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Lost Demiurge
2012-01-13, 02:57 PM
So, after reading a few excellent threads about darker spins on the Pokemon franchise, I decided to take a whirl at putting together a campaign idea for my own use...

The Kanto Region. That's where it all started to go wrong.

At first it was like mobile slime molds. People would spot masses of it shifting, moving around the forests. Harmless enough, until you noticed that birds never landed there, that mice and other smaller mammals left in droves, that even insects were deserting the their hives.

If we had been a little more worried, if we had gone nuclear at the start, then maybe we could have stopped them. Maybe we could have saved the world.

We didn't.

God help us all, we were curious. We watched and waited and catalogued this new species, and we did not realize until three months later just how far the rot had gotten.

We didn't act in time, and we have paid the price many, many times over.

The slime is only the larval stage! The slime EVOLVES! It evolves quickly, mimics other creatures, and slowly starts taking over their niche. It creates new species overnight, all with that basic protoplasm at the core! It inserts the new species into every layer of every ecosystem it can reach, and once it got into the ocean we were done. There were no coasts it could not reach, and the earth as we know it started to die...

Natural species are going extinct. Birds, mammals, fish, bugs, plants, even fungus. Only the slimeborn creatures remain. We can't eat them, but they can eat us. And they're converting the biomass of this planet into their own ecosystem, one extinct species at a time.

We have a name for the slime, now. Phylum Killers. PKs for short.

They've got strange powers that science can't explain. They heal deadly wounds in a matter of hours just by resting. Their various species are legion. Our weapons barely touch some of them. But hope remains...

The eggheads we've got left found a way to revert specific PK monsters to slime, store them inside spherical holding devices. And once inside, the computers can rewrite their genetic code... Don't know how they do it, but they can reprogram the horrors. Make them impressionable. Brainwash them, so that they obey us...

You're our last hope. You're smart, you're trained, you're tough, you're the best we've got. You're young, but that'll work in your favor. For some reason the PK's aren't as aggressive to kids. Adults wouldn't make it ten miles into the interior... We know, we've tried. The bones of the other squads litter the path ahead.

We're dropping you off at the coast. Small port called Pallet Town... Woods around it, plenty of cover from the megafliers. You'll have to sink the raft, so once you're there there's no going back until this world's ours again.

They started in Kanto. You have to find out why. You have to find the cause. You have to stop them. We've given you the weaponry we can spare. We've given you enough food to last for a while, though you will have to resupply regularly, and scavenge what you can. Each of you have trained and bonded with a given PK-monster, and their PK-ball rides at your belt.

Go forth, PK-trainers. Fight them with their own tools, and save our world before it falls to the horde of PK monsters. Operation RED begins NOW.

Colonel Oak, out.

PK-MON: God help us all...

Silus
2012-01-13, 03:17 PM
My reaction to reading this:

http://i1238.photobucket.com/albums/ff483/Hornet1985/mother-god-meme.jpg

Pokonic
2012-01-13, 03:20 PM
Naturaly, the moment that the PC's find a Ditto will be the moment they can find some hope for the rest of the world, yes? Would be interesting to find who towns repopulated with Jinx's and Electrobuzzes and the like.

Are gym leaders effectivly army officals who have the power to weld these new and deady weapons first, or what?

Lord Tyger
2012-01-13, 03:30 PM
Raises some interesting questions about Ghost Pokemon.

Lost Demiurge
2012-01-13, 03:39 PM
Naturaly, the moment that the PC's find a Ditto will be the moment they can find some hope for the rest of the world, yes? Would be interesting to find who towns repopulated with Jinx's and Electrobuzzes and the like.

Are gym leaders effectivly army officals who have the power to weld these new and deady weapons first, or what?

I'm thinking the gym leaders are the resistance leaders for the surviving settlements. They've been getting support and PK tool technical designs from sporadic contact with the outside, so they're guarding the few clusters of humanity left inside the Kanto Region. Of course, as the bullets have run low, they've had to depend more and more on tamed PK defense...

All of them have their own agenda, of course. And then there's the renegade group, Team Rocket, who's also figured out that the region is the source of the infestation, and is trying to unleash weapons of mass destruction in an effort to destroy whatever caused all this...

drew2u
2012-01-13, 04:26 PM
Think of the poison pokemon, or Koffing/Weezing/Voltorb/Electrode exploding.

Anyone who has ran a nuzlocke w/o potions knows what I'm talking about ._.

Pokonic
2012-01-13, 08:36 PM
Think of the poison pokemon, or Koffing/Weezing/Voltorb/Electrode exploding.

Anyone who has ran a nuzlocke w/o potions knows what I'm talking about ._.

Makes things like Muk a whole lot worse, if its done realisticly.

Lost Demiurge
2012-01-13, 09:12 PM
Makes things like Muk a whole lot worse, if its done realisticly.

Oh yeah. For regular PK-mons, well, they can bounce back from that kind of stuff. Usually.

Regular humans and animals... You're looking at long-term damage, cancer, death... All that kind of joy.

Pokonic
2012-01-13, 09:23 PM
Aww shoot, then what exactly are the fossil 'mons in this world, anyway? Original creatures spawned from the stuff, or something else?


Also, looks like Lavender could be some sort of cult. Or worse, the ghost pokemon are simply cloud-based and only semi-grounded in reality. Enjoy your nightmares, literaly if things like Hypno get involved. Please keep the children secured, for the love of all things that are holy!:smalleek:

Noedig
2012-01-13, 10:33 PM
Hell yes. Do this, I will play. Do it now!

TurtleKing
2012-01-14, 01:42 AM
While I have never been interested in playing in Pokemon campaigns before I am curious. Where are the rules for such as I don't have them?

Zarin
2012-01-14, 11:05 AM
I'm thinking the gym leaders are the resistance leaders for the surviving settlements. They've been getting support and PK tool technical designs from sporadic contact with the outside, so they're guarding the few clusters of humanity left inside the Kanto Region. Of course, as the bullets have run low, they've had to depend more and more on tamed PK defense...

I'd run the gym leaders Metal Gear Solid style, perhaps members of a previous mission into the region that were infected with the PK and are now bent on spreading the filth to the four corners of the world, thus it makes more sense that the players want to defeat them rather than wiping out the last bastion of human defense.

Silus
2012-01-14, 11:13 AM
Question: What about Mewtwo? Would the backstory be pretty much the same?

Traab
2012-01-14, 11:26 AM
Aww shoot, then what exactly are the fossil 'mons in this world, anyway? Original creatures spawned from the stuff, or something else?


Also, looks like Lavender could be some sort of cult. Or worse, the ghost pokemon are simply cloud-based and only semi-grounded in reality. Enjoy your nightmares, literaly if things like Hypno get involved. Please keep the children secured, for the love of all things that are holy!:smalleek:

Fossil mons are similar to canon. Only in this case, the ooze assimilates the fossils and recreates the creatures from the dna left inside the remains. This is actually an interesting idea. Just to be sure though, is this a standard set of classes set in the pokemon world? Or are you somehow creating pokemon trainer classes to run through this?

Lost Demiurge
2012-01-14, 12:42 PM
Fossil mons are similar to canon. Only in this case, the ooze assimilates the fossils and recreates the creatures from the dna left inside the remains. This is actually an interesting idea. Just to be sure though, is this a standard set of classes set in the pokemon world? Or are you somehow creating pokemon trainer classes to run through this?

I don't even know the system to use for this. It should be something gritty, though.

Zarin: I LIKE that idea... Been toying around with the idea of people being infected with PK anyway... You can tell one who's been infected for a while, they've got these large, oversized, staring eyes and they move just a little wrong...

Silus: Mew and Mewtwo... Heh. Well, they're kind of the reason things are going to hell... But I might run this, so I'm gonna keep quiet about 'em for now.

Pokonic
2012-01-14, 03:37 PM
Also, another idea for the players:

Sandslashes= Deathclaws. That burrow underground. Enjoy the terror of you players when they go into a area with a few sandshrews in it and they find a nest.

Silus
2012-01-14, 03:50 PM
I don't even know the system to use for this. It should be something gritty, though.

Zarin: I LIKE that idea... Been toying around with the idea of people being infected with PK anyway... You can tell one who's been infected for a while, they've got these large, oversized, staring eyes and they move just a little wrong...

Silus: Mew and Mewtwo... Heh. Well, they're kind of the reason things are going to hell... But I might run this, so I'm gonna keep quiet about 'em for now.

Well I know you got your own ideas about Mew and Mewtwo, but I was thinking that Mewtwo was the human's response to the Pk's. Make a weapon to combat them. Project MW-2 or something =P

tahu88810
2012-01-14, 04:50 PM
I would say mix this (http://1d4chan.org/wiki/Pokemon_Tabletop_Adventures) with some homebrewed sanity, nutrition, weather, etc. rules to make it a tad more deadly/realistic.

TheCountAlucard
2012-01-14, 04:53 PM
It's been done before, but that just goes to show it could work pretty well.

Here's a pic that might help inspire you. :smallsmile:

http://i200.photobucket.com/albums/aa100/TheCountAlucard666/Pictures/AltArtPoke.png

Traab
2012-01-14, 06:29 PM
Also, another idea for the players:

Sandslashes= Deathclaws. That burrow underground. Enjoy the terror of you players when they go into a area with a few sandshrews in it and they find a nest.

Yeah, whatever system you end up working with, it probably wont be too hard to come up with reasonably close analogs to the various pokemon, and after that you just add in a bit of fluff to alter the names of attack abilities to match, while keeping the stats.

Mando Knight
2012-01-14, 06:33 PM
And Ditto? It's the base form...

Pokonic
2012-01-14, 08:59 PM
It's been done before, but that just goes to show it could work pretty well.

Here's a pic that might help inspire you. :smallsmile:

http://i200.photobucket.com/albums/aa100/TheCountAlucard666/Pictures/AltArtPoke.png

Sweet mew that Arbok is horrible to look at.

As a word of warning, here is a blogpost (http://http://litttlebitofeverything.blogspot.com/2010/12/altcreepy-pokemon-art.html) with some goodies on it.

Also, this guy (http://soupandbutter.deviantart.com/gallery/24641359) has made the better part of most of those picks. Check him out for insperation. I suggest the muk.

Traab
2012-01-14, 11:52 PM
Sweet mew that Arbok is horrible to look at.

As a word of warning, here is a blogpost (http://http://litttlebitofeverything.blogspot.com/2010/12/altcreepy-pokemon-art.html) with some goodies on it.

Also, this guy (http://soupandbutter.deviantart.com/gallery/24641359) has made the better part of most of those picks. Check him out for insperation. I suggest the muk.

The ARBOK is what gets you? Im more terrified of the golbat that apparently carries 50 gazillion zoobats inside its massive maw.

Pokonic
2012-01-14, 11:59 PM
The ARBOK is what gets you? Im more terrified of the golbat that apparently carries 50 gazillion zoobats inside its massive maw.

Oh, then the Crobat the guy drew must be giving you nightmares, then.:smalltongue:

Good thing that pic does not exist, eh?

Oh wait, everyone, here is the most horrifing pic of Mewtwo in existance. (http://light-schizophrenia.deviantart.com/gallery/24576376#/d2gp4j8)

Rankar
2012-01-15, 12:21 AM
Want. Very much want. I'd play this world. The gym leaders could be resistances that've set up their own communities and are trying their best to survive but don't exactly get along with each other (drain of resources or whatnot). You're tasked with uniting them. Could incorporate that anyone who can use these PKs is psychic and therefore able to control them, but can only handle so many at a time (hence keeping only a handful of them on you at a time).

For this its not about your personal "class" so much as your character and what PKs you use.

Pokonic
2012-01-15, 12:24 AM
Nah, psychics are hated by baseline humans, and are treated like mutents. However, there is said to be a old town in the world run by a half-mad resistance leader and her personal P-Ks...

The Witch-King
2012-01-15, 05:17 AM
Just wanted to make sure you all were aware of the existence of the Pokethulu (http://www222.pair.com/sjohn/pokethulhu.htm) rules.

They're free to download.

Absol197
2012-01-15, 03:35 PM
I've never participated in a PbP game before, but I would definitely want to be in this one! Please (please please please) let me know if you decide to get it off the ground.

On PK-Spheres:
The reason you can't have more than six PKs with you at once is because the spheres require a continual power source to keep them functioning, and the portable power sources can only run six at once. Each sphere has its own internal battery, but it only lasts so long, and the PK inside can't be reprogrammed while using it. You can capture more, but you need to leave any beyond six at cities.

The agents have been trained on how to build stations to power a large number of spheres. The power grids of most cities aren't being used for much anymore, anyway. Old hospitals are most likely to have all the necessary gear for building a "PK-Box", as the're called.

Right now, you have to leave your extra PKs in a particular Box, and if you need it later, you have to travel back to where you left it. They say some of the eggheads are working on a way to transfer captured PKs through power lines and such; changing the DNA patterns of the slime in one sphere to mimic that of another, basically transforming the two into each other, even if the slime itself doesn't leave the sphere. But that's a ways away, and we don't know if we'll even last that long...

On Specific PKs:
We're getting unconfirmed reports that the slime is starting to mimic us. I guess we're the last stop on its hostile takeover of the world. You can tell if someone's got it inside them: they turn pale, like, sheet-white, and start growing big, ugly red bumps all over their body. It gets into their head, too, and they start saying like they feel trapped, trapped in some box that no one else can see. And then the powers kick in, and that box starts being real. And that's when they turn on you, and they're not a person anymore.

Women seem to be affected differently, sometimes. Instead of going white, they go black and purple. Their lips puff up, too, almost like they're being frozen from the inside. The skin on their legs tears off into long sheets, almost like some ugly dress. The first sign is when their breath starts being foggy, even when its warm. If you see that, kill 'em quick. Those PK-broads are mean...

Pokonic
2012-01-15, 04:22 PM
PKs
Even worse, it seems that whatever happened after that explosion at Cinnabar has caused some of the locals to go nutters. They are getting these nubs on there heads and have started to...change. Luckaly, the local magistrate seems to have there pack leader under control, but this can only end badly. Whatever happened at the lab there has caused all sorts of strange things to appear on the west coast, so dont try to convince one of the few remaining boats to try there luck there.


Also, for anyone heading down the old route ten, be warned of a strange tribe down there. They used to be workers down in the plant down there, but they seemed to have found something while excavating the older paches of underbrush deep in the old parts of it. These guys seem to be acting like a cult, and take travelers into the place. Dont try going into the plant to wip them out, ethier. The place is crawling with PKs that used to be old security drones, and will attack you whenever they can. If you see a sign that looks like some sort of owl down there, run till you hit Surges place.

Noedig
2012-01-15, 04:59 PM
So much epic. This has to happen.

Silus
2012-01-15, 05:22 PM
Ok, it's not been brought up, so I have to ask:

What about MissingNo?

Edit: My thoughts on the matter:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v606/SilusCrow/Pokemon%20Stuffs/MissingNo.jpg

Radar
2012-01-16, 11:14 AM
I just had a thought: if this slime can modify humans just as other creatures, then Pokemon the TV series is the very same world after the PK absorbed everyone and everything.

Grac
2012-01-16, 11:39 PM
I just had a thought: if this slime can modify humans just as other creatures, then Pokemon the TV series is the very same world after the PK absorbed everyone and everything.

Nah, because in this, people get turned into Mr. Mime and Jinx

Fable Wright
2012-01-17, 12:04 AM
Nah, because in this, people get turned into Mr. Mime and Jinx

Then what about other human-like pokemon, like Gardevoir or Kadabra (who is actually explicitly stated as being evolved from a human)?

Absol197
2012-01-17, 12:44 AM
Then what about other human-like pokemon, like Gardevoir or Kadabra (who is actually explicitly stated as being evolved from a human)?

Some of them are probably "grown", I think that's the best word, from humans. I was thinking about the Machop line, the Hitmons (lee, chan, and top), Makuhita/Hariyama, Meditite/cham, etc. Maybe some of the Normal-types like Clefairy/Clefable and Chansey (although I think Chansey is supposed to be some kind of weird chicken-thing). For some reason, the Abra and Ralts lines don't really seem like human-grown. Maybe it's the tails that Abra/Kadabra have, and the fact that Ralts looks like a mushroom to me with that giant head...

TheCountAlucard
2012-01-17, 07:48 AM
Clefairy and Clefable are aliens, clearly. The whole thing with them is that they came down from the moon. Clearly they were mutated afterward, and the unaffected aliens left them on the planet so as to avoid taking the infection with them.

Tenno Seremel
2012-01-17, 07:52 AM
Actually, Gardevoir is not even in humanshaped egg group. It's of the same kind as ghosts and some other things – Indeterminate/Amorphous.

Ajadea
2012-01-17, 02:18 PM
Perhaps Gardevoir is, rather than an infected human, a PK that has mimicked human form. It's not from human stock, which is why it is amorphous rather than humanshape, but it looks humanoid.

Lost Demiurge
2012-01-17, 02:47 PM
I really want to run this. I'll have to do some research, read over a few different systems...

We shall see. In the meantime, if anyone wants to grab the ball and go, they've got my blessing. :smallsmile:

Pokonic
2012-01-17, 03:49 PM
Well, right now, it looks like this whole thing started when a alien ship crashed-landed on mount moon, spewing its main source of food,a pinkish jelly, across the continent.

Noedig
2012-01-17, 04:59 PM
And so it begins.

Grac
2012-01-18, 07:51 AM
Then what about other human-like pokemon, like Gardevoir or Kadabra (who is actually explicitly stated as being evolved from a human)?

I was just going off what's been said in-thread. But yeah, if there are already pokemon that come from people, I see no reason why others, not-yet-mentioned might not also be infected people.