Welcome to the discussion/signup thread for “Don’t tell mom the gym leader’s dead”, a wacky hijinks comedy teen/student misadventure kind of RP that will let us kick back and stress out. In this place, everything that can go wrong will go wrong. I will personally see to that. The RP thread for this one is over here.
NOTICE: This thread has been marked as closed due to a greatly successful signup campaign. If you were already in the process of creating a character and such, you just hadn't posted yet, you're still welcome. We might also reopen in the future.
The Premise
Gym leader Mortis Leto has some problems. His gym is deep in debt with about every loan shark in the region, his building is years behind on upkeep, his trusted adjutant and all of his stronger gym trainers have walked out in protest over his management, his toilets are all regularly clogged, his Pokémon refuse to listen to anyone but him, his roof is leaking, he hasn’t had parents ask about buying a starter for years, he’s no longer welcome in at least three large tournament venues for repeated misbehavior, Gym Leader Weekly not only stopped interviewing him but canceled his free subscription over that answer that one time, his cooking sucks and even his wife left him years ago, taking the Growlithe, and the bicycle. But as long as Mortis is holding the reins of this gym, eventually things will sort itself out. He’s connected, he’s respected, and he’s still the best at what he does. Too bad Mortis will die before the end of the opening post. And he won’t be comic book dead either. Real dead as a doornail. Nothing you can do about it I’m afraid, it was just his time. Was that a spoiler? Oops.
You are, should you choose to accept this mission, a group of low level gym trainers. You all have your reasons for being here, but none of you were bargaining for the situation you are facing now. With nobody else available, you are now effectively in charge of this gym. If the Chivalrise Gym in Steadbourg City, home of the Handshake Badge, is to survive the coming months, you will need to step up your game.
The RP
To make things nice and relaxed I will act as a GM in this place. It’s my responsibility to feed you, the players, problems, lots of problems. It’s your responsibility to solve those problems. Or well, at least to sort of get them out of the way for now in the most likely to backfire way possible. The purpose is to write entertaining posts after all. The fact that I will be GM’ing does not mean that creative additions from your side will not be appreciated though. Any information I have not revealed yet is fair game for you to fill in. The name of another gym? A Pokémon or team of two Mortis owned? A species that occurs in this region? Another city or a type of terrain in the region? A home town for your character? If you want to use something, you can assume it into existence. If I ever do have things that I’m keeping from you but have already planned out behind the scenes I will make a special OOC note of that. (As of this point I have a small number details planned out I'd like to use if at all possible, but most of those will be revealed in the opening post.)
The Setting
The Vetuschola region is a lot like most other regions in the Pokémon world. There are diverse terrains, lots of wild species, legends about special extra strong Pokémon hiding out there somewhere and there’s a lively tournament circuit. What’s a little different about this region is its gym system.
You see, the gyms here don’t specialize in types, they instead focus on an aspect of battling. Steadbourg's Chivalrise Gym, official motto “Amitié Avant Tout”, tests cooperation. It does this by means of a 2V2 double battle. The challenger and the leader are both limited to two Pokémon, who battle it out all at once. Because the gyms can be challenged in any order, Mortis has a team of two on hand for every badge.
And that means he has seven teams, because this region has seven gyms, and you can gain seven badges. Fourteen Pokémon is a lot for one man to have and take care of, most trainers never go past a full team of six, but gym leaders are still the best at what they do. The difficulty of the badge matches ramps up quickly as you rise through the ranks. A strong amateur will be a “solid 3rd badge battler”. At that point they’re better than most people out there and can travel pretty much all of the wilds in this region without worrying about wild Pokémon too much. Even if they still go around challenging gym leaders they will often ask for a battle at 3rd badge level. They don’t get another badge for that, but they do get a stamp and a signature in their Novum League Passport. It’s a nice hobby. There are even schoolkids collecting the stamps at first badge level. A tournament professional, with sponsors and fans and everything, will often still be at five or six badges. The mastery and dedication required to beat a gym at the final challenge level is impressive.
Aside from the battles gyms have several other functions in society, including but not limited to the examples in this paragraph. They provide training through all sorts of work-learn programs, popular with people who learn well from a combination of instructions and experience and parents who think their child shouldn’t be traveling through the region all alone just yet. The gyms are also a place where you can buy starters, usually species that have some sort of connection to the gym’s team. These starters are handed over hand tame and with instructions. They are seldom the ultra-rare exotic species some professors from other regions give to their neighbor’s kid, but for someone who doesn’t have a Pokémon it’s a great help.
As for the specific Pokémon living in this region: I say most of them should be official mon. I’m fine with fakemon as an addition, but they must be well thought out fakemon, I would for instance prefer it if they had a full learnset, and a picture. In an RP about a gym that sort of details really helps sell the mon.
The Rules
As per the site rules and those of good taste: Don’t be too gory, Home Alone wouldn’t have been as funny if there was actual graphic torture. Don’t be too icky, relationships are fine but nobody wants to read about your sex life. If after a fade to black you find yourself in your underwear and a pair of handcuffs hanging from a chandelier though, please do call for help. Don’t go into mind altering substances and such too much. Characters breaking the law are okay, but try to avoid anything that might horrify someone. Basically try to keep it PG, although you can go looking for the edges of that format, if you can get a joke out of it.
Also per site rules: Legendaries, mega-evolutions and battle bond forms need to be pre-approved by a forum moderator. if you have an idea for including one of those contact me and I will contact them.
The Player Characters
You guys all start out at a power level around one or two badges. This means your strongest Pokémon are maybe at the power level of a middle stage starter Pokémon (as in, regular other-region in-game starters, like Wartortle.) You’re here to learn. (Or, you know, you might have an entirely different reason for being here, but you still don’t have a Garchomp in your back pocket.) There is no need to specify levels and such, we’re not going that detailed, but because we will be roleplaying battles movesets and abilities are appreciated. Of course a well-trained Machamp can kick someone without knowing a specific move, but for the big spectacular moves I feel like the regular limit of four is a good number.
I’m not setting a hard limit on the number of Pokémon you own, but try to think to yourself about how many you could realistically have around doing something for almost every single post you write. Whatever number you come up with, that should be more than enough. (There’s not even the need to have at least two Pokémon at a cooperation themed gym, because both cooperation between you and your Pokémon and battles where you cooperate with other trainers are a thing.) Shinies are technically allowed but in-universe still extremely rare. A player can definitely not have more than one of them over the course of this game. If you want to do something with a Pokémon’s appearance try to think of other ways as well like exceptional size, fur patterns, a particularly athletic/sturdy/anything build or human made additions such a hair style or a collar.
I myself will not be playing a regular player character, but I will be handling NPC’s like gym challengers.
To help you come up with characters, have a character sheet:
Name:
(Including any nicknames and such.)
Age/Gender/Orientation/Subculture:
(/Any other one or two word qualifiers that help people form an image of your character. It's not mandatory to try and fill in something for all of these by the way.)
Character:
(Who this person is on the inside.)
Skills and training:
(What can they do better or different from the world's most average person?)
Background:
(Pay special note to your character’s reason for being a gym trainer at the Steadbourg Gym. It doesn’t have to be a good reason, but it helps if it provides motivation to keep this thing running.)
Appearance:
(Who this person is on the outside. Includes clothing and such.)
Pokémon Name:
(Copy this section for more than one mon.)
Pokémon Species/Age/Gender/Orientation/Subculture:
(Punk rock Pikachu?)
Pokémon Ability, Moveset:
(This is a good section to keep up to date during play.)
Pokémon Character:
Pokémon Background:
Pokémon Appearance:
And that’s about it. I will start off the RP thread in the RP section if and when this project gains enough attention. It doesn’t require a lot of players, but I think at least four would be nice. Any volunteers? Questions? Requests?
(About Me)
(I am the thread starter of Pokémon Ranger, Almia goes old school. That one is a more serious adventure story, quite different from this RP, but it was pretty successful and it showed me this site has some pretty amazing player, so I figured I’d try something else as well.)
NOTICE: This thread has been marked as closed due to a greatly successful signup campaign. If you were already in the process of creating a character and such, you just hadn't posted yet, you're still welcome. We might also reopen in the future.
The Premise
Gym leader Mortis Leto has some problems. His gym is deep in debt with about every loan shark in the region, his building is years behind on upkeep, his trusted adjutant and all of his stronger gym trainers have walked out in protest over his management, his toilets are all regularly clogged, his Pokémon refuse to listen to anyone but him, his roof is leaking, he hasn’t had parents ask about buying a starter for years, he’s no longer welcome in at least three large tournament venues for repeated misbehavior, Gym Leader Weekly not only stopped interviewing him but canceled his free subscription over that answer that one time, his cooking sucks and even his wife left him years ago, taking the Growlithe, and the bicycle. But as long as Mortis is holding the reins of this gym, eventually things will sort itself out. He’s connected, he’s respected, and he’s still the best at what he does. Too bad Mortis will die before the end of the opening post. And he won’t be comic book dead either. Real dead as a doornail. Nothing you can do about it I’m afraid, it was just his time. Was that a spoiler? Oops.
You are, should you choose to accept this mission, a group of low level gym trainers. You all have your reasons for being here, but none of you were bargaining for the situation you are facing now. With nobody else available, you are now effectively in charge of this gym. If the Chivalrise Gym in Steadbourg City, home of the Handshake Badge, is to survive the coming months, you will need to step up your game.
The RP
To make things nice and relaxed I will act as a GM in this place. It’s my responsibility to feed you, the players, problems, lots of problems. It’s your responsibility to solve those problems. Or well, at least to sort of get them out of the way for now in the most likely to backfire way possible. The purpose is to write entertaining posts after all. The fact that I will be GM’ing does not mean that creative additions from your side will not be appreciated though. Any information I have not revealed yet is fair game for you to fill in. The name of another gym? A Pokémon or team of two Mortis owned? A species that occurs in this region? Another city or a type of terrain in the region? A home town for your character? If you want to use something, you can assume it into existence. If I ever do have things that I’m keeping from you but have already planned out behind the scenes I will make a special OOC note of that. (As of this point I have a small number details planned out I'd like to use if at all possible, but most of those will be revealed in the opening post.)
The Setting
The Vetuschola region is a lot like most other regions in the Pokémon world. There are diverse terrains, lots of wild species, legends about special extra strong Pokémon hiding out there somewhere and there’s a lively tournament circuit. What’s a little different about this region is its gym system.
You see, the gyms here don’t specialize in types, they instead focus on an aspect of battling. Steadbourg's Chivalrise Gym, official motto “Amitié Avant Tout”, tests cooperation. It does this by means of a 2V2 double battle. The challenger and the leader are both limited to two Pokémon, who battle it out all at once. Because the gyms can be challenged in any order, Mortis has a team of two on hand for every badge.
And that means he has seven teams, because this region has seven gyms, and you can gain seven badges. Fourteen Pokémon is a lot for one man to have and take care of, most trainers never go past a full team of six, but gym leaders are still the best at what they do. The difficulty of the badge matches ramps up quickly as you rise through the ranks. A strong amateur will be a “solid 3rd badge battler”. At that point they’re better than most people out there and can travel pretty much all of the wilds in this region without worrying about wild Pokémon too much. Even if they still go around challenging gym leaders they will often ask for a battle at 3rd badge level. They don’t get another badge for that, but they do get a stamp and a signature in their Novum League Passport. It’s a nice hobby. There are even schoolkids collecting the stamps at first badge level. A tournament professional, with sponsors and fans and everything, will often still be at five or six badges. The mastery and dedication required to beat a gym at the final challenge level is impressive.
Aside from the battles gyms have several other functions in society, including but not limited to the examples in this paragraph. They provide training through all sorts of work-learn programs, popular with people who learn well from a combination of instructions and experience and parents who think their child shouldn’t be traveling through the region all alone just yet. The gyms are also a place where you can buy starters, usually species that have some sort of connection to the gym’s team. These starters are handed over hand tame and with instructions. They are seldom the ultra-rare exotic species some professors from other regions give to their neighbor’s kid, but for someone who doesn’t have a Pokémon it’s a great help.
As for the specific Pokémon living in this region: I say most of them should be official mon. I’m fine with fakemon as an addition, but they must be well thought out fakemon, I would for instance prefer it if they had a full learnset, and a picture. In an RP about a gym that sort of details really helps sell the mon.
The Rules
As per the site rules and those of good taste: Don’t be too gory, Home Alone wouldn’t have been as funny if there was actual graphic torture. Don’t be too icky, relationships are fine but nobody wants to read about your sex life. If after a fade to black you find yourself in your underwear and a pair of handcuffs hanging from a chandelier though, please do call for help. Don’t go into mind altering substances and such too much. Characters breaking the law are okay, but try to avoid anything that might horrify someone. Basically try to keep it PG, although you can go looking for the edges of that format, if you can get a joke out of it.
Also per site rules: Legendaries, mega-evolutions and battle bond forms need to be pre-approved by a forum moderator. if you have an idea for including one of those contact me and I will contact them.
The Player Characters
You guys all start out at a power level around one or two badges. This means your strongest Pokémon are maybe at the power level of a middle stage starter Pokémon (as in, regular other-region in-game starters, like Wartortle.) You’re here to learn. (Or, you know, you might have an entirely different reason for being here, but you still don’t have a Garchomp in your back pocket.) There is no need to specify levels and such, we’re not going that detailed, but because we will be roleplaying battles movesets and abilities are appreciated. Of course a well-trained Machamp can kick someone without knowing a specific move, but for the big spectacular moves I feel like the regular limit of four is a good number.
I’m not setting a hard limit on the number of Pokémon you own, but try to think to yourself about how many you could realistically have around doing something for almost every single post you write. Whatever number you come up with, that should be more than enough. (There’s not even the need to have at least two Pokémon at a cooperation themed gym, because both cooperation between you and your Pokémon and battles where you cooperate with other trainers are a thing.) Shinies are technically allowed but in-universe still extremely rare. A player can definitely not have more than one of them over the course of this game. If you want to do something with a Pokémon’s appearance try to think of other ways as well like exceptional size, fur patterns, a particularly athletic/sturdy/anything build or human made additions such a hair style or a collar.
I myself will not be playing a regular player character, but I will be handling NPC’s like gym challengers.
To help you come up with characters, have a character sheet:
Name:
(Including any nicknames and such.)
Age/Gender/Orientation/Subculture:
(/Any other one or two word qualifiers that help people form an image of your character. It's not mandatory to try and fill in something for all of these by the way.)
Character:
(Who this person is on the inside.)
Skills and training:
(What can they do better or different from the world's most average person?)
Background:
(Pay special note to your character’s reason for being a gym trainer at the Steadbourg Gym. It doesn’t have to be a good reason, but it helps if it provides motivation to keep this thing running.)
Appearance:
(Who this person is on the outside. Includes clothing and such.)
Pokémon Name:
(Copy this section for more than one mon.)
Pokémon Species/Age/Gender/Orientation/Subculture:
(Punk rock Pikachu?)
Pokémon Ability, Moveset:
(This is a good section to keep up to date during play.)
Pokémon Character:
Pokémon Background:
Pokémon Appearance:
And that’s about it. I will start off the RP thread in the RP section if and when this project gains enough attention. It doesn’t require a lot of players, but I think at least four would be nice. Any volunteers? Questions? Requests?
(About Me)
(I am the thread starter of Pokémon Ranger, Almia goes old school. That one is a more serious adventure story, quite different from this RP, but it was pretty successful and it showed me this site has some pretty amazing player, so I figured I’d try something else as well.)
Last edited:
some challenges are greater than others, especially regarding long commutes in the morning)
