We're playing Pokemon Sorcerer
lumpley:
We made characters last night and I've got a pageful of 1st-session prep here in my notebook. We're all more-or-less experts on the source material - some of us unwillingly - and we're playing pretty straight with it. No canon characters or events, but close adherence to the tone, matter and visuals.
Humanity is straightforward: compassion and generosity. I'm calling it "wisdom," not humanity, because the PCs are kids.
Elliot's 9. His sorcerer is named Lanny, he's: quick & nimble (stamina), visionary (will), a walking pokedex (lore). His price is ... uh oh, I forget. His pokemon is a dirt-type shrew pokemon called Shroil, independent (like Pikachu or Meowth - no pokeball), whose need is to dig and whose desire is competition; his binding score with Shroil is -1. His kicker is: he heard a story about a powerful pokemon he'd never heard of before, and now he's setting off to find it. I have here in my notebook a handful of possibilities for this awesome unknown pokemon, and I'm going to ask him to choose which one.
Sebastian's 13. His sorcerer is named Ike, he's: a scrapper (stamina), cool & patient (will), a natural talent (lore). His price is arrogance. His pokemon is a shadow-type cat pokemon called Darkit, also independent, whose need is to hunt and whose desire is mischief; his binding score with Darkit is a sweet, sweet -3. His kicker is: a stranger with a long red coat and dark glasses challenged him to a duel, and beat him handily. Now he's setting off to learn and to improve himself, so that next time they meet, he'll win.
Tovey's 4, and Meg's a grown-up. They made characters too, but Tovey obviously won't be really playing with us, and Meg will be mostly making sure he's having fun anyway.
So far: I knew it would be fun, but I didn't know it would be this fun! I knew it was supposed to be a good match, but I didn't know it would be seriously THIS good a match.
I emphasized throughout that they're going to have to really train their pokemon, and make real decisions about what to do. Yes, your pokemon can die. Everything bad that happens or might happen in the show? It might happen in the game too, and it really might. Sebastian and Elliot are right there with it.
-Vincent
Ben Lehman:
Cool! I remember talking about doing this ages ago, after a particularly long exposure to the cartoons. I don't think there's much value in that thread, though -- mostly arguments between me and Mike about things that are clearly non problematic for you.
Out of curiosity, where do the Pokemon fall on the language scale? Are they like most pokemon only able to say their own name, or can they talk, like Meowth and (I think) Mewtwo?
Are the characters a team? Are you going to have bad guy teams?
yrs--
--Ben
lumpley:
I remember Lanny's price! It's impatience. Elliot's chosen the mythic pokemon Lanny's setting out to find: a moonlight-and-wind pokemon who watches from the peaks of Lucene Island.
So far, all the pokemon can say only their own names (I've decided that speaking human is a form of the ability link). One of the things I'm enjoying is making the pokemons' voices, I auditioned them to Sebastian and Elliot to get them right. Shroil's voice is a little bit cartoony-happy and nasal, Darkit's is soft, not really purring, with sometimes a nice catlike menace in the "kit."
The characters are a team, yeah. And of course bad guy teams! I've already written the introductory rhyme for one. It ends with "fighting for the glory of our home town | say your prayers, you're going down!"
I wanted to say about the rituals.
Binding = catching, of course. Doing battle first gives you carryover bonus dice for the binding roll.
Punishing = punishing, containing = containing, banishing = setting free.
Contacting = hunting. Everywhere they go, they'll encounter pokemon, of course, but they'll be my creation. They can bind them if they want. But if somebody wants a particular pokemon - if the player wants to create it - they'll have to hunt for it.
Summoning = breeding. It includes cloning and evolving, it's how you get pokemon you can't just go find in the wild. In one of the movies, there's this guy who catches pokemon in evil pokeballs, which evolves them to full power and turns them evil. I was like, "you know that guy? Your character could figure out how to do that, if you wanted." They were like, "I don't want to be that guy, but ... that's interesting," just like they should be.
-Vincent
Ron Edwards:
Were you working from fixed lists of score descriptors (like you're sposed to)? If so, what were they?
I have always thought Sorcerer Pokemon was a great match, without being particularly knowledgeable about the show. I remember when my nephew was really into it, ten or more years ago (he's in late high school now), and he had this action figure - a sinister, sexy woman. Total sorceress.
Way back maybe eight or nine years ago, there was a good RPG.net thread about this ... couldn't find it with a quick search though.
Best, Ron
lumpley:
Oh, lists. They're based closely on the ones in the book, maybe trimmed a bit and slightly rewritten.
Stamina: big, scrapper, energetic, athletic, quick & nimble, training.
Will: confidence, passionate, cool, visionary, driven, patient.
Lore: apprentice, natural talent, walking pokedex, self-taught, team member.
I called price "foolishness," and I listed: arrogant, girl-crazy, boy-crazy, cowardice, suspicious, impatience, temper, eg. Elliot thought about inventing one, but circled himself back around to impatience.
-Vincent
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