Squircle

Squircle

@squircular.bsky.social

Digital product design, TTRPG/PBTA game design, general nerdery. Too obsessed with Pokemon

16 followers19 following44 posts

I tweaked the Strange Powers move in my #Pokemon TTRPG to give Psychic classes more narrative fodder! Psychic humans are a weird corner of Pokemon lore, and fertile ground for a DM and player to explore. How common is it? How accepted is it? How does one become a Psychic? Is a Psychic a Pokemon?

Getting closer to the point of "publishing" my Pokemon TTRPG but I really don't know what that means. I don't want money, it doesn't matter how many people play it... But I feel like it hits the Pokemon fantasy in the right spot that I see folks looking for. I want people to be aware of it at least?

Working on cover art for my PBtA fan system! I really wanted to make it my own, and inspire myself to draw more. Still mostly a sketch but I'm feeling great about the direction. #Pokemon #ttrpg A world of adventure awaits...

My #Pokemon #TTRPG is coming along well, most of the rules are done, the slowest part is just... the Pokemon. I'm working to make them all feel special and have utility both in and out of battle. So far I have 153 / 208 planned Pokemon done with stats and abilities. No 1:1 translation from the games

One of the big problems with a Pokemon TTRPG is how to handle climatic battles being ended by just catching the big threatening high level Pokemon you've set up for the players, and also... it seems like having just beat something up is a weird way to make friends with it! (Cont'd in comments)

This approach was recommended to me by one of the helpful denizens of the PTA Discord server who had been thinking in a similar direction, and I really like it for establishing a real relationship before something joining your Pokemon team

One of the big problems with a Pokemon TTRPG is how to handle climatic battles being ended by just catching the big threatening high level Pokemon you've set up for the players, and also... it seems like having just beat something up is a weird way to make friends with it! (Cont'd in comments)

So battling is just one of many conditions that grow your relationship with a wild Pokemon, and you're most likely to catch it if you got to know it and spent some time together first! Instead of just showing up out of the blue and smacking it in the face with a Pokeball

One of the big problems with a Pokemon TTRPG is how to handle climatic battles being ended by just catching the big threatening high level Pokemon you've set up for the players, and also... it seems like having just beat something up is a weird way to make friends with it! (Cont'd in comments)

I fixed(?) this by changing the conditions that give you catching bonuses. My new catching move "Join The Team" gives +1 to your roll for each of: you shared a meal, you helped them out, you worked together to accomplish something, you taught them something, you had a fair contest or battle

Hi, I took a break from social because *vaguely gestures at the world* but I hope to be back to my regular Pokemon posting soon. Is the only world we can imagine where we coexist in harmony in nature one in which the forces of nature can threaten us with the power of gods?

I still struggle with whether Pokemon assists just give +1 to your roll, or replace your modifier with theirs. Since it's #PBTA style the modifier economy is quite tight, and replacing a modifier allows Pokemon to augment areas of weakness without pushing already high modifiers over the top. #ttrpg

Downside is that you will have some stats/actions as a player that it's not useful for a Pokemon to help you with, since you're already good at it. I haven't thought of a perfect system that balances the appeal of getting help with avoiding characters min/maxing to get +4 rolls on their highest stat

Since I shared my Pokemon stat sheets I want to call out how they work in this system. There are 3 Pokemon actions: 1) Battling, numbers are tuned for fast resolution, easily just two rounds to finish a 1:1 encounter. There are 3 battle moves, all deal damage + either hitting hard, blocking, or...

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a jolt of Pikachu's electricity. Smash a door open with pure strength of a Graveler. Phase through a wall as a Haunter. As long as the table agrees it's something that makes sense for the Pokemon to do, they can do it. The only constraint is you can pick 2 of strong, precise, sustained or silent...

and that helps decide the strengths and drawbacks of their effect. All of those combined have so far created a strong narrative system for letting Pokemon impact all areas of play in creative ways.

Since I shared my Pokemon stat sheets I want to call out how they work in this system. There are 3 Pokemon actions: 1) Battling, numbers are tuned for fast resolution, easily just two rounds to finish a 1:1 encounter. There are 3 battle moves, all deal damage + either hitting hard, blocking, or...

or creating an advantage for future rolls. 2) Pokemon and trainers have the same 6 stats and at any point you can roll with the Pokemons stats instead of yours by spending 1 vigor/health from them. Overuse this and they won't last long in battle! I wanted Pokemon to impact all areas of play and...

...this is the main mechanic for them doing that. They can help you persuade, find books in a library, give you a boost jumping over a fence, anything a trainer can do they can help with. 3) They can Tame the Stage : spend a vigor to tangibly effect the environment. Short circuit a camera with...

I'm slowly working through the Pokedex to make play sheets for the first 151 Pokemon (excluding legendaries) here's a quick look at two of them. Also Seel is criminally underrated. Simple, cute, looks like a friend. Timeless. #pokemon #ttrpg

In my first play test I cut out a bunch of systems brought over from Pokemon that ended up just being ignored. Things like weather conditions, berries, held items, and money got pulled out almost immediately. It helps that Pokemon is already an Eco-Socialist setting with a strong gifting culture.

For a #Pokemon #ttrpg balancing resources and housekeeping between Trainers and their Pokemon is difficult. I cut the number of Pokemon a trainer can hold while adventuring to 3 because tracking 6 additional sheets of stats and abilities was just overwhelming.

At this point, I'm nearly ready with v3 of what I'm calling "Pokemon: Fables" which is a PBTA derived system for Pokemon. It's probably best understood as somewhat of a hack of Avatar: Legends by Magpie games, and I hope to further refine it to build more of a separate identity! It is 100% playable

A large part of why I'm making a TTRPG fangame for #Pokemon right now is I've been incredibly career focused for years, and am finding immense joy in making something not only completely non-commercial, but almost fundamentally impossible to make commercial because of borrowed IP.

A major goal of mine in designing my #ttrpg is to maintain simplicity while encouraging Pokemon to be an active part of the narrative outside of just battle. Why have a pet that's hotter than the sun if you don't burn some buildings down?

I started designing a #Pokemon #ttrpg to try to find the balance between crunch and narrative focus. There had to be a sweet spot between requiring attack cone measurements, and being so simplified that the pocket monsters themselves become interchangeable stat sticks!

Started designing my #ttrpg in #Figma because I like to organize documents non-linearly, and the components system has been a lifesaver to handle shared elements between character sheets and modular skills. But I'm now torn between moving to a desktop publishing program for final PDF export or not.

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