Pokemon Trainer - The Players

Pokemon Trainer Creation
Every player who is not GM-ing plays a Pokemon trainer. While it is conceivably possibly to create a character that does not use their Pokemon in combat, the nature of both Pokemon and tabletop games includes battle. Thus, characters are generally capable of defending themselves against a foe. In FLC, trainers are unique people with different viewpoints on the world, based on their experiences. It is important to the content of the story that players take their character seriously. Player characters should have motivations and beliefs, a history that defines them. They should have an age, race, hair color, et cetera. Players should not play the shell of a character. You are playing FLC because you like role-playing, right?

Trainer Skills
Each trainer has different capabilities according to the skill set that they choose. Then, when a group of players comes together, their characters have different abilities that they and their Pokemon bring to the group. The different “Trainer Skills” encompass these abilities. Upon creation of a character, a player chooses four skill for their trainer to have. The skills include:


 * Armed Combat: The trainer uses their physical strength to wield weapons, intending to harm their opponents.
 * Unarmed Combat: The trainer uses their physical strength to fight opponents with their body, usually intended to subdue the target.
 * Survival: The trainer is capable of maintaining a healthy state of being in his or herself or in others, despite situational difficulties, such as wounding or environmental hazard. Use of this skill grants players a Survival Focus. These could include Stabilize (the player stabilizes a dying target), or Forager (the player recognizes edible or medicinal plants in the wild). Players should discuss their Survival Focus with the GM.
 * Sneak: The trainer uses stealth or trickery to fool opponents into thinking what the player wants them to think. Use of this skill grants players Sneak Focuses. These could include Move Silently, Camouflage, or Sleight of Hand, or even Kill Silently. Players should discuss their Sneak Focus with the GM.
 * Mobility: The trainer moves lithely to evade or cover ground to a target. This also affects environmental movement such as climbing a cliff.
 * Knowledge (Pokemon): The trainer has and learns information about Pokemon and their varying biologies. Includes information about the various Pokemon types, or with more specificity, the particular moves that a Pokemon might have.
 * Knowledge (Lore): The trainer has an understanding and can make inferences about the ancient world, including divine artifacts or mysterious symbols.
 * Knowledge (Technology): The trainer has an understanding and can make inferences about current technologies, including machinery or digital interfaces.
 * Craft (Organic): The trainer can use consumables like food or medicine and combine them in ways that create more useful items. Further use of this skill grants the ability to glean secondary properties from combinations, and this should be discussed with the GM.
 * Craft (Inorganic): The trainer can combine various non-biological things in unique ways, granting access to more useful items. Further use of this skill grants the trainer a specialization of crafting, and this should be discussed with the GM.

In FLC, unlike other tabletops, (including other Pokemon-themed tabletops) the trainer does not have an experience level. Instead, trainers increase their skill levels by actually doing them. Successful rolls of a skill will grant the player points toward the next level of that skill. Each level of skill has a higher number of GM-given points necessary to unlock.




 * Level 0: Start
 * Level 1: 10 points from Level 0
 * Level 2: 20 points from Level 1
 * Level 3: 30 points from Level 2
 * Level 4: 40 points from Level 3
 * Level 5: 50 points from Level 4

Successful rolls of a skill grant points to players, based on the GM’s opinion of the skill’s efficacy. Performing a simple task may only reward 1 point, but an incredible one could reward 10 or more. Repetitions of the same task should reduce the points gained from it. Additionally, each level of skill comes with a bonus ability. The specifics of these bonus abilities are covered in the FLC Rules Master text. (The player who is playing the GM should always be prepared to give appropriate skill check points, according to the nature of the outcome of the skill check roll. If the situation is very hectic, they should notate the points somewhere to be given to the player later.)



Having a skill means that a player can use it in circumstances of play with a bonus relative to how good they are at it. A level 0 skill grants regular access to that skill, with a +0 bonus to a player’s d20 skill check. Level 1 grants a +1, and so forth. Occasionally, players are forced into scenarios in which they must try to perform an action without having an appropriate skill for it. In this scenario, that player gets a -4 penalty to their d20 skill check. Unsuccessful rolls can have an outcome ranging from simple failure at the intended task, to dangerous and possibly lethal consequence, depending on the scenario that the players are in. Success or failure of a skill check roll involves 3 steps: 1: the player announces that they are using their skill in a certain way. 2: The GM decides the number of appropriate difficulty that they need to hit on their d20 (with 1 being low and 20 being high). 3: The player rolls their d20 and adds any skill bonuses (or penalties). If they are at or above the decided target number, the skill succeeds. The distance of the roll’s number above or below the target number can also dictate how much the attempt succeeded or failed. However, in Skill Checks, rolling a 1 does not result in a Critical Failure. (This will be covered later.)



Here is a narrative example of skills at work. The trainers in this scenario primarily use their own skills, instead of their Pokemon’s. They are attempting to infiltrate a room that contains an important villainous man. They need him to tell them information about some event they want to stop.



[Diane, Fred, Penny, and Jorge enter the hallway and see the door. Jorge tries it. It’s locked. “I’m using Sneak to try and pick the lock,” says Jorge. Sneak Check: Failure. The door uses an electronic lock. Penny says, “Maybe there’s another way in.” She looks around for any information. Knowledge (Tech) Check: Success. She deduces that the ventilation likely moves through the locked room. She sees an air vent and points it out. Diane says, “I’ve got this.” Mobility Check: Success. Diane runs up and jumps, grasping onto the bottom of the air vent, and prying it off. Fred says, “Wait, you should be prepared.” He takes out a knife and a bottle of Beedrill venom. Craft (Inorganic) Check: Success. The knife is tempered with the venom. Fred passes the knife to Diane, who pulls up Penny into the vent. They move through. The GM calls for a Sneak Check. Neither Penny nor Diane has the ability Sneak. Sneak Check (with penalty): Failure. They make sounds in the vent, alerting the man. Diane kicks the nearby vent out and drops into the room. Survival Check: Success. Diane recovers from the fall, uninjured and rushes to the man. Penny attempts a Survival Check to drop down. Survival Check: Failure. Penny takes a d4 of damage from the fall. She recovers and does a Knowledge (Tech) Check on the door: Success. The door opens, letting Fred and Jorge in. Diane attempts to stab the man with the knife. Armed Combat Check: Failure. She misses as the man evades. Jorge stands off with him, as well, attempting to grapple him. Unarmed Combat Check: Success. Jorge tackles him to the ground. Diane stabs him in the leg with the knife and he screams words that the others do not understand. Fred says, “I’m doing a Knowledge (Lore) Check to see if I recognize that language.” Knowledge (Lore) Check: Success. Fred can discern that the man is speaking an ancient language, verifying his ties to the group’s evil foe. Diane says, “This poison will kill you in a few hours. We can make the antidote, but only if you tell us what we want to know!” The man cries in pain. Penny tries to make a salve that will ease the pain but keep the venom in his body. Craft (Organic) Check: Success. She puts the salve on his stab wound, and after a moment he comes to, and grudgingly tells them what he knows, in exchange for his life.]