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    Storyteller's FAQ

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    Green boxes contain questions and answers.

    Light blue boxes contain guides and explanations.

    Dark blue boxes contain information you should know.

    Grey boxes are direct quotes from Discord, usually.

    How do I balance fights against player Trainers?

    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.)

    Word of Glee on Balancing Fights

    Word of Glee

    I divide battles on how they impact the story.

    Random encounter
    Just as it name indicates, it’s just a battle that was generated randomly. It’s usually just a few wild pokemon that can be defeated in a couple of rounds, no special strategy is used and sometimes they don’t evade or clash attacks.
    Defeating them or running from them has no impact on the plot whatsoever.

    Weak battle
    Similar to random encounter, just adding more timed evasion/clash and try to use type advantage. Victory means a bit of money and information about the plot.

    Meaningful battle
    Can either be against a trainer or a strong pokemon or horde, but this battle is directly plot related, Victory means getting closer to the goal, Defeat still gives the players all they need to know but they now will have to find another way to reach their goal.

    Boss fight
    Dante-must-die mode, not only the foes are stronger but they usually have a strategy to neutralize the players, they must use all of their available resources to win.
    If by the end of this battle they still have Will points, potions and more than 1-2 HP i did not do a good job.

    Ranks

    Lower rank = normal
    Same rank = challenging
    Higher Rank = Very hard

    Add type advantage from the players and it becomes:
    Lower rank= easy
    Same rank = normal
    Higher rank = challenging

    And add type disadvantage and it becomes

    Lower rank= challenging
    Same rank = very hard
    Higher rank = dante must die

    How should I run a gym for 3-5 players?

    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.)

    What are suggested ranks in the Pokedex for? Is that what rank the Pokedex entry is describing?

    What are suggested ranks in the Pokedex for? Is that what rank the Pokedex entry is describing?

    • All entries in the Pokedex are Starter Rank. The suggested rank is a guideline of what rank that pokemon might be encountered at in the wild, but NOT a requirement. You can have a starter rank Dragonite or an Ace rank Caterpie appear in your games.

    How should I calculate the amount of money Trainers should receive?

    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?

    Are there any prewritten Adventures/Modules for Pokerole?

    • As a matter of fact, quite a few are hosted on this very wiki. Jump the Home Page and scroll down the the Modules list. They're also listed in the sidebar, by title only. All four are for Trainer games.
    • A special call out to Pokexplorer’s Summer Camp! A module specifically designed to help newcomers learn the system and help new DMs easy into DMing. Good for people who have never DMed before and/or never played Pokerole before.
    • 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.