The Basics - v0.1.0, The Overhaul Edition

I've been getting the hankering to work on Pocket Journeys again for the past few weeks and months, and I finally had the energy to get to work on it this week. I explained on Twitter my thoughts around the first character class I'd like to work on, Pokemon Detective, and what I'd like that class to work around. As I was writing up ideas on Twitter and in my own documents about Pocket Journeys, I realized I really should give the foundations of the game a once-over before I work on character classes. Now we have The Overhaul Edition, where I'm giving every aspect of the game a rewrite and reconsideration, and that starts with The Basics.

This sheet should be considered the fundamentals of the game. What are some Basic Moves, what are some core mechanics that every session should touch in some way, and so on. The Basics right now have the following: An Overview, Flow Of The Game, Basic Moves, Pokémon Generation, Evolution & Moves, Battling, and Catching and Getting New Pokémon.

An Overview is pretty simple. This covers the big picture ideas from the game, explaining that Pocket Journeys "is a game that tries to mimic the feeling of the Pokémon anime, specifically the first season, Journeys, Master Journeys, and Ultimate Journeys." I lay out what I'm trying to do with the game, what I hope the game accomplishes, and what players of the game should expect to find in the game.

Flow Of The Game tries to dig in deeper and formalize what a session of Pocket Journeys looks like. Explaining that the game tries to approximate the beats of the anime, and lays out step-by-step what you'd do in a session of Pocket Journeys. With this I'm trying to layout what is and isn't important, and how that should be dealt with at the table. For example, you can make catching a Pokemon a downtime action, something that you do quickly to set the tone of the session and get warmed up to play the game, or it could be the whole focus of a session where you're going after a specific Pokemon in a specific area with it's own weird challenges. I also introduce Journeying, a way to get from A to B while having fun things to overcome in-between, that's heavily inspired by a similar mechanic in Fellowship. I also explain XP and leveling up, which will make more sense when there are character classes in later additions to the game.

Basic Moves then goes into the action of Pocket Journeys, explaining how Powered by the Apocalypse style Moves work. I also provide five Basic Moves here, and an explanation of Pocket Journey's Advantage system. Right now, Advantages allow you flexibility to increase the potency of a Move however you see fit. Maybe you get a Keycard to use in a Team Rocket building, and you use it to access a computer that will allow you use a Move at any result you want. Or maybe you learned a Pokemon is afraid of water, so you use that to your advantage to do extra damage during a battle. Extremely open-ended, maybe too much so, but I guess we'll find that out when this game eventually gets playtested!

Pokémon Generation, Evolution & Moves covers... well, exactly what it says. I use this space to explain how Pokemon work in this game, as a sort of side character you can play that has their own Tags and Moves and all that. I also explain how Pokemon Moves (ex. Tackle, Bug Bite, Ember) don't have any stats attached to them in this game, they can be used pretty free form however is needed at the moment. Also I go over Bonds (an EXP abstraction) and how evolving Pokemon works.

Battling is another "exactly what it says" section. Something I always thought was interesting in the anime, especially implied in Pokemon Origins, is that Pokemon battles have various levels of rules and official sanctions, similar to something like Magic: The Gathering. You can have an official "League Battle", you can have wild battles, you can fight randoms on your adventures, you can fight Rocket Grunts, and every one will have a different vibe and amount of importance. So Pocket Journeys allows the GM to decide the rules of a battle, to make the stakes appropriate for the session and goals of the party.

Catching and Getting New Pokémon is the last section, and I bet you can guess what's covered here. I've decided that catching has a simple mechanic (roll 4d6 and any 6 or higher on any die makes a successful catch) and different Poke Balls can change that core mechanic (a Bug Ball will make any Bug Type need a 4 or higher on any die). Again, we'll see how this feels and works in a playtest environment someday!

And that's it for this update! Next time I update I should have at least one class made, the Pokemon Detective. I know, it's silly to make all these rules and stuff the foundation, like catching and battling, then make a character class that isn't really known for that, but I think it'll work out. I hope to have it done by the end of this month, August 2024.

Thanks for reading, see ya next time!