Bacon is fluffy
Wut'n th'name of davy jonez lockr is uh sall-add?
So I love pokemon,but I see a major issue with trying to roleplay it in the way it's portrayed in the anime,manga, and games...the aspect of the open ended world. People always want to roleplay without any sense of direction and it seems like more often than not,interest is only garnered because it's pokemon. When it comes to what to do, things get bogged down because there's no sense of direction or world built to actually rp in if it's supposed to be a journey. Perhaps it's just my opinion,but most pokemon rp's are too open ended and would be better served as a fanfiction rather than a roleplay. So I wanted to try and hash out some ideas for the pokemon rp that I eventually want to do and I'd love some feedback on it. It's not going to be perfect,but it's a side project I'd eventually like to get to. 
1. The players will be established trainers(4-7 badges): This is not only to cut out the awkward introductions which never get anywhere,but also to give everyone what they wanted from the beginning in terms of a pokemon team. Sure you can still do the catch a new friend thing,but ultimately the rp will be focused on rping with eachother and doing one main thing.
2. There will be one thing: A threat so prevalent , that the players wouldn't be able to ignore them.
(If there are any objections to this idea of limiting the freedom people have, let me know. From my standpoint it seems like the logical thing to do in order to have a roleplay, where people can effectively roleplay trainers with pokemon in an organized fashion)
The pitch: Pokemon has always been a backwards world with logic sometimes being thrown out the window and parts of the lore ignored because they don't serve gameplay or kid friendly purposes. The original writers in a way, tried to create an enjoyable experience which did not assume kids were stupid or adults were pretenious. They wanted to create a story which everyone could enjoy and that is evident in certain parts of pokemon. One of which, is the reality of pokemon actually being able to die(lavendor town) or creepy dex entrees such as Driftloon being a child abductor. So I'll be trying to start this process by creating a world which isn't dark,but builds upon these illogical poketropes and the premise that pokemon are wild animals.
I. Pokemon are abused creatures: Not to sound like a peta hypocrite,but pokemon are a lot of domesticated animals. It's no suprise in the real world we basically control animals, breed them on masse in horrible conditions and eat them without so much of a second thought. So it's not surprising that no one would bat an eye at pokemon being treated as they are in any medium they are portrayed in. Pokemon are basically happy little creatures roaming the wild till one day a little kid sicks his pet at it and beats it to a blood pulp. That poke is then scooped from its home and forever a possession of that little kid. It'll be forced to fight in a Valhalla like manner, being thrown into battles against other pets. Your adult charmander is fighting a dragonite who overpowered it 2 miles above the arena. They're traveling hundreds miles per hour using dragonite's own strength, weight and gravity as he basically throws charizard into the earth on its neck. This charizard creates a crater on impact,but miraculously isn't dead. No it's beat up,but refuses to give in if it can fight back. At the end of the day, the trainer will get the credit for charizard's pain and suffering. He'll be digitalized into his pokeball and forced to face off against monsters trying to douse his tail flame, psychics mind raping him, fighting types smashing his face in, and grass types poisoning him. Yet through it all both pokemon involved will continuously fight and suffer injury after injury until it becomes a joy to them. Pokemon live a sad existence in the hands of a trainer.
II. Pokemon are dangerous though: Despite their enslavement and the state sanctioned dog fighting like competitions, pokemon are dangerous. From the very beginning Oak has said pokemon are wild animals, thus arming you with your very own pokemon. The moment you step outside of pallet town, there are wild rats the size of pitbulls and giant predatory birds. Rats are already scary and basically impossible to get rid of in real life. So imagine going into your cupboard to find a rattata rummaging through your goods, leaving its feces behind in the process spreading disease in the process. Or going out to watch some birds, only to have those birds divebomb you and try to peck you to death. This is why you have pokemon, because they are dangerous animals who could destroy the human race if they were organized. Since they're animals of varying intelligence, people catch pokemon and employ them against other pokemon.
This world isn't only supported by the fact that pokemon are inherently described as dangerous from gen 1(despite that never being the case in the anime), but pokemon has some creepy lore. Kadabra's entry basically has two possible meanings, one it switched bodies with a boy or two, a boy turned into a kadabra. While the latter is less likely, pokemon has worse inconsistencies such as ghosts. Ghosts who are basically dead pokemon. Dragonite dies and becomes a ghastly in death or something like that. For the sake of simplciity kadabra use their intellect to switch with some of their trainers and ghost pokemon are just dead pokemon in this rp.
Getting back on track on the topic of animals, pokemon are dangerous. Gyrados is basically a sea serpent which terrorizes fishermen and some ghost types like the chandelier pokemon wait for terminally ill patients in hospitals. Imagine that, giant serpents slaughtering people at sea and predatory ghosts feasting upon the dead at the source. Even less conventional pokemon not generally thought of as scary like pikachu, basically pose a massive threat to powerlines in big cities. I'd imagine they would be attracted to electricity, constantly causing blackouts and cutting lines by gnawing on them like the rodents that they are.
III. Children, badges, and pokeballs are a form of survival and control: So it's safe to say that wild ratata and pikachu don't cause harm to human settlements. People live out in the wild without pokemon to protect themselves, so pokemon aren't always invasive like their real world counterparts. Or perhaps they're afraid of us and are slightly more intelligent than they are given credit. Big cities must have advanced technology to keep pokemon from running amok among the general populace, maybe radio waves or zealous hunts for these wild pokemon. Thus these pokes, being able to have feelings, stay away from humans by choice.
Children with the use of technology, are indoctrinated into this culture of catching pokemon and living beside them. They aren't taught that it's bad to beat up wild animals and force them to be their pets. I mean you wouldn't walk into a crowded room and beat a mate up(potential BF or GF) and drag them home would you? Kids aren't taught to really value pokemon or how intelligent they really are. They're taught it's okay to catch them and more importantly, it's fun to make them fight eachother. Pokeballs digitalize pokemon after they're too weak to fight back. They exert a form of control over the captured pokemon, tracking their growth and re-programming their minds to fit our needs. Brave bird and surf don't exist,but these commands exist because the scientists who made the pokeballs program pokemon to respond to these commands by instantly brainwashing them on capture. Thus a charmander who simply spits fire in the wild, suddenly knows how the command, fire spin, because of the programming within the balls.
The balls are all connected by bill's pokemon pc system established in gen 1. This perfect their ability to digitalize balls and not overburden trainers who were catch happy. They actually created a system of teleportation,but not a perfected one since a trainer can not make changes in the wild. But essentially pokemon are put to sleep within these balls, their biological growth re-programmed within it and their brains altered to respond to commands and love their trainers.
The badges are transmitters which unlock certain traits in pokemon once they are obtained by the trainer. The gym leaders never have the same pokemon for too long. Their pokemon are at a fixed level while they serve the leader. Basically a leader is given a team of pokemon at a certain growth level. They fight and fight and when that pokemon becomes too strong, they are sent away to slaughter houses to serve as meat in grocery stores or whatever use they can fulfill depending on the leader. The leader in turn, depending on their personality is either sent new pokemon in times of emergency or they spend all their time breeding pokemon and replacing their team everytime their pokemon grow too strong. This system of having certain gym leaders who are stronger than others is to foster growth among new trainers, until they are good and strong by the eighth gym.
The pokemon league is just a national event to bring in money for various cities and glorify their work as trainers.
IV.The bad guys: Well they are bad or good depending on your viewpoint. Not all pokemon are suffering and not all people who work with pokemon as scientists,trainers, and government officials are callous. There is a need to control pokemon and a need to create a form of control among them and create a vangaurd of trainers who could defend human settlements against pokemon. The bad guys in this rp would basically beleive pokemon trainers can only be trainers without the pokeballs. They would be silenced by the government at large and eventually seek to start a full scale revolution against everyone who uses pokeballs to interact with pokemon. They beleive pokemon are symbiotic creatures at heart,but are unfairly tortured and enslaved by people. So in order to prove their point, they use pokemon in order to over throw the system which spans across the globe. To undermine the narrative of pokemon being partners and create a world where pokemon battles don't exist.
Still with me?
These are concepts I've been creating on and off for years. I've never really written them down on paper before. Eventually I want to create an rp where people play as trainers at the pokeleague, which is the used as a platform for the anarchists who view the world as a dystopia, to make their move and plunge the world into chaos by damaging the pc system via cyber terrorism.
But before I do this and move forward with an actual pokemon rp interest thread, I'd like to get some feedback based on this pitch. Eventually I'll make towns and create a setting as best as I can to make the world feel more grounded. First I wanted to get some feedback on these core ideas which would shape how I make the police force npcs, the professor who sends you on your journey and the challenges which players would face when confronted by pokemon outside of battling.
Any feedback is appreciated. They're not new ideas,but it's the first time I've written them down and am unsure if the ideas about how the pokemon world is built make sense. I do realize it might sound a bit like team galactic(whatever they're called from black),but much of these ideas are built upon that one spark: are pokemon mistreated by people?
1. The players will be established trainers(4-7 badges): This is not only to cut out the awkward introductions which never get anywhere,but also to give everyone what they wanted from the beginning in terms of a pokemon team. Sure you can still do the catch a new friend thing,but ultimately the rp will be focused on rping with eachother and doing one main thing.
2. There will be one thing: A threat so prevalent , that the players wouldn't be able to ignore them.
(If there are any objections to this idea of limiting the freedom people have, let me know. From my standpoint it seems like the logical thing to do in order to have a roleplay, where people can effectively roleplay trainers with pokemon in an organized fashion)
The pitch: Pokemon has always been a backwards world with logic sometimes being thrown out the window and parts of the lore ignored because they don't serve gameplay or kid friendly purposes. The original writers in a way, tried to create an enjoyable experience which did not assume kids were stupid or adults were pretenious. They wanted to create a story which everyone could enjoy and that is evident in certain parts of pokemon. One of which, is the reality of pokemon actually being able to die(lavendor town) or creepy dex entrees such as Driftloon being a child abductor. So I'll be trying to start this process by creating a world which isn't dark,but builds upon these illogical poketropes and the premise that pokemon are wild animals.
I. Pokemon are abused creatures: Not to sound like a peta hypocrite,but pokemon are a lot of domesticated animals. It's no suprise in the real world we basically control animals, breed them on masse in horrible conditions and eat them without so much of a second thought. So it's not surprising that no one would bat an eye at pokemon being treated as they are in any medium they are portrayed in. Pokemon are basically happy little creatures roaming the wild till one day a little kid sicks his pet at it and beats it to a blood pulp. That poke is then scooped from its home and forever a possession of that little kid. It'll be forced to fight in a Valhalla like manner, being thrown into battles against other pets. Your adult charmander is fighting a dragonite who overpowered it 2 miles above the arena. They're traveling hundreds miles per hour using dragonite's own strength, weight and gravity as he basically throws charizard into the earth on its neck. This charizard creates a crater on impact,but miraculously isn't dead. No it's beat up,but refuses to give in if it can fight back. At the end of the day, the trainer will get the credit for charizard's pain and suffering. He'll be digitalized into his pokeball and forced to face off against monsters trying to douse his tail flame, psychics mind raping him, fighting types smashing his face in, and grass types poisoning him. Yet through it all both pokemon involved will continuously fight and suffer injury after injury until it becomes a joy to them. Pokemon live a sad existence in the hands of a trainer.
II. Pokemon are dangerous though: Despite their enslavement and the state sanctioned dog fighting like competitions, pokemon are dangerous. From the very beginning Oak has said pokemon are wild animals, thus arming you with your very own pokemon. The moment you step outside of pallet town, there are wild rats the size of pitbulls and giant predatory birds. Rats are already scary and basically impossible to get rid of in real life. So imagine going into your cupboard to find a rattata rummaging through your goods, leaving its feces behind in the process spreading disease in the process. Or going out to watch some birds, only to have those birds divebomb you and try to peck you to death. This is why you have pokemon, because they are dangerous animals who could destroy the human race if they were organized. Since they're animals of varying intelligence, people catch pokemon and employ them against other pokemon.
This world isn't only supported by the fact that pokemon are inherently described as dangerous from gen 1(despite that never being the case in the anime), but pokemon has some creepy lore. Kadabra's entry basically has two possible meanings, one it switched bodies with a boy or two, a boy turned into a kadabra. While the latter is less likely, pokemon has worse inconsistencies such as ghosts. Ghosts who are basically dead pokemon. Dragonite dies and becomes a ghastly in death or something like that. For the sake of simplciity kadabra use their intellect to switch with some of their trainers and ghost pokemon are just dead pokemon in this rp.
Getting back on track on the topic of animals, pokemon are dangerous. Gyrados is basically a sea serpent which terrorizes fishermen and some ghost types like the chandelier pokemon wait for terminally ill patients in hospitals. Imagine that, giant serpents slaughtering people at sea and predatory ghosts feasting upon the dead at the source. Even less conventional pokemon not generally thought of as scary like pikachu, basically pose a massive threat to powerlines in big cities. I'd imagine they would be attracted to electricity, constantly causing blackouts and cutting lines by gnawing on them like the rodents that they are.
III. Children, badges, and pokeballs are a form of survival and control: So it's safe to say that wild ratata and pikachu don't cause harm to human settlements. People live out in the wild without pokemon to protect themselves, so pokemon aren't always invasive like their real world counterparts. Or perhaps they're afraid of us and are slightly more intelligent than they are given credit. Big cities must have advanced technology to keep pokemon from running amok among the general populace, maybe radio waves or zealous hunts for these wild pokemon. Thus these pokes, being able to have feelings, stay away from humans by choice.
Children with the use of technology, are indoctrinated into this culture of catching pokemon and living beside them. They aren't taught that it's bad to beat up wild animals and force them to be their pets. I mean you wouldn't walk into a crowded room and beat a mate up(potential BF or GF) and drag them home would you? Kids aren't taught to really value pokemon or how intelligent they really are. They're taught it's okay to catch them and more importantly, it's fun to make them fight eachother. Pokeballs digitalize pokemon after they're too weak to fight back. They exert a form of control over the captured pokemon, tracking their growth and re-programming their minds to fit our needs. Brave bird and surf don't exist,but these commands exist because the scientists who made the pokeballs program pokemon to respond to these commands by instantly brainwashing them on capture. Thus a charmander who simply spits fire in the wild, suddenly knows how the command, fire spin, because of the programming within the balls.
The balls are all connected by bill's pokemon pc system established in gen 1. This perfect their ability to digitalize balls and not overburden trainers who were catch happy. They actually created a system of teleportation,but not a perfected one since a trainer can not make changes in the wild. But essentially pokemon are put to sleep within these balls, their biological growth re-programmed within it and their brains altered to respond to commands and love their trainers.
The badges are transmitters which unlock certain traits in pokemon once they are obtained by the trainer. The gym leaders never have the same pokemon for too long. Their pokemon are at a fixed level while they serve the leader. Basically a leader is given a team of pokemon at a certain growth level. They fight and fight and when that pokemon becomes too strong, they are sent away to slaughter houses to serve as meat in grocery stores or whatever use they can fulfill depending on the leader. The leader in turn, depending on their personality is either sent new pokemon in times of emergency or they spend all their time breeding pokemon and replacing their team everytime their pokemon grow too strong. This system of having certain gym leaders who are stronger than others is to foster growth among new trainers, until they are good and strong by the eighth gym.
The pokemon league is just a national event to bring in money for various cities and glorify their work as trainers.
IV.The bad guys: Well they are bad or good depending on your viewpoint. Not all pokemon are suffering and not all people who work with pokemon as scientists,trainers, and government officials are callous. There is a need to control pokemon and a need to create a form of control among them and create a vangaurd of trainers who could defend human settlements against pokemon. The bad guys in this rp would basically beleive pokemon trainers can only be trainers without the pokeballs. They would be silenced by the government at large and eventually seek to start a full scale revolution against everyone who uses pokeballs to interact with pokemon. They beleive pokemon are symbiotic creatures at heart,but are unfairly tortured and enslaved by people. So in order to prove their point, they use pokemon in order to over throw the system which spans across the globe. To undermine the narrative of pokemon being partners and create a world where pokemon battles don't exist.
Still with me?
These are concepts I've been creating on and off for years. I've never really written them down on paper before. Eventually I want to create an rp where people play as trainers at the pokeleague, which is the used as a platform for the anarchists who view the world as a dystopia, to make their move and plunge the world into chaos by damaging the pc system via cyber terrorism.
But before I do this and move forward with an actual pokemon rp interest thread, I'd like to get some feedback based on this pitch. Eventually I'll make towns and create a setting as best as I can to make the world feel more grounded. First I wanted to get some feedback on these core ideas which would shape how I make the police force npcs, the professor who sends you on your journey and the challenges which players would face when confronted by pokemon outside of battling.
Any feedback is appreciated. They're not new ideas,but it's the first time I've written them down and am unsure if the ideas about how the pokemon world is built make sense. I do realize it might sound a bit like team galactic(whatever they're called from black),but much of these ideas are built upon that one spark: are pokemon mistreated by people?
