Battle Rules

The core mechanic of the Pokemon world has been Pokemon battles. So it should be no surprise that battles are incredibly important here as well. It's fun and wonderful to be able to let your imagination run wild as you imagine your characters and their Pokemon duking it out in explosive battles. However, there have to be a few rules to make sure that it stays fair and fun for everyone involved. Right now, we are leaving it up to you to follow the rules we set out, the staff really does not want to moderate every single battle that may happen on the forum. But if we notice that too many people are abusing or breaking rules regarding battles, then we will probably change the system so the staff has to moderate the battles.

Now on to the rules regarding battles:

1: NO GODMODDING OR METAGAMING.

Look, we get it, sometimes you get caught up in what you're writing and what you want to happen, and you write something that would never be considered fair. If you don't know what godmodding or metagaming is, then let me explain. Godmodding is taking control of another player’s character during roleplay. It’s frowned upon and with good reason: you only control your character and no one else’s. An example would be having your character command their Pokemon to use an attack, and then immediately say it connected and caused the opponent to faint immediately. What you just did there is godmodding, you took control of the other user's Pokemon and made them get hit by an attack and then caused them to faint by the said attack. You don't control anyone else's characters or Pokemon. The correct post would have been to have your character's Pokemon use the attack and then allowed the other user to respond in a way they wanted. This is a serious violation and you will receive a warning the first couple of times this happens. If it keeps happening, then you will be severely punished. If it still persists after this, then we will have no choice but to swing the ban hammer down on you. Don't say we didn't warn you.

Metagaming, on the other hand, is when your character knows something that they could not possibly know and exploits that. It could be as simple as knowing what moves an opponent's Pokemon may have without ever meeting the person before. Your character would have no way to know what moves someone's Pokemon would have without ever meeting them. It's OK to know details OOC, but just know that can't use a move or action to prepare for that attack before the Pokemon uses that move. (Of course, the Ability Forwarn would allow the Pokemon with that ability to know what the highest damaging move of the opponent was but that's a little different). Metagaming will receive the same punishments and warnings as Godmodding.


2. ACTIONS

So you find yourself in a battle with another trainer, what do you do? Well, you have the ability to perform a maximum of three actions. Movement, Defense, and Offense. The Movement action is for dodging, jumping, running, swimming, etc. The Defense action is for when a Pokemon uses a move to defend themselves from another attack. Some example would be: using Flamethrower to block a Sludge Bomb, Reflect when the opponent uses a Physical Attack, or Protect to defend against any attack. (Just remember that a few moves cannot be protected from or stopped or dodged). And finally, the Offense action is when your Pokemon uses a move with the intent on damaging the opponent. This one is pretty self-explanatory, just remember to keep things fair and try not to go too overboard with it. While dodging is allowed, if you keep dodging every single attack in the entire thread without getting hit, we'll have some words with you. The point is to keep things fair, we don't care how evasive and fast a Pokemon is, it will get hit at some point.

3. TYPE ADVANTAGES/DISADVANTAGES

Knowing what types do better against certain types is key to battle. If you don't know what the type advantages/disadvantages are, then we have provided you with a quick list to help you out here. Type advantage/disadvantage is incredibly important, as one needs to know what moves will do more or less damage against their Pokemon and what moves will do more or less against opponents. However, just because a Pokemon is stronger or weaker against a certain type, it does not mean that it will win or lose against a Pokemon with those types. Just because your Pokemon knows Scald does not mean that the Fire Type it is attacking will be immediately knocked out. Of course, we will step in if a Bug Pokemon has somehow managed to survive three Fire Blasts in the entire thread or something along those lines. Again, keep things fair and fun for others. You may have an advantage/disadvantage but this does not guarantee a victory or loss.

4. EVOLUTIONARY STAGES

Some Pokemon evolve, some don't. When a Pokemon evolves, it has gained enough experience and power to change its form into something new and powerful. Every trainer should strive to make their Pokemon strong enough to evolve if they can. However, just like types, a Pokemon being in a later evolutionary stage does not guarantee victory. It's all about strategy and prowess in battle. Sure, your Raichu should be theoretically stronger than a Pikachu, but that Pikachu could easily defeat you if you're not careful. We just ask that you don't think you're going to win every battle because your character got their Pokemon to its final form.

5. THREAD ETIQUETTE

You may be wondering how to even start a battle. There are a few ways. Joining another user's thread is a good way, we just ask that you don't immediately start a battle unless that's what the other person wants. Feel free to send a quick message on Discord asking if they want t battle in that thread if it isn't specified and if not, you could ask if they want to do another thread with you that involves battling. If you want to battle against a Gym Leader or other important characters, contact the staff and we'll see what we can do for you. You may also create a thread where your character battles an NPC or another one of your characters.