Play Test: Player's Perspective

Chris was one of our playtesters, so I thought I'd get him to share his thoughts on what he thought of the game. 

Hello fellow Pokefans, my name’s Chris, and like a certain Dickensian orphan of some renown; after a 12 hour playtest of Pokémon Journeys on Saturday, I find myself wanting more! You may have read about the brief playtest that my wife, Louise and I tried a week ago when we were visiting Jamie and his family; compared to that attempt, this was smoother and more exciting, which says a lot since it worked so well that weekend. 

For this playtest, we also had two friends from our D&D group, Otis and Dave, and my twelve year-old brother, Liam, who joined us just outside the second town of our test map. We started our ‘test-journey’ by creating our player characters, distributing 12 points over our four traits and then choosing a Profession that would guide our career in the world of Pokémon. I chose to be a Researcher which gave me an extra point to my Knowledge trait and two abilities that I could use once each day; which at the time were to identify a Pokémon’s level and identify its lowest Stat. Dave and Otis both chose to be Trainers which gave them a 10% boost to experience gained, a +1 to their capture rating (so it’s easier to catch Pokémon), and an extra move for each Pokémon they have (where my Pokémon can learn eight moves, theirs can learn nine but they can still only choose four moves for their ‘move set’). 

Once our player characters were sorted, we moved on to the most anticipated part of any Pokémon game: receiving our starter Pokémon! Excitement filled the air as we rolled our dice to see what cute critter we would each get; I missed out on a Charmander this time, instead getting Squirtle, a starter that I had never picked when playing the handheld games but was familiar with through my experience at battling it over the years. Otis received a Charmander, Dave got a Bulbasaur and then we each filled out our Pokémon’s character sheet with their base stats, level and experience, natures, known moves and lastly by rolling a d6 we found out if we had males or females. 

I chose to make my Squirtle a bit of a tank so that he could take a hit and stay standing but the beauty of Journey’s levelling system is that you can choose to make a fast Pokémon so that you usually move first or even a really attack-focused one so that you can end a battle before taking too many hits; it’s up to you rather than the unseen mechanics of the game.

The game worked so smoothly for what was effectively a second and more thorough playtest; we worked out some new ideas about player abilities, Pokémon attacks and damage, long-term player goals and small balancing tweaks but nothing caused us to have to stop or re-build the mechanics. Dynamic was my catchword for the evening, the game allowed us to use mechanics and tools that we were familiar with but in a way that was new and fun; the ability to shape how your Pokémon grow, the way that Loyalty and Natures combine to make you think and pay attention to how you train your companions, and the diverse ways that you interact with the world and work together to overcome challenges separates this from other mediums and means that no two adventures in this game will be the same. 

We all had so much fun and time really flew by as morning turned to afternoon, afternoon to evening and evening back to morning; we all agreed that we wanted to keep going, keep battling, keep catching and training, and most of all, keep Journeying with our Pokémon.

-Chris

Play Test Overview

There were three things that really stood out for me as I was packing up after our very first  play test:

1) How much music really adds to the experience;
2) How critical the Pokemon cards are to the experience, and most importantly;
3) That we are really on to something special here.

Read on for a complete overview of what our incredible first major play test for Pokemon Journeys entailed.

The Board
I decided fairly late that instead of simply asking the players to test the systems one by one, that I'd actually put together a small part of a region, a story, and play the game as I imagined the final product being played. With that in mind, I drew out a simple test region as my players arrived, with three towns (Beta Town, Testville and Ending City) on a gridded D&D battlemat.

You can see now how I imagine the board to look - like a zoomed out overworld view of the region, with a path leading from one place to the next. I imagine that if you zoomed in on each square of the road, it would look a lot like the routes from the video games.

Our test game would include 3 Story Points (marked on the board with asterisks that are a bit hard to see in the photo); a community garden north of Beta Town, the Testville Pokemon Centre, and some flags in a field north of Testville.

The Setup
Testing the game would be my friends Chris, Louise, Dave, Otis and Chris' 12yr old brother Liam. I was glad for the age difference, as one of the things I wanted to know was if this would be enjoyable by young and old at the same table. Dave, Otis and Chris would start the game off in Beta Town; Liam would join in later en-route to Testville, with Louise teaming up with the party in Testville for the trip north to Ending City. 

First up, we made some characters. Dave, Otis and Liam opted for the Trainer profession, Chris went with Researcher, and Louise tried out a Medic. The players each copied down the benefits of their class onto their character sheets, and had 12 points to spend in the four traits (Physical, Knowledge, Social, Luck). They each received $300 and 2 Pokeballs to start their adventure.

Next up, they randomly chose their starting Pokemon from a pool of 6. Chris got Squirtle, Louise chose Chikorita, Dave landed Bulbasaur, Otis got Charmander, and Liam picked Totodile. They copied their stats and moves down onto their character sheets, and levelled their starters up to lvl 5.

Character creation went very quickly and smoothly, and while they were busy doing that, I built a Travel Deck and got to shuffling. After that, we were ready to get started.

The Story
We ran with the story that Chris, Dave and Otis were friends living in Beta Town, who were preparing to make the journey north to Ending City, where the Little League tournament was going to be taking place. They received their starters from the local Professor (who Chris named Professor Rubbertree), and were sent on their merry way, with the Professor telling the boys that if they were heading north, the Beta Town Community Garden was a place worth stopping and checking out. And with that, they set off.

The Game
The group (using a d6 as a marker) set off with plans to stop in at the community garden and see what it was all about. Rounds were completed by first moving the Day/Night marker one space (or in the case of the first turn, setting it to morning), moving the group counter 1 square, drawing a Travel card (with the players taking it in turns to do so each round), and either resolving it themselves, or passing it to another player in the group to resolve. Once it was resolved, the card was discarded, and a new Round began.

Rain set in early in the game (much to the joy of Chris' Squirtle), and would soak the players for much of the journey. Dave encountered the group's first wild Pokemon, a Weedle, which he managed to battle and successfully capture* after dropping it to its wounded state (25% HP).

*Each Pokemon in the game has a Capture Rate (CR), between 1 and 10. Capturing a Pokemon involves rolling below their CR on a d10 roll. As the Pokemon take damage, their CR is increased, making it easier for capture. Injured Pokemon (half hp) gain a +2, and Wounded Pokemon (25% hp) gain a +4 to their CR, whilst Pokemon on Full hp have -2, making capture harder.

A team battle against a pair of trainers provided plenty of excitement, before Chris' Squirtle got thrashed* by a wild Ekans. Soon after, Dave managed to draw another Wild encounter and also rolled Ekans, and so we decided to make it the same one that just trounced Squirtle, as a bit of story flavour. This time, Dave succeeded in capturing it, taking his party total to 3.

*When a Pokemon faints, it can't be used for the rest of the day until camp is made. When the group makes camp for the night, all Pokemon regain their Base HP stat in hit points, up to a maximum of half their total HP. We figured that during camp, players with fainted or injured Pokemon would care and tend to them. This mechanic also prevents a player not being able to participate until the next Pokemon Centre, which could be some distance away. Note that Pokemon can only gain a maximum of HALF their total HP by resting; players still need to visit a Pokemon Centre or use a Potion to get them back to full health. 

The players then reached the community garden, where the first Story Point (entitled 'The Pidgey Brigade') kicked off. During a Story Point, the group shifts from boardgame mode to role-play mode, and the Story Point plays out much like a small traditional D&D adventure.

At the community garden, the players meet a woman named Mara, who tells them that the garden is used to grow berries for the surrounding towns. However, she says that flocks of Spearow have been a big problem in eating the young berries, and to combat this, the gardeners have all trained Pidgey to help keep the Spearow away. Due to the rainy weekend though, she is the only one who came out today to tend to the garden.

Of course, the garden is soon assaulted by a group of Spearow, led by an alpha male, and Mara pleads with the players to help her protect the berries. This kicks off a 4 vs 4 battle against the flock of Spearow, with Mara lending her Pidgey for aid. After a tough fight, the players managed to defeat all but the alpha male, whom Otis successfully captures. However, the Spearow resents* him, and so he will have to work to win it's loyalty.

*When players capture a new Pokemon, they roll a d6 to determine it's Loyalty Level. On a 3+, the Pokemon is neutral and will listen to the player. Otis rolled a 1, 'resentful', meaning it would only obey him on a d6 roll of 5 or 6 during battle. Otis would have work at it to win Spearow's trust. This is a place where Natures can also be used as role-play and personality devices, instead of merely stat-changers. Otis' Spearow had a Brave nature, meaning pitting it against tough foes in battle would probably increase it's respect for him, and help raise it's loyalty. 

Liam and his Totodile then join the group, and they continue on towards Testville. After a couple of Trainer battles, Liam draws a Rare Wild Pokemon card, and faces off against a Cubone, which he manages to capture.

Arriving in Testville kicks off the next Story Point (titled "The Flames of Flareon"), with the players pushing through the night to find that the Testville Pokemon Centre is on fire, the rain doing little to hinder the blaze (yes, it was STILL raining). They rush to aid a Nurse Joy, who is begging the gathering crowd for anyone who can help. With her is a young boy, who is sobbing and calling out for his Eevee. Chris finds out that the boy's Eevee grew too powerful and refused to listen to him, and so he thought making it evolve with a Fire Stone would make it happy. Instead, the now Flareon went into a rage, engulfing the Pokemon Centre in a blaze that nobody can get near.

The players spring into action, with Squirtle and Totodile clearing the flames from the door so that Chris and Liam can get inside. There, standing on the counter amongst the blaze, they find the powerful Flareon, and a relay battle* ensues as they try to subdue it. Despite their type advantage, Flareon proves too powerful and shrugs off their water attacks, and before long Totodile goes down hard. Otis' Charmander takes it's place, and the Flareon focuses on what it believes to be a finally worthy, fire-type opponent. Charmander deals some good damage with Squirtle's support, but it's not long until Charmander is smashed through the front wall, straight into Otis.

*A Relay Battle is when the players team up against a much tougher opponent, in a sort of 'boss fight', in a 2 vs 1 or 3 vs 1 scenario. When a teammate is defeated, another player can jump in and take their place.

Staring defeat in the face, Chris decides to try his Luck**, and has Squirtle's Tackle smash down one of the roof supports to cave the roof in and let the rain through, giving Squirtle back his ability to reroll damage rolls due to the Rainy Weather card in play. This also allows Dave to send Bulbasaur into the rainy space, and together they finally manage to bring the raging Flareon (and most of the Pokemon Centre) down.

**Chris wasn't receiving the Rainy Weather benefit in the burning building, and so asked to "Try his Luck" by having Squirtle destroy a roof support to create an opening for the rain. He did this by rolling a d20 and adding his Luck trait, against a check I as the GM determined. He passed the check with flying colours, and did a grand job of testing the Luck trait out to boot in the highlight of the game for me.

The next day, a makeshift Pokemon Centre tent is setup for the town, and it's here that the party meets Louise's medic, who is on her way north to Ending City to provide aid for the Tournament, and agrees to accompany them.

Not far out of town, the group draws a 3 vs 3 Team Battle against a group of cheerleaders also heading north for the Tournament. This gives the group their first solid defeat, and they go down to the cheerleader's Pidgey, Grimer and Growlithe. They make the decision to head the day's travel back to Testville to heal up their Pokemon instead of pushing on, and try again.

They fair better this time, with Louise encountering a wild Paras, which she manages to capture, and Liam encountering a wild Grimer, which he chooses to pass on to Chris (who still hasn't managed to catch a Pokemon*). After a solid battle, Grimer joins Chris' party.

*It is for this reason that the ability to resolve a card or pass it to another player was included.

The weather finally clears up and Sunny Weather prevails as the group reach the last Story Point (titled "In It To Win It"). Here, they find a group of trainers crowded around a brother and sister, who are about to race their Pokemon. The players decide to join the race, in a fast and furious battle royale as the Pokemon rush and bump each other around. Eventually, Otis' Charmander wins the day, along with the $500 prize pool.

After Dave rolls some horrible capture rolls to try and catch a wild Mankey that appeared, failing twice in a row with two 10's, the group arrive at Ending City. Here, they face off against each other in the Tournament in two pairs, with the two winners battling for the grand prize. Battles against other players worked incredibly smoothly, and were a ton of fun, a real highlight of the day, with Dave's Ekans and Bulbasaur taking out first place.

The Verdict

What started out as an innocent play test on a hastily made-up region map, something I thought would take a couple of hours at the most riddled with bugs and rule changing, turned into a thoroughly enjoyable, all-day and into the night campaign filled with great moments, lots of laughs and an incredible amount of fun. The players picked up the system extremely quickly, and I was ecstatic with how rock-solid the whole game was from start to finish. There wasn't a single case of a rule not working, or a system not turning out. The battle system was clean, simple and worked like a well oiled machine, and the travel system kept the players hooked for that next card for hours and hours.

I was also wrapped to see that the game suited all age groups without any issue - Liam fit in and had just as much fun as the older players - a big positive when it comes to any kind of boardgame or tabletop game.

As for my three standouts from the start of this post?

1) Music: Chris had the Pokemon battle music on his phone, and you would not believe how much this added to the experience. This, coupled with Braxton Burks' amazing Kanto Symphony playing in the background, took an already great game and turned it up to 11. Do yourself a favour and find some looped battle music, trust me.

2) Cards: One of the big themes of the game for me has always been 'forging a bond', taking Pokemon you might not normally use and forging a bond with it over the course of your journey. The extent to which this happened even just during the play test was amazing, to the point where the players were actually sad they had to hand them back at the end of the game. Over our game, these Pokemon had become their friends and companions. A big part of this was due to the cards we used (and which will be available with the final product). Having a visual representation of your Pokemon right there in front of you, that you can see and hold, made your connection to it so much stronger than it would be if it were simply stats on a character sheet. The game can certainly be played without them, but if you really want that emotional connection, the cards helped in a big way.

3) Something special: This might sound like me blowing my own horn, but the proof is in the pudding. 12 hours. I knew the game had been a success when we finally reached the end of our test, almost 12 hours later, and the players were ready to just keep on going. 12 hours and they still didn't want to stop. I was gobsmacked, thrilled, and humbled, all at once. Watching something you've created be so so so well received was truly inspiring and encouraging. I am completely overjoyed.

Don't just take it from me, though. In the next post, I'll get some of the players to share their thoughts of the test, the game, the systems and how it all came together.

Until then!

- Jamie

Latest Updates

After our first mini playtest last weekend, there's been a slew of recent updates to the game's mechanics and formula, and I feel like what we have at the moment is pretty solid. Here's a quick rundown of what's changed:

• Pokemon HP is determined by multiplying the HP stat by 3.
• The Luck trait has been officially included into the trainer stats, giving a total of 4 traits. Luck is used when initiating a battle with another trainer, to determine who sends out first by rolling a d20 and adding the Luck stat. On a tie, both trainers send out at the same time.
• Once per battle, players can also 'Try Their Luck' by attempting to use their Pokemon moves in an unconventional way to alter the battle conditions (EG: Using Ice Beam to freeze a pond an enemy Pokemon is swimming in). This is determined by a d20 + Luck roll, against a target the GM sets, and the outcome is determined by the GM (EG: The Pokemon in the Pond's Speed is reduced to 1, and the pond is now a solid surface). Trying your Luck cannot be used to damage the enemy in any way.
• When rolling to hit with a move, you must now roll beneath the move's Accuracy/10 (rounded up) on a d10. EG: Accuracy of 80 needs a roll of 8 or less on a d10 to hit.
• Move damage is now calculated by taking the move's Power Rating and applying it to a dice equivalent using a prepared chart, which you can see here.
• Pokemon now apply Def/SpDef before weakness/resistances. 
• The evasion system (where a Pokemon was harder to hit based on their Speed) has been removed, to make it more in-line with the video game. Move accuracy is now only affected by other in-battle moves, like Sand Attack and Double Team.
• Pokemon have a total move pool of 8 moves, with only 4 being able to be used at any time. These 4 are called a Move Set, and can be changed for different situations. Pokemon must start forgetting moves as normal when they get above 8.
• More things can be done while the players make camp. As well as resetting character abilities, players can also only trade items with each other when making camp, and Move Sets can only be altered during this time (or when in Town).
• Move frequency will be based on a D&D-esque "At Will", "Encounter" and "Daily" system, rather than using PP. Depending on a move's video game PP value, it will be categorized into one of these frequencies. The frequencies themselves will also be renamed.
• The wager system has been reworked slightly. Originally, before battle, the player had to make a wager. If they win, they gain that amount of money, but if they lose, they lose it. The new system is that players can now choose to make a wager or not, and winning now grants the player double the wager (losing still causes them to lose the wagered amount).
• When drawing from the Travel Deck, players in the group take it in turns to draw, and the drawn card is for that player.
• When drawing a card from the Travel Deck, a player can choose to resolve it themselves, or pass it to another member of the group instead for them to resolve.
• Three new cards have been made for the Travel Deck. The Bicycle allows the group to move 2 squares each turn, but must be discarded if the Bad Weather card is drawn. The Town Map allows a player to search the Travel Deck and choose what they'd like to occur. Lastly, the Nurse Joy card allows one player to heal all of their Pokemon as though they were at a Pokemon Centre. 

That's about all for this week. Our first major play test of the game is tomorrow, so be sure to check back next week for all the details on how it went, and I'll try and get a few photos as well.

Until then,

- Jamie

Pokemon Journeys - Minor Playtest

Currently, the very first proper playtest for Pokemon Journeys is scheduled for this coming weekend, and I'm very excited about finding out what everyone thinks of the system, seeing what works and what doesn't.

My good friends Chris and Louise from Parental Guidance came by this weekend, and we decided to have  a small, informal playtest of the game, to give them a look at how it was all progressing, and also so I could see it in motion with my own eyes before the upcoming major playtest.

I built a small 20 card Travel Deck, drew a simple map on a blank D&D Battlemat, and then we made some test characters. Louise played as a Breeder, and started with Bulbasaur, whilst Chris chose to be a Researcher and started with Charmander. Each Pokemon began at lvl 5.

The map had 10 squares between the two towns, so it would take the pair a little over 2 days to get there.

Our first playthrough went very smoothly - probably too smoothly. A lot of Clear Run cards were drawn in succession, despite my thorough shuffling. I used my List of randomly generated Pokemon I made beforehand to select trainer Pokemon from when Trainer Battle cards were drawn, and Chris' Charmander destroyed the only Wild Pokemon they came across with some big damage rolls.

It was really good to see the excitement when a 2v2 Team Battle card was drawn, where they got to battle together against a pair of opponents. I think these cards are going to be a real hit with players. 

We "teleported" back to the first town and tried it again. This time, the journey was far more arduous. Louise came across a wild Bouffalant that pasted her Bulbasaur before charging off, meaning they had to backtrack to the starting town to heal up. Upon trying again, a wild Pinsir attacked Louise, and Bulbasaur bit the dust again, forcing them to scurry back a second time. I was having the players roll to randomly determine wild encounters, and it was just unlucky that Louise rolled the two most powerful Pokemon I had generated.

Chris also blew another wild encouter when his Charmander destroyed an Azurill. As well as downing an opposing trainer's Pokemon in a single hit, Charmander quickly earned the nickname 'Killer'.

We got to test out the different weather cards, and that system worked well. Dry Weather (Fire Types may re-roll their damage rolls) feature predominantly, and Chris made plenty of use with it with Charmander. It wasn't until after the game had finished that he realised he could also have used Dry Weather to reroll Charmander's big damage rolls to make them lower, thus not completely devouring the wild encounters he'd had. Chris thought this was a great mechanic.

With the deck empty and all the wild encounters having either been too powerful or eaten by Charmander, we finished the playtest with their starters having just reached lvl 8, and we decided to give each of the players an extra lvl 5 Pokemon (Chris got Rattata, Louise got Spearow) and have a friendly match against each other.

Chris managed to pull the win after his Rattata went down to Bulbasaur, and finished off both of Louise's Pokemon with his increasingly scary killer Charmander.

We had a long discussion after the game about what worked, what didn't, what we liked and what we thought needed changing. Both Chris and Louise loved the game, and actually thought it was almost perfect as it was, with only minor changes needed. Even though Louise got done in twice by two powerful wilds, it turned out that they actually enjoyed that, Chris saying that it added a real feeling of adventure and danger to the game; "sometimes you run through to the next town without a hitch, and sometimes you get beat and scurry back to your mum's house with your tail between your legs. That's just how it goes sometimes." They pointed out that Louise could have chosen to run from those powerful encounters, but she took them on and paid the price.

I was wrapped to hear that the game was not only playable, but enjoyable in it's first draft. For me as the GM, it was easy to run, as I only had to get involved to play the role of wild and trainer encounters, or dish out items that had been found. All of this came from my list that I'd made beforehand, so there was very little looking up stats or the like for me.

The battling system worked really really well. Rolling to see who sends out first really added a great element, and the rest played out very naturally from there.

There were really only 2 issues that cropped up during the game, and a few things that caused discussion on what should happen. They were:

- Money. In Pokemon Journeys, battles against Trainers do not grant money in the way the games do. Instead, the player makes a wager before the battle. If they win, they get that much money. If they lose, they lose it. In theory we loved this system, but in practice it led to a quick money shortage for the players, especially with items like Pokeballs and Potions still costing the in-game equivalent. We resolved this problem by granting the player double their wager if they won, but still losing their wager if they lost, which the three of us thought balanced things out much better.

- Damage. I've said it before, but the damage values we were using from Pokemon Tabletop Adventures was mostly a mess. I'll be working this week on a new damage system, converting Power ratings from the in-game moves into dice, that I'll talk about in another post, which I hope will make things a lot more balanced.

- When a wild Pokemon beat Louise, we discussed whether another player could jump in and try to continue battling it and capture it. In the end, we decided against this, as it meant the defeated player could do all the work and get it to a capturable state, for someone else to just jump in and steal. We resolved that if a player's Pokemon are defeated by a wild one, it runs away.

- We decided to alter the Capture Rates of the Pokemon to a d10 system instead of a d100 system, by simply dividing the CR's by 10.

- We discussed whether a player could borrow Pokeballs from other players if they ran out trying to capture a wild Pokemon. We didn't resolve whether they could borrow one from another player and that's it, or if they just couldn't altogether, but we did resolve that item swapping was something the group could do when they made camp, but not during the journey.

- We decided that the players in the group taking turns to draw a card from the Travel Deck each turn was the best way to go, rather than the group as a whole drawing a card and deciding on who gets it.

- We came up with a great system where, when it's a player's turn to draw a card, they can choose to either resolve it themselves, or pass it on to another group member. This way, if say Louise has 4 captured Pokemon and has found 3 items, and Chris has been unlucky and only drawn weather or Clear Run cards, if Louise draws another Wild Encounter she can choose to pass that to Chris instead.

That's about all from our little test run. I'll be sure to give you all a more detailed look at our major playtest this coming weekend.

Until then!

- Jamie