Basic Rules

## Skill Rolls

In general, when you want to do something, you say what you want your character to do and the GM tells you the skill associated with that. Want to lift a boulder? That's the brawn skill. Want to repair a machine? That's the science skill.

You take the stat associated with the skill and then roll 2d60 if you have the appropriate skill, 1d60 if you do not. (Remember that in this game, the term rolling a d60 is shorthand for rolling a d6 and multiplying the result by 10.)

Example: *Gordon wants to cook a fancy meal. This would be covered under Artistry, a skill he has, so he rolls 2d60, gets a 20 and a 40. He adds those to his sense of 70 for a total of 130.*

Additionally, you can have a Pokemon attempt to take care of a task for you. You give a brief explanation of what the Pokemon does to take care of the task and then roll a d60 for it, adding it to the same stat you would be using as a trainer. If a Pokemon has a move that fits the task at hand, it can use the move to solve the task. Add the move's power to the die result if it's a good fit for the task. If the GM feels the move is a perfect fit, the move will have its power doubled or automatically succeed while poor fits may have their power halved or have no effect.

*Example:* *Gordon's Ivysaur prepares a salad to go with the entree, using Overgrowth to cause salad ingredients to sproud. Overgrowth is a 40 power move, and Gordon rolls a 20. Since this is still a cooking roll the sense attribute is used, and the Ivysaur's sense is 50, for a total of 110.*

Normally, however, trainers work together with their Pokemon to achieve more than each could alone. Roll as normal for the trainer, but using the higher of the trainer's or the Pokemon's stat. Additionally, you may replace one of your rolled d60's with either the move power of one of the Pokemon's moves, or a d60 rolled to represent its assistance, but not both.

*Gordon and Ivysaur work together to do some flower arranging to set off the meal. Gordon has a sense of 70 and with the artistry skill he rolls a 2d60 and gets 50 and a 20. Ivysaur uses Petal Blizzard, which is a 100 power move. Adding that to Gordon's sense and the higher die (50) gives total of 220. This incredible result will surely wow even the most stoic of guests.*

### Examples

*Here are some examples of explaining how your Pokemon is helping you on a test without using a move:*

 "My Raticate will use its big ears to help me search for wild Pokemon."

"I'll watch my Umbreon and sneak like it does to get by these guards."

"This cute Togepi is gonna help me pick up chicks."

"I'll use this Voltorb to power my scientific instruments to run these experiments over the next few hours."

"Fighting is strong against rock, so this Macchop should be able to break down that boulder into smaller pieces so I can get it out of the way."

"Caterpie's silk will be an excellent material to weave this scarf out of."

### Bad Examples

*None of these would work:*

"I'm going to have my Jigglypuff do the heavy lifting."

"I'm going to run faster by having my Slowpoke pull me."

"I'm going to have my Weezing make puppy-dog eyes to help convince the guard to let me pass."

### Move Examples

*Here are some examples of explaining how you are having a Pokemon use a move to assist you on a roll, with how we would rate the effectiveness of that move in parentheses. Note that each GM will handle things with their own style, and you should respect that. It's still an improvement for you over the randomness of a die roll.*

"I'm going to use Umbreon's Moonshadow move to help me sneak into the building." (This is entirely reasonable, though it might be half as effective in a brightly lit area."

"Charmander will use Ember to help me bake this cake at the perfect temperature" (Great use of the move. Normal effectiveness.)

"Charmander will use Fire Blast to help me bake this cake at the perfect temperature." (Fire Blast would destroy the cake. No benefit."

"My Houndour is going to use Headbutt to see if it can knock an extra Pokemon out of the tree and into this encounter." (This was the entire purpose of Headbutt in the games, so this would probably succeed automatically.)

"Sneasel is going to use Cut to cut us a path through that overgrowth." (For the most part, anything a move could do automatically in the games is an automatic success here too, and this certainly fits.)

"Sneasel is going to use Night Slash to cut us a path through that overgrowth." (A very reasonable suggestion. Normal effectiveness.)

"Sneasel is going to use Ice Beam to destroy the plants and get a us a path through that overgrowth." (No effect. Even though ice is super effective against grass, in this instance, we would imagine the ice freezing over the plants and potentially making it harder to get through the area.)

### Difficulties

Here are some basic guidelines on difficulties.

100: This would only be challenging to a novice.

*Swimming across the deep end of a pool, climbing over a fence, disinfecting a wound.*

120: This is at the upper end of what an untrained person can do.

*Swimming across a fast stream, climbing a difficult tree, performing CPR.*

140: This would take skill to accomplish.

*Swimming across a stormy pond, climbing a fence topped with razor wire safely, setting a broken bone.*

160: This would take an expert to accomplish.

*Swimming whitewater rapids, climbing a cliff face, performing surgery.*

180: This would take a master to accomplish.

*Swimming across a whirlpool, climbing an icy cliff face, performing experimental brain surgery.*

 200: This would tax even a recognized master in the field.

*Swimming hundreds of kilometers across the raging sea, climbing an icy cliff face in a blizzard, performing experimental brain surgery outside an operating room, and without the proper equipment.*

### Specialties and Rolling

If you have a specialty that applies to a situation, but not the skill that goes with the specialty, you roll as if you had the skill.

## Saves

Another method of resolving things is done through saves. Saves are generally used to defend against bad things happening. To make a save, you roll a d20, multiply it by 10, and try to get less than or equal to your associated stat. If you succeed, you pass the save and avoid whatever bad thing would have happened. If not, you are hit. There are 4 types of save in this game, one for each stat.

**Speed saves** are used to move quickly to avoid danger and to dodge melee attacks.

*Examples: Moving out of the path of an oncoming car, dodging a punch, jumping out of the way of harm.*

**Strength saves** protect you against threats that can be overcome by being big, strong, or healthy.

*Examples: Not passing out from a blow, breaking free of a pin, headbutting a tree without getting hurt.*

**Sense saves** are used to detect trouble before it becomes a problem and to dodge ranged attacks.

*Examples: Dodging a wrench or ball, spotting a trap at the last second, noticing the poison in your drink.*

**Mind saves** are used when force of will is essential.

*Examples: Resisting psychic assault, not giving in to a taunt, keeping cool under pressure.*

## Capturing Pokémon

In your travels you will come across groups of wild Pokémon. And you gotta catch ‘em all. But how?

It used to be that trainers had to battle Pokémon to the brink of fainting to catch one, but not too much or the Pokémon will faint and your pokeball can’t pick up an ID and register the Pokémon digitally. Those days are past. Advances in pokeball technology allow even a cheap pokeball to capture full-health Pokémon. Now, instead of a lengthy battle where trainers attempt to do well, but not too well, the first thing they do when they see wild Pokémon is to start throwing Pokeballs.

The GM will announce when the players have entered an area where wild Pokémon are easy to be found and the difficulty for that area. Each trainer makes a Nature roll to see if they can find extra Pokemon, and the difficulty of that roll will be announced by the GM. The GM draws one Pokemon for each trainer who fails their roll and two for each pass.

In order of their nature rolls, from highest to lowest, the player characters each get to quickly make one of these actions.

### Throw a Ball

You can throw a ball out, rolling 1d6 if it's a standard Pokeball, with other ball types usually offering more dice. If you use a berry alongside the ball, you get an extra die. If at least one of the dice comes up higher than the Pokemon's capture difficulty (consult the chart below) it is caught.

### Support a Trainer

Instead of throwing a Pokeball, you can help another trainer, giving them an extra die on their throw. This could be throwing a rock or distracting the Pokemon to give your friend some help.

### Attack a Pokemon

This has a player-owned Pokemon attacking a wild Pokemon. This grants everyone else who tries to catch it an extra d6 and it grants a tick on the battle track of the Pokemon making the attack, but without checking to evolve. The attacked Pokemon makes a counterattack, dealing the amount of damage listed on the chart based on its challenge rating. This damage is of the Pokemon's primary type and cannot be avoided.

After all the trainers have had a go, all Pokemon remaining on the field have a 50/50 chance of escaping.

### The Chart

There are 5 challenge ratings that Pokemon character sheets can be generate, and the capture difficulty to catch them, nature roll to find them, and damage they deal in retaliation for an attack all scale to that initial challenge rating.

 Weak
 Average
 Strong
 Maxed

Note: When attempting to catch a legendary Pokemon, you get one less die for catching it.

### Checking Out Your New Pokemon

When you capture a wild Pokemon, the GM might have printed out a custom sheet. But this can get wasteful when players are catching tons of wild Pokemon and only using a few. So to save paper, we have a simpler method.

Normally, all you'll need to do is write down the species of Pokemon and its challenge rating. This Pokemon will be stored in the PC, and maybe you'll never use it. But if you do decide to withdraw it, boot up the Pokemon Sheet program and generate a sheet for that Pokemon at the appropriate difficulty setting, and voila, there's all the information you need on the Pokemon.

### Automatic Catches

Sometimes, you don't have to roll to catch a Pokemon. However, just for consistency's sake, you should still use a pokeball, any kind, to catch the Pokemon. An example is when you hatch an egg or evolve a Nincada and get a Shedinja. The Pokemon will not take any skill to catch, it's automatic. You simply choose the ball you wish to catch the Pokemon with and it's caught.

## Traveling

Players can travel on foot or by vehicle, but Pokemon can also carry trainers. Trainers ride with the same rules as riding in combat. Since humans have a Strength IV of 30 and the rules require the mount to have a higher strength IV than the rider, any Pokemon with a Strength IV of 40 or higher can carry a trainer. Children have a lower Strength IV and are thus easier to carry.

Pokemon do not necessarily need to know any moves to carry a trainer through any environment they can pass through. However, there are some transportation moves that are helpful.

### Surf, Waterfall, Whirlpool, and Dive

Surf isn't necessary for a Pokemon to carry a trainer across the water. However, long voyages become exhausting without using surf to control the local waves to push the user along. One surf user can propel dozens of nearby swimmers along, meaning if one Pokemon knows surf, the entire party can get the speed and endurance benefits.

Whirlpool allows the user to create or eliminate whirlpool obstacles, allowing everyone through. Waterfall allows the user to help others up a waterfall. Dive changes the local water pressure to help those nearby survive the crushing pressure and deal with the effects of rapidly diving and surfacing.

### Fly

Any airborne Pokemon can carry a rider into the skies. However, long-distance flying is difficult and exhausting. Fly guarantees that the user can fly hundreds of miles. The Pokemon using fly can also lead a V-shaped formation, meaning those behind it also get the speed and endurance bonus of drafting of the lead flyer, meaning if one Pokemon knows fly, the entire party can gain the benefits. While flying, the party may come across special aerial encounters that they could not find on the ground.

For those who wish a faster journey, the move sonic wake allows the user to break the sound barrier while travelling and also bypass any encounters.

### Piggyback

All of the above methods of travel assume that your Pokemon has a strength IV higher than yours. If not, the move Piggyback allows a Pokemon to carry riders with much more ease. You may wish to purchase that as a TM or HM if you intend to use your Pokemon for travelling.