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

[Spiritmon]

About a Misc Mechanic:
- During his first League Tournament attempt in the anime, Ash left Pikachu's pokeball with Professor Oak (i.e. in the PC), but Pikachu stayed out of his ball to watch the tournament.  He wasn't legally allowed to participate as a result, but watching from the sidelines was fine.  Could Nathan do a similar thing with Gallade?

I have that same question @Iron. Since Rose and Chespin wont going to participate as well, they can watch the battle in the sidelines as well?

[Mikaruge108]

- During his first League Tournament attempt in the anime, Ash left Pikachu's pokeball with Professor Oak (i.e. in the PC), but Pikachu stayed out of his ball to watch the tournament. He wasn't legally allowed to participate as a result, but watching from the sidelines was fine. Could Nathan do a similar thing with Gallade?

Same here for Noire/Banette
{Pokemon personalities and notes:
Noire (Banette♀): Doesn't like being in her Pokeball, like Ash's Pikachu.}

[Dragonstrike]

For clarification, guys, I'm only really asking because Gallade's similar to Ash's Pikachu in some ways.  Gallade doesn't like being in his pokeball/the PC for long periods of time unless he absolutely has to be (and this tournament lasts all day).  I can count the number of times he's been put in the PC or his Pokeball for more than a moment (not including whenever he's been KOed) on one hand each.

I'll understand if Iron doesn't allow it since it's basically a Pandora's Box situation, and allowing it if he has something planned means things might be a little easier than originally intended due to technically having 7 (or more) pokemon on hand.  However, I wanted to ask because I have some very good in character reasons to do so (at least, I think they're good IC reasons...)

[Iron]

A few questions, @Iron.

About the tournament mechanics:
- Just to double check, for those of us who caught more than 6 pokemon in the Safari Zone, we can switch around our party of 6 in between battles, right?
- How many battles would you have to win to get, 3rd, 2nd, and 1st Place?
- Is it possible that two PCs could eventually end up matched against each other?
- When you said Nurse Joy can heal up to -2 Pain in between battles, does that mean up to half of the pokemon's max HP?

About Move Mechanics:
- How does Assurance's damage buff work?  Like in the book, where it is almost a different move entirely and functions like Revenge/Avalanche?  Like in the games where it does more damage to a target that's already been damaged in the same Round?  Or like in Mystery Dungeon, where it functions like Brine because of mechanical reasons?  (I'm asking because it baffles me why the writers decided to completely reverse the move's concept.  If they were going to change how it works because it's confusing/difficult to pull off/incredibly powerful if it's too simplified, then why not do what Mystery Dungeon did and make it more like Brine?)
- What are the exact homebrewed mechanics for Thrash and other Rampage type moves?  Randomly determining how many hits it does is incredibly awkward if you take other actions before using the Rampage move since you have to declare how many actions you're making before you start attacking.  (Windos has his own solution for the Celadon Campaign, but it bends the rules a little and might not be suitable for this campaign)
- How do Roar, Whirlwind, and other phasing moves work in and out of Trainer battles after they've been used?  Do they immediately end the Round, or could the phaser continue attacking after forcing their opponent to switch out in less rules heavy battles?  (this question also sorta applies to U-turn and other Switcher type moves)

About a Misc Mechanic:
- During his first League Tournament attempt in the anime, Ash left Pikachu's pokeball with Professor Oak (i.e. in the PC), but Pikachu stayed out of his ball to watch the tournament.  He wasn't legally allowed to participate as a result, but watching from the sidelines was fine.  Could Nathan do a similar thing with Gallade?

Yes, you can switch between battles.

First place will be 5 battles won. 2nd place goes to the person in the matchup against first place. Third place is a result of the two top-tier losers duking it out.

Two PCs could have to fight each other, but I'm going to seed you all against NPCs to begin with.

Nurse Joy can fully heal a Pokemon as long as it hasn't been reduced to 1 hp or less. Doesn't include (illegal) lethal damage but does include burns, paralysis, poison.

Assurance works like in the book, so it almost always gets the buff.

I don't understand the problem with Rampage. You get to determine how many rounds it lasts. Sometimes I roll to see which opponent it targets.

We've talked about U-Turn and switcher moves before, like Ally Switch. They're just kinda bad in my campaign because they end the round immediately - other than that, not many consequences.

If you wanted to use Gallade, you could just hand his Pokeball to Shiva if she agrees. Otherwise he is allowed to watch the tournament, but he'll take up a party slot. That's not really a big problem because you're still getting 5 legit Pokemon for filling 2 slots. Nbd since it's singles.
Oh, I could also have Tramp and Belle come watch - they have 9 free slots between them.
The League requires that someone be in control of a Pokemon's Pokeball at all times.

[Iron]

Hm, did I say anything yet about using held items in Safari Cup?

[Dragonstrike]

I don't understand the problem with Rampage. You get to determine how many rounds it lasts. Sometimes I roll to see which opponent it targets.

We've talked about U-Turn and switcher moves before, like Ally Switch. They're just kinda bad in my campaign because they end the round immediately - other than that, not many consequences.

If you wanted to use Gallade, you could just hand his Pokeball to Shiva if she agrees. Otherwise he is allowed to watch the tournament, but he'll take up a party slot. That's not really a big problem because you're still getting 5 legit Pokemon for filling 2 slots. Nbd since it's singles.
Oh, I could also have Tramp and Belle come watch - they have 9 free slots between them.
The League requires that someone be in control of a Pokemon's Pokeball at all times.

Mostly that the mechanics haven't really been specified since none of us have actually seriously attempted to use a Rampage move so far.  The book operates off of the assumption that the player is determining if they're going to use it 2 or 3 times in the same Round, so there's no inherent problem with, say, using a Thrash after using two Tackles.  Or using a Tackle, Thrash, and then Tackle again.  By randomly determining how many times a Rampage move hits instead, you'd have to determine how many times Thrash will hit at the start of the Round so you could adjust the accuracy for all the prior moves accordingly from what I can tell.  And unless declaring 4 actions automatically makes the Rampage move hit twice, you can only declare a maximum of 3 actions in the event that the Rampage move hits 3 times.  Unless any unused uses of the Rampage move carry over to the next Round like Flinching does, declaring 4 or 5 Actions with one of them being a Rampage might overflow the number of allowed Actions per Round.

Basically, I'm just asking for clarification on the mechanics of the homebrewed rules.  If we're going to add a degree of randomness to it, I'd like to know how we're going to account for the things that are out of our control.  Excess actions, accounting for multi-action accuracy penalties properly, stuff like that.

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In the case of Roar, Whirlwind, Circle Throw, and Dragon Tail, would they still end the Round immediately, or could the pokemon continue to attack whatever they forced to come out after using them?  Or could they declare more actions in the event the move fails and they need to continue battling?  (In other words, do Switcher Moves always have to be the last move the pokemon uses in the Round?  I don't remember if we clarified that or not.  I remember that we clarified that the opponent doesn't have to stop attacking after U-turn and such are used, and that could be used to trigger Flash Fire and similar)

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Tramp and Belle would be a perfect solution in this case.

Good to know the Creshire League has that policy.  *takes notes*

[Dragonstrike]

Hm, did I say anything yet about using held items in Safari Cup?

As far as I'm aware, no.

I've been assuming no Potions and such as well during the battles, based on the ruleset.

[Iron]

I don't understand the problem with Rampage. You get to determine how many rounds it lasts. Sometimes I roll to see which opponent it targets.

We've talked about U-Turn and switcher moves before, like Ally Switch. They're just kinda bad in my campaign because they end the round immediately - other than that, not many consequences.

If you wanted to use Gallade, you could just hand his Pokeball to Shiva if she agrees. Otherwise he is allowed to watch the tournament, but he'll take up a party slot. That's not really a big problem because you're still getting 5 legit Pokemon for filling 2 slots. Nbd since it's singles.
Oh, I could also have Tramp and Belle come watch - they have 9 free slots between them.
The League requires that someone be in control of a Pokemon's Pokeball at all times.

Mostly that the mechanics haven't really been specified since none of us have actually seriously attempted to use a Rampage move so far.  The book operates off of the assumption that the player is determining if they're going to use it 2 or 3 times in the same Round, so there's no inherent problem with, say, using a Thrash after using two Tackles.  Or using a Tackle, Thrash, and then Tackle again.  By randomly determining how many times a Rampage move hits instead, you'd have to determine how many times Thrash will hit at the start of the Round so you could adjust the accuracy for all the prior moves accordingly from what I can tell.  And unless declaring 4 actions automatically makes the Rampage move hit twice, you can only declare a maximum of 3 actions in the event that the Rampage move hits 3 times.  Unless any unused uses of the Rampage move carry over to the next Round like Flinching does, declaring 4 or 5 Actions with one of them being a Rampage might overflow the number of allowed Actions per Round.

Basically, I'm just asking for clarification on the mechanics of the homebrewed rules.  If we're going to add a degree of randomness to it, I'd like to know how we're going to account for the things that are out of our control.  Excess actions, accounting for multi-action accuracy penalties properly, stuff like that.

-----------------------

In the case of Roar, Whirlwind, Circle Throw, and Dragon Tail, would they still end the Round immediately, or could the pokemon continue to attack whatever they forced to come out after using them?  Or could they declare more actions in the event the move fails and they need to continue battling?  (In other words, do Switcher Moves always have to be the last move the pokemon uses in the Round?  I don't remember if we clarified that or not.  I remember that we clarified that the opponent doesn't have to stop attacking after U-turn and such are used, and that could be used to trigger Flash Fire and similar)

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Tramp and Belle would be a perfect solution in this case.

Good to know the Creshire League has that policy.  *takes notes*

There's no randomness involved nor overflowing nor hitting-dependency. I don't know where you're getting this all from.

Roar does end the round immediately unless it fails, in which case contingencies are fine. I think I've used U-Turn inconsistently - might be simpler just to say the round ends and kinda nerf the move.

[Iron]

Hm, did I say anything yet about using held items in Safari Cup?

As far as I'm aware, no.

I've been assuming no Potions and such as well during the battles, based on the ruleset.

Yeah. No trainer items, just held items.

[Dragonstrike]

There's no randomness involved nor overflowing nor hitting-dependency. I don't know where you're getting this all from.

Roar does end the round immediately unless it fails, in which case contingencies are fine. I think I've used U-Turn inconsistently - might be simpler just to say the round ends and kinda nerf the move.

When ya said you'd houserule some stuff for Rampage in this post and rolled for how many times Thrash would hit when a Larvitar used it in the Little Cup.  We haven't really seen Rampage moves much since then as I recall, so I kinda assumed that houserule was still in effect.  :/  In any case, I misread that last statement you just made, so *derp* on my part.  If that's what we'll be going with, then I'll edit my notes accordingly.

So...how do you want to handle Rampage?

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Haven't really used Switcher moves in battle much at all from what I recall.  That Zoroark that used U-turn did end the Round, though it didn't switch for any other pokemon, just used it to gain a little distance from the battlefield (which isn't an effect that's listed for it, obviously).  Haven't really seen Volt Switch at all, either (and I question why the writers made it 2 Power when U-turn is 3 due to being 70+ Power and the moves are the same power in the games. Yeah, most pokemon that learn U-turn naturally don't get STAB on it and all three of the natural Volt Switch users all get STAB on it, but come one, was that nerf really necessary?), but I might consider teaching it to Emolga depending on how we handle the Switcher effect. Juliet also knows U-turn, but regardless of how we handle Switcher effects, that's a beneficial move for her if she can use it to bow out of her performance/get away from Dark types ASAP.  Also wouldn't make much sense to end the Round if the Switcher effect doesn't work, for obvious reasons.

Whether you send in a new pokemon right away (even though they can't fight until the next Round, making Switcher moves risky/mean to use before the end of a Round) or the Round ends and then you send in a new pokemon (and whether either side of the battlefield can switch pokemon as normal as well) has a big effect on how beneficial/dangerous the Switcher effect is in Pokerole.

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Better to get the clarification on all of this now since we have Roar, Whirlwind, and Thrash using pokemon at our fingertips, and the mechanics of these moves might very well be put to the test very, very soon.