Regret-inspired Pokémon RP, anyone?

Hey everyone. You probably don't know me, but I've been lurking around TV Tropes for a fair while now. I'm something of a passionate role-player, and just recently I’ve been replaying my old Pokémon Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald games on the GBA and thinking about the possibilities of doing an RP based on the Pokémon universe.

The event that began this train of thought was when I found and read Regret, which has easily been one of the best pieces of fanfiction I've ever had the fortune to stumble across. The world Regret creates strikes me as a far more vibrantly realistic one than anything the Pokémon games or anime have ever managed to create, so I began to wonder if anybody else might think the same way.

My idea is pretty simple; to take the foundations that Regret laid and build a roleplaying world out of them. Since world-building is something of a fixation of mine, I’ve already written down a considerable amount of info that could potentially be used to set the scene and flesh out the setting. If the phrase ‘realistic Pokémon roleplay’ is something that appeals to you, I’d be delighted if you’d post below to express your interest. If enough people like the idea, I can submit some of the information that I've typed up for review as well, but for now I'd just like to gauge potential interest levels.

Hi there, Jeran. Sounds like you got quite a good concept here... however, gauging interest and proposing ideas are more of the realm of the Forum Signup section. With that in mind, I'll be moving the thread there, is that alright?

Sure, if you think that'd be a better place for this then by all means move it.

Moving.

Well, if it's got the word "Pokémon" on it, I'm all over it. Just a question though: I don't read much fanfic and I know there are others who don't, but could you explain what an RP inspired by Regret would entail?

Regret was a fanfiction that managed to take the decidedly unrealistic world of the Pokémon franchise and made it seem extremely real and believable. In the same way, I’d like to create a server that explores the full implications of the Pokémon world while at the same time shaking things up with new concepts and revisions to the ones that already exist. Basically, I want to make a Pokémon setting that the average person could see themselves living in and interacting with on a daily basis.

My own personal take on a realistic Pokémon setting would be one that is quite a bit grittier and less ‘innocent’ than the one portrayed by the franchise. Without staying into unnecessarily ‘darker and edgier’ territory, I’d like to design a world where Pokémon are considered both powerful friends and dangerous enemies, fully capable of killing humans when so inclined. For this reason, Trainers wouldn’t be young children any longer, but teenagers with enough qualifications to survive in the wilds and interact with the creatures around them. Again, this doesn’t mean that this world is necessarily darker than the one portrayed in the actual Pokémon franchise, but it would be more mature, capable of tackling mature themes and not shying away from inherent harshness of its setting.

I hope that answers your question, but if need be I'm happy to write some more detailed explanations with more functional examples.

Well, owing to the fact that I'm on a phone I can't reply with paragraphs and paragraphs, but sounds wicked.

Oh look, someone decided to take an idea right out of my brain. I've been thinking looong about an RP like this. I'll help with world building when I can and Also think about signing up is it ever comes to that.

Now that there seems to be a few people interested in this RP, I think it's time to discuss a few things about it.

First is the setting. I don't own a 3DS, so my knowledge of the games after Gen III is quite limited. For that reason, I've decided to set in Hoenn, which is the region I know the most about. I've also set out to write a decently detailed description of every major location in Hoenn. These descriptions will be around 400-500 words long, and I've already written a fairly large number of them. Don't worry if you're a fan of other generations, though. I'll be directly addressing ways to legitimately obtain those 'mons that are not normally available in the Hoenn region - imports, breeders, etc.

Before I go on, I'd like to ask if somebody would be kind enough to link me to somewhere that contains a list of the formatting commands that can be used on this forum. I'll be able to give a much more detailed description of the kind of setting I'm building if I know how to link pictures back here and so forth.

Try this link.

As for linking pictures, how long ago was your account made? This forum doesn't allow image links from new accounts and those up top don't tell us how long it is before you're allowed.

I'm reasonably certain it's been more than a month or two. I made it quite a while ago simply to ease the process of making the few edits I have to my name, so unless the policies are really draconian I can probably link images by now. However, that wasn't a huge concern. I'm mostly just interested in making sure things are nice on the eyes.

It isn't? Huh.

And by the way, two tropers isn't too much interest; the best thing would be to offer a complete setting: Tropers are lazy bastards and not many will flock to an 'incomplete' idea. You can always plan it out here then start another sign up thread.

Oh, and getting a face/ avatar would be good too.

I ought to note that this isn't solely a TV Tropes-focused project. I've also got a few friends I know via social media interested, and the actual game itself won't be based here. I decided to advertise here as this is one of the few open communities I know that has both a decent roleplaying subsection and good quality writing standards in general. However, this does bring up something I should really get out of the way before going any further.

Instead of being play-by-post, I was planning to host this game on an instant-messaging platform I know of called RP Unlimited, which is part of the Build Your Own Net Dream project (The same system Space Station 13 uses). It’s a pretty decent if mildly unintuitive platform that provides everything one really needs to quickly build and flesh out a roleplay: avatar-based chat, a built-in fully customisable forum, character creation system (also customisable), HTML compliance with literally everything... etc. Suffice to say it’s worth checking out, though as a free program on a free system with zero barrier for entry the end-user content is very mixed in terms of quality.

The reason I’ve chosen to build this game around instant messaging is pretty simple; I’m a veteran dungeons-and-dragons player, and instant-messaging is one of the best ways to DM besides actual verbal communication. It will allow me and those I choose to appoint as staff to oversee the game world and facilitate dynamic interaction with the environment (random encounters spring to mind) to a far greater degree than in a play-by-post game. Basically, if you’ve ever played a good game of D&D then you’ll know precisely the style of administration I’m talking about here.