Have you ever wanted to create your own Pokemon adventure?
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For years, a dedicated subset of fans have played a homebrew Pokemon tabletop game known as Pokemon Tabletop Adventures that uses a variation of the d20 system popularized by Dungeons and Dragons. Recently, “Dr. Mr. Stark,” one of the makers of the games released a major update that includes Pokemon from Pokemon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon and revamps the system.
Pokemon Tabletop Adventures is a pretty nifty combination of the well-established mechanics of both Pokemon games and Dungeons and Dragons. While players can only level up their Pokemon in the video games, players of Pokemon Tabletop Adventures actually level up their own characters, which gives them access to special feats, skills, and sub-classes of trainers.
For example, a player who becomes an Ace Trainer can select a type of Pokemon that will do more damage and level up quicker than other Pokemon types, while an Underdog trainer (based on Ash) can spur their unevolved Pokemon to attack with the strength of a stronger Pokemon. Certain trainers can even add their stat modifiers to a Pokemon’s attack or defense stats, giving them an extra advantage over wild Pokemon.
Of course, type effectiveness, same type attack bonus, abilities, and other mechanics from the Pokemon video game all come into play in Pokemon Tabletop Adventures. However, it’s up to players to keep track of their Pokemon’s abilities, just like a traditional Pokemon game.
Combat is similar to Dungeons and Dragons, in which a player rolls an attack roll with a twenty-sided dice. If an attack roll is higher than a move’s accuracy check (which usually ranges between a 1 and a 5), the player than rolls damage using other dice based on the type of move. When trying to catch a PokeBall, a player needs to roll under a Pokemon’s capture rate. The capture rate goes up based on what sort of ball a player uses and what sort of conditions that Pokemon has….just like in a real Pokemon game.
So why should Pokemon fans give Pokemon Tabletop Adventures a shot? Well, a tabletop games comes with a lot more freedom than a video game. While many of the mechanics are similar to a Pokemon game, Pokemon Tabletop Adventures lets players create their own world, make their own characters, and face new and exciting problems that a Pokemon video game would never touch. There’s a bit more tracking and number-crunching involved, but there’s also a lot more room for imagination and innovation.
Since this is an unofficial and unlicensed game, Pokemon Tabletop Adventures is free to play. You can find the links to download the player’s guide, Pokedex (the Pokemon equivalent to a Monster Manual) and game master guide here.
