What is this?
This is pokemon tabletop United- A tabletop based around the pokemon universe, PTU itself being based on Stark's pokemon tabletop adventures. You can find a link to a download with a zip containing all the information (such as the core book, as well as expansion books) here.
If you're unfamiliar with the system, I'd advice to at least read the core book so that you may get a basic gist. Of course, if you don't like pokemon (or declared it dead after the first generation) this game is probably not for you.
The region
The game takes place in the Trinity Isles region (a self-created region)- So named after the large center island, "Trinity Island"- Which in turn gets it's name due to the fact that it is split up into three distinct parts by a massive mountain range- Restricting travel between the island's regions mostly to either boat or flight. Several other, smaller island surround Trinity Island, some inhabited, a few even housing gyms, but many abandoned besides wild pokemon life- Though without a doubt, the most interesting off all is Trinity Island itself.
There is the North-Western part- The majority of this part being elevated on a high plateau, covered in snow and ice, it is certainly the least hospitable region of the three. Still, people live here, though mostly sticking to the shore- Serving as fisherman and industry.
There is the North-Eastern part. Here, poor soil has turned most of the land in rocky slopes, and desert, though a few forests manage to prevail. This region mostly thrives in it's mining industry.
And finally, there is the Southern part- A part rich in flora, and housing the majority of the people living on the island- As well, near the base of where the mountain ranges meet, and a central point between all other cities, the capital- Isosceles city. Where this adventure will begin...
As a player, you will be partaking in the "tournament"- An event the league hosts bi-yearly, in which youngsters are given a few pokemon and allowed to demonstrate their worth by partaking in a few practice battles. The winners are then given a trainer card, allowing them to raise pokemon, as well as participate in battles and all that that entails.
Naturally, as a player you will be exiting the tournament with a trainer card, and a starter- While some of the exact details you'll have to wait and see, the starter will essentially be either one of the three pokemon you are given for the duration of the event (The other two returned afterwards) OR one of your own pokemon. (People are allowed to own one pokemon as a pet/protector even without a trainer card, though are obviously not allowed to battle with them.)
There is not much difference in which of the two would be the case for your character besides fluff, and the latter being a prerequisite if you'd want to take kinmansship as one of the two starter traits. But I'm getting ahead of myself here, I'll talk about that in a bit.
Classes
We will of course be using all the core classes, as well as any of the other main expansion books. (game of throhs, do porygon dream of mareep, the blessed and the damned) The one exception to this is the upgrader class, which I think is a bit too high-tech for the setting of the campaign. (Most of the other do porygon dream of mareep classes would also be more experimental rather than everyday things, though they would probably exist.)
And yes, the blessed and Damned DOES mean that I will be including legendaries in the game, and hence that you can take any of those features (Except Usurper probably)
Note a few things here, however! Firstly, while I am including legendaries in the game, this doesn't mean I'm going to start by throwing them at you- If you're interested in taking up one of the classes, you'd probably best be prepared to wait for a while.
Secondly, notice the gifts your legendary would give you. Firstly to make sure that they'd fit your character and secondly because if it's a feature that I consider too powerful (such as Victini's V-create, to quote an extreme example) I will almost definitely replace it with something else. If you're interested in a legendary and are in doubt whether this'd might apply, ask.
Finally one of the things I am asking for character creation are some of the legendaries you'd like to ally with (assuming you even have any interest in them- Do note that you can get some benefits of them even without taking up a class!) for the express purpose that I'd know what your character would like. With that being said, if you'd give me only Arceus, it's not going to be my fault if you'll never find a legendary to ally with. Hence that I'd recommend taking at least one "lesser" legendary.
Oh and finally, I will be allowing homebrew, with my express permission.
Homebrew stuff
It should be noted that I'll be doing a few homebrew things, be it to make the game "fit" better in a forum format or just small things which I think might be interesting, most of which we'll go along as the game progresses. Though don't worry, once we'll create an OOC thread, I'll try to keep all this information compiled there.
There is one major change though that I will share now- I've made some changes to the injury system, mostly pertaining to pokemon.
Pokemon are now more durable and do not take an injury at hitting the 50% mark- They do still take injuries for being knocked out, every 50% after that, and taking massive damage. This only applies to pokemon, not trainers or npc's.
Secondly, from three injuries and more you now take a -1 combat stage penalty in a random stat per injury. Healing this injury removes this effect. Additionally, the regular "heavily injured" is backed up to taking place once you have 6 injuries or more. This applies to both trainers and pokemon.
Keep in mind that this is just a test, and I reserve the right to change it any moment. I reserve that right for all rules of course, but these two especially, be it for better or worse.
TLDR, how do I sign up already
Firstly, you should probably read what I wrote, there's some important stuff in there.
On a serious note, there is no need to fill in an entire character sheet yet (Mostly because I'm still unsure how I am going to decide who gets to play and who doesn't, unless there's a manageable amount of applicants)- Though I know some of you won't be able to resist, so here is the google doc template we'll be using for the campaign. Made by a bunch of awesome people I can't be bothered to remind myself of right now.
Regardless, what I'd ask (at least) is the following:
Name:
Age/Sex:
General character idea/Introduction:
Starter:
Preferred legendaries:
As I've already explained legendaries above, a bit more about starters. Your starter will start at level 10, and has an ability and nature of your choice. Additionally, to make your pokemon stand out from the crowd, you may give your starter two starter traits, provided by the wonderful Nioca. I am being a bit rude here by assuming he'd be fine with it rather than asking first, but I only realized that's something I probably should do when I already wrote all this... So sorry Nioca, hope you don't mind!
And that's the main gist of it! As for how I'm eventually going to pick who's going to play... Well, as I said, I'm not sure yet.
My original idea was to actually have players compete in the tournament, the losers falling off. Then I realized that would probably be a bit unfair, a lot of it being dependant on luck, not to mention the fact it could form eternal rivalries amongst the players that fought each other. Or that it'd be a bit of a douche move to get to "play" your character for a bit only to get kicked out upon losing.
So... I guess we'll see how I'll do it. I might just be biased and take the characters I'd find most interesting. Or go to the old classic dice-rolling to decide.
With that being said, sign-ups will run until at least the sixth- I'll be answering questions for the next few days, but am going on a five day trip from the 1st to the 5th- Whether I can close sign-ups then or if there's other matters to be discussed we'll have to see then.
I think I finally got through with everything I wanted to say though so... Any questions?