Pokemon RPG(Loads of Fun!)

[Mindfreak]

So hey everyone. I haven't posted here for a while...

Anyways, time to get to the important stuff first.
I don't own Pokemon, and I cannot speak for any direction it takes.
Now that I got the possibility of being sued out of the way...

I started a Pokemon RPG last week, I did in fact spend literally 30 minutes coming up with the meat of the game before bringing it to my D&D group's attention(we had a group of 10 people and I wasn't comfortable DMing that many, so we split into two groups, each with a DM that was doing something else. I said I'd do Pokemon).
They loved it. So much so that we met two more times that week to do more of it, which is way more than our usual once a week meets. And not only that, they helped and inspired me to make it even better.

And since they've loved it so much, I've decided to share it with the folks of GitP.

So here's the how to of how to play:

Spoiler

So at the beginning of combat, everyone rolls a d20 to see which pokemon goes first. Highest dice goes first. You do have to re-roll the d20 when you send a pokemon back to its ball and send out a new one.

From there, you begin. To see if an attack hits, the attacker rolls a d20 and the target rolls one too. Depending on weakness and resistance, the target may get a bonus to their roll or a penalty. But I'll get into that later.

Also in battle to run away, everyone rolls a d20 again. Everyone's combined roll has to be bigger than the pokemon's roll that they're trying to run away from.

An optional rule is that when you roll a d20 on attacks, the attack does its effects, despite whether you have to flip a coin or something.

In battle, using a pokemon to attack, throwing a pokeball, using a potion, withdrawing and sending out a pokemon, and trying to run away all use up the Player's turn.

While moving about the map, players have unlimited movement.
Anyways, that's basically it.

And here's how to get the pokemon's stats:

Spoiler

So what you want to do is offer them the ability to use any starter(including Pikachu if you wish). To get the stats you simply get the card from the Pokemon TCG. You can use any cards. I myself made it so every starter, and indeed every pokemon in the game, has tackle. Which I made have the following stats:
*Tackle*
Normal - 25 PP
10 Damage

And when a pokemon card already has tackle on it, I replace the name and make it the type that is the pokemon's type. And it's best if your group's pokemon all start with three moves, Tackle and two others that are their type.

You get PP(Power Points, basically a move uses 1 PP per use) by multiplying the amount of energy required by 5 and minusing it from 30. You get the move's type by (if there's more than just normal energy) the energy needed by it.

Now, as an example, let me show you how I turned the Bulbasaur card from the recent Dark Explorers set into a proper pokemon for the RPG.
This was the card:

This is what it turned into:

Bulbasaur - Grass Type
HP: 60
*Tackle*
Normal Type - 25 PP
10 Damage

*Vine Slap*
Grass Type - 25 PP
10 Damage

*Razor Leaf*
Grass Type - 15 PP
30 Damage
Weakness: Fire(X2)
Resistance: Water(-20)

Now to briefly touch upon Weakness and Resistance. If the Weakness is (X2) then moves of that type do double damage. If it's just the type or (+10), then it does 10 more damage. If the Resistance is (-20) or (-10) an attack of that type does 20 or 10 less damage to your pokemon. Also, an optional rule is that with Weakness, if it does double damage then the pokemon gets a -2 penalty to dodges against moves of that type, if it does 10 more damage then they only get a -1 penalty. It's the opposite for Resistances. If they have a (-20) Resistance, they get a +2 to dodges and if they have a (-10) then they get a +1 to dodges against that type.

And now how to encounter pokemon:

Spoiler

When you plan out a route, you should plan out zones of where pokemon can be encountered. I suggest having three pokemon. One that's common, that's uncommon, and one that's rare. Assign ranges to each one, for the common I'd do 5-10, uncommon 11-19, and the rare 20. When someone walks through the grass you roll a d20. Depending on the number will depend on what pokemon is encountered. With wild pokemon any number of your players can join in and help battle it.

And now how to deal with capturing pokemon, beating trainers, starting gear, evolving and leveling up:

Spoiler

So for a person to capture a pokemon, they have to throw a pokeball at it. To see if it works the DM must roll a d20 for the pokemon, and the player who threw the pokeball needs to roll one as well. You divide the damage done to the pokemon by 10 and use that as the penalty the pokemon takes to its roll to break out of the pokeball. Now, level 1-2 pokemon get no bonuses to break out of a regular pokeball, they take an extra -2 penalty with great balls, and a -4 penalty with ultra balls. Level 3-4 pokemon get a +2 bonus to break out of pokeballs, no bonuses with great balls, and a -2 penalty with ultra balls. Level 5-6 pokemon get a +4 bonus to break out of pokeballs, +2 bonus with great balls, and no bonuses with ultra balls. Legendary Pokemon get a +20 bonus to break out of pokeballs, +15 with great balls, +10 with ultra balls. Master Balls are automatic catches. A natural 20 is an automatic catch except with Legendaries.

When a player beats a trainer, they get $1000 dollars, +1 Trainer Experience, and their pokemon get experience too, but I'll explain that later.
When they beat a Gym Leader they get $6000 dollars and +3 Trainer Experience.

Depending on the amount of pokemon you let the trainers have, you can let certain amounts of your players to fight them, but not more players than the pokemon the trainers have.

It's a good idea to start players with 2 Potions(Potions restore 20 health) and 5 Pokeballs, plus $1000, not to mention a starting pokemon.

A pokemon evolves differently. If it has 2 evolutions to go through, it evolves at level 3 and then at level 5. Everytime a pokemon levels up, a player can choose a move from any other pokemon card of their pokemon that's out there. They also get to choose to add either 20 HP to their pokemon or +5 PP to a move with every level up.
A pokemon levels up from 1 to 2 by getting 10 Battle Experience. 2 to 3 by getting 20 Battle Experience. 3 to 4 by getting 30 Battle Experience and so on and so forth...
^---This goes the same for Players too

A pokemon gets battle experience from every pokemon it battles. A pokemon has to use at least one move on a pokemon in battle to get experience from it.

A Player only gets Trainer Experience from battling other Trainers, and to get it they need to beat the trainer. If a Player runs out of pokemon in battle, they pass out, lose $250, all of their pokemon lose 1 Battle Experience and the player loses 1 Trainer Experience. Whenever a Player levels up they can have one more pokemon in their party. This goes on till the Player can have a party of 6 pokemon. The Player starts with the ability to have 2 pokemon in their party. All pokemon caught past their party limit go straight to their PC. Players can also trade pokemon freely.

And finally, some good premises for the Players to start on:

Spoiler

Professor Willow has just given the Players their pokemon and their pokedexs. She asks them to go and record every pokemon.
Team Wilder(A team of green cloaked people that use Grass Pokemon and are dedicated to returning all the regions back to their wild state) and their Leader Ness have been making trouble and the Players are out to stop them.

So um, anything anyone wants to know more about or needs help understanding? Because I might have left some things out by accident...

[EdroGrimshell]

I should note that there is already a pokemon d20 game, called PTA, or Pokemon Tabletop Adventures.

[Mindfreak]

Well as you can see, my RPG is for people who like a more fast paced, simple pokemon RPG, rather than PTA where it seems...more complicated than my RPG