The Official Pokerole FAQ

Officially tended to by your lovely team of Storytellers, Mods, and Devs. Artistically tended to by individuals not as talented as Glee.

• PLEASE SEARCH THROUGH THE FAQ BEFORE ASKING A QUESTION IN THE DISCORD.
• If you have a suggestion for this list, see this page: Question Submission for the Pokerole FAQ

• Where do I get the current version of the game?
  • You can find them at here. Not all the resources are used for the most current version of the game, however, so be mindful.

• When will edition X.X of Pokerole/PMD come out?
  • There are no guaranteed release dates. At time of writing, Pokerole 2.1 and an update to the Pokemon Mystery Dungeon expansion are in active development, they will be released when they are ready.

• Why can’t you give us a release date?
  • Because during the release of 2.0, a hard drive failure caused major delays in the release time frame and people made a meme about it. This frustrated the dev team to no end and they’ll no longer give release dates because of it.

• Where are the Contest Cards mentioned in the rulebook?
  • Contests cards were lost in the aforementioned hard drive failure and 2.0 was released without them.

• How do I fold the Pokemon printable sheet?
  • see this visual guide.

• General Note Regarding PMD:
  • The Pokemon Mystery Dungeon module was written as an expansion of Pokerole 1.25. Pokerole is currently on 2.0, and no official Mystery Dungeon expansion exists for it (though there is homebrew).
  • Some Mechanics may not play well in PMD, because the 2.0 rules are designed exclusively for trainer games. This is something your table will have to work through until an official module can be released.

• I want to run PMD, but the module is outdated!
  • The general recommendation is to run PMD as Pokerole 2.0.

• How many successes do I need to succeed on an Accuracy check?
  • The number of successes you need is determined by how many actions you have taken in that Round. On your first action you need one success, second action, two successes, etc.
  • Learn More on Pg.49

• What’s the difference between a Round and a Turn?
  • Rounds consist of multiple rotations through the Initiative order. Each Pokemon can take up to 5 Actions in a single round. Starting with the highest initiative, that Pokemon takes a Turn where it can perform an action. Continue the process down the Initiative order until all Pokemon are out of Actions to take or pass their turn.

• When the book says that Multiple Actions are optional, does that mean I can forgo them in my game?
  • Multiple Actions have an Optional tag next to them because it is optional whether or not you want to use them on your turn. Multiple Actions are built into the system and affect how the system is balanced, and so should be included in your play.

• Is the amount of successes necessary to Evade or Clash affected by previous actions?
  • When you Evade or Clash, you only need to match your opponent’s successes on their Accuracy Check to be successful.

• Does Evading or Clashing count as one of my 5 Actions per Turn?
  • Yes, Evading and Clashing each add 1 to your action count.

• Are there any moves you can’t Evade or Clash?
  • Moves that use a Social Attribute (Cool, Cute, Tough, Smart, Beauty) for Accuracy can’t be evaded or clashed. Support Moves, Moves that ignore Defenses, and Moves that have a Set Damage cannot be clashed, as well.

• Are the victories required for Training/Evolution cumulative?
  • Yes. If going from one rank at 3 successes to another rank at 12 successes, that requires 9 more successes and not 12 more. This is the same with Evolutions.

• How many targets can I affect with my move that targets “All Allies/Foes in Range”?
  • The amount of allies/foes you can target is dependent on your rank. Check its description on pg. 30 for more specifics.

• Does the damage caused each round by Restrain moves (Fire Spin, etc) ignore defenses?
  • Yes.

• Does a Shield move block all the attacks from a move with Successive Actions?
  • No. A Shield move only blocks one action, and Successive Actions lets you take multiple actions to attack.

• Why is Assurance/X move different from how it is in the games?
  • Different moves have been given different effects to match the feel wanted for Pokerole. This is not the case for everything, but 99% of the time the change is intentional.

• What effects stack with each other?
  • Moves stack with Abilities with the same effect. (Example: Moves with High critical + Super Luck / Growl + Intimidate / Moves that increase an attribute + Ability that increases an attribute)
  • Items stack with Abilities with the same effect
  • Moves + Items with the same effect do not stack
  • Moves + Moves do not stack, take the larger number and apply that
  • Abilities with the same effect do not stack even when they are from a different source.

• I don’t understand how multiple actions/Combat works!
  • Lucky for you, Glee has put together a visual guide! It’s four parts are located in #pokerole.
  • Part 1
  • Part 2
  • Part 3
  • Part 4

• How do large battles with multiple pokemon on each side work?
  • Glee has once again, written up an excellent breakdown of this. Read it here.

• How do I balance fights against player Trainers?
  • Generally, fights of equal rank and number will make a balanced fight. If your Trainers have three Pokemon at rank Amateur, an enemy trainer with three Amateur Pokemon in the fray will be a fair fight.
  • The Action Economy is also very important, IE, if three allied pokemon are attacking one enemy, the enemy, even at a higher rank, simply can’t keep up with three different pokemon attacking it. (AOE attacks can help balance this.)

• How should I run a gym for 3-5 players?
  • Use “Anime Style” team sizes for official battles, where even if a Trainer has six Pokemon, they only use one or two in the fight. This keeps battle lengths down.
  • If your group is willing to share the spotlight, single battles between Trainers and Gym Leaders can be dramatic battles worth spectating.
  • If you don’t want to run single combats, have the league run double or triple battles against Gym Leaders and let your PCs all fight as a group. (Galar’s Star Cup rules are a good reference.)

• How should I calculate the amount of money Trainers should receive?
  • The Pokedollar (Pokebuck, Poke, etc.) is based off of the yen. Therefore, the easiest conversion method is taking two decimal places off of the Pokedollar amount, and that will be your dollar amount (A Potion costing 400 Pokedollars would be about 4 dollars). Think about how much a trainer of that age could receive from an individual based on this.

• Are there any prewritten Adventures/Modules for Pokerole?
  • Pokexplorer’s Summer Camp is a introduction Adventure written by Willowlark. It’s a Trainer game, designed for first time GMs and Players alike.
  • Unova Wild West is a one shot module again by Willowlark meant to capture the feel of the Legends Arceus game.
  • There are currently no prewritten adventure for Pokemon Mystery Dungeon Games.

• What Rank is recommended to start at?
  • Beginner is the recommended starting rank for newer players. The Devs refer to starting at Starter Rank as “Hard Mode” due to the lower power level, so if you do start at Starter, be sure to rank out of it quickly.

• Which resource channel can I post my fakemon in?
  • Fakemon are not allowed to be posted in any of the resource channels. They are allowed to be posted in #comfey-general, however, as these do not have an impact on the game itself. Regional variants of existing Pokemon are allowed to be posted in the pokemon-variants channel.
  • If you'd like to know why, the Fun/Sad/Cringey Story is at the bottom of the section.

• How do I invite the Pokerole bot to my server?
  • Check the pinned message in the #bot-channel.

• Where can I find separate PDFs of all of the different book sections?
  • Check the pinned message in the #announcements channel.

• I’d like to run/play a game of Pokerole!
  • The system is still fairly obscure compared to the other Pokemon systems. What we currently lack in player base, we make up for in quality! Try learning to be a Storyteller, and you’ll find a rewarding system with players eager to engage with your world.
  • You can post in the #looking-for-players channel, presuming you read the Instructions.

• Can I post a non Pokerole game in #looking-for-players?
  • As long as it’s not PTU, ask for permission from a Mod and they’ll let you know if you can post there.

• What are the Resources & Homebrew Channels for?
  • Each channel in this category is for different types of unofficial content generated by other players and GMs. The rule of thumb is only the content itself is to be posted in the channel relevant to it (IE, a custom character sheet in #sheets).
  • Any and all discussion of Resources in the channels takes place in homebrew-discussion!

• Why Can’t I post my Content in the Resources & Homebrew channels?
  • In order to keep people from accidentally starting conversation in Resource channels, only those with the Content Creator role can post into Resources & Homebrew channels (besides #homebrew-discussion).

• I think I found some Errata, how can I report it?
  • Step 1 - Read the Guide to Errata pinned in the #errata channel.
  • Assuming your Errata fit the criteria described in the Guide, you can post it to #errata. Including a screenshot with the description of what you found is greatly appreciated.
  • If you have additional comments, or others want to comment on your errata, they’ll start a Discord Thread based off your original message. Please do not have conversation in the Errata channel.
  • If you see a green substitute (ally) react, your errata follows the rules and the team will take a look when they can. if you see a red substitute (enemy) react, your post didn’t follow Errata rules.
  • Storytellers! There’s an addendum for the Guide here that applies to you.

• How do I get the Storyteller/Looking For Game/Content Creator role?
  • Read the Server Rules channel very carefully…

To quote Glee, it's a “fun/sad/cringey” story.