Criminal Battles

This homebrew is for running combat when the enemy trainers are out to attack players as well as battle their Pokemon. This can take place when fighting criminals, or underground battle rings or similar illegal set ups.

These kinds of battles are illegal! Needless to say, enemy trainers in these fights are out to a minimum knock out, if not kidnap or even wound the players. It’s unlikely player characters have experience fighting like this as well.

Two basic rules to get started:

1. All Trainers in a criminal battle are considered in the fray. They can be targeted with Pokemon moves and Trainers can take actions against each other. Trainers do NOT have their own initiative roll! They act when their Pokemon does.
2. Trainers do NOT use the same multiple action rules as Pokemon. Whenever a trainer takes any action, the DC should be set by the Storyteller or a contested roll against an NPC.

Normally, when a Pokemon’s turn comes up, it’s trainer reads the situation in the battle and shouts out what Move to use next. Their Pokemon then acts and the opposing Trainer responds, repeating the cycle.

In a Criminal Battle, Trainers may also decide to act on their own, leaving their Pokemon to their own devices. In most cases, the Pokemon will default to protecting their Trainer as their Trainer is in attack range.

Mechanically, a Trainer can choose to take an action instead of their Pokemon. When they do this, their Pokemon is assumed to be providing cover or running interference for their Trainer during the course of the Trainer’s action. This consumes the Pokemon’s Action and increases their Action Count by 1! The Trainer can do any one action during this period (throw a punch, grab someone, etc).

As Trainers are considered in the fray, a common action by Trainers in a Criminal Battle is to interact with the other Trainers. In scenarios like this, Trainers being attacked or otherwise engaged will get the chance to roll against the aggressor. For avoiding attacks, this will like be a Dexterity+Evasion roll, but other rolls may come into play depending on the active Trainer’s action.

Trainers that react to another Trainer’s action increase their Pokemon’s Action Count by 1. To be clear, this is a regular Action, even if the Trainer is making an Evasion roll! This represents that the Trainer’s attention is pulled from the battle and they can’t properly order their Pokemon for a few seconds.

Red and Giovanni are battling in a Criminal Battle!

Red orders Pikachu to start with Quick Attack, and Giovanni’s Nidoking Clashes with Trash.

Red then orders Pikachu to use Slam, and hits Nidoking!

Giovanni however decides to approach Red and tries to prevent him from ordering Pikachu next round by grabbing him! Nidoking’s 2nd Action for the round is consumed.

Red doesn’t want that, so he pulls his attention from the battle to Evade, taking up Pikachu’s third action.

Red’s Pikachu is already on action 4, so he decides to pass his action. Giovanni orders Nidoking to use Megahorn for Nidoking’s third action. Red orders Pikachu to evade, and it does. Remember that Red’s evasion on Action 3 does NOT consume Pikachu’s!

Pikachu only has one action left for the round, but Red is feeling confident. He orders Pikachu to use Surf and Nidoking is ordered to Evade.

Nidoking has a final action left, which Giovanni takes for himself. Giovanni decides to try and steal Red’s other pokeballs! Pikachu and therefore Red have no actions remaining, so the Storyteller has Giovanni roll Dexterity+Stealth for the roll and sets a DC of 3 Successes. Giovanni is successful, and now Red is going into a stressful situation next round!