Trainers do not start with a class, but they can begin acquiring them as they go. The classes are grouped by skill so that you can look at the skills on your sheet and see a list of classes we think you might be interested. You do not have to have the skill to take the class, and in most cases it won't actually matter if you have it or not. For example, fishing uses the nature skill, but we put the Fisherman class under the heading of the swimming skill because we assumed that people who listed swimming on their sheet probably spends a lot of time around water and might likely be interested in fishing, whereas this is not as likely to be true of someone who listed nature.
Ancient[]
Fossil Hound[]
This class specializes in paleontology, fossils, and fossil Pokemon.
Prehistoric Power: All fossil Pokemon you have get +10 to their Speed IV and +10 to another of their IV's that you pick. Additionally, the move Ancient Power deals double damage when your Pokemon use it. These benefits only apply to your Pokemon; those you trade away do not retain this benefit.
Science Contacts: Whenever you find a fossil you can send it in to be revived, quickly, by one of your contacts in exchange for them getting the first chance to analyze the fossil.
Treasure Hunter: Whenever the GM calls for rolls to locate abandoned or lost items, you may spend a kudo to find an additional item. Fossils count as items.
Artistry[]
Confectioner[]
Confectioners make candy and sweets to power up their Pokemon and their friends' Pokemon.
The Candyman Can: Every time you catch a new Pokemon, evolve one, or release one, you can make a piece of candy for that Pokemon's evolutionary line. You can feed any Pokemon from that evolutionary line that candy to give it a tick on its evolutionary track and then immediately roll for evolution. For Pokemon that evolve by FP, this grants them 1 FP, and for those that evolve by energy, roll a d6. On a 6, the Pokemon evolves.
Chocolate-Covered Berries: You can dip a berry in $50 worth of chocolate. This causes the berry to heal an additional 50 HP on top its other effects.
Poffin Baker: You can spend a kudo to start making poffins, and anyone you let help can spend a kudo to join in. You and all helpers contribute a berry to the mix, and then you roll your artistry skill. The created poffins are held items that Pokemon can consume as they see fit in battle as a free action. They have the effects of all the berries that went into the mix and they heal HP equal to your artistry roll. This creates one poffin for each person who included a berry and a kudo.
Costumer[]
Costumers make outfits for their Pokemon that not only enhance combat performance but also look frickin' sweet.
Part of the Outfit: All Pokemon you have may carry an item with them in addition to wearing a outfit, as if they had the cosplayer ability. Pokemon who already have that ability have a second ability they get access to that is tied to the costume they are wearing. So a Cosplay Pikachu might gain the ability vigilant while wearing a guard uniform and then healer while dressing as a doctor, in addition to the outfit's normal benefit. You may also teach your Pokemon the move Cosplay at will.
Wardrobe Malfunction: If a Pokemon is hit by an attack, you may decide that the outfit takes the damage. This destroys the outfit, but the attack has no effect on the Pokemon.
Burst of Inspiration: You may make a new outfit for a Pokemon at the cost of a kudo. This also costs 2d6 times $100 if you can't justify having the necessary supplies on hand. (For example, if you want to make a hula girl costume and there's grass and coconuts available nearby, you wouldn't have to pay any money). Your outfit will grant some sort of bonus, usually one of these:
- Change the wearer's secondary type to a specific type of your choosing.
- Gain a second ability while wearing the outfit.
- Increase HP by 50.
- You may also copy another outfit's bonus and give it to the outfit you're making.
Musician[]
These rock stars and stage performers are great at playing and dancing to music.
Song and Dance: All of your Pokemon add the following moves to their learnable moveset: Sing, Round, Dragon Dance, Petal Dance, Trumpet, Electric Boogaloo, and any other moves you come across that relate to music or dance.
Play That Funky Music: Your music can inspire your Pokemon to dance with joy, making them happier and more agile. You can now play music as a command action that grants the normal benefits of both the dodge and encourage commands in a single action.
Power Ballad: You play a song that encourages all your team's Pokemon. This costs 1 kudo. All allied Pokemon get 1 FP and are dodging until the start of their next turn. Additionally, the music wakes up all sleeping Pokemon on the field.
Painter[]
Painters use the visual arts and keen observation to gain a deeper understanding of their surroundings and express it in an inspiring way.
Body Paint: By applying $100 worth of paint to a Pokemon's skin/fur/shell/etc you can inspire it, even another trainer's Pokemon if they let you. The Pokemon gains 1 FP from enjoying the attention, and if you have the artistry skill also gains one of the following bonuses, (which wears off after a battle):
Camouflage: By matching the paint scheme to blend in with an arena's environment, the Pokemon enters the arena sneaking.
War Paint: This gets the Pokemon aggressive, causing the first attack it makes to crit.
Metallic Coat: The reflective coating breaks off, causing the Pokemon to ignore the first status that would hit it.
Beauty Treatment: This makes the Pokemon feel pretty. It gains an extra 2 FP.
Pigment Change: Subtly changing the Pokemon's complexion makes it appear to most people to be shiny, rather than a typical Pokemon (or can make a shiny Pokemon appear not shiny).
(Consider what painting a Pokemon's surface might do to the Pokemon. This will mess with a Kecleon's color changing abilities as well as abilities like Sneaking or Chlorophyll. Costumes might interfere with or get better with different painting)
The Joy of Painting: All of your Pokemon get the use of the move Sketch even if it's not listed as a learnable move. However, they may only have one move on their list at any given time that they have learned via Sketch. Any Pokemon that would already be able to learn Sketch can learn Novelty Pokemon in place of that move.
Moving Art: You can spend a kudo to make an inspired portrait of one of your beloved Pokemon, or another trainer's. Any time you show off the painting while the subject is present, it gains friendship points. 1 if less than 10 people are appreciating its painting, 1d6 if it's 10-100 people, and full friendship points if over 100 people are there. You can have a roving gallery show including many paintings, and those you spent a kudo on can bring great happiness to the Pokemon you painted.
Photographer[]
Photographers specialize in snapping epic pictures of Pokemon and selling them to publications.
Nature Shot: During an encounter, as your action you may choose to shoot a picture, which you can then sell for $10 times your artistry roll. You get an additional $500 for each other Pokemon of the same species there are in the photo, and the shot is increased in value by $500 for each time the Pokemon is evolved from its base form. The shot value is multiplied by 10 if the Pokemon is legendary.
Flash Photography: Interfering in a Pokemon battle is against the rules, but taking pictures is fine. As a command action during combat, you may take a picture worth $10 times your artistry roll, plus 10 times the power of the last move the subject used. Its value is doubled if the Pokemon is shiny. Gain an extra $500 on top of that if the move was a Z-move. You may choose to use a flash, and if you do so the target is blinded.
Sharp Eyes: You may spend a kudo to find an extra encounter in the region you are in.
Athletics[]
Athlete[]
Athletes are experts at movement and they exercise with their Pokemon so that both become faster..
Double Dash: When your Pokemon takes two dash actions in the same turn, its second dash action can be a number of spaces equal to 1/10 its speed EV instead of its normal dash distance.
Run, Forretress, Run: You may spend an FP to cause your Pokemon to take an extra dash action on its turn.
Gymnastics: You may spend a kudo and for its entire turn your Pokemon on the field may nimbly move across the terrain without penalty, but still getting any terrain bonuses you would want it to get. A Charmander could jump across water while a Pidgey could dive and run across beneficial terrain.
Juggler[]
Jugglers are masters of throwing Pokeballs and switching up their team tactically.
Fastball: When you throw a Pokemon onto the field, it can immediately take a single command action.
Rebound: When a Pokemon of yours is forced off the field you can send it back out onto the field instead of being forced to switch to a different Pokemon.
Hail Mary: By spending a Kudo you can throw a pokeball to anywhere on the field.
Awareness[]
Investigator[]
As a cop or private eye, you can spot clues, and specialize in investigating crimes.
Gut Instinct: Whenever you enter a location while working on a mystery, the GM tells you how many clues are in that location, and of those, how many you can currently get to.
You Know My Methods: When one of your Pokemon identifies an enemy, it is harshly identified. If it was already harshly identified, the next attack made against it automatically crits.
Lie Detector: You may spend a kudo while having a conversation with someone, and you automatically know every time they tell a lie.
Tracker[]
Trackers are guides and scouts, able to spot a wild Sentret before it spots them and determine the path of a Zubat by following its trail.
Examine Spoor: Whenever you enter an area with wild Pokemon, you get a list of all Pokemon that may be found there as well as a rough idea of how likely they are to show up.
Pokemon Translator: You can understand the speech of Pokemon as if it were a second language to you. This does not mean that Pokemon have human-like cognition and are capable of the same complex thought processes that humans do.
Seek the Unique: After Pokemon have been revealed for an encounter, you may spend a kudo to specify that the Pokemon found is shiny, one higher or lower challenge rating than normal, or an evolved or less evolved form than would typically apply. You may only do one of these per Pokemon, however.
Climb[]
Crafts[]
Empathy[]
Helpful Soul[]
Helpful souls are always ready to lend a hand and make someone else the hero.
Lend a Hand: All your Pokemon can learn the move helping hand. Additionally, any beneficial self moves they have can be used on themselves or an adjacent ally.
Helpful Spirit: Your Pokemon may spend FP on behalf of any allied Pokemon in range. When doing so, they have a 50/50 chance of getting the FP back.
Kudo Ability: You may spend kudos on behalf of your allies, and when you do, you have a 50/50 chance of getting the kudo back.
Loyal Friend[]
Loyal friends stay true to their starter Pokemon, no matter what. And their starter stays true to them.
Start to Finish: Your starter Pokemon can get the badge bonuses from all gyms it helped you beat.
Unbreakable Bond: Any time your starter spends an FP it has a 50/50 chance of getting that FP back immediately. Your starter also won't run away except in the case of exceptional abuse.
Not Over Yet: Once per fight, when your starter is KO'd, you can leave it on the field and then spend a kudo at the start of its next turn to inspire it to get back up, reviving at 2d60 HP.
Pokefriend[]
There are those who have such overflowing compassion toward their Pokemon that their bond forms immediately and stays deep forever.
Warm Welcome: Every Pokemon you capture gains 3 friendship points immediately.
In Sync: Your Pokemon know when you need that critical hit and may spend 2 friendship points to automatically crit on an attack.
The Friendship Deepens: You may spend a kudo to grant a Pokemon of yours 1d6 friendship points.
Health[]
Influence[]
Actor[]
Actors specialize in Pokemon theater, diving into the drama and getting the most out of their performance.
More Roles: Every time you take part in a theater play, you get an extra director's note for double the challenge and double the rewards. All of your Pokemon have the move Roleplay among their learnable moves, but do not keep it when traded to another trainer.
Rising Star: Every time you encounter a NPC for the first time you may roll a d20. If the die comes up less than or equal to the number of contest ribbons you have won, that NPC has heard of you and has a favorable impression. On a 20, they're not a fan.
Script Change: When about to perform a play, you may spend a kudo to change something in a scene, taking out a part you don't like, rewriting something, or adding a plot point or detail.
Cheerleader[]
Cheerleaders are able to make people feel energized and inspired, whether through dance and cheer routines or simply through a smile and kind personality.
Popular One: You're very likeable. However any NPC views the party, they generally view you one step more favorably.
Go Team: When you encourage your Pokemon, all allied Pokemon are encouraged. Any other bonuses you apply while encouraging only affect your Pokemon.
You Can Do It: You may spend a kudo on behalf of someone else, and when you do so you have a 50/50 chance of getting your kudo back.
Martial Arts[]
Pugilist[]
Some people look at Pokemon battles and think they're horrifying and cruel to Pokemon. Others think they look like fun. Guess which one you are.
Fighting Spirit: Your secondary type is now fighting.
Dog Tags: Somehow, some way, you got yourself registered as a Pokemon. Though you still have all the rights of a human, you will be able to participate in Pokemon battles. You can still have 6 other Pokemon besides yourself. You can also apply a single badge bonus to yourself.
Sparring Partner: You can spend a kudo to learn any fighting move or any normal move that it would make sense that a human could learn, provided one of your Pokemon already knows it. So you could learn quick attack or sing but not hyper beam or self destruct. Unlike a Pokemon, you do not have the 6 move limit.
Medicine[]
Medic[]
Medics are trained to practice healing in the field, with minimal equipment and supplies.
Prescription: You can equip your Pokemon with a potion, revive, or other such out-of-battle healing item. Pokemon can use such an item as if it were a berry.
Placebo Effect: When you encourage a Pokemon you may also remove one of its status effects or heal it for 1d60 HP. You also get these benefits whenever you use any medicine, on top of whatever the medicine's effect is.
Heal Pokemon: You can spend a kudo to apply field medicine and fully heal a Pokemon, as if it were taken to a Pokemon center. Other trainers can spend a kudo for you to heal their Pokemon.
Muscle[]
Mysteries[]
Cryptid Hunter[]
Cryptid hunters seek out the rarest and most intriguing Pokemon to add to their collections.
Weirder Is Better: You may grant all your shiny Pokemon an extra badge bonus. This carries over if they are traded to another trainer.
Master of Legends: You may handle up to 3 legendary Pokemon. Any after the first will disobey you until you have acquired sufficient badges.
Tipoff: By spending a kudo you may get a lead on a legendary Pokemon. You'll probably require multiple leads before you catch one. The GM may add more legendary Pokemon to the game to account for this.
Hex Maniac[]
Hex maniacs are masters of bad luck.
Ofuda: You may make ofuda from $50 of supplies that are easily purchased from most general stores. By writing magical kanji on slips of paper, you bless them to become these ofuda. They are one-use only but as a held item will nullify the first status effect that would otherwise affect the bearer. You can also make spell tags for $500 that grant STAB to ghost moves as a held item.
Curse: Any of your Pokemon may spend a friendship point to reroll an enemy's die, instead of their own.
Evil Eye: You may spend a kudo at any time, as a free action, to cause any person or Pokemon to fail a task or miss an attack or in some other way fail due to sudden, inexplicable bad luck.
Psychic[]
Some humans develop powerful supernatural abilities. Known as psychics, their abilities set them apart from the rest of humanity.
Supernatural Luck: When you spend a Kudo normally, not associated with any class ability, you have a 50/50 chance of getting it back. The same goes for when your Pokemon spends an FP to reroll a die.
Third Eye: Your mysteries skill now functions as your ability to perceive supernatural energies, just like awareness works for the physical world. You can see ghost Pokemon without a Silph Scope. This feature changes your typing from normal to psychic.
Telepathic Bond: You can spend a kudo to learn any psychic move that one of your Pokemon knows. Unlike a Pokemon, you do not have the 6 move limit. You can conceal the fact that you are using a psychic power if it is natural by burning out that move for the scene. Otherwise, it's too taxing for you to use the move and conceal your use at the same time, though perhaps you can explain away your hand motions, nosebleeds, etc...
Nature[]
Gardener[]
Berry Juicer: You can turn berries into juice. This costs $20 and the berry heals 1d60 HP in addition to whatever other effect it would have.
Johnny Appleseed: You can plant berries in just about any wild location, given a bit of time. Each berry you plant grows a bush that produces 1d6 berries of whatever you planted if you return at a later date (at least a couple sessions). You're also able to pick berries from bushes without killing the bush.
Bountiful Harvest: You can spend a kudo to double the amount of berries you get from all berry bushes currently around you.
Reflexes[]
Science[]
Chemist[]
Chemists act like pharmacists, creating healing tonics. But they also tend to be excellent at creating explosives.
Craft Potion: You can spend $100 to create a potion that heals HP equal to your medicine roll.
Craft Bomb: You can spend $200 to create an explosive that can be thrown by you or a Pokemon as a command action and deals damage equal to your mind to a target in range, of a type chosen when you make the bomb. If you have the science skill, it can also inflict a status effect of your choosing that makes sense with the damage type. Safety features cause it to self-destruct and deal its effect to the holder if held by an enemy. If used with Fling, it deals the effect of the bomb on top of the 20 damage based on its value.
Reload: You can spend a kudo to change the held item of a returned or benched Pokemon mid-combat as a free action.
Hacker[]
Hackers are rulers of the digital world.
Modder: You can write a mod for Porygon. If you have the strongest version of Porygon the GM is including (Porygon, Porygon2, or Porygon-Z) then you can run your mod that improves its performance once per scene. Treat this like a mega evolution, except that you need no key stone or mega stone, and this doesn't count as your limit of only mega evolving one Pokemon per scene. It also does not require a kudo to activate, but you can only run one modded Pokemon per scene.
Ride the Lightning: It is possible for humans to get turned into data like Pokemon, to be stored in Pokeballs or be transferred between Pokemon centers or enter a computer and examine the code as a digital entity. Most humans hate the sensation of doing so, but you've adapted and will put up with it. You never suffer discomfort or penalties for going digital.
Digital Pirate: You may spend a Kudo to make a copy of a TM. If its power is less than your mind score, you can spend a second kudo to turn it into an HM.
Professor[]
There are those who seek out knowledge and new discoveries about Pokemon to broaden their understanding of the Pokemon world, and then use that understanding to accomplish things undreamed of before.
Learning: Every time you catch a Pokemon, you can train all stats of a different Pokemon from the same evolutionary line. For example, if you catch an Ivysaur you can train all stats off a Bulbasaur, Ivysaur, or Venusaur you already own.
Repertoire of Knowledge: Instead of rolling for any skill that would depend on your knowledge of Pokemon, you can substitute the number of Pokemon you've entered in your pokedex for the skill roll.
Discovery: You can spend a kudo to declare a fact about a Pokemon that is now true, such as that Wartortle can hold up to 2 gallons of water, or that Oddish leaves are incredibly toxic. The fact must be plausible and not overpowering.
Technician[]
Technicians keep their equipment running and working overtime.
Pokeball Repair: After an encounter, you can fix 1d6 of the Pokeballs that were thrown.
Satellite Uplink: Satellite uplinks are tricky to run and expensive, but you have one. Normally these are just used to send emails and calls, but by spending a $100 you can transfer an item or Pokemon from your PC to your person. Sending Pokemon is, as always, free. You can allow others to use your uplink.
Signature Pokeball: You may spend kudos to devlelop specialized pokeballs. Usually these get 4 dice to capture a particular type of Pokemon that you decide. As an example, you might develop a gravity ball that gets 4 dice to capture any Pokemon with the abilities airborne, flying brick, or levitate that allow it to go over terrain. Building a specialized pokeball requires $500 in supplies. The kudo cost is equal to 1 plus the number of specialized Pokeball blueprints you have already developed.
Stealth[]
Ninja[]
Ninjas use the arts of stealth and distraction to confuse their foes.
Stealthy: Once per Pokemon per battle, you may cause your active Pokemon to become sneaking at the end of its turn. You may also gain the sneaking status as a side benefit anytime you roll stealth if you wish.
Critical Strike: After a Pokemon rolls to crit, you can spend 1 FP to bump one of the dice up or down by 10.
Blackout: Lights just sometimes go out when you're around. You can spend a kudo to cause a brief power outage in the building you're in, in a way that might not be your fault.
Smooth Criminal[]
Smooth Criminals are the thieves and gangsters of the Pokemon world, stealing and selling Pokemon for power and profit.
Black Market Connections: You can buy stolen goods at half price and also can always find a fence for anything you obtained illicitly. You can also sell Pokemon for $5 times the sum of their stats, ten times that for legendaries. You may buy Pokemon on the black market at whatever price the GM sees fit to list them at.
Monologuing Is a Free Action: When ambushing a rival trainer, you may spout your motto and inspire dread. So long as all you do is deliver your motto, no one else, human or Pokemon, may take any actions.
Stockholm Syndrome: When you steal another trainer's Pokemon, you can spend a kudo and it will accept you as its new trainer.
Swimming[]
Fisherman[]
Fish: You have your own fishing rod and anytime the party fishes by net you automatically catch an extra Pokemon from the encounter table, not even needing to roll to see if the pokeball successfully catches the Pokemon. Additionally, add the move Fish to the learnable moves of any water Pokemon of yours as well as for any others that could reasonably fish.
Cut Bait: You can create bait at half cost. Old bait is free for you to create.
The Big One: Every body of water has the "Big One," the monster that everyone wants to catch. You may spend a kudo to have a chance at getting it. While fishing with your rod, the GM will pick the best Pokemon on that body of water's encounter table and give you a chance to catch it at strong challenge rating, maxed if you have 4 or more badges, but it will also disobey. Such a creature will be the stuff of local legend, and will also be shiny. All such Pokemon that escape without being captured are considered to have the gargantuan ability when you tell the story later. Activating this feature costs and extra kudo for each Big One you have already captured, and you can't catch more than one Big One per body of water unless the GM says otherwise.
Miscellaneous Classes[]
Ace Trainer[]
Ace trainers are the kings and queens of battle, able to bring out more from Pokemon than those Pokemon would have thought possible.
Mankey See, Mankey Do: Your Pokemon's learnable moves list now includes any move that any other of your Pokemon knows that would make sense for it to be able to learn. The Pokemon retain these moves even when traded.
Overpower: Your Pokemon can push themselves to the limit, spending a friendship point to do an extra 1d60 damage.
Intense Training: You can spend a kudo to raise one of your Pokemon's EV's by 10, but never higher than 60.
Babysitter[]
Babysitters raise eggs and baby Pokemon. They're always on the lookout for eggs in need of care.
Prenatal Care: By taking care of the Pokemon before it hatches, it trains all of its stats once upon hatching.
Baby Wearing: Any Pokemon with a pouch, such as Chansey or Khangaskhan, may carry an egg with it as a held item. Each egg held in this way does not count against of your 6 Pokemon limit.
Adoption: You may spend a kudo to declare you find an abandoned egg. The GM will either pick a Pokemon at random that it hatches into, or a special one that would be meaningful to the player.
Breeder[]
Breeders specialize in selectively breeding Pokemon to produce stronger offspring and then raising them well.
Legacy: If you breed a Pokemon, it inherits an additional move of your choice from one of its parents.
Epigenetics: All of your Pokemon can pass one of their badge bonuses onto all of their offspring, which can then be given an additional badge bonus. Said offspring pass down all inherited badge bonuses plus one more bonus. No Pokemon may get the bonus from the same badge twice, however. The parent passing down badge bonuses must have all EV's at least 10 times the number of badge bonuses being passed down, so a parent passing down 4 badge bonuses must have all EV's at least 40. The trainer may also choose to pass down a nature or shiny coloration that either parent had on top of all that, but not both.
Parental Instincts: You can spend a kudo to train two of your Pokemon's stats, provided you hatched that Pokemon from an egg.
Caretaker[]
Caretakers work at Pokemon nurseries and daycares, raising their own and others' Pokemon with dedication and skill.
Trustworthy: When trading Pokemon, they do not lose all their FP.
Pamper: You can give Pokemon haircuts or stylings that grant it 1 friendship point, plus another if you have empathy or artistry, and a total of 3 FP if you have both skills. This costs you $250 in supplies and can be done for other trainers' Pokemon.
Teach Tricks: You can spend a kudo to teach a Pokemon a new move from its learnable moves list. This can even apply to other trainers' Pokemon if they allow it, and they can spend the kudo. The other trainer's Pokemon receives a tick on its cross-training track if applicable and checks to evolve.
Expert[]
There are various classes that allow you to improve your battling, strengthen your Pokemon, and forge deeper bonds of friendship. If you're boring, you can just be an expert. Choose a skill. This makes you really good at doing normal, boring things with that skill.
Skill Mastery: Pick one skill of yours as your chosen skill. When rolling your 2d60 for that skill, take the sum of the two dice rather than the highest.
Favored Stat: Whenever you train the stat associated with your chosen skill, instead of rolling, automatically increase it by 10 so long as you don't go above 60 for your EV.
Master's Perfection: Before making a roll with your chosen skill, you can spend a kudo and declare that you get an automatic total of 120 on your two dice.
Legacy[]
You have inherited a legacy of greatness as a trainer. Perhaps your father is retiring and is passing his experiences and Pokemon on to you. Perhaps you are inheriting from an aunt who died. Perhaps your friend got paralyzed and wants you to continue his journey. Whatever the case, you stand taller on the shoulders of one who went before. (This class allows you to transfer benefits from other Pokemon games you've played into this one. Ideally you should still own the game or trading cards or whatever to demonstrate what you are transferring in.)
Journal: Many Pokemon trainers take notes on the Pokemon they capture. You may study these notes. Once per session you may add information to your Pokedex on a Pokemon you have captured in another Pokemon game, or collected as a trading card. This need not be information on a Pokemon that is available in the region in which you the game is set.
Inheritance: Whenever you win a battle for money, you may pick one item from that game and transfer it into yours. The GM should veto particularly game-breaking items.
Passing Down: You may take a Pokemon from the game you played and gain it as one of your own. This costs kudos equal to the to-catch number of the Pokemon's challenge rating. (Starter = 1, Weak = 2, Average = 3, Strong = 4, Maxed = 5). Additionally, if you do not have at least that number of badges, the Pokemon will disobey. After generating the Pokemon in this game at the appropriate challenge rating, you may replace any of its known moves with moves it had in the original game. So if you taught a Pikachu the move Payday with a TM back in the day, you may have it still know that move. This chart shows how to convert Pokemon from other games into this one.
Mad Strategist[]
Mad strategists go to phrase is "It's so crazy it just might work." Their out-of-the-box thinking and half-baked ideas lend then an unpredictable edge in battle.
Benefit of the Doubt: If you're trying some weird tactic in battle, the GM should give you more leeway than other players get. Since this is about doing things the rules don't normally permit, we can't give you good guidelines here.
Adaptive Tactics: You can find ways to get moves to do what they normally wouldn't. Doing so prevents your Pokemon from being able to roll to crit and costs it a friendship point. Given appropriate justification, you can cause any of these effects.
+30 damage (of any type)Any status effect (harsh if the Pokemon is vulnerable to the attack's type)+30 pin damage or 15 repeating damageUser becomes sneaking.User heals 20 HP or recovers from a status.Change from area effect to hit a single space, or vice versaMove does not miss.Move the target 3 spaces.+3 Range or dash.
You need to have a good reason as to why you can do one of these. Maybe the Thunderbolt starts a fire for 30 fire damage or 15 repeating damage. Maybe it can hit all targets along a line. Maybe the bright flash covers up the user's movement, allowing it to sneak. The point is to provide some guidelines for how much more tactics you can squeeze into a move, not let you add any effect you want for no reason. So if you want to deal ice damage you need to explain how the move would cause that sudden cooling.
Psuedotype: You may spend a kudo to declare a new type advantage. For example, maybe all rodent Pokemon are weak against scratching and biting attacks from cat Pokemon. Or maybe all steel Pokemon are reflective enough to take half damage from all beam attacks. Whatever the case, if it makes sense, and you spend the kudo, it becomes canon within the campaign.
Pitcher[]
Pitchers are great at throwing Pokeballs and other items, which ironically makes them great catchers. Catchers of Pokemon that is.
Curveballs: Pokemon can see a pokeball coming, but curveballs catch them off guard. Whenever you throw any type of pokeball, from standard pokeball to ultraball to dive ball, you get an extra die to catch Pokemon.
Throw Rock: Any trainer can throw a rock during an encounter, but you can pitch it right between the Pokemon's eyes (or wherever else a weakspot might be). This weakens the Pokemon twice, meaning all other trainers get 2 extra dice to catch it.
Double Toss: You can spend a kudo to throw two pokeballs at once during an encounter, a feat of uncanny coordination.
Specialist[]
Specialists focus on a single type, and are often found training in gyms of their favored type.
Favored Type: Choose a specific Pokemon type, such as fire or dark. Whenever one of your Pokemon of that type gains an FP, it gets double FP. You also get an extra die to catch all Pokemon of that type.
TM Pipeline: A company has offered you discount TM's in return for your research that helped make them possible. Pick two TM's and one HM of your favored type. You may purchase them at 1/10 their normal cost (HM's cost 10 times what the TM for the same move would, but are reusable). You can use this to give your friends cheap TM's, but don't expect to be able to sell them for profit. The TM's and HM's associated with this class must be of 100 power or less until you beat the Elite 4.
Fated Meeting: You can spend a kudo to have the GM add another Pokemon of your favored type to an encounter. If there are no Pokemon of your favored type on the encounter table, the GM can either add one anyway or refund your kudo.
Tactician[]
Tacticians are the plotters and planners in battles, always having a trick up their sleeve to turn even the most catastrophic of circumstances into unexpected victory.
Like Clockwork: As a result of your leadership, all of your Pokemon have the ability Precision, in addition to any other abilities they may have. They do not retain this if traded to another trainer.
Broader Tactics: All of your Pokemon may learn a seventh move. They retain this even if traded.
Micromanage: You may spend a kudo up to once per turn to command one of your Pokemon or an ally's Pokemon to immediately take a command action, even if it is not that Pokemon's normal turn, provided they're not interrupting another Pokemon's action.
Trader[]
Friendly Trade: Pokemon you receive in trade do not lose their friendship points. Pokemon you trade away regain the friendship points they had when you get them back.
Cross-Trainer: Whenever you get assistance from a Pokemon that you received in trade but didn't originally catch, it gets double experience and double ticks on its cross-train track.
Strike Up a Deal: You may spend a kudo and the GM picks a nearby person who's up to trade with you. It is the GM's choice of what they're looking for and what they are looking to find. If you choose not to accept the trade you have a 50/50 chance of getting your kudo back.
Tycoon[]
Tycoons are the savvy investors and financiers of the Pokemon world, making their money make money for them.
Sellout: Whenever you take part in a Pokemon Theater play, you get an extra sponsor request.
Platinum Rewards Card: This credit card is the ultimate for the financially well-off. It offers rewards of 1 point for every $10 spent, and points can be spent 1-for-1 like pokedollars. The list of things that can be bought with these points is found here. Platinum rewards are only earned at participating merchants, which usually means not at bargain-basement places. You can also spend more than you have although you have to pay it back at 10% interest next session.
Investment Portfolio: You may spend a kudo to earn 1d6 times $1,000 off whatever combination of investments, trust funds, market speculation, and lottery tickets fits your character.
Classes that Change Play[]
All the above classes are designed for standard gameplay. The ones that follow will change how you experience the game. Talk to your GM about whether or not they would be acceptable, and which of their benefits and penalties you would get at the start of the game.
Chimera[]
There are rumors of human/pokemon hybrids out there, whether the result of mad science, a mystic curse, or burst combination gone wrong. Chimeras are anthropomorphic Pokemon with the best parts of their human and Pokemon selves.
Half Human: You retain all the rights of a human and may carry 6 Pokemon. You have all the same things a human character would have, such as goals, kudos, You may also go into battle yourself.
Half Pokemon: You get the ability, typing, and IV's of your chosen Pokemon. You have a learnable moves list that includes all entries for learnable moves for the Pokemon. You may evolve.
Learn Moves: You may spend a kudo to learn a move from your learnable moves list. If your IV's total 120 or less, you may learn as many moves as you wish. If not, you may only learn 6. This is to balance out those who start as an overpowered Pokemon.
Kiddo[]
Kiddos don't have all the rights and privileges of an adult, but also not as many of the responsibilities.
Still Growing: Your mind and strength IV's are reduced by 10 each but you gain double experience at the end of each session. Note that a lower strength IV makes riding Pokemon easier.
Childlike Innocence: Pokemon adopt your glee and enthusiasm and gain 1d6 friendship points upon capture.
Too Young to Know Better: You may spend a kudo to bypass the social consequences of an action you took. This never works more than once on the same person.
Teenager[]
Pokemon adventures call out to teenagers eager to get out from under their parents' thumbs.
Still Growing: Your mind IV is reduced by 10 but you gain double experience at the end of each session.
Shared Angst: Your Pokemon are as frustrated as you are and they can channel that energy to destructive purposes. Each of your Pokemon gain the ability Anger Point.
Not Fully Responsible: You may spend a kudo to halve the social consequences of an action you took. This never works more than once on the same person, nor on anyone younger than you.
Ultimate Pokemon[]
There are several ultimate Pokemon classes listed on the ultimate Pokemon page.
Ranger[]
Pokemon Rangers are enforcement and rescue personnel that use capture stylers to temporarily tame Pokemon. Playing a ranger allows you to try out a lot of different Pokemon you encounter though you have a harder time managing a standing team.
Capture Styler: You can no longer catch Pokemon with Pokeballs but you can use a capture styler to get them to join your side temporarily. You have up to 6 Pokemon by your side this way, never caught in Pokeballs, and when you get a new one beyond the 6th one of your others leaves. Capturing a Pokemon with a styler increases its stats by one challenge rating (though never above maxed) and grants it 1d6 friendship points. The styler gets dice to capture like a pokeball equal to half your badges.
Respect My Authority: As a ranger, you are an authority figure. You can execute warrants and arrest criminals as a police officer would, investigate environmental damage and assess or waive the penalty as mandated by law, and also arrange search and rescue operations.
Call of the Wild: By spending a Kudo you can call upon the local wild Pokemon to aid you in a task, in conjunction with specialized ranger technology. These Pokemon must be allowed to go free, and leading them into a trap can cause you to lose this ability permanently.
Creating a Class[]
If you want to create your own class for this game, here's the method we find works best.
Start by envisioning a cool part of the Pokemon experience that a player might want to focus on. Then start brainstorming abilities, the kind of things that will make the class unique and allow the player to do the cool, fun things they'll want to do as part of that class without taking over the game and shutting out other players whose abilities are not as powerful or useful. You'll eventually come down to three abilities. Two are static abilities that the player can do any time the situation arises and the third is a special ability that would be overpowered if the player could use it constantly so it is limited to requiring the player to spend a kudo to use it.
Abilities should be more along the lines of "You can do this cool thing that most people can't" or "You get a special benefit every time you do a certain thing" rather than more generic bonuses like "You get +30 to checks involving dragon Pokemon."
EXAMPLE: Taskmaster[]
Let's say a player is a member of team rocket, and his character is a bad guy so he gets results by using cruelty and threats to push Pokemon past their limits, instead of the bond of friendship. This is the kind of gameplay we wanted to discourage, so we didn't add that class. But we'll use it as an example of the kinds of things to look for as you're building a class.
One feature of the class is it can get the kind of performance that other trainers get through friendship points, but without being kind to Pokemon. So we start off with a Kudo ability that can grant 1d6 friendship points at the cost of one kudo. We bounce around names and decide to go with Crack the Whip. But as we think about it, we realize that this doesn't really represent what we're looking for as well. We decide to change it so that the Pokemon's max FP goes down by 1, but it gets 1d6 FP for now. This does a good job of showing that the Pokemon got more willing to go the extra mile and comply, but the bond between trainer and Pokemon is forever weakened. Furthermore, we make this a command action, replacing encourage. This eliminates the class doing something that doesn't make sense, cheering on their Pokemon, and instead has them extracting better short-term performance through cruelty. This will still satisfy the requirement of moves that need encouragement, like solar beam or hyper beam. We also decide we can make this a standard ability and eliminate the kudo cost, since the ability is something that can be used at any time without becoming overpowered.
We put in another standard ability called Micromanage. Normally, every player's Pokemon are roleplayed by another player. But the Taskmaster roleplays their own Pokemon. This eliminates a feature of the game that was designed to get players thinking of their Pokemon as actual beings, and not just a collection of numbers on a page. But that kind of thinking works for the class.
We're still short the third ability, the one that requires a kudo to activate. This one should be powerful but used rarely, perhaps only a couple times per session, maybe less, but very useful when used. After some thinking, we decide to go with an ability that allows the Taskmaster to force their Pokemon to push through any status effect. The taskmaster can spend a kudo and the Pokemon is treated as not having one of the status effects it has. But we realize this doesn't really quite convey the hurt this causes the Pokemon, so we change it a bit. Instead, it can now force the Pokemon to ignore all of its negative status effects, but the Pokemon now loses a friendship point for each status it has, due to the abuse. We'll call the ability Walk It Off.
So that's our basic thought process. What's a good, balanced way of making rules for that where the abilities reflect what the class is about and allow the player to do what they really want to do.