1. How do you feel about Team Rocket? I'm doing a Trainer fanfic, and I can't decide whether to have a single rival or use team rocket.
Like all characters, it depends on how you use them. Although Team Rocket tends to fall into clichés themselves (i.e., "The same thing we do every night, Ash.
TRY TO TAKE OVER THE WORLD."), if you basically have carbon copies of Jessie, James, and Meowth following your character (i.e., motto, constant attempts to steal one or a handful of Pokémon using over-the-top plans, blasting off), then it's probably not going to be all that well-received because it'll make them come off as boring. If Team Rocket are a bunch of developed characters that yours just happens to run into now and then, that'd be a bit better. You'd still have to develop their motivations past the standard "taking over the world" bit, though. I mean going into a specific how and why, if that makes sense.
2. How do you feel about extending the allowance of 6 Pokemon at a time? I was hoping to include some of my favourite Pokemon, but they equate to like 9 or something.
Charizard
Pidgeot
Snorlax
Chansey
Arcanine
Lapras
Pikachu
Dragonite
You need a good reason for doing it that's stated within the fic. Although the list of things that are consistent across every bit of Pokémon media is uncomfortably short, one of the few things everyone agrees upon is that there's a six-Pokémon limit. Even in Pokémon Special, no character carries more than that, and when one did (Red in the earliest chapters), it was shown that part of the reason why there's a limit at all is because more than that becomes hard to carry (literally) and train.
To be a bit more specific for the latter, remember that with a team of Pokémon, a trainer needs to divide their attention evenly among all members of their party. That's pretty difficult to do. Imagine trying to divide your attention evenly between six or more dogs. But from an author's perspective, it gets even more complicated because you'll need to develop each Pokémon into a fully-fledged character. What I mean is these aren't just objects that your trainer will own. Pokémon are their own characters with their own personalities, even if you characterize them more as animals. If you don't develop each one, you end up coming up with flat characters, and then it will feel like your trainer's Pokémon are nothing but soulless, boring puppets. Now, if you upped the limit by three, that's already pushing it for just that particular team, but try to imagine attempting to give characterization to not only your trainer's Pokémon but also
the traveling companions'. Team Rocket's. Whoever else is a major character. It'll get messy. (Yes, I realize that there's such a thing as the transfer/storage system, but even then, you'll be tackling more than six different personalities at a given time if you up the limit. So... yeah.)
Not to mention changing up the rules for no given reason within the fic tends to rub readers the wrong way. If you write about a canon region (which you probably are unless you want to throw in a carefully detailed reason why Team Rocket isn't in Kanto, Johto, or -- if set in the anime universe -- the Orange Islands anymore... because, well, they haven't exactly expanded their territory beyond that due to the entire "every region has its own criminal organization" thing), this means that you'll have to play by canon rules. The reason why is because otherwise, your readers are going to call you out on it, even if it's a minor detail.
This goes especially for those of us who have thought way too much about the storage system. That means you'll need to come up with a solid reason other than "I just wanted to fit in my favorite Pokémon, so I had the government decide to change the rules." This is because, well, trainers got along just fine with only six, right?
If you go with a fan-created region, same thing. Upping the Pokémon limit doesn't necessarily mean that a trainer will be well-equipped for protecting themselves in a dangerous situation. In fact, because of the whole "need to divide attention" thing, it's more likely that they'll probably get their face beaten in because their Pokémon will probably be weaker than if a trainer attempted to divide their attention between only six members in the same amount of time. In other words, put it this way. Just because you have more types of guns doesn't mean you'll be able to survive if you haven't given yourself enough time to figure out how to use each of them.
That being said, remember that fic doesn't have to = game. Better-written trainers rely on more strategy than just "hit this Pokémon with a super-effective hit from a Pokémon of the same type." Example? While hitting a Water-type with a Thundershock from Pikachu is okay within the game, in a fic, it's not particularly exciting because it makes the battle rather predictable. A better method of writing is with the idea that any Pokémon can work in any given situation. In other words, taking a page from the Ash school of gym battling (you know, where Ash manages to pull off winning matches using Pokémon with type disadvantages and everything).
In light of that, I'd like to recommend removing at least Lapras. Remember, everything you do in your fic will need a logical explanation as to how it happened. In other words, if your trainer has a Pokémon within the story, you'll need to be ready to show us how that Pokémon was captured. Lapras is a pretty rare Pokémon; there's only one obtainable wild one (technically... and meaning "not a giveaway") in Johto's Union Cave in the games. Then, in the anime, it's pretty much established that they're pretty rare and that Ash was pretty lucky to find his.
Same thing with Dragonite and Chansey, actually, although both imply that your character is going into the Safari Zone at some point. (Either that, or he/she happens to be insanely lucky with locating rare Pokémon.) The others are pretty easy to find, assuming that Charmander is going to be this trainer's starter.
Tl;dr, everything happens for a reason. Especially in fanfiction. Hope that helps a little.
