Pokæsop

Edits since Last Session:
New Moves
New Upgrades Added!
Map updated to reflect new discoveries! Added Murphy's castle to the map. You may continue to laugh at Botherer's terrible arts!

Quest Board

Overview

The Book of Dreams - A fabled, magical book of the ancients, inscribed within the tales of old. When imagination first met scripture, the Book of Dreams was given life. Since then, passing through the hands of many, it has given refuge to some of the greatest stories of all time, held safe within its bindings. However, with the recent downfall of creative thinking, having given way to the folly of the Internet, the book has retreated to the heart of a secluded forest, lying in wait for the day that, when it once again decides to roam the lands, it may find that both human and Pokemon alike will have reclaimed their creative spirit… Or so the story goes, anyways.

Pokæsop is a relatively short Pokemon: Tabletop Adventures campaign Botherer intends to run during the summer. Players will be invited to a magical dreamscape where the only limit is your imagination. Taking the form you thought possible only in fantasy, venture through horrifying perversions of children's fairy tales, nursery rhymes, and other children's favorites as you battle to save the tales of the world from destruction… Or perhaps even re-write these chronicles of the ages in accord with your own grand design! The possibilities are endless!

Cast of Characters

Lawrence Xavier
Lecia Lina Asami
Michael Humbridge
Rainy via Renata
Minamino Yumeko
Murphy Coralle

Scan Sheet

I crafted up a dinky little thingamajiggy that works to keep track of what Pokemon you've encountered. Use this to keep track of all your encountered Pokemon. If anyone likes it and wants to make use it of it for their own game, the template link is here. Just make a new copy of it ( fifth item in the File menu )

Scan Sheet

Logs

Day 1
Session 1-A - Thunder, rain and lightning. Danger, water rising! Clamour, sirens wailing. It's such a bad sign! Which probably has nothing to do with the fact that Rainy and Joshua were there to save a figment of Fia's imagination from being completely leveled… Though this does raise the question… Where was Super Sonic during all a' this?!?
Session 1-B - Michael and Yumeko awaken in the office of Peyote Jones, and he's like "Fuck you, and uh, fuck you too!" 'cause ya broke his windows and ripped his pants off. Well, ain't that some shit!
Session 1-C - Waka Waka, so never ending warry! Gory, gory, gory~ (Gory, gory, gory~) Waka Laka's a place to be together~ Killed and dead forever, don'tcha see? Lawrence and Lecia bro it out in Sylvie's whacked out arcade before being pulverized by her rampaging "password" protected games and creeps… And possibly develop a mutual hatred for Waka Laka time.
Session 1-D Following their first experiences with the Dream World, the groups find themselves in a vast, expansive grassland, where they get to meet one another and engage in some ridiculous antics before meeting a porridge-obsessed Ducklett and his owner, Mother Swanna. They resolve to help save the world with their newfound imagination-based powers after discovering that some entity's tampering with the Dream World is resulting in the alteration of time and history!

Minisession 1-A - Joshua and Yumeko take the time to start exploring the Dreamscape; they stumble across a rustic, medieval town, where not even the children were safe from being beat down. Looking into the matter, they discover that a pack of kids set up a toll around the town's drinking water, and have been snapping the arms and legs of people who refuse to pay it. Obviously they don't stand for such an injustice… But they do put it on hold until they finish their shipping shopping trip!

Day 3
Minisession 1-B - Lecia, accompanied by Rainy, heads into Ye Olde Town to search for clues on the whereabouts of a girl named Madeline. While she's searching for information and resolving to help a little girl with a broken arm, Rainy imagines up a Buneary, draws it an invisible cape, loses track of it as a gust of wind causes it to trip a fat old man, unintentionally antagonizes said fat man, and has her life threatened by the aforementioned fat man… Just to get her cape stolen by Lecia without even realizing it. All in day's work for Rainy~
Minisession 1-C - Michael and Lawrence decide to explore the Abyss at the southern end of the Dreamscape to see what lay within. There, they discover that the crust of the Dreamscape is made of the best fudge brownies known to mankind, the creatures born within are just as baked as Botherer must've been during this whole (mostly asspulled) adventure, and that apparently it's okay to kill the parents of the Pokemon you wish to enlist to your cause. Lawrence also owes the Dreamscape a new video camera to replace the one he destroyed during his cinematic game-ending blow.

Day 4
Session 2 - The misadventures continue as the party, following a lead Lecia picked up on, are led into the forest by a very… Interesting Shaymin, to say the least. After several attempts to win over the hearts of Pokemon (and a couple of young ladies as well), they're led to the mouth of an ominous looking cave, where they are confronted by a rather foul-mouthed work of EVIL… Or corruption… Or SOMETHING. Hell if I know what it actually was. It's not like I MADE it or anything, did I? Regardless, they manage to wreck face, and stuff the bubbling ooze monster of a Ditto into a contain…Errr, damnit it's too early to be having Poketrian Odyssey flashbacks!
Minisession 2-A - Chao-Chao kidnaps Rainy and takes her on a quest to acquire one of the seven Chaos Emeralds. After nearly getting wrecked by a giant Onix imbued with the power of the Blood Emerald, Rainy then teaches Chao Chao what he believes to be the art of mind control. It's… Not actually mind control. Just read this mini. Trust me. You can even skip to Line 368 after combat wraps up. Just… Just read her interactions with Chao-Chao. It's totally worth it.

Day 5
Minisession 2-B - castfrom200hp JUMPS in out of nowhere and is like "YO MUTHAFUCKAS, WANNA KEEP PLAYING A MINDLESS EASY NUMBERFEST? FUCK NO YOU DON'T" and then Sylvie beckons people into the dreamworld and it's wonderful because they get their asses TOTALLY THRASHED. … Okay, not really, they actually do okay, but really Sylvie doing crazyass eldritch DDR shit is 4real. Also lol 200HP counters on not-all-that-high-level trainers.

Day 7
Session 3 - Checking the innards of the cave, the group heads inside the cave in pursuit of Madeline and the other children unfortunate to have gone missing inside. It is there that they discover firsthand that Grues in fact DO exist… And they eat! A lot. After seemingly losing Lecia, Rainy, and a couple of Lawrence's Pokemon, to them, a vicious fight with several Grues ensues, and the party learns that Pass moves are complete and utter ass.
Session 3-Belly - Grues are nasty things. And apparently don't make any sense. Lecia and Rainy find themselves wholly and utterly consumed by Grues, and descend into their innards. There, they discover that not only is Maddy IN the Grue, but also alive and well, as well as some other losers, a couple bears, and a Mewtwo. To help upset its stomach and force it to vomit them up, at the suggestion of the also-eaten Peyote Jones they have a Contest and cause all kinds of mayhem within!

Days 8 through 12

Minisession 3-A - Tepig are bacon-dispensing slot machines! Ignis and BunBun had babies! CastfromHP foams at the mouth because Lecia and Rainy get awesome Mawile babbies! Giantree foams at the mouth because Lecia and Rainy got to play out their hatching mini!
Minisession 3-B Rainy and Yumeko OOC decide to do a mini to Natural Edge+ Gurume, but end up distracted by the Legendaries it keeps spitting out of its mouth. Botherer learns firsthand why it's a bad idea to try and roleplay 'mons and unintentionally derail his players' minis at 6 AM. Someone remind him why he thought it was a good idea to let a Mew anywhere NEAR a Move Tutor.
Minisession 3-C Joshua seeks out the mysteries of the Unown. Being led to Sylvie's arcade, he takes up apprenticeship in the art of Runemancery under the humanized wing of Ariadne, Magical Girl Xatu, and is turned into the Meguca, possibly against his will.
Minisession 3-D - Michael sets off to explore the Dream World and decides to explore the castle with Malto. After getting in trouble with Old King Coal, he challenges the King to a Duel at (Sun)Down… Only for that to go right out the window when a Salamence comes crashing in. Michael proves he's totally the most overpowered piece of shit in this game by nearly taking out a Boss Salamence on his own merit (If it was just a normal Salamence? He would've just STEAMROLLED it.), though it barely manages to escape with both its own life and the life of an innocent court maiden Jessibelle.
Minisession 3-E - Lawrence goes to meet up with Miss Myuu, wherein he learns how to craft raw imagination into wondrous, beautiful things! Thanks to Miss Myuu's sense of humor, we also find out he looks damned sexy in a dress!

Day 13
Session 4 - A mysterious knight appears, shaken and trembling as he rises out from a drawing etched into the ground, and the cast is whisked into a swirling vortex which is his mind. Better description will come soon.

Days 14 through 17
Minisession 4-A - Rainy and Chao Chao set off on their quest for the second Chaos Emerald. Together, they slay a Jigglypuff who, by the power of the Chaos Emeralds, gained the power to summon creatures with her song, pedocatch a Glaceon from amongst said creatures, and destroy a mountain!
Minisession 4-B - When Botherer has time to into words, he'll get on this.
Minisession 4-C - Rainy, uhh… Well, just look inside if you wanna see what she did. Or look at the sketch of the resultant abomination here. Don't worry, it might actually be perceived as adorable.
Minisession 4-D - Lawrence, Michael, and Omecha Lainy set forth to blow out a mean Litwick who was tormenting the innocents of Ye Olde Town. They were totally gonna bait the thing out, but because Rainy logic is best logic and apparently FATE points are an acceptable form of currency, the guy Botherer intended to be their infodump actually turned out to be the Candle Dick. PacMan grid combat ensued, there were a lot of terrible penis and testicle jokes, and a Snivy made Rainy cry. TL;DR - Botherer isn't allowed to GM until 4AM anymore.

Day 18

Careful here: There's gonna be a LOT to read for this session. And there's still more coming.

Session 5 - Part A - The group sets out into the Eternal Nightmare to try and right all wrongs that lie within. Cutting through, they discover a town that magically "hobofies" people, a pirate crew aboard a flying ship that also doubles as a Pokemon Gym, and more before getting jostled overboard (or in Michael's case, jumping like the brave idiot he is).
Session 5 - Part B - Michael experiences firsthand the horrors that can be wrought by the Eternal Nightmare.
Session 5 - Part D - Omecha Lainy, not one to be discouraged by problems as small as falling off the side of a floating ship and plummeting heights that would kill mortals, descends into the nightmare. What they experience is… Well, it'sh definitely… shomething.

Setting and Characters of Note

As you become more and more familiar with the Dream World, this section will fill up in accord with your newfound knowledge. Of course, given that the Dream World is the most recent "trend" in modern science, there's quite a bit of public information, thanks to many Researchers' endeavors to uncover more information about it.

Dream World 101

Scientists have been informed, while communing with a Dodrio in its sleep (an ideal Pokemon for this kind of research, by the way, due to it keeping one head awake whilst the others sleep, and being able to keep communication with the two heads whilst they sleep), that it and others are guided by "a light of the night sky" to the Dream World; it also reported seeing humans in the Dream World as well, though they seem to be led off elsewhere by them; the Dodrio claimed to have been brought to a small planet within the Dream World, which was created from something that poured out of its other heads. Despite it having not been existent before its creation before the creature's very eyes, it seemed that both humans and Pokemon were present, though all were familiar to it in some manner or another.

Basically, the most widely accepted theory at present, based on this report, is that there are two separate Dream Worlds; one that was designed for the occupation of humans, and a completely separate one for Pokemon, and that there is some force that is responsible for keeping the two separate. This doesn't exclude Pokemon from appearing in the humans' Dream World, or vice versa, but the ones that do appear are generated from the memories of the person or Pokemon that created it.

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The Imaginary Plain

An expansive plain that covers a great deal of the known territory in the Dreamscape. A thin, rolling purple mist coats the plains. This is where the Book of Dreams, a massive book, the size of a building and home to all of Imagination, rests.

Mother Swanna - The Overseer of the Dreamscape; always polite and cordial, though a bit unaware of her surroundings (as noted by the fact that she couldn't find a book the size of a building that was literally on the floor right behind her). She's the one in charge of maintaining order and stability within the Dream World… And currently failing at it. Which is where you guys, the players, come into things.

Edword - A Ducklett that talks and is one of the permanent residents of the Dreamscape. He has a one-track mind, usually towards either himself or his porridge addiction. Doesn't like it a great deal when Mother Swanna emphasized the "o" in his name.

Fia - One of the permanent residents of the Dreamscape; an avid storyteller and fanfiction writer, she's in charge of archiving all of the Dreams that people have. Sylvie apparently wants to see her get punched in the face.

Miss Myuu - A Mewtwo that has an unusually cheery disposition. An avid fan of shenanigans, and a master cosplayer, she tends to recklessly apply her own Psychic powers for the sake of fun.

Peyote Jones - He's big, he's black, and he doesn't give a shit if you're the President of the United States, you can bet your ass he'll take one look at you and tear you to shreds with his words. He's the receptionist for the Quest Board and an avid contest enthusiast.

Sylvie - A girl who isn't quite all there, lost somewhere between the Dreamscape and reality; a true master of Dance Dance Revolution, and damned sure of herself that she made this the password to access her demesne.

Ariadne - A Xatu who currently resides within Sylvie's demesne; while not anywhere near as graceful in the art of DDR as Sylvie would like for her to be, she more than makes up for it by being able to tap into the unknown and conjure up… Well, Unown. Served as a mentor for Joshua in his own Rune Mastery endeavors.

The Last Batch of Children - The first bunch of children that Mother Swanna sent out to try and fix what's been going awry with the Dream World as of late. They were found to be within the belly of the Grues, and were swiftly eviscerated from within.

Ye Olde Town

A small, rustic town with a medieval feel to it. It seems that, as of late, a rogue band of children has taken the well just outside of town and claimed it for their own, demanding a toll of anyone who seeks to drink from it. Those who refuse to pay get their bones snapped in two.

Beauregaurd von Schrumpaeter - A portly old "gentleman" with a sense of entitlement. Completely self-absorbed and looks down on the plebs. Apparently quick to anger as well, he has it out for Rainy.

Jessibelle - A young girl, amongst those found and rescued from within the innards of a Grue, who in her rose petal dress seems to have a royal air to herself. Currently has been kidnapped yet again, this time by a ferocious Salamence.
Known Pokemon: Gloom (Amaralla)

Lola An ornery young child who has fallen victim to the wrath of the kids breaking people's bones around town. She's patiently awaiting the day that Lecia and her friends save the town from those nutjobs.
Known Pokemon: Electrike

Old King Coal - He was not quite a merry old soul. Not a merry old soul was he. And he called Mike a knave, and he called for his grave and he sought to decapitate he.

Port Town

The Cap'n - A rough, old sailor who defines masculinity. He and his pirate crew man a winged ship that takes to the skies as they loot and plunder like the "honorable" pirates they are. Runs a Gym aboard his pirate ship when he and his men aren't ransacking merchant vessels at sea.

Other

Gwynevere - A Lamia/Arachne hybrid, of relation to the Baron and Baroness of Gennis. Lecia and Rainy discovered her within the Eternal Nightmare. After slaying her and breaking her free of her "altered" form, she turned out to be pretty adorable, and they brought her back to the Dreamscape with them.

Madeline - A girl that Lecia knows from school in the real world that's currently in the hospital. Thanks to the efforts of the rest of the party, she and the others have all been rescued from the innards of the Grues. She generally has a cheery disposition, and really seems to enjoy horse shaped Pokemon. Especially Ponyta.
Known Pokemon: Keldeo (Champion of Fun)

Ray of Hope - A child who looks no older than eight years old who probably watched just a liiittle too much superhero animu. Donning the identity of a masked superhero, he tried to help Michael save Jessibelle from the Salamence… Only to fail miserably as, following making the most cliched, overdramatic superhero call-out, he totally just got whacked out the arena in one turn. Blame his low CON score. Currently resolved to help Michael save the fair maiden.
Known Pokemon: Cubone (Skelethor)

Raven - A teenage boy who appeared before the party and tried to kill them. Joshua knows of him and his troubles in the real world. Is on a mission to reclaim his deceased mother and return her to life in the real world, regardless of the personal cost.

Sun Xi - A younger boy who appears in the Dream World to have been ripped straight out of an episode of Dragon Ball, possibly Z, but not GT because GT sucked ass. He's a quiet and reserved and… Well, yeah, not too much is known about him other than that.

Item Shop

Medicine

Balls

Berries

Hold Items

Tutor Moves

To help you out on your Pokemon journey, I'm offering a starting pool of Tutored Moves from which you can purchase with your starting units. Trust me when I say Tutor availability, as well as the ability to customize moves you purchase or own, in the future is gonna be AMAZINGLY high, but this is what'll be available to you with your starting inventory. If you want a move that isn't on the list, or aren't sure if your Pokemon will be able to learn the move, again, talk to Botherer about it. Some questions to ask yourself are listed as well for most of them, but they're not bindingly exclusive to those.

Oh yeah, and just a reminder, you can totally tutor Moves onto your Weapons.

Move Upgrades

I am going to be allowing for the upgrading and customizing of moves. Because we really need to make things more complicated, right?

Rules:

  • A Pokemon may have a single Upgrade applied to any of its Moves at any given time. In order to add a new Upgrade, the previously existing upgrade must be replaced.
  • A Pokemon may have a total number of Move upgrades equal to half of its Intelligence capability. If, at any point, the Pokemon has more upgraded moves than it can hold, it must forget one of those Upgrades to accommodate for the new one. Unfortunately, I am a forgetful GM sometimes, so if you have an Upgrade applied to one of your Pokemon's moves, please remind me when it's applicable.

Qualities

All Pokemon have characteristics, traits, and personalities, much like people do… Unless they're dead. But they totally had them while they were alive. These attributes are manifested into mechanical benefits (and sometimes penalties) by Qualities.

In a nutshell, the majority of Qualities are basically glorified Pokemon abilities; however, unlike Abilities, Qualities aren't specific to species; a Pokemon can have most any Quality, lest it be marked as a Unique Quality, if their personality or habits fall in line with it.

Some examples of Qualities are shown below.

Trainers will start at TL7, with a single starting Pokemon of their choice at Lv15. While I'm not forcing you to write a life story or write EVERYTHING there is about your character, the more you tell me, the more I have to work with, and the better I can make the game experience, both for you and for everyone else. In addition, everyone's going to offer some perks beyond the inventory choices offered below that will be derived directly from what you feed me, though what those are? Well, it's a secret~

… Okay, it's not really a secret, since I'll be discussing possible options with you guys before the game starts.

Sign-Ups Go here. If you have any questions, mechanically or otherwise, either drop them in the IRC channel #PokAesop or PM them to Botherer.

Starter Generation

  • Your starter can be just about any species from the Pokedex, save a select few for the sole reason that they're just stupidly powerful in comparison to other Pokemon at the starting levels. If you have any questions or wish to have a starter approved, ask Botherer about it.

There's gonna be a couple of added rules tacked onto creating your starters for this game.

  • When creating your Starter, choose three moves from its Egg Move List. One of these moves, which I suggest not be too powerful, your Pokemon will start with automatically as a Natural Move. The second of these will be added to your Natural Movepool at Lv25. The third and final of these Egg Moves will be gifted to your Pokemon as if it were a Tutored move upon reaching Lv40. If your starter of choice doesn't have an Egg Move list, ask Botherer about it, or throw some ideas his way. We shouldn't have too much trouble making up some off-the-wall, ridiculous left-field shit that doesn't make any sense but looks cool anyways a perfectly reasonable custom bonus Move progression together. Don't like the Egg Moves your Pokemon gets, either? We can make up some more random asspull crap that only barely makes enough sense to be passable decent selections for Egg Moves. After all, it's not like I don't have any intention of sticking the most ridiculous things I can possibly imagine on some of the Pokemon you'll encounter. Suggesting Egg Moves for possibilities, if available, is just my way of making things easier on you guys; you should, in no way, feel limited to them if you feel a more apt move not on the Egg Move list is available out there.

Good Progression: I want a Grotle for my starter. For its first Egg Move, I might choose Sand Tomb. At Level 25, Seed Bomb wouldn't be a particularly unreasonable option. Finally, at Level 40, I'm gonna let the walking forest turtle learn Superpower.

Not So Good Progression: My Wartortle starts off with Mirror Coat. At Level 25, breaking things' faces in with Rock Head-powered Double-Edge sounds like lotsa fun. And to make sure nothing lives through his onslaught, at Level 40 the demon turtle learns Water Spout!

A Progression That I Will Bludgeon You Over the Head with a Horribly Deformed Plushie Should You Even Think of Suggesting It: My Bronzor is gonna be the most rockin' thing ever! First, we'll start it off with Psystrike, 'cause it's not like we aren't gonna get Legendary Access later. My next step is to get Doom Desire at Lv25; finally, at Lv40, the bell tolls for thee as I cast Judgment upon all of ye foolish mortals! Muahahahahaha!

  • While normally I wouldn't expect anyone to write this up, I would like to request that, in addition to whatever information you would deem necessary to your character's backstory, each player write up a small blurb about their Starting Pokemon. In addition to giving me a better idea of what you want your Starter to be like, this will also determine additional bonuses and penalties your Pokemon will receive. These alterations, reflective of what you write about your Pokemon, can change things like its ability, color, and stats, or give it additional traits and the like.

Starting Inventory

  • You're permitted to start with any personal or "fluff" inventory you wish for your character to possess. In addition to that, however, you will be permitted to add mechanically beneficial Items from the Shop List below of a total value not to exceed 50 units to your inventory. Why Units, you might ask, and why only 50? Originally I was going to do something EXTREMELY complicated that I later realized would've required a lot more bookkeeping than I deemed necessary for a campaign of this duration. However, I did like the idea of reducing the magnitude of numbers, just because everyone likes working with smaller numbers… Under the assumption that they're whole numbers, anyways. Because FUCK DECIMALS.
  • If a class requires you to pay money for Features, you may ignore any base costs associated with taking the class; for additional feats within the class, however, a single unit may be converted into 100 Poke for the purposes of feats. ( So if you wish to take Engineer, the Mech Arm is free, but adding a Scanner would cost 2300 / 100 = 23 Units; round down for the sake of simplicity if your feat has an unusual starting cost. )
  • At the cost of 25 of your starting 50 Units, you may add another Pokemon, to be generated at Level 10, to your starting line-up. In doing so, I would like for you to follow the same procedure as you did with your initial Starter Pokemon. While you will be able to purchase other Pokemon in this same manner later, I can, at the very least, guarantee that the purchase price for additional Pokemon past character creation will never cost less than the current price.

If there's something you wish to start off with that isn't listed on the sheet, ask Botherer about it.

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