[Meta Thread] Pokerole Mystery Dungeon: Primal Shadows

[Spiritmon]

Spoiler

So many neat adventures and characters.  I'm a little envious, lol.  

To answer Spirit's questions, majority of my own roleplay experience is here on these forums (no need for me to describe these, lol), plus whatever I've learned from watching others play TTRPGs.  If you hadn't figured by now, I tend to lean more towards Good characters when I'm a player, though I've dipped into Neutral territory with some as well (though I'm not opposed to fitting characters into other archetypes if it fits the campaign better).

Definitely big 'why can't I hold all these ttrpg campaigns?!' energy since I'd love to do more, but don't quite have the time to dedicate to committing to another online campaign due to a lack of physical options (for varying reasons).  You're in *five* other campaigns though, Spirit?  *whistles*

I can you see playing some kind of good alighment Paladin or Cleric. Maybe a Fighter with some Knight background heh.

Yeah, you play some good alightment chars. I think the closest char to a more "evil" alightment was Reiner. He was more or less Lawful evil in the start of Windos campaigh but then swift to Neutral or Neutral Good by its end. Although some could argue he was "neutral" in the start of the campaigh, doing whatever he desire and think was more right, regardless of breaking rules...And he was not exatcly loyal to Team Rocket, and was only Evil in certain key moments.

To be honest I not so sure was alightment he was.

But Nathan? Hmm....Either Neutral Good or Lawful Good me thinks. He have some loyalty to his friends and region. And some morality more in kin to rules. 

And about me be in five campaighs? I need to keep my head occupied with some campaighs to keep my creativity flowing. Even more with the slow updates in the campaigh so I want to keep my desire to play rpg flowing. And I was in five campaighs. Certain events happened and the DM who is my friend and hosting two campaighs I been participating quit DMing. Been over a year I been playing one of his campaighs so it was a shock to me

[PhantomUnderYourDesk]

W-where do you people take the energy and time from to play in five or even seven RPG campaigns, that's impressive to hear for me! (0.0; ) Or maybe I'm just either low on energy and creativity due to putting so much time into other hobbies like art projects...? And due to my tendency of putting lots of thoughts into my character's reaction to things + their feelings as well as getting attached to fellow characters easily, which also costs energy and time... *nervous laughter* I'd guess roleplaying via improvising wouldn't be something I'd enjoy nor be very good at, but haven't tried it before; all roleplaying I've done so far has always been via text.

[Spiritmon]

Spoiler

W-where do you people take the energy and time from to play in five or even seven RPG campaigns, that's impressive to hear for me! (0.0; ) Or maybe I'm just either low on energy and creativity due to putting so much time into other hobbies like art projects...? And due to my tendency of putting lots of thoughts into my character's reaction to things + their feelings as well as getting attached to fellow characters easily, which also costs energy and time... *nervous laughter* I'd guess roleplaying via improvising wouldn't be something I'd enjoy nor be very good at, but haven't tried it before; all roleplaying I've done so far has always been via text.

Caffeine. And lots of inspiration in create background of characters. I have a tendency of brainstorm the characters: What abilities they could use to aid the group. How useful he could be. And how much fun I could have with this guy? What kind of flaws he will have? And I little recover min/maxer, so I still have some tendencies to try make a very strong char. Windos can confirm that based in the stories I told him and how you can break the DM table with some combos.

But the more important trace: What kind of plot hooks I could be free in my backstory to let the DM use later? Maybe a story of revenge against a old partner of mine who stab me and left to die? A story of a tormented warrior who is trying to get redemption? A person whose wife cheated on him to a Farmer of potatoes, and he became a Paladin with a Vengeance Oath against all potatoes in the world!

Yeah. I like to go wild in create characters backstory. I don't have talent in art so I try use writing to compensate what I lack. And I have a tendency to attach to characters too. Be of mine creation or from others.

You should try to do some roleplay via improvise Phantom. It is a nice change of pace, trust me. I had a certain trouble at first when I started playing d&d since I more used to roleplay via text. But I get used and then I begin to roleplay a bit better.

[Spiritmon]

Also Windos, you have your messages box full mate.

[Lord Windos]

Also Windos, you have your messages box full mate.

It's clear now.

[Dragonstrike]

Apologies for the delay on updates.  Horizon: Forbidden West came out recently and started sucking up my time, lol.  That, and I've also been working on a little project for the UCC discord which was also sucking up my time.

[Spiritmon]

Is anyone try to talk with those Pokemon or can we skip the conversation and go to the kick their asses thing. Last time we try to be "civil" with Pokemon in some dungeon, they try to knock us out, take our belongs, and then we had to do some mission for them. I dont know about you people, but I prefer not try to be civil this time because I not in the mood to pass though that situation again. I prefer a honestly battle already.

[PhantomUnderYourDesk]

Valid, but I'd kinda still would like to try talking our way out and be civil with these three wild Pokemon as Kee in particular would like to leave a good impression of Team OS on Espeon and Umbreon, which jumping straight into agression surely does not contribute to. That, and if they're pissed due to the previous Metal Sound by Platina, an apology sounds appropriate - dpeaking of Platina, she's the one leading right now, so what happens is kinda up to her.

Should it come to a battle however, we've clearly got safety in numbers and two experienced Eeveelutions on our side, so it shouldn't be too much of a challenge; at least me thinks so.

[Spiritmon]

Alright. But this time Kogeki will hide in the darkness to attack if necessary. If we gonna be ambushed, at least will be prepared this time.

Is there any place to hide in the dark @Dragonstrike?

[Lord Windos]

Platina's diplomacy so strong it overcomes MD Pokemon Aggression, the Poliwhirl and it's cohorts were THAT dazzled by her, things being weird for untold reasons, or any combination thereof? Who knows, and I hardly care at this point! Diplomacy wins again, and this time spectacularly so!

Concerning the Pokemon here....we have a choice between Arrowkunda and Horsea at the get go. Platina could maybe try to convince them all to join and/or Poliwhirl instead, but I don't want to push my luck here and IC she probably doesn't want to come across ungrateful nor disrespectful towards Poliwhirl's generosity by making the attempt. *Claps hands* SO, which one does everyone want? To give a brief overview of them (going off their latest gen stats):

Arrowkunda
- Has access to Aqua Jet (presumably) and Peck at the get go, the former awesome because it's STAB Priority, and the later nice because it covers one of their Two weak matchups.
- Most likely has access to Fury Attack, and maybe Bite - Multi-Hit attacks are great in general, and Bite is a Flitch Move that can cover for Kogeki's weakness towards Ghosts/Psychics if we bring them along later. If they don't have either one or both avaliable at the start then it's pretty easy to get them later via XP or increasing their Instinct.
- Learns Dive and Laser Focus later on - the former is a HM with potentially interesting applications in exploration and combat - remember, the Accuracy is only Rolled when Dig-Like Moves does its Damage Roll, so you can just use it/Order them to use it as their Last Action to both bypass Action Cost to an extent and make it as Accurate as Possible next Round! Laser Focus, on the other hand....well it COULD be pretty busted with Fury Attack if its effect applied to ALL the hits done, but otherwise it probably has some interesting out-of-combat applications given it's description.
- Arrowkunda Evolves relatively quickly at Lv 26, which means if we focus on getting it to that point then they'll have access to Evolution Stat Boosts MUCH quicker than other Pokemon + Throat Chop, ANOTHER Move that has interesting outside the box applications (Silencing a Mob with a Stealth Attack to prevent them from sounding an Alert, anyone?)
- Overall gets most of it's value as it is right now, needing very little investment beyond getting Furry Attack + Bite and maybe Dive unless we want to try to Evolve them, making them an excellent companion in terms of XP and Time Cost efficiency.

Horsea
- Gets only Bubble at the get go, though to be fair it's a Spread Attack and they likely have a decent Special Attack Stat to make it work for them. The rare DEX drop is nice too!
- Most likely has Smokescreen and Leer, the former of which we already know how good it can be if we recall it's usage in my old campaign and the fact it's a blanket Accuracy Debuff (in order words, pretty fricking strong), and the other is a blanket Defense debuff (bad for it, great for the rest of the group!).
- Gets Water Gun and Twister for bellow 20 XP, which means their easy to get regardless if they have enough Instinct for them. Twister is Spread Flitch, and therefore excellent and can do no wrong except against Fairies.
- Gets Bubblebeam at Lv 21, which isn't all that great in Pokerole when it already has access to Bubble and Water Gun, even in the Limit Action Combat Style Dragonstrike employs. Still it's another cheap Water Move, so it's somethng!
- Focus Energy is a great pick later on if/when we get a Scope Lens to put on Horsea, as it means all their Moves Crit with 3 Successes or More, which with a bit of investment in their Combat Stats would be piss easy to make it happen frequently enough.
- Gets Brine, which is.....a rather powerful Move for finishing off Pokemon, but it's cost of 31 XP makes getting it almost prohensively expensive unless we take them with us on ALL of our quests from this point on.
- Evolves twice: Once into Seadra at Lv 32, and finally into Kingdra if we send them in with a Dragon Scale to Evolution Island. The former isn't all that great Movewise enough to justify getting them imo, but Kingdra is generally AWESOME for it's Dual Typing and access to STAB Dragon Moves (such as, say, Draco Meteor?) . Trouble is EVOLVING Horsea first and then finding a Dragon Scale, but that's the price for DRACONIC POWER, I'm afraid.
- Has access to Sniper as a 2nd Ability. Once/if it has Focus Energy and Scope Lens those Crits will become MENACING, but until then it's only an rare-to-occasional buff.

Both Arrowkunda and Horsea have access to Agility as a Move, and Swift Swim as an Ability. Arrowkunda has access to his far earlier than Horsea, though, so that's a point in its favor. Swift Swim is amazingly strong, as it effectively gives the Pokemon + 2 DEX and + 1 Damage Dice to all their Moves when Rain is up (or the Pokemon are in Water too, perhaps?), but finding a TM/Tutor of Rain Dance will be a tough ask unless we get lucky.

So what's my verdict on this? If we just want a strong Water type, go with Arrowkunda, since they are much easier to use and invest in over Horsea on the whole. If we want more Spread Move users and a potential late-game powerhouse in the form of Kingdra, however, then we should go with Horsea and make it our plan to include it in our group at all times or send it out constantly on missions/training tasks to start the XP process. I personally lean towards Arrowkunda since we already got Kee (and eventually Platina later) for Spread Damage. But that's just my thougths - what are yours mates?