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