This will mostly be a grab-bag section, the successor to the Background section, and likely where I will move preliminary notes in the end.
Excerpts from conversations with others (light touches made due to OCD):
Pokemon do not have a lot of skills, when it comes down to it. They are generally straightforward creatures. They do not lie, posture, or negotiate. They do not use any education that is not embedded into their minds, or that is outside of personal experience. They do not read, although they can learn what certain symbols mean. like a skull for "danger." If they want something, they are (usually) clear about it, and when dealing with humans will succeed or fail depending entirely on the mercy of the human. They are physical creatures, and the social structures they usually make are very direct.
That said, enlightened Pokemon do not roll this way.
They CAN lie, posture, and negotiate. It doesn't come to them naturally, so they don't get the standard 2d6 humans do. But they are capable of it, and this gives them a significant edge over their fellows.
As with humans, General Education governs their languages. They get Pokespeak innately, and then they get one extra language per dice of GE, just like a human. In a way, they speak one extra language for free.
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The Survival Skill on Mons is kinda weird. They have the instinct and the ability to learn to a point, but if asked how they do that in their own language, they will either just do it again as if the answer is that obvious, or they won't know how to answer. It's almost as if they are automated to do a specific role with a bit of flexibility in case of disaster, like being programmed with a wide array of responses that don't cover everything...but that's insane talk, like the kind the MissingNo cultists might give.
Within their environment, they can pass Survival checks without a roll with no additional successes. Outside of it? They don't roll either - they have to improvise, which usually means desperately attacking anything out of hunger, trying out whatever with no indication of whether it will work or not...it is a very dangerous situation for them!
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A Pokemon Noble has the same instincts, so in their native environment, they are rather formidable. Learning to speak by itself doesn't weaken their other skills or instincts. Becoming better at other things it wasn't supposed to do, on the other hand...it's like they
glitch.
Cultists claim the first Pokemon Noble was uplifted by MissingNo because of this, but they also claim Arceus is actually a five-headed Psyduck that secretly lives in the moon attended to by his army of levitating Emboars, so take what you will.
This message was last edited by the GM at 12:14, Fri 19 Apr 2019.