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Cheers: a Pokerole Cheer Mechanic Brew

Narrative Notes

This home brew aims to give Trainers the ability to assist their Pokemon in combat via Cheers, like they can in Tera Raid Battles in the Scarlet Violet games. Cheers are a flexible mechanic, what’s provided are a list of effects that your Trainer can provide and you can flavor what that looks like as best suits your table.

A Cheer could literally be your Trainer cheering on their Pokemon, but a Cheer could also represent your Trainer entering the battle, physically helping their Pokemon in some way or some kind of regional phenomenon type effect. Storytellers should discuss how they want Cheers to materialize in game before using them.

Mechanics

  • A Cheer can be done instead of a Move on your Pokemon’s turn.
  • Using a Cheer counts as an action for your Pokemon, even though the Trainer is the one doing the work.
  • After choosing the Cheer the Trainer wants to use, they roll Insight+Cheer (use Perform if you don’t want to add a custom skill). The Difficulty of this roll is two + the number of successful Cheers you’ve performed this battle. Cheers are not round based! If you use too many in a single battle they’ll simply lose their effectiveness.
  • A Trainer must spend a Will Point to activate a Cheer effect. Otherwise, the Cheer does nothing!
  • Only one Cheer can be in effect on a Pokemon at a time. If you Cheer for a Pokemon that hasn’t had a chance to utilize the effect of the last Cheer, the old effect is replaced by the new one.
  • Cheers are not legal in official League matches (at least, not the kind that have effects).

Cheer Effects

Basic Cheers TargetEffect
Go All Out! Ally Choose Attack or Special Attack. The next attack made by the Target is made with +1 in that Stat.
Hang Tough! Ally Choose Defense or Special Defense. The next time the Target is attacked, damage is rolled with a +1 in that stat.
Stay on Target!Ally The next attack by the target is made with +1 Accuracy.
Don’t Screw Up!Foe Remove one die from the Accuracy Pool of the next Move the Target uses.
Hey! Over Here!Foe Change the target of a Move the Target just performed to the User of the Cheer. (This is Dangerous for a Trainer!)

Advanced Cheers are more powerful than Basic Cheers. The Storyteller should determine if these Cheers are allowed at all, and might require additional costs to make them work. (For example, you may need to pass a Skill Check, or have an item available that can perform that effect you can expend as part of the Cheer.)

Advanced Cheers TargetEffect
Heal Up! Ally Perform a Basic Heal on the Target.
Shake it Off! Ally The Target recovers from one Status Condition.
Bet You Can’t Do That Again!Foe On the Target’s turn, it must reuse the last Move it used. Ignore the once per round limitation on that Move. This may only be used once a Round.