Quest-Making Guidelines

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You may also be looking for the Quest Listing, or the page on Quests themselves.

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> Within our group, we host Quests as our primary method of RP. These are the main way to acquire new pokemon and items, earn money, meet and interact with characters, and even progress the story, in the case of Grand Quests. Anyone is allowed to submit and GM their own quest, as long as they abide by the rules listed on this page. Failure to do so may result in it being partially or entirely retconned for the sake of preserving continuity and balance.
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> For general tips, tricks, and advice on GMing, we have another page that's free for anyone to edit and contribute to, it's worth a read too.
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## **General Rules**

All common quests should abide by these guidelines to ensure a pleasant experience for both the GM and players, and prevent the mission from collapsing into a horrible trainwreck that us staff will have to clean up.

* **Respect your** ☆**Difficulty and** ⌚**Length ratings.** These are given to players as an estimate of the danger of the quest they're going on, and the amount of real time they'll be spending in it. They're the only things people have to go on other than the often ambiguous quest summaries. Please for the love of god don't put people's lives at risk just to deliver some goddamn mail.
* Quests are **Canon**. This means even while respecting your ☆Difficulty rating, keep things *sensible*. Going too absurd risks causing massive damage to canon and will likely result in part of or the entirety of your quest being retconned in order to clean up after the aftermath.
* **Respect bannings**. The things that we have banned are banned for a *reason*. If you disregard them and execute anything of the sort, your quest *will be retconned.*
* **Player counts** have a lower limit of 2 players, and an upper limit of 6, but smaller parties are always better. It's hard to organize 3 people, let alone 6. Only special quests may be 1-on-1.
* **Limit captures** to encourage character and RP longevity: "Rare" or "Uncommon" Pokemon should *actually be* rare or uncommon. Anything beyond first-stage (Or with a high level or BST) will take stronger pokeballs to catch. It's okay to make certain Pokemon immune to capture, too. (See Capture Policy.)
* **Shiny Pokemon** are intended to be *rare*. They should almost never appear outside of high-risk quests unless you decide to roll a D100 for it and nail the 100.
* Do not give out disproportionately **rare or powerful items**. Mega stones don't grow on trees, and neither do life orbs. Those sorts of items should be reserved as bonus rewards for high-difficulty quests.
* If using a **dice system**, do not ignore the importance of the outcome of the roll. Natural 1's/20's can mean a lot. (See Dice Policy.)
* **Character death** is strictly prohibited in all but the highest risk quests. (See Death Policy)
* Your quests and encounters *must* have a **win condition**. Preferably multiple in the case of the latter. This is especially essential if designing a boss encounter.
* **Avoid railroading** your players. A good GM can "multi-track drift" to ensure that the party will always get back on track eventually, and if your party goes completely off the rails, then you'll have to adapt to it on the fly. Always remember that RP is a two-way thing, and you've got to be able to give ground too.
* **GMPC**s, aka Game Master Player Characters, are to be avoided at all costs. NPCs are completely fine, and tag-along escort-types are within restriction, but anything more than that is in a danger zone. (See NPC Policy.)
* Always be **prepared**. Regardless of your medium, it is absolutely essential that, *before* you start recruiting, have everything laid out and ready. Additionally, don't start a quest unless you're certain you can see it through to the end. This is why we recommend against high ⌚Length quests.
* Allow players to **retire** without penalty. Whether or not they receive the completion reward is up to you, based on how much they contributed.
	+ A GM may **expel players** from their quest should they be causing trouble or impeding the experience. Examples include but are obviously not limited to: excessive personal derailing, disregarding GM warnings, attempting to godmod, or just being a general asshat. Only use this as a last resort. Characters who are expelled are considered retired, but again, reward distribution is up to you.
* **Half Party Rule:** Due to the difficulty of getting all members of a party online at once, if the rest of the party and the GM themself is okay with it, the party may progress with the quest. You may opt to end the session early if you wish to wait for the other members in order to progress, but remember to keep your original ⌚Length forecast in mind.
	+ In order to prevent the above scenario, set aside a **time** for your quest in advance. Make sure to try accommodate for the time zones of your party and find something that works for all of you.

#### **New GM Restrictions**

Additionally, for your first quest, additional restrictions are in place:

* Your quest may not have a ☆Difficulty exceeding 1(☆), 2(★) if a Suppression quest.
* The quest's length may not exceed a ⌚Length of 4⌚, 2⌚ if a Suppression quest.
* You may not have more than 3 player slots.

Your allowed ☆Difficulty and ⌚Length will be increased to a certain value after your performance as a GM has been evaluated, and then you can "work up" from there.

### **Bannings**

These are things which are absolutely prohibited from being used in a common quest under any circumstances. These are *non-negotiable* and are banned for various reasons, be it keeping the group's balance in check or because they pertain to material exclusive to Grand Quests.

* **Mega Tools**. The stones aren't banned, but the tools to use them are presently disallowed. *This will be partially alleviated after Grand Quest 03.*
* **Z-Crystals**. They're not present anywhere in Sileda yet. *This will be partially alleviated after Grand Quest 03.*
* **Legendary Pokemon**. Unless given permission by staff, no common quest may have Legendary Pokemon, even those not on this list, appear under any circumstances.
* **Time Travel**. *Don't. Do it.* It's an absolute fucking mess for everyone. Not even Grand Quests are allowed to do this shit.
* **Other Regions**. As stated in Character Creation Rules, characters are more or less bound to the region of Sileda upon arriving here. You are not allowed to ever host a quest outside the region for the same reasons.
* **Interaction with Canon Characters**. This should be pretty obvious, I'd hope, we're not crummy fanfic writers here. Keep canon characters, like the gym leaders, the elite four, those stupid anime characters, whatever have you, *out* of all scenarios.
* **Using other Players' Characters**. If you get permission, it's fine, but have them do it themselves unless interaction is only *implied*.
* **Exclusive Items**. Event-only items, usually those tied to legendary pokemon, like the Eon Flute or Rainbow Wing, but also otherwise rare items like the Shiny Charm or Oval Charm.
* **Fakemon**. Absolutely entirely disallowed with no exceptions. There may potentially be extremely anomalous versions of existing pokemon, but they are to never be capturable under any circumstances. Regional variants are fine as long as you consult staff about them first.
* **Alterations to Lore**. This means no establishing your own elite four or a gym or something like that out of nowhere. No creating major organizations or characters either, unless you're collaborating with a staff member.
* **Team Fission**. No common quest may *directly* involve them. The quest might be pertaining to something they've already done, perhaps, but only staff can control these members. The exception is if your character themselves is part of the organization in which case they must abide by the GMPC Policy.

## **Types of Quests**

There are three main categories of quests, which are essential in defining the objective of your quest. These quests usually also result in modifiers to allowed ratings, as well.

The term "Expedition" means these quests can be more open-ended free exploration, or a trek through a more linear area with branching paths or options, akin to a dungeon crawl. Either falls under this category.
Expedition quests are allowed +2 ⌚Length above your normal limit, but may not have a party larger than 4. Keep in mind that these ambitious quests will require a lot of effort put into the scenario and the assets used to portray the quest.
Only veteran quest hosts are allowed to use pure text for this category, simply due to the difficulty of doing so coherently; new GMs are discouraged from using this type of quest as at all as their first quest due to its complexity.

This type of quest often carries with it a "boss battle" at the end, where either a horde or some elite enemy will be fought, although this is not always necessarily the case. The category only implies suppressing a threat, it doesn't care how.
Technically, this type of quest can in fact possess no wilds at all, assuming you want to populate it entirely with NPC trainers.
In an open field, the party will not be given any opportunity to diverge; they will be dropped almost immediately in front of the target. In an enclosed or otherwise more linear path, they may have to overcome multiple smaller obstacles to reach the boss waiting at the end.
Suppression quests may only be rated in increments of ★, 2 ☆Difficulty. They may also never exceed 5 ⌚Length, and have a soft-limit of 2 sessions. This means that all Suppression Missions should aim to be finished in at most 2 sessions, but it's fine to go for a third if something happens with the party.
These quests may be held in text, but it is strongly discouraged due to the difficulty of doing so.

These quests can be anything from simple favors like delivery requests, assisting with catching or retrieving pokemon nearby the city's boundaries, breaking up or settling a fight that's gotten out of hand, (as the name implies) to even, at their apex, vigilantism or police coordination to stop criminal activity within or nearby the city.
In many cases, however, a Mediation quest may not involve ever having to fight at all. Typically the main purpose behind these quests is to serve as an objective for a more laid back RP, where characters can interact with or meet each other while still having a goal. Many of these quests are short or simple and serve as good starters for future meet-ups in casual RP. They also serve as excellent ways to get new characters off the ground without putting anyone at serious risk.
Mediation Quests may not break 5(★★☆) ☆Difficulty without consulting staff. Additionally, it is preferred, although not required, for these quests to have below 5 ⌚Length as well.
These quests may only take place within or near a city's boundaries. If a quest would take place far outside that region, it will almost always be categorized as either Expedition or Suppression.
As stated earlier, these quests are ideal for pure text RP, but work just as well in Roll20. This is the preferred quest for new members to learn the ropes with, both for GMs and for players.

### **Quest Mediums**

In our group, we have two different means of executing quests: "Pure Text" RP, carried out in the #quest\_rp channel on the discord, and Roll20, which uses the aforementioned website to allow players to utilize maps, tokens, sound effects, BGM, and so forth. Both have their own merits and ultimately it's up to the GM's preference which they use, but some quests are better built to one format than another.

#### **Roll20**

Roll20, sometimes also called D20, is an online table top format, with fully importable maps and icons. This allows complete control over a session and resembles a more traditional tabletop scenario. It comes with its own chat logs, and allows the GM a much greater range of abilities to present to the players.

**Pros:**

* **Control:** This system allows the GM to pretty much fine tune whatever they want players to see, and has numerous options that are not normally feasible in a text RP. It also allows for the GM to message players privately without breaking flow like PMing a player mid-game would do.
* **Practicality:** The grid-based system (Which is also toggle-able if you so wish.) allows for easier comprehension of positioning and player/enemy movement. It also comes with a measuring tool so you can fine tune how much you want to let players or even enemies move at a time, even without the grid.
* **Visuals:** The service allows the GM to import their own icons and custom maps, allowing for vibrant expression of the scene in a method that would otherwise take paragraphs to describe. There's also functionality for special effects if you work with things right, too.
* **Functionality:** Fog of War, built-in complex-capable dice rolling, sound effects and BGM everyone will hear, GM-dev'd macro support... The list goes on, and a lot of it some of us aren't even familiar with. That's not even getting into how the Pro service lets you add real special effects and custom scripts!

**Cons:**

* **Assets:** Generally speaking, we don't have a lot of good options for player-made maps or custom tokens en-mass yet, meaning you'll need to be able to make it on your own somehow or ask an artist to make it for you, which can be troublesome if said artist happens to be signed up for your quest...
* **Time:** Unfortunately, setting up one of these sessions will always take a lot of time, even if you already have the assets you want.
* **Learning Curve:** It's no surprise that the program is quite elaborate and can be tricky to learn, especially if you want to know the ins-and-outs of all its functions.
* **Signup Required:** Honestly this should be a non-issue for most people, but some people hate signing up for stuff for some arbitrary reason, and this site is unusable without an account.
* **No post editing:** If you flub something or need to retcon an action, it's stuck in the chat log muddling things up, not even you, the GM, can edit or remove posts. More an annoyance than anything.

#### **Text-Based**

A format utilizing little more than plain text and some imagination. References can be posted freely if needed, but little more than words is actually required. It's very simplistic and easy to set up, but also highly limited as a result.

**Pros:**

* **Accessibility:** Anyone can make one of these quests, regardless of their artistic ability. All you need is a little sheet of notes for yourself as GM and you're good to go. It's also built into the discord server, so anybody can spectate without having to get a link or clutter up the players list.
* **Post Editing:** You can edit your own posts to accommodate for errors or discrepancies, or delete them entirely. Players can therefore be requested to do so themselves to keep the logs tidy.
* **Time:** Due to the lack of assets needing to be made these quests can be made pretty swiftly by anybody with an idea.

**Cons:**

* **Post Editing:** Unfortunately the ability for *anyone* to edit their posts means that the unscrupulous may modify their posts to metagame or cheat, although any member that does so probably won't stick around the group for long. Keep an eye on them if they do.
* **Groups:** Due to the nature of the medium, it can become either very chaotic or very slow when attempting to run a quest of this format with a large group. It is strongly recommended to never have more than 2-3 people when doing a quest this way.
* **Environment:** It's extremely hard to convey the area and entities within it accurately and cleanly with this medium, hence why it's strongly discouraged for all quest types besides Mediation.
* **Feature-limited:** We have bots you can use dice rolls with, but other than that, everything is purely up to your ability to process and convey material through text, whBefore you go writing up an be very difWhianics show up.

### **Making Maps**

This is only relevant for those who wish to use the Roll20 system. Ultimately you can use whatever methods you see fit to make your map, but the most commonly seen are below.

Despite this, people will often be very appreciative of the work you put in; quests using these are often the best received of all quests and show one's dedication to the act of GMing.
Depending on the area, they can also potentially be reused as general-purpose maps for the region.
Due to Roll20's ability to process multiple images on the map layer, it is suggested to split your map into layers, so you can have your quest content on a separate layer than the basic map, potentially allowing more reuse value, be it for yourself or for others.

Most examples have been made using RPGMaker, which is not free, but has many assets built-in, with countless more on the internet, easy to grab. Unfortunately most of these don't look too pretty when up close, due to upscaling.
However, it is also possible to do this within the framework of Roll20 itself. Unlike RPGMaker maps, though, you'll need each individual tile type as an image on its own. Sometimes this takes the form of a texture, which can be scaled any way you like to meet your needs, other times they're decorations which may not like being scaled as much. Roll20 has in-built access to a library of these; some are free to use, others not. You could, of course, also just gather the components yourself.
These maps are also very time consuming, but the tiles themselves can be reused however much you want, unlike premade hand-drawn maps.

## **Challenging Your Players**

Any problem the players need to solve could be called a challenge. Its important to keep in mind everyone's team composition when designing a challenge. Taking out a fire will be much easier for a group of water types than it is for a team of grass types. A swarm of beedrills will be decimated by a bunch of rock types but cause some serious harm to dark types. Consider what pokemon your players are bringing and plan accordingly.

### **The Environment**

Obviously, unless your quest takes place in some kind of virtual testing chamber, it's going to have some means of inhibiting the player beyond just the enemies placed within it. Everything from the terrain, the weather, and in some cases traps can get in the way of the players' success.

#### **Terrain**

Sometimes, something may physically block the players path, or at the very least slow them down. Be it a fallen tree blocking the road, a 30 foot gap or a raging river, the players will need to find a way to get past these annoyances. These types of things are usually solved by clever thinking rather than brute force.

Terrain may not be much of an issue on its own. Things such as thick undergrowth, deep snow or even just mud may slow down your players. While trekking through the wilderness, being slowed down is no big deal: but in battle it may be a matter of life or death.It would be reasonable to think that a grass type could run through undergrowth with no issues. The same could be said for ground types in the mud, or ice types in deep snow.

Not every obstacle needs to slow them down: a slippery floor or a conveyor belt may speed things up! Though maybe a bit faster than the players would have liked. There are plenty of ways to use the terrain to the players' disadvantage. If your players are clever, however, you might be in for a surprise when they use the terrain in a way you never even considered.

#### **Weather**

**Harsh sunlight**

* You've played pokemon; (hopefully) you know how this works. Grass & Fire types love the sun! Harsh sunlight may only become a problem if the players have no access to water. Hopefully the group will have a water type to keep everyone from dying from thirst. No. You may not use hydro pump to quench your thirst.

**Rain**

* Water pokemon love this! Fire types not so much. Light rainfall may not affect the players so much, but heavy rainfall may cause havoc. Landslides, floods, and thunder that strikes unpleasantly close are all things that rainfall may bring with it. In addition, if rainfall is heavy enough it may restrict the players' view. Prolonged exposure in the cold rain has been known to cause hypothermia as well.

**Hail/Snow Storm**

* In addition to dealing damage over time, Ice types love hail! Quite a few abilities rely on hail, and it wouldn't be too far fetched to assume a snow storm would cause these abilities to proc as well. Both heavy hail and a snow storm would cause the players' view to be obscured. If a snow storm rages on for a long time, snow will build up. It is possible that some structures could collapse under the weight of enough snow. Remember that when you're caught out in a snowstorm: hypothermia is a real threat. No. You may not use fire blast to thaw out.

**Sandstorm**

* More types benefit from sandstorm than hail, but sandstorms are extremely rare. Only deserts ever really get sandstorms. In addition to possibly causing damage over time, they also obscure the players' vision in a way no other weather condition does. Getting sand in your eyes is very unpleasant, and may cause severe damage. Be gentle on the players though; don't blind them for more than temporarily.

**Weather and Combat**

* Just like terrain, weather can be used to spice up combat. A horde of pokemon can be scary, but it can be even scarier when you're forced to fight them with no vision passed 10 feet in front of you. It is reasonable to say an ability like keen eye or even a move like miracle eye may negate some vision obscuring effects.

#### **Traps**

Traps are environmental challenges that are sprung when a certain event trigger is met. With this definition, spiked pits and laser defense systems aren't the only kinds of traps your players might encounter. Rocks coming loose when a player tries to climb a cliff, or an oil spill just waiting to be caught on fire could be considered coincidental. Keep in mind that the next segment is merely a guideline on how to design traps. Hopefully this will at least steer you in the right direction when consider adding these kinds of challenges to your quest.

When putting together a trap, consider detailing it with the following descriptors:

* **Type:** Is the trap mechanical, technological or completely coincidental in nature? Mechanical & Technological traps take very different skill sets to disable. Coincidental traps are usually impossible to disable, but cannot be reset.

* **Trigger:** What event triggers the trap? A simple tripwire being pulled, or perhaps a heat sensor going off? Maybe a very specific event needs to occur; such as using a fire or electric move in order catch the invisible gas in a room on fire.

* **Reset:** Does the trap reset automatically? Perhaps a manual reset, or even complete repair is needed. In the case of most Coincidental traps, they cannot be reset.

* **Notice:** How difficult is it to spot this danger? A hidden roll of the dice may decide whether or not a player spots the trap before it is sprung. Alternatively, rolls may be avoided and clues in the environment may help the players reach the conclusion that there is a trap in the area. This usually works best with coincidental traps.

* **Bypass:** Some traps may have a secret pathway to go around it, or a hidden switch to disable it. It is entirely possible however that the only way to bypass a trap is to manually disable it, or break it. Disabling a trap can easily be a dice roll. Even setting up a mind teaser can be a fun way to have the players bypass a trap. This works especially well for technological traps. Alternatively, some traps may be impossible to disable, like most coincidental traps. Braving the trap head on should not be the only option.

* **Effect:** Finally we hit the fun part: what exactly does the trap do? There are thousands of potential nasty ways to give the players a bad day. Quicksand could swallow up a party member; A bolder could roll down a slope towards the group; 2 logs could swing from the ceiling and smack into each other; a room's door may lock automatically behind the players, followed by poison gas spewing in; heat seeking sentry turrets may take the place of human guards in high security areas. Usually a trap's effect will be thought of before the rest; this is fine. In fact, a trap's effect will usually determine its type, which in turn, affects all of the other descriptors.

### **Encounters**

Any quest is sure to contain encounters with other people or pokemon. Missions other than mediation quests will potentially have these encounters devolve into combat. It's absolutely essential to know how to handle these situations to prevent tedious, nonsensical, or unfair situations.

**An "Encounter" can be generally described as a run in with a group of people or pokemon that will become hostile if provoked.** This definition bends a bit depending on the encounter. Sometimes an encounter might just be one Pokemon, or even just one person. In other instances the opposing group is hostile from
the start. Obviously, any given non-mediation quest will therefore have *several* encounters scattered across its map.

Keep in mind some encounters may sway back & forth from being social, or combat centric. **Every encounter should be able to be solved in a number of ways**. Plain brute force, intimidation, verbal negotiation, or more underhanded tactics are all potential ways to solve an encounter. When things get hairy, retreating is always an option for both sides, too. A chase scene might even follow: just don't get lead into an ambush!

**Encounters should also be avoidable.** But truth of the matter is that some targets are easier to provoke than others. Not every encounter should be effortlessly avoidable. In fact, some may be impossible to bypass. A target may be hostile
from the start, or maybe a travelling merchant simply wont let the players leave until they've bought something.

As GM it's your job to ensure that the players aren't overwhelmed in combat by statistical walls or excessive, futile numbers. A 2:1 ratio of wilds to trained pokemon in combat usually works fine. You can always throw in extra pokemon if a battle seems to be going too smoothly. Alternatively you could simply leave it be and use the encounter as a reference for the next. Of course it can simply be left as isl; not every encounter needs to be a life or death situation. At times a small
group of spiders can suffice as filler before the party is greeted by the terrible Mother Spider.

All encounters that allow pokemon capturing must follow the Capture Policy.

* A swarm of 5 Spineraks and 2 Ariados; party size of 3.
	+ Clearing out the smaller Spinerak should be easy for the party. Things might become more difficult though once the larger bulkier Ariados start sinking a few good hits. This encounter would approximately take 3-5 rounds. During this time, the party could catch one of the bugs if they so choose. The party could then move on once combat is concluded.

*Bad encounter:*

* A swarm of 1 Ariados, 1 Ninjask, 1 Scolipede, 1 Volcarona, 1 Yanmega, and 20 Yanma; party size of 3.
	+ Firstly, this enemy team composition makes no sense. Yes, they are all bug pokemon, but they are all wildly different creatures. You have a giant spider, a bullet cicada, a giant centipede, a giant *flaming* moth*,* and a giant dragonfly with a small horde behind it. While diverse interspecies communication *is* significantly more common in Sileda than other regions, this is just a normal encounter, where such enemy groupings are discouraged outside of special cases.
	+ Additionally, the sheer number of enemies, coupled with the strength of most of them being evolved and the party being quite small, makes this encounter seem far more akin to a boss encounter. And since it seems more like somebody just went down the list of bug-types and picked some random pokemon, they likely have no synergy planned even for that purpose!
	+ The combat here is going to end up very tedious, and as-per *Capture Policy*, most of these pokemon will be difficult to catch, leading to a frustrated party and a long, drawn out encounter that will drain the steam of your players and discourage them from continuing.

**Encounter tip!** Pokemon of a feather flock together. *And not just birds either.*

 Spinerak and Ariados may hang out with other spiders, like Gavulantula or Araquanid. Cat pokemon such as Meowth, Purrloin and Purugly may congregate together. Blastoise and Magmar? Not so much. Take into consideration the type of Pokemon that will be working together to avoid confusing fights.

#### **Combat Scaling**

There are numerous ways to calculate damage from pokemon, and the way you do so will affect how your combat plays. HP is never displayed numerically. Instead, it is shown in percentage. A Chansey and a Seedot could both have 70% HP, but the Chansey should be able to eat more hits.

* The **preferred way** to calculate damage is to simply use your intuition and fluff numbers based on the pokemon in question. This method is highly versatile because it's entirely up to your own judgement. Just try to keep things reasonable and don't let context slip your mind. A Pichu isn't exactly going to one-shot a beefy special wall like a Tentacruel unless it's super boosted, even with a type advantage. A pokemon taking a defensive stance should take less damage, but a defense boost should lower damage even more.
	+ **Levels** are usually used as a damage scaling factor, but that's up to you. Others simply use it as a reference as to how *experienced* a pokemon is, instead.
	+ Generally, a good way to handle the **levels of enemy pokemon** is to take the average level of the party's pokemon. Exclude any outliers, though. You don't want to skew everything because of a Lv5 baby pokemon, or that jerkass who's bringing a *Lv70 Garchomp* to a ★☆ Quest.
* Alternatively, while **not recommended** one can use the Pokemon Showdown Damage Calculator. Select the pokemon in question with a blank set and half the damage. However, this results in long turn times, potentially unfairly skewed battles, and generally awkward and clunky combat. It is mainly here for reference's sake. Literally only one person in the group does this and nobody really likes it. You probably really shouldn't do this unless you're just very unfamiliar with pokemon stats.

#### **Special Encounter Types**

##### **Hordes**

Hordes are an instance where an enormous number of Pokemon will all attack together. This assault should not move as a coordinated unit, but act more akin to a swarm of insects. Horde Pokemon are weaker, may be uncapturable, and are generally treated like a single entity rather than calculated individually. They can be composed of multiple types of pokemon, but they're usually all trying to do something similar.

Sometimes a horde will have a leader or "center" pokemon. This pokemon will act on its own, or not be visible until the horde disperses. Though these are usually much stronger than a normal version of that pokemon they may potentially be capturable. If defeated or made to surrender, the entire horde will concede.

A horde of diglett: Dozens of diglett with the occasional dugtrio. Bot the normal and alolan versions would show up. They would appear from the ground and surround the entire party. HP operates much the same as above, but chip damage won't defeat the evolved forms. The party can't flee without flying. There's probably no leader here, so the party will either need to cleave a path through the horde to run away, or do something to neutralize them. Negotiation is not an option, with no leader to speak to. A massive area water attack, such as Surf, would likely force the entirety of the horde to temporarily withdraw and then reappear, giving the party a window of opportunity to make a break for it, if they don't want to spend their time massacring them.
A horde of mushroom-type pokemon: This covers a wide range of pokemon, from Paras to Breloom to Shiinotic. Many of these pokemon operate entirely differently, allowing you to subdivide the horde into multiple groups. For example Breloom could be used as front-line fighters while the others throw spores or shoot bullet seeds or what have you. This example would most likely occur in Myconie Path, or a deep underground region. This is an example of featuring more than one "horde" enemy at once, and naturally, this results in a much more complex battle that needs to be more carefully regulated.

Be aware that hordes should be used cautiously, as it is very easy to become
overwhelming with them. Poorly designed hordes may even give the players more
trouble than they would have had with your boss. Nobody wants that.

##### **Large Pokemon encounters**

Plus-sized Pokemon. Large and imposing, but not big enough to be a boss. More a miniboss, or a boss of a low ☆Difficulty quest. These can technically intermingle with any other category of encounter, such as being the leader of a horde.

A large pokemon will usually have its maximum HP percentage boosted, resulting in pokemon with HP represented as "200%" or "300%". This makes for a simple way to handle these types of enemeis. It also feels better for the players. Rather than discouragingly have a Pikachu do 1% with its Thunderbolt, you can have it do somewhere around 5 to 10 percent instead. At the end of the day the player is still only dealing chip damage, but they'll feel like they're contributing more to the fight.

When calculating status or weather damage, either estimate it based on normal protocol, or subtract the raw percentage rather than cutting the percentage of the entire HP.

* For example, a pokemon with 200% HP that is Badly Poisoned will lose 12% on the first turn, and 25% on the second, leaving it with 163%.

However, large pokemon should generally inherently be more resilient to status than normal pokemon. You can interpret this as either cutting that damage, or by having it "wear off" after a while. After which you may choose to make it immune or resistant to that status for a few turns. This is in hopes of preventing players from just spamming their status moves.

Oversized pokemon will **always** have a lower catch rate than their smaller counterparts. It is not absolute, but generally speaking, divide the capture rate by its size multiplier, then round up. It is also entirely fine to mark them as uncaptureable. *(Ex: An Arcanine twice as large as normal will have half its catch rate. A Togedemaru over 100 times its size would be borderline impossible to catch.)*

Ultimately, as with hordes, be wary with these that you don't overshadow or take away from your boss fight by having encounters that are comparatively equally or even more difficult.

### **Boss Encounters**

It is important to keep in mind that not every quest needs to end with a cut and past boss encounter. Finishing the quest with a climactic event instead is also perfectly acceptable. A climactic event could be done without even having any enemies. Look at the environment section of this page for possible ideas on how to do this.

#### **Trainer Battle**

A trainer can easily act as a boss encounter. Remember that most baddies don't care about regulated battles, and might even jump in and fight alongside their pokemon. They might have a few nasty tricks up their sleeve, like a hidden weapon, or special tech that'll give the players a bad day.

Chances are, unless there are multiple trainers acting as the boss encounter, they will get outnumbered. This can be alleviated by making the trainer's ace very strong, or having the fight play out as a multi-battle.

#### **Large Boss Encounter**

These enemies are gargantuan! Be it a pokemon, robot, machine or some kind of occult creature, these boss fights make it obvious to the party that the end is near. The end of the quest anyway. If using roll20, they'll often be split up into multiple tokens, though a boss fight of this scale is still possible in a purely text based RP. Having multiple targets will cause the players to be forced to strategies. Either they work together and focus down one body part at a time, or get blown to bits. (In some cases they may get shred to pieces instead, this is also acceptable.)

When opting to drop a boss fight of this nature in your quest, it is to be expected that a few pokemon, maybe even a trainer or 2, will be knocked out of the battle. **NEVER** make your boss encounters impossible to win. Multiple win conditions should be available to the players. At the very least, there should be ways weaken the boss; making it easier to bring down.

A boss creature may have many devastating attacks, but make sure to telegraph anything that would take out a player in one strike. OHKO moves such as fissure should be avoided, unless the players are given a warning and have ample time to get away. If they stand in the path of a move like this, its their own fault.

For the most part, the above guidelines referring to large pokemon are easily applicable to boss encounters as well.

## **Loot & Rewards**

Every good dungeon crawl or quest needs loot. After all, its part of the incentive to go on these life threatening adventures to begin with.

### **Loot**

A good way to handle loot is to simply prepare a list of items the players could potentially find in the area they're exploring. Try to make it reasonable. In a forest, big roots are probably really common, premier balls probably aren't. You will be caught off guard when your players decide to scrounge around areas you never even considered. A list of readied items will ensure that the players can potentially always find something.

Containers should have loot predetermined. Generally speaking, universally useful things will be stored in these. Potions and the like should be found in chests, not found on the bodies of fainted pokemon.

Don't be afraid to give players junk. You would be surprised how useful a crowbar of a spool of rope can be to a resourceful player. Sometimes it's just funny to give them a bag of poop. Keep in mind though, if you give players junk, expect them to use it.

#### **Rewards**

At the end of a long day of questing, the players should be given a reward if they completed the quest objective! These rewards are usually items that are linked to the quest, or a special pokemon. Rewards should usually be themed after the quest's subject matter. Keep in mind who the quest giver is as well. A lowly farmer probably can't offer the players anything super rare, but he may be able to give them a horde of berries.

Make sure there are enough rewards to go around. It is simple to give each member of a party a copy of the reward item. When pokemon are the reward for a quest, it is good idea to give the players a small list to choose from. If a quest has three party members, then give the players three pokemon to choose from as a reward.

Players love choice! You can have them choose from a list of items as well. Just try to actually make this a choice, not a calculation. Don't list oran and sitrus berries as two potential rewards; everyone will pick stirus since it is objectively the better option of the two.

Players also love surprises! (Most of them anyway ... I think.) It isn't unreasonable to give out bonus rewards to the party for completing bonus objectives.