Can I make up my own attacks for my fanfic?

I think it'll be hard to make fight scenes interesting if I'm limited to using the attacks given in the game. My characters will be a lot of different situations, which'll call for different techniques to win. This will mean they'll have to perform variations of their current moves, or just have to learn a new move or technique altogether. I'll give you an example, there's a part in my story where one of the characters can't get to an opponent because their opponent is constantly launching a barrage of attacks on him. So he uses Quick Attack to travel from tree to tree quickly, and get closer to the opponent while still dodging attacks. This isn't the traditional use of Quick Attack, so I'll call it Quick Attack Burst (due to the quick bursts of energy he uses to travel from tree to tree, yeah, it kinda sucks, I'll rename it later). Would that be bad? That's just a minor example, I have plans for new moves altogether, which have appeared in the games. Can I do this?

The good thing about fanfiction is you can generally do what you want. If you want to make up new moves, go for it, but at the same time as it is pokemon and people who would read your story should know what most attacks are, so if you are to suddenly throw in a new move or even pokemon without explanation of how it works or even how it's created it can be confusing. With your example you can honestly keep it as a simple Quick Attack. In story your character can simply order the pokemon to use the speed of Quick Attack to dodge ratcher than attack. However, as Quick Attack is a physical move you can make Quick Attack Burst and explain that it is a dodging or protective move rather than an outright attack.

There are already hundreds of attacks and using them in creative new ways is always interesting and something I'd be eager to see, so long as there is a reasonable explanation of how or why they can do that, though I suppose you would use such ways to show the reader how such a thing is possible is through a training session/chapter.

You aren't alone in coming up with new moves or even using an ordinary move and making it creative. I myself have done it several times in older fanfics. So I'd say go for it, and if some reviewer makes a negative comment but doesn't give a reason why you shouldn't add a new attackto your story, ignore them. However, if someone does give a logical explanation of why your new move doesn't make sense, look it over, think about how you can make is reasonable or even possible, and just go for it once more with the new knowledge you've gained in how to make it possible.

The anime itself frequently does exactly what you're suggesting - using Gust to blow away Smokescreen, etc. There is no need to rename it "Quick Attack Burst" if you're using Quick Attack to do something unconventional; just have the character say, "Use Quick Attack to dodge!" or whatever (or, since your description sounds more like your characters are the battlers themselves, "I used Quick Attack to dart to a tree faster than the eye could see" or something in that direction). Unless precisely that way of using Quick Attack becomes used regularly to the point where the characters would sensibly decide they need a name for it.

On that note, it can be alright to make up moves (as long as they make sense, clear, etc - after all people use Fakemon too), but I do disagree with this statement:

I think it'll be hard to make fight scenes interesting if I'm limited to using the attacks given in the game.

Click to expand...

There's something like 450+ attacks in the games, so there's a lot to play around with. And then you can use the moves in various ways, such as for instance the mention of Quick Attack to avoid/get somewhere fast rather than a quick ramming attack. And as Dragonfree said, if that's all you do then there's probably not much reason to give it a different name if it's just a canon move used in a different way.

On the more specific issue of the opening post, may I mention that if you are using Quick Attack to move around very quickly from one place to another rather than ramming at the opponent, then you may be essentially using Agility.

Moves can be used in an incredible variety of ways, which I've learn while writing fic and posting in a Pokémon RP. The anime and manga(s?) give a lot of leeway as well in that respect. A Pokémon could very well use Brick Break on the ground right before him to try and halt an impending opponent Rollout. A small flying Pokémon might want to use something like Energy Ball or Water Pulse to shield themselve from frontal attacks, like in some shooter videogames where you can charge shields. Another Pokémon could use Strength to toss a large boulder up, allowing another Pokémon to use it as a stepping stone to reach a flying opponent. And these are only random examples I've pulled off sometimes.

Even if with that you thought you have run out of material, which is quite improbable, then you still don't need to create your own attacks in order to bring something new to the fray. The other canons such as Trading Card Game and Ranger do offer new interpretations and new moves, all of them canon. Then there's also PMD "skills" and perhaps who knows what else that I might be missing.

Bottom line, however is that yes, you can make up your own attacks, there's mostly nothing saying you can't. (Try for them to be balanced though!) However as everyone before me has commented, you won't need to do it for the use case you describe. It's not like you're adscribing overly strongly to game canon with battle turns and perhaps who knows what.

Tell how much damage and/or abilities they have and your fine.

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