Making Camp

We're still tinkering around with a new Contest system, one that involves creating Routines by stringing moves together in an inventive and creative way, but I'll talk more on that when it's been tested.

The other thing we've been focused on at the moment is the Camp phase during overworld movement, and I'll share a few things with you that we've worked out.

I wanted the 'Make Camp' phase to be the equivalent of an 'Upkeep' phase, if you like; a chance for not only the characters to catch a breather, but for the players to stop, chat amongst themselves, and do a few cool and interesting things before refocusing on the next day's travel.

When night falls, the group must make the decision on whether to 'Make Camp', or push on through the night. Pushing on will get them to their destination faster and give them another Travel Card, but there are certain events that can only take place during camp.

For the group as a whole, the following things occur when they decide to Make Camp:

• The players tend to their injured or fainted Pokemon. All Pokemon that are Injured (half HP or below) or fainted regain HP equal to their Base HP stat, up to a maximum of half their HP.
   
• Players may trade items and cash amongst each other.
   
• Players may switch moves in a Pokemon's Move Set.
   
• Daily Pokemon moves are reset.

In addition, most professions will also have some sort of ability that can only be used when the group has stopped to make camp:

• The Researcher can dig for fossil fragments;
• The Groomer can groom one of their Pokemon, potentially raising it's Loyalty;
• The Breeder can make a batch of food, potentially raising one of the party's Pokemon's Loyalty;
• The Ranger can scout for Berries;

We're still working on abilities for the Medic and Trainer. The Medic's is looking like either replacing their 'Restore 10HP out of combat' ability with 'Heal one Pokemon to full HP when the group makes camp'. Alternatively, we might change the Medic's 'Cure one status affect on a Pokemon' to a Camp Only ability. The Trainer is going to be a tougher nut to crack, and it could be that given the Trainer's other benefits, they do not have a Camp Only ability.

With these additions, the decision on whether to make camp or not has become a lot more interesting.

As of writing this, I'm currently knocking out the final cards in the Sinnoh pokedex, and Unova is looming close behind it. The home straight isn't far away.

Until next time!

- Jamie

The Road to Victory

Given that we were including different professions in the game, I decided then that I also wanted to have different goals for the players to strive for, beyond just the standard Gym battles and Pokemon League. I want the game to accommodate a range of play styles and interests - battling shouldn't be the only measure of determining how well you've raised your Pokemon.

Currently, we've worked out 4 additional "leagues" that players can opt to partake in; Contests, Competitions, Tournaments and Archeology. Just like collecting badges from Gyms, these other goals are long-term, journey shaping paths that will carry those players around their chosen region on the road to victory.

Let's have an early look at each of these and how they work:

The Pokemon League
The one we all know and love. The road to the Pokemon League is still much like we all remember it: you travel from town to town, collect 8 badges, and that grants you entry to compete in the League. The League itself is a mix of the league from the show and the games, where players compete in a tournament, and the winner gets to challenge the current League Champion for the title.

Contests: The Pokemon Society
I was never a fan of contests in the games; I found them confusing, boring, and a bit of a tacked-on gimmick rather than a full blown path to follow. We're looking at rectifying that in Journeys; streamlining the system, making it fun and strategic, and expanding it into it's own thing, much like the Pokemon League.

One of the ideas we're looking at is placing Contest Halls across the map with Judges that you compete against, much like Gyms and their leaders. Just as Gyms are focused on a certain Type, we're looking at making the Contest Halls focused on either a certain Stat (Attack, Speed, Defence etc.) or a mix of all stats.

You compete against a Judge in a Yahtzee-esque game, based on your Social stat and your Pokemon's Loyalty level, by rolling a number of dice equal to your Social stat, with rerolls equal to your Pokemon's Loyalty. EG: If I'm a breeder with a Social stat of 5, and my chosen Pokemon has a loyalty of 4, that gives me 5d6, with 4 rerolls. For a reroll, you can reroll as many dice as you like (IE: Using the above example, you could reroll all the dice 4 times, not reroll just 4 of the dice). You do this over a number of rounds, adding the Contest's chosen Stat to your score to determine a victor.

We're still tinkering with this, but that's the general idea. We're also talking about using Moves instead of Stats, and having the ability to sacrifice some of your rerolls to force your opponent to reroll their dice instead.

There would be 6 - 8 Contest Halls across a region, where you earn Ribbons upon victory. Collecting all the ribbons gives you access to the Pokemon Society Grand Festival; where you compete against other contestants in a tournament similar to the Pokemon League setup. Any profession can compete in Contests, though we've built it with a focus on Breeders and Groomers.

Competitions: Master Trainer Championship
Competitions are aimed at using a player's pokemon in different and unique ways, such as racing, target shooting, even capturing. Some will focus on a specific stat (like a Pokemon's Speed in a Race), whilst others will focus on a Trainer's abilities (such as capturing the biggest Water Pokemon in a fishing competition). Think of the Pokethlon events in the games and that will give you an idea on what we're looking at with Competitions.

For things that use a Pokemon's stats, such as a race, you simply roll a d20, add your pokemon's associated stat (Speed in this instance), and the order of the scores determines the placing of the Pokemon. You are then able to affect those directly in front or behind you, by dealing damage and having the damage total come off their score, potentially dropping them back a place or two. We tried this in our play test, and what resulted was a fun, frantic game of alliance making and breaking as everyone scrambled for the lead spot. It's definitely a system we want to include in the final product.

Again, we're looking at about 6-8 Competitions across a region. Competitions award Patches for a placing, and you'll need to gain a place in each one to gain access to the Master Trainer Championship; a series of competitions that will play out much like the Pokethlon to determine a champion. We've made it so that any player can compete in Competitions, regardless of profession.

Tournaments: Element Cup
Taking the path to the Element Cup involves competing in a series of type-based tournaments, and trying to gain a placing. These tournaments involve entering a single Pokemon of the Tournament type (grass, fire etc.)
in a series of one-on-one battles to gain a place.

We think about 6 tournaments is a good number for a region, and earning a place gives you Medals. Collect a medal from each tournament and you can compete in the Element Cup, a series of type-based battles played out in rounds where the victor is awarded the cup itself. Any profession can compete in the Element Cup, though Trainers and Rangers would be ideal candidates.

Archeology: The Fossil Trail
Rather unique from the other paths, following the Fossil Trail does not result in a grand competition and trophies, but instead in awarding the player with a new Pokemon.

Specific to Researchers, this profession will have the ability to 'Dig for fragments' whenever the group makes camp, using their 'Luck' or 'Knowledge' stat added to a d20 roll. Scoring above a certain modifier set by the GM (around 20 most likely) means the Researcher has discovered a fossil fragment. They make another roll to determine the fragment's frailty, and then put it away in their backpack until they reach a town with a Laboratory.

In the lab, the Researcher then uses their Pokemon to begin cleaning the fragment. Fragments will be caked with rock and stone, and will have a certain amount of HP depending on the frailty roll when it was found. The Researcher uses their Pokemon's moves to whittle away this rock, uncovering as much of the fragment as they can without breaking it. Do too much damage and reduce the HP to 0, and the fragment breaks.

When they are ready, they can then make a Knowledge check to ID the fragment. The more rock they've managed to chip away, the bigger the bonus (or smaller the negative) to their Knowledge check - much like how the system for capturing Wild Pokemon works.

Successfully identifying the fragment will let the Researcher know what fossil it belongs to, determined by a random ID roll. Collect 4 fragments from the same fossil, and the Researcher can then resurrect it to give them their reward; a new Pokemon for their team. Successfully resurrect a certain number of fossils, and the Researcher will be granted a Master's Certificate, officially granting them the title of 'Professor'. 

Failing to ID a fragment means the fragment becomes unidentified. Unidentified fragments can be traded at a Lab for a fresh fragment (probably at a ratio of 3 to 1), and the Researcher can try again, until they're all out and need to go and dig some more.

It's a fun system with a real appeal for collect-aholics, and gives Researchers their own "league" to compete in and be challenged by.

These systems are all still under development, so things may change before we're done, but the foundations are there. I think they go a long way to making the world of Pokemon Journeys much more customizable and appealing to a wide range of players, and gives GM's the tools to shape and personalize their own regions much more finely.

Until next time!

- Jamie

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

Move Damage & Accuracy Chart

Pokemon Tabletop Adventures does some things right, whilst others are a bit of a mess. Move damage is one of these issues that I wanted to try and streamline.

Transferring all the Pokemon moves into a dice-based tabletop system is a herculean task; something PTA has actually managed to accomplish, much to the designer's credit. The problem is that there isn't a whole lot of consistency - moves that don't seem to deal a lot of damage in game now deal massive damage, and moves with the same Power rating in the games have different dice rolls to determine damage in PTA.

I knew streamlining and organising this system was going to be a huge ask. Instead of trying to fix what had been done, I instead resolved to start again from scratch.

What I wanted to do was try and figure out a way to convert the Power ratings of in-game moves into a dice-based system. This way, instead of trying to stat dice rolls for every single move, I could simply figure out a conversion chart that would be easy to use based on the move's Power rating.

I'll admit, it took quite a few days of head scratching to figure it out, before the final, and surprisingly simple, solution dawned on me yesterday.

I didn't need to try and figure out dice rolls for Power ratings from 10 to 250. I only needed to figure it out for 10 - 100, and then add them together for moves higher than that. I jotted down all the dice in a standard rpg set, and next to them put down their lowest and highest values to give me my damage ratios. Then, I set about allocating them to the 10 - 100 scale, and this is now what we have:

10: d4 = 1-4

20: d6 = 1-6

30: d8 = 1-8

40: d10 = 1-10

50: 2d6 = 2-12

60: 2d8 = 2-16

70: 2d10 = 2-20

80: 3d8 = 3-24

90: 3d10 = 3-30

100: 3d12 = 3-36

Now, calculating move damage is simple! Tackle has a Power of 40? That's 1d10 damage, + the Pokemon's Attack stat. If a move has a larger Power, like 150, then it's 3d12 (100) + 2d6 (50). Easy!! I'm looking forward to testing it out this weekend in our first proper play test. 

As for Accuracy, this can simply be divided by 10 to give a d10 roll to hit. Accuracy 60 = 6, so you'd need a 6 or under on a d10 roll. Hopefully that system will work just as well, we'll wait and see. 

I'm forgoing PP in favour of the D&D system of At Will, Encounter and Daily frequencies. PP is simply another stat to keep track of, and I'm trying to minimise that where possible. I think the D&D system will work well. 

Until next time!

- 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

Pokemon - Wild Encounters, Capturing & Loyalty

Our system for capture mechanics literally only got finalised yesterday afternoon, so this is all fresh stuff that I'm looking forward to testing out.

Wild Pokemon Encounters
In Pokemon Journeys, wild Pokemon will primarily be encountered through the Travel Deck while the group is making their way between towns. The GM can of course feel free to add wild Pokemon to other parts of the game, such as Story Points, but for the most part, the player's Pokemon are going to come from the deck.

Our first big hurdle was that randomly generating a Pokemon on the spot is going to be tough and time-consuming, given that you have to generate it, find its stats, boost its stats to match the level you want it to be, and assign it some level-appropriate attacks, all on the fly while your players are just sitting and waiting. So instead, we came up with "The List".

The List (I'm sure it'll get a different name), is a group of 30 or so Pokemon that the GM randomly generates before the campaign begins; 10 common, 10 uncommon and 10 rare (or whatever mix you like). Each group should contain a good mix of types and habitats, and outline each of the Pokemon's base stats and a few attacks. This list will then become the group's wild Pokemon encounters.

When a player draws a wild Pokemon encounter, the GM chooses a Pokemon from the appropriate list, based on the area the group is currently in. Alternatively, you could also have the player roll a dice to randomly select a Pokemon from the list, or any other system you want to implement.

Once a Pokemon has appeared and is captured, you strike it off the list. After the game session, the GM can then repopulate the list, either by filling the gaps, or by generating an entirely new list - whatever they like.

By having this list and doing all the numbers work between sessions, it means the game can keep moving and not get bogged down while the GM tries to quickly stat up a wild encounter. The list system can also be used for Trainer battles - even using the same list if the GM wishes.

For random generations, I like to use http://randompokemon.com/, as it also generates random natures as well, which is handy. 

Here's a basic example for some level 1-3 encounters:

COMMON

Pokemon	HP	Atk	Def	SpAtk	SpDef	Spd	Nature	Moves
Natu	12	5	5	7	5	7	Brave	Leer, Peck
Tentacool	12	4	4	5	10	7	Relaxed	Poison Sting, Supersonic
Bellsprout	15	8	4	7	3	4	Quirky	Vine Whip
Seel	21	5	6	5	7	5	Docile	Headbutt, Growl

UNCOMMON

Pokemon	HP	Atk	Def	SpAtk	SpDef	Spd	Nature	Moves
Kakuna	15	3	5	3	3	4	Hardy	Harden, Poison Sting
Onix	12	5	16	3	5	7	Lonely	Bind, Tackle, Harden

RARE

Pokemon	HP	Atk	Def	SpAtk	SpDef	Spd	Nature	Moves
Kangaskhan	33	10	8	4	8	9	Adamant	Comet Punch, Leer
Tepig	21	6	5	5	5	5	Careful	Tackle, Tail Whip

And there's my list for the next couple of sessions, all done and ready to go. When the wild Pokemon card gets drawn, I'll already be prepared for trouble ;-)

Capturing

Much of the capturing system has been lifted from Pokemon Tabletop Adventures. During the battle, the player will likely want to capture the wild Pokemon. To do this, their going to need a Pokeball, which they can buy in-game or find with the Find Item card.

Each Pokemon in the game has a Capture Rate, which determines how hard or easy the Pokemon is to catch. In order to successfully capture the Pokemon, the player must roll a d100 (2d10) and score under the capture rate.

There are modifiers to this capture rate, however. As we all know, Pokemon are easier to capture when they are weakened, and the same is true in Pokemon Journeys. As the GM, you do not have to tell your players how much HP the wild Pokemon has remaining (unless the player has a skill that lets them gain this information), but you should let them know when the Pokemon is Injured (at half HP or below, similar to the 'Bloodied' mechanic in D&D) or Wounded (25% HP or below). 

Capture rates adjust according to the current health of the wild Pokemon:

- Uninjured grants a -15 penalty

- Injured uses the base Capture Rate

- Wounded grants a +15 bonus

Like the game, Pokemon that are knocked unconscious are unable to be captured (you could say in-game that at 0hp, the wild Pokemon flee, so players don't simply pick up the unconscious body and take it off to a Pokemon Center). Captured Pokemon also grant full experience points as normal, just like the recent X & Y games. 

Loyalty

Loyalty is a role play mechanic that the GM uses to affect the behaviour of captured Pokemon in battle. In a role play sense, loyal and loving Pokemon are likely to do their best for their trainer, whereas disloyal Pokemon probably aren't going to do what they're told. Just because you captured it, doesn't mean it's going to obey you right away without some care and training. 

Upon capturing a new Pokemon, the player rolls a d6 to determine its loyalty and the effect it has. For new captures, count a roll of 4-6 as 3:

1 = Resentful: The Pokemon resents you for capturing it. In battle, roll 1d6 before each move. On a 5 or 6, the move succeeds. 1-4, the Pokemon ignores you.

2 = Disloyal: The Pokemon is wary of you, and does not respect you as a trainer. In battle, roll 1d6 before each move. On a 3-6, the move succeeds. 1 or 2, the Pokemon ignores you. 

3 = Neutral: The Pokemon has accepted you as its trainer and will obey you in battle. 

4 = Friendly: The Pokemon considers you a friend, and will obey you in battle. 

5 = Loyal: The Pokemon respects you completely, will obey any command, and cares about your well-being.

6 = Happy: The Pokemon loves you unconditionally. It may evolve to please or protect it's trainer.

Though player's will keep a track of a Pokemon's Loyalty in their Pokedex, Loyalty is predominantly a role-playing aspect. The GM should pay attention to how the players act and treat their Pokemon during the game, and feel free to award or subtract loyalty points based on their actions over the course of the campaign. Mechanically, the player's Pokemon will obey them at 3 and above, though some Pokemon will only evolve when they reach a Loyalty level of 6. As a rule, players who simply use their Pokemon as tools for battle won't get above a 4 in Loyalty. Going higher than that will take some special care and attention. 

I'll be back with more next time! 

As always, thanks for reading! Until then,

- Jamie

Promo Art

Here's my finished promo art for the game. Big thanks to my friend Kevin Cameron for his help with colours and composition.

Click for a larger version.

- Jamie

Pokemon - Battles

Alright, let's take a look at how the all important battles will work.

Encounter
The first thing needed for a battle is someone/something to battle. These can come from Travel cards (Wild Pokemon, Trainer battles and Team battles), or be part of a Story Point.

Choose Move Set
If battling a trainer, each player involved in the battle must choose their move set that they are going to use. Currently, each Pokemon can learn a total of 10 moves, but only 4 can be used in battle at a time. Players will most likely come up with a 'default' set, and will only look to change it for specific battles. This gives that 'deck building' element to the game that I wanted, without all the cards. However, if this starts bogging the game down too much with players changing movesets all the time, I'll place some sort of restriction on it (EG: Movesets can only be changed at Pokemon Centres).

Who Goes First?
Unlike the game, when a wild Pokemon appears, the player gets to decide which Pokemon to send out, instead of automatically using the first one in their roster. Once a Pokemon is selected and sent out, you use the Pokemon's Speed stats to determine who attacks first each turn. If Speeds are the same, simply roll a D6 to determine who attacks first.

In a trainer battle, things work the same way, but start off a little differently. At the start of the battle, player's roll a D20 and add their Luck stat (if it makes it into the game). Whoever rolls the highest can choose to go first or second. The disadvantage of going first is that you have to send out a Pokemon blind, not knowing what your opponent has, whereas going second means you'll see what your opponent sends out, and can choose to send out something to counter that. Once both players have Pokemon out, use the Pokemon's Speed stat as normal to determine turn order.

EG: Chris and Louise are battling each other. Each player rolls a D20 and adds their Luck - Chris scores a 14 and Louise rolls 18. Louise can now choose to either send out first or second, and she chooses to go second. 

Chris sends out his Growlithe to kick things off. Based on this, Louise decides to start off with Geodude. Growlithe has the higher speed, so Chris now gets to move first. 

Attacking
Much of the combat itself will be lifted from Pokemon Tabletop Adventures, with a few changes to better streamline things and keep the action moving.

Much like D&D, combat in Pokemon Journeys works with 2 sets of rolls; a roll to hit, and a roll for damage. Each move in the game has an Accuracy Check (or AC) associated with it. Once the player has selected a move, they must roll equal to or above the AC to hit.

Evasion
All Pokemon have an Evasion stat, which is currently calculated by their Speed. For every 5 points of Speed a Pokemon has, they add +1 to the AC roll of an attack, up to a maximum of +6. If the attack hits, they roll damage on the move.

Damage
Once damage is calculated, the attacker adds either their Pokemon's Attack stat or Special Attack stat to the total, depending on the type of move used. The defending player then subtracts either their Pokemon's Defence or Special Defence stat from the damage total (depending on the type of attack). The remainder is the damage that makes it through and hits the target Pokemon.

Weaknesses and Resistances
Once the appropriate defence has been taken out of the damage, any weaknesses or resistances are applied, either boosting or lowering the damage taken. Note that resistances cannot lower the damage below 1 - all attacks that hit are guaranteed to do at least 1 damage.

Using the above example, lets see how a couple of turns of combat would work:

EG: 
Chris' Turn
Chris attacks first with his Growlithe's Ember attack. Ember's AC is 2, and since Geodude has a low Speed of 2, Louise can't add anything to this. Chris rolls an 8, hitting with Ember. 

Ember does 1d12 + 6 damage, and Chris rolls a total of 11. Chris adds Growlithe's SpAtk stat to the damage (7) for a total of 18 damage. 

Geodude is resistant to Fire attacks, so that damage is halved to 9. As Ember is a Special Attack, Louise then subtracts Geodude's SpDef stat (3) from the damage. Geodude takes 6 damage. 

Louise's Turn
On Louise's turn, she has Geodude use Rock Throw. Rock Throw's AC is 4, and Growlithe's Speed of 6 adds +1 to the AC, making it 5. Louise rolls an scores a 14, hitting comfortably.

Rock Throw deals 2d8 + 6 damage, and Louise rolls a total of 15. She then adds Geodude's Atk stat (8) for a total of 23 damage.

Growlithe is weak against Rock moves, and so that damage is doubled to 46. Chris removes Growlithe's Def stat (5) from the damage, for a total of 41, which knocks Growlithe unconscious. 

Switching Pokemon
On a player's turn, they are able to switch out Pokemon if they wish, though doing so takes up their whole turn. The only variation from this is when a player's Pokemon is knocked out - they are then free to switch to another Pokemon, and a new battle is commenced in the order of the battling Pokemon's Speed stats.

STAB
STAB, or Same Type Attack Bonus, is still something I'm working out and will need to play test. Pokemon Tabletop Adventures is by no means perfect, and STAB is one place where this shows, only giving Pokemon an extra 1 damage every 5 levels, a pitiful amount as opposed to the games, where STAB grants 50% bonus damage. I'll play around with this and see what works and what doesn't.

Damage Values
The same can be said for Pokemon Tabletop Adventures' damage values for different moves, which seem to be all over the place at first glance (though I'm sure there's a method in there somewhere). What I'm thinking of doing is removing the suffix from damage rolls (2d8 +6) and replacing that with the Pokemon's Atk or SpAtk stat instead, similar to how damage is calculated in D&D. This way, each attack would have a damage dice roll, to which the appropriate stat is then added. It seems cleaner to me, and removes the ambiguous suffixes from the PTA system.

I'd like to try and base the dice rolls on the Power Values of the moves from the game somehow, but I'll have to play around more with that in testing.

In any case, that's a good look at how battles work in Pokemon Journeys. If you've played D&D before, it won't be anything new, as well as being easy for newcomers to pick up.

Next time, we'll talk about capturing Pokemon.

Until then!

- Jamie

Pokemon - Stat Cards & Leveling Up

Today, we'll start talking about the stars of our show; the Pokemon, by checking out how their stats work.

Currently, I'm in the (enormous) process of creating a stat card for every single Pokemon. I will stress that the game can be played without them, but I liked the idea of the players being able to actually have something they can hold and look at when they capture a new Pokemon, instead of just writing numbers on paper. I think it makes things just that little bit more exciting and rewarding.

So here's how the stat cards look, front and back:

On the front, there's a nice big picture of your Pokemon, along with it's name and number, colour coded to match the primary type.

On the back, you've got that info again, along with it's base stats, evolution chain and Pokedex info. The backs are also all colour coded to match the type.

When players are battling, they'll place their currently active Pokemon's card out in front of them, so everyone at the table knows who is using what (as there can be large team battles, I thought this would be a good idea). 

Base Stats
The base stats are derived by dividing the base stats of the Pokemon in-game by 10, and rounding up. I've been getting all my base stats and other info for the cards from the Pokemon Database, but the Pokemon Tabletop Adventures game also has them using the same system.

In addition to Stat Cards, players will also have a "Pokedex"; a sheet they use to record all their captured Pokemon's stats, exp, moves etc. I plan on creating a small, printable card Pokedex to use as a folder for all this information.

Leveling Up & Evolution
As players level up their Pokemon by battling or training and gaining experience, they'll get 1 point to spend on any of the Base Stats each level. This is recorded in their Pokedex in a separate column, and those points stay with the Pokemon for the course of the journey.

When a player's Pokemon evolves, they hand back their Stat Card and are given a new Stat Card for the evolution, with new Base Stats. The player updates their Pokedex info, and adds their point additions for the levels gained thus far.

Let's use our Squirtle as an example, who evolves into Wartortle at level 16:

Squirtle Lvl 15 (Base stats / Additions / Current Total)
HP: 4 / 3 / 7
Atk: 5 / 3 / 8
Def: 7 / 2 / 9
SpAtk: 5 / 2 / 7
SpDef: 6 / 2 / 8
Spd: 4 / 3 / 7

Now, as the player hits level 16 and Squirtle evolves, they gain 1 point to spend as normal (we'll spend it on Atk), but Squirtle's Base Stats change. The additions made so far, however, remain. Our level 16 Wartortle looks like this:

HP: 6 / 3 / 9
Atk: 6 / 4 / 10
Def: 8 / 2 / 10
SpAtk: 7 / 2 / 9
SpDef: 8 / 2 / 10
Spd: 6 / 3 / 9

As you can see, the boost to the base stats has left us with a much more powerful Pokemon. Easy, right?


Currently, the card set for the first 151 Pokemon is complete and ready to use, and I'm in the midst of the Johto pokedex. Still a long way to go, but I'm aiming to try and have the full series completed somewhere around Christmas.

Next time, we'll take a look at what the Stats actually mean mechanically, and how the all important battles work.

Until then,

-Jamie

Edit: In regards to Pokemon that evolve via trade, that system of evolution will be removed for Pokemon Journeys. It's a good system that encourages players to connect with one another in the video game, but for a tabletop game, as you can imagine, two players simply swapping Pokemon and swapping back is hardly exciting or rewarding.

Instead, Pokemon that evolve via trade will be given a traditional level value upon which they will evolve. Pokemon that level while holding a particular item while being traded will instead need to hold the same item when they reach a certain level. 

Artists Wanted

Pokemon Journeys is a massive project, something I'm realising more and more every day. While I'd like to be able to do the entire thing myself, the simple reality of time means that this just isn't possible.

My goal at the end of this is to be able to release a rulebook and play materials in PDF form to the public, totally free, that contains everything needed to sit down and play your own campaign of Pokemon Journeys. Even though it's free, I want this thing to look like the real deal, not just like a word document, and for that I need art.

Lots of art.

So, if you're a digital artist, and you'd like to donate your skills or some artwork to the project, I'd love to hear from you! You can get in touch with me either via Twitter (@JDHultgren) or Email (jamie@pgcomic.com). It can be art you've already done, or you can use it as an excuse to create something new and original, just for this.

There's plenty that needs doing; watermarks & art for the rulebook, profession images and card art. After we've spoken, I'll assign you a project so that people aren't doubling up. You'll be credited to your art on the image itself as well as in a list of contributors in the book, along with your contact details if you wish.

This project is not for commercial release. I am not making a cent out of it; it is a labour of love for everyone to enjoy, and I'd love for you to be a part of that.

Until next time,

- Jamie

Playing The Game: Travel Deck & Weather

Today I'll give you a quick look at how the Travel Deck works, as well has how weather affects the game.

Travel Deck
The Travel Deck is a deck of cards the GM builds to suit their campaign, and may rebuild several times to suit different areas of the region being explored if they so wish. The Travel Deck contains cards that determine what happens during the group's traveling.

The Travel Deck is where most of the action in the game comes from. Each turn, after the group moves a square outside a town or Story Point, the group draws a card from the Travel Deck to see what happens. I still have to playtest this mechanic, but GM's should feel free to impose their own rules on how cards are drawn (one per person in the group, one per group, players take turns drawing a card etc.), depending on what they want out of their Pokemon Journeys campaign.

Currently, these are the cards that can be found in the Travel Deck, with more still being developed:

- Wild Pokemon (Common)
- Wild Pokemon (Uncommon)
- Wild Pokemon (Rare)
- Trainer Battle (1v1)
- Trainer Battle (2v2)
- Team Battle (2v2)
- Team Battle (3v3)
- Team Battle (4v4)
- Find Item (Common)
- Find Item (Rare)
- Clear Run (Nothing happens)
- Pokemon Training (All current pokemon gain 10 x Lvl exp)
- Weather Cards (more on those in a moment)

I'd like to include a few more that either delay or speed up movement on the board, and possibly a card that allows the player to choose what sort of event occurs. Let me know if you have any other ideas that you think would work.

There is no set number of cards to include in the Travel Deck, nor specific numbers of each card type. The GM should decide on the size of the deck and the types of cards it contains, based around what sort of campaign they want to run.

As an example, I want wild Pokemon to be fairly rare in my campaign, as I want catching them to be a big, exciting moment rather than tripping over them whenever you walk through some grass. To that end, my Travel Deck will contain fewer wild Pokemon cards. As there won't be many wild Pokemon, I run the risk of my players being under-leveled, and so I'll need to include more Pokemon Training and Battle cards to make up for that. You may want plenty of wild Pokemon in your game, but few other Trainers, or any number of combinations - in Journeys, you'll have the freedom to customize the deck for your own needs.

Weather Cards
When I'm playing a video game or tabletop RPG, I love it when the weather changes - it just turns my crank. I find it makes the whole experience so much more immersive, and so I wanted to try and incorporate changing weather into Pokemon Journeys; both to aid in roleplay immersion but also to add some interesting mechanics like the video games do.

For the moment prior to playtesting, weather cards are incorporated into the Travel Deck, and may be drawn as normal. A weather card, however, does not simply get resolved and discarded, but stays in play until it is replaced or removed by another weather card, to show the changing weather.

Currently, the weather cards that have been decided on are:

- Clear Weather (Normal conditions)
- Sunny Weather (Grass type Pokemon may reroll their damage rolls)
- Rainy Weather (Water type Pokemon may reroll their damage rolls)
- Dry Weather (Fire type Pokemon may reroll their damage rolls)
- Bad Weather (Make camp for the night and discard current weather card)

Note that players may reroll their damage rolls - they are not forced to. However, if they do, they must take the second result, even if it's lower. The weather does not provide a straight boost to damage, but rather a gamble option for affected players.

The Bad Weather card takes effect when it is drawn, regardless of the time of day; the players are forced to make camp for the remainder of the day until the weather blows over, waking to a clear sky the next morning. It essentially acts as a reset for the weather.

I don't want to include weather benefits for every Pokemon type, nor do I want to make cards for every kind of weather condition imaginable, but just enough to offer some variation and a bit of immersion.

Others I'm considering are:

- Stormy Weather (Electric type Pokemon may reroll their damage rolls)
- Windy Weather (Flying type Pokemon may reroll their damage rolls)
- Cold/Snowy Weather (Ice type Pokemon may reroll their damage rolls)

Once again, the GM should feel free to include as few or as many different weather conditions in the Travel Deck as they like, to suit their own game.

Rebuilding the Travel Deck
GM's also have the option to rebuild the deck to suit different parts of the game. They may want to include more wild Pokemon in a certain area, and more Trainer Battles in another. Likewise, they may want to add and remove different weather conditions depending on where the players are in the region.

Along with Story Points, the Travel Deck will be the key to setting the theme and tone of your journey. It's your journey after all, I'm simply providing the tools for you to embark upon it.

Next time, we'll get to the stars of the show, the Pokemon, and I'll give you a look at the cards and how they work in the game.

Until then,

- Jamie

Playing the Game - Movement & Story Points

So, now that the players have created their characters, the first thing they're going to need are some Pokemon starters.

GM's can make up their own system for handing out starters, whatever they feel suits their campaign. I've decided that for the region I'm making, it is customary for budding trainers to choose a pokeball without knowing what's inside - sort of a 'lucky dip' kind of thing, but you can feel free to come up with whatever system you like.

The game will have two different sides to it; role-playing, and more traditional board gaming. The introduction to the game and selecting of starters is a good chance to get a bit of role-playing happening in the group, before they move on to the board game side of things. 

Once your trainers have their starters, they'll head off on their adventure, and the game can begin.

The Board
My goal is for the board to be a map of the region, overlaid with a 1'x1' grid. You could use a region that already exists, or create your own. Erasable Battlemats used in D&D are a good tool for drawing your board, or you could get fancy and create one in something like Photoshop.

The game is played in turns, with the players traveling together as a group (represented by a token placed on the map). Along with the board, there is a Day/Night cycle counter, and a deck of cards called the Travel Deck, which contain events that can occur whilst traveling from one town to the next.

Here's a rough section of board I made, showing a route between two towns, to give you an example:

Turn Sequence
The group begins the game in their starting town. Each turn, the players complete the following:

• Advance the Day/Night cycle counter one space (in a total of 4 spaces, 3 day and 1 night. Using this scale, we can see the above route would take a total of 2 days to travel from one town to the next).
• Move the group token one square.
• If the square they enter is not a Story Point or Settlement, draw a card from the Travel Deck and resolve.

The players repeat this cycle for each square they move as they make their way around the map on their journey.

At this stage, things like tall grass in the above map are purely cosmetic. Whether the group walk on the path or in the grass, or whatever terrain the map may show, they will still draw a Travel Card each turn, and have the potential to encounter wild Pokemon and other events.

Town Movement
Once in town, the group shifts from board game mode into role-play mode again. Towns are mostly safe and secure places, and players can move about towns freely without adhering to the 1 square per turn movement rule or drawing Travel cards. They simply say where they'd like to go and what they'd like to do, and the group role-plays accordingly.

Story Points
Scattered across the board will be places called 'Story Points'. These squares are another role-play focused event, and should be named on the map (such as the "Strange Statues" in the example above), indicating that they are a place of interest the group may want to check out.

These points are places where GM's should feel free to flex their GMing muscles a little, and act as centrepieces to hang small adventures on, like those found in traditional RPG's, that would play out a little like an episode from the TV show. GM's can feel free to make story adventures as long or short as they like, but about an hour I think makes a good length so as not to take up the whole game session.

Using the "Strange Statues" example above, I might come up with a story adventure that involves a shrine the local townsfolk have built to a pair of Pidgeotto who protect the area. The townsfolk lay offerings of food at the statues daily for the Pidgeotto, though lately they have not been coming to eat. Also, the locals have noticed that Spearow and Fearow have become more of a problem, attacking travelers and stealing their crops. It's up to the group to find out why that is, and what's happened to the town's Pidgeotto protectors. It might turn out that a local thief has imprisoned the Pidgeotto so that his Spearow and Fearow can steal food from the town's farms unhindered, which he then sells back to them at a higher price. The group must then defeat the thief and save the day.

Regardless of the adventure, Story Points should always be something to look forward to, and the players should be excited about getting there and seeing what adventure awaits them. They also serve to break up the cycle of travel, and when you are designing your region you should aim to include a couple every day or so (3-9 squares).

So that about sums up how the game works, and how players travel around your chosen region. Next time, I'll go into more detail on the Travel Deck, how it works, and what it contains.

Until then,

- Jamie

Building a Character - Professions

Today I'm going to give you some detailed information on the class system I've been working on.

I liked the idea that, in the world of Pokemon, there are other professions that interact with these creatures in ways other than simply training and battling. There's the Nurse Joys, Safari Wardens, Professors, Breeders and a host of others, going about their own journeys and adventures that don't involve Gym battles.

I wanted to try and include a handful of these in the game, to add some variation to the role playing and give players other options that didn't involve the standard fare. It's been done before, notably in Pokemon Tabletop Adventures, though their system is extremely in-depth with dozens and dozens of subclasses and abilities linked to each one.

I wanted something much simpler and more streamlined. Each profession has it's own benefits, though it's not necessary to have a mix in your group to succeed like most traditional RPG's. If all the players want to be Trainers, then I wanted to make sure that was totally okay as well.

You'll also notice that each of the six professions give a bonus to one of the player's traits, as discussed in our previous post, to show the nature of that profession. 

Keep in mind that these are still in development subject to play-testing, and some of the benefits probably won't make a lot of sense without knowing how the various game mechanics work, but here's where we're at right now:

Trainer
You want to be the very best, like no one ever was. You are focused on catching, training and battling Pokemon and their trainers, with the goal of one day participating in the Pokemon League.

• +10% exp from battles.
• +2 to Capture rolls.
• May reroll the Initiative dice at the start of a battle. Once per day.
• +1 Physical trait .

Ranger
A natural in the outdoors, you strive to study the mannerisms and habitats of Pokemon in the wild, and are focused on their natural well-being. Your goal is to become an expert in the natures and behaviour of wild Pokemon, and knowing where to find them.

• Berry Search: Roll 1d6, on a roll of 6 you find a Berry. Once per day.
• Identify the remaining HP of a wild Pokemon. Once per day.
• Can reroll a different wild pokemon encounter. Once per day.
• +1 Physical trait.
  
  

Breeder

Raising Pokemon is your passion, ensuring the highest pedigree and quality of care to produce the happiest and healthiest Pokemon around. You seek to become an expert on the care and nurturing of tame Pokemon, from their infancy right up to their fully evolved state. 

• May switch the base stats of a pokemon on capture.
• Captured pokemon evolve 1 lvl earlier.
• +1 Loyalty of captured pokemon.
• +1 Social trait.

Groomer
Beauty and happiness are what you're all about when it comes to raising Pokemon, and it shows. Your Pokemon always look their best, and you make it your mission to ensure that they are well cared for, striving to ensure the bond between you is always strong.

• Add +1 to a captured pokemon's base stat of your choice. Also when evolving.
• May reroll the Loyalty roll of captured pokemon.
• Roll 1d6 while resting; on a roll of 6, increase the loyalty level of a captured pokemon. Once per day.
• +1 Social trait.

Researcher
You've dedicated your life to the study of all things Pokemon; whether it be the mystery of evolution, their bond with humans; looking to discover new species or delving into the fossils of the past. Your goal is to one day become a well-regarded expert thanks to your ongoing pursuit for Pokemon knowledge.

• Identify what a pokemon is without a pokedex.
• Identify the level of a wild pokemon. Once per day.
• Can identify the highest stat of a wild pokemon. Once per day.
• +1 Knowledge trait.

Medic
With intense medical study, your focus and passion is on Pokemon biology. You seek to find the best cures, the best methods and achieve the best outcomes in caring for sick and injured Pokemon, in order to see them returned to health and fighting fit.

• Potions heal for an extra 1d6.
• Heal a pokemon outside of battle for 20HP. Once per day.
• Remove a status effect on a pokemon outside of battle. Once per day.
• +1 Knowledge stat

So with the class system done, that's about all there is to making a character in Pokemon Journeys. Character creation would go something like this:

- Name your character, and give details like gender, age etc.

- Spend 9 or 10 points in the player's choice of the 3 traits.

- Choose a Profession.

I'm still developing a system for "leveling up" your character over the course of their journey. Rather than gaining experience (that's for your Pokemon), I'm tinkering with the idea of gaining an extra trait point to spend whenever you strike a milestone (earning a Gym Badge, winning a Contest etc.). We'll see what I come up with. 

Now that the player has made a character, the next step is seeing how the game actually works! I'll give a run down of this in my next post.

Until then!

- Jamie

Building a Character - Traits

Ok, lets talk character building.

As we all know, the focus of any Pokemon game is firmly on the critters themselves - the trainer mostly acts as a vessel to transport the action from one place to the next.

Other systems, such as Pokemon Tabletop Adventures, have really gone to the extreme to make the trainer a more integral part of the experience; with classes, their own stats and a full blown character sheet and progression system. With their rules, the trainers themselves can even get in on the action and punch or kick Pokemon right alongside their battling companions, taking their own actions amongst a traditional Pokemon battle.

That might sound awesome to some people, but for me.... ehhhhh...

I'm going for a more traditional approach, but I'd like to make the trainer more than a faceless, nameless carrier. There'll be the standard RPG fair like name, age etc. but I'd like them to be able to do things outside of battle if they want, and have some individuality above simply being a boy or a girl, without getting too in-depth and complicated. 

To this end, I've given player characters a set of 3 basic stats, called "Traits" with a possible fourth I'm considering. These stats will be used much like Skills in D&D, where if a player would like to do something, they would need to roll a check against the matching trait. They are:

- Physical
- Knowledge
- Social

- Luck/Tactics?

Physical determines how athletic a character is, and is used for things like jumping, running, climbing - much like the Athletics, Acrobatics and Endurance skills in D&D, all rolled into 1. Any sort of above-normal physical activity the player wants to try will use this trait. (Eg: Climbing up over a high wall to escape).

Knowledge determines, surprise surprise, how knowledgeable the character is. This trait will be used whenever the character wants to know something, or determine some information. Similar in D&D to Arcana, History & Religion. (EG: A character is trying to determine how old an artifact is, or why a Pokemon is acting in a certain way).

Social is used for interacting with NPC's. The D&D equivalents would be Diplomacy, Insight, Intimidate, Bluff - all of these sorts of activities will use the Social skill. (EG: Bartering with shop keepers, or convincing an NPC to give them some information).

The last trait I'm considering is Luck or Tactics. Unlike the other traits, Luck would be used in a battle to try and perform some sort of creative, 'outside the box' maneuver. The attempt would require a Luck/Tactics check to see if it succeeds. This would be used to encourage and enable some of the more creative tactics seen in the show, rather than simply attacking back and forth (EG: Having your Dewgong use Ice Beam on a pond in which your opponent's Goldeen is swimming, or having Weezing use Smokescreen to block out the sun to weaken your opponent Venusaur's Solar Beam). The effects of these sorts of tactics would be left to the GM to govern, though as a rule I would say that any attempt to use Luck/Tactics could not result in direct damage, but merely change the conditions or environment of a battle. I'd have to play test this one before deciding on whether or not to include it though.

Here's a quick example of the primary 3 traits being used in-game:

GM: 'So all of your Pokemon have fainted, and this Houndour is now glaring at you with all the hate in the world.'

Chris: 'Well, I'm making a run for it! Back to that tree everyone's hiding in!'


GM: 'Okay. You can hear the Houndour nipping at your heels as you go, and can feel the air getting hotter as it prepares to attack just as you reach the tree. Let's have a Physical check to see if you manage to get up there - not a hard one, climbing a tree isn't too difficult.' *GM quietly sets the check at 10*

Chris: *rolls a d20 and adds his Physical trait* 'I got a 12 total. Is that enough?'

GM: 'Alright, you scurry on up that tree as a wash of flames misses you by inches.'

Chris: 'Thank god.'

Louise: 'Well, I told you not to go down there! Am I able to try and figure out why the Houndour is so stirred up?'

GM: 'Sure, let's have a Knowledge check.'

Louise: *rolls a d20 and adds her Knowledge trait* 'Bummer, an 8.'

GM: 'Yeah, you're not too sure what it's problem is. But luckily you don't have to wait in the tree long before you hear a young girl's voice, shouting "Houndour! Houndour!" It sounds like she's looking for it.'

Louise: "It's over here! Come and call this thing off us!"

GM: 'A girl with dark hair in a beanie comes into view through the branches, glancing between you and the furious Houndour. She seems disturbed, and asks "What's going on? What have you done to Houndour?" '

Chris: 'We didn't do anything you nut case! We were trying to get to a Pokemon Centre and this thing ran up the road and attacked us! Call it off!'

GM: 'Well then, let's have a Social check.'

Chris: *rolls a d20 and adds his Social trait* 'Bam, 18!'

GM: ' "Oh my goodness, I'm so sorry!" the girls says, before producing a pokeball and returning her Houndour. "It's ok, you can come down now" she calls. "I'm sorry, a strange man bumped into me at the park and knocked me over, and Houndour just took off after him. I've been looking for my Pokemon ever since and I thought you might have been the stranger" What would the two of you like to do?'

Hopefully that's given you a good indication of how Traits work. If you've ever played D&D, it'll be very familiar, though still simple and easy enough for newcomers to pick up.

Next time, we'll take a look at the class system. Until then!

- Jamie