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Pocket Monster Adventures — A TTRPG based on the first generation of Pokémon (heavenlyspoon.org)
submitted 1 year ago by to c/rpg@ttrpg.network
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Hey, Lemmy!

I’m a somewhat experienced TTRPG designer and my latest project is an RPG based on the first generation of Pokémon games.

You can download the complete game for free here:

https://heavenlyspoon.org/pocket-monster-adventures/

My focus was on ease-of-play and simple prep. Many of the other Pokémon RPGs out there seemed to involve a lot of overhead—especially for the GM. I prefer a more improv-heavy game, and having to do a lot of prep makes that basically impossible. 

Sticking to gen 1 made it so I could keep the scope small enough to allow for simple encounter tables, pre-prepared Pokémon sheets for every Pokémon, and a simple set-up for every Pokémon controlled by the GM.

The game is designed to be played with one GM and two or three players, and every aspect of the original games has been changed where needed to accommodate this.

I don't know how much interest there is for this kind of thing, but hopefully at least someone will get some joy out of it!

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[–] 2 points 1 year ago (1 child)

@HeavenlySpoon@ttrpg.network I don't know if you're looking for feedback, but something that seems potentially confusing is the different behaviour of the move die between normal and special moves. If I'm reading it correctly for a normal move your "attack roll" (to fall back to d&d terms) is determined by the Move die and the target to beat is the move's Threshold, but for a special move your "attack roll" is your Special die and the target is the Move die. I'm not sure if using the same terminology to refer to two opposite things is the clearest!

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  • [–] [S] 2 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    Feedback is always welcome!

    The issue is that for out-of-combat actions, the move die has the same function for both types of moves, so giving it a different name could lead to more confusion. Additionally, any number mentioned on the move card always refers to the move die, so having different names might again be more confusing.

    I hope I made it clear that special moves have a very different procedure, and as soon as you realise that, knowing that the “move die” is the die on the move card should hopefully make things fairly clear.

    Part of the impetus behind the combat rules was trying to make a singular “Special” stat not just functional but logical. If it was just going to be SpA/SpD combined, there’d be no reason not to split them. Having the split be damaging moves and effect moves solved that issue nicely, but it did necessitate very different mechanics.

    Thanks for the feedback, though!

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  • [–] 2 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    Fair enough, you can tell I hadn't read that far yet!

    Another bit of feedback: the word "move" is used to mean different things and can be a bit ambiguous. A good example is the paragraph explaining paralysis: "move(s)" is used to mean changing turn order, movement around the grid, and an attack (and I'm still a little confused as to how paralysis works in general!) Might be worth calling "moves" (the attacks that pokémon make) something like "abilities" or "techniques" to make it clearer?

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  • [–] [S] 2 points 1 year ago (2 children)

    Hmm, techniques might work, but space is often limited and it’s quite a bit longer than “move”. I’m aware of the issue, but didn’t have a clean way of solving it. I couldn’t use “attack” since there’s already an Attack die and abilities are also a thing in Pokémon in general. If it was going to be confusing regardless, I figured I might as well stick with the name used in the games. Basically, move as a noun is an “attack”, move as a verb is movement. I may have to try to fit that clarification in somewhere…

    The thing to keep in mind with Paralysis is that every round starts with determining turn order, any Paralysed Pokémon move to the end of the turn order and then loses Paralysis. The not-being-able-to-move bit is only relevant if the Paralysed Pokémon hasn’t acted yet that round.

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  • [–] 2 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    Regarding paralysis it might be worth clarifying that it only affects the following round (in case you get paralysed before you've attacked that round)

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  • [–] [S] 2 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    Feedback is always more than welcome!

    I might just change Paralysis at this point, it’s been a bit annoying to track in playtesting and if it’s apparently hard to understand as well it may not be worth it. The general goal of conditions was to have them go away as quickly as possible to keep things simple, which is why Paralysis disappears at the end of the start of turn, but having it just be no-movement for 2 turns is probably the better option. I’ll have to do some playtesting first, though.

    And capitalising Move is probably the easiest option. I’d have to check if that causes anything weird, but probably not.

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  • [–] 1 point 1 year ago (1 child)

    Might be better to pick a single thing for paralysis to do if simplicity is the goal. Some ideas:

    1. Miss the next turn - same as the TCG but probably too similar to sleep
    2. No movement for X turns - more of a literal interpretation of paralysis but seems like it might also just be a less strong version of sleep
    3. Chance of failing the next attack - represents the "fully paralysed" effect from the games, a little similar to both confusion and sleep
    4. Act last in the next round - represents the speed-reducing effect from the games, but is a little confusing in practice based on whether the target has already acted in this round or not
    5. Permanent speed reduction (well, as permanent as poison), could be similar to how Agility works - similar to above but maybe a bit simpler?
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  • [–] [S] 0 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    Just replying to let you know that I’ve changed move to Move whenever it’s not referring to movement and that I’ve changed Paralysis to the easier option of not being able to move this round and next round. It definitely plays differently, but it’s quicker and should hopefully be easier to understand!

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  • [–] 0 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    Sounds good! I noticed a couple of little typos when I read through before, want me to make a list of them if they're still there? Also, very strangely, a few pages had a tiny blob on them which when I zoomed in turned out to be Vileplume's stat sheet.

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  • [–] [S] 2 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    Weird! I don’t know how that happened, can you give a page number for where it shows up?

    And yes, please share any typos you find!

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  • [–] 1 point 1 year ago (1 child)

    I first noticed it on p182 (Abra), I'll let you know if I see it anywhere else

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  • [–] [S] 0 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    I figured out what happened, apparently the Vileplume sheet snuck onto my Pokémon sheet template. It should be fixed now.

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  • [–] 2 points 11 months ago (1 child)

    Right, it seems I really went down the rabbit hole with proofreading so I hope this seems helpful rather than obsessive!

    • Missing Data
      • p165 - Diglett has no evolution info
      • p238 - Scyther is missing, there's a second Mr Mime
      • p249 - Vaporeon has Haze twice
    • Typos
      • p20 - "strength" should be "Strength"
      • p45 - "but in and out of battle" should be "both in and out of battle" (I think)
      • p85 - "starts the battle against two opponents" should be "starts the battle against three opponents"
      • p92 - "the trainer by threatened by" should be "the trainer be threatened by"
      • p291, Bulbasaur - "timealone" should be "time alone"
      • p291, Charmeleon - "move down" should be "mow down" (maybe?)
      • p305, Gloom - "wretch" should be "retch"
      • p311, Poliwrath - "water of the land" should be "water to the land"
      • p313, Weepinbell - "it can split out" should be "it can spit out"
      • p317, Farfetch'd - "adapt" should be "adept"
      • p321, Cloyster - "Closter" should be "Cloyster"
      • p323, Kingler - "Pincer" in the Description should be "pincer"
      • p325, Hitmonlee - "This now only" should be "This not only"
      • p340, Luxwan - "Leep Slap" should be "Leek Slap"
      • p341, Straigar - "or main you" should be "or maim you"
      • p342, Wooper - "Temor" should be "Tremor"
      • Confusion - "swap" should be "swaps"
      • Mimic - "copy an" should be "copy of an"
      • Real nit-pick minor inconsistencies
        • Full stop is occasionally inside the brackets at the end of a sentence (.) instead of ).)
          • Do the Wave
          • p315, Geodude
          • p349, Elixir
        • There's a mixture of angled apostrophes (’) and vertical ones ('), e.g. in Charmeleon's dex on p291
        • Sometimes kph is used (e.g. Onix on p321, Doduo on p317), sometimes km/h (e.g. Rapidash on p315)
    • Inconsistencies in size between full sheet and dex entry
      • Ninetales
      • Machamp
      • Rhyhorn
      • Electabuzz
      • Tauros
      • Articuno
      • Zapdos
      • MissingNo. (I assume this one is deliberate though!)
    • Graphical Glitches
      • p222 - There's one last tiny Vileplume on Comet Punch
      • p347 - Gyaoon has a vertical line on the right edge of its picture
    • Rules Queries
      • There's no mention of giving NPCs the class abilities, are they for the Trainers only? (I assume yes as it would make the Professor's job harder)
      • p16 - Can conditions stack? If not then does a new one replace an old one?
      • p16 - Can you switch a paralysed or sleeping pokémon? Only confusion is mentioned as being cleared by switching.
      • p36 - If you're a Cue Ball can your pokémon with Strength push others into water like boulders?
      • p50 - Can you use Elixirs in battle? (I assume no but it might be worth explicitly stating)
      • p50 - Any reason to mention both "special poke balls" and "great balls and ultra balls"?
      • p51 - Is there any point in catching an evolved pokémon if you're at a high enough level to catch the lower one and immediately evolve it at a gym?
      • p58 explicitly mentions that you can't switch against wild pokémon, can you switch against a single trainer? (p56 implies no but is not explicit)
      • Double Team is slightly ambiguous
        • Can you use it if there are no empty surrounding spaces?
        • Does the double move with you?
        • Would it be simpler to have the effect without occupying two spaces?
      • Skull Bash / Razor Wind - can you still move on both turns?
      • Metronome has results for 5 and 6 (presumably copied from Super Metronome) but only uses a d4
      • Amnesia - can it be used out of battle for "free" PP restoration?
      • p17 implies wrap/bind/clamp prevents movement but the Move says "or either moves"
        • Does that mean only forced movement by a third pokémon?
        • If so should it say "or either is moved"?
      • Swift/Softboiled/Splash/Transform/Mimic have no Move die, can they be used out of battle?
      • Meditate - how does it affect moves which attack multiple times?
      • Barrier - does it create an obstacle which can't be flown over?
      • Poison Sting - is it supposed to always be a Basic Move? Apart from pokémon with it only Magikarp and Mew have multiple Basic Moves. (I assume this is intended it just looked inconsistent)
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  • [–] [S] 2 points 11 months ago (1 child)

    Oh wow, thanks a lot! I guess I know what I’m doing this weekend.

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  • [–] 2 points 11 months ago (1 child)

    I really appreciate all the work you've put into this, I've got a group together to play so my weekend is going to be writing an intro and a map for them!

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  • [–] [S] 1 point 11 months ago (1 child)

    Version 1.2 is up! It should include fixes for everything you pointed out. There's a short overview in the Version History.

    Some design clarifications:

    • Amnesia doesn't work out of battle, I've added a clarification to the move.
    • I hadn't actually considered Transform out of battle, that one's on me. It now gives you that entire Pokémon's moveset, but every move uses a d4 Move die to balance out the lack of PP.
    • It's deliberate that some Pokémon have more than one Basic Move. It felt kind of arbitrary for Poison Sting to be one for Weedle but not for Nidoran. I have removed Transform's Basic status for Mew, though.
    • There’s no benefit to catching higher-stage Pokémon, the catching rules mostly just make it a bit harder to get higher-stage Pokémon early. By making excursions into higher-difficulty areas more costly, it should hopefully keep trainers within their intended zones without explicitly forcing them to. But yeah, if you want a Machamp, you should probably try to find a Machop instead.
    • MissingNo.'s size difference wasn't intentional, but I'm definitely keeping it.

    Thanks for the thorough read-through, I really appreciate it!

    And lovely to hear that you've got a group together! I'd love to hear how it goes!

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  • [–] 2 points 11 months ago (1 child)

    Nice! You'll be glad to hear I've already spotted something new: the pokedex entries seem to have the right-most few pixels cut off so some of the words are slightly truncated. Also Electabuzz is still showing as "small" on its sheet, and Straigar still says "main" instead of "maim".

    You're too kind to have included me in the credits, compared to how much effort you must have put into designing this whole system me spotting a few typos is really nothing!

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  • [–] [S] 2 points 11 months ago (1 child)

    Weird, I don’t know how that happened, but it should be fixed now. And I’ve had a few projects now where someone just did a thorough proofreading and it’s been awesome every time. The helpers of the internet don’t get nearly enough credit, so it’s the least I can do!

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  • [–] 2 points 11 months ago (1 child)

    We're a few sessions in and everyone's loving it, unfortunately that means more bug reports!

    • Some pokedex pages (Drowzee on p.321 and Psyduck on p.307) list Disable as dealing 2 hits, other pages and the full sheets list it as only doing 1 (which seems correct)
    • Poliwag's pokedex entry (p.310) says "it tries and swim away or hide", that "and" should be a "to"
    • The pokedex.pdf seems to be suffering from the 'right edge of text cut off' issue you fixed in the main doc
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  • [–] [S] 2 points 11 months ago (1 child)

    Happy to hear that! And I’m always happy with more bug reports (as long as they’re fixable). Yeah, Disable should be 1 hit.

    I don’t notice the edge clipping on my copy of the Pokédex, but I could’ve accidentally uploaded an older version. It should be good now, I hope.

    I’ve updated the document with some other minor changes as well. They’ve been in the doc for a bit now, but this seemed as good a time as any to actually implement them.

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  • [–] 2 points 11 months ago (1 child)

    Edge clipping is fixed in 1.3, ta.

    BTW I noticed that Straigar's pokedex entry still says "main" in the main rulebook but is fixed to "maim" in pokedex.pdf, I had assumed one was generated from the other but I guess not?

    Also I see that Articuno is now covering up a bit of the table and some of the text at the bottom of p.94 - I assume that's a deliberate design decision (it looks quite good) but just letting you know in case it wasn't!

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  • [–] [S] 2 points 11 months ago (2 children)

    It normally is just a copy, but I edit the dex file for small changes instead of doing a full copy since that’s a bit quicker, but yeah, I apparently didn’t actually change it in the main doc. Oops.

    And yeah, Articuno is deliberate. I liked it taking up most of that page, and this way seemed like a neat way of not having to shrink it as much.

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  • [–] 2 points 10 months ago (1 child)

    I'm back again! The pokédex entries for both nidorans have Power and Size mixed up (i.e. they say Power: Tiny and Size: 1)

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  • [–] [S] 2 points 10 months ago (1 child)

    Ha, weird, thanks for pointing it out!

    Also, a small heads up: the most recent version fixed an issue with TM25 Thunder which slipt in at some point. Some of the Pokémon sheets incorrectly showed it as available or unavailable.

    And since nobody’s going to check this comment chain anyway, here, have some extra Pokémon:

    https://heavenlyspoon.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/new-pokemon.pdf

    These are part of a companion book I’m working on with a suggested gym for each of the 50 TMs and a couple of pre-designed regions.

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  • [–] 1 point 9 months ago (1 child)

    Ooo nice! What's the occasion, interested in doing gen 2 or just picking a few more pokémon from the gen 2 beta?

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  • [–] [S] 2 points 9 months ago (1 child)

    It's just those 6. Keeping the list small was a deliberate choice to keep things manageable. These are just here to give some Gym Leaders a Pokémon not normally found in the wild in the hopes of making them a bit more interesting.

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  • [–] 1 point 1 year ago

    Hmm, good points. I can think of three possibilities:

    1. Keep it as Move but always capitalise it as you do with Trainer
    2. Change it to ability and just make it clear that it's unrelated to abilities from later generations
    3. Change it to technique and use an abbreviation like "tech" to keep it short

    BTW I hope this doesn't come off as negative, I'm really enjoying reading it and I'm keen to try running a campaign!

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