Speaking of combat, last night I had an extra 2 players, plus a couple of NPCs accompanying the party, so they were 6 Trainers strong... it was a bit hard to keep track of, especially since they split into three groups. But they were assaulting a fortress while flying an invisible ghost snake, an ice bird, and a noise wyvern. One of them immediately got shot out of the sky and subsequently KO'd by not-orcs while the others stuck to the plan to open a gate to the fort, so they could try to rescue the enslaved humans and pokemon inside.
POKEMON!
Chapter 7: Combat
I have been informed that future games will not be using online fanart, only official art and screencaps from the anime, possibly with commission art sprinkled in. Something about "not getting permission to use art". Fucking lame, honestly. Do you see this pic??? It's pretty goddamn cool.
Are you ready for some more weird-ass rules that are kind of overly clunky? Buckle your asses in, because it's time we learn how the REAL part of this game works: Hitting shit until it falls down.
There are actually two entirely separate kind of battles in this game: Pokemon League battles and "full contact" fights. In the former, it's like in the video games where you and another guy send out Pokemon until you, uh... resolve your disagreements, and the Trainer can't intervene directly. The rules for this are all the way in the back of the book where they belong, because I think I've done this kind of battling maybe two or three times... in the past 3 years. Full contact is exactly what it sounds like - there are no rules, so you can be as unscrupulous as you'd like. It says the criminals are the unscrupulous ones, but we all know how PCs tend to be.
Players always get two turns: One for their Trainer and another for their Pokemon, even if one or the other is KO'd.
Rounds are 10 seconds long in this game, and Initiative is static, relying on your Speed stat and any Initiative bonuses you may have. Oh, I remember why I don't play League Battles: it has fucking action declaration and I'm too young to have done that before, and I don't have any intention of starting now. In full contact fights everybody just goes from highest to lowest speed. Any ties are settled with d20 roll offs, although I personally allow people on the same side of the same Initiative to just choose who goes first.
Every update my AD&D comparison gets more and more apt.
There is also a delay action! Once per round, you can hold your action until a specified lower Initiative value. I don't think there are actually any Ready actions, though, so you're basically jut choosing to take your turn later in the round. I've never needed them to tell me the actual number though, I let them delay until someone else's turn. Things that last "one full round" last until the same Initiative Count next round... I actually forgot about that. I usually just go until that person's next turn, but it's possible for their Initiative to have changed in some way. Hrm.
Action Types
We've got our Standard, Shift, and Swift Actionsss. You can take any number of Free Actions you want, but Triggers can only be activated once per Trigger. Okay then. It's explicitly mentioned that at the beginning of a fight, Trainers can draw weapons or send out Pokemon for free, since it's just tedious otherwise... unless they're ambushed, of course. My PCs are maniacs who always run around with their weapons drawn, so... their enemies are too!
Makes it easier when people spot each other and throw down Pokemon and we just cut the bullshit. You can do the things you'd expect with a Standard Action, but if you use it to get a Shift Action back, you can't use it to move unless you haven't moved already, for whatever reason. Shift Actions are for moving and activating some Features, handing items to other Trainers, and even returning OR sending out a Pokemon, or if it's Fainted, you can just swap it out for free. Pretty simple. Swift, Extended, Full Actions... blah, blah.
We also have Priority Actions, which come in three forms: Priority (Limited), Priority, and Priority (Advanced). Aye yai yai. Priority moves can be declared if you haven't gone this round, and you just take your full turn for that round whenever you want - but it has to be done in between turns. Priority (Limited) means that you can only take the action that has Priority, not your full turn - you take the rest of it later, as normal. Priority (Advanced) lets you go even if you've already acted - you just give up your turn on the next round. Is this level of granularity really needed? Can't we just make everything Priority (Advanced)? Yeesh.
We've also got Interrupt Actions that work kind of like Priority moves in that you can only take the action that Interrupts, not your full turn. Protect would be one such move - you block an attack, but you can't move around until it's your turn.
Players decide what the Pokemon do when their turn comes around, and there's an explicit list of what Pokemon can do.
I'm sure they can do things outside of this... the book just doesn't say so.
It also doesn't offer too much advice on how to handle "uncommanded" Pokemon - they say you should be able to walk around with all your Pokemon if you want, the idea is that you don't let the players have an unfair advantage. Gentleman's agreement, I suppose? Nobody really wants to resolve 3+ Trainers with multiple Pokemon on the field is the real answer.
However, they recommend making Double or Triple battle events where all Trainers involved can command multiple Pokemon. They also recommend letting villains have multiple Pokemon out at once, if "encounter balance" dictates. I don't like this... but I still do it sometimes, usually the villain has a "boss pokemon" that bosses around smaller versions of itself so the villain doesn't have to.
Pokemon Switching
Oh god, there's literally a fucking flowchart. And a full page of examples afterwards.
Any mechanic in any TTRPG can be made to look ridiculous with the use of flowcharts. Any mechanic.
I'm gonna not elaborate on this and see if y'all still get it. It's actually not that complicated in practice, but I still enjoy making fun of it.
Movement and Positioning
Go get a fucking grid map. You don't have to, but you should. You know why.
Small size creatures can fit in the same square as another Small or Medium creature, and they and Medium creatures take up 1x1 square.
Large creatures take up 2x2.
Huge creatures take up 3x3.
Gigantic creatures take up 4x4.
And Colossal... oh, wait, that's as big as they get? I forget how fucking tiny most Pokemon actually are. However, they recommend using different shapes for things with different body types: a Gigantic Steelix could be 8x2 instead of 4x4, or a Huge Aerodactyl is 2x4 because of its wingspan. I have Gyarados and Onix as 1x8 giant snake things - it's out of control when they start using Burst moves and shit.
You Shift around to move, but if you're using different Capabilities that turn, like running into a lake and swimming a bit, your maximum movement that turn is the average of those Capabilities.
You cannot split up a Shift Action. I always wonder why games do this - I think the idea is to minimize kiting and shit, but I've seen the discussion on DMFs. You can have a DMF Pokemon. It totally fucking happens. Still... it always feels limiting and I feel bad telling players they can't do it. I still do, though.
Diagonals work like in 3.5, thankfully. There's a difference between Adjacent and Cardinally Adjacent - oh, boy. If you're Stuck, you can't move, but if you're Slowed, you can only move half your movement. Getting up from being Tripped is also your whole shift action.
There are 3 kinds of basic terrain, and then 3 modifying terrain types: Our basic terrains are Regular Terrain, Earth Terrain, and Underwater Terrain. They require Overland, Burrow, and Swim respectively. On top of that, we have Slow Terrain, Rough Terrain, and Blocking Terrain. Slow Terrain makes you Slowed while you move through it, and Rough Terrain imposes a -2 Accuracy penalty on targeting through it. Rough Terrain is usually, but not always Slow Terrain. Think tall grass, waist-high walls, and general cover. Interestingly, spaces occupied by other creatures are Rough Terrain, not Blocking Terrain. Blocking Terrain are fucking walls. This is a good set, it's covered pretty much everything I need for 95% of my games.
Then I bust out the poison spills and homebrew magic terrain and shit.
Flanking simply means the target has -2 Evasion - the flankers get no bonuses unless stated otherwise. This visual should be able to explain the implementation:
If you're into theatre of the mind, there's a whole page on how to do it. Pretty basic stuff - separate areas into zones, describe landmarks nearby, go with the GM. I had to do some last night, since they were split into 3 different groups, it worked out well enough.
Combat Stats
I've told you how stats work and I won't reiterate them here. However, there are some limits you should know about: Combat Stages, including Accuracy, can never go beyond -6 or +6 stages. You can never gain +6 Evasion from stats, which is why nobody invests beyond 30 Speed, since at least DEF and SPDEF give you damage reduction. If you have other sources of Evasion, you can still never, ever go beyond +9 Evasion... which still cranks the AC of a move like Tackle up to a fucking 11. Things with max Evasion fighting things with max Critical Range (spoiler alert:
there is no max Critical Range) can get silly. When Combat Stages are cleared via Haze or whatever, that also clears Accuracy and Evasion bonuses/maluses.
I've been talking about Combat Stages this whole time, yet nobody has actually asked me how they work in this game. After all, in the video games, it's a 50% boost applied to the relevant stat per Stage. Well... I'm just gonna cut the shit and post the chart.
God have mercy on our wretched souls.
This has to fucking change. This is unacceptable, even if you just write down on your sheet how much DEF you'd get per Defense Curl or whatever. It's nice that the higher your stat, the bigger the boost you get from Combat Stages, and that is something I'd like to replicate, but actually multiplying percentages during a game is not fun. Speed is special, though: You get a bonus/penalty to all Movement Speeds equal to half your current Speed CS, up to +3. Not bad.
So let's say you want your Rattata to Tackle the Pidgey. You look at the AC of Tackle (it's 2, as are most moves), then add the relevant Evasion of your target. Let's say the Pidgey has 2 Speed Evasion, so the AC of the move would become 4. Now you roll a d20 and add your Accuracy to see if you beat the AC. A 1 always misses and 20 always hits. Even if the target
wants to be hit by the attack, you still have to at least beat the unmodified AC. Once you hit, you roll for damage! How much damage? Depends on the Move, of course! This is Pokemon, you know each Move has its own accuracy and damage, right? Well... each move has a Damage Base in PTU. For example, Tackle has 40 Power in the video games, so its Damage Base is 4. However, our Rattata is also Normal-type like Tackle, so it benefits from STAB - STAB always increases the DB of a move by +2. Always. So Rattata's Tackle is Damage Base 6. Then we look at... the chart.
The Chart!
This is the other chart you need to be able to play this game. Fortunately the game comes with the Pokemon Experience chart and the DB chart on the same page... it is The Chart. The Chart!
If you're into rolling (of course you are), you now roll 2d6+8 for damage, then add your ATK stat, since it's a Physical move. If there are any other modifiers to the DB, you would do that here, before you roll. Once you've arrived at your Total Damage, your target subtracts their DEF, to a minimum of 1 damage. After this, you apply Weakness/Resistance: SE attacks deal x1.5 damage, Doubly SE attacks deal x2 damage, and the rare Triply SE attack deals x3 damage. Resisted hits deal x0.5 damage, doubly Resisted hits deal x0.25 damage, and (mercifully) rare triply Resisted hits deal x0.125 damage.
No, I'm not reposting the Type Effectiveness Chart unless you want me to.
Some moves like Night Shade simply deal Hit Point damage. Fuck whatever your defense is, it does that much damage. Eat shit. Critical hits add the Damage Dice Roll twice. For example, that Tackle normally does 2d6+8 damage, but if you crit, then it would deal 4d6+16 damage. You never add your stats twice, thank fucking god. Some moves have a higher crit chance - Stone Edge crits on a fucking 17+,
before modifiers.
Deal enough damage and you inflict an Injury: if you deal more than 50% of their Max HP in one attack, they take an Injury. Also, when they reach certain Hit Point Markers, they take an Injury: These are 50%, 0%, -50%, -100%, and so on. If you get hit below 50% and take an injury and heal up to 51% HP, if you get hit below 50% again, you take another Injury. Watch it. This game also has the concept of "Tick of Hit Points". This is always equal to 1/10th of someone's Maximum HP, and it comes up a lot. I actually really like it, since you can say something deals 2 Ticks of damage and people know it can fuck you up regardless of who you are.
There's a, uh... damage formula. Honestly, it took me like 3 or 4 months to remember where to apply Weaknesses and Resistances.
I sure do like going through 9-step processes every time I make an attack roll. The part that takes the longest is between steps 6 and 7, because math is hard when you've been drinking.
One note: Type-Effectiveness doesn't affect Status Moves, so Confuse Ray could totally hit Normal-types. I think this is how it works in the video games, but I don't use enough status moves to really remember... Oh, also, certain Types are immune to certain Status Effects or kewords. Electric-types can't be Paralyzed, Fire-types can't be Burned, Ghost-types can't be Stuck or Trapped, Grass-types are immune to Powder Moves (ie. Stun Spore and shit), Ice-types can't be Frozen, and Poison & Steel-types are can't be Poisoned.
But what if you don't have any Moves because you're a shitty Trainer who got caught in a fight despite being a total nerd who put everything in Knowledge skills? Well, you can still make Struggle Attacks... they have an AC and DB of 4, unless you're an Expert at Combat, at which point the AC is 3 and the DB is 5. These can be modified by weapons, but if you're making Struggle Attacks... you should reconsider your life choices. Certain Capabilities also modify Struggle Attacks: For example, if you have Firestarter, your Struggle Attacks can be Fire-type Special attacks, if you want. Y'know, cause you can just make fire whenever.
Combat Maneuvers
Attacks of Opportunity are what you'd expect: You can make a Struggle Attack against someone, once per round, unless you're Asleep, Flinched, or Paralyzed. This activates when someone next to you uses an offensive Combat Maneuver or Ranged Move that doesn't target you, or if they stand up, move out of a square adjacent to you, or use their Standard Action for item manipulation. In short: nobody really cares. I beefed them up by allowing you to make
any Combat Maneuver as an AoO. Including grappling.
Especially grappling.
Disengaging sucks dick. You Shift 1 meter and don't provoke an AoO. That's it. I'm considering making it up to half your maximum Movement instead, because jesus christ is it hard to run away from anything in this game.
Disarming has an AC of fucking 6, but if you beat them with a Combat or Stealth check, their Held Item, Main Hand, or Off-Hand item drops to the ground. You can't even kick a sword across the room with the same action - it's literally just right there.
Dirty Tricks are actually 3 Maneuvers that can only be used once per Scene per target. Hinder is an opposed Athletics check and the target is Slowed and gets -2 to Skill Checks for... a round. Blinding is an opposed Stealth check that Blinds the target, giving them -6 Accuracy!... for a round. Low Blow is an opposed Acrobatics check and the target is Vulnerable and has their Initiative set to 0... until the end of your next turn. Unless your build is based around using these, nobody will ever give a fuck about them because nobody would spend a whole Standard Action to do any of this shit when you can hit someone for SE damage.
Manipulate is also 3 Maneuvers, but unlike thee others, they have a range of 6 meters and can only be used by Trainers. Bon Mot is an opposed Guile check, and you Enrage the target and they can't spend AP for a round. Flirt is an opposed Charm check that Infatuates the target for a round. Terrorize in an opposed Intimidate check that causes the target to lose all Temporary HP and they can only use At-Will moves for a round. I don't think I've ever used any of these.
Pushing is an opposed Combat or Athletics check, and you can push them 1 meter, or you can keep moving and pushing them around... unless they're heavier than your Heavy Lifting rating. Jeez, man, you can't even push a guy across the room like in a kung-fu movie? You may notice a pattern here in that all of these Combat Maneuvers kind of fucking suck.
Sprinting is a whole Standard Action, and all it does is increase your Movement Speeds by 50% for the rest of your turn. Last night I had someone stand up with his Shift Action, and he asked if he could Sprint away from the bad guys... and I had to remind him that 50% of 0 is 0. Ouch.
Tripping is also AC 6, except you at least knock the fucker onto the ground. This is mildly useful.
Intercepting Attacks works differently based on the attack: For ranged attacks, you make an Acrobatics or Athletics check and can Shift a number of meters equal to half your result to put yourself in the way of the attack. If you make the distance, you eat the attack instead... unless the move can't miss. Or you can't move. Melee attacks are a similar check, except it has a DC equal to 3 times the number of meters you need to cross in order to push your ally out of the way. If you still are in the range of an AOE attack... tough shit, you both get hit.
Grappling... oh, boy. I'll admit that I just adapted how grappling works in Tome for this game and it's way better. So, you and your target make opposed Combat or Athletics checks, and if you win, you gain Dominance. While you're both grappling, you are both Vulnerable, can't take Shift Actions or any actions that would cause you to Shift, gain a -6 Accuracy penalty to hit anyone outside the grapple, and has MORE EFFECTS based on this fucking Dominance shit. If you start a Grapple and you don't have Dominance, you can contest the grapple as a Full Action, and you both make checks again. The winner can either gain Dominance or end the grapple. Phasing and Teleporting pokemon can just zip out of grapples. If you DO have Dominance, you can end the grapple, Secure the grapple to get a +3 to your next check in the grapple, hit with an unarmed Struggle Attack, or Shift, where your Movement Capability is lowered by the other guy's Weight Class. You can actually use Moves during a grapple - the devs said so in a Q&A. Doesn't really seem to mention that here, though.
You cannot actually replicate this picture in-game, since I cannot fucking imagine how Dominance works with more than 2 grapplers involved.
Improvised & Environmental Attacks
Let's say you have some pocket sand and you throw it in a guy's face... but you don't actually know Sand Attack. The example here says the GM might treat it as an AC 5 attack that reduces a foe's Accuracy by -2 until the end of their next turn. (Sand Attack's AC is 2 and it imposes a -6 penalty!) You shouldn't hand out Type-associated attacks often - throwing a rock is just a Normal attack, not a Rock one. But if you hit something with your Torch, that could be Fire-type... but then your Torch breaks. Perhaps setting up a landslide on your enemies might simply be a Rock Slide attack, or maybe the GM could asspull some Skill Checks, and base the damage off that. They say you should reward players for doing this stuff, but... it really won't happen often. There's a mention that Water or Electric attacks might fuck up a trainer's electronics or a Blizzard might freeze their unprotected Potions. Hilariously enough, this is where the game mentions you can use Moves to attack things that aren't creatures. Gee, I really can use Flamethrower on a tree? Thanks, game!
Other Actions in Combat
Taking a Breather is so shitty it's unreal. You eat a Full Action up to move as far away from the action as possible, trip yourself, and make yourself Vulnerable. In exchange, your CS get reset, you lose all Temp HP, and you get cured of Volatile Status effects. Trainers can make Command DC 12 checks to do these to their Pokemon to calm them down, curing them of Rage and shit.
Making skill checks in combat should be hard - if you make a Skill Check and you've been attacked in the last round, you're supposed to make a Focus DC 16 check in addition to your normal check. Failing your Focus check gives you a -1 on your other check, with -1 more per 4 you fail by. If you WERE hit, you also take a -2 penalty to the check. If that attack ALSO injured you, you take further -2. This only applies to MTP stuff - you don't do this for Combat Maneuvers. Probably why I forget about this rule most of the time.
Status Afflictions
Hey, I recognize these! There are Persistent and Volatile statuses - unlike the games, there's no limit to how many Status afflictions you can have at once.
Persistent statuses stick around after combat - these are Burned, Frozen, Paralysis, and Poisoned.
Burned causes you to take a Tick of damage when you use or are denied your Standard Action, and you have -2 DEF CS.
Poison is similar, except for SPDEF... and Bad Poison. That deals a flat 5 HP, which is then doubled each consecutive round. Nothing can survive 5 rounds of Bad Poison because that's 155 unavoidable damage.
Frozen means you can't act, but you can make a DC 16 Save Check to be cured, or DC 11 if you're Fire-type. Save Checks are a simple d20 roll. You get a +4 bonus to this check in Sun and -2 penalty in Hail. If you get hit by a damaging Fire, Fighting, Rock, or Steel attack, you get unfrozen.
Paralysis imposes a -4 SPEED CS penalty and at the beginning of your turns, you need to make a DC 5 Save Check to act. Fail and you can't do anything. This has since been errata'd - now your Initiative is halved and you need a Save Check of 11+. Failing this one means you can take a Standard OR Shift Action, you're Vulnerable for a round, and you can't make AoOs. I like it a lot better.
There's a lot more Volatile statuses, but they go away at the end of an encounter, or when you Faint or are recalled into a Pokeball.
Sleep means you have no Evasion and cannot act, unless you have a Free or Swift Action that could cure Sleep. You make a DC 16 Save Check to wake up, but you also wake up if you take damage or if someone else wakes you up as a Standard Action - but this is direct damage! Poison or Sandstorm would not apply. Bad Sleep is rare - when you make that Save Check above, you take 2 Ticks of damage, even if you succeed.
Confusion makes you roll a Save Check. On 1-8, you hit yourself with a Typeless Struggle Attack, which you resist... and that's your turn. 9-15 lets you act normally, and 16+ cures you of Confusion. In the errata, while Confused you cannot make AoOs, and when you attack you roll 1d2 (lolwut?). On a 1, you lose half your Attacking stat in HP after resolving the attack - if was a Status Move, you eat 2 Ticks of damage. You're still cured with a DC 16 Save Check at the end of your turn.
Cursed makes you eat shit. Every time you take a Standard Action, you lose 2 Ticks of HP at the end of your turn.
Disabled targets a specific Move you know, and you can't use it anymore. Yes, this stacks.
Rage means you MUST use a damaging attack, and at the end of your turn you cure yourself on a DC 15 Save Check.
Flinch used to make you eat shit - you just lose your whole turn, though the effect didn't carry over into the next round, so it was better on faster units. Now, you're just Vulnerable for a round and you have -5 Initiative for the rest of the Scene, or until recalled. I've been told that this isn't as huge of a nerf as it seems, but I have yet to be proven wrong in actual gameplay.
Infatuation makes you do a Save Check at the beginning of your turn. From 1-10, you can't target whoever you're Infatuated with, but you can still move and attack as normal. On 11-18, you can move and attack without restriction. 19+ cures you. I like the errata version more: the creature that Infatuated you is now your Crush. Infatuated targets deal -5 damage to things that aren't their Crush and their ATK & SPATK are halved when attacking their Crush. On the bright side, you're cured on a 16+ now.
Suppression means your frequencies are lowered: At-Will moves become EOT, EOT and Scene x 2 moves become Scene. The errata'd version is simply that you can only use At-Will moves for a full round, unless specified otherwise. Much easier to remember.
Temp HP is also mentioned here, but it works exactly like you'd expect.
There's some Other Afflictions, but they aren't really Status Afflictions.
Fainted is one - you're at 0 HP and you can't do shit! You don't wake up unless you're fed a Revive or your HP is brought back above 0 - and if it was done with a Potion or other non-Revive healing item, it takes 10 minutes to take effect, so it's useless in a battle context. It says a Pokemon gets cured of all Persistent and Volatile statuses when you faint... I always wonder if Trainers were meant to be excluded or not. I assume not, but I don't know for sure.
Blindness gives you a fuck-off -6 Accuracy penalty and you need to pass DC 10 Acrobatics checks when travelling over Slow or Rough terrain to not be tripped.
TOTAL Blindness isn't just darkness... it's
advanced darkness. You have no map awareness at all and must declare shifts as distances relative to you... and you have a -10 Accuracy penalty! No Priority or Interrupt moves allowed, either. If you move at normal speed and run into ANY irregular terrain, you get tripped. Go fuck yourself. Caves are completely impossible to navigate without light.
Slowed means you move at half your Movement. Duh.
Stuck means you can't move at all, and your Speed Evasion is gone.
Trapped just means you can't be recalled at all.
Tripped means you need to spend a Shift Action to get up before you can take more actions... the fuck? You mean I can't just crawl or roll away? That's bullshit.
Vulnerable just means you have no Evasion whatsoever.
Miscellaneous Rules
Finally, we're almost done here. It says some of this stuff might come into play out of combat... but it's usually brought up in a fight.
The way suffocating works is that for every minute (6 rounds) something goes without air, it begins to suffocate, taking 1 Injury during every round of suffocation, but once they can breathe, those injuries go away. Personally, I changed it to depend on your Athletics Rank.
Falling damage will fuck your world up. It's a Typeless Physical attack, with the Damage Base determined by your weight class and how far you fall. WC 1-2 take +1 DB per meter fallen, up to 20 DB. WC 3 and up take +2 DB per meter fallen, up to 28 DB... the maximum damage in the game. If you fall for 4 meters, every 2 meters after
that will incur an additional Injury upon crashing. Pokemon with natural Sky Speeds take 1 Injury for every 3 meters, at least. If the surface is yielding, you might ignore 1-6 meters of falling, where 1 is soft grass and 6 is deep water. Falling onto rocks might increase the DB by +1, or if you fall through a tree you might take +1d6 damage... because it's not like increasing the DB also increases the variable amount of damage, usually? Weird. If you're intentionally jumping, you can ignore a number of meters equal to your High Jump. If you make an Acrobatics DC 12 Check (or 20 if you fell unintentionally), you can ignore an additional meter.
All this adds up to say that, no matter what, if you're a regular person and you fall more than 14 meters, your lower body will fucking explode like a bag of jelly unless you do a flip or something. Falling off something is more likely to kill you than literally anything else in this game, in my experience.
Speaking of Injuries, how do they work? I said how you get them, but here's a better example: If you go from Max HP to -150% HP in one attack (it's happened to me), that would be 6 Injuries. They mention you should really describe what kind of injury they get and describe their bruises and cuts and shit. Since I work on Anime Logic, this means a lot of inexplicable bloodsplosions followed by more rounds of combat. If you want to be a real prick, you can impose random Combat Stage penalties for getting injured, like having a Speed penalty because you got hit in the leg and shit. Trainers and Pokemon alike die when they reach 10 Injuries, because for every Injury you have,
your Maximum Hit Points are reduced by 1/10th. Any effects that go off your Max Hit Points still use the real maximum, like for Ticks of damage and percentage-based healing. As I mentioned, if you go below 50%, get healed over 50%, then get knocked beneath the threshold again, you eat another injury. If you're not watching it, you can wind up with 8 Injuries in a single fight like one of my players in their dumber moments. If you have 5 or more Injuries, you are
Heavily Injured. Any time you take a Standard Action in combat, or when you take damage from an Attack, you lose HP equal to the number of Injuries you have. You can get your HP knocked around all day, but as long as you don't hit 10 Injuries or fucking
-200% Hit Points, you won't die. And I really appreciate that - it can be a pain to make characters in this game, so making them
this hard to kill is good, because that means I can still slap them with silly bullshit and not actually be in risk of killing them off. In League Battles, the -200% HP rule doesn't usually apply, since the battles are more "friendly". Injuries still kill you, though.
This game also has the good old Coup de Grace. It's alright - the target has to be Fainted or otherwise "completely helpless". No, having the Sleep status effect isn't completely helpless... but I've ruled that sleeping in your bed in town without your armor on is. It's vague. It's a Full Action and you can use any attack you'd like. When it hits, it's does +5 damage and crits (yes, the crit multiplier applies to that +5 - there's an ability that cranks the multiplier up to x3 damage). They explicitly say that these rules are for finishing off wounded opponents in battle, you don't really have to "force this mechanic outside of battle where a chance of failure does not make sense". They also say you can just not deal with Injuries and Death... if you're a pussy.
That last part was mine.
Resting is simply "any period of time during which a trainer or Pokémon does not engage in rigorous physical or mental activity" and the specific activity is supposed to be up to the GM. Usually it means sleep, or "at least sitting down for a while". Meals usually count, but travelling for extended periods of time almost never counts - one of my players was asking if he was healing while flying on the back of a Gyarados for a few hours, and I had to tell him this isn't Avatar: TLA and the ride isn't nearly that comfortable... he should get a flying Wailord for that. You heal 1/16th of your Max HP every half an hour... why not just say it's 1/8th per hour? Weird. If you're Heavily Injured, you can't restore
any HP through rest until you have 4 or less injuries. Injuries heal naturally after 24 hours of not getting any more. Trainers can remove Injuries as an Extended Action by Draining 2 AP, and you can heal up to 3 Injuries per day naturally. Extended Rests are only 4 hours long, and remove Persistent Statuses, restore Drained AP, and refresh Daily moves. Pretty sweet.
Personally... I don't use Pokemon Centers in my game. They've stolen plenty of money and healing from the bandits, and they can just scavenge up medical supplies from the grasslands and forests and shit. Why do I do this? Because in a single hour, Pokemon Centers completely heal you and restore Status Conditions and Daily Moves. It also takes 30 minutes per Injury on the Trainer/Pokemon, and 1 hour per Injury if they're Heavily Injured. That can still eat up most of, or an entire day if you have enough Pokemon and you're bad at fighting, but it's a bit too fast for my taste. Going from your deathbed to perfectly fine in 3 days stretches belief, even for a gameplay mechanic. But of course, nobody wants to sit around in the hospital after every fucking adventure, do they? So we deal with it. It's also recommended that Pokemon Centers be free, because duh. Even if you don't have Pokemon Centers, healing is still really easy to come by, even if you don't have Trainers that want to make medicine. No complaints here.
Whew... that took most of the day to write. All that's left is a Combat Demo, and I don't fucking care. It does its job. Read it if you want.
Otherwise, I'm gonna go steel myself to get ready for the next chapter... because I haven't looked here in ages. We'll see how worthy the Contest rules are...
Next time: Chapter 8: Pokemon Contests
