details. I, with my finite imagination, decided to use a model of Europe and move things around a bit. Of course, there is so much Japanese influence in the game (imagine that - a game made in Japan having influence from that country) that it is hard to excise without killing the game's core identity in a subtle but noticeable fashion.

But...most of the setting details will never really be used, I don't think. Maybe. There is a lot of "I might need this detail later" in my thinking.

Inoue actually forced me to think outside the box with her desire to make what is effectively a shrine maiden. If memory serves, she has an Alohan Pokemon, which I allowed as an aspect of her foreign origin. Also, because the Chaos Wastes (which are anything but) are forces of creation - destruction is a side effect, not the intention.

So, she's from another place which did much the same thing Tarien did, but they have their own story as to how the Wars shook out. Let's just say a lot of them don't have pleasant memories of Tarien's past, and are kind of glad they are diminished. Tarien's glories came at the direct expense of others.

The present Emperor is seeking another way, a way of mutual peace different from his very, very aggressive father and predecessor, so perhaps Roman could find an ally in the young king...if he could get a word in edgewise somehow.

I'll be changing our story blurb soon enough. For now, the joyous work continues.
This message was last edited by the GM at 16:17, Sun 09 June 2019.

I love that it's become a dev log

One of the guys I rolled up got a Delibird (of all things) as his main, and as I worked on it I came to actually like it more and more.

First, no bones about it - this Mons is terribad. However, that kind of adds to its appeal and my headcanon regarding it.

You see, Delibird is what would happen if the Unibomber was awake on Christmas Eve, killed Santa, and flew up to the North Pole. He gets one Move, and doesn't give a crap that you think he should know more than one. "You want me to know more than one Move? Breed it into me, then I'll maybe learn eleven. Or use Tutors and HMs - I don't care. My statline's terrible anyways."

You see, your victory conditions as a trainer are not Delibird's victory conditions. You probably want Delibird to go over to your enemy, and use his amazing terrorism skills to kill your enemy. And he will. Maybe. If he feels like it.

You see, this psychological mind-wrecker has a one in six chance of just healing your opponent, regardless of your will, and laughing as the same opponent beats him into the dirt, leaving you dismayed that you actually put Delibird on your team and leaving you wondering what you were thinking. And this is what they are like at Loyalty 2. If you ever get on the bad side of one of these, you might not want to open anything ever again, lest you discover that he's turned your whole residence and incoming gift cards into deathtraps that would turn Kevin McCallister green with envy.

Every year, he gives presents to all the other Pokemon, in the form of food. And this food will blow up in the face of all but one in six of them, convincing them that maybe, just maybe, Delibird is judging them and has decided they are worthy of life. That maybe, just maybe, there is a reason for what it does.

But they aren't, and there is none. Delibird has no mercy, and is just here to watch the world burn. He's only loading one in six with healing because he enjoys the mind game. He's like a man who leaves a single chamber of his revolver empty as he plays Russian Roulette with everyone else in the room - he's less interested in killing everyone and more about the looks of terror as the sole survivor hears "click" instead of *death,* because bullets move faster than sound, and you don't hear the bullet that kills you, or the Delibird you chose to erroneously trust.

Anyhow, that was my take on this awful Pokemon. Hopefully, you will never look at this thing the same way again.

In reply to Giratina (msg # 195):

That was always how I saw Delibird. And I am seriously sitting here ROTFLMAO and getting looked at like I'm crazy. I used one when they were first introduced back in GS(?) and I nicknamed it Joker. Enough said.

I love all ice-type pokemon, even the crappy ones -- which is most of them. Delibird is one of the quirkier and therefore more lovable.
This message was last edited by the player at 12:24, Sun 02 June 2019.

All of the above. The lovely Poke-Psychopath

I added languages to those I could find them on. I owe Jioni's character sheet a second read today; same with Roman.

EDIT: Tarien! The name of this place is Tarien, and I will keep that in mind in the future, inconsistent as I have been. Tariel, for some reason, just felt right to a mind, but it's named after its recently missing (presumed deceased, mostly because his sword was retrieved and he'd never leave that behind for any reason) and atavistic monarch. Like Alexandria or Constantinople, and how many cities had those names.
This message was last edited by the GM at 16:20, Sun 09 June 2019.

Languages?

In reply to Jioni (msg # 200):

 For every rank of general education your character has you have a language. Just so you know Albeanese is the trade language.

As long as you didn’t dumb your Gen Ed you have two.
This message was last edited by the player at 18:28, Sun 09 June 2019.

Oh I didn't know we'd use multiple. Nice! 😁

Are you trying to post a picture?

Yup. Albionese, Messalian, Demosian, Magnian, Helvatian, Frisian, Empurian, Celestian (the language of scripture, Araqiel, and southern Helvatia), and probably a few others I've forgotten to list. You get one per dice of General Education you possess. Most have two, unless you are mostly illiterate like Rex - he has only one, because he's lazy and works hard to shirk hard work.

I've been thinking about something lately. I read a line in one of the RPG books I own, 4E L5R, that reads "Actions have consequences," and that got me thinking.

My first thought was "No, really?" If I hit a monster with a sword, its HP drops, and if it hits me, my HP drops. If one of our HP counts drops to zero, we fall down, and consequences ensue for the loser.

This is generally not what most who use this line mean in my experience.

What they usually mean as opposed to what they are saying is this: I am going to be arbitrary and unnecessarily harsh in the consequences department, and I don't want any guff from you about it, even if it breaks verisimilitude, your willing suspension of disbelief.

Run from GMs who say this. Run far, run fast, and don't look back. Leave their tables to their fate...unless, of course, you are feeling trollish, at which point they can be considered target practice.

A series called "Totally Sarcastic" on YouTube covered this. One of their hosts, Red, basically pointed out that "realism" usually wasn't, but rather meant that one was witnessing a consequence that is not generally explored in the genre. For example, most superhero works don't cover the bill a city has to pay in the wake of a supervillain attack.

"That's realistic!" Not really - superhero works could potentially break resource limitations. Why do we even still have an economic system in place? Why does cost matter when the tech level is approaching Star Trek's level of nonsense rapidly? Why not explore the consequences of the world becoming a better, more resilient place?

"That's not realistic!" Actually...it is. Most confiscated supervillain inventions would advance science by leaps and bounds. It would take decades to reverse engineer some of that stuff, but it mean centur-

They get the idea. Move on.

Game of Thrones is similar. One wonders how Westeros has survived a single winter, given that they apparently last for decades. I personally thought it was because of the dragons roaming about, literally burning the winter snows away long enough for growth to happen, and that the Lord of Light's disciples simply filled the gap when the dragons started to decline. Since that is not the case, this is a legitimate question, given how stupidly treacherous and destructively self-interested most of the powerful are.

Doesn't make it less enjoyable to me. Just means that I roll my eyes when someone says, "it's realistic" and "actions have consequences." Move. On!

Not much to add, really. Just a thought that has been rolling through my head for a few days.

Frisia! Get to work on it. I have the window open, I just need to start that editing, and get to work on geography already.

Interesting.

And also. I was trying to post an emoji

I just realized after I posted it that the Old Way are now the NRA, complete with moderates who are largely sportsmen and extremists who are largely insane.

My original inspiration for them, though, were adults who minmax their Pokemon at tournaments who believe that a game marketed at kids shouldn't be played by kids; the kind that the Rusty Series by Dorkly on YouTube rips into at one point. Hence what I called it. To be fair, though, this IS a self-depreciating joke - I am capable of devolving into minmaxing and netteching at the drop of a hat.

XD XD XD
That's amazing

So. The Old Way. Ahem.

What about the Old Way, Jioni?