[Meta thread] Iron's PokeRole Adventure: The Skull Ruins

[Iron]

I think the biggest issue is just getting XP spread around to the multiple Pokemon in a party, when we make it through a limited number of battles per week.

[Dragonstrike]

I think the biggest issue is just getting XP spread around to the multiple Pokemon in a party, when we make it through a limited number of battles per week.

Yeah, that's the part I'm most worried about, myself.

[Dies Irae]

It'll get faster as foes get tougher and trainers get stronger.

Eventually, a Pokemon might get 8 xp per wild battle instead of 2.

Also, training rolls get really good later - imagine you are training your Pokemon in Fighting and you have Fight 3, Str 3 - you get to roll 6 dice for how many XP your Pokemon gains, every 2 or 3 trainings.

@Dies Irae , the Pokerole admins say they'd have had Machop fully able to use Karate Chop, with just a -1 penalty to accuracy.

As I was discussing with Dragonstrike earlier via PM, there is  unfortunately a huge problem with Pokerole as an early game system from the way I see it.

Pain Penalties are my biggest beef with the system. There's a massive rocket-tag problem in the early stages since you basically have jack for move-pools and the slightest graze drops you to 50/50s or a chance die for move success.  Whoever takes a damage lead shrinks the opponent's option pool further, even as a character basically built around multi-action damage avoidance, taking 2-3 points of damage causes multi-actions to become utterly unreliable or even non-feasible. (And if you're not specialized for combat, even single actions.) 


Taking my own fight history into consideration: Both the Meowth and Mankey fights were basically one-sided shut-outs because I was focusing on locking down the numbers in my favor. The moment damage pushes through ala. Winston vs Paras or Sieg vs Machop, the whole fight falls apart entirely.

If you have an opponent with a large damaging move, whether via high strength, STAB, or just big hits and the move connects, unless you're rolling straight sixes (which has admittedly happened: See Ventus vs Poliwag and Larry vs... Well... Anything really), you're heading for the shower.

Compounding the problem is that at it's core, it's a damage race system with no chance of recovery short of throwing money at problems (IE. Recovery Items) once you start taking damage, since unlike the WoD system it was based on, it's a ritualized dueling system, so there's no option to bring a gun to a knife fight or stage an ambush or even get all that creative with terrain since most duels take place in a small confined area.

Since the game economy is literally built around competitive dueling, there's a huge death spiral if you lose a fight in the early game, since cash is hard to come by and using healing items in a fight designed to earn you character resources is actually self-defeating given the all-or-nothing nature of curatives currently.

I considered using a Potion in said Pidgey fight, but then I realized 'what's the point', if I was trying to build a resource pool. Burning a $200 curative for a chance at winning a $200 prize pool is self-defeating.

You can't fight, so your move pool is terrible, so you can't fight.

Trainers getting harder won't solve the problem IMO, because... it doesn't matter if the rewards behind the wall are getting bigger, if the wall you already are struggling to get over gets higher.

[Dies Irae]

Mind you. Let me just make this clear that it isn't because I'm not having fun.

Just that at my core, once I do a deep dive into a game system, I end up trying to grok the mechanics. (It comes withe the job unfortunately. Sitting down to understand how Tails of Equestria works was not how I want to spend a day. Trust me.) There's plenty of systems with huge holes in them out there. Nothing as egregious as Cthulhutech's critical failure chance spiking to 20% when you ADD ranks to a skill for the first time or 3rd Edition D&D's Linear Fighter, Quadratic Wizard problem, but I sort of make it a point to catalogue them as I see it.

And these are systems I enjoy.

[Iron]

Right! And we will still build a nice story within these strugglebus mechanics. I'll certainly mess around with the numbers a lot, like money and XP, to fit what I envision the curve being like.

The Elite Four, for example, should be maxed out fighters - and anyone who challenges them needs to be close. So in 6 gym badges, you will hopefully have enough XP and "magic items" to get you up to their level.

When adventuring between routes, it's boring if you have to avoid fights because your Pokemon are always hurt. So that's one reason I decided to double the healing rate, make berries automatic, and make an option for the RV. But you have to balance that against a sense of danger.

Trainers giving out more XP will help though - once you're at a level where move selection becomes so critical, it will be faster to pick up those 45xp moves. If the curve is right, it might even take the same number of battles to learn a high level move as it did to learn a low level move (3ish).

Like you said though, there definitely seem to be a few issues, but that's what I'd expect from an amateur rulebook for a world that isn't even very serious.

[Iron]

Nathan and Ponyta get 2xp each from the Kierkegaard battle, since they were alive during the round Cubchoo was defeated and contributed to the fight.

Oshawott gets 4xp and Larry gets 2xp.

[Iron]

Let's see, I haven't awarded character Xp in a while. Maybe I'll have a tradition of doing a 3 Day Roundup.

Shiva, I liked your Plusle and Minun encounter, because you really described how you tried to get them to join you. I also like how you always give your thoughts on other players, but stick to an internal monologue, and are hesitant with sharing out loud. That sticks to your character concept, plus it takes advantage of the forum format. Forumat. 3Xp

Ventus, we saw a bit of your backstory, and it caused some tensions, but those are starting to be resolved. We got lectures, we got freakouts, but most important of all, we got the mental image of a professor sitting with a cow on the roof of a moving RV. 3xp.

Larry Larry Larry. As such a knowledgeable character, I suggest that you spend a bit of your precious Internet time googling more info on matchups, and looking at the first posts and GM posts to make sure you know what's going on. I know you can't post as much as you'd like and that's OK. Anyway, I think the Rachel encounter went well, and I want to see more of what it means to you that you're related to May! I especially liked "No wonder my uncle is always pressuring me." And you sprited your character. 1 XP

Dragonstrike, I like that fainting to you is a big deal. I think that's how it would be in the world, which is why I had Nurse Joy explain that in the very first ever battle. You seem emotionally attached to your wishlist Pokemon and not just mechanically attached. Nathan truly deserves to have a Feelings Pokemon. 3 XP

Vincent is developing nicely. You play your Fight score tactically, you make combats interesting with flavor and multiple actions. We see some of the father figure he was hired to be, and lots and lots of the cynical cop Vincent can never escape. It makes me laugh whenever he criticizes Mallorn. Vincent is good to his Pokemon and obviously wants them to be the best they can be. Also interested to see where the inner cop goes. 3 XP.

Thanks for always posting your mechanics, that saves me a lot of time and reduces errors.

[Dragonstrike]

Dragonstrike, I like that fainting to you is a big deal. I think that's how it would be in the world, which is why I had Nurse Joy explain that in the very first ever battle. You seem emotionally attached to your wishlist Pokemon and not just mechanically attached. Nathan truly deserves to have a Feelings Pokemon. 3 XP

Oh yeah, fainting is a HUGE deal in Pokerole.  Particularly with the base rules.  8 hours of being unable to use the pokemon unless you have a (max) revive, unless the GM says otherwise.  With Nathan's character, I seek to explore a lot of the emotions he'll feel along the journey, and they'll drive some of the decisions he makes.  His pokemon are going to be a lot like that too as long as I can think of something for them.  That's why I'm fleshing out my character sheet with a ton of extra information.  It's essentially a collection of everything Nathan knows.  And he knows a lot about pokemon and the history of the pokemon world (all self taught though, so there will be times where he doesn't know something).  

In addition, the team members so far are some of my favorites IRL.  Gallade is my #1 fav, and Starmie and Rapidash are rather high on the list too.  Absol is my 3rd fav, and Lurantis is my 2nd (though I didn't mention it before since Alolan pokemon are likely to be incredibly rare based on the spread of wild pokemon you described). Metagross is another one of my favorites. There's some others too, but those are the most significant ones at this point in time with potential relation to this roleplay and my absolute top favs so far.  

The other major point is Nathan's dislike of catching wild pokemon at random.  If he catches something, I want it to mean something to him during the capture, not just after.  It makes for some more interesting companions, I think.  Staryu worked out because it was living in the Deyo meadow and was rather alone.

All in all, I've been happy with participating so far, and look forward to the adventures to come!  Let's just hope the dice will be less cruel to Nathan in the future...because let's face it: a good portion of the encounters he's been in have had absolutely terrible rolls.

[Iron]

Yes, the dice have made me laugh many times this game. I swear they treat you guys differently, even though it's usually the same 3 dice I'm rolling, and they have no way of knowing who you guys are.

[Dragonstrike]

I find it funny that first Nathan got Fighting Gloves from Vincent, and now he got Warm gloves from Kierkegaard. Maybe Nathan can start a glove collection of some kind? He's already got a few parallels to me IRL, so him developing a habit of wearing gloves fairly often would be a pretty funny parallel too