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

Early Concept Art

Thought I'd share an early in-progress sketch of some concept art for the game. This is based on the Red avatar, overlooking Pallet Town with Viridian City in the distance.

I think I'll be changing his left hand to be holding the strap of his bag, but otherwise I'm pretty happy with it - it captures the feeling I wanted.

More soon!

- Jamie

Problems with a Card Based Battle System

One of the big draws of Pokemon are the battles. I really wanted to make the battles great - keep the feel of the battles from the video game but amp it up another notch to make things more interesting for the tabletop.

The most obvious route was to use a dice-based system similar to D&D, just like we're used to. The creators of Pokemon Tabletop Adventures have already done a good job of converting all the moves over to dice-based damages and D&D-esque usage amounts (at-will, daily etc). It would save a lot of time and effort to simply use this system that's already in place, and one that we are already familiar with the mechanics of.

My goal was to try and shake things up a bit and introduce a card-based battling system, where all the moves would be made as cards, using the damage values and effects from the Tabletop Adventures system, and Trainers could collect a 'move deck' over the course of their adventure from which they could 'build' different move-sets for their Pokemon each battle. This would add a cool deck-building element and another layer of strategy, where the trainer/player would have to go through their moves and pick 4 that a chosen Pokemon could use that they thought would be best for the coming battle. I was pretty sold on the idea.

The big snag I've now hit with this system is prepping a play test to try it out, by giving 6 players a random lvl 10 Pokemon (so they have a full set of 4 moves), and having them battle each other. The problem is that with just these 6 Pokemon, they share 24 moves between them. That's 24 cards that need to be made and printed out, just to cover these 6!

I opened Google and typed in "just how many different moves are there in Pokemon?" Turns out there's over 460 moves in total in the Pokemon games. That's 460 cards that would have to be printed and kept, and that's just to have one copy of each move! How many of the 600+ Pokemon know Tackle? Or Scratch? It's easy to see that, while in theory this system would be a fun addition, practically... well, not so much.

So for now, I've resigned myself to using the Pokemon Tabletop Adventures' dice-based system. The fact that it's dice-based still brings that exciting element of randomness and uncertainty to the table that RPG players know all too well, and it's a solid system I know will work.

I'd still like to find a way to put my own spin on the system - I'll ponder it over the next week or so and see if anything pops into my head. For the meantime though, we won't be retiring those RPG dice just yet.

- Jamie

More Concept Notes

These are my more recent concept notes. The game concept has been pretty much locked down now, and I'm on to the design stage.

1) The name of the game will be called Pokemon Journeys

2) Trainers will have 3 stats; Physical, Knowledge & Social. These will be used much like D&D skill checks when the players themselves are attempting different things.

3) There will be 6 classes: Trainer, Breeder, Groomer, Ranger, Researcher, Medic. Each gives a number of benefits (eg: Trainers get a bonus to capture pokemon, and a Ranger can redraw a different wild pokemon encounter), and boosts one of the trainer stats.

4) I'm going to experiment with mixing the dice-based and card-based battle systems. As your pokemon acquire new attacks, you'll get a card with the attack and damage roll on it. However, your pokemon won't forget attacks. Instead, the player will keep a deck of attack moves, and assign their Pokemon 4 attack cards before each battle. This will let them build Pokemon to suit different situations, and adds a fun deck building element to the game. This will have to be playtested though to really get a feel for whether it will work or not, but I like the concept.

5) There will be the standard 8 gyms to defeat and gain badges to enter to Pokemon League, but there will also be other major events to partake in, should a trainer not wish to go down that route. These will include:

-- Contests (which will be much like dog shows for your pokemon)
-- Competitions (which test a Trainer's abilities under different conditions, such as catching a certain type of pokemon)
-- Tournaments (which test a Trainer's battle prowess under varying conditions - usually with a single pokemon of a certain type)

Each of these will be their own league, with their own "badges" and progression system, and their own grand finale event. So if you don't want to get gym badges, there's still plenty to do.

6) I was playing with the idea of having random pokemon as the starters that aren't usually starter pokemon (like Poliwag and Oddish). I'm still going to do a 'lucky dip' to gain your starter, but now I'm leaning towards making it a pool of all the generation starters. Other GM's can feel free to implement their own ideas for their own campaign though.

7) The starter pokemon for each generation will also be able to be captured in the wild.

8) There will be a day and night cycle. At the beginning of each turn, the group advances a time token. There will be 3 stages of day, and 1 of night. The group can only rest at night, or they can choose to push through and keep going - so there will be that choice every day. Certain class abilities can only be used once per day, and so will require a rest at night to recharge. A travel scale can therefore be worked out as well, as 3 squares (3 turns) will equal a day's travel.

Stay tuned for card designs and game mechanics of the different systems.

- Jamie

Early Concept Notes

Here are some of my early concept notes from September; getting ideas out of my head and down in type. A few of these have changed recently, but I'll share the more recent notes shortly.

1) It's going to be what's known to tabletop RPG players as a "hex crawl". The entire world map will be drawn out on a huge grid, with the party represented by a token/s on the board. To get around, you move the token a square, and then draw cards from a deck (called the Event Deck, or Travel Deck) to determine what, if anything, happens (wild pokemon, trainer battle, find item, weather change etc etc). Once the cards have been resolved, you move another square and repeat. I'm not sure if each player draws a card every turn, or the party as a whole draws 1 card, taking turns as to who draws it.

2) There may be different Travel Decks for different areas of the game (A Forest Deck might be loaded with more wild pokemon, a City Deck might have more items to find, an Ocean Deck may only have water pokemon etc etc).

3) Each player will have their own pokemon that they keep during the course of the campaign. I'm still deciding if experience is shared between all of a player's pokemon, if it's only given to the pokemon that battled, or if the player can choose which option to use.

4) Originally, I intended that each pokemon would have a mini 'character sheet' like traditional RPG's, and combat would play out much like it does in the video games; taking turns to attack with a certain move, and then rolling dice for damage.

Another option I've only just started tinkering with would be to have a card-game element to the combat instead. I thought about using the actual Pokemon TCG for combat, but decided I didn't like how limited and random it was. I like the idea though, and then I decided to try a system similar to Card Hunter, where each pokemon has it's own small deck of moves that you draw from in combat when using it. If you've played Card Hunter (and you should, it's a fun free browser game: www.cardhunter.com) you'll understand what I mean.

I think this will be fun, add a touch of randomness but not as much as the proper TCG, and add a bit of a deck-building component to the game, where players can customize each pokemon's move deck. It also means we can have things like TM's and HM's, which would be cards found in the Travel Deck added to the pokemon's move deck that you want to teach it to. The trick would be that a pokemon's move deck can only be so big, and so to learn new moves, you'd have to swap out old ones and decide what's going to be best to include. It's a great system, and I think it would be well suited to this game.

5) There'll still be a DM/GM (Dungeon Master/Game Master), who will play the role of wild pokemon, other trainers, gym leaders, as well as chime in at story points. I'd like to have, at particular spots on the map, a 'story point'. When the party go there, the DM has a little story prepared relating to that location that plays out much like an episode of the TV show, and is done in a more traditional way like we're all used to; kind of a 'mini D&D session' of an hour or so. They'd be spaced so the group would probably have a story point or two in each game session, and act to shake up the traveling as a place to aim for and investigate.

6) I want to use Pokemon from all generations, and I like the idea of choosing a starter randomly in a 'lucky dip' type deal. You get what you get and have to make the best of it. This would just be my own house rule though, other GM's running the game could choose their own method of distributing starters.

7) I'd like there to be different 'classes' (not only Trainer, but also things like Breeder, Ranger, Researcher etc.) that have different benefits attached. You choose what to be when you make your character.

8) I like how pokemon games take a long time to finish - it really feels like you're traveling across a whole region, and I want to capture this in the RPG. I want it to take a number of sit-down sessions to traverse the whole region - I want it to feel like an epic journey, rather than just a board game you finish in a few hours.

9) Like the show, I want wild pokemon to be fairly rare, and a big deal when you catch one. I really like the idea of having to make the best of what you can find, and forging an attachment to the ones you come across. It won't be easy for everyone to collect a full team of 6, let alone have boxes of randoms in the PC, and I think it'll be better that way, and make each one mean more. Again, this is just my own personal preference - other GM's could build the Travel Deck to include fewer or more wild pokemon encounters as they please.

10) I like the concept of the League from the show, where it's a big olympic-like tournament rather than just defeating 4 trainers. I'd like to make our League a mix of the two, where the winner of the tournament gets to challenge the current champion.

- Jamie

The beginning of my journey...

My name is Jamie, creator of the webcomic Parental Guidance, D&D dungeon master, father, husband and all around creative geek.

This year, I asked my gaming group what other games they liked to play, and the topic quickly turned to Pokemon. The comment was made that if there were such a thing as a Pokemon tabletop RPG, they'd be all over it in a heartbeat.

I love Pokemon, but my family didn't have a lot of money growing up, and so I missed out on the phenomenon that was Pokemon Red and Blue. Still, I watched the show religiously, and many years later when I had left school and had a job, I bought a Gameboy Advance and a used copy of Pokemon Yellow. And it was glorious. 

Bringing that experience to the tabletop seemed like a brilliant idea. I did some browsing around, but wasn't terribly happy with the results I found overall. Other attempts have been made over the years, but they are either needlessly complicated, or messy and underdeveloped.

So, not content unless my workload is full to bursting, I've set out to create the ultimate Pokemon tabletop experience.

My plan is to bring the nostalgia and wonder of the video games to the tabletop as an RPG/Boardgame hybrid, with a fun and simple system that can be enjoyed over a campaign with your friends. I will be melding other ideas that have been done before with new ones I've created, in an attempt to better streamline the whole experience and make it much more accessible and fun. This is not a licensed product, nor will it ever see a commercial release (unless Nintendo decides to throw a stack of money at me, but I'm not going to hold my breath). When it's done, I plan on uploading the rules here, for all to enjoy.

Over the coming months, I plan to update this blog regularly on how the game develops so you can watch the process and follow along yourself. I hope you'll find it interesting and entertaining.

So join me, on one geek's journey, from concept to completion, as I try to bring the incredible world of Pokemon to the table.

Welcome to Pokemon Journeys.