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Master of reality: fanfic or roleplay VS actual videogame teams

Eleanor

Eleanor

Princess Era 🎀
6,560
Posts
7
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​

Here's a bit of a cross-over thread for anyone who writes Pokémon fanfiction, roleplays and such~
Do you try to give your characters some teams that you would see yourself use when you play a Pokémon game, or do you possibly do the opposite? In which case, how hard do you think it would be to beat a Pokémon game with the team one of your characters has?

Are there any Pokémon that don't mean much to you in-game, but that you love to write as in your roleplays, either as "Mystery Dungeon" style characters or as some trainer's companion - or has the opposite ever happened to you?

And for those of you who also play competitive Pokémon, I'm wondering... have you ever tried to pull off a competitive team by working around one of your characters' signature Pokémon or strategies? How do you think that would go, or if you tried, how did it actually go?
That's quite a lot of questions, sure, but in this case I see them mostly as prompts to discuss this topic - the difference between Pokémon teams in your writing and in your game savefiles!

This is something that wasn't so evident for me at first - I started off trying to give my characters strong Pokémon, the same I'd use in a game for instance, without realizing just how many more possibilities you have when writing, especially in a setting that resembles more the anime. And that's how I gave my character a Bagon, without really thinking about how to battle with it. Now that it's unevolved and with some pretty bland, straightforward moves, I often feel like all its battles are similar to each other and dull to read.

So many Pokémon can be useful outside of battles, or utilize some incredible strategies that you could've never thought of in-game. Their movements become surprisingly more important when writing, and so do their feelings or quirks. Avril and Poppy (Flabébé) started off as a way to explore these dynamics more, and it is working so, so well! The same could also be said for Arianne's Lulu (Morelull), who - despite being a very weak Pokémon in game - can lend itself to all sorts of shenanigans, all while being still challenging to write! I mean, it's a mushroom with nothing but one stem to move around~
 
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Vragon2.0

Vragon2.0

Say it with me (Vray-gun)
420
Posts
6
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Depends for me. I'm not somebody that is into writing trainer fics, but the PMD stuff I do I can say does have some of this in it. The partner and main characters are generally from my actual playthroughs of the games along with their team names, though this only applies to entries 1, 2, & 3.
 
Bay

Bay

6,385
Posts
17
Years
Long ago when the gen 4 games came I did have my character get a Ninetales and named it after the one from my Pokemon fic Nothing, Everything (gosh it has been 11 years since I finished that fic lol). For Foul Play I did the opposite and have Selene get two Pokemon I used in my Moon playthrough, Lurantis and Brionne. For canon characters like gym leaders and such I usually have them with the same Pokemon they have in-game, though there have been some exceptions like Kahuna Olivia in Foul Play.
 
gimmepie

gimmepie

25,488
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11
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Do you try to give your characters some teams that you would see yourself use when you play a Pokémon game, or do you possibly do the opposite? In which case, how hard do you think it would be to beat a Pokémon game with the team one of your characters has?

Honesty, not really. I generally choose Pokemon that I think are cool to one extent or another, but if I was basing a character's choices on my own preferences and not their own, it might feel a bit weird. For example, I really like a lot Fighting, Steel and Fire types but they don't really suit Catherine's personal tastes or character motifs at all. So I wouldn't put one on her team.

I've been tempted to do character runs in the games though, I just haven't ever gotten around to it. I can't imagine it would be very hard though since the games difficulty isn't that high. I could maybe see an Alaka run being problematic at points since he's basically a mono-Ice trainer, but even then nothing insurmountable at all.


Are there any Pokémon that don't mean much to you in-game, but that you love to write as in your roleplays, either as "Mystery Dungeon" style characters or as some trainer's companion - or has the opposite ever happened to you?

Sort of? I like a lot of Pokemon I rarely use in-game and similarly I've used Pokemon purely for their competitive value that I don't have much interest in writing around.

And for those of you who also play competitive Pokémon, I'm wondering... have you ever tried to pull off a competitive team by working around one of your characters' signature Pokémon or strategies? How do you think that would go, or if you tried, how did it actually go?

Depends how you look at it? I play a lot of rain teams when I do competitive, which is Catherine's thing. But there's not really any relation there beyond me enjoying rain teams and I (mostly) use very different Pokemon on those teams than she has on hers. I've used Aurora Veil teams before too but I wouldn't dream of trying mono-Ice/near mono-Ice like Alaka. For the most part character teams in competitive are suicide lol.

Honestly, I don't think about the games much at all when I pick Pokemon for RPs or my fic. Everything is very set and static according to mechanics in the games and it's kind of boring to limit yourself to that when you can do so much more with what you're given in a narrative sense. You can make a Pokemon stronger, weaker, faster, slower etc than they usually are and you can do much more creative and interesting things with moves. Why make your writing less interesting?
 
Sonata

Sonata

Don't let me disappear
13,642
Posts
11
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Do you try to give your characters some teams that you would see yourself use when you play a Pokémon game, or do you possibly do the opposite? In which case, how hard do you think it would be to beat a Pokémon game with the team one of your characters has?

Probably more in the opposite direction. In game I weigh my options between what looks cool and what's actually good to use and make concessions to get a final team from those options. In RP of FF, it's definitely more towards what fits the character's ideals and aesthetics. If they're not forced for one reason or another to have a certain Pokemon that I may love to use, then they probably won't end up having any of my favorites to be honest.

I know writing Kerry (advent crossroads) out his goal is to get the strongest team through breeding and raising the best of the best. So his team will end up being something competitive enough that I could pretty easily beat the games with it. For Rosa (Spear) given what she already has, as well as what I've theorized for her to have it would be possible, but difficult since the team synergy is not really there (unless something changes).

And for those of you who also play competitive Pokémon, I'm wondering... have you ever tried to pull off a competitive team by working around one of your characters' signature Pokémon or strategies? How do you think that would go, or if you tried, how did it actually go?

Put everything in the teambuilder, and delete all but the one good mon before building a new team around it. Proceed to not use that one mon at all and end up replacing him.
 

moon

37,467
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16
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  • Age 34
  • Seen Apr 2, 2024
I actually see pokémon-based forum RPGs as as chance to use stuff I wouldn't use in the video games.

When choosing what pokémon my characters in journey RPs catch and train, for example, it's a mix of pokémon I (as the player) like, pokémon my character would like, and stuff I'm just downright interested in using just to see how it can work. This approach has made me appreciate certain movesets in creative writing much more than in the games - just because you can go a bit anime cray and be inventive with them! - and it's also made me start loving some pokémon I wouldn't otherwise have given any thought in the games. A recent example is Rattata and Sandshrew (both forms) from Trainers. I don't recall ever using them much if at all in the games.

So, short answer: I mostly write about quite different pokémon in RPing and fiction than I'd use in the games :)
 
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