[OOC] Pokémon Forest Café

[Homestarbaby]

Welcome to the OOC thread, where players can chat out of game about life, pokemon, and just about everything else that the no arguing about religion, politics, or *redacted*forum site allows. If you have questions for me about anything in or out of game, you can post them here or PM me. If you have questions for other players, this would be the best place to post them!

I am looking forward to some fun adventures with you all!

[Acathala]

I can't help but notice that isn't a whiirlipede in the roll like a whiirlipede.

[Homestarbaby]

Well observed. The goal is to roll like a whiirlipede, but the reality is often to roll Trubbish instead.

Also the deadline is not for another 2 weeks so everything should be considered a work in progress, to be fair.

[briar]

Hello hello!

We're to do introductions first, right? Hiya! I'm Briar (that's my name both on here and IRL!), 33, from the Midwestern US. I'm not a terribly interesting person, my hobbies include gaming, anime and my great passion, hiking, though because of quarantine I've not been able to do as much of the latter.

I've been playing Pokemon since the original Red/Blue on Gameboy. I even played on the original big silver box! I've played all the way up to Black/White (though I skipped Ruby/Sapphire because I never had a GBA). Hilda is and will always be my favorite trainer, and I've cosplayed her a couple times now! My favorite pokemon of all time is Furret because who doesn't want a 9-foot-long ferret?!

I'm delighted to make all of your acquaintences. I'll be playing Yishka Kisagiri, a young foreign refugee from a land far far away.

As it is, I'm not terribly opposed to do a 4-person team, but with the limited experience that I've had with PTU in the past, I've found I do favor smaller groups, so I would personally put my vote in for 2 groups of 2, but I'll roll with whatever. I'm generally available throughout the week unless I go on camping trips, though I always give a heads up when I do, and generally have enough time to fit about 2-3 posts per week in.

[AximusLokar]

Greetings and hello! I'm Aximus Lokar, short form Lokyar (trust me, it makes sense in No it doesn't...context). I'm not fond of my boring meatspace name so I won't be providing it. 34 in the Eastern US, a fan of RPG and tactical gaming (video, card, and board), and if you ever see me on a hiking trail then I'm being held against my will. Help.

I played the original Red (because Fire Starter 4 Life) on that lovable grey brick (still have it even, although I haven't put batteries in it in over a decade so who knows if it still works). Also played Gold but then went on sabbatical until Sword. Arcanine is the pokemon I'd most like to have as a pet in real life, or Rotom as a crime partner.

I'll be playing as Sora Yukan, weirdo preteen psychic. If you end up traveling with him be prepared for a fragile sense of personal space and I adhere to typical D&D Rogue Rules. Never steal from a party member. Everyone else is fair game.property.

[Xyza]

Well, I received the PM so I assume that I'm a part of this. Excited to be here!

I'm Xyza on here, Kevin IRL. I'm 26 and from Los Angeles but for these few years am on the East Coast for law school (not a "rules lawyer" type, don't worry). I enjoy watching sports (primarily basketball and European soccer) and playing video games (mostly single player RPGs but occasionally some others). I'm fairly interested in D&D/tabletop RPGs but unfortunately haven't been able to actually participate in many either IRL or PbP, so I'm really glad to have this opportunity here.

Like Briar, I started Pokemon with Gen 1 on Gameboy and played up until B/W. I've seen a few streams and stuff of the newer games and they seem alright, though they still can't match the nostalgia of the older ones for me, I guess. I think I've played through Crystal and Emerald like 5 times each. Don't really have a single favorite Pokemon but some ones I like are the Squirtle line, Charizard, Dragonite, Porygon, Azurill, Pachirisu.

My character is Kaitlyn Lysander, a teenage girl who loves stories and adventures and wants to go on her own, but hasn't been confident enough to do so alone until she recently developed telekinetic powers. She uses her imagination to deal with everyday life, but it often runs wild and gets mixed up with reality, which isn't helped by her new powers seeming to fit in really well with some of her stories. This is a character concept I've kind of wanted to play for a while, and during the application process I realized it actually works quite well in a Pokemon setting, maybe better than it would in traditional D&D fantasy.

I'm done with most of the character creation stuff, but have a few more things to iron out and then put in a character sheet, which I'll get to soon. I think both in and out of character I'd prefer to travel in some sort of group rather than solo, but I'm fine with whatever arrangement works best for everyone. We can always move things around if something doesn't work out. I'm curious as to what everyone's thoughts are as to the Gyms and Contests. I like that we don't all have to complete them to progress, since I've always thought they were a bit limiting in terms of story, but I'm expecting they'll still play some role. I think my character would explore the possibility of participating in both of them, but I don't think her main ambitions lie there, though I guess we'll see how the story develops.

[Xyza]

Originally Posted by AximusLokar

I played the original Red (because Fire Starter 4 Life)

As a kid I started with Blue because that was all I had access to, but picked Charmander because it was cool. Couldn't get past a hiker near Cerulean and raged about how the game was rigged so that you needed to pick the cover starter to progress, and restarted with Squirtle. Was too young/immature at the time to take into account things like type matchups and some moves being better than others

[briar]

Ehehe, I got both Red and Blue because people didn't coordinate gifts for my birthday. In Red, I had Charmander, but in Blue, I went Bulbasaur, and I finished Blue much much earlier than Red, largely because of what Xyza said--I got mad at the first and second Gym for being very anti-Charmander, so I flattened them all with Vine Whipe :P

I wonder who our number 4 will be? This is quite exciting! And yes, I will second the idea that I'd prefer not to be solo--at least not for the majority of the game. Actually, we could see about doing timely splits and just keep meeting back up so we get both small groups and the full group experience, swapping teams as needed.

I personally have not yet touched my character sheet other than to play around with a few build concepts. I've spent the better part of the day since I got the PM playing with Homestar's Trainer Card template to suit my liking. It will be quite as fancy in function, but I like my coding to look nice. Speaking of, Homestar, do you have a particular sheet you want us to use? I personally kinda like the Excel version, but if not, that's fine.

I will say I'm a little less interested in Contests than I am Gym battles, but I'm more of a story-centric kinda gal. Most likely I'm going to pick up every single side-quest that Homestar gives us. Whoever gets stuck with me, prepare to be dragged literally everywhere xD

[Xyza]

Haha, I think it's such a common opinion that it's almost cliche at this point, but I never liked most of the grass starters (only one I went with the first playthrough was Torterra). I tried a Bulbasaur run of Gen 1 once because of what you said about the first two gyms, but I got frustrated from defeating things too slowly before I even got to that point.

Yeah, I'm fine with being solo for some short parts if it fits the story, but I think a lot of what I want to do with my character involves interacting with others. Definitely agree that I'm more interested in side-quests/exploring the world than the gyms or contests, that's why I was wondering if someone else's character was really into it so we could get a glimpse of that through them. But I'm fine with wherever the story leads.

PTU really appeals to me so I've looked through it a decent amount and played around with some character concepts, but this is my first time actually playing it so I'll have to spend some time getting the numbers/character sheet stuff down. Definitely noticed that everyone's coding is prettier than mine lol, will probably have to spend some time getting more familiar with that too

[FunnyValentine]

Hey, good to be here! Looking forward to playing with everyone. I'm 25 from the eastern US. though i live in israel right now (so if i dont respond to messages right away, its because it's 2 in the morning here haha). I'll be playing Zachary Steele, a ghost hunter in training(hex maniac with a dip into occult research) trying to get away from an overbearing family and just live life the way he wants to.

And of course, Squirtle is the obvious choice of the original three starters

[EmmaRae]

Hey all! Thanks for having me. I'm EmmaRae, 33 from Ohio. I'm a gal who has a lot of hands in a lot of pies as I slowly try to free myself from the grasps of my corporate overlords. My first edition was Yellow, back on my indigo GBC. I vividly remember at one point having a team of six different elements, all named after corresponding characters from Ronin Warriors...

Anyway, Kaylee Yamoto is going to be an independent girl who could work well in either solo or team tactics, so I can't wait to see what happens. I'm also thinking of hitting up the Competition route this time as a Cool-type specialist, because I feel its a side that doesn't get enough love and some of my favorite described scenes in PTU have been Competition performances.

[briar]

Yaay! Hey FV! Good to see that you got in! FunnyValentine and I both played (for a short time anyway) in the Pokemon PTU Island Exploration game here on the Crossing. I played a pop star and he played a mad scientist, though I didn't really play long enough to get really into the main adventure. This round will go better, I know it, especially since I've already had the pleasure of playing alongside Homestar and know him to be a phenominal DM.

Speaking of, I also see that it looks like Homestar went over his original 1-4 player limit, which seems amusingly like him. Glad to see all these fun and interesting looking PCs to interact with!

Anyone want to share build plans or ideas as to what bases they have to cover? Kindo of to echo Xyza, I'm interested in seeing the game from all angles, if not necessarily through my own character's direct involvement. My plan for Yishka, at least at the moment, is to be fairly all-purpose and see kind of what her motviations and such evolve into at the start. She has a budding interest in Pokemon research and care, so I might play that angle. On the other hand, if nobody takes on the League Battle route, I'd be happy to have her focus that as well. I think I'll have at least a couple crafting roles, though, for sure.

[Xyza]

Yeah, I didn't notice until after my previous posts that we actually have 6 players, with 2 initial teams of 3, which probably means a lot more flexibility with groups and stuff. Nice to see everyone's posts and characters.

Originally Posted by briar

Anyone want to share build plans or ideas as to what bases they have to cover...I think I'll have at least a couple crafting roles, though, for sure.

This just came up as I was doing late night character creation and I was thinking of posting it - Kait is also a Chef now. Wasn't thinking of another class besides Telekinetic during applications because I thought I'd need to use almost all of my Edges and Features on TK, but actually doing it I realized I had perks left over and Chef fits well with her character and high Intuition, and hopefully will be helpful to the party while adventuring. I don't think there's any deep backstory or intense culinary ambitions behind Kait's cooking - she was kind of a shut-in with parents who weren't home much, so being able to whip up snacks and quick meals was a useful and tasty skill to pick up.



For Homestar - I attached a PDF version of my trainer sheet after character creation in the Character thread. Going to try and convert it to a format that's easier to work with in the near future, but I'd appreciate it if you could take a look to make sure I did everything correctly.

[Homestarbaby]

Thank you, briar. You are very kind. And yes, I do have trouble saying no to players with fun creative ideas.

A little more about me, I also live in the middle of the USA. Not quite over the hill yet. I love RPGs and Pokemon, but I also enjoy Anime, Animal Crossing, and CYOA novels. I am currently watching a Pokemon playthrough on the Playframe YouTube channel. Real life tends to prevent me from posting on most weekends, but I am usually on and doing some posting during the regular week.

Started with Red way back in the day. Someone told me that choosing your starter was like choosing your difficulty. Bulbasaur = easy, Squirtle = Normal, and Charmander = Hard. So I played the game through on Easy and have gone back with several 1st Gen games to play all 3 ways. My favorite starter has been Eevee from Let's Go, but my all time favorite Pokemon is Mew, which I got on my first game and on my current Sword game.

Thank you again to everyone for coming! I will go through character sheets as they are ready today. No need to wait on me to approve them before you make your intro story post. We will not be doing any dice rolls until your second post.

[AximusLokar]

Fleshing out my character sheet now. Are we allowed to buy TMs with our starting cash? I'm giving Roost a real hard side-eye right now.

Originally Posted by Homestarbaby

Someone told me that choosing your starter was like choosing your difficulty. Bulbasaur = easy, Squirtle = Normal, and Charmander = Hard.

Granted having easy access to a super-effective move for the first gym would make that first leg of the game easy, but wasn't there a Diglet's Cave right before that town? Ground > Rock.

EDUT: Just checked before hitting submit and turns out on the Gen 1 move set Diglets didn't learn their first ground attack (Dig) until level 19, 5 levels higher than Brock's Onyx, and the only other Ground type available by then (Sandshrew) is a Blue exclusive that doesn't naturally learn any ground attacks ever. So yeah, that's lame.

Originally Posted by briar

Anyone want to share build plans or ideas as to what bases they have to cover?

Primary class is going to be Channeler with the Shared Senses feature so I can use pokemon as spies scouts.

Secondary, to stay competitive in battles, I'm taking Commander for now. I say for now because I'm not super interested in the Commander feature line, just the early access to the 'Marksman Orders' Strategem, and once I qualify for that Strategem normally I'll probably retrain Commander into Marksman Orders to open up a new class slot.

I'm almost certainly going to be taking Hobbyist in a few levels to boost up skills as I see Sora as a skills monkey with some special tricks to augment his natural abilities.

I'm considering taking Oracle not for it's intended purpose. The base class gives 'Pickup', which gives you a random item each day. I like the idea of Sora just kinda grabbing things, which may or may not belong to other people, as he goes about his day. He learned it from that ratatta If I go this route I probably won't be taking any of it's other features, although maybe 'Mark of Vision' could be an evolution of his channeling ability.

On a similar note Chronicler is definitely on the table, especially Technique Archive. My pokemon literally reacting to an attack faster and more efficiently than normal because of psychically linked human intellect.

Actually yeah, kinda just talked myself into it. Dropping Commander altogether. I'll take Marksman's Orders normally when I qualify. Starting out as Channeler/Chronicler/Oracle with Shared Senses. I'll take Hobbyist when I level up (which will let me spend the Skill Ups on Adept Skills).

For bases covered, my major skills are Perception/Intuition/Stealth. I'll likely be bringing up my Acrobatics and/or Athletics over time, and possibly Survival, to round out my whole 'getting into places where I shouldnt be' vibe. Thanks to Mystic Senses and Channeler I'm very good at confronting wild pokemon despite my abysmal (Rank 1) Charm, but I certainly won't be convincing any humans that I'm not shady even when I'm not actively doing anything wrong. I'm strongly considering a Skill Stunt for Guile. "Act Innocent" >_>