Pokemon - Ether

Story​

The year 2018. The Ether region. You are a fairly-new Pokemon trainer that has set out on their adventure. But while on your way through the region, you have an odd vision: the region deprived of natural light; an unknown dark Pokemon roaming the lands—or rather, a stifle-looking, dense, foggy, city—a man standing atop it, or fused with it, you can't discern clearly enough. This vision—presumably of the future—leads you to a mysterious cave, where you find that you were not the only one who had the premonition. From this point on, this new group of trainers will be faced with the need to grow together, while discovering the truth of what they saw. But after getting some explanations, clues, and a map from a shrouded figure in the cave, the group comes out of it and, well, it is not their usual, lively Ether that expects them, but a half-way torn disaster. Who or what is pulling the strings from the darkness? What was that Pokemon? How can it be stopped? How far into the future is the vision situated? And where are they now? They will soon discover a land mostly devoid of Pokemon, with Pokemon only used by a certain elite group that has been taking over Ether. Some rebel cities remain, and that is where this group of teenagers will seek refugee first.

Mechanics​

- Keeping it to a maximum of 4 to 6 people, as to keep a tight-knit group.
- Plot-driven. The story will consist of a series of chapters, each one with an end in mind. For example, after getting out of the cave, first mission would be to get to a rebel city.
- Focus on character interaction. (?)
- Sudden events will be written in a post (such as enemies appearing, Pokemon appearing, finding key places, etc). Suggestions are welcome. For every big event, there will be a decision-making process. For example, should an enemy appear, there will be options such as: 'running and escaping', 'fighting our way forward', etc. And of course, every character will have its own way of dealing with the problem, but every decision will also have an unforeseeable consequence.
- Everyone will start with two or three Pokemon. They will be able to capture more IC, but Pokemon appearances are fairly rare in the torn-Ether.

Well, those are the ideas I've been cooking up. I was wondering if anyone would be interested, so I thought it'd be good to post an interest check. There are many loopholes, as I haven't fleshed out everything, and I'm working on them/accept suggestions. For example, I was wondering if battles with the enemy be randomised with dices. Also, if the groups finds a (1) enemy trainer, and suppose they were to choose to fight, 1 vs 5 wouldn't make much sense, but neither would having 5 runts show up, would it? I was also thinking of having fakemon/modified pokemon in the torn-Ether. Rather than be it battling, the RP is supposed to be more of a mystery-solving RP, if that makes sense. Was thinking on how to work out the decision-consequence and sudden-event system (particularly, was wondering whether to have the consequence randomised between some options, so that the plot would 'move itself' and be unpredictable in some ways, although this could be discussed with players too, as could be stuff like splitting the group or whatever that could happen). Gotta do the map, areas, and all that stuff, too. Character interaction will be important, too, and how the group keeps the unity or disintegrates.

Around 3 AM when writing this, so expect some grammatical mistakes I've probably passed over. Anyways, let me know if you'd be interested, what you think, if you have any suggestion, whatever, it's a work in progress after all.

I've never given fakemon a shot, yet it doesn't seem very pleasing to me to have them exist amongst canon. (Unless your thoughts were to have fakemon exclusively, which is probably what you meant? Haha maybe I misunderstood.)

Regardless, it definitely reeled me in, so I'm interested. (:

Pudding said:

I've never given fakemon a shot, yet it doesn't seem very pleasing to me to have them exist amongst canon. (Unless your thoughts were to have fakemon exclusively, which is probably what you meant? Haha maybe I misunderstood.)

Regardless, it definitely reeled me in, so I'm interested. (:

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Mmm, with fakemon I was just thinking of having a few that the enemy team would use. For example, for that 'unknown dark pokemon roaming the lands', I thought having an actual unknown one would be cool, so this: https://www.deviantart.com/xous54/art/Wylvern-104137709
But nothing more than that and maybe two or three more, apart from maybe 'corrupted' forms in the torn-Ether or something like that. But definitely not all fakemon at all so don't worry about that. Would be too much of a hassle too, I think.

Thanks for showing interest :D!

Oh! A mystery plot! This sounds interesting, I wouldn't mind joining this rp, all the mysteries awaiting to be uncovered. I don't mind the fakemon being with cannon Pokemon, as long as they don't go overboard.
For the Pokemon, 2-3 Pokemon for each person to have sounds good, but would the Pokemon be able to be fully evolved or half the team is fully, or how would that go?
It sounds like it won't be focused on the Pokemon League way, so how many Pokemon will people be able to have if they do catch some?
The characters will probably have to be around the ages of teens-young adults since it would be weird to see a child solving mysteries(unless they are super smart and observant).
Sorry if I rambled on too much, this idea reminds me of Detective Pikachu a bit.
But yeah, I'm definitely interested.

Evily said:

Oh! A mystery plot! This sounds interesting, I wouldn't mind joining this rp, all the mysteries awaiting to be uncovered. I don't mind the fakemon being with cannon Pokemon, as long as they don't go overboard.
For the Pokemon, 2-3 Pokemon for each person to have sounds good, but would the Pokemon be able to be fully evolved or half the team is fully, or how would that go?
It sounds like it won't be focused on the Pokemon League way, so how many Pokemon will people be able to have if they do catch some?
The characters will probably have to be around the ages of teens-young adults since it would be weird to see a child solving mysteries(unless they are super smart and observant).
Sorry if I rambled on too much, this idea reminds me of Detective Pikachu a bit.
But yeah, I'm definitely interested.

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Mhm for that I'd say we wait and see. But I guess we could start with unevolved Pokemon, maybe one evolved Poke? and then along the way because of the bond they share with the trainers, they'd evolve IC. I think about the number of Pokemon, that wouldn't have a restriction.
Yup, I was thinking they should be around 18 years old.
Ah, rambling is fine! Questions and suggestions allow me to reflect on which direction this should go.

How unevolved, like for a 3-evolution line, do u mean at first or second evo.?
Also, for the plot, what kind of enemies will they be fighting or going against?
Since Pokemon do exist, there's bound to be some battles here and there. For some reason, this reminds be a bit of shadow Pokemon, idk why.
You can also have all the characters meet each other first before sending them on missions or starting the plot since they are gonna meet each other often, mysteries bring groups together somehow.
Would they be traveling a whole region for the plot or would it be a couple town, but going in-between them the whole time?

Evily said:

How unevolved, like for a 3-evolution line, do u mean at first or second evo.?
Also, for the plot, what kind of enemies will they be fighting or going against?
Since Pokemon do exist, there's bound to be some battles here and there. For some reason, this reminds be a bit of shadow Pokemon, idk why.
You can also have all the characters meet each other first before sending them on missions or starting the plot since they are gonna meet each other often, mysteries bring groups together somehow.
Would they be traveling a whole region for the plot or would it be a couple town, but going in-between them the whole time?

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Mostly unevolved (first evo), and maybe some second evo.
I was thinking the group would go on to explore the torn-Ether region in order to gather clues and so find themselves with some riddles and tests in their way. Like for example they find ruins and they have to gather knowledge from these ruins. Maybe some Guardian Pokemon would have to be battled. Surely there'd be the Team who has rotten the land searching the group and facing them every now and then. I'm thinking this battles could include dices or something akin to that. Still thinking on how to make it so that in the group everyone has something to do when enemies appear? It depends on the characters, too, if they're all trainers for example, how would the battles go?
Mmm maybe the characters could meet beforehand, that's a nice idea. But in order not to stall the RP, it might be better to start it from the cave after all.
Ah, well, the mission would be to explore the land in search of clues, yeah, but not explore the region to win badges or something of the sort. So there'd be unexplored places like ruins, temples, relics, etc.
Thanks for the questions! The idea is beginning to take more shape, I'm pretty excited. I'm thinking on how I could manage the riddles. Maybe not giving the answer so that decisions actually affect what happens next or stuff like that? Let's say we find a ruin but there are traps of some sort, what is to be done there will lead the path afar or closer to the goal.

No problem. They could probably find something in the cave that may look unimportant first, but during the mystery, it becomes relevant and they have to return to the cave, reminiscing how much they changed since they first started their journey.
What would motivate them to start searching for clues? Something they see in the cave or in the torn-Ether region?
I'm definitely gonna have Shinx's evo line for this, their X-Ray will help a lot once Luxury comes into play.
Who would the guardian pokemon be? Corrupted Legendary or regular Pokemon? Or the Pseudo-Legendary ones?
Hmm, a role for every character.... Depending on what type of occupation the characters have, i'm sure we'll find the perfect role for them. Trainers could be the protectors in a way, young researchers research any mysterious items that come their way, young detectives can try to look for clues, even while battles occur.
Since there's gonna be a lot of walking/moving around and the gym battles/league won't be there, so the characters could have a Pokemon or its pre-evolved form for when it comes to running away from danger or being chased.
Not a bad idea, having traps could help the development in characters in some way.

Evily said:

No problem. They could probably find something in the cave that may look unimportant first, but during the mystery, it becomes relevant and they have to return to the cave, reminiscing how much they changed since they first started their journey.
What would motivate them to start searching for clues? Something they see in the cave or in the torn-Ether region?
I'm definitely gonna have Shinx's evo line for this, their X-Ray will help a lot once Luxury comes into play.
Who would the guardian pokemon be? Corrupted Legendary or regular Pokemon? Or the Pseudo-Legendary ones?
Hmm, a role for every character.... Depending on what type of occupation the characters have, i'm sure we'll find the perfect role for them. Trainers could be the protectors in a way, young researchers research any mysterious items that come their way, young detectives can try to look for clues, even while battles occur.
Since there's gonna be a lot of walking/moving around and the gym battles/league won't be there, so the characters could have a Pokemon or its pre-evolved form for when it comes to running away from danger or being chased.
Not a bad idea, having traps could help the development in characters in some way.

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"But after getting some explanations, clues, and a map from a shrouded figure in the cave, the group comes out of it and, well, it is not their usual, lively Ether that expects them, but a half-way torn disaster." Well, basically there will be a shrouded figure (probably a Pokemon) that guides them to all these places leaving littles clues as to where to go, maybe in a dream, or leaving something in the way for the group to find. So, they all end up in the cave after having that dream-vision, but when they come out, they aren't in the present, they've been transported to the future. But some years before the future that they see in their vision, that's why the Ether region is partially torn apart but not fully like in their vision.

Mhm, I guess depending on the place there would be a different Pokemon guarding these ruins. Maybe even Fakemon. Probably legendaries, but not necessarily. Darkrai has that dark mysterious aura and could work well. Corrupted Pokemon is a nice idea too.

AH, that's an interesting idea! While some battle, some could be looking for clues, depending on which Pokemon the enemy has maybe, or in the spur of the moment, well. That makes for an interesting thing to act out for sure! I'm thinking more and more that battles should be diced, so that enemy trainers could win and potentially steal a Pokemon or do some harm like stealing a relic the group has gathered, or stealing food, whatever, or having another trainer step up to defend the one who has lost. I'm also thinking randomising certain outcomes depending on what happens could be good. For example let's say the group finds some ruins, there is some sort of trap (they don't know it's a trap, but it could be inferred), and someone's character walks right into it anyways, if they're an airhead or strong-willed. Well taking that decision, maybe the outcome could be one out of four, and one of these would be that he falls into a tunnel in the ground, and so the group has to decided if to look for them, etc. Kinda like usings dice in DnD, I guess.

Ahh I hope what I wrote is understandable, words aren't really coming right today and it looks messy hah.

I could help in setting up Fakemon, if you plan having them Catchable for Players. Just give me a place to set em up, the appearance of the Pokemon and what is your general idea of how it works.

Gelius3 said:

I could help in setting up Fakemon, if you plan having them Catchable for Players. Just give me a place to set em up, the appearance of the Pokemon and what is your general idea of how it works.

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Thanks for the offer. I don't really plan for there to be many fakemon at all, nor to base the RP on fakemon. So for now I think I'll just add some fakemon I like as special appearances or legends if anything.

I would be interested.

My character concept is ready, as is her team of three. I think the above questions are sufficient for anything I wish to know. Whatever opponents you throw at us, I'll be alright.

Am i allowed to join? If so, what are the most important things that i should put into my Character sheet?