Strawbeary Den

PokéRP

I've been toying with this idea a LOT, and this reel about re-designing an Instagram PokéLARPer as a gym leader got me to finally write it.


The Concept

A long time ago, I was really into the Tumblr tag #pokemon rp. The concept here was to LARP as Pokémon trainers in Tumblr posts and generally have fun pretending to be in the Pokémon world. If you went shopping, you might post a photo with a Tepig sprite pasted in and rant about the absurd price of Fire-type kibble. Or you could post about Porygon helping with your homework, or the scared little Shuppet in your closet.

I spent a decent amount of time reading #pokemon rp, and now I follow PokéLARPers like daddledingo on Instagram.

The idea of PokéRP as a play-by-post LARP game is essentially the same.

You and your friends go about life as normal, but with a thin layer of fiction that can be stepped into and roleplayed at any time. While old and modern PokéLARPers alike only step into this fiction for posting, a player in a PokéRP game could step into it for a couple different reasons:

  1. Step into the fiction for an event, like a Pokémon battle against your friend who's visiting town (or online!) or a trade
  2. Step into the fiction either instantaneously or with intention when catching Pokémon
  3. Step into the fiction to post in a shared server about your Pokémon adventures

This is neither a 24/7 LARP game nor a session/event based LARP game, but more like a (very) long-term play-by-post. A LARP play-by-post? Perhaps it could be the first.


Structure of Play

The goal of play is to have fun roleplaying as Pokémon trainers. If you want something more concrete, you and your co-players should come up with specific goals, like starting gyms in your cities, defeating the champion (me), or tracking down a legendary Pokémon.

Maybe you're on a path to finding the dens of the Swords of Justice (I suspect Terrakion's den is in the Grand Canyon, but I haven't yet done the into-the-canyon hike, so I can't confirm). That could be something.

To play, you'll need 2+ players (no GM, it's collaborative RP), each with a handheld camera like a phone, DSLR, or digicam; as well as a Discord or Slack server for organization. You don't have to be in the same city (in fact, I think PokéRP could be very fun as a game for long-distance friends) at all.

Play occurs in three parts.


1. The PokéNet

The PokéNet is the Discord or Slack server where you post caught Pokémon and bought/found items, have free-form RP with your friends, and post weekly updates on your Pokémon adventures.

When setting up the PokéNet for your party, I'd recommend the following channels:

  1. Catches & Items - A place to post images of Pokémon you've caught and items you've bought or found. This will make more sense once
  2. Battle & Trade - A channel for players to propose battles and trades and start calls (if virtual) to conduct them
  3. Posts - A channel for players to post about their Pokémon adventures. Posts should be weekly (or bi-weekly), and can be as simple as a single line (pachirisu and i were soo overworked this week ugh) or as complex as a short fiction piece. Add photos when you can!1
  4. General - For free-form RP, short texts, introductions, announcements, and such. If you ran into a bear while hiking you might post just after the fact here (guysss I ran into an ursaring in yosemite u have to believe meee), even if the whole ordeal shows up later in #posts.


Posts and leveling

At the beginning of each month, if you've posted at least three times in the last month in #posts, each of your Pokémon gain a level! Ideally, everyone posts about once-a-week, but this requirement offers a little leeway.


2. Catching Pokémon

You can catch Pokémon by taking photos of their IRL counterparts. These photos have to be fairly clear and in good quality to count! What that means exactly is up to the general consensus of the players.

Some notes:

  1. Each Pokémon requires a specific counterpart. There will be a list (working on it!) to reference, so you can't just take a photo of any old tree and call it a Trevenant, it's got to be appropriately spooky.
  2. One Pokémon a month! Ideally you should be forming bonds with your Pokémon, and you can't do that if you're just catching and swapping all the time. It's similar logic to the once-per-route logic in Nuzlockes.
  3. Six Pokémon max. If you want a new one, one of them is going to have to be released, traded or gifted away, or sent to your parents' house for safe-keeping. This is similar to the Pokémon anime logic.
  4. Pets don't count, and neither do zoo animals, aquarium animals, and plants in botanical gardens. You can only catch wild Pokémon, so these are ruled out. Plants and animals in ranger-protected semi-wild zones (eg. US National Parks) are fair game, but rescue animals are not.


Catch Level

The first Pokémon you catch will be level 5. Each month following that first catch, your "catch level" (that is, the level of Pokémon you catch) goes up by 1.

If you spot a Pokémon whose base level (that is, the minimum level required for that Pokémon to exist, like Pelipper at 25, since it evolves from Wingull at 25 (will be on my Pokémon-catching-list, don't worry!)) is higher than both your catch level and the highest level Pokémon in your party, you can't catch it.


Assorted Thoughts Mid-Post

First off, I'm really excited! That's all for that line.

Second, I think this is especially fun when you think of it as a group activity. Reading #pokemon rp was fun, but just imagine the fun of doing group trips to National Parks, searching fo really cool wild Pokémon, or going to beaches and collectively keeping eyes out for the perfect Krabby for a player's Water-type team. Or even in long-distance: seeing a post on your PokéNet feed from a friend in another city who just caught a Spheal! That'd be so fun! It makes me want to go to more National Parks, and do more exploring, all with my friends, and I love that.

Third, I think its' going to be really fun to see my friends' teams develop as a result of their surroundings. When Pokémon Go was announced this was what my friends and I all wished for it to be, and it'd be cool to actually see it happen.

Anyways,


3. Battles and Trades

Battles can either happen in-person (ideal) or online, and between any two PokéRPers.

To do a PokéRP battle, either:

  1. (preferred) use a video game emulator like Pokémon Showdown or
  2. (optional) design a battle system for your group and use that

I'll be using Showdown for my PokéNet.


Leveling Up

At the end of a Battle, each participating Pokémon on the loser's side gains 1 level, and the ones on the winner's side gain 3. You can battle as many times as you want, whenever you want, but to slow level progression, you can only get experience from a battle once a month.


Trades

Some players will gravitate toward Battles, and some won't, and that's ok! You can also interact with other PokéRPers by trading.

Trades happen as they usually do in the games, and may cause trade evolutions.


Assorted Notes

Some additional thoughts that haven't gotten covered yet.


Getting items

You can add items to your bag the same way you'd add Pokémon to your team - with pictures!

Take a photo of the item's IRL counterpart, post in #catches-and-items, and it's now in your bag. You can't take photos of the same IRL item twice (honor rules), but you can take photos of things you've bought (like Rawst berries at a farmer's market) and bundles of items (like a whole basket of berries).

Items can be given to Pokémon before battles for standard use, and can also be used in trade evolutions (which would consume the item).


Friendship evolutions

To evolve a Pokémon via friendship (eg. Espeon), they must feature positively in your posts in #posts at least 20 times. On the 20th time, your Pokémon evolves!

Does this mean you'll have that Eevee around for about 5 months? Yes. This is a long-form game.


Developing lore

It is highly, and I mean HIGHLY, encouraged that you and your co-players develop lore as you play. It could be as light as "what does a Magikarp taste like anyway?" to "Misdreavus and I spent hours in the library searching for clues regarding the location of the Adamant Orb, which we (the party) hope to use to awaken Dialga and turn back time. Given this info here in Depictions of Animals Pokémon in 19th Century Europe, we have reason to believe that it is located somewhere in the Parisian catacombs..."

You don't need to get that deep with it at all, but if everyone goes into the game with the mindset of we're collectively going to develop lore as we play I think the game gets even more fun.

Some ideas: the wereabouts of legendary Pokémon, evil teams, founding gyms and leagues, Pokémon diets and habits, ancient Pokémon ruins, the dens of powerful Pokémon, etc.


Getting new players

PokéRP works on the principle of the-more-the-merrier.

I would suggest starting with a small, fully connected network of friends, who will each start adding more and more of their personal friends to the group. Importantly, these people do not necessarily all need to be friends with each other! I can still play with my friends' friends', even if I don't know them. In fact, having everyone online might help people connect.


Resources

TBR.

  1. A sortable table (in a Google Sheet) of Pokémon, their typing, how they evolve, and their IRL counterparts.
  2. A sortable table of items, their effects, and their IRL counterparts.
  3. A spreadsheet for tracking players' Pokémon (incl. levels, nicknames, where they were caught, etc.), items, and such


Joining my PokéNet

Text me!

That's all


Song of the Day

careless whisper (the cover by ella boh)



footnotes

1. i find it really fun when people post photos and paste pokémon sprites, mega stones, and other items on top. it can lead to fun worldbuilding too, like i can imagine potions in a vending machine and i'd totally post that