Okay, I just did a bit of cleanup in my google docs and found way more pokémon-related material than I expected, most of it half-done sheets and backgrounds for games where I ended up either not in the list of partecipants or that collapsed minutes after birth.

This includes a few vanilla games (Gym crawls, poké-schools) and multiple strange takes on the topic (Harvest-moon-mon, superheroes, wuxia stuff, I think I even have something for an eldritch horror game).

What I DON'T have is actual experience playing the same game more than 3-4 game-session-equivalents straight, either online or in person. So... shoot both your standard ideas or weird twists, I'm curious about both!

I'd totally be down with any PTU games that come up as well. Within reason, at least!

In reply to LoonyLadle (msg # 2):

Totally be down to play as well

I've been trying to join in a PTU game too, but I haven't had much luck so far.

Harvest Moon Mon...



Scuse me, I need to go plot for a little while, and check just how much time I have free.

Don't mind me, I'll just be here, playing Rune Factory now that it got on PC and staring.

I can relate, I'm on Stardew Valley.

Modded to turn every animals into Pokémon, of course.

Is it the time for bumpening? I say it is!

One last try before letting it rest a few weeks!

Out of curiosity, which parts of Pokémon are you especially looking for? Like is PTU absolutely required, as compared to a game that uses the Pokémon setting or just has Pokémon in it? Something like Rune Factory with Pokémon sounds like fun, I'd definitely give it a look, but it seems like it would take a GM that knew the PTU engine very well to overhaul/homebrew it that much. Either that or just run it in freeform or some simpler engine.

I do see PTU in the title, to be clear, so I'm sorry if I sound obtuse :) I've just never heard of PTU mods for some of what you're talking about, so if that's just my lack of knowledge then I apologize for the silly question.
This message was last edited by the user at 13:26, Tue 01 Feb 2022.

Personally, I'd be fine playing in any Pokémon games. PTU is just one of the few rules dedicated to them.

As for hacking the system, it's only as difficult at you want it to be. If you want it to be simple, you just need to decide on a difficulty, a reward, and some events to shake things up. For example, having a DC 5 check to break even in a season, with things like a drought giving penalties, and higher check giving either extra cash, or a buffer for a failed roll.

If someone really wants the farming aspect to play a major roll, you could lift mechanics for resource management board games. Divide the farm into it's various tasks (take care of animals, watch over crops, maintain equipment and buildings), then have the players divide their times between the task. Task that have too little time assigned give little or no results, while the opposite gives greater reward or remove penalties. That would take a lot of work to design, but some people do like to flex their designing muscles.

There's also the option to grab things from other RPG. I've seen HarnManor mentioned a few times as having rules for maintaining a farm.

I confess my guilty pleasure is games that look like excel spreadsheets (not Eve Online level, but I own an uncomfortably large amount of Paradox games), and PTU has a lot of numbers. I never actually got to play it long enough to see how exactly those numbers work in practice, so I have a genuine interest in trying it out for the engine itself.

As for the weird adaptations I listed, it wasn't a wishlist (even if I'd play the hell out of most of them), just a list of settings I saw attempted with varying degrees of success - I'd probably be fine with a game following the tropes of 'collect badges, defeat team-embarrassing-costumes, catch'em'all'.

In short: I'd be willing to listen to alternative proposals, but I want to poke a bit at the engine of PTU itself.

The main problem with PTU -- and I say this as a longtime GM of the system -- is that it is not a system that readily lends itself to the PbP environment. Battles can run fairly long and make heavy use of positioning and tactics and stuff, especially if you like to run an AoO heavy build. So RPoL might not be the best place to explore something like that, at least not without heavily jury-rigging the initiative system for less waiting around and doing nothing.

Yup. But the people I play with in person are split between "people who never got into pokémon and consider it for kids" and "people to whom I would have to GM myself", and neither is a particularly useful group if I want to play the game.

I could try to get into Discord and Roll20 games, but that would probably require me to show off my top percentage spoken english skills, and I'll never be ready for that. ;P

It's going to be a while, but I'm working on a system and one the intended settings is a pokemon+swords&sorcery+magitech. I've looked at PTU, and it's interesting but I've got limited time so I focus on my system. But if it sounds interesting to you, I can keep you updated when I'm ready to get some players together.

Sure, keep me posted! I'm always curious to check out new systems anyway.
Worst result of telling me would be finding me fainted and buried under a pile of work.

Bumpity!

I’d be interested in playing if a GM could be found. I’ve had a similar experience where I’ve ended up having a bunch of characters but little play experience.

Alright, assuming my players can play, I'll be restarting my campaign this Saturday. It'll be a live game though, starting around 23:00 central time. As I said before, pokemon + magitech + swords & sorcery.

I've got two players and need more. If you're still interested, pm me and we can share details.

That's 4am my time. I like gaming but not enough for THAT sort of alarm xD

Ouch. Sorry to hear it. Hope You find a gm eventually. I have no plans to run non-live games right now. But I'll keep you in mind if that changes.