• People arrive in UnnamedCity(Exire?) by airlift. Only by airlift - helicopter, to be precise, from the company promoting the tournament. They arrive at Haven, the only section of the entire city that never changes, at the beginning of their narrative or very shortly before. Immediately upon landing, everyone gets a minor headache - nothing serious, not mind-blowing agony or anything, just a bit of a twinge that fades out pretty quickly with no (obvious...) long-term effects. No mind control, brains exploding, no sudden psychic powers, just a bit of a headache.
  
  
• The city itself I'm thinking of as actually an odd stark off-white; sorta like the newish alternate theme, it's very much an unusual coloration, but pretty much EVERYTHING obviously artificial is colored that - trees, wildlife, etc are obviously immune. The overall aesthetic is very unnatural though. Actual movement varies between areas; Labyrinth is literally constant, with floors and ceilings effectively acting as more of a solid liquid, since they can flow however the fuck they feel like, fuck gravity, and nothing is especially permanent. Expect a lot of scrambling as the room turns into a pit or a tower. Much of the early city is fairly permanent; it very slightly shifts to stay (mostly) dust and wear-free, streets always look pristine each morning, dust doesn't really settle, despite lack of cleaning. Elsewhere it can be more drastic; city can rebuild just about any damage overnight.
  
  
• Night is not a good time to be out and about. Pokemon tend to go berserk, wild Pokemon vary from berserk to completely batshit loco insane, other things come out to play. Haven is the only reasonably-safe place, but also the site of nightly attacks by various things. Corpses are always gone by morning. There's a small police force, or at least professional trainers - effectively mercenaries - hired to keep the area from being overrun, but you get used to sleeping to the sound of vicious battles and a lot of blood, though all evidence is gone by morning. Trainers take turns helping with sentry duty at night, so it isn't - usually - actually dangerous for people in the housing area, but still not a pleasant dynamic.
  
  
• The company that provides trainers has advertised the island as a combination tournament and exploration location; they're a front organization for [REDACTED], who [REDACTED] the entire [REDACTED] and are not Team Rocket god dammit, and you can quote me on that. Or Arachnos specifically - <3 the shitballs out of Arachnos, but they're more or less settled on ANOTHER DIMENSION'S ALTHEA. We'll have to see about android characters, though I'm leaning against it - I think it's reasonable to suspect that the company would generally look for healthy young trainers, male or female being irrelevant though late-teens, early-twenties being preferable, with older trainers rare (but perfectly legal, just not AS common) and younger trainers probably banned, though exact age requirements are up in the air; I'd say 16 personally, though 15 or 18 could work. That does have plot significance behind it but NO I'M NOT SHARING GO DIE. Tournament vs survival of the fittest: combination, but it's obviously not advertised as YOU LOSE, YOU DIE, and it doesn't work that way; the actual reasoning behind the tournament is [REDACTED] because [REDACTED], but it's as much about the journey to the top as who actually wins... because you're all winners. And by winners I mean losers. WAIT SPOILERS.
  
  
• Canon Pokemon universe. Kanto, Johto, Hoenn, Sinnoh. No United States, no Soviet Union or modern day Russia. No Alternia, Akaiyo, etc; might make an exception for Althea-continent, but probably not. Fakemon on a case by case basis; we don't strictly -need- sprites so they're viable, but I think that we need to ease into them a bit if anything. Not that they're not allowed; merely that any fakemon will be a plot point by themselves (wtf why are there new Pokemon here? Did they evolve, or were they put here? Why does this one look like Cthulhu? ...Wait, fuck.). The city is the island; whether it's actually attached to the sea floor or not, or if not, what it's actually attached to, is plot-ey and irrelevant from a trainer's perspective; it's out in the middle of the ocean, couple hundred miles from the nearest area. Absolutely no records of its existence anywhere; public never even knew it existed until the last few weeks, though it's obviously been around longer - how long, and for what purpose, is plot point.
  
  
• Overall setting is sort of a combination of normal Pokemon/survival horror/TTGL depending on where you are and what you're doing. I'm hesitant to fuck up the general Pokemon theme too much, and I mean shit isn't SURVIVAL HORROR FIGHT NEMESIS, GET ROCKET LAUNCHER, SAVE WORLD FROM ZOMBIES - it's still Pokemon, the tournament and just general training is a huge part, and while the plot may very well have survival horror themes, you can just train and do Pokemon stuff and PvP for high ranking. You're still doing what you're supposed to like good little guinea pigs, but suffice to say that there is some dank ass shit going on. Thousands - millions - of people don't disappear without a trace for no goddamn reason, assuming there were people on the city in the first place...
  Edited by Munchkinator, Mar 11 2010, 08:39:46 PM.

Exeter

Mar 11 2010, 11:10:02 AM

And not letting one stupid Pokémon like a Rattata learn a billion moves.

Blaze

Mar 11 2010, 11:06:44 PM

Exeter

Mar 11 2010, 11:10:02 AM

And not letting one stupid Pokémon like a Rattata learn a billion moves.

I consider this Pokémon RACISM

Anyway, I think the "few Pokémon" system is very nice. But 3 is... too less. Make it 5. And make the accomplishments for getting 5 slots harder to reach. Accomplish X to get 3, accomplish 5X to get 4 and 10X to get 5, perhaps. Making it difficult to acquire makes sure that only the ones who really put in a lot of effort actually get the 5 slots. Maybe like put to use a total of Y XP on your 3 Pokémon to get the additive ability of having 4 in your hand.

I don't know, three just seems... too little to me. Where does the trainer go for variety?

Munch

Mar 12 2010, 12:15:47 AM

Also, I would like to point out that variety =/= strategy. Strategy is all about making intelligent, effective use of limited assets, whether it be three Pokémon or six. Limiting resources - in this case, Pokémon - doesn't limit strategy, but it does make you get more use out of each one. More Pokémon lets you approach each battle with a different Pokémon; fewer Pokémon generally helps build and develop a few, incidentally inducing much faster overall growth - only leveling 1-3 Pokémon is a fuckton faster than trying to level 6+. Just sayin'.