Pokemon Umbral Theatre 36: We're Alone, We're Very Alone

[Astral Harmony]

Now that you told me about it, I found her Bulbapedia webpage.

Apparently she's named May in a different manga. Good grief. Screw it, she's keeping Odin. Pfft. Grooming and telling you how much your Pokemon likes you. Not in my Honmyr!

[Aldurin]

Eh, I would much rather have Red be canon to the Umbralverse than Ash, but I guess it's fine since Homnyr isn't a place he'd last long in so he's not likely to show up.

[Astral Harmony]

Originally Posted by Aldurin

...but I guess it's fine since Honmyr isn't a place he'd last long in so he's not likely to show up.

*ebil grin*

Ash: "Who the heck gets named after a color, anyways?"

Tsundere Red: "Only awesome people, and you can't have it."

[Menarker]

Out of curiousity, do we know yet how Professor Oak died? Old age is possible if you assume that his tendency to forget his grandson's name in-game or failure to tell if you're a boy or a girl at first glance to be early sign of senility or Alzheimers.

Of course, for all we know, he could have accidently pissed off one of the pokemon he was caring for and get savagely killed... Of course, you can't rule out foul play like Team Rocket...

[Astral Harmony]

Natural causes. Probably a heart attack or adult onset die-uhbeetus.

@Aldurin: Tell you what, we'll meet halfway. Ash is his real name but he goes by Red in the Fear Vanguard and this is usually the name people refer to him as.

@Renny: Pokedo involves a lotta work and a lotta studying up on anatomy. Anyone can forego weaponry and do some punching and kicking, but this is an artform that you don't just pick up overnight.

Take Impact for example. Not only did he start out as a Slayer and has more ranks in it than you, but now he's also training extensively as a ninja. Out of all the PCs available, he's the closest there is to being a Pokemonk without actually having ranks in it, and I would say that even he isn't really Pokemonk material yet.

Renny could probably also use an attitude adjustment when it comes to learning Pokedo. It's not mere self defense but rather an aggressive killing artform, like what an assassin would use, especially when factoring in the Pokira Techniques. They were especially designed to kill. If you merely wished to protect yourself, you wouldn't even need that level of power.

Odin: "And none of us are going to teach him 'cause he dissed my name. Then again, this is Renny we're talking about. Comparatively, I'm definitely more masculine than him."
Sunshine: "Sick burn as always, Odin."

And since Menarker has joined Dracorion in being interested in Deckmasters, I guess I can quickly think up some crazy shit about it:

Families: Each card belongs to one of five families: Flesh, Machina, Spirit, Viral and Alchemy. You are not required to have only one family of cards in your Destiny Deck. Hell, have them all as you please, but note that some cards will work better or be stronger whenever other cards of the same family are involved.

Cards: Your Destiny Deck has three categories of cards; Beast, Spell and Trap.

- Beast: Summon the Beast on the card onto the battlefield. The Beast will function much like a Pokemon, having its own statistics, moves, abilities, and type defenses. You will be required to spend AP for both the summoning of the card and the use of the Beast's attacks. More powerful Beasts have higher summoning AP costs and more powerful attacks require higher AP costs. Beast cards are sent to the graveyard when the summoned Beast's HP is reduced to zero.

- Spell: Deal either damage to unit or damage to multiple units (damaging spell cards usually offer both options), cause status effects, cause debuffs, do some healing or buffing, or other effects. The Spell card, if it deals damage, will always deal type damage. Spell cards are sent to the graveyard immediately after use.

- Trap: The description of how the trap works in on the card. Once the trap has been completely triggered, it is sent to the graveyard. You are not required to pay additional AP or send the card to the graveyard if the trap is not tripped during the turn in which it is cast.

Dismiss: You have every right to dismiss cards that you no longer need. Dismissing a card sends it to the graveyard. For example, you have a Beast that you want to summon but you reached your Capacity limit. You may dismiss a Beast or a Trap since either of these contribute to that Capacity and then summon the Beast you desire. Dismiss any or all deployed cards as you desire. This does not cost AP.

Card Points: Your CP comes in a three number ratio, like... oh, 30/04/07. The first number is the size of your deck. The second number is how many cards you draw during your Upkeep Phase. The third number is how many cards you can have in your hand at maximum. This is just an example, of course.

Note that during battles, the CP will become a four number ratio like 26/30/04/07. You already recognize the last three numbers from before, and while it's pretty obvious what the 26 means, I'll just go ahead and say it. The First number in a four number CP will represent how many cards you have in your Destiny Deck, and does not include the cards you have in your current hand. Remember when I input that a Deckmaster is consider defeated when they run out of cards? This does not mean that a 00/30/04/07 Deckmaster has been defeated yet as he/she might still have cards in their hand. But when the first number does reach 0, they have a Deathclock of three turns in which they do not gain Rage in order to turn this around.

One rule I'm thinking of is what happens when you already have a maxed hand and you can still draw cards. I will roll the dice to show you what cards you can get and you can decide to ignore the roll and not lose any cards or exchange cards that you have in your hand with cards that you have in the draw. However, please note that cards that you trade in do not return to the deck, but rather to the graveyard, so be careful and be certain that the cards you are trading for are worth the sacrificed cards you offered.

Ranking Up: The Deckmaster is still a relatively new concept to me since I'm basically making a card game from scratch here, but I'd like to at least run some ideas through our own heads about what being a higher ranked Deckmaster will allow.

- Card Titles: Each Beast, Spell and Trap card will have one of five Titles; Initiate, Acolyte, Adept, Master and Archmaster. You do not need to invest ranks in Deckmaster in order to use cards of a greater title than you are allowed, but just like trying to command a Pokemon that doesn't respect your authority, something could go wrong with attempting to use cards you aren't powerful enough to handle.

- Higher CP: Higher ranks offer greater CP ratios, which allows for a larger Destiny Deck, Draw and Hand.

- Capacity: The Capacity statistic determines how many Beasts and Traps you may have deployed at one time. The bigger the number, the more Beasts/Traps/both you can have out on the field at once.

- Familial Bond: Be more effective in this way or that with cards from certain families, like permanent buffs to Flesh Beasts, an AP decrease in the casting of Spirit Spells or more power for your Viral Traps.

- Custom Cards: Your growth as a Deckmaster allows you fashion powerful cards custom tailored to your own playing style.

[Aldurin]

Would be interested in seeing a bit more of the Pokedo stuff. Since if it's cool enough I would probably try to make a case for retraining Donovan's slayer level to it.

[Menarker]

Are the deckmaster's monsters based on pokemon, or different unique creatures? I recall Eldys having the enviable Arceus card...
Tempted to import a character, but not certain how to make him part of the setting without already bloating the NPC cast further (and being generally redundant).

[Astral Harmony]

I'll see what I can do about a general rough draft for the rankings of Deckmaster and Pokemonk after this RP post/Haremon.

But to answer Menarker's question, the Deckmaster's Beasts will all be unique creatures, although they'll have Pokemon types and statistics so that, well, in a way you can consider them to be indistinguishable from the actual Pokemon. ... Except... you know... they're in cards 'n' stuff.

But for now, how about a pretty li'l Off The Wall while I take a small break from working on the RP post?

Astral Harmony's Off The Wall for Feb 24th

Today's Topic: The Unique Pokemon Types

- Astral Harmony: "S'up, homeslizzles? I be the Astrizzle Harmonizzle and with me today is-"

- Shinobu: "How do you do, everyone? Are you sitting comfortably for the latest Off The Wall?"

- Astral Harmony: "I doubt the guys are with you around, Shinobu."

- Shinobu: "It can't be helped. These days, female ninja like me can't find work unless we're at least a D cup."

- Astral Harmony: "I blame anime and video games. Thanks to stuff like Dead or Alive, Soul Calibur, Naruto, and Kenichi the Mightiest Disciple, kunoichi pretty much have to be busty by law or something."

- Shinobu: "It's probably the primary means by which us ninja will one day conquer our rivals, the pirates. Anyways, today's topic is about new Pokemon types, right? Do you mean Fairy?"

- Astral Harmony: "It is indeed about Pokemon types but not about those officially established. In today's Off The Wall, we'll be briefly going over the Ruin, Shadow, Time, Heritage, and Astral types."

- Shinobu: "I shall pay close attention. This information could be very useful to Lady Bezelain."

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Pokemon Types Unique to the Pokemon Umbral World

Ruin
- Moves Are Super Effective Against: Fairy, Fighting, Grass, Ground, Rock & Ice
- Moves Are Resisted By: Fire, Water, Electric, Poison & Shadow
- Pokemon Is Weak To Attacks From: Dark, Dragon, Fairy, Ghost, Psychic & Steel
- Pokemon Is Resistant To: Fire, Ice, Rock, Shadow & Time. They are also entirely immune to damage from the Fighting type.
- Other Characteristics: Ruin Pokemon are immune to the Exhaustion & Apathy status effects.
- Astral Harmony Says: Ruin Pokemon are the very first Pokebrids. They were originally humans from 1600 years ago during the existence of the ancient Fahngrest Empire that ruled over Honmyr in times long gone, but experimentation on the populace by a Poketologist named Malcolm Elliot and a strange being called Chroma has long since turned these innocent people into murderous monsters. The actual goal of creating Ruin Pokemon is currently unknown, though it has been discovered that the empire faced violent adversity from all sides during its short reign. In other words, the creation of Ruin Pokemon could be seen as a possible solution to Fahngrest's ill woes, but in the end they contributed more to its destruction than any barbarians or pirates ever did.

Ruin Pokemon are lorded over by the Ruin Generals, who were very important people, usually related to the Fahngrest imperial bloodline, or were otherwise special in some way that allowed them to become far superior monsters than the common folk. For some reason, they are perhaps grateful to Malcolm and Chroma for what has happened to them, and have since sealed off the only entrance into Fahngrest, now sunken deep beneath the sands of the Wingswept Desert in Northeastern Honmyr. The leader of these Ruin Generals is the Dragon Ruin General Idolus, but his power has not been absolute for a very long time as quite a number of the Ruin Generals have gone rogue for various reasons.

Shadow
- Moves Are Super Effective Against: Nearly all types. They cannot do Ultra Effective (x4) damage if the Pokemon is a dual type where both are weak to Shadow type damage.
- Moves Are Resisted By: Ice, Ruin, Shadow & Time
- Pokemon Is Weak To Attacks From: Dragon, Electric, Fairy & Normal
- Pokemon Is Resistant To: Ghost, Ruin & Shadow
- Other Characteristics: Shadow Pokemon are immune to Madness and Enshrouded and are the only type that can be affected by Reverse Mode.
- Astral Harmony Says: Shadow Pokemon are not entirely new to the Pokemon universe. The Gamecube games, Pokemon Colosseum and Pokemon XD featured Shadow Pokemon as their means of distinguishing themselves from the other games of the Pokemon franchise.

However, those Shadow Pokemon were really normal Pokemon who had artificially had their hearts closed off by manmade means in order to turn them into heartless fighters. The Pokemon Umbral universe's Shadow Pokemon are naturally heartless, born into the nature of being a Shadow Pokemon instead of merely being turned into them. It is believed that these Pokemon got their origin from the mindlessness of the two Successionary Wars which also formed the primary habitat of Shadow Pokemon, the Corpsemire. A legendary Pokemon by the name of Nosferatu also exists, and seems to have full command over all Shadow Pokemon in Honmyr. It is likely that the goal of all Shadow Pokemon mirrors the goal of Nosferatu, and that is to return to oblivion from whence they came since they feel they truely do not belong in this place.

Time
- Moves Are Super Effective Against: Dragon, Grass, Normal, Psychic, Steel & Water
- Moves Are Resisted By: Bug, Ground, Heritage, Ice, Rock & Ruin
- Pokemon Is Weak To Attacks From: Ice, Poison & Rock
- Pokemon Is Resistant To: Dragon, Fairy, Psychic, Shadow, Steel & Water
- Other Characteristics: Many Time type moves will have varying effects depending on their placement during the Action Phase. They also have powerful and incurable time-based status effects unique to their kind.
- Astral Harmony Says: Time Pokemon are Pokemon from a distant future with an unknown fate, but it is believed that these Pokemon have come from a future in which the Knomere won and, by some twist of fate or exploitation of technology, these Pokemon have managed to slip away from their captors and into the past to ensure that their own future never occurs, even if it were to cost them their own existence.

Time Pokemon are one in purpose and relentless in their struggle to destroy the Knomere, and are happy to ally themselves with anyone who shares their ambitions.

Heritage
- Moves Are Super Effective Against: Dark, Dragon, Ice
- Moves Are Resisted By: Bug, Fairy, Ghost & Poison
- Pokemon Is Weak To Attacks From: Electric, Fire, Grass & Water
- Pokemon Is Resistant To: Normal, Fighting, Rock, Ruin, Steel, Shadow & Time
- Other Characteristics: Heritage Pokemon do not have evolutions, but rather possess a variety of forms for each one that allows them to switch their attack setups and abilities from turn to turn. Heritage Pokemon also have many abilities that allow them to be more effective when multiple Pokemon are fighting at once. Heritage Pokemon are entirely resistant to nearly all status effects.
- Astral Harmony Says: Heritage Pokemon owe their existence to Heritage Technology, hence the name of the type. They exist in the current time, but have yet to be deployed and it can be guessed that their eventual full deployment will coincide with the Knomere invasion.

Heritage Pokemon consist of two pieces; a Baseform piece that is a solid state composed of crystallized Heratite and an Amorphorm piece that is a gelatinous state composed of a semi-liquid Heratite slush that contains nanomachines with a hivemind programmed intelligence. When a Heritage Pokemon needs to shift forms in order to alter its tactics to suit a change in the overall strategy, the Baseform piece remains the same while the Amorphorm piece shifts like water from one semi-solid state to another with ease. In other words, the Amorphorm piece could be an arsenal of six miniguns in one moment and then, with a simple command, can disassemble this setup and shift to become a fully functional missile silo over a course of mere seconds and immediately resume combat.

Astral
- Moves Are Super Effective Against: None
- Moves Are Resisted By: None
- Pokemon Is Weak To Attacks From: None
- Pokemon Is Resistant To: None
- Other Characteristics: Astral type damage is only affected by the buffs and debuffs of the user and target and absolutely nothing else. Damage cannot be reduced by Light Screen or Reflect, a Substitute cannot block it, Protect and Detect cannot stop it, etc. Only the Invincible status can stop Astral damage from getting through.
- Astral Harmony Says: Astral type Pokemon seem to be attuned to the very balance of the cosmos, whether that is their intention or not. They do not know good or evil. They do not understand life and death. They cannot comprehend emotions and have no desires or ambitions. They are about as close to being dead as a living thing can be without actually being dead.

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Off The Wall Special: Mega Evolutions

Last night while playing Pokemon Y, I used Mega Evolution for the first time. What? Sure, I would've done it much sooner but I was busy grinding levels and money over at the Battle Chateau or however you spell it. Anyways, I thought it was cool and, with a little tweaking, could be utilized in the RP while still being mostly balanced, so let me brainstorm here and come up with a rough draft of how I'd like to do it.

Mega Evolution Requirements

- One Megevo Pokemon
- One target that meets the specific requirements

Instead of requiring that the Pokemon hold a stone, Mega Evolution will instead be determined by rare Fiend Pokemon called "Megevo" Pokemon. These Pokemon will be dual types where one type is Astral and the other type is one of the other types available. This second type determines which type of Pokemon the Megevo Pokemon can grant Mega Evolution to or, to make it shorter, to grant Evoburst.

Target Requirements

- A Leader Pokemon in its greatest evolutionary form that is owned by a Trainer of Rank 5 or by a Snagger of Rank 5. The Snagger's target Leader Pokemon must be a part of his or her original arsenal and not a Pokemon snagged from the enemy.
- A Pokebrid of Rank 5. This Pokebrid does not need to be a maximum evolved form.
- A Rider of Rank 5. When using Evoburst here, both rider and mount are Mega Evolved into more powerful forms.

Heritage and Megevo Pokemon cannot be granted Evoburst.

The Rules

- Only one target may be granted Evoburst at any given time. This remains the case even if you have multiple Megevo Pokemon deployed along with individually acceptible targets.
- The Megevo Pokemon and the target must both remain on the battlefield. If the Megevo is recalled or defeated, the target loses Evoburst. It the target is recalled or defeated, the target loses Evoburst.
- When a Megevo Pokemon uses Evoburst on a target, the Megevo Pokemon is then locked down and its Def and SpDef are reduced to 0. It can still be given Protection or other affects like Light Screen, but otherwise it remains incredibly vulnerable.
- If the target is a dual-type, then a Megevo Pokemon that can affect one type or the other is acceptible.

- Astral Harmony: "Anyways, that's about all I can think of for now at least. Obviously, this will require additional work since that means a lot of Pokemon will be having two sets of stats or even three for certain Ruin Pokemon. Needless to say, suggestions are always nice for those who wish to take advantage of Mega Evolutions and have ideas for setups of the Pokemon they prefer. Anyways, off I go to do more evil. Toodles!"

[Menarker]

Interesting stuff.

More comments/questions on the pad itself.

---------- Post added 02-25-2014 at 02:16 AM ---------- Previous post was 02-24-2014 at 12:54 PM ----------

Err, Astral Harmony... You have Heritage pokemon both being Super Effective AND being resisted by Ghost and Poison types. That doesn't make any sense.

Also, looking at the new typings, I'm now wondering if I could get a Steel/Shadow type instead of Steel/Dragon.

[Astral Harmony]

Right, sorry about the type mixup. I fixed 'er now.

As for the Shadow/Steel type, I have created a Pokemon named Zombmyr, based on the concept of a possessed Prideguard zombie. I'm not sure how you'd feel about having a soldier's corpse as a Pokemon so please feel free to think one up of your very own. I'll probably make more Shadow types in the future as ideas randomly manifest and I'll also make a note to think up something else that would be Shadow/Steel in case you don't want to.