#so close to freedom to draw and write again aaaaa

[townofcadence]

General update, but I'm very excited to come back to my blog! I wanted to sooner, but I've been getting ready for a big move and didn't want to get distracted. But that should be finished this weekend so I'm very excited to draw and write and be here again ^^

To help start up again, I may consider all threads on the blog concluded unless someone asks to continue a specific one. That way i can hop in with new stuff and not be too overwhelmed. I'll try to reach out and send in things to start some new ones when I'm able to be online fully again!

[tumblunni]

Current feel: wanting to turn the old 1999 Pokemon Master Trainer board game into a tabletop rpg. The idea just hit me last week and its been festering in my brain and refusing to leave!

Aaaaa so many IDEAS for improving its flaws and expanding it to have more freedom and adding character sheets instead of Everyone Is Ash In Different Colours. What if you could even pick trainer classes that lean towards different gameplay styles? Like a battler gets exp for fighting as much as possible and a dex holder gets exp for catching lots and a pokemon breeder could have a 'my friends are my power' thing where every time their pokemon gains a level their trainer does too. Which could make them a good versatile mix between all the other styles, cos they could level up their mons by fighting or by catching loads of new mons, etc. And then i think each class would have a Class Square on the board that gives specific bonus events depending on what you picked. To help balance it out so that you still have opportunities to gain your class's specific exp even if you get a bunch of bad dice rolls. The breeder events could give ways to level up your pokemon without fighting, like cute pet affection moments that power them up with the power of love~! And of course an actual breeding mechanic where you can leave two of your pokemon at that space for a certain amount of turns and then you get a new pokemon. CHERISH IT! Oh and lol there could be a team rocket class that plays the same as the original game cos SERIOUSLY this board game is so broken and cutthroat, theres like a million cards to steal stuff from your friends and force them into ambush attacks and even LITERALLY STEAL THEIR TURN AND MAKE THEM DO IT AGAIN! There's a time machine card thats so poorly written that it lets you undo any turn whether its yours, your opponents or even the enemy pieces on the board! I hope i never mess up that bad in game design lol

And it could work so well as an episodic thing where in each session we have a smaller game board based on an individual area? Like in the original you just have one board thats all of kanto, and none of the landmarks are even really marked which sucks. It took until the second game to even add gym leaders as a gameplay mechanic! So i'm thinking if we wanted to make this a multi session game we could turn each leg of the journey into its own sub-board. Each one would contain one Route area for training and catching pokemon, and then one Town that contains the gym leader thats the final boss of this area. And maybe equivelant final goals for every trainer class? Like catching a rare pokemon or doing a pokemon contest? (I cant think of anything else for breeders except 'hatch a shiny pokemon' which would be way more difficult than everyone else's stuff! Either that or maybe just a goal of hatching a certain amount of eggs? So they could be the only class that doesnt need to get to the town to win? I dunno i'll work on it!!) ANYWAY what i mean is that each game session could be a mini battle to get to the goal, and then that carries over into the next one. You don't win the whole thing just for getting the Pewter City gym badge, but it means you get to draw a rare card and roll first next time. And you get an idea of who's in the lead at each moment, causing stuff to get more competitive (or more collaborative!) as you get close to the final stretch...

And and and i thought of a cool idea for the first board of the game! What if getting your starter pokemon was a minigame? Everyone rolls dice and it determines what order you get to pick in, cos you slept in like Ash from the first episode of the anime. And also similarly maybe player 4 doesnt get to pick and they get a randomized starter that wasnt on the list? Which could either be a great lucky pick or a huge disadvantage, so maybe you wanna try it on purpose just in case... and hmm I'd definately let players swap their starters if they all agreed on it, i mean this is supposed to be fun rather than uber competitive. But to keep the luck aspect i'd say you can only trade your randomized starter AS a randomized starter. I.e you trade it before you roll to find out what it is. Bargain away the potentially valuable luck of the draw! But if the luck fails then you're stuck with it!

Oh and also you totally get bonus exp for roleplaying, cos this is mostly a framework just for a monopoly esque thing and we need to turn it into more of an Experience. I was thinking replace the 'get a pokemon without battling' squares with 'get a pokemon IF you can write me a lil story about how you encountered and befriended it'. BONUS POINTS FOR HOW MANY TIMES THE GM SAYS DAWW

Man ive thought way too much about this...

Maybe even make up a new original region so i could balance the locations to fit the gameplay a bit better instead of being bound to kanto? Hmm... An excuse to make Cute Professor Grandma...