Designing a Pokemon TTRPG

[Avoraciopoctules]

Would it be possible to come up with a set of classes that all individually have something to do in each of the major minigames? Conceptually, it makes sense that trainer classes will have areas of expertise where they will be much more effective than others. The hiker is great dropped into a random area of wilderness, the burglar maybe less so.

However, I can't help but think of Shadowrun's issues with astral space and hacking. If a challenge is going to take up a significant amount of play time, then everybody needs to be able to do something during that time. If the psychic is the only one who can interact with part of the creepy possessed house, we don't want it to be complicated enough to take more than half an hour of table time.

[Foxwarrior]

There are nearly 900 fucking Pokemon and having 6 people able to draw from that be bad cannot compute.

If the players are supposed to divvy up the pokemen they get in order to be a diverse party, then your "six person party" description should focus on how those six people divvy up their pokemen.

Here's an example, presumably you could do better since you actually know about the franchise:

Coddler: They have like, one pokemon that they take care of, and it gets super big and strong.

Wimper: Magikarps and Rattatas are all you really need in life. Maybe they can unleash a Magikarp horde all at once on the enemy, in a fishy tide of vengeance.

Elementalist: There's some Type of pokemon that this character is particularly good at training/commanding. Really, you could have a party of six different Elementalists and that would be fine.

Dynamaxer: They focus on how big their pokemen can get.

Item User?: Since they're better at using items on their pokemen, they want to go for whichever pokemen benefit most from items.

Sneaky Person: They specialize in being on the other side of the battlefield when a battle starts, which lets them employ alpha strike pokemen better. Anyone can have a stealth pokemon, but the Sneaky Person can apply their stealth to various unstealthy pokemon (assuming pokemen can't throw pokeballs, then obviously the Sneaky Person is useless).

[The Adventurer's Almanac]

Would it be possible to come up with a set of classes that all individually have something to do in each of the major minigames?

Well for that, first you need major minigames. Even then, we don't want to run into the problems you described. But yes, obviously each class should be better in some areas than others.

If the players are supposed to divvy up the pokemen they get in order to be a diverse party, then your "six person party" description should focus on how those six people divvy up their pokemen.

The way I see it, there are two parties at play: The Trainer party, and the Pokemon party. Each player from each party gets 1 turn - their Trainer's and their Pokemon's. Trainers should be diverse among themselves: You have a combat guy and a skillmonkey guy and a minigame guy or whatever. RPG roles don't tend to differ too much between systems. Pokemon are distinct and should also be diverse. Between a party of at least 3 players, you should strive to cover as many types and capabilities as you can. In this sense, they are kind of like magic items that you use when you need them. Except they're even more useful because they're living creatures. Pokemon can't be used without Trainers and a Trainer with no Pokemon is a sitting duck.

Every single one of those things you listed is basically a Trainer class. On top of that, you can divvy up Pokemon however you want. Your Trainer class might inform what your selection is, but it doesn't necessarily dictate it. Your Trainer should personally have a balanced party, but your party's Pokemon party should be diverse as well, to cover as many situations as possible.

[DrPraetor]

I think you're missing Frank's point, but I will reinstate the obvious:
[*] Pokemon that you can hand back and forth like short swords are boring, and don't do a good job of providing the pokemon experiences people care about.

[*] Pokemon that are hard-to-catch are a very limited resource, and it's actually better if the entire party doesn't catch them.

[*] Pokemon that you have trained up extensively yourself shouldn't be passed around the bar like a nickel whore like a euphemism that doesn't normalize sexual assault.

[*] Five dollars and that rant should be able to get you any pokemon you can find and subdue, but you therefore shouldn't care about beating up random zubats.

So even though everyone has pokemon, it's actually better if the Hiker (for example), finds wounded pokemon and nurtures them back to health, rather than taking a 5 dollar pokeball and a cudgel into the wilderness.

You can declare that officers and nurses aren't PCs, but I don't see the merit in doing so. Having a roster of 1 isn't that big a disadvantage when you only have 1 pokemon out anyway, and it expands the number of PC roles available which you are having trouble filling. So why would you hobble yourself and declare that police and nurses shouldn't be PC classes?

Also, zoo pornographer is definitely a class.

[Foxwarrior]

Every single one of those things you listed is basically a Trainer class.

Exactly, that's the point. Pokemen have a vast diversity of magical powers, and except for the Psychic, your human characters are various flavors of mundanes. If everyone owned wizards, clerics, and druids as pets, why would you care much if the owner is a Fighter or a Monk?

[Username17]

Officer Jenny isn't a player character, she's a fucking NPC.

That's wrong. There are in fact entire spin-off games where the protagonist is a police officer or ranger who doesn't have pokeballs. But even if that was correct, when making a game you'd have to change the setting as hard as necessary so that such characters were playable. Because "Pokémon Trainer" characters are all very similar to each other and you need other character archetypes that play differently. If the human protagonists of Pokémon Ranger and Detective Pikachu didn't already interact with the Pokémon world without using Pokeballs, we'd have to invent characters that did.

Pokémon Trainers as you've conceived them are about as different one from another as 2nd edition AD&D Fighters. The core abilities are all exactly the same, leaving characters to maybe have different non-weapon proficiencies or potentially find different equipment during their adventures. And then to add insult to that injury, you've also said that you mostly intend for magic equipment to travel in herds so that the characters won't even differentiate much by found equipment. This is unacceptable. This is red pen, "See Me After Class!" unacceptable.

And it's bizarrely bullheaded. It would be one thing if your insistence that all the protagonists had to get their primary ability set from throwing Pokeballs at Pokémon during their adventures was canonically true. But it's not. You're stamping your foot and rejecting characters that canonically do exist and canonically do fight bad guys for no obvious reason. And you're doing it in defense of a design that is to be blunt: completely unacceptable. If Officer Jenny, Ranger Lunick, Nurse Joy, and Detective Tim didn't exist, we'd have to make up characters like that from whole cloth because we factually need characters whose ability set is meaningfully different from Ash Ketchum for the purposes of cooperative storytelling. But they do exist, what problem is?

The needs of the table dynamics justify any amount of abuse to the Pokémon world canon. Fortunately, characters like Officer Jenny are already canon and don't need any world adjustments at all. You just need to accept that you need to make those characters into playable characters and that if your idea of the game can't handle that you need to scrap that idea and rework it until it can.

-Username17

[Iduno]

I think Pokemon Ace is a bad class, in the same sense that Adventurer (who specializes in going into dungeons, murdering the occupants, and taking their stuff!) would be a bad class for D&D.

A more elegant solution might be a specialist, like a bug catcher or fisher. They get bonuses to one specific type of pokemon. Maybe the level up to gain a larger portfolio (instead of just fish, you're now good with all water-types).

[The Adventurer's Almanac]

So even though everyone has pokemon, it's actually better if the Hiker (for example), finds wounded pokemon and nurtures them back to health, rather than taking a 5 dollar pokeball and a cudgel into the wilderness.

You can declare that officers and nurses aren't PCs, but I don't see the merit in doing so. Having a roster of 1 isn't that big a disadvantage when you only have 1 pokemon out anyway, and it expands the number of PC roles available which you are having trouble filling. So why would you hobble yourself and declare that police and nurses shouldn't be PC classes?

What you describe is shit that anyone can do. There is nothing preventing anyone from going "oh shit this Pokemon is hurt, I feed it a Potion and some food". Do I think there should be multiple ways of acquiring Pokemon? Sure. Should some classes be better at some methods than others? Obviously.

I would argue that having a roster of 1 is a huge disadvantage. When your 1 Pokemon gets taken out, you have no other options. You only have one "tool" compared to the several that everyone else in the party has. The only way to compensate for that is to have your ONE Pokemon be so much better than everyone else's that you're basically running around with a boss monster, and you just spam it every fucking fight. You would have to have class features that just give it more powers so you aren't even more disadvantaged than you already are.

Polices and nurses are fucking jobs, not character classes. You can make classes that replicate what they do, but I find this fixation on some characters that are so comically one dimensional that they literally have copies of themselves in-universe to be bizarre. You want to be the person who sits around the Pokemon Center all day healing people? What's interesting about that? Go out and have a fucking pokemon adventure.

If everyone owned wizards, clerics, and druids as pets, why would you care much if the owner is a Fighter or a Monk?

The idea is that the owners can do things that their pets can't. If they aren't dependent upon one another to function, then the entire premise of the franchise falls apart. The owners are also wizards, clerics, and druids, but different kinds. Having an entire class be "I make one Pokemon good" or "I make Pokemon big" is conceptually limiting.

It would be one thing if your insistence that all the protagonists had to get their primary ability set from throwing Pokeballs at Pokémon during their adventures was canonically true. But it's not.

You get your primary ability set from your fucking class and your selection of Pokemon should augment that. You should have multiple methods of acquiring Pokemon. I do not understand what the fuck makes Nurse Joy meaningfully different from Ash Ketchum. Nurse Joy knows how to heal people and doesn't do anything all day. Ranger Lunick does that weird stylus shit to protect Pokemon from poachers. If Ash had a Capture Styler, HE COULD FUCKING DO IT, TOO! What you're getting so worked up about is that Ash can't use the same fucking equipment as other people? This is fucking retarded and the only way I can see to do what you're saying is to arbitrary limit items to certain classes. All this shit you keep yammering on about strike me as decisions that players make. If you want to be Officer fucking Jenny #9000, then just go befriend a Growlithe and take the Detective class or something and never catch anything else.

[Dean]

What if you have classes based on Pokemon types. So "Normal" is your Ash Ketchum which gets some generic abilities around catching or training pokemon, that classes schtick will be about having the widest variety of pokemon possible and they give up all other abilities to be the best minionmancers.

Karate Master (Fighting) Someone who beats up people and pokemon with their own personal fighting skills, augmented by Pokemon allies.
Psychic (Psychic) is exactly what it says on the tin and develops psychic and telekinetic powers as they level up and abilities that gel with or boost psychic types. All "types" trainers like this should have things that boost pokemon within their type. There's still a huge advantage to having a Steel type pokemon when you need it so you probably won't go for all 6 pure psychic lineup but if giving people type bonuses makes them have 3 mixed in Psychic types for their psychic character I think that's a success in genre emulation
Ranger/Druid (Grass) They have abilities to grow plants and pokemon buffing seeds massively better than anyone as well as even being able to plant and grow many grass type pokemon. So they can devote downtime to a project for long enough to just get a Bulbasaur if they want. They should also get some plant talking magic to bond extra hard with plant types and be able to call for vines to whip out of the ground and grab people and all that stuff.
Inventor (Electric) The person who makes gadgets that are the real reason they win. From making your own upgraded pokemon balls and TM's on the low end to inventing teleporters and cloning devices on the high end the Inventor should always feel like an underdog. Fighting Pokemon teams that on the surface seem more powerful than his but a combination of gear and crazy TM's means he's more than capable of hacking out a win. Inventors like Electric types and gain bonuses with them.
Occultist (Ghost) The Occultist develops paranormal powers and theories. As they learn more about the nature of death and the ghostly realm their powers develop. They can talk to ghosts, travel the ethereal realm, petition dead spirits to aid them and of course they're very good with ghost pokemon.
Criminal/Ninja (Dark or Poison) Powers like becoming unnoticed and backstabs. Can steal pokemon during downtime and just have an Arbok they stole from someone after they come back from leveling up. They should have poisons they can make for people, sneaky attacks, sand in eyes, smooth talking skills. Just all kinds of no goodnick themed powers.

You could have tons more. Steel could be cops and soldiers, another class that fights alongside their pokemon. Fire/Rock/Water/Flying could be your 4 bender types with people figuring out how to do their own flamethrower magic as they level up.

I like the idea of owners having boosts to particular pokemon types making it more likely you'd see characters who have an in universe reason to have six pokemon who are all Psychic/Something. It gives good Gym leader energy and all of this seems pretty on brand with the sort of Gym leader characters we see.

[The Adventurer's Almanac]

This is all shit that's already in the game at varying degrees of coolness.

[Username17]

I do not understand what the fuck makes Nurse Joy meaningfully different from Ash Ketchum. Nurse Joy knows how to heal people and doesn't do anything all day. Ranger Lunick does that weird stylus shit to protect Pokemon from poachers. If Ash had a Capture Styler, HE COULD FUCKING DO IT, TOO! What you're getting so worked up about is that Ash can't use the same fucking equipment as other people?

You seem to be confused about what "equipment" is. From the standpoint of game design, Pokémon that you collect and trade during your adventures are equipment, while magic wands that you use and no one else has or can get are not equipment.

So first of all, Ash actually does meet the characters from Pokémon Ranger and no he can't use the styler thing to get random Pokémon from the environment to help out. That's because he is not a Pokémon Ranger. The Ranger Styler method of interacting with wild Pokémon is a class feature totally different from Ash Ketchum's Pokeballs deal.

Seriously. Ash Ketchum and Solana the Pokémon have appeared in multiple movies together. The fact that Pokémon Rangers have different means to interact with Pokémon has canonical in-anime explanations.

All of Ash's Pokémon are equipment in the sense that a 2nd Edition AD&D Fighter's sword and armor are equipment. Solana's Plusle and her Styler are not equipment in that sense. Officer Jenny's Arcanine is not equipment in that sense. Nurse Joy's Chansey is not equipment in that sense.

But let's leave aside the reality of Pokémon Rangers and Officer Jennies being totally fucking canon and explicitly and important having meaningfully different skill sets from "whatever the coolest six Pokémon the character has in their sack." I mean, that is reality. It's factually true. But let's say for the moment that it wasn't.

For our thought experiment, let's consider the entirely non-canon West Side Story / Pokémon musical mashup stage production. We all acknowledge that it's pretty fucking obscure and that it is not in any way canon for Butch and Cassidy to sing "When you're Ro-cket, you're Ro-cket all the way! From your first Wobbuffet to your last dying day!" We all accept that. But for the sake of this thought experiment, imagine that when James sings "Gee Officer Jenny, we're very upset..." that that was the first and only time that Officer Jenny was ever mentioned with respect to Pokémon lore.

The thing is that even in this alternate universe the argument for including playable Officer Jenny in a table top role playing game would be pretty strong. Because there is a desperate and absolute need for characters that aren't "basically Ash Ketchum" or "basically Ash Ketchum in a Kangaskhan fur suit." If it was for some reason necessary to go to obscure and non-canon source material to find such character archetypes, then that is what you'd have to do.

-Username17

[The Adventurer's Almanac]

But let's leave aside the reality of Pokémon Rangers and Officer Jennies being totally fucking canon and explicitly and important having meaningfully different skill sets from "whatever the coolest six Pokémon the character has in their sack." I mean, that is reality. It's factually true. But let's say for the moment that it wasn't.

What the fuck are those skill sets, Frank?

[Avoraciopoctules]

Depending on how crazy you want things to get, there is some precedent for Pokemon law enforcement having guns.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cgw1pwqjuHA

(Episode 54 had guns too, but I think only the criminals used them)

[The Adventurer's Almanac]

Why is "having a gun" part of your skill set and not just the shit you carry in your bag?

[Whipstitch]

Why is "having a gun" part of your skill set and not just the shit you carry in your bag?

Training. If it can't remain level appropriate eventually you may as well not have it.

[The Adventurer's Almanac]

Okay, maybe throwing some actual mechanics out there would help things make more sense.

I think a way to replicate an Officer Jenny-type or whatever would be allowing them to designate a single Pokemon as their Partner, and this is a 1 hour process. While it's your Partner it gets bonuses to all sorts of shit, whatever. The trade-off is that you can't designate anything if you have more than 2 Pokemon in your party or whatever. Additionally, the class gets XP not from catching Pokemon, but reclaiming stolen ones and returning them to their owners, or the cops, or whatever. This way you have a different progression from other people and a clear motive, plus you can have a single badass Pokemon at the expense of a much lower party size or something.
... but perhaps classes should gain new ways to earn XP, without expense to other methods?

If there's something I'm missing, let me know.

Oh, and look, she can even get free Handgun training as part of her class progression, while other people would normally have to pay for it.

[Username17]

A more elegant solution might be a specialist, like a bug catcher or fisher. They get bonuses to one specific type of pokemon. Maybe the level up to gain a larger portfolio (instead of just fish, you're now good with all water-types).

What if you have classes based on Pokemon types. So "Normal" is your Ash Ketchum which gets some generic abilities around catching or training pokemon, that classes schtick will be about having the widest variety of pokemon possible and they give up all other abilities to be the best minionmancers.

Here's the thing: Bug Catcher isn't a real thing if it means you get bonuses to Bug Type Pokémon that they get, it's only a thing if it means that you get bonuses to Bug Type Pokémon that you have. The entire model of catching Pokémon during your encounters is totally incompatible with theme Pokémon Trainers like Bug Catchers and Hex Callers and shit.

• If the party finds awesome Ice Type Pokémon and no Butterfrees, then the Bug Catcher literally doesn't have any abilities.
• If the party finds Butterfrees as the best Pokémon they have, the Bug Catcher's ability is that he's better than you.

There genuinely isn't a middle ground. In 2nd Edition AD&D, weapon specialization is not a trade off. It's not "balanced" with choosing to not specialize. People who claimed it was were full of shit - and obviously so in 1989.

If you want Fishers and Chefs and shit to be playable characters their power can't be that they get bonuses if the MC lets them find a Fish or Monkey Pokémon respectively, because that isn't a real ability. The Pokémon that the MC lets you get are things the MC lets you get, and they could just be stronger or weaker when you found them because it's out of your control. Fundamentally, that's just "Add +1 to a number when the MC picks a number between one and ten and lets you add the bonus." That's literally not a real thing. When you look behind the curtain, there's nothing there.

The ability of a Bug Catcher then must be that they have Bugs. The ability of the Fisher must be that they have fish. Because that is an actual thing that is distinct from Mother May I.

There really really isn't room for more than one or two characters in a typical party that are "basically Ash Ketchum." Running around with Pokéballs and capturing Pokémon during encounters is a very large amount of a character's idiom, takes up most of a character's allotted screen time, and isn't fucking different if two players are doing it at the same time in the same encounters.

If you want Mediums and Bird Keepers and shit, they aren't going to be modeled as Ash Ketchum who gets a bonus if the MC deigns to allow them to find Ghost Types or Flying Types to catch. They are modeled as characters who get their respective Pokémon types irrespective of what kind of adventures they go on or don't go on. As a Medium, getting Haunter isn't something you beg the MC to let you do, it's a fucking class feature. You're level 7 you have a Haunter.

Which brings us back to Officer Jenny. She is a decent personal combatant, she has some investigative skills, and she has a police dog Pokémon. That's plenty to be a character. She's a D&D Ranger, except her static animal companion is actually level appropriate.

-Username17

[Username17]

Bug Catcher and co really makes sense as an NPC class more than anything else.

In the games, most of the people you fight only have a single type or specialty. Now from the metagame perspective that's because it's just a lot easier for the developers to copy-paste a lot of them, but from the in-game perspective that could mean something like "most people just don't click with pokemon generically, only a type". In other words, they're NPCs.

This is one of the core issues you have to get around when transferring from a single player game to a multi-player game. In the single player game, you are Ash Ketchum, and you eventually catch all the Pokémon. In the multiplayer game, not only do the other players not have time to watch you grind through capturing all the elemental monkeys, they also don't have time to listen to you describe what a hundred different Pokémon that you have access to in your PC do. There's five player characters and a game master, no character gets more than 20% of the screen time and that's not enough screen time to talk about 151 or even 31 different flavors of Pokémon you caught.

Characters whose ability sets are easy to explain are better than characters whose ability sets take a long time to explain. Coming to the table and saying "I'm a Bug Catcher, I have Bug Pokémon" is more explicable and more efficient than telling the party that you're a Pokémon trainer and your particular 6 member Pokémon strike force.

When I make the comparison of generic Pokémon capture-trainer guy to a 2nd edition Fighter, I am not doing so lightly. That is a character whose personal player driven themes and abilities are so minor that they almost don't exist. This is a character that, like the 2nd edition Fighter is better portrayed as a stack of index cards with the lion's share of the index cards being stuff gifted to the player by the Dungeon Master. This is the 21st century, and in a cooperative storytelling game, that is bullshit. Most of the players are going to want ability sets that they choose rather than ones that the DM gives them.

Which brings us to the conclusion. Firstly that Hex Maniacs and Bird Keepers are reasonable character archetypes. And secondly, that those characters should mostly not capture Pokémon during their adventures at all. The Bird Keeper has Flying Type Pokémon as an inherent class ability and going up in level as a Bird Keeper gets him more and better Birdos.

There's actually room for one, maybe two Ash Ketchum style characters at a table. And they aren't going to catch 151 Pokémon during the game. They are going to catch a number that's closer to twelve. Everybody else is going to have a personal ability set, which might include some synergistic Pokémon like a Druid's animal companion.

Characters like Officer Jenny who have a specific job related Pokémon companion and otherwise rely on the skill sets that come with their job to solve adventuring problems are a good start. As are characters like the Bug Catcher who have a list of Pokémon that isn't dependent on the adventures they go on and the generosity (or lack thereof) of the DM. Characters like Ash Ketchum are a bad place to start because you aren't going to be able to support more than one or two characters at the table with that entire idiom.

But you could have a whole table of characters who were like Officer Jenny. You could have a Nurse Joy class, a Ranger Solana class, an Ultraguardian class, and so on and so forth. Similarly, you could have a whole table of characters who were like Bird Keepers. Bug Catchers, Fishers, Hex Maniacs, and so on. Either of these character concepts could easily make room for six characters of comparable screen time and conceptual space, and you could easily mix and match. There's no reason that you couldn't have Officer Jenny with her better personal skills and smaller group of Pokémon allies fight alongside a Ruin Maniac with his worse personal skills and bigger Pokémon roster. That is a thing you could tweak until it was balanced enough.

-Username17

[The Adventurer's Almanac]

When I make the comparison of generic Pokémon capture-trainer guy to a 2nd edition Fighter, I am not doing so lightly. That is a character whose personal player driven themes and abilities are so minor that they almost don't exist. This is a character that, like the 2nd edition Fighter is better portrayed as a stack of index cards with the lion's share of the index cards being stuff gifted to the player by the Dungeon Master. This is the 21st century, and in a cooperative storytelling game, that is bullshit. Most of the players are going to want ability sets that they choose rather than ones that the DM gives them.

Oh, fuck! NOW I get what you mean. It wasn't until you said 'player driven' that things clicked into place. In that case, a Bug Catcher would just have an ability that lets them fuck off for an hour and come back with a new Bug, right? And people who get their Pokemon from their job would have to go and do some paperwork for a new one or something? The Hex Maniac just summons ghosts and shit? I see what you mean about the players driving things, rather than simply deciding that they want to catch something the GM randomly thought up today.

Which brings us back to Officer Jenny. She is a decent personal combatant, she has some investigative skills, and she has a police dog Pokémon.

I wish there was an emoticon for blowing my brains out.

[Avoraciopoctules]

Depending on how much differentiation is desirable between classes, I could see this as a bunch of Elothar Warrior of Bladereach classes or something where you get a series of choices between level-appropriate options.

I lost interest in Pathfinder 2E fairly quickly, but for a more tactical combat focused game you might be able to hack that structure into something pretty cool. Monster feats that guarantee you a particular loyal monster buddy, and personal feats that let you select powers of your own.

Lancer might be an example of an alternative system. There ARE differences between piloting a mecha and cheerleading a monster, but they seem to have produced a really solid tactical combat engine, and drawing from that might give you a system where Pokémon are more customizable.

[The Adventurer's Almanac]

Depending on how much differentiation is desirable between classes, I could see this as a bunch of Elothar Warrior of Bladereach classes or something where you get a series of choices between level-appropriate options.

Isn't the latter what we want anyway?

[Avoraciopoctules]

I think it’s pretty clear that people would want different things from a Pokémon TradRPG. We established that earlier when people focused on what existing works they wanted to ignore. For instance, if I just designed a Pokémon RPG to suit my own interests then it might not even have tactical combat rules. MTP or Fate Accelerated are more likely to emulate a good episode of the show.

Edit: that said, a higher combat Pokémon RPG that isn’t based on 3.x is a fascinating kind of project, and I’m eager to see how this project turns out even if I doubt I’d want to play it.

[The Adventurer's Almanac]

For instance, if I just designed a Pokémon RPG to suit my own interests then it might not even have tactical combat rules. MTP or Fate Accelerated are more likely to emulate a good episode of the show.

Oh, lord. Well, the latter sounds like something I want, in that case.

[The Adventurer's Almanac]

Okay, let's try a revised six man party and see if I can stop making Frank upset with my narrow perspectives.

• The Pokemaniac exists because somebody has to know Pokemon better than the rest of the party. Their knowledge doesn't manifest as improved training, but at giving out debuffs and buffs to enemy and allied Pokemon, respectively. They can spot that a Rhyhorn's horn is oddly weak to Electric attacks, or that your Rapidash always runs in a specific way that can be exploited by clever bad guys. Their Pokemon aren't especially better than anyone else's, but they have a lot of them and get some kind of bonus to coerce them into joining the party without violence.
• The Karate Kid still does kung-fu shit and all the other shit I said before, but explicitly gains Aura powers at high levels so they can keep up. Rather than catching Pokemon, they just beat them into submission and ask them afterwards if they want to join up. Sometimes they're impressed enough to say yes, because Pokemon are weird. The harder he stomps ass, the easier it is to acquire new Pokemon. However, their training regimen means they have less time to take care of their Pokemon, and have a lower party limit because of it.
• The Super Nerd is the item guy. This includes Pokeballs and shit, but he can do mad science to create some Pokemon of his own. Like Grimers and Magnetons and shit. Or maybe he can just make actual fucking robot versions of regular Pokemon, I dunno.
• The Psychic has magic fucking powers. They can find and mind meld with Psychic Pokemon easily to get them on their side, but like the Karate Kid, has to spend time honing their mind or some shit and also has a lower party limit.
• The Ranger is like the Hiker, but starts with a Capture Styler and is good at using it. They can't catch Pokemon at all, but befriend the wild Pokemon in the area for temporary use. By shooting beams that transmit friendship, apparently. They can hold onto Pokemon for a limited time, but the Capture Styler is quick enough to use in combat as well so you can basically dominate weak enemies.
• The Burglar stole a Snag Machine or something, at least one class should start off with that. Not only is he a sneaky dick, but he even uses Pokemon that aren't his! Sure, he doesn't train them, but he doesn't really have to. Probably wouldn't fit into most parties with a theme like that, but hey, that's why we have...
• The Professional, who is an adult with an actual day job. They might be a nurse or a cop or whatever, but they get their Pokemon from their job and aren't allowed to catch Pokemon for their duties - unregulated Pokemon use is bad, kids. Those things can kill people! That's why their profession supplies the Pokemon they use, at least for work. They might still have a Mr. Mime that does chores at the house or something. This would probably be a broad class with some subclasses and a really super buff Pokemon or two.

Now, let's say we split them up like we did last time.
Now, we have the Pokemaniac, Super Nerd, and Ranger. Between all of them, there's basically nothing they don't know (aside from magic) and they all rely on Pokemon, to an extent. The Pokemaniac and Ranger befriend Pokemon in slightly different ways, while the Super Nerd sees what they did and makes a robot Pikachu out of jealousy or a desire to make more robots in the world. In combat, they all rely almost completely on their Pokemon and making them better, and the same goes for out of combat, mostly. The downside is that only the Super Nerd has any control over what Pokemon he gets. The Ranger might, too, depending on how their mechanics work. The Pokemaniac is basically left to suck GM cock and hope he gets what he wants, but he can at least carry more Pokemon to make up for it.

Our other team consists of the Karate Kid, Psychic, and Burglar/Professional.
This one's also a bit lopsided, as everyone except the Burglar and maybe some variants of Professional can throw down in a fight. The Karate Kid and Psychic both have magic powers that keep them competitive with Pokemon of a similar type, but are far more versatile than them at high levels. The Burglar will be able to steal level appropriate (or possibly inappropriate) Pokemon and support the party in and out of combat, while relying on whatever he's snagged to keep himself safe. In contrast, the Professional just uses their combat training and awesome partner to stomp ass and excel in their chosen fields, requisitioning new partners as needed. They probably also get assistance from their organization so they can keep up out of combat. Aside from the Psychic and Professional, though, there's still a fair amount of GM cocksucking required here... I think most classes need a way to just get Pokemon on their own, although that's a concept that's difficult to reconcile for some classes. Hrm. Hopefully this is better, though?

[Username17]

First of all, I definitely think it's weird as hell that you're dragging your feet on including Nurse Joy and Officer Jenny as distinct character classes. White Mage is a character class that people have liked playing since forever, Nurse Joy's Bulbapedia article is over seven thousand words long, google searching for Nurse Joy fanfic gets fifteen million results, I think she's literally had over a thousand appearances, and I would be genuinely surprised if you could find three trainer classes like Karate Kid that were collectively as popular as Nurse Joy.

The AD&D concept where each party "needed" a Cleric so one of the players "had to" play a Cleric was bad. It's not hard to find a four person party where everyone wants to play a character that is not a Cleric. But that doesn't mean you should hide the option in a drop down menu - "Healer" is still one of the most popular character types in cooperative storytelling games and you'd be tempted to write one in to satisfy demanding players even if there wasn't an in-world justification. But of course, in Pokémon Nurse Joy is so iconic that more people can name her than a strict majority of the series protagonists. For fuck's sake Bonnie and Clemont were main characters for three years and I could not tell you anything about them. But I know who Nurse Joy is. There are Pokémon fans who were born after May left the show and they still know who Nurse Joy is.

It's just old man yelling at clouds territory at this point. You know you have to make Nurse Joy a playable class and there's no reason to hide that fact. It's obvious there's demand for. It's obvious how she contributes to the team. It's obvious how her intrinsic ability set makes her a different character from other characters who happen to meet the same Pokémon during their adventures. Just stop fucking around and give the people what they want.

-Username17