I'm most active on my Tumblr, ali-dot-txt, which is linked on my itch page so I'll for sure see messages sent to me there. As for ranges, PMDTA is a "theater of the mind" system, so it's largely up to players and the Narrator whether an attack is classified as happening at range or not.
For the sake of simplicity, this system doesn't have "moves" as such. When a Pokémon attacks, it's a simple matter of choosing whether the attack is physical (uses Atk) or special (uses Sp. Atk) and then choosing a type, if the Pokémon has multiple. You can see the rules for attacking starting under "Option 1: Attack" on page 2.
the simplicity of this system is amazing, this is the closest to the real PMD experience in terms of ttrpgs Ive played in the setting (and I've played most of them)
The lack of strict stats & moves makes even the strangest of pokemon choices viable, and the ease of creating player characters & combat encounters is a massive plus. The in combat math is not too difficult at all, and a simple calculator makes it a breeze.
However the loss of status moves for a strictly combat focused system is a negative. I'd suggest giving each type a utility move they can choose in combat to do instead of attacking (example: steel type could raise its defense, water type could pop an aqua ring to slowly regain HP, etc) or make those moves into TMs to add more combat strategy beyond just spamming attacks & items.
I love the way the experience system is set up, helps to reward combat avoidance & social RP, however I did make a few changes in the wording of some boxes:
Come across a place no living Pokemon has seen. -> Explore a new location you've never been to before. the Exploring here is its own separate action, which encourages players to scour new places and gives Narrators opportunities to describe the place in detail for an engaging in-game reason & is much more reliable when compared to the other options.
Be seriously betrayed by someone you trusted -> Fail miserably at something and let others down There's only so many times a betrayal can happen before it gets boring, it also starts feeling forced when players are expecting to be betrayed so they can rack up experience points. This also has the added bonus of rewarding failed rolls, which encourages players to make rolls for things they wouldn't attempt otherwise, which makes for better storytelling.
I agree with you on the experience points. Repeated betrayals would come off as boring after a while, especially in a longer campaign, which I hadn't considered. And the phrasing of "come across" does encourage a more passive way to experience the game.
In terms of status moves, this game originally had 4 moves per type, before I ran out of ideas halfway through. Single type-based status moves weren't something I'd considered, especially after Abilities took that role, but I do see how status moves would improve combat complexity. I'll have a look and see if I've got enough ideas to fill out a type chart. If not, I might make a list of typeless status moves, since STAB wouldn't affect them anyway. Thanks again!
In playing this system a bit more I thought I would add a few of the other changes I made that improved the gameplay experience:
I found the skill rolls to be a bit too predictable after a +2 bonus (since you basically can't fail after that point) so instead of using the proficiency as a straight bonus to the roll itself, I changed it so proficiency just adds the number of dice you roll. I gave various tasks a success threshold (1 for easy tasks, 2 for more complicated, 3 for very difficult) and each dice roll can add various amounts of successes based on the result (6s give 2 successes, 5/4s give 1 success, 3/2s give 0 successes, and 1s subtract a success) This helped to add more unpredictability to skill rolls, allowed for more complex skill thresholds, and still rewarded skill investment.
Stats got to be a problem in combat whenever a target's defensive stats were just too high, turning combat into a long slog of throwing d6 after d6 only to do between 1-4 damage, so I revamped the character creation & level up system for stats. I had each player roll six batches of 6d6-5 (range of 1-31) to determine their IVs, then had them pick a nature (which I also used to reward inspiration points whenever they RP'd within that chosen nature which could be redeemed for a reroll of any roll) and then used their species to calculate their stat totals. I still kept the existing stat system for level ups, but I turned them into EV stats (which I also used to reward players for engaging in combat with minor stat boosts over time)
If you want any help coming up with various move ideas for the types I'd love to help with the brainstorming process. The way I did it in game is I gave my players the ability to come up with their own moves (limited to four total) that they could define based on their character's type, species, personality, or skills. For instance: one character is a pickpocket so they were allowed a thief-like move to steal items/poke from targets.
about a month late XD but a thought I had with the system and the +2 to stats was.. would it work to tune the rolls to a 2d6 Powered By The Apocalypse style? Like…
2-6: miss/GM makes a (doesn’t have to be a full fall, but the GM does get to complicate things
7-9: partial success
10+: full success (maybe 12+ is crit?)
Can cap the skills at +2, major skills start at +1, minor skills at 0, rest at-1? Balancing that with the bonuses from characteristics, I’m not sure of, perhaps if your characteristic increases the cap of that stat to +3? might that reduce that feeling inability to miss while keeping rolls somewhat simple?
"Moves" as they exist in the game don't exist in PMDTA. Instead, when you attack a target, you choose whether to use Attack or Special Attack, and choose which of your types to use (if you have more than one). Then you multiply your attack stat by the modifiers applied to it (if the attack is super effective or you have only the one type, etc) and subtract the target's Defense or Special Defense stat from it (Minimum damage dealt is 1).
Hm, now that I write it out it seems very complicated, but it flowed pretty well in the playtests.
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I want to run a game using your rules but have many questions, like how to calculate the range of attacks. Is there a way to message you besides here?
I'm most active on my Tumblr, ali-dot-txt, which is linked on my itch page so I'll for sure see messages sent to me there. As for ranges, PMDTA is a "theater of the mind" system, so it's largely up to players and the Narrator whether an attack is classified as happening at range or not.
This looks absolutely awesome!! I can't wait to run it at some point. Good job!
pog
How does moves work?
LIke hyper beam And etc etc
For the sake of simplicity, this system doesn't have "moves" as such. When a Pokémon attacks, it's a simple matter of choosing whether the attack is physical (uses Atk) or special (uses Sp. Atk) and then choosing a type, if the Pokémon has multiple. You can see the rules for attacking starting under "Option 1: Attack" on page 2.
11/10 wouId pIay again. Hope you add custom stuff for movement and status moves ^-^
the simplicity of this system is amazing, this is the closest to the real PMD experience in terms of ttrpgs Ive played in the setting (and I've played most of them)
The lack of strict stats & moves makes even the strangest of pokemon choices viable, and the ease of creating player characters & combat encounters is a massive plus. The in combat math is not too difficult at all, and a simple calculator makes it a breeze.
However the loss of status moves for a strictly combat focused system is a negative. I'd suggest giving each type a utility move they can choose in combat to do instead of attacking (example: steel type could raise its defense, water type could pop an aqua ring to slowly regain HP, etc) or make those moves into TMs to add more combat strategy beyond just spamming attacks & items.
I love the way the experience system is set up, helps to reward combat avoidance & social RP, however I did make a few changes in the wording of some boxes:
Come across a place no living Pokemon has seen. -> Explore a new location you've never been to before.
the Exploring here is its own separate action, which encourages players to scour new places and gives Narrators opportunities to describe the place in detail for an engaging in-game reason & is much more reliable when compared to the other options.
Be seriously betrayed by someone you trusted -> Fail miserably at something and let others down
There's only so many times a betrayal can happen before it gets boring, it also starts feeling forced when players are expecting to be betrayed so they can rack up experience points. This also has the added bonus of rewarding failed rolls, which encourages players to make rolls for things they wouldn't attempt otherwise, which makes for better storytelling.
Thank you for the kind comment!
I agree with you on the experience points. Repeated betrayals would come off as boring after a while, especially in a longer campaign, which I hadn't considered. And the phrasing of "come across" does encourage a more passive way to experience the game.
In terms of status moves, this game originally had 4 moves per type, before I ran out of ideas halfway through. Single type-based status moves weren't something I'd considered, especially after Abilities took that role, but I do see how status moves would improve combat complexity. I'll have a look and see if I've got enough ideas to fill out a type chart. If not, I might make a list of typeless status moves, since STAB wouldn't affect them anyway. Thanks again!
In playing this system a bit more I thought I would add a few of the other changes I made that improved the gameplay experience:
I found the skill rolls to be a bit too predictable after a +2 bonus (since you basically can't fail after that point) so instead of using the proficiency as a straight bonus to the roll itself, I changed it so proficiency just adds the number of dice you roll. I gave various tasks a success threshold (1 for easy tasks, 2 for more complicated, 3 for very difficult) and each dice roll can add various amounts of successes based on the result (6s give 2 successes, 5/4s give 1 success, 3/2s give 0 successes, and 1s subtract a success) This helped to add more unpredictability to skill rolls, allowed for more complex skill thresholds, and still rewarded skill investment.
Stats got to be a problem in combat whenever a target's defensive stats were just too high, turning combat into a long slog of throwing d6 after d6 only to do between 1-4 damage, so I revamped the character creation & level up system for stats. I had each player roll six batches of 6d6-5 (range of 1-31) to determine their IVs, then had them pick a nature (which I also used to reward inspiration points whenever they RP'd within that chosen nature which could be redeemed for a reroll of any roll) and then used their species to calculate their stat totals. I still kept the existing stat system for level ups, but I turned them into EV stats (which I also used to reward players for engaging in combat with minor stat boosts over time)
If you want any help coming up with various move ideas for the types I'd love to help with the brainstorming process. The way I did it in game is I gave my players the ability to come up with their own moves (limited to four total) that they could define based on their character's type, species, personality, or skills. For instance: one character is a pickpocket so they were allowed a thief-like move to steal items/poke from targets.
about a month late XD but a thought I had with the system and the +2 to stats was.. would it work to tune the rolls to a 2d6 Powered By The Apocalypse style? Like…
2-6: miss/GM makes a (doesn’t have to be a full fall, but the GM does get to complicate things
7-9: partial success
10+: full success (maybe 12+ is crit?)
Can cap the skills at +2, major skills start at +1, minor skills at 0, rest at-1? Balancing that with the bonuses from characteristics, I’m not sure of, perhaps if your characteristic increases the cap of that stat to +3? might that reduce that feeling inability to miss while keeping rolls somewhat simple?
Though got to ask a quick question how do moves work in this system? it has me a bit confused.
"Moves" as they exist in the game don't exist in PMDTA. Instead, when you attack a target, you choose whether to use Attack or Special Attack, and choose which of your types to use (if you have more than one). Then you multiply your attack stat by the modifiers applied to it (if the attack is super effective or you have only the one type, etc) and subtract the target's Defense or Special Defense stat from it (Minimum damage dealt is 1).
Hm, now that I write it out it seems very complicated, but it flowed pretty well in the playtests.
This is pretty fucking cool