Josh, 30, He/Him, mixed latinx
The Doritos Locos Tacos of people
I run the YouTube channel "Implausibly Average", check it out sometime


ImplausiblyJosh
@ImplausiblyJosh

Or: finally, a Pokémon tabletop game!

I’ve been mulling around the idea of making a Pokémon TTRPG. I think that I have some things I like about the series that I haven’t seen applied in the ttrpgs I’ve seen, so why not toss my hat into the ring?


ImplausiblyJosh
@ImplausiblyJosh

I worked on the game a bunch more today, working on the flow of a session of the game.


ImplausiblyJosh
@ImplausiblyJosh

Made some rules about generating Pokemon for Pocket Journeys. Also, the name for the Pokemon TTRPG is called Pocket Journeys.


ImplausiblyJosh
@ImplausiblyJosh

Learned how to make fillable PDFs and I made index card size sheets for your Trainer & your Pokemon.


ImplausiblyJosh
@ImplausiblyJosh

Pocket Journeys will come with a pack-in region! It's based off of Texas, and it'll have it's own regional 'dex full of returning "favorites" (they're Pokemon I like, at least) and a bunch of notes for players and GMs, including a travel guide style handout for players, which includes this map!


ImplausiblyJosh
@ImplausiblyJosh

Started a play test with friends last night. Here’s part of one of the character sheets for the Gym Leader Candidate class.


ImplausiblyJosh
@ImplausiblyJosh

First official, real, playing-the-game Playtest happened the other night and I think this game has really good bones. I'll go into deeper thoughts after the jump, but know that I think this game is good so far. A couple more classes and an expanded GM's section and we're in business.


Some stuff to know about our Playtest setting & characters: We are playing in Johto, set several years after the events of RBY/FRLG*. There are two player characters, a Ghost-type Gym Leader Candidate and a Professor's Aide to Professor Elm.

The game and flow is framed around "you are playing your own episode of the Pokemon anime", and I think a lot of the mechanics speak to that very well. "JOURNEY" is a move similar to the "a long journey" mechanic from Fellowship. Journeying in the anime is fun and a large part of the show, and having each player bring up a new "hurdle" the gang faces is very fun and pretty speedy.

For example, my players gave two obstacles on their way from Goldenrod to Ecruteak. One player gave us "there's a Sudowoodo following us". So right before they hit the National Park, they're trying to get this Sudowoodo to stop following them. The other player offers it a spicy Pokeblock, and the sudowoodo disappears with the block. The next obstacle was a bug catcher who won't let us go without a battle, so we do a quick (seriously, it was 5-10 mins tops) battle. Quick, small beats that allowed everyone at the table to do something fun and help move the characters along.

The other mechanic/flow thing I like are the downtime mechanics. Ideally, every session should start with these, and they basically allow for anything to happen that the players want. In the playtest both characters did independent fact-finding about the region. One player learned that the Goldenrod Game Corner has been seized from a criminal organization and given to a local group dedicated to adopting out Pokemon. So while you still "gamble" at the Game Corner, and you can still trade in coins for Pokemon, all the money is going towards a pokemon adoption/rescue agency, meaning that Abra you got is so happy to be rehomed now. The other player learned that the Ruins of Alph has ties to Ghost pokemon and spirits in general, so that's another place to check off for their quick to be a Gym Leader!

Lastly, I think that the Battle mechanics need some work. I think they're passable as-is, but I need to have more Battles happen before I can say one way or another what I need to change. It feels like there's not "enough" to do in a Battle, but at least I can make them very very short if need be.

Anyways, game is good so far. I'm excited to play it more to see what else I need to do with it!

    • Really, it’s more like if the events of RBY or FRLG happened “now”, in a Gen 9 Pokémon world. All current, non-legendary Pokémon are on the table during character creation, and we’ve referenced regions as current as Alola.

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