Play Discussions: ROM hack and fan game players: how do you build your teams?

[Orion☆]

Staff gave me the all-clear to post this here, so I'll ask you a few questions.

When you are running through a ROM hack or RMXP/Essentials Pokémon fan game, how do you choose which Pokémon/Fakemon to include in your team?

Do you plan your team beforehand or catch your team members as you go along? Do you pick them based on competitive prowess or personal taste? Do you choose them based on aesthetics or a particular theme? In games that include Fakemon, do you favor using canon Pokémon, or do you try to use as many Fakemon as possible? Do you switch team members as you go along or stick to a single team?

I haven't played many fan games to completion, but I can mention a recent example. During my very first playthrough of Pokémon Xenoverse, I was displeased with most of the Fakemon, so apart from my starter Trishout, I challenged myself to finish the game with a team of favourite canon Pokémon - Ampharos, Crobat, Weavile, Excadrill and Mimikyu. In my second run, however... things got a little more interesting. I ran with the exact same canon Pokémon from my first playthrough, but I picked a different starter - Shulong, who turned out to complement the rest of my team much better than Trishout ever did. To boot, I was also considering breaking my "no Fakemon" rule for Pepequeno and Scovile, but by then I had a full team so I gave up my plans. Lo and behold, a Shiny Pepequeno came to me, and he became the seventh member of my team. :D

 

[Corveone]

I do team planning (or at least half-planning) in search for somewhat balanced teams, with decent coverage and synergies, and avoid repeating Pokémon that I've used in previous playthroughs if possible.

However, team planning isn't worth it when you've barely started a game and don't know whether you're actually going to like and finish it, so what I do is just start picking two or three early game Pokémon I like and try the game with those, then if I'm liking it (usually around the third or fourth badge) I start planning, investigate what are my options to build an interesting team and see if what I have in mind is actually possible.

I have a bunch of personal guidelines:
1. Prioritize Pokémon I didn't already have in previous teams. Avoid repetition unless there aren't many viable options to choose from, or unless it's a Pokémon I really like and would complement my team well.
2. Legendaries, most pseudo-legendaries, and broken things like Snorlax or Protean Greninja are banned.
3. Mega Evolutions, if applicable, are banned for any Pokémon with 480+ BST in its original form, unless the game has a very high difficulty and I consider that using OP megas is justified.
4. Fakémon have terrible design quality in the big majority of games I've seen, so I normally don't use them, and if there are too many I just skip the game. I believe that games without a talented Fakémon designer shouldn't have Fakémon period, because they only hurt the quality of those games.
5. Put more or less care into team building depending on the game's difficulty. If it's not a too difficult game I prioritize using Pokémon that I like more, even if they're weaker than some other Pokémon I don't like much. If it's a hard game, I prioritize battle roles and strategies and look for Pokémon that can be good at that.

 

[StCooler]

I don't put too much thought on this.

I mostly choose the Pokémons based on their looks, I tend to like cute/weak-looking Pokémons (I generally have a Butterfree or Lumineon in my teams).
Other than that, I want a Fire Pokémon, a Grass Pokémon and a Water Pokémon in my team. The other three Pokémons have free types.
I generally catch Legendary Pokémons but I don't include them in my teams, I want my character to remain "a random guy that's good", instead of "the superhero of a videogame that gets all the powerful Pokémons for no reason".