[Meta Thread] Pokerole Mystery Dungeon: Primal Shadows

[Lord Windos]

You know, a little headsup next time would be very much appreciated @Dragonstrike. Like "Spiritmon. Windos. Are you sure you want to along with this? Really sure?" Or maybe just ask us a roll to notice something that could not be good or could give us a Point in Primal. Since with the danger in loose our characters to become Primal against a Pokemon who stop us in use healing items (which, sorry to say this, I feel it is unfair. Its a Gigantamax Pokemon with tons of HP, buffed stats, all attacks is AoE, and one of the things who could give us a extra survivevality against such powerfull pokemon is shutdown. Not cool man. Not cool.)

*Sigh* At least we now aware of this information before engage on a battle against Sandaconda. Its better know now than later in the middle of the fight when we could loose a precious action only to try to heal, so thats a positive thing. This change my idea of pun.

In terms of survival, we can only rely Karen Heal Pulse, Life Dew, and other healing moves. Speaking of healing I think Karen could give a bit of healing to Platina before we go to our death battle.

It's not great, but Dragonstrike ultimately decided to make G-Max Sandaconda more of a lesson for me and the rest of the group than I truly expected. The fact the Big Snek is optional and that I don't really care about the Primal point gain outside of how inappropriate it feels to get it like I did are what is keeping me from being anything more than mildly irritated. Also, he did give me something akin to a warning in some PMs he sent, just not (to me) clear ones, to clarify to everyone.

Yeah, it's a pretty raw deal to have Item Usage, a core mechanic of Pokerole and Pokemon Games in general, be turned into a liability if it decides to spam that Shadow Embargo on us every chance we get, but to their credit Dragonstrike has at least used my own Actions to give us this info ahead of time, rather than springing it on us mid-fight. That, and the Big Snek Fight is an Optional Super Boss by their explicit admission - high risk, high reward (in this case, XP + Potential Loot + Having Raiders with us throughout the MD) is what it's all about. We can skip them if we simply want to, as a group, say 'no' to said PD bullshit, even if that thought upsets me on what we're missing out on due to said BS.

It reminds me of the time Iron sprang the horde of Mushroom Mons down in Mt Sentry on us, and used that to justify nerfing Sleep - it exploited a mechanic that is plain awful to deal with in the enemy hands to force a more perilous Encounter and/or us to find ways to circumvent it. While avoiding a unfavorable fight is a legit and often times smart choice in TTRPGs and the like - you don't fight the BBEG while your party is still Lv 1, for instance - the opportunity cost of doing so and the whys of it make just Torchic-ening out leave such a bitter taste in my mouth. We can just do like we did with the Mushrooms and avoid it altogether, and that would honestly be more of a good idea for the group as a whole than to more likely than not SUFFER, but that (to me, at least) feels like such a massive letdown and like I'm being cheated out of a what SHOULD be a epic fight because of such a serious 'Gotcha!' looming over our PCs heads like a sword of Damocles. 

Heck, I'll go out on a limb here and say that I'd probably not irritated at all about the Item Block if it didn't get paired with the abysmal Primal Mechanics and getting the Party Shadowed if they push their luck too much. It's not too dissimilar to Lethal Damage in concept, but in execution Primal Mechanics are worse - the PC is stuck with a eventually Game Ending demerit that can actually permanently delete Stat points (Logic) and is extremely costly to remove if one doesn't want to rely on GM fiat to get it cleared. Having such a dire consequence baked into the game itself can make for some compelling RP and challenges as well as a nice way of enforcing some discipline in players, I will admit, but PC Permadeath - like mechanics rarely feel good or 'fair' , especially when used to gatekeep content.

To clarify to @Dragonstrike , I'm not trying to be mean about my criticism or your decisions regarding the Big Snek. I'm just offering it as a point of discussion for everyone and to explain my own feelings on the matter. While skipping out on a good fight or having to relieve the 'good old days' of PD + Consequence shenanigans is a bit of a Morton's Fork of a choice, it is still just as you said - a choice. One you've done a good job elaborating as much as you can about without totally giving away what the super boss can do and spoil that fight entirely/completely railroad the players away from it. If nothing else I can respect and like that sort of thoughtful game design and the freedom you're giving us - I'm just being irritable about how severe you're making it out to be and out of my own distaste for PD anything not in the players hands. You're doing a good job, mate, so keep it up.