Review: Pokemon Tabletop United

General questions, debates, and rants about RPGs

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The Adventurer's Almanac
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Post by The Adventurer's Almanac »

Koumei, to answer your questions:
  • Yes, Chemical Romance is "just" Infatuation. It can make any male target become DTF. By dousing him in lethal poison.
  • Facing isn't really a thing, but flanking is. I think I've brought it up in the review?
  • Delayed Reaction is depressing, yes.
  • I think the reason someone like Furfrou so much is because it has all those neat hair styles, but that doesn't actually mean anything in-game. Pharaoh is the best.
  • For Handyman, does Delibird even rely on using Held Items for anything? Farfetch'd or Cubone would fucking love this Ability, yet it almost looks given out at random.
  • I think it would be kind of weird to model immunity to priority moves in this game, since you're just changing your spot in Initiative. However, you could probably have the same effect by Queenly Majesty just denying them their fucking move: someone next to you tries to use Quick Attack outside their turn and you Stomp them in the face and tell them to get the fuck back when they were.
  • I would not call Nidoking or Slaking a very regal pokemon. Kingdra and Seaking, though... maybe. I think it's only given to THE MOST REGAL of Pokemon, which is why Slowking gets excluded. It just isn't as cool as Serperior.
  • No, Heatmor gets Flametongue, not Tonguelash. I don't really mind that, to be honest - they're distinct enough to warrant different tongue-related exclusive abilities.
  • You would have a point with Water Compaction if most Water moves weren't Special and SPDEF weren't Sandygast's worst fucking stat.
  • Nope, sorry, no glitch references here. Not until the divine book...
Shrapnel wrote:Because Scorbunny evolves into a soccer/football player, and those are known to have chromatophore cells?
My friend said the reasoning is that Scorbunny takes off its Fire jersey and puts on a Water one. It's so stupid I almost believe it.
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Post by Koumei »

The Adventurer's Almanac wrote:Yes, Chemical Romance is "just" Infatuation. It can make any male target become DTF. By dousing him in lethal poison.
I'm fine with "Hariyama is immobilized with love (and also deadly neurotoxins)", I just wanted to make sure it was that and not "Hariyama gets its cock out".
Facing isn't really a thing, but flanking is. I think I've brought it up in the review?
I forget things before I even finish reading them, never mind "some time after".

Thanks for the answers on the various things there. As for Delibird... it gives presents to other people, but at no point does the game suggest it's actually holding a pile of them.
Count Arioch the 28th wrote:There is NOTHING better than lesbians. Lesbians make everything better.
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Post by The Adventurer's Almanac »

Silly Koumei, Pokemon don't have genitals. Hariyama has no cock to rock out.

Pretty sure Delibird does, in fact, hold a pile of presents inside of its tail... sack... thing. Now that I look at the Pokedex, apparently all of its Presents are supposed to be food that it carries around? Weird, since it's supposed to be helping people, yet Present only has a 20% chance of healing at all. Chalk it up to yet more Pokemon weirdness.
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Post by Username17 »

Delibird is a joke Pokémon and concerning yourself over much with replicating the mechanics from one game in another is fairly pointless. In a new game, you'd want the presents from the tail sack contents to be funny in whatever system you happen to be using. Because it's a fucking joke Pokémon. It's like Luvdisc or something. Exactly like Luvdisc in the sense that it has the same crappy stat totals and doesn't evolve into anything remotely good.

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Post by Shrapnel »

The Adventurer's Almanac wrote:Silly Koumei, Pokemon don't have genitals. Hariyama has no cock to rock out.
I take it you've never been to Mobius Unleashed's PokePorn forums...

Also, Miltank has tits. I know those aren't genitals, but they are notable for being the only instance of true sexual characteristics in a Pokemon.
FrankTrollman wrote:Delibird is a joke Pokémon and concerning yourself over much with replicating the mechanics from one game in another is fairly pointless. In a new game, you'd want the presents from the tail sack contents to be funny in whatever system you happen to be using. Because it's a fucking joke Pokémon. It's like Luvdisc or something. Exactly like Luvdisc in the sense that it has the same crappy stat totals and doesn't evolve into anything remotely good.

-Username17
I hate Delibird. You can't do anything with it. I mean, other "joke" Pokemon like Magikarp and Feebas at least have useful evolutions. Then you have Pokemon like Smeargle, which you can do some funky things with via Sketch, and Ditto, which is useful as a breeding stud. There's also Unown which... actually Unown is also useless, but at least it looks cool.

Basically, fuck Santa.
Is this wretched demi-bee
Half asleep upon my knee
Some freak from a menagerie?
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Post by The Adventurer's Almanac »

FrankTrollman wrote:Delibird is a joke Pokémon and concerning yourself over much with replicating the mechanics from one game in another is fairly pointless. In a new game, you'd want the presents from the tail sack contents to be funny in whatever system you happen to be using. Because it's a fucking joke Pokémon. It's like Luvdisc or something. Exactly like Luvdisc in the sense that it has the same crappy stat totals and doesn't evolve into anything remotely good.

-Username17
You bring up a good point that I haven't gotten around to: How to handle Pokemon that are explicitly designed to be shitty in one or more ways. This ranges from Delibird, which is "just" a joke Pokemon, to Magikarp, whose entire purpose is to be shit until it turns into something awesome, to Abra, which is a literal one-trick pony. Do you keep them as shit and acknowledge that they're joke Pokemon that aren't meant to be used seriously, or do you try and fix them while adhering to the theme of the Pokemon?
To use an example, how do you fix an Abra? Bring it in line with other Pokemon and give it some attacking moves? Just make up more dickish self-targeting moves so it can troll people in more than one way? Say "fuck it" and don't do anything? Make it more of a utility Pokemon than a combatant? Unless you can give me a reason not to, I'm leaning towards the "fix it while sticking to the theme" idea, because even a Magikarp should be usable, otherwise it's a huge fucking pain in the ass to level it up and evolve it into a Gyarados, and skipping straight to Gyarados doesn't work at low-levels or for people who want the pleasure of taking a shitty Pokemon and making it good. I'd even try and fix that forgettable piece of shit Luvdisc without making it evolve into Alomomola (seriously, what the fuck were they thinking with that one?).
Shrapnel wrote:I take it you've never been to Mobius Unleashed's PokePorn forums...
Uhh... no. No I have not. Fanart doesn't count, because then every Pokegirl would be a big titty monster who can't stop gobbling cock. That's fun and all, but nothing I'd try and touch in a game.
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Post by deaddmwalking »

The Adventurer's Almanac wrote:because even a Magikarp should be usable, .... people who want the pleasure of taking a shitty Pokemon and making it good.
If you want to cater to those people, you want crappy Pokemon.

Being able to say 'I beat you with Magicarp' is the verbal equivalent of teabagging your opponent.
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Post by The Adventurer's Almanac »

I agree with you, actually. The part where I run into problems is how crappy do we want them to be? A low-level Magikarp really should be the absolute bottom of the totem pole, but does that mean they literally have one move for 75% of its existence?

EDIT: I know anecdotes don't mean much, but I actually had a player who chose a Magikarp as a starter. I took pity on them and let them pick TWO extra moves from the TM/Egg Move List instead of one. Even with moves that were WAY beyond its power level, she used it a handful of times and shoved as much EXP into it as she could to get it to turn into a Gyarados. Took 7 sessions and it was the first Pokemon in the party to evolve. Someone else caught an Abra and literally never used it.
Last edited by The Adventurer's Almanac on Fri Dec 13, 2019 1:35 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Post by The Adventurer's Almanac »

Let's move onto Moves now, shall we? First I'll review the structure of a Move and the various keywords they may or may not have, then I'll bring up any Moves that are actually interesting. It should go without saying that homebrew moves tend to be far more interesting than their RAW counterparts. But let's get into it!
Moves
Image
80% of the moves in this game. Also the only picture I've posted that's not actually in this book.

So, for those of you with the memory span of a Goldeen, a brief reminder of how a move works:

Image
I am 100% positive that this could be structured in a way that eats up less space. There's about 8 Moves per page in here.

This should be mostly self-explanatory, but not entirely. Here's where Frequencies actually get detailed: At-Will is exactly what it says, you can spam that shit all day every day. EOT stands for Every Other Turn, which also applies out of battle - you need at least 10 seconds between each use, which isn't something I imagine will be relevant very much. Scene X means you can use that move X times per scene, but even if it has multiple uses, you still can't use it more than Every Other Turn, no spamming Counter or anything. Daily moves only come back with Extended Rests or PC trips, and even if they're usable multiple times a day, you can still only use it once per Scene. Unfortunately, it isn't really mentioned how long the "recharge" timer is outside of combat - another casualty of having everything work in Scene time like you're writing a TV show. It's worth mentioning that there actually are some Static moves that you don't actually use, they just provide a benefit all the time... but these are extremely rare.

In case you forgot, the likelihood that you'll hit your opponent depends most on the Move you're using, as the AC is on the Move's side rather than a static number your opponent has. The vast majority of moves in PTU are AC 2, meaning that there's very little "whiffing" in fights and people get dropped regularly. This is good. You also make a single Accuracy Roll when using AOE attacks and apply each target's Evasion separately. This is also good.

Damage Bases are something I'd like to talk a bit more about, as I'm conflicted about them. One part of me hates looking at the Damage Base table during a game, another part of me hates that I've memorized half the table, and another part thinks it's a great way to have fine control over damage scaling that can be applied consistently across moves. A fourth part thinks it's quite useful to be able to see that a Move from the games has 70 Power and you immediately know it's a DB 7 move in PTU, since that makes content generation easier - very important, given the plethora of fangames and the unending march of the Pokemon franchise. Anyone have input on this one?

This is one of like, two places in the book that mentions caps: Features and Abilities that extend the Critical Hit or Effect Range of a move can never extend them by more than +6. For example, Stone Edge crits on a 17+. You can never, EVER increase that beyond a +11. I'm not sure if +6 is the best number to cap it at, since I'd like to have things be a little more high-powered, but that's something I need to play around with.

There are also Contest Effects. I do not care in the least.

Keywords
Keywords are good. I like keywords. This game needs more of them.
  • Absorb is not actually a Keyword in this game, but one I made up since there are tons of moves that have the exact same fucking effect (and by tons I mean 7): You gain half the damage you inflict back as HP. I hate starting off with homebrew, but it's alphabetically first, so deal with it.
  • Aura denotes that the move manipulates the Pokemon concept of Aura - surprisingly, most moves with this Keyword don't have Aura in the name.
  • Berry is used just for Natural Gift, and has a giant fuck-off table that shows what the DB and Type of the move becomes, depending on the Berry you've eaten. God, I think I really hate Berries.
  • Blessings are things like Reflect or Light Screen, and they are shared by the entire team. All your allies may benefit from the Blessing, but it disappears after a certain number of uses. Blessings are really fucking strong.
  • Coat means that you only have the effect while you have the Coat active - Substitute, for example, is a Coat move. These can be passed on via Baton Pass.
  • Critical Mind/Phys/Sum are all keywords I shamelessly ripped from Pokemon Journeys. Each one causes the Move to have an additional effect if you crit with it - Mind causes the target to roll twice for Accuracy Rolls and take the worst one for a round, Phys causes the target to be Vulnerable and take 5 more damage from all attacks, and Sum doubles all numerical values in the effect. These are typically, but not always, given out to Status Moves, since they don't normally do anything when you crit with them. Honestly, I dig it.
  • Dash in PTU simply means the move can't be used if you're Stuck. In Pokemon Journeys, it doesn't have that restriction at all and means you can Disengage 1 before you use the move. I don't fully understand the benefit of that, but I combined them both together, so you have some extra movement with Dash moves, but you still have to be able to fucking move in order to use them.
  • Double Strike means you make two Attack Rolls. If one hits, the move deals damage as usual. If BOTH hit, the Damage Base is doubled, and they can crit separately. Double Kick, for example, is DB 3 and deals 1d6+5 damage. Hitting with both raises it to DB 6, causing it to deal 2d6+8 damage. If you hit with both, but only one crits, you would add another 1d6+5 damage. If both hit and crit, you'd deal an extra 2d6+8 damage. Not too complicated.
  • Environ is another chart, this time for the moves Nature Power and Secret Power. It tells you what move Nature Power becomes in various terrains, as well as what effect Secret Power has.
  • Execute moves are shit like Sheer Cold and Guillotine. They auto-faint if they hit, but... well, we'll get into how you determine if they hit later.
  • Exhaust is just the shittiest shit ever. After you Hyper Beam, you lose your next Standard and Shift Actions. Because of this, you will never, ever fucking use these moves. You cannot get around losing your turn through any shenanigans whatsoever. So I took a page out of Pokemon Journeys, which changed it to merely cause you to be Slowed, Vulnerable, and deal -10 damage on your next turn. Still rough, but not completely fucking unusable.
  • Fang is another one I made up. It simply means that move is affected by the ability Strong Jaw, which increases the damage base. Just cleans things up a bit.
  • Fling is yet another table. It has a list of items you can throw, what the DB is when you do it, as well as any effects it has. Throwing an Iron Ball is a DB 12 attack and just ruins somebody's fucking day.
  • Friendly moves don't hit allies, for whatever reason.
  • Five Strike usually requires me to look it up... This is for multi-hit moves like Fury Swipes. When you hit with it, you roll 1d8 to see how many times it hits. 1 hits once, 2-3 hits twice, 4-6 hits 3 times, 7 hits 4 times, and 8 hits 5 times. You multiply the Damage Base by how many times it hits, but you have to apply any DB modifiers AFTER you multiply all this shit up. It is entirely possible to toss 5d12+25 damage around in your very first encounter ever.
  • Groundsource moves... come from the ground. They don't take any penalties for targeting into Rough Terrain, and they also ignore Blocking Terrain completely. To appease people like Frank, there is an optional rule that makes Flying-type Pokemon only immune to Groundsource moves, not all Ground moves. I don't personally do that, but it also hasn't really come up in my game either.
  • Hazards cover some of the field - think Spikes or Stealth Rocks. People who run into or near them get affected by it.
  • Illusions are... illusions. The keyword doesn't do anything special, but Trainers with Clairsentient just completely fucking ignore them. Third eye, bitches.
  • Interrupt moves are like Priority moves, except you can only use them during someone else's turn, and you can only take that specific action, not your whole turn. Protect is the archetypal example of an Interrupt move.
  • Pass moves kick ass. At any point in your movement, you can use a Pass move, at which point you can only move forward in a straight line, for up to 4 meters, moving through all enemies in your path. You have to end in an empty square, but you attack every target you move through, not taking any AoOs. The only drawback is that you stop your Shift after using a Pass move. This is for all you weeaboos who want to be like samurai in Kurosawa films. Or any other anime bullshit.
  • Pledge moves are Fire Pledge, Water Pledge, and Grass Pledge. They have different effects depending on which you "combine" - for example, using Fire Pledge then Water Pledge makes a Rainbow for 5 turns, increasing all your allies' Effect Range by +3. This is highly specific, but whatever.
  • Powder moves are things like Stun Spore and Sleep Powder. These do absolutely nothing to Grass-types.
  • Priority is something I think I've already explained, so go read the rest of the review for my thoughts on them.
  • Punch is another one I made up just to denote that the move is affected by Iron Fist. Theoretically, we could have other abilities that interact with the keyword...
  • Push moves push people. The 4e jokes make themselves.
  • Reaction moves are like Interrupts, except they only happen AFTER whatever triggered them is resolved. Counter is a Reaction, while Protect is an Interrupt.
  • Recoil involves EVEN MORE MATH. To use an example, Take Down is "Recoil 1/3". This means that a third of the damage you inflict, you take. I do not want to deal with fucking fractions during combat, so I changed it to simply cause you to lose a single Tick of HP when you hit. Much simpler.
  • Reliable is another one I stole from Pokemon Journeys - when you miss, that move's Frequency is not expended. This is pretty much only given to Daily and Scene moves, so you're not totally shit out of luck when you miss with them.
  • Set-Up moves require 2 turns to resolve: The first turn you use the Set-Up Effect, and on the second you use the Resolution Effect. As you might guess, these moves aren't terribly good.
  • Shield is a very specific kind of Interrupt that only gets triggered by foe's attacks. This keyword mostly exists so the devs can write effects that bypass it. Protect is also a Shield move.
  • Smite is rare: When you miss with a Smite move, you still hit, it's just that the attack is resisted and you can't activate any secondary effects. This is typically on your big fuck-off moves like Draco Meteor and Thunder.
  • Social moves can't be Intercepted and ignore Substitute. There are lots of things that interact with this keyword.
  • Sonic moves are sound-based. Supersonic, Snarl, things like that. They also ignore Substitute.
  • Spirit Surge is on things like Ancient Power or Rapid Spin: Even if you miss, the effect can still activate.
  • Trigger moves can ONLY be used whenever their conditions are met. Sucker Punch is a Trigger move - you literally can't use it unless someone tries to hit you.
  • Versatile is another one I took from Pokemon Journeys: it simply means the move can be either Physical or Special. That kicks ass.
  • Vortex moves are things like Fire Spin or Whirlpool: They make the target Slowed and Trapped, and they lose a Tick of HP at the beginning of their turns. At the end of their turn, they roll 1d20 to try and escape - and you need a 20 on the first turn. The DC is lowered by 6 each turn until the fifth turn, at which point it dissipates.
  • Weather moves affect the whole field and there can only be one at a time - they replace each other. In a stunningly shitty turn of events, "Weather Conditions are not usually found as natural occurrences. A bright and sunny day does not count as Sunny Weather, nor does rain count as Rainy Weather. However, particularly severe examples of the corresponding weather can count. For example, a tropical rainstorm could count as Rainy weather." Fuck you, game. Fuck you. That's just stupid.
  • Weight Class exists purely to remind you that, in fact, things have different weights. It's literally just the Weight Class chart reposted here.
Range Keywords
What comes next are a bunch of handy pictures that explicitly show you how ranges work in this game. Some are totally bonkers. I could just take pictures and post them here.... so I'll save minutes of my life and just do that.
Image

Image
It's worth mentioning that these ranges never really get as crazy as they could. Nothing ever goes over Line 9 or Burst 5, for example. Do you think they could use some more range types? I certainly think the numbers could be bigger.
There's a short blurb about how all this shit interacts with Blocking Terrain, and I'll save you time by saying it works exactly like you'd expect. It's a fucking wall, shit doesn't go past it.

Well, I'd keep going, but it's time for me to leave the office, so I'll probably pick this back up in a little bit. This should be enough to tide you over.

Next time: Moves (but for real)
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Post by Avoraciopoctules »

If pokemon attack ranges are universally low in this system, it sounds like the Onix that just rolls boulders down slopes at people is pretty bad news if you can't fly or teleport.

Most pokemon worlds won't have the 5E problem of massed crossbows shredding 90% of monsters in the game, but I expect the majority will still have rocks. Any kind of indirect attack that can outrange conventional attacks could be a pretty big deal.
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Post by The Adventurer's Almanac »

The Actual Fucking Moves

Alright, this book organizes the Moves according to type, starting with Bug and ending with Water. I'll be going in that order, because it pleases me.

Bug
  • Bug Bite is worth looking at, because it deals damage and copies the Digestion Buff the target has - even if they've already used it. Not quite sure how that works logistically, but okay.
  • Bug Buzz is one of the few moves that has multiple ranges - Cone 2 or Close Blast 2. I'm not really sure why more Moves don't do that. It's also a Sonic move, if the name wasn't enough of a hint.
  • Fury Cutter is slightly inaccurate, with AC 3, but every time you use it on the same target, it gets +4 DB, all the way up to DB 16. A Scyther with Technician can bump that up to a heinous DB 20, inflicting 6d12+35 damage. Good boss killer.
  • Heal Order is one of the few healing moves in the game, and can only be used twice a day. It only heals the user for half their max HP. I told you they hate healing.
  • Lunge can be used as a Free Action after you Sprint, and when used that way the target deals -5 damage for a round. If Sprinting actually gave real mobility, I might be impressed.
  • Pollen Puff is the exclusive move of Ribombee - it can either deal a lot of damage or (once per scene, fuck you) heal an ally within 6 meters for half their max HP.
  • Powder is actually a cool and unique move. It's an Interrupt that covers the target with a Coat. If the Coated asshole uses a Fire move, the attack is negated and they take however much damage they would have dealt as a Blast 3 typeless or Fire-type attack, basically blowing themselves up. The Bugs strike back!
  • Spider Web can't miss and makes the target Stuck and Trapped. It has a range of 5, but only 1 target. Why not go for a Hazard, man?
  • Oh shit that's what Sticky Web is for. Sets 8 meters of Sticky Web and causes anyone that runs into it to become Slowed and lose -1 SPEED CS... unless you're Flying or Levitating. Fuck you!
  • String Shot is a classic. Here, it's Cone 2 and just imposes -1 SPEED CS. However, if this lowers them to -6 CS, they become Stuck in the string. It also gives Threaded, just like Spider Web and Sticky Web.
  • Like in the games, U-Turn deals damage and immediately recalls the user afterwards, allowing a new Pokemon to be sent out right afterwards. It works even if you're Trapped.
Dark
  • Beat Up lets you and 2 allies next to your target all make Dark-typed Struggle attacks. I just enjoy the mental image.
  • Brutal Swing is one of the few moves that are simply Burst 1. More moves should be AOE, honestly.
  • Dark Pulse is actually an Aura move. Has 8 range, too, which is practically artillery in this game.
  • Dark Void is Darkrai's exclusive move. What does a Legendary's signature move look like in this game? Uh... AC is 10, and it's only Melee range, but you can make it Burst 5, Friendly once a scene. Holy shit! If it weren't so limited and inaccurate I'd almost shit myself! Too bad I didn't, though. I'd like to.
  • Feint Attack can't miss in the games, so... it doesn't miss in PTU either. There's something really satisfying about skipping straight to the damage roll. There's actually a decent number of moves that can't miss at all. This one's Melee, though.
  • Foul Play makes you use your target's ATK stat for damage instead of your own. Neat.
  • Jaw Lock is one of the only moves that lets you Grapple for free, too. But it's exclusive to that new turtle pokemon? Yeesh, whatever.
  • Pursuit can be used as an Interrupt when a foe is recalled or switched out, and you gain +5 to all movement speeds and Pursuit becomes DB 8 instead of DB 4. Doesn't stop them from switching out, but an effective dick move nevertheless.
  • Throat Chop: Target can't use moves with the Sonic keyword for 2 rounds. This move is EOT. Do the math.
Dragon
  • Clanging Scales is a Special move that ALSO lets you add half your DEF stat to your damage roll. It can also be Burst 1 or 6, 1 Target.
  • Core Enforcer is Zygarde's exclusive move, and is a hilarious Ranged Blast 3 that deals a fuckton of damage and lets you chose 1 Ability from each target to disable. Shame it's Daily x 2...
  • DRACO METEOR is ridiculous - DB 13, 8, Ranged Blast 3, Smite. Lowers your SPATK 2 CS afterwards, but still, that's almost actually cool. Because of that, it is merely Scene x 1.
  • Dragon Rage does a flat 15 damage if it hits. Fuck your stats and whatever's going on with you, it deals 15 fucking damage, period. That's... situationally useful.
  • Roar of Time, uh.... barely has anything to do with time. It's an absolutely insane BURST FUCKING 8, with Smite and DB 15, but it just Slows everyone. Even if it misses. Those are appropriately powerful numbers, but what the fuck is with that lame ass effect?
  • Twister is unique in that it's a Ranged Blast 3 move, but Small/Medium targets in the middle of the blast aren't hit. Basically, the attack's range is a donut. It deals extra damage against flying targets, which is nice, but they literally have to be using the move Fly to proc the extra damage, which is not nice. Too gamey, game.
Electric
  • Aura Wheel is our first move that can be two types: Electric or Dark, depending on the user's mode. It's the exclusive move of the new Pikachu. Morpeko? That's its fucking name? Jesus, whatever. Out of spite, this does not have the Aura keyword.
  • Charge gives the user +1 SPDEF CS, but more importantly, if you use an Electric move the next turn, you add the Damage Dice roll again. For example, Spark does 2d8+6 damage, so you'd roll 4d8+12 damage after using Charge.
  • Electrify makes the target's Water-type and any Melee moves into Electric-type instead of whatever they were before. That's really fucking weird, but I'll take it.
  • Electro Ball has a whopping 10 range (god that's sad) and the user adds their whole fucking SPEED stat to damage. However, the target also subtracts THEIR SPEED from damage, too. This may not be as big a deal as it appears.
  • Ion Deluge places a Ranged Blast 3 hazard called an Ion Cloud. Any Normal moves originating or targeting into the Ion Cloud become Electric-type. Huh.
  • Magnet Rise gives you the Levitate ability for 5 turns. Amazingly, this is one of the VERY FEW moves that can be used as a Swift Action! On top of that, learning it gives you Magnetic.
  • Plasma Fists is Zeraora's exclusive move, and... makes the target's next damaging Normal-type move into Electric-type? Odd. Zeraora has to have Volt Absorb, though, so at least there's a bit of synergy there.
  • THUNDER has 12 range and Smites. It's also AC 7, unless you're in Rain, in which case it just can't miss... or Sun, when the AC becomes fucking 11. If they're flying as a result of Fly (fuck you!), it also can't miss. Seems appropriate, but I dislike that it's 1 target.
  • Zap Cannon has AC 9 and 12 range, but it's also DB 12 and always Paralyzes. A bit rough, but here's the saving grace - it ignores the target's Evasion if there's no combatants or Rough/Blocking terrain within 2 meters of it, basically making it best at catching fools out of position and fucking their world up. I like that part.
Fairy
  • Charm does not actually make you more charming or any of that out of combat SHIT. Just deals -2 ATK CS. Yeesh.
  • Fleur Cannon gets a mention purely for being Line fucking 9. Only move like that, and it's exclusive to Magearna. Is that thing even a legendary?
  • Moonlight heals the target for half its max HP. Neat! In Sun, it heals 2/3rds of its max HP. Fucking kill me! Why not make it 3/4ths? That's easier to calculate on the fly than fucking 2/3rds. What the fuck? The worst part is that in Rain, Sandstorm, or Hail, IT ONLY HEALS 1/4TH YOUR MAX HP! WHY NOT KEEP YOUR FUCKING FRACTIONS CONSISTENT, FOR FUCK'S SAKE?!
Fighting
  • Aura Sphere is good in the games and it's better here. Why? It's EOT, DB 8, 8 range, and CAN'T FUCKING MISS. Just spam that shit. Hadouken everything. Forever. It's even Special, unlike 90% of Fighting moves.
  • Brick Break is a contender, though, being an At-Will DB 8 move that can penetrate Light Screen and Reflect.
  • Circle Throw is a PUSH move. How much does it push people? 6 - their Weight Class. That is, maximum, 5 fucking meters. 90% of things can fucking move a that fast in a single round! What's the POINT?!
  • Detect is a Shield move. You just don't get hit by whatever was going to hit you. It's literally the exact same as Protect.
  • Flying Press is the other move that can be two types: Fighting or Flying. It's also DB 10, EOT, and you'll always get STAB from it, meaning it's really DB 12. Hawlucha is a fucking monster.
  • High Jump Kick still makes you lose 1/4th your Max HP when you miss with it.
  • Low Kick's DB is equal to twice its target's Weight Class, making it max out at DB 14 (before STAB) in rare occasions.
  • No Retreat is exclusive to Falinks, which I am just learning is not a caterpillar. You gain +1 CS to all stats and you can no longer be recalled or switched out, and if you move away from the enemy you are Slowed while doing so. It's a shame this is an exclusive move, because this is actually pretty cool, if basic.
  • Octolock is another exclusive move, for GRAPPLOCT (what a name). You Grapple someone, but while you're successfully grappling them they're Trapped and lose -1 DEF/SPDEF CS at the end of each of their turns. That's a little neat.
  • Revenge is odd: You say you're using the move, but you don't actually do anything and can't move. At the end of the round, you can move and use Revenge, and if the target has damaged you this round, the DB doubles from 6 to 12. If it weren't TOTALLY OBVIOUS that some shit's about to go down when you just stand there and act tough, this move might almost be useful. As it is, it's best on boss monsters that need to get hit anyway.
  • Reversal is DB 7, but has +1 DB per Injury the user has, synergizing nicely with the Taskmaster class.
  • Sky Uppercut can also be an Interrupt when someone uses Bounce, Fly, or Sky Drop - if you hit them, their Move just fucking fails. That almost feels powerful.
Fire
  • Burn Up is a weird Fire move - it's DB 13, but causes the user to lose their Fire-type for the rest of the encounter, becoming Normal-type if they were purely Fire before. Quite a few Pokemon can learn it, so I'd have to call this one downright interesting! Especially on an Arcanine...
  • Ember is... well, Ember. Only reason I mention it is because it grants Firestarter, too.
  • Flame Burst is a 6, 1 Target attack that causes anyone cardinally adjacent to the target to lose 5 HP. Why cardinally adjacent, man?
  • Flamethrower does not grant Firestarter. And is a measly 4, 1 Target attack. That is all.
  • Heat Crash is DB 4, but gains +2 DB per Weight Class the user is above the target. Naturally, big boys learn it.
  • Mind Blown is our first explosion-style move, except this one's 6, Ranged Blast 3! Unlike the others, it merely reduces your HP by 50%! This is actually a fucking great move in comparison.
  • Sacred Fire is Ho-oh's exclusive move, and Burns on even-numbered rolls! By god, it's even EOT! To compensate, it's 6, 1 Target.:razz:
  • Sunny Day gets a mention because I don't think I mentioned how Sun works before. Fire attacks deal +5 damage, and Water attacks deal -5 damage. How... exciting.
Flying
  • Beak Blast works like Revenge in that it has to be declared and used later, but... if you're hit with a Melee attack this round, you Burn the target, and this move's also got 6 range. That's a bit more useful than Revenge...
  • Bounce gives the user +1 High Jump at all times, but when used, the user Shifts and gets +1 to all its movements, and they use Bounce when they're done moving. Paralyzes on 16+ and the target is always Vulnerable for a round. That almost fits the image I had in my head.
  • Defog destroys ALL Weathers, Blessings, Coats, and Hazards on the field. Talk about an equalizer.
  • Fly still takes two turns: On the first, you move 25 meters straight into the air, and you can shift twice on your second turn before you attack with Fly. Interestingly, the move grants a pretty good +3 Sky speed, so you're actually faster, too!
  • Mirror Move lets you use the last Move that someone within 6 meters of you used. Anyone. It also becomes an Illusion, but 99% of the time that won't even matter! Even better - it can't miss!
  • Sky Drop is like Fly, except you also take your target up there with you. Despite flying 25 meters into the air and dunking on a motherfucker, this move is DB 6. Fucking why.
  • Tailwind gives you and all your buddies +5 Initiative for the rest of the encounter. This is the only move like this.
Ghost
  • Destiny Bond has a crazy Burst 10, Friendly range, and it's also a Swift Action. All enemies become Bound to the user until the end of the user's next turn, and if a Bound target makes the user faint, then they faint. I was kind of hoping everyone would faint...
  • Night Shade makes the target lose the user's level in HP, and has a range of 8. Naturally, this must be shackled to a frequency of Scene x 2.
  • Phantom Force, aside from having a cool B-movie name, is a Set-Up move: first turn, you just vanish from the field. Second turn, you appear adjacent to anyone on the field and can't be avoided by Shield moves or Intercepts when you attack with it. Neat.
  • Spite is a Free Action whenever you get hit by a Move. You Disable the move. Thank fucking god it's free - shame it's Scene x 1.
  • Trick-or-Treat is adorable, granting 1 person within 6 meters the Ghost-type for the next 5 rounds. Doesn't replace anything, just gets slapped on top.
I'm starting to get tired and I'm halfway through the types, so I'll cut it off here and resume tomorrow. As we go through the list, more and more moves just become other moves with different types, so that slims things down a little.

Next time: Grass - Water Moves
Last edited by The Adventurer's Almanac on Fri Dec 13, 2019 4:40 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Post by The Adventurer's Almanac »

Avoraciopoctules wrote:If pokemon attack ranges are universally low in this system, it sounds like the Onix that just rolls boulders down slopes at people is pretty bad news if you can't fly or teleport.

Most pokemon worlds won't have the 5E problem of massed crossbows shredding 90% of monsters in the game, but I expect the majority will still have rocks. Any kind of indirect attack that can outrange conventional attacks could be a pretty big deal.
Throwing people off a cliff is literally the best way to kill anything in this game. However, you just helped me realize that any Pokemon game worth its salt should have a robust enough environmental system so you could just like, destroy the boulders with a powerful Water attack or a clever status move or something.
Literally nothing in this game has a range higher than 12 meters. Nothing at all. I had to make up a rule that just says "oh, that's your minimum range" and lets you attack outside it, taking an AC penalty unless you can pass a Focus or Athletics check to be a badass. It's... kind of depressing.
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Post by jt »

I don't think there's a one size fits all solution for bad / joke pokemon.

It's okay for Delibird and Luvdisc to suck, and I think that works for anything that doesn't evolve into something somebody cares about. Delibird at least has an amusing hook in that it can be carrying whatever is funny in that moment. You just need a tag on these telling people not to try to use them. Same as with the city-destroying legendaries, but this time it's the game saying you shouldn't instead of that you can't.

Abra turns into a cool pokemon, and having a terrible movepool is only "the point" when you're trying to catch one. Once you've been put through the catch-the-teleporter hazing ritual, let it have usable moves.

Magikarp evolves into a cool pokemon and actually is supposed to be terrible. I think that one is solved by figuring out how many times it can be terrible while still being funny. You can get away with one fight worth of only knowing splash, then it needs to level up and learn a new joke. Would it be funny if it learned Attract? Harden? Self Destruct? Whenever you run out of moves that are funny, it evolves.

Edit: Hell, start giving Magikarp some of Gyrados's moves when it's getting ready to evolve. Give it Living Weapon, pick it up like a set of bagpipes, and squeeze a Hyper Beam out of it.
Last edited by jt on Fri Dec 13, 2019 6:13 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Post by Username17 »

When you grind Magikarp or Abra up in level to evolve them, it is you putting in personal effort to get a reward. When you grind a Pokémon in a table top RPG you are making all the other players put in the work of watching you grind and carrying your underperforming ass, and then you get the reward. It's unacceptable.

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Post by maglag »

FrankTrollman wrote:When you grind Magikarp or Abra up in level to evolve them, it is you putting in personal effort to get a reward. When you grind a Pokémon in a table top RPG you are making all the other players put in the work of watching you grind and carrying your underperforming ass, and then you get the reward. It's unacceptable.

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Yet in mobas it's expected to have the carries underperform in early game while the support players put in the work until late game where the carry player gets the reward. It's not only acceptable, it's the most popular style of game on the world.

The Adventurer's Almanac wrote:Ghost
  • Destiny Bond has a crazy Burst 10, Friendly range, and it's also a Swift Action. All enemies become Bound to the user until the end of the user's next turn, and if a Bound target makes the user faint, then they faint. I was kind of hoping everyone would faint...
Then you could just set up with an ally to make the team's ghost faint and take out everything else in range.
Last edited by maglag on Fri Dec 13, 2019 7:46 am, edited 2 times in total.
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Post by Foxwarrior »

Maglag wrote:Yet in mobas it's expected to have the carries underperform in early game while the support players put in the work until late game where the carry player gets the reward. It's not only acceptable, it's the most popular style of game on the world.
There's a pretty big difference between a game where some players are stronger for 15 minutes and then other players are stronger for 15 minutes, and one where some players are stronger for 1000 minutes, and then other players are stronger for 1000 minutes.
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Post by maglag »

Foxwarrior wrote:
Maglag wrote:Yet in mobas it's expected to have the carries underperform in early game while the support players put in the work until late game where the carry player gets the reward. It's not only acceptable, it's the most popular style of game on the world.
There's a pretty big difference between a game where some players are stronger for 15 minutes and then other players are stronger for 15 minutes, and one where some players are stronger for 1000 minutes, and then other players are stronger for 1000 minutes.
Moba fans don't play just 15 minutes and then drop the game, they've been playing for hundreds of hours over a decade now. The "weak now/strong later" not only works, it's addicting as hell.
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Post by Username17 »

The fact that you are discounting the fact that 15 minutes of weakness followed by 15 minutes of strength is fundamentally different from 1000 minutes of weakness followed by 1000 minutes of strength is fundamentally disqualifying to your position.

30 minutes is short enough that a typical evening consists of multiple matches. The player who is strong in the 'early' game and the player who is strong in the 'late' game essentially just take turns being strong because fifteen minutes after late game 2 starts, early game 3 starts. A table top RPG involves the 'early' and the 'late' being divided by weeks or even months. And there is no 'next game.' At least, not one you're going to play this evening, that's for damn sure.

Linear Wizards / Quadratic Warriors or whatever was never a good idea for table top RPGs. The 'power now for power later' mechanic is simply bad in a cooperative storytelling game that might go on for a very long time (like months or years) and might end this very session. It does not and cannot work, it never has been good and it never will be.

The particular selling point of Magikarp grinding is fundamentally incompatible with the Table Top RPG experience unless every single player is Magikarp grinding at the same time.

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Post by Koumei »

Foxwarrior wrote:There's a pretty big difference between a game where some players are stronger for 15 minutes and then other players are stronger for 15 minutes, and one where some players are stronger for 1000 minutes, and then other players are stronger for 1000 minutes.
It's certainly reasonable to have something where half of any given battle you underperform and the other half you overperform (Slaking, Archeops, Reggie Gigas). But I agree that it can't work in blocks of "half the campaign".

I'd suggest basically saying "Magikarp is a low level creature and will always be. When it evolves, it suddenly leaps up in power." So in D&D terms, Magikarp is CR "less than 1" always and Gyarados is CR "ten or more" and there is no middleground. You don't spend time training Magikarp up, it just evolves one day and then if you're lucky there are survivors. Luvdisc would also just be always weak forever unless you wanted to change the fundamental creature (this is not as big a deal as having a strong Magikarp). Delibird could learn new weird moves and become better, or it could also remain a joke.
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Post by Username17 »

Koumei wrote: I'd suggest basically saying "Magikarp is a low level creature and will always be. When it evolves, it suddenly leaps up in power." So in D&D terms, Magikarp is CR "less than 1" always and Gyarados is CR "ten or more" and there is no middleground. You don't spend time training Magikarp up, it just evolves one day and then if you're lucky there are survivors.
That was the solution I used for Pokémon d20. Magikarp simply was shit, but you weren't required to throw it out in the middle of battles to level it up. When you got powerful enough to control a Gyrados you made a Handle Animal check and swapped it out. So you didn't need for Magikarp to be an intrusive joke - you could throw it at things at first level if you really wanted to and other than that it could stay in the bag until yo unlocked the giant monster.

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Post by jt »

If 15 minutes of weakness is still entertaining then magikarp can be weak for 15 minutes. We don't need to assign timescales to things that aren't fun.
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Post by The Adventurer's Almanac »

FrankTrollman wrote:That was the solution I used for Pokémon d20. Magikarp simply was shit, but you weren't required to throw it out in the middle of battles to level it up. When you got powerful enough to control a Gyrados you made a Handle Animal check and swapped it out. So you didn't need for Magikarp to be an intrusive joke - you could throw it at things at first level if you really wanted to and other than that it could stay in the bag until yo unlocked the giant monster.
I think I'm with Frank on this one, although I would still probably give Magikarp more moves because I think having a move list that's only 3 moves long is an atrocity. I'd probably make up some comedy moves or something. I envision, in a 25 level long system, that Magikarp would evolve at level 3 or 4, so you really wouldn't even have it that long. I think I'm also okay with our current setup, where you can just assign any EXP you get to any of your Pokemon, even if you didn't use it. That way, you can still level it up without using it if you want, but if you REALLY REALLY want to, you can throw down with it. Each player is still getting the same amount of EXP so things don't get unbalanced among parties. This way, Magikarp grinding is a personal issue that quickly pays off if you focus on it instead of you being a dick to the other players.

EDIT: To further extend my anecdote, one of the moves I let my player's Magikarp have? Wide Guard. Queue anime-esque lifesaving moments where someone heroically throws a fish in the way... and then an ultra insane Burst 1 shield from something the size of fucking Gyarados, protecting the whole party at once.
Last edited by The Adventurer's Almanac on Fri Dec 13, 2019 4:38 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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Post by The Adventurer's Almanac »

Anyway, let's close the rest of this out, shall we?

Grass
  • Frenzy Plant would be one of the most effective moves in the game if it didn't have Exhaust. It's only got a range of 3 meters, but hits 5 targets, which is nearly unheard of in this game. It Smites on top of that, too.
  • Grassy Terrain heals a Tick of HP to everyone on the ground for 5 rounds, but what surprises me is that it also gives +10 damage to Grass-type moves, too. This game almost never hands out damage boosts that high!
  • Ingrain is one of the Coat moves - while you have the coat you can't be pushed/pulled/switched out and regain a Tick of HP every turn.
  • Leaf Blade is a Pass move that crits on an 18+. It's literally Grass-type Slash, but that's okay because Slash is cool.
  • Solar Beam is, mercifully, a Line 6 move so you can actually blast fools. Still takes 2 turns unless you're in Sun, though. Still, thank fucking god this isn't 1 target like Fire Blast.
  • Strength Sap is actually unique in that you gain HP equal to the higher of your foe's ATK or SPATK, then they lose 1 CS in that stat. Of course, we can't have nice things so it's Daily x 2.
Ground
  • Dig is like Fly, except you move 25 meters underground on your first turn. Unlike Fly, it's a Burst 1 attack so you can sorta explode out the ground. Grants +3 Burrow, too! More moves should give out boosts to capabilities. This is Groundsource, BTW.
  • Earthquake is a staggering Burst 3 attack, but it's not Friendly... it can hit things underground, INCLUDING those using Dig (why doesn't this apply to moves that hit people while Flying??) and grants the Groundshaper capability. It is also Groundsource.
  • Fissure is a classic Execution move (also Groundsource). It has no AC and automatically hits - you roll 1d100 and if you roll X or lower, the target simply faints. X is 30 + User's level - Target's level. If, for whatever reason, you are 70 levels above your target, you can KO it in one hit... although you could probably do that anyway. Also gives Groundshaper!
  • Magnitude is still variable - its DB is equal to 5+1d6, meaning that level 12 Geodudes could potentially throw around Burst 2 DB 13 attacks, completely BTFOing anything in their path.
  • Mud Shot is an At-will, 3 range attack that is completely boring. I'm just bringing it up as an example of a move that I'd apply the Versatile keyword to, since this is actually a Special move, for whatever reason.
  • Sand Attack is EOT and Blinds the target until the end of their next turn. Yup, Sand Attack is still barely worth using and you'll forget it ASAP.
Ice
  • Aurora Veil is our first Blessing move: Any ally can activate it when they take damage to resist it one step further. Unlike other blessings, this can only be used twice before it disappears, and can only be used in Hail. That's a bit limiting.
  • Blizzard is your fuck-off attack - unfortunately it's a mere Ranged Blast 2. Freezes on a 15+, though, and Frozen kicks fucking ass. AC is 7 unless you're in Hail, in which case it cannot miss.
  • Freeze-Dry hits Water-types as if Water were weak to Ice. God knows they needed that.
  • Freeze Shock/Ice Burn are exclusive moves of a fused Kyruem. They're weird - both are Set-up moves and on your first turn you just Shift and end your turn, while on the second turn you attack... but both moves have a range of 10! Is it done like this just so you can be a kiting asshole or something? Or a consolation so you don't literally spend your first turn doing nothing?
  • Ice Ball: It's Ice Rollout, but at range! You keep using Ice Ball until you miss or are unable to hit someone with it, and each time you use it, it gets +4 DB. Unlike Fury Cutter, this does NOT have to be on the same target for you to get the boost.
  • Mist is another Blessing, and this time can be activated 3 times before disappearing. You can cause your CS to not be lowered when otherwise they would be.
  • Sheer Cold is like Fissure, except ranged. It gives you Chilled, because you are just so cold.
Normal (oh boy)
  • After You is another Swift Action move, and causes the target to take their turn immediately after yours. Unfortunately, it can only be used on things that haven't gone that round AND are willing, so you can't force an enemy to go.
  • Assist picks a random Pokemon on the user's roster, then randomly uses a Move from that Pokemon's list. I cannot fathom why you would ever risk using this Move... ever.
  • Baton Pass immediately replaces the user with another one from the Trainer's roster, transferring all CS changes, Coats, and Stratagems, even if the user is Trapped. In other words - still useful!
  • Bide is used when you get hit by a damaging move. On your next turn, you shift and deal X damage in a Burst 1, Friendly range, where X is however much HP you lost since declaring Bide. Apparently this is really powerful or something, and can only be used Scene x 1.
  • Bind/Wrap are one of our VERY FEW Static moves. It has no active effect, but gives +1 Accuracy and +2 to Skill Checks to initiative or continue a Grapple. Whenever you gain Dominance (ugh), the target loses a Tick of HP. These can stack with each other, letting you crush 20% of your bitch's HP every round.
  • Camouflage changes your Type to match the field. Despite this, it does not reference the Environ table whatsoever and all the Types you can become are shoved into the Effect. Fucking why? On the plus side, this grants Blender.
  • Constrict is a measly DB 1 attack... but it imposes -1 SPEED CS and can be used as a Swift Action during a grapple, letting you get in some extra damage while you choke a motherfucker to death.
  • Court Change swaps the side of all Blessings and Hazards on the field. LOL!
  • Cut is also a Pass move! It's also one of the very few moves that ignores DR - but only up to 5. This does not actually make it much better at cutting things than any other move.
  • Double Team doesn't actually do the anime thing where you make a bunch of afterimages and shit - it's a Coat with 3 activations. You can activate it when you're targeted to gain +2 Evasion OR when making an attack to gain +2 Accuracy for that attack. That's useful, but... not what I had in mind.
  • Encore is completely different than in the games - you roll 1d6 and the target becomes Confused, Suppressed, or Enraged depending on the result. This makes it far less useful and reliable.
  • Feint is a Free Action move that causes a Shield move to fail when used against you... and it's only Scene x 1. I question eating up an entire Move Slot with this one.
  • Flash is Cone 2. That is all.
  • Focus Energy makes the user Pumped, extending their Critical Range by 2 for the rest of the encounter! CRITFISHING AHOY!
  • Follow Me actually, no shit, forces people to attack you... sorta! It's Burst 5 and any enemy using a Move that targets an opponent has to target you with it. Of course, they could just buff themselves up or something, but not everyone gives their Pokemon those moves.
  • Frustration does not actually interact with Loyalty in any way - its DB is 6 + 2 x the number of times you've been hit since the end of your last turn (maxes out at DB 12). Why does it not interact with Loyalty?? Aha! That's because I'm looking at the new version - the old one'd DB was 9 - the user's Loyalty value, so this is actually a buff. Hrm.
  • Hidden Power's type is randomly rolled whenever a Pokemon learns the move - rolling 1d20 and rerolling on 19 or 20. It's also Burst 1, which is nice.
  • Hyper Beam is 10, 1 Target. I cannot express to you how lame it is to me that it isn't a fucking Line of destruction. Still DB 15, but I need more, goddammit.
  • Judgement is the exclusive move of Arceus, and it's 6, Ranged Blast 3, Smite. It can be WHATEVER TYPE YOU WANT, regardless of Plates or any other such shit. You just wipe someone out with SE damage and it's awesome. What's not awesome is its FUCKING DAILY x 1 FREQUENCY! You're seriously telling me the god of Pokemon can use its signature move once a fucking day? GET THE FUCK OUT OF HERE!
  • Last Resort can only be used when you've performed 5 other different moves in a fight without switching out. In return, you get an At-Will DB 14 attack. The odds of a single Pokemon surviving 5 rounds are... not good.
  • Me First is amusing - if someone declares a Damaging Attack on you and you have more Speed than them, you use Me First and use the Move that your foe was about to use... on them. Very trolly.
  • Metronome "randomly uses any other Move except for After You, Anchor Shot, Assist, Bestow, Copycat, Covet, Destiny Bond, Focus Punch, Follow Me, Helping Hand, Instruct, Metronome, Mimic, Mirror Move, Quash, Rage Powder, Sketch, Sleep Talk, Snore, Switcheroo, Thief, Transform, Trick, or any move with the Trigger Keyword." Of course, there's no way to randomly determine WHICH MOVE is going to get used without using a generator, so most people do that so the GM doesn't have to frantically pull a Move out of their ass and cause an argument when it happens to be completely useless or Explosion or something.
  • Mind Reader makes your target Read for a turn, and makes one of your attacks auto-hit OR one of your enemy's attacks auto-miss. If you have Telepathy, you automatically succeed on attempts to read the mind of your Read target. This move fails against things with Mindlock. I appreciate the use of capabilities in the move's effect.
  • Perish Song is a fucking insane Burst 15, and is the biggest move in the game. It's not Friendly and can't miss, either... Everyone hit gets a Perish Count of 3, which goes down by 1 at the beginning of their turns. Once they hit 0, they faint. It can be removed by swapping out or getting KO'd.
  • Rapid Spin still destroys Hazards, but only in a Burst 5 - it also removes Leech Seeds and the Trapped/Stuck status.
  • Razor Wind is actually neat - it's a Set Up move and on the first turn, you can't move and whip up wind around you, gaining +2 Evasion for that turn, destroying any Smokescreens or Hazards next to you. On your second turn, you throw out a 10, 3 Target attack that crits on 18+.
  • Relic Song is Meloetta's exclusive move and allows it to change between Aria and Step Form as a Swift Action when you use it. I'm pretty sure this is the only Move that lets you change forms - it's usually in the Ability or Capability. Then again, Meloetta also has the Forme Change capability, so maybe they were covering their bases.
  • Return used to have a DB of 3 + the user's Loyalty value, but now it's 4 + 2 times the number of ALLIES that have been hit since the end of its last turn. I actually like the new versions of Return and Frustration, but I do wish they had versions that still interacted with Loyalty.
  • Roar is another move you declare and use at the end of the round - targets hit by Roar must Shift away at their highest movement speed and towards their Trainer if possible. If they end within 6 meters of their Pokeball (wait, am I supposed to keep track of where those are after they get released?!) then they are immediately recalled.
  • Self Destruct is a Burst 3, Smite move that sets the user's HP to -50% and does DB 20. Explosion is literally this, but more damaging.
  • Sing is AC 10, Burst 2, Friendly. Ouch. However, if you miss with it, enemies are still Slowed and have -2 Evasion until the end of the user's next turn. We really should standardize when all these effects end and shit, shouldn't we?
  • Sketch has 15 range(!) and can't miss. You permanently learn the Move the target last used.
  • Sleep Talk lets you Shift and use a Move while being asleep. Unfortunately, it's random. No mention as to how you're supposed to resolve which move is randomly chose.
  • Smokescreen is a Ranged Blast 3 that lays down Smoke until the end of the encounter, or if Defog/Whirlwind are used to blow it away. Attacking from or into the smoke imposes a -3 Accuracy Penalty... making it not terribly useful for your team either. Still, it does what you'd expect and I appreciate that.
  • Spit Up is hilarious because its DB is 8 times however many Stockpile Counts you have, meaning this can seriously get up to DB 26, with STAB. Sadly, it can only be used Scene x 1.
  • Splash is not a joke move anymore! It only uses a Shift Action and makes the user jump, adding +1 to both Jump capabilities. You also get +2 Evasion until the end of your next turn, and a permanent +1 Long Jump. Magikarps are actually excellent jumpers because of this.
  • Stockpile gives the user 1 Stockpile Count, and for each one you have, you have +1 DEF/SPDEF CS. Hilariously, this move also grants Inflatable.
  • Stomp is the one of the only moves that interacts with size categories - you deal 10 extra damage when hitting things smaller than you. Sadly, you don't deal even more damage the smaller they are.
  • Strength lets you Push as a Free Action when you use it, but also grants +1 Power. This is literally the only move that grants any Power whatsoever.
  • Swallow heals the user depending on how many Stockpile Counts they have. At 3, YOU ACTUALLY HEAL ALL OF YOUR FUCKING HP! HOLY SHIT THAT'S LITERALLY THE ONLY MOVE THAT DOES THIS IN THE ENTIRE GAME! Even fucking Legendary Pokemon can't do that shit!
  • Swift is fucking excellent, because it's an 8, Ranged Blast 2, FRIENDLY move that can't fucking miss. Just chuck it into melee, nobody cares.
  • Whirlwind is Line 6 and pushes targets 8 - their Weight Class meters, destroying Smoke and Hazards. I really wish you could actually fucking move people in this game.
  • Wish gets a mention purely because of its 15 range. Still only heals half your HP, though.
Okay, I actually didn't have as much time to do this as I thought I would, and I'm not risking it getting eaten like the Contest chapter did. We'll pick up with Poison moves next time.
Koumei
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Post by Koumei »

Just going to comment on a few things.

Bug Bite: that's weird. Also why didn't they have the [Berry] tag apply to everything that interacts with them (Bug Bite, Pluck, Belch, Recycle, Tea Time)? It would be slightly more useful to be able to go "Okay this interacts with berries" and also means there isn't a weird case of a single tag with a massive chart existing for one move.

Roar of Time: it suffers from the fact that the video games are what they are. Even in Mystery Dungeon (which this seems to be based on), it's not some great manipulation of time. Platinum should have made Roar of Time and Spatial Rend work like HM moves where you can fuck with reality in certain places on the field, and any tabletop game absolutely needs to allow for that. Even in battle, maybe make it take the targets out of time for one round before activating (ala Sky Drop).

Thunder: it's super weird that Thunder deals partial damage on a miss, because being unreliable other than in rain on your wedding day is the big thing it's known for. Remove the Smite thing and make it an AoE.

Fleur Cannon: Magearna is a Mythical pokemon, so it's in the same bag as Mew, Celery and Darkrai. However instead of relying on an internet download thing that presumably is only sometimes available, you can just scan a barcode to get it (postgame, S/M/US/UM). It's pretty cool.

Moonlight: why not just make it based on HP ticks, WHICH ALREADY EXIST AND ARE PRE-CALCULATED? Here: shitty weather restores only 2 ticks, normal weather restores 4 ticks, ideal weather restores 6 ticks.

Circle Throw: wait so U-Turn lets you return to your pokeball (very much a video game mechanic thing there whereas you'd expect a tabletop game to just make it like Spring Attack) but Circle Throw is just a shitty 4E power (which, putting aside the lame distance, kind of is what you might expect in a tabletop game)?

Revenge: another victim of the tabletop game not working like the video games. Many things actually need reworking around this fact. Pokemon is a prediction-based game, where guessing what your opponent is going to do and making a choice to thwart that is a big part of it, and that doesn't translate to "there are ten people on the field, we take it in turns declaring and acting, making our mind up when it's actually our turn and not being locked in from the start, also we can do weird stuff like not taking an action or wandering over somewhere else".
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The Adventurer's Almanac
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Post by The Adventurer's Almanac »

To answer your Bug Bite stuff, let's take a look at those other moves real quick.
Pluck just takes the target's Held Item or Accessory slot and puts it onto the user, so it's not Berry-specific. Belch can't be used unless the user has traded in any Digestion Buff, not just Berries. Recycle lets you use any consumable item again, and Teatime lets everyone on the field immediately eat their Digestion Buffs, so... yeah, they're all actually more useful than if they were just usable with berries, since making killer Digestion Buffs is sort of the point of an entire Trainer class.

I'm not sure why you think this game is based on Mystery Dungeon? Like I said, there's explicitly a different TTRPG for those sorts of shenanigans. The only thing it "takes" from MD is the idea of grid-based tactical combat, which... isn't uncommon in this hobby.

Moonlight: DUDE, I KNOW RIGHT? You've already got this neat concept that easily conveys the idea of a small percentage of your health, so why not take advantage of it more?

I don't see how U-Turn is extremely video-gamey, since it's a great way to save an action by dealing damage and switching out at the same time. Honestly, I don't see the game exploding if you just let every Melee attack be a spring attack too. Personally, I dislike that Circle Throw is just a shitty 4e power, since it looks cooler in the games by forcing the opponent to switch out.

Perhaps I didn't explain Revenge too well - you must wait until after everyone else has gone before you actually can move and use it. You just spend your initial turn beating your chest or some fluffy shit, kinda weirding out the other players. It's still a weird move, though. You could probably make it simpler by just letting it deal increased damage to targets that damaged you in the previous round.
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