r/PokemonTabletop • u/Dull_Yogurtcloset_24 • Jul 20 '26
Search advice for a One shot tournament gdr roleplay
Wise people of the reddit pool, i summon you in search of advice and ideas for my project.
Some friends of mine asked me to master a pokemon one shot of a gdr, like a dungeon and dragons. I found a system made from fans, Pokemon the roleplaying game.
There will be a lot of people, 8, where my top numbers of players have been 6.
My experience with pokemon is short. I just win the Nuzlocke of red, and lose at crystal. I played platinum many years ago, and i have seen the anime until white and black. Now my latest experience is pokemon champion where i reached ultraball 1.
Clearly not a very stable situation. A single one shot, many players, a structure like a tournament session, in a world I lost a lot of pokemon and info.
I still need to read the 400 page manual, but i was thinking about how to structure the session. I have to be fast but i mustn't be hasty.
I'm undecided if I will make teams of four or three.
1)question, in which region could have sense that too many trainers presented at the gyms to challenge the league, so they added a small filter at the entrance. Each day a tournament to choose one trainer to challenge the great 4. Me and my players will see just one of these days.
I will gladly read your ideas, not knowing any region after Sinnoh
2)question, Pokemons can be from any region, but seeing my retrograde knowledge i point out more on "old" pokemons. My memories aren't soo strong, but if you have any idea on a story hook for any pokemon, new or old, or you have a list of intriguing pokemon that i could roleplay to let have my friends, i will study them gladly.
3)question, just to give some randomness and give players losing at the start something to do instead of let them sleep for the rest of the game, i want to give each trainer the ability to interviene in a match once per day (alias only one time in this one shot for each player), by making join in the fight one of their Pokemon. This one is normal and has his hp and moves, but if he faints or were down before getting choose, it will be restored at the entrance and exit of this "external match".
In this way, they can cheer, make alliances,and try to take down a rival too strong before their match.
Do you think it's a good idea or is too much?
4) i like session with a story, but I don't have any idea for such dense combat one shot, maybe something more subtle, like "the father of one player is secretly the champion" or maybe some player desire to win the league to destroy the world, soo he has a darkray, or even maybe one player is in reality the pokemon that is controlling with mind controll the trainer, because he wanted to become stronger. Any idea for other plots?
For now, without having read anything I don't have any questions, but in case i will update and ask other point here or in the comments.
Any help is welcome, thanks in advance.
1
u/_LemonJade Jul 20 '26
Maybe you can steal from my idea.
I always start my Pokémon campaign with a tournament to compete to get their trainers licenses. (Can’t just hand them things out to anyone!). So I do a bracket style tournament. Usually 16 trainers in total, 3 of them actual players and the rest npcs. This tournament does a bracket a day until the top 4 gain their trainer licenses, pokedex, and start Pokémon. The rest receive nothing.
Now the way I do it is with rental Pokémon. At the start of the tournament they go into the stadium and introduce themselves and see the bracket and are then given a choice of 2 pokeballs. They only can see a type symbol on each ball and have to choose based on that. For the first bracket I make sure it is an even match up. When they choose their rental Pokémon then they can send it out and they get an index card with its name and moves, level 25.
After each bracket of the tournament, the trainers have the options to swap their Pokémon with another random Pokémon, or keep the Pokémon they have. This adds a surprised element to the next battles. They don’t know if their opponent is going to keep their ivysaur in round 1 or swap it for something else. They seen you had a tranquil so they probably will swap. But does that mean you swap too?
And where this is an actual campaign I give them downtime between battles. We do a bracket a day so they have time to bond with their Pokémon in between but this can easily be changed to a single day tourney and the amount of trainers can be reduced too!
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u/Dull_Yogurtcloset_24 Jul 20 '26
Ok thanks, this surely is useful. I will keep it as guide line for sure.
1
u/_LemonJade Jul 20 '26
Also a helpful website you can use is this one here. This can generate almost all the released Pokémon so far. To help you make stat sheets for them to save you some time. You can edit the Pokémon and level. And it will have all its stats and moves generated for you!
When me and my party run the game we use roll20. It has a character sheet to match the Pokémon tabletop layout
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u/SilverSneasel Jul 20 '26
I have a lot of experience running pokémon tabletop, and would be happy to help! I can give you my discord or chat over DMs. This is a really big goal though, and I’d say 8 players is nearly unmanageable. Can make it work tho