Pokémon Status Conditions

[fewilcox]

I just started up a Pokémon campaign and I'm running into a bit of trouble. Before starting the game, I had trouble deciding whether to run it in GURPS or OVA. I ultimately decided on GURPS simply because I know the system so well but I want to try OVA for the next session.

Since I'm mostly running this for the sake of the kids in our weekly Pokémon League, I'd like to keep the character sheets as simple as possible and OVA will help with that. They understand GURPS well enough that when the twelve-year-old GMed for the first time Wednesday afternoon, he chose GURPS as his system. The other problem is that the Pokémon will likely end up accruing a large number of special attacks and I'd like to leave as much room as possible on the character sheet so that the players will be encouraged to come up with lots of attacks.

The only thing I'm having trouble with is some of the status conditions. Attacks like Whirlpool that continue to deal damage for 2-5 turns are easy: Continued Damage. Those same attacks also keep the target from switching out and I think that's probably +5 END. The harder ones are Poison, Burn, Paralyze, and Confuse.

Before I go further, I want to mention that I am NOT trying to duplicate the video games. Instead, I am trying to match the feel of the games and have creatures and attacks that seem like they could be in the games. Also, since the game is aimed at kids (and my wife *g*), I'd like to keep the mechanics of the status conditions as simple as possible.

With that in mind, here are the conditions which are giving me the most trouble:
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Poison deals the same amount of damage as Whirlpool but lasts until it is cured instead of X turns so I have no idea how much END it should cost.

Burn deals twice as much damage as poison and could thus be represented by two ranks of Continued Damage except that it too lasts until cured. It also halves the Pokémon's attack and I have no idea how to represent that except with Witchcraft to add Weak.

Paralyze does two things. The Pokémon's speed becomes 1/4 of normal, and it have a 25% chance of being unable to attack. Witchcraft can come to the my aid once again by inflicting slow but I still have no idea how to add that to a Power Move. The only way I can think of to represent the chance to be stunned unless I simply quarter the cost of Stun and list it as "Stun (25%), +3".

Confuse is the hardest to figure out. A confused Pokémon has a 50% chance of attacking itself instead of its opponent. If it does hit itself then it uses a very weak attack so it doesn't do much damage unless it has a particularly high Attack stat.
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My plan is to figure out the END cost for each as a Power Move modifier and divide that by ten. Then you just pay that amount for every +10% chance the attack has of inflicting that condition.

For instance, a player wants to create an attack called "Lightning Storm" which has a 20% chance of paralyzing the target. Let's assume for the moment that Paralyze ends up costing 30 END. Then part of his attack write up would include "Paralyze (20%), +6".

Any help with representing the status conditions as well as my plan for adding them to Power Moves would be greatly appreciated.

[Joe_Mello]

Are you going to have the GM roll for Proc effects? You could probably side-step a few issues that way.

Another way to possibly side-step issues is to just not use Endurance, and instead scale down the number of Power Points for each move based on how long you think your PC's will go between PKMN Centers.

As for Confusion, I'd say just let the Attack Roll happen, and if Proc occurs, then treat it as an attack against its 0 Defense self but with a Damage Multiplier of 1/2.

[fewilcox]

Are you going to have the GM roll for Proc effects? You could probably side-step a few issues that way.

Another way to possibly side-step issues is to just not use Endurance, and instead scale down the number of Power Points for each move based on how long you think your PC's will go between PKMN Centers.

As for Confusion, I'd say just let the Attack Roll happen, and if Proc occurs, then treat it as an attack against its 0 Defense self but with a Damage Multiplier of 1/2.

What does "Proc" mean? I've also never seen the phrase "Power Points" in reference to OVA so I'm pretty thoroughly lost.

[Joe_Mello]

Proc is just shorthand for the secondary effects.
Power Points are from the video game.

[fewilcox]

Proc is just shorthand for the secondary effects.

Ah. Except for a couple of hours of Guild Wars each month, I don't really play MMOs so I never get those references (even if I did, I'm not about to pay $160 a year for the privilege so I definitely don't get WoW references).

Power Points are from the video game.

Should have figured that one out myself. I had actually forgotten what "PP" stood for even though I've played the games since all the way back to Red and Blue.

Now that you mention it, I could just remove Endurance from the game and assign the various attacks certain numbers of PPs depending upon how powerful they are. I was just having Endurance (or Fatigue Points in GURPS) replace PPs. That seems like a good idea change but I'll have to think about it.

[Dreamstryder]

I'm surprised how closely you're using the game's mechanics for these effects. I wouldn't handle percentage as an extra step as you suggest; I'd use Perks and Flaws as-is (less complicated, less micro-managing); for example, Paralyze: I would just use Stun; the chance of being Paralyzed by the Power Move is already built-in (it happens when the attack achieves Knockback). If you want to increase your chances of Knockback happening, use Extra Knockback. Usually in the games I find that the attack has to be effective against me (thus dealing more damage) to induce the extra status effect anyway ...unless it is like Lullaby and auto-grants the effect without dealing damage (further rank of Extra Knockback, No Damage?).

Eyeball the usefulness of theses effects against the existing perks and flaws. Think in 5s or 10s.
Poison: if whirlpool is Continued Damage and Poison is "until cured," just make it cost 5 more.
Witchraft: either 5 or 10 END per rank of Witchcraft; feel out which you think is more usable.

[Clay]

Everyone has given good suggestions so far. If it were me, I'd do one of two things:

1) Copy the game as closely as possible. Discard Endurance in favor of PP and just give all Pokemon all the powers they deserve and don't worry about the cost. These creatures were (presumably) already balanced in the e-game. Once that's done, try to replicate the effects as simply as possible. I wouldn't get caught up in percents and such. Just apply a Slow -2, or flip a coin for confusion. Again, I wouldn't bother gelling perfectly with the OVA rules, even if it means applying Witchcraft to a Power Move. (Though I'll not here that Revised allows Witchcraft-like perks to an Ability)

2) Use the OVA rules to capture the THEME of a pokemon's abilities. Throw out most of the status conditions and use what is thematically most similar. Toss out items while you're at it. From what I've seen of the anime, they're a virtual no-show, anyway. After all, if you're playing OVA...you should be trying to capture the anime version, no?

If you try to mix the two, I think you're end up with an unplayable hodgepodge. The former allows you to copy cat HP, Experience Levels, and all kinds of things for the Pokemon with no fuss. The latter lets you play fast and loose with it and just have a good time. Pikachu doesn't "level up" in the cartoon either. At least not conventionally.

[fewilcox]

Sorry for the ridiculously long delay. Shortly after I posted this the spam explosion occurred and then I had back surgery and kind of forgot all about starting this.

I don't watch the show so I really can't comment on how they do things in it. Thus I am definitely going for the same kind of feel as the videogames. We're also a group that loves crunch (GURPS is our main game but we also use D&D 4e and HackMaster 5e) so the really simple conditions are out. OVA is the simplest game we'll use and then only for one-shots and mini-campaigns; for long campaigns we all like deliciously crunchy games. So, knowing my group, here's what I eventually came up with:

Status conditions can be added to attacks (which are Power Moves) for an additional energy cost as denoted below (in parentheses after each condition). For each time you pay the energy cost (round off the final result) you have a 10% chance of inflicting the condition. The chance to remove it is equal to the chance to inflict it. Starting with the second turn under an effect, roll 1d100 at the start of your turn to see if your Pokémon shrugs off the effect.

Burn – You take 5 damage at the end of each turn and your attacks deal half damage. (5)
Confusion – Whenever you attack you have a 50% chance of hurting yourself instead. If you fail then roll your base attack versus another player rolling your base defense. (1)
Flinch makes you miss your attack this round if you go second.* (1)
Freeze – You can't take any actions. Condition ends automatically if you are hit by a fire attack.† (1.5)
Paralyze – Your initiative is quartered. Your Pokémon only has a 25% chance of actually acting on any attempt. (.9)
Poison – You take 3 damage at the end of your turn. (1)
Sleep – You can't take any actions. (2)

* To make combat more like the videogames, combat flows in discrete turns with each opponent going once (standard initiative roll determines who goes first; important for things like Flinch).

† In the videogames certain fire-type attacks can be used while frozen and will end the effect. I haven't yet decided whether to do that here since those attacks tend be really weak and only useful because they allow you to get unfrozen.

To calculate the energy costs, I did what exactly what I said I would and figured out the cost to add them to a Power Move and divided it by 10 since each rank grants you a 10% chance to add the condition.

One of my players got me thinking that the chance to remove a condition might be better if it was 100 minus the chance to inflict it instead of having both be equal. So if you have a 30% chance to inflict then they have a 70% chance to shrug it (which seems fair considering the cost paid). But if you have a 70% chance to inflict then they only have a 30% chance to shrug it (which again seems fair considering the price paid by the attacker). I'll present both options to my players to see which they prefer.

EDIT: PS, good work on the de-spamming, Clay. 8o)

[Joe_Mello]

I don't watch the show so I really can't comment on how they do things in it.

If you are to ever watch the show for reference, my advice to you is this:

1) Choose one of the more recent series (especially Black and White)
2) Find one of the Gym Battles or Tournament battles

You'll get to see some well-animated fights that tend to have a tinge more "real world logic" than the games do.

Also, looking at all you've done, which is fairly impressive, it doesn't feel like OVA. There are already various Perks/Flaws for most of what you're trying to accomplish (Confusion seems to be the only one not covered), a way to determine initiative for each round (refooting) and a set of Difficulty Numbers. Again, not that there's anything wrong with what you're doing, but under the guise of an OVA campaign... :/