"tails" of 2 ideas

Heya, I'm... kinda in a roleplay loop again now that I have extra time to spare, sooo, I basically had two ideas for roleplay that I've been mulling over, but now I'd like to flesh them out a bit:

A) A pokemon journey RP of sorts, but not something that you might be used to from the norm of them. Rather than an RP as you be a trainer who aims to be the best while encountering obstacles like evil teams etc, your character is in a different sort of region with different values and beliefs. Your character's own personality/values might correspond to this.

ie. let's say most of the people in this region thinks that Pokemon are not "friends" but merely tools or simply animals that are beneath humans - perhaps your character thinks of their own pokemon as tools too? Or maybe they think pokemon are something more; how wil lthey prove this to the masses?

The journey aspect is about finding your character's self worth, or finding their own self-discovery. How will your character cope with society, and with pokemon? I'm trying to aim for more of a narrative than a gamey aspect, but still some mechanics here and there to keep things organized.

Your character can start with whatever pokemon they damn well please - except for legendaries, of course. But I'm also considering perhaps your character can "befriend" tiny legends like Shaymin? I dunno, I think it can also be an option to help develop a characters story?

Of course the RP will have it's own main story or "arcs" throughout the RP which I'm still kinda figuring out specific details, but what I have so far: a arc about revolution, pride and glory, and enlightenment. Hm.

Naturally it's far from finished, but, I'm hoping this could intrigue people? 8D It's inspired from one of my old RP's, "Pokemon ~ Til' the End of Time" which was about trainers who joined Team Galactic to reform society but I couldn't finish that, so, this might be good for those who liked that.


B) A Persona RP that various people were looking forward to. If you don't know persona it's about high school students who enter "another world", and eventually find a being from their human psyche - a Persona, who can battle against demons and shadows.

The main thing I need to work on is the running moral of the story which every persona story has, as well as the mechanic of doing day to day stuff. For morals I'm thinking: 'battling against a future set in stone', 'how will the future be protected?', ' coping against discrimination', 'self-worth', etc, etc. There are others but those are my main ones that popped in my head for now.


What do you guys think? Any ideas?

I'm a little biased towards B, being on the persona hype train. I am definitely a sucker for "struggle against fate" stories, and was actually in the consideration for my own Persona story.

Pokemon being tools is also something I find incredibly interesting, however. I've been in RPs in the past on other sites with the far opposite (pokemon are super friends, so battling and exploiting them is outlawed), so a chance to play the opposite is interesting to me even though I have been a little burnt out on Journeys. It is something I may join, being divergent enough from the normal journeys.

...Can I choose both? :V

I'd like to join any of these options.
But if I'd choose one, it would be the Pok?mon RP.

I kinda like the Persona RP. As for the moral... I like the idea of personal demons, why people are ashamed of what they are, what they do, etc.

I am very much on board with the latter idea. i live the idea of working with personal demons and and battling against a future set in stone. It is still taking place in Japan, yeah?

Right answer: combine them.

But finally, thank you, some probability of activity, save my soul

A) A pokemon journey RP of sorts, but not something that you might be used to from the norm of them.

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It's a Pok?mon journey in space.
The objective for this idea would be to promote a more complex argument surrounding Pok?mon while, presumably, also stimulating the same appeal of a traditional journey RP, correct? Questioning the nature of the Pok?mon universe has always been a humongous draw for me even in roleplays that never attempted to develop this world initially; any roleplay that's more upfront about the nature of its world I'd be elated to see. I also appreciate you directly connecting your idea to major themes?"finding... self-worth" and "self-discovery" on the players' behalf, arcs inspired by "revolution, "pride and glory"?as that in itself focuses the concept, perhaps not as a "game", but undeniably as a narrative, and you stated that was your goal!

I feel also as if this idea, presented in this manner, can target many of the ailments that hold journeys back. Personally, I always feel like journey RPs rarely invite casts of inventive, interesting characters that play off some of the franchise's world-building details, when it does decide to present them. Requiring these same Trainers, often teens with inexplicably white-American first names and incredibly Japanese last names, to do more than run off a handful of empty personality traits but to develop a perspective of the world around them will promote depth rarely encouraged before and create memorable characters that anyone could become invested in. Most importantly, in my opinion, is the fact that being able to develop a viewpoint of the world around you requires there actually be a world in the first place. I'll reiterate my suggestions for Trumpets:

Pok?mon is the sort of series that you interpret everything yourself and other players only enter the equation for battles and trading and the like; it's very independent, which, as I see it, is counterproductive in the context of a roleplay. When writing, story runs deep, so interactions between characters will only be surface-level in such a vague universe. In my experience with journeys like 'Rainbows' and 'Yet Another Johto Story', the only fun I was having came from me and not from others since I liked how I personally interpreted the Pok?mon universe. There was some interaction between players in 'Rainbows' but it never went anywhere aside from acknowledging that the other characters existed. The encompassing world wasn't strongly-established enough to encourage deeper conversation and, as a result, deeper character development. For example, in our world we could bring up politics or a stupid commercial we saw when talking to a close friend, but does the Pok?mon world even have a government? Would the brands we have in the real world carry over or would people in the Pok?mon world have no use for them even in parody form? Would people in the Pok?mon universe share our social expectations and such, even? Because there's little common ground between players regarding how this universe functions, character isolation is unknowingly propagated because everyone will see things differently. Don't rely on player prior knowledge because Pok?mon's lore... really isn't there. Like, has it ever been explained how Pok?mon even work? How they can be transported electronically and fit into capsules many times smaller than themselves? And what happens inside of those capsules and inside of those personal computer boxes to keep the Pok?mon secure? You may want to leave some questions purposefully open but, in general, address Hoenn like an original fantasy world in order to keep players on the same page.

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Essentially, you can't inspire meaningful conversation between characters or a consistent interpretation of the setting if the setting is as vague as Pok?mon's is and will remain. Sun/Moon did include some added details on the relationship between people and Pok?mon but ultimately the Alola region feels like a self-contained universe whose logic is malleable depending on a player's imagination. Overall, I strongly support you developing this concept more but assert you will have to put your back into it. You can't toss acrylics on a sketch and expect a Starry Night in seconds, you know?

ALSO, SMOL LEGENDARY POKEMON, FIIIINALLY, CAN I GET ME MY HOOPA, MY RIGHTFUL HOOPA BABY CHILD, FIIIINALLY, BLESS I HAVE ALWAYS WANTED

Meal Bowl Challenge - Rated M

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I've always been on the sidelines with Persona but, at the same time, looking in with mild interest, especially at the prospect of Mara exploring the nature of human psyches. Demonology and tarot cards are also pretty sweet themes. So is shooting yourself in the head... or ripping off a mask welded to your face. Recreating our only little Persona story just sounds satisfying in itself so I'd totally want to see this come into fruition.

I do think the arcanas could inspire claimable character roles which I'm a staunch advocate against (i.e. the idea of restricting players to one of seven provided constructs) as I see them as limiters that dictate a character either subvert the construct or play it straight; there's no real "out-of-the-box" character-building. Of course, this all stems from my limited understanding of the franchise, but maybe consider assigning arcanas to finished characters.

I'll be frank though: I'd heard you were developing a Persona RP, Dragon, and my immediate thought was "OKAY, BUT CAN I BE MONA THO." Every Persona game has an animal-esque mascot/sidekick, right? There was Teddy in the last major game. Could I actually be that animal mascot? PLEASE? I'd make her CUTE, I swear.

If we're looking or a Pok?mon World with deeper details, could we use a Region created by somone in the writing section? (as long as they allow it, of course)

We have, for example, Azurine (https://www.pokecommunity.com/showthread.php?t=378803), which the creator developed a lot of details regarding race, culture, history, economy, politics. There's everything there.

Paqori (https://www.pokecommunity.com/showthread.php?t=378040) also has a lot of details.

Ooh, Aqua, kill 'em

I think it'd be a fabulous show of collaboration--giving life to someone's world. At any rate, I think Azurine especially is more or less hitting the mark on what I'd sincerely appreciate to see with the Pok?mon regions for RPT journey RPs: developing culture, procedure and policy, technology and understanding, beyond quintessential geographical knowledge. (So, in-retrospect, did I give Alola a lack of credit? It was the first region in my opinion whose citizens felt inherently unique from those of the last in how they conducted themselves.)

Paqori (PAH-KORE-EE? KAK-KYU-REEN!?) actually prompted my partiality towards a mechanic that could be integrated into a journey RP. Just something I'd personally like a GM to explore, but characters working to contribute to the Pok?dex of a region has just always interested me; this idea of Trainers being expected to aid the Professor's general research by turning in field investigations; characters studying Pok?mon in an objective, scientific manner could make for both intriguing and humorous encounters ("Are you just happy to see me, Kakuna...?"), and of course not every character would write their reports to the Professor differently. Some just looking to have a good time battling and Training might have some more questionable additions. Overall, it would be beneficial for world-building, as a way of encouraging players to consider the full span of a Pok?mon's features and develop a character's voice through their individual writing style or manner of writing reports, as well as offering some credence to the in-game Pok?dex entries existing. Because we still don't know who WRITES THEM, HELLO.

But anyway, the Professor might be looking to iron out understandings of neglected Pok?mon species or tend to inaccurites they sense exist in the information provided to novice Trainers. Or, they may obscure what players discover if it's "too difficult" for others to handle, essentially if it "says so much". As far as you're concerned, Magcargo is 18, 000 degrees Fahrenheit. That's many times hotter than the Sun, you say? Well, what are you going to do about it? Go to the Sun yourself and measure it? Maybe science has been lying to us all.

This has evolved into Story Time with an Aggressive Tumor, but in the vague probability that it will inspire someone or further a conversation, I am willing to make sacrifices.

Yeah, its gonna take a lot of time, but when it's done, I feel confident it will do well~!

I think I'll do the journey RP first, then the Persona RP since I'm more used to journey RPs, in which hopefully it will bounce some ideas for the Persona RP. Oh and actually, I already have my own region in mind! But thanks for that suggestion. c:

By the by, how many pokemon do you guys feel happier to start off with? Maybe 1-2 pokemon at the start?

Ayyy. Great that you have a goal in mind!

1-2 as a starting point sounds good, just based on past observations/experience. Any more details on how the cast of this journey would differ from the norm would prompt a more confident answer from me.

I never played an RP, so I frankly don't know what to say about it.
But I'm happy you decided to do the Pok?mon RP first. :)

One or two mons sound fine to me.

Dragon said:

Yeah, its gonna take a lot of time, but when it's done, I feel confident it will do well~!

I think I'll do the journey RP first, then the Persona RP since I'm more used to journey RPs, in which hopefully it will bounce some ideas for the Persona RP. Oh and actually, I already have my own region in mind! But thanks for that suggestion. c:

By the by, how many pokemon do you guys feel happier to start off with? Maybe 1-2 pokemon at the start?

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Remember that Kanto RP where you were Katarinaaa and I was GM and NPCs? We started out with 2 mon each iirc, and it was very nice because then we already could have a kind of gang or theme and sense of style to our teams and characters.
EDIT: FOREIGNERS god that was nice, pls remake it