Paizomon: Pokémon Tabletop United Kingmaker

Game Master Maeve Agreste

This thread is for OOC discussion. Please use it and refrain from discussing OOC in the game thread.

I guess I should make an Alias now, huh?

Same here! It'll be hard to find an appropriate avatar...

Good list, GM! Loving your selections.

It might be best to not use an avatar on your alias at all, though that is up to you all.

Aww and I found a great one on the first page.

Why would we not use avatars?

Checking in! Will create an alias later.

Meanwhile—looks like we have an apricorn grower, which means I'll keep apricorn balls, and we can craft new pokeballs as we run out. All good!

Checking in, will be making a profile in a minute. Thanks for selecting me Maeve.

Yup, but I guess I'll need the portable grower for travelling though, else we will have to wait until we've settled some and I can get my garden/farm going.

I found one that fits Yarek, besides the avatar of Rocan himself though.

And here. (Traveling this weekend, though, don't know how much I'll be around).

Some notes on base stat relations for pokemon:
-Andra: I think your cubone needs to have more points in Def than Atk, and more in Atk than SpDef
-Faraday: I think your Pichu needs more points in SpDef and Spd than in HP (unless you go overwhelming soul)
-Yarek: I think your Mareep needs more points in Spd than Atk

Also:
-Faraday: If you want to be an occultist, that's fine, but there does seem to be a lot of occult ed in the party, and I noticed you don't seem to be using it for anything (and wasn't sure if it was an oversight). Occult Ed isn't exactly the same as "magic" (which in this setting might also include General, Medical, and Tech Ed); it's focused a lot on psychic, legendary, and religious lore.

Andra's seems right. It doesn't matter how many points are invested in each so long as the final stats follow base relations. Looks like her Cubone's base stat relations are Def>Atk>SpDef=HP>Spd>SpAtk, and her stats follow with 12 Def > 11 Atk > 10 SpDef = 9 HP > 4 Spd > 2 SpAtk.

Same goes for Faraday and Yarek.

I think Faraday's weapon scales off of Occult Ed, but it might only be disarm resistance that scales as far as I can tell. He might need it for some qualifiers later though.

Occult Ed is for Arcane Training, which allows me to use my Arcane Weapon to use my SpAtk for Struggles. I also plan on picking up Arcanist later. I'll take a look at Tesla, though.

EDIT: My Base Relations are fine for Tesla, his order is Spd=SpAtk>SpDef>HP=Atk=Def. As long as my HP isn't highter than my SpDef or my SpDef isn't higher than my SpAtk, my stats are legal.

Oh! Maybe *I* don't understand base stat relations. I thought it meant the points themselves had to follow that relationship?

But I guess not. My bad guys!

Well, in any case, ready to start (though I'm traveling this weekend and may be a bit afk). Sorry again for being an idiot about the rules and mistakenly trying to correct people.

I thought you were more commenting on ideas for the future though.

We'll get rolling today, I just had a somewhat busy day out yesterday. Bought a new couch and had a "bad anime" night with some friends.

Also, to what extent are each of you comfortable with me automating your rolls? I don't want to play the game for you, but I want to be able to keep things rolling as well.

I'm comfortable with automating anything that doesn't exhaust daily abilities or put my character into uncharacteristic danger.

I think I am going to use Roll20 for mapping. I don't plan to use it for rolls, as those will be handled in-thread.

I've imported some sprites for your characters already, but they are by no means a permanent or accurate representation. If you would like to use a sprite of your choosing for your character token, just send it to me and I'll use that instead of these placeholders. You won't be able to control them until after you've joined and I've assigned permissions.

You'll notice the tokens have 2 or 3 bars. The red one is HP, the blue one is Injuries, and the green one is AP. You may use these to keep track of these attributes, but please also track them on your character sheets.

This is the link to join the Roll20 tabletop.

Loving the introductions. We'll be moving forward to Oleg's today. Make sure to post if you haven't and wrap up interactions for a timeskip.

Andra is resigning, which is fine since I initially called for four anyway. I kind of expected at least one person to drop early, which is why I picked five to be preemptive.

Sorry if I'm moving too quickly through this early stuff, I want to get you guys to the meat of the content.

Out of curiosity, will we still be doing the Kingdom-building part of Kingmaker, or just sort of let it happen in the background (or not at all)? Because we could probably use skill ranks in place of kingdom skill modifiers, but regardless it could be cool to build our own gym, poke store, trainer school, etc.

I plan on revamping the kingdom building system entirely to something much simpler and more collaborative. I don't have all the details hammered out yet, but I do intend to use skills relative to the positions.

@Dr. Agathis: You'll be able to dowse for shards just about anywhere that isn't urban. With your Occult Ed rank, you can dowse once per day and roll 3d6 for shards (4d6 in a sandy/rocky area such as a beach or cave). It only takes 10 minutes to do, so you're welcome to take care of it at any point of each day.

Edit: For determining random shard colors, roll a d6.
1 = Red
2 = Orange
3 = Yellow
4 = Green
5 = Blue
6 = Violet

@Dr. Agathis: Please try to keep OOC posts in this discussion thread.

Things to note, guys: An hour of training means our Pokemon get some free XP (currently 2 each, though it should go up as we gain levels), and if you train with your dude, you can apply your Training feat to them.

So, if we experience train our Pokemon for an hour, then rest for the night, but wake up early enough to get two hours of training, we can experience train them again, and also apply whichever training buff we have. Right?

You'd only need one hour in the morning, but yes, you could train today, take an extended rest by sleeping for the night, then train again in the morning, applying your training feat. It is only about 1pm ingame right now, so you have plenty of time to train and make any preparations needed before we skip to morning.

That sounds like a great idea. If it's only 1pm, we can turn in early and wake before sunrise, or something like that.

How difficult would hiding on the roof be?

I'd say you need an acrobatics check to move or perform any strenuous actions on the sloped roof. You'd also need a stealth check to be hidden, as you're technically out in the open.

Yanma's pretty big for a starter, and could probably carry pichu with ease, leaving him on the roof. Any of the other guys would be a bit trickier, but with his tiny weight, he should be easily liftable.

Meanwhile, how high can flying pokemon go? Because it would be cool to have Odo scout way overhead, to either track the bandits as they approach or enter combat with a surprise dive-bomb, but I realize that might not be allowed by the rules because fairness.

Technically, I suppose the sky is the limit. I don't really see a problem with any of those options, but I also trust you to be reasonable. It is true that having a flying companion so early on can be a bit of a hurdle as a GM, but considering you could have a medium Roc at level 1 in Pathfinder, I don't see much difference in the balance.

Well, any attacks he makes get him into attacking range (even if he's a few feet up, most pokemon can easily jump that high), and "fleeing to the sky" is pretty unsportsmanlike. Plus, he's blazingly fast, and would probably act first. The big thing is the "eye-in-the-sky" lets us see what's coming, or might cause the bandits to underestimate our numbers; while Pichu hides on one roof, he could hide on another, etc.

Yep, that works fine.

Make sure you have all signed into the Roll20 game I linked above. You'll be needing it soon to see the map for combat.

Thunderbeard, am I correct in assuming you are Abe P. on Roll20?

Yep, that's me. Also, if you put the roll20 link in the campaign header, it should be easier for everyone to follow.

I'll be checking in on that tomorrow morning, long day today not much chance to post.

As we proceed, I will likely just gloss over training as part of your morning routine unless you intend to make a point of it.

That works for me. So we just skip ahead to the fight now, yeah?

Yeah. Sorry, busy weekend. We'll be moving on this evening.

Sorry about that. I designed some level 1 trainers and kind of didn't think it would be such rocket tag so early. I have plans for whatever happens, but I may have unintentionally dialed this first encounter to 11.

Eh. Pokemon's all about rocket tag, and it makes the game go faster (though I should mention with tied initiative, it's often easier to roll for all the bad guys at once, so you don't need to wait on as many turns and players can sort of group their actions together, which speeds up fights a whole lot more—right now we need to wait on eight different initiatives to post for each round of combat).

But yeah, Odo might have one-shotted the Poochyena if he knew to hit it.

EDIT: I'm not sure about that damage calculation. Critical Hits only add attack once (though they double other damage); but this appears to be a triple-damage critical hit, which seems unlikely for a level one trainer.

It would be unlikely were he not a Marksman, who gets the Sniper ability.

I'll definitely group up tied initiatives in the future, since that's easier than splitting hairs over turn order. We'll roll with this for this fight though.

Hmm, forgot that Game of Throhs made some really good weapon classes. But Marksman... whoa, that's crazy, you can kick your crit rate up to well past 50% for most of the time.

Yeah, I definitely underestimated just how vicious it really is.

Sorry for the late time posting, started my new job this week and it involves me getting up at 6 in the morning. Not used to the times yet.

Oh, that sucks, man. I can't imagine getting up that early on the regular.

Man, I have got to get me one of them arcane weapons. Probably can't fit in the training until the free general feat at 6, but then I can shoot magic beams at people or something. Also, will have to look into alchemy rules further once we start dowsing.

It can be tough to be the passive trainer, but I can guarantee you will have time to shine out of combat, and your passive buffs will lend greatly to the party's strength as a whole.

Oh, sure. The advantage of Arcane Weapons is that it doesn't require a full class worth of feats, builds off of a skill I already use, and with my low attack stats, I'd be using it mostly to apply minor active debuffs to enemy pokemon in combat.

EDIT: Ahahaha critical hits, critical hits everrrrrywhere

Ah sorry, the bandit actually moved out of range. You may have seen it before I edited it. I originally had him attacking at point blank, but he can actually only fire his bow at a minimum of 4 meters, so I had to move him.

Hello, and welcome to my ambitious endeavor.
My name is Maeve, and I am currently in the process of converting the Kingmaker adventure path into the Pokémon Tabletop United rules system in order to bring one of my favorite APs to the Pokemon world. This will be a high fantasy Pokémon adventure, completely redesigned while retaining all of the fun and political intrigue of Kingmaker. This will be a play-by-post game consisting of 4 players, and I currently do not have a deadline in mind for character submissions. No doubt you must have a lot of questions, but please read on.

Setting
I will be retaining the locations and names of the Golarion setting while stripping away the parts that are unnecessary to a Pokémon-oriented adventure, such as races and deities. Expect to be sent by Restov into the Greenbelt to wrest control of the lands from bandits as you explore a world full of Pokémon alongside your companions and forge a kingdom of your own. There will be fantasy analogs for the technology common to the Pokémon universe.

Resources
You can download the latest official version of PTU here.
This game will use the PTU Core Rulebook and Pokédex as well as the Game of Throhs supplement. Additional content may be available upon request if I deem it fits the setting.

Please use a copy of this character sheet to submit your character. Do not create an alias for this character, you can do that when the game begins.

The Quick Character Creation steps can be found on page 18 of the Core Rulebook. Please take the time to familiarize yourself with the rules system if you intend to create a character and apply. I can offer some help if you need it via PM, but try your best to learn for yourself first.

Character Creation
You will begin as a level 1 trainer with a level 5 starter Pokémon and p5000 starting money. If you have crafting features/edges, you may spend this money on precrafted items. Your starter Pokemon should be the first Pokemon in a two or three stage evolutionary line, and should not be a particularly rare species of Pokemon except for standard starters. You may want to ask if a certain Pokemon is okay as a starter before you go building, as some options can upset early game balance. You may choose the nature and ability of your starter.

Oh man, this would be so cool. I hope the game gets off the ground and I would like to be a part of it.

I notice you have no posts on the forum though, do you have experience with play by post? GMing one can be a big job, often bigger than people expect.

Thanks! I don't have any play by post experience, but I do have experience as an in-person and VTT GM. I've just been lurking the forums since I joined.

Ooooh. Very interested

I've run across PTA before, but never PTU, regardless I'm extremely interested and currently perusing the PDF. That character sheet is mind boggling gigantic, the seeming weight of this game is a bit daunting, but I'm excited to give it a try.

As Gypsy said. Its massive. But im very eager to try this. Quick gander at the book:
Think hex maniac. And i want to know if i can start with a gastly? =^^=

I was gonna ask for a Gastly! As a Ninja Boy though, no matter, you asked first, haha

Dotting for interest but I need to wait till I get home, unzip the file...then I can start reading :(

Dotting for interest, either as an ace trainer or breeder with a cubone if that's alright.

Just got familiar with the rules myself as a friend of mine started GM-ing a tabletop a few months ago.

I'm very interested. Never played a Pokémon Tabletop game, but I really like Pokémon and I've always wanted to try Kingmaker. I'll read the rules later today.

Thanks for all the interest! Yeah, the character sheet is a bit daunting, but it is thorough enough to include all the information we could possibly need across the course of the adventure, and the autofill will be of great help. I might suggest building your character on the editable PDF character sheet included in the zip file, then translating it to the spreadsheet character sheet.

Unfortunately, Gastly (and other ghost types for that matter) make poor starters, as many early moves are Normal type. I'll also add that Steel types also make poor starters, as their defenses make them nearly impregneble for the early game.

Will have a look then, maybe then go for dark, like hound hour, but later go with ghost. dark/ghost

will see. Will try to read through the book properly tonight

Dotting this very strongly! I'll get up a character as soon as I can. Planning to make a pokemon breeder.

Are Cubones okay Maeve? Else I might have to look for a more appropriate one.

I did not even know this was a thing. I'll have to wait until I get home to download and read the rules, but count me as interested! This looks fascinating! Heck, I might just watch if I don't get in!

Cubone wouldn't be a bad choice if it wasn't for its lack of offensive starter moves. I imagine you wouldn't want Struggle to be its only damaging move.

With that in mind, I will add that everyone may choose an Egg Move for their starter, as long as the chosen move isn"t obscenely powerful for such a low level.

Hmmm. Psy type trainer. Starter: Raltz?

I'll pass. Read the stuff, don't think its my thing. Sorry, but guess its different strokes for different folks.

Hmm... right, must've missed that one earlier. How about Double Kick or Rock Slide for a cubone.

I'd be willing to change pokemon to something else though, I've always liked Psyduck as well.

@Seth86: Ralts is an excellent starter!

@Just a Mort: That's understandable, thanks for the consideration!

@Rocan: Double Kick would work, but Rock Slide would be too strong. Psyduck also works as a starter.

Raltz it is then. will work on a psi-theme then

Do you think a Commander with a Treecko makes sense for my first time ever playing?

To my extreme frustration my PDF viewer is acting up, I'll try to find the readable versions online, but I may have to withdraw due to technical difficulties, which would make me cry.

Edit: I've found the Pokedex, it's coming together

Wow, a lot to digest in this. I've got read through the character creation chapter, and think I know what to do to make a Trainer. I'll learn a new system, if nothing else.

OOh! Dotting. I've wanted to try this system out for a while.

...How out of place would a focus on fossil pokemon be here (tech level, etc) since I know Kingmaker involves a fair amount of mining?

This should be fun. Can I have a Rhyhorn as a starter?

I'm gonna go really old-school and go with my favorite pokemon as a kid for my starter: Bulbasaur!

Also, when are you going to be choosing a party and closing recruitment? And how many are you looking for?

... dotdotdotdotdotdotdotdotdotdotdotdotdotdotdotdotdotdotdotdotdotdotdotdotdot dotdotdotdotdotdot

@TheSuperDodo: That sounds good! Check out some other classes to mix with it too. PTU is very much a multiclass system.

@Thunderbeard: That would be fine! Most of the tech common to Pokemon can (and will) be replicated via magic/alchemy.

@The Warlord: I forgot to mention Rock types alongside Steel; due to their typing and the Normal-heavy early movesets, Rock types are just too defensively superior in the early game to be good starters.

@Phillip0614: That information is in my initial post. I am looking for 4 players, and there is currently no set deadline.

Maeve, would you consider allowing the Underdog class?

Sweet! So a paleontologist who seeks to revive fossil pokemon would be... a necromancer? I can work with that.

Since all fossil pokemon are rock-type, would Swinub or Yanma be a decent starter? Or alternately, Axew? (Not sure if a dragon starter is OP, but the Haxorus family is less rare/powerful than other 3-stage dragons has a similar stat total to a charizard, and it's based on an Ankylosaurus)

Not a problem, was just looking to make a Rider and a Rhyhorn looks cool for a mount.

I don't know if a Nidoran (M) could be available?

Going to try taskmaster route, just figuring if breeder or mentor is also a decent pick.

Are we going to do any fighting or it will be mostly pokemon vs. pokemon?

You know, that would be something very important for me to find out, given I was kind of going a Swordlord-style route, and was thinking of using the Skirmisher class (although I didn't see a single sword in the gear section). I may have to switch things up if we aren't going to necessarily be fighting alongside our Pokémon.

@FedoraFerret: There is already support for Underdog Pokemon via Poke Edges. You can check those out on page 204 of the Core Rulebook.

@Thunderbeard: Yanma, Swinub, and Axew are all decent starters.

@The Warlord: Nidoran works. There will be both Pokemon and trainer combat, especially regarding more unsavory types of enemies. There is also nothing stopping you from participating against wild Pokemon. However, this will still retain the lighthearted nature of Pokemon. You won't be murdering bandits so much as roughing them up and running them off.

So I will make space for a combat like class >< or it's going to hurt lol

I think Poison Ace and Rogue might work, so many choices blasted pokemon clases and not sure what other people will try to get.

@Warlord: Rider is a pretty decent option if you can get your guys big enough. And don't forget, you can add classes later. (I'll probably go Rock Ace despite not starting with a rock guy).

* * *

I realized Yanma isn't ideal, because I could evolve it at level 5. So... either Swinub or Axew, might wait a bit and see if anyone else wants to focus on dragons (since there's a fossil dragon in Tyrantrum, but also an ice fossil in Aurorus, I might think about which one of those I eventually want).

* * *

Also: I'm planning to go Mentor-Researcher (Paleontologist, Caretaker) with my starting classes. Mentor and Caretaker especially should help other people in the team a lot when we get to higher levels, by doing Move Tutoring. Basically, party role should involve improving, rebalancing, and teaching moves to other people's pokemon to help them reach their full potential.

Not sure which Mentor Lessons will be the most valuable, but currently thinking the ability to change Natures and Abilities (I could swap one of these out for the ability to grant PokéEdges, but that doesn't feel as in-character).

Yeah, rider might be fun as a later on class, just trying to pin down my main 2 classes.

I was thinking taskmaster, but people always relate it as "bad guy" kind of thing, but I usually let the pokemon get injured in combat, and be a "tough" trainer and combined with (Apothecary), but since we will see combat I might have to spend something to get one of the fighter classes so I can at least defend myself, but also be useful to the party.

Hmm. You could go for a mixed combat class (to later get beefed up by Rider), like Musician or Hunter.

Update: The Pokédex actually lists each pokemon's "mountable" score. (This does not represent whether it *can* be a mount, but it's the number of pokemon that can easily ride it without penalty). Nidoking is Ridable 1, making it a good combat mount.

Other gen 1 good mounts:
Rapidash (obviously) is Ridable 2, and Ponyta is Ridable 1, being a ridable starter (when it gains a few levels, at least).
Rhyhorn is Ridable 1, but you'd have to catch one.

Other decent mounts (if you're interested in post-gen 1):
Gogoat (grass goat) is Ridable 2, but its base form Skiddo is also Ridable 1, making it a decent mount.
Metagross (steel-psychic robot, maybe a Numerian pokemon?) is Ridable 2, and it's mid-evolved form Metang is Ridable 1, making a decent mount mid-game.
Zebstrika (a lightning zebra) and its pre-evolution Blitzle are, like Ponyta, ideal mount pokemon
Pretty much every large legendary is ridable.

* * *

Should we also propose "Kingdom Roles" for the settlement we're building?

Dotting for interest. I've floated around the boards for a while and wanted to play something, but I've never really done PbP before

I find it strange to see Nidoking as Mountable, considering it's a bipedal pokemon, so it would just be weird.

I think I will be a witchdoctor type(hex+ Researcher with healing), "Tyrant" Taskmaster/Roughneck/Type Ace Poison, or Martial Trickster/rogue/type ace poison

Just not sure yet.

Probably for the same reason you can surf on a nidoking...

A cautious dot for interest, probably won't have anything up 'til Monday.

Okay! I'm through the rules, and I think I can help people figure out how to make concepts work if there is a request for that.

(Decided on yanma after all; it feels the most "prehistoric," and should be fine as long as I don't tutor it Ancientpower. Is Silver Wind an okay egg move? It's his weakest special egg move, and would be his only learnset STAB until like level 40 or tutoring)

Ill take you up on offer
Psi character with Ralts

Meanwhile, I'm having a lot of trouble deciding between Compoundeyes and Speed Boost for Yanma... one means insane accuracy, but the other means insane evasion. :/

Don't know much of Pokemon except some episodes I watched a long time ago, but I like the idea. I'll give that huge book a read and try to come up with something at the weekend.

Keep in mind there are other ways to contribute to combat as a trainer aside from attacking alongside your Pokemon. There are plenty of support roles that can help both in and out of combat without getting in the fray yourself, and focusing on Pokemon training means your stronger Pokemon can make up for your lack of presence in battle. It is good to be able to defend yourself, but don't feel painted into a corner.

@Thunderbeard: Silver Wind works.

Oh my! A million times yes. After I get some sleep.I apparently have a lot of reading to do. This sounds awesome!

For a starting Pokemon I'm leaning towards Chimchar - he's got good speed and decent attack, which should pair well with Skirmisher.

Maeve, if I wanted a sword-type weapon, how would you suggest we handle it?

Dotting just to watch. I've seen the PTU rules before, and will be curious to see how they play in practice.