[center][hider=Starlight Dreams' Intro]A figure sits alone in a dimly lit living room. Surrounded by empty seats, they stare blankly at the television before them, its black screen reflecting at them. On an impulse, the figure reached for the remote beside them and pressed a button. A light on the television promptly turned on and soon the room was lit up with the bright light of the screen. Starring at the screen, footage of landscapes began to show in succession. “Are you tired of the same old thing? Bored? Feeling down? Ready for some adventure?” the voice on the television inquired. The figure in the room gave no answer to the question. “This is Starre. Home of a variety of Pokemon and people with a rich history and culture.” The voice continued, scenes of footage of Pokemon and people quickly flashing on the screen. Delicious food, happy people, and beautiful landscapes came in quick procession. “Whether it’s the snowy slopes of Mt. Aquila, the scenic views of Windy Valley, or the luscious tropics of--” the voice was cut off with a click of a remote. The screen quickly flashed through multiple channels before it stumbled upon a selection. On the new channel, two news anchors sat, talking to one another, with the words “Starry News Network” in big bold letters at the top. “That’s right, Joanne.” A man in a suit said, starring straight at the viewer. “We are seeing a rise in criminal activity all over Starre region from a mysterious group simply known as ‘Team Sleep.’ Don’t let their name fool you though; these aren’t individuals you want to take lightly. There have been many reports of this group stealing Pokemon and valuables alike. For more details we turn to--” [i]Click.[/i] Aiming the remote at the tv, the figure changed the channel. Flashing lights suddenly appeared on screen with a brief flicker of a masked individual as someone with a camera quickly tried to pursue them. “Prince? Prince! Can you tell us about—” the paparazzi exclaimed as he pursued the masked individual. The footage was quickly cut off and replaced with a different one, the same masked individual but now in the center of the stadium. The figure was in the middle of a Pokemon battle; the camera focused on him. “The Starry Prince; Starre’s biggest celebrity and biggest mystery is its own reigning champion who has yet to be dethroned. But who are they really? And what’s behind that mask? Stay tuned as we--” Click. “Are you a fan of Pokemon?” the voice on the television asked, footage of various Pokemon dressed up standing in line on a stage on the screen. “Do you crave fame and stardom but can’t get the knack for Pokemon battles? Then become a coordinator and join one of the many Pokemon contests across the Starre region! Show off your Poke--” [i]Click.[/i] “Hey there, Pokemon fans!” Another voice erupted. The TV showed montages of various Pokemon battles in a large stadium. “The Starre Pokemon League season is just around the corner! Call the number on your screen to purchase seating tickets at the Diamond City Stadium so you too can experience those sizzlin’ hot battles in person! Don’t delay, call tod--” [i]Click.[/i] Purple smoke filled the television screen. Gentle, soothing music played in the background as the silhouette of a woman appeared. Walking closer, she soon became more visible and stood in the center of the screen. “Hello. My name is Cassandra Stern.” The woman said calmly, with a stoic face. “I am the CEO of Morpheus. Here at Morpheus, we believe in providing a bright future for all. ‘How do they do that?’ you might ask. The answer to that is dreams. Dreams make up who you are, your ambitions in life, and influence your very perception of this world. Everyone dreams. But how do we use our dreams to better suit us? To help us lead to our full potential. “With our cutting-edge technology here at Morpheus, you now can control your dreams.” The woman continued, the eyes in her serious stare flickering for but a moment. “See: the Dreamlink, which allows you to tap into your true potential with our dream therapy. With it, you will see drastic improvements in your quality of life in record time. Let Morpheus help your dreams come true.” [i]Click.[/i] The TV reverted to the news channel. A pair of familiar faces filled the screen. “Just a reminder, everyone.” The female news host “Joanne” said. “The Institute is holding a grand event in Beryl Town for the celebration of the beginning of the League season. It is open to the public and seasoned trainers and trainers in training are encouraged to show. The Institute will be giving out free Pokemon and enlisting people in cataloguing their Pokedex. Free food and drinks will be served--” [i]Click.[/i] The television was now back at the channel it was from the beginning. A familiar voice could be heard over the footage of scenic montages. At the very end, a grand shot of Diamond City was displayed. “—so what are you waiting for? Come on down to Starre: where dreams are made, and stars are born!”[/hider][/center] Yep, a Pokemon rp. Familiar concept: Catching Pokemon, exploring the region, battles, gym challenges, contest challenges, etc. This MIGHT be more fitting in the Tabletop section (what with the current RNG mechanic stuff, see below) but I’m not familiar with that at all so I’m going to place it here. Features: [list][*][url=https://imgur.com/a/i0dDIhC]Custom Map[/url] & Pokemon assigned to various locations on that map [*]A (chance based) combat system I made for this RP that is intended to bridge between the Pokemon games and general roleplay. Might be an ongoing WIP or scrapped entirely. [*]Gym league procession can go in any order. Each gym leader has about 8 potential teams to battle with depending on the character’s badge procession. [*]Contests will be a thing and mechanically taken from ORAS’ system. [*]Overarching storyline with an antagonist team called Team Sleep. Not the most intimidating name, I know, but…don’t “sleep” on them just yet! /heh [*]Pokemon will include all the way up to S&V. For movesets, I’m going to use basically a mix of Gen 8 & 9 but will (mostly) accept any move from any generation. But I’d strongly prefer it to be limited to Gen 8 & 9 if possible.[/list] Technically, this is early for me to post this as I still need at minimum about a week to finish preparing the RP. Lots of stuff still left to do and all that. However, I wanted to gage if people are interested in this rp and how many are, as well as get feedback on my current planned battle (and contest) mechanics. If most people find it to be too convoluted/a waste of time, it’d be better to know that sooner versus later. I’m not against a more “freeform” rp style but I feel like having a (system) basis for the RP would help keep things fair and less likely for bias. But if it’s too convoluted/unnecessary, then I’ll scrap it. So, yeah. That’s about it. Please let me know if you’re interested in this rp and if you are, please give some feedback on the Battle Mechanics and Contest Mechanics posts which I’ve listed below. Note that these mechanics require people to volunteer as co-GMs. That’s likely going to be a necessity regardless if I keep the current systems or not. But I guess that'll depend on the size of the turnout for the rp. Apologies if these are formated poorly or missing steps in the explanations (I didn't want to post everything). Still a WIP. [hider=Battle Mechanics (Features Different Kind of Examples of the WIP)] [hider=Wild Pokemon Mechanics]This rp heavily uses RNG to determine outcomes of most of the things. A GM is the one who rolls it for the players and logs the results & informs the players (which they then write out). Example: Players A & B go into an area for exploration and are looking for Pokemon. In the next post, GM rolls how many Pokemon will appear, what tier they will be, and once the tier is decided, what Pokemon will show up and what their mood will be (Calm or Hostile). Let’s break it down further. [b]Number of Pokemon Roll:[/b] 1-5. 1 is single battle, two is double. If it’s a 3+ group, you must pick one and the rest will disperse. If you have a group of 5, the GM rolls for all of you and each of you can take on one of the Pokemon in the group of 5. [b]Tiers:[/b] Pokemon are broken down into tiers. Technically there are 5, but mostly it’s going to be just three. Each tier consists of 20 levels per. Tier 1 is level 1-20, Tier 2 is level 21-40, Tier 3 is level 41-60, Tier 4 is level 61-80, and Tier 5 is level 81-100. Last two aren’t going to be really used in the wild Pokemon spawns, so just focus on Tiers 1-3. [b]Tier Roll:[/b] For this, it’s a 1-10 roll. Rolling a 1 being the pull that gets you a Pokemon above your tier (so for the beginning, this would be Tier 2 and 3). Rolling a 2-10 gets you a same-tier Pokemon. So there is a 10% chance of coming across a Pokemon that is substantially stronger than you. [b]Pokemon Selection:[/b] Each area has its own selection of Pokemon that can show up (tiers and time of day as additional factors to consider). Roll between the list (which should be numbered) and whichever number rolls out is that respective Pokemon. For large groups, the GM can decide if it’s all one type of Pokemon (ex: 5 Marills) or different individual Pokemon in the group. [b]Mood Roll:[/b] 50% chance roll (1/2) of if they’re calm or hostile. For groups, the rolled mood applies to ALL of them. [b]Level:[/b] For same-tier rolls, the wild Pokemon will always be the same level as the weakest Pokemon in your party. For group rolls, this will be the weakest Pokemon of the trainers in their group. For higher tier rolls, the Pokemon will always be 20-40 levels higher than your weakest Pokemon. [b]Gender Roll:[/b] Roll for gender. Only applies to Pokemon that can be of either female or male gender. Genderless and Pokemon of a single gender line do not apply for this. [b]Shiny Chance:[/b] 1/4096 chance. 1 Being the number that gets you the shiny. [b]Catch Rate:[/b] At full health, a Pokemon has 1/10th chance of being caught. A GM runs the numbers between 1 through 10, if it pulls a 1 then it’s caught. If the player spends time to fight & lower the health of the Pokemon, then it goes down to 1/5th chance. GM sets the numbers between 1 through 5, and if it rolls a 1 then its caught. The Pokemon’s nature is something the player can decide one once caught. [/hider] [hider=Battle Mechanics]This goes with the idea in mind that both Pokemon are on the same tier as one another (and close in levels). Tier 1 Pokemon have 10 “health points.” Each successful attack (barring a few exceptions) removes 1 health point from the other Pokemon. [hider=An example]Battle begins. It’s 1 on 1. GM rolls first to decide who goes first. [b]First Strike Roll:[/b] 50/50 chance between either parties. This is done at the beginning of EACH turn. Once that is decided, the person to go first writes a post about their initial attack. Once they’re done & posted it, GM then must roll for the other person if they can successfully dodge the attack or not. [b]Dodge Roll:[/b] 1/5 chance. Numbers are 1 through 5. If your roll is number one, you can successfully dodge the attack. Getting 2-5 will do nothing for you. If they roll a one, the other person can successfully dodge it. Otherwise, their Pokemon loses 1 health point. Rinse and repeat until one person’s Pokemon get down to 0 health points and faints. [/hider] [hider=How statuses will work][b]Status Conditions:[/b] Moves that have guaranteed status infliction are always guaranteed. Any attack/Pokemon ability that has a chance at status infliction (usually as a secondary effect), the GM must roll for it for each move. Abilities like Synchronize obviously don’t need this and will be automatic. [b]Status Condition Roll:[/b] 1/5. 1 Being successful in afflicting, 2-5 being not. [list][*][b]Poison:[/b] Once afflicted, it reduces your Pokemon’s HP by .5 points for every turn. No chance for it to be miraculously healed. Use an item or move to remove it. In cases such as Toxic, I’m currently setting so it starts out with .5 HP loss in the initial turn, and increases by .5 HP points of damage each turn. If that ends up too harsh/brutal, I’ll amend it so it just poisons regularly. [*]Burn: Will fill this out later. [*][b]Paralyze:[/b] Each turn, you have a 1/5 chance of success rate of attacking. 1 is the number you want to successfully hit, 2-5 is unsuccessful. No chance for it to be miraculously healed. Use an item or move to remove it. [*][b]Sleep:[/b] Once afflicted, your Pokemon will have to roll for a chance to wake up, otherwise they can’t do any action (they’re asleep). For the first turn they are afflicted, it’s 1/5 chance, 1 being the number that means they can wake up. For the next turn, those odds are reduced to 1/4, next turn is 1/3, next turn is 1/2, and if by the next turn they still haven’t rolled a 1; they automatically wake up. [*][b]Freeze:[/b] Same as sleep, just with freezing. [*][b]Confusion:[/b] Once afflicted, your Pokemon will have to roll for a chance to properly attack, otherwise they hurt themselves in confusion. For the first turn they are afflicted, it’s 1/5 chance, 1 being the number that means they can snap out of the confusion. For the next turn, those odds are reduced to 1/4, next turn is 1/3, next turn is 1/2, and if by the next turn they still haven’t rolled a 1; they automatically snapped out of confusion. If they hurt themselves in confusion, they lose .5 HP (for Tier 1 Pokemon). [*][b]Flinch:[/b] For moves that have the side effect of flinching, it’s a 50% chance (1/2 roll) of flinching and not being able to attack that turn. [*][b]Infatuation:[/b] Once afflicted, your Pokemon has a 50% chance (1/2 roll) of being “immobilized by love” each turn and not attack. This does not magically go away and lasts the whole battle. [/list] [/hider] [hider=Stat Influencing]For the most part stats aren’t going to be too heavy into play as it’s mostly RNG. But here are a few amendments that should hopefully make them not entirely useless. For moves that increase attack/sp attack, every time you use the move you can roll for a chance at increasing your Pokemon’s power by half. Instead of inflicting 1 health point base damage per attack, you inflict 1.5 HP base damage. But it’s a 1/5 chance roll and not guaranteed success (Currently, I may change that depending on what move is being used). It can be rolled again for a chance at inflicting 2 HP base damage but that’s the highest it will go. For moves that decrease the opponent’s attack/sp attack, you roll for the chance of debuffing them so they only inflict half damage. If the stat is initially standard (-1 per attack) but was successfully rolled for debuff, they’d only do -.5 damage to you. It can be rolled again for a chance at -.25 damage but that’s the lowest it’ll go. Note: “Base” damage refers to the innate damage a Pokemon does at their respective tier. Tier 1 Pokemon = 1 damage. This does NOT include type advantage/disadvantage bonuses, stat buffs/debuffs, or the type match up bonus (where the Pokemon has the same type as the move being used). For moves that increase defense/sp defense, it’s the same as decreasing the opponents’ attack/sp attack; they just get halved. Lowest it’ll get to is -.25 HP damage. For moves that decrease defense/sp defense, it’s the same as increasing your attack/sp attack; the attack value increases by .25. Highest you can go to is -2 HP damage. Increasing/decreasing speed determines who goes first/last in the next turn. If your Pokemon increases their speed, they’re guaranteed to go first in the next turn PROVIDED that the opponent doesn’t also increase their speed. If they do, then it’s back to RNG roll (assuming they’re the same stage level). This effect stays and maxes out at Stage 5. Getting your speed reduced means your going last (provided again, that the opponent doesn’t get their speed reduced as well. If they do, roll time). The person with the highest speed stage can keep going first in the following turns. If both are the same level, they must roll. Increasing YOUR accuracy translates to your OPPONENT having a lower chance of dodging your attacks. Their dodge roll goes from 1/5 to 1/6 and goes up to 1/7 max. Getting YOUR accuracy reduced means the OPPONENT has a higher chance of dodging your attacks. Their dodge roll goes from 1/5 to 1/4 and goes up to 1/3 max. Moves that have secondary effects that result in the gain/loss of stats also must roll for it. 1/5 chance, 1 being the result that means they don’t lose anything if it’s a debuffer roll and 2-5 means they gain the penalty. If it’s a buffer roll, then 1 means they gained the stat increase and 2-5 means they gain nothing. [/hider] [hider=Damage Effect Calculations & Example]Effective moves get .5 HP bonus Least effective moves get halved by .5 HP Same typing gets .5 HP bonus Effective & same typing boost get total of +1HP damage (added onto base damage) Same typing but least effective just get +.5HP Example: Torchic uses Ember on Rowlet. Both are Tier 1 Pokemon. Ember is both Effective & Same Type move as Torchic. So instead of doing just 1 HP damage, they do 2 HP damage. If Torchic used Peck on Rowlet instead, Torchic would just get effective bonus instead, as Torchic isn’t a flying type. Torchic would do 1.5 HP damage instead of the normal 1 HP damage. If Totodile used Water Gun on Rowlet, it would be a least effective move. But they do get the same type bonus. So they would still do just 1 HP of damage (+5 bonus, -5 penalty cancel each other out) If Tadbulb used Water Gun on Rowlet, it would be a least effective move with no type bonus. So it’d do just .5 HP damage instead of the base 1 HP damage. [/hider] In regards to battling stronger tiered Pokemon…concept is essentially the same. Just the stronger tiered Pokemon have about 5-10 more health points and hit harder than you do so the chances of successfully winning are very low. [/hider] [hider=Quick Battles]Quick battles will be a thing. They're quick, freeform battles that are mostly used for leveling. [/hider] [hider=Experience]Levels are gained every 3 battles. However, individual battles only count for non-quick battles. So, taking on a fellow player (or designated NPC) in a battle with a full team will net you 2 levels (6 mons total = 2 levels) while a quick battle it doesn’t matter how many Pokemon are on the team: you only get 1 experience point for the whole thing. It would take 3 separate quick battle posts to get 1 level up or taking on another player/designated NPC in a real battle with 3 individual Pokemon to get the same result. Regular battles are more intensive so hence the reason why. Fortunately, the whole team gets the same experience gain of whichever Pokemon did the battling. You don’t have to grind them up individually.[/hider][/hider] [hider=WIP of Contest Rules & Mechanics] There are three phases to a contest: 1. Introduction Round – Aka “Dressup Round.” Part of the contest where a character dresses up their Pokemon in a costume and are evaluated based on their sheen & general appearance. Max of 10 points in this category (15 if you have a colored scarf equipped/on). 2. Dancing Round – Part of the contest where the Pokemon (in costume) all dance to one song and are evaluated on their performance. Each character gets 3 rolls of either success or fail (50% chance) and their rolls determines how well their Pokemon performs. Max of 15 points (5 per successful roll). This round can be axed, I just thought it was a cute idea. 3. Talent Round – Part of the contest where Pokemon show off their moves to gain points or sabotage other contestants. There are four subrounds total. Sheen is the Pokemon’s condition. Basically how cute/tough/beautiful/clever/cool they look. Each sheen category has a cap of 10 points (barring the extension of the colored scarves your Pokemon can hold which will increase it by 5). Each Pokemon can have a max of 30 sheen points total (so 3 maxed out categories at most). You increase your Pokemon’s sheen with either Pokeblocks or Poffins. You need 4 berries to make either a pokeblock or a poffin. There are two strengths of pokeblocks: regular pokeblocks and pokeblocks+. For poffins, there are regular poffins and strong poffins. Regular pokeblocks and regular poffins give you 1 point of sheen in a category. Pokeblocks+ and strong poffins give you 2+ points. We won’t be doing rainbow pokeblocks. You can harvest berries, buy berries, or be gifted berries as part of a reward but you must have the correct amount of berries when making pokeblocks/poffins. After the Introduction and Dancing Rounds, the Pokemon with the highest (collective) points leads the Talent Round. After that, the lead is based on whoever is doing the best in the Talent Round (barring any move that deigns participation order). 1.) A Pokemon must have 4 moves in order to participate in contests. 2.) Performing the same move twice will lead to loss in points and loss in the Crowd Excitement Meter. 3.) If a move is newer (like gen 8-9) and doesn’t have a contest description associated with it, I’m gonna ask that you find another move from the Pokemon’s Movebank to substitute it for the contests. 4.) Each move gives a certain amount of red hearts that serve as points. Some moves are designed to sabotage other contestants, and “jam” their performance (startles them). Those moves have a certain amount of black hearts attached to them and those are the amount of points that is decreased on the Pokemon they successfully sabotage. Sometimes, this can lead to negative points for a Pokemon for that round. 5.) We will be using the Crowd Excitement mechanic. It can be raised/lowered based on what kind of move your Pokemon makes. For example, in beauty contests, a beauty move will increase it. Cool/cute moves will do nothing in beauty contests. While clever/tough moves will lower it in beauty contests. I’ll list the compatibility chart for convenience later. 6.) With the successful raising of the Excitement Meter, your Pokemon gets an additional point per round. This does not include moves like Whirlpool which stops the crowd from getting more excited. When the Excitement Meter is maxed out, your Pokemon gets an additional +5 points (plus the +1 extra point they get for raising the meter). 7.) Points are collectively counted each subround and determine the order for the next subround (barring moves that put them in the front/last of the line). The total amount of points are documented for the Talent Round and combined with the Introduction and Dance Rounds. The Pokemon with the most points is the winner. The winner of the contest will receive a ribbon + prize(s). 8.) There needs to be four participants per contests (and at least one person acting as a judge and co-GM and collecting points/doing rolls). Sometimes, we can’t always get the right amount of actual characters to participate, so to encourage people to help out…if you play as a NPC participant you’ll get rewarded (your respective character will be “anonymously gifted” goodies to use in the rp) helping out. 9.) You only need to win one ribbon in a lower rank to go to the next rank. It doesn’t need to be from the same category either. So, if I win one cute contest in normal rank, I can go to the next rank (super) in a cool contest if I want to.[/hider] All the calculations/roll stuff is only for the GMs to worry about. Regular players are just intended to write up their posts and respond to the results they get. EDIT: 10/28: Edited a few things to make it look more neater. Will be working on posting more information for the RP at a later date. 10/29: [url=https://www.roleplayerguild.com/posts/5484723]Here[/url] is a post featuring a look at the Starre region map + its locations.