Lumen, an School of Illusion Wizard Astral Genasi (a homebrew I made for my personal d&d setting :') )

Pokémon SoulSilver Randomized Nuzlocke [Part 1]

Since I haven’t fully learned from my mistakes, hey! It’s time for another Nuzlocke. With extra Randomizer action for reasons that are going to be very apparent as I go through this set’s rules.

I’m going to try what this person on the internet calls a Chainlocke, though with slight alterations for the sake of sanity; basic idea is that my catch Types have to be linked. If I catch a Grass/Poison pokemon, my next option has to have one of those in common.

That gets thorny really fast, which I guess is the point, but I’m more about wacky fun than serious challenges. So to make things more entertaining, I will be randomizing every pokemon in the wild, as well as NPC gifts and trades. All the other Trainers keep their original stuff. I get to be special.

So. Rules:

Only the first viable pokemon of each route may be caught.

Gift pokemon are cool to use.

In-game trades are also cool.

‘Viable’ in this case means that they must have a Type in common with the most recent caught pokemon.

The starter will be starting that chain despite not technically being caught by me. Because I feel like it.

Each pokemon must receive a nickname.

If a pokemon faints, it is considered dead. It will go in an appropriately named box in the PC.

In the event of a team wipe, the run will continue with whatever’s left (alive) in the PC.

And that’s about it. Let’s kick it.

No.

I can’t remember if this version does the all-caps for names or not. In any case, this protagonist avatar will take on the name Sunny. Because I am in a warm and welcoming mood, ready to make all the new creatures I encounter my friends.

I love how they have Lyra use the mail system.

Someone has to.

It certainly won’t be anyone playing these games.

Okay, based on how Lyra’s Marill is discussed, human names don’t get the all-caps treatment, but pokemon do. What does this mean for my nicknaming schemes? No idea. The hour is late and I don’t care enough.

-rubs hands together-

Hmmmm.

...

Dude.

Get out.

Hmmmm.

I can’t pick Cyndaquil, because what even is the point if I do that. Sableye I’ve never been so interested in as a true companion. Dewgong is fully evolved, and I hate starting out with that.

However.

I never get to use Dewgong.

Seel is never anywhere convenient.

DEWGONG WELCOME TO THE TEAM!

Shaped like a friend.

I haven’t worked out any particular theme for this run. I can name her whatever I want. I think I shall call her Chance.

Look at how cute she is. She is adorable. Sassy and highly persistent. I declare her perfect. She also knows Headbutt! That matters beyond being a cool move in this version! Much squeeing! She also knows Growl, Signal Beam, and Icy Wind.

My next pokemon will have to be Water or Ice. It will probably be Water, thanks to Water being absurdly common. That’s cool. I like Water pokemon.

And so, without yet being able to catch anything, I head out into the world. Running my obligatory fetch quest for Professor Elm.

Huh, a Smoochum says hello. That’s a good thing to know for later. But what’s in the Headbutt tree?

...A Hoothoot. Sigh. Well, one less thing to worry about when finding pokemon.

Weedle also lurks in the grass.

Yay. Gotta go fast.

Can I buy poke balls yet?

No. Sad face.

The next route has Kricketot. Did I check the similar strength button by accident?

Then suddenly, Grumpig! Okay, sweet. Just a few Buggy coincidences. Gligar is also here.

Literally have never heard of you. You have a boring name. No one should ever copy it ceaselessly for a gag that no one sees any value in.

Hello, a wild challenger approaches! With his super duper Totodile! Headbutt it, Chance. Headbutt it into submission. Good girl.

Uh. There’s not enough room for it.

Perfect.

I love how Silver’s most defining feature is his red hair.

After a short visit home to tell our mom we are far too irresponsible to be trusted with all of the money we’re going to earn from mugging other children, plus a short tutorial on catching things, we can finally get started!

Smoochum is the only thing available in the routes we’ve visited so far, but I haven’t checked out the northern one right outside the starting town yet.

But the walking takes the decision out of my hands! We encounter a level 4 Smoochum, and as per the rules, that is what I have to go for. Lest I kill the route.

...

I killed the Smoochum.

I guess that answers my question about its Typing. Ruh roh. Signal Beam was a mistake. For multiple reasons, now that I’m taking a second to think about it. Whoops. Any game that requires me to think is screwed from the start, honestly.

So now we search for something else to catch.

Route 46? Be nice?

Carvanha! That’s a Water! Can catch!

In theory. It’s broken out of two pokeballs. It’s also level 2, so I don’t think I can risk attacking it.

.I’m going to run out of balls, aren’t I?

I think I have to risk an Icy Wind. I’m on my last poke ball. I don’t really want to leave it purely up to the mood of the RNG.

Chance apparently doesn’t want friends.

She got a critical hit.

Two dead routes! Okay!

Still needing a Water or Ice Type!

Also more Poke Balls!

One of those problems I can fix. As for the other, inb4 the Mystery Egg and whatever I get from Bill are the only other teammates Chance ever has.

We march through the trainers between us and the next town. Certain of nothing but Chance’s ability to murder them all.

Route 31 has an Elekid as the first thing I see and the rules say I can’t catch it. What horrible person came up with this. Seviper and Lopunny are also here. Those I care less about.

Dark Cave? Help? Mayhaps?

A Golbat appears.

Okay.

Before we think too hard on that, I’ve gotta say that I do love how gen 4 does the caves. They are very gorgeously cavernous, and the few times I bother to think about the background art, I enjoy walking through them.

But yeah, is there anything in this cave that is not a Golbat?

Route 31 has a Butterfree.

These are things that do not help me.

The person who usually gives you an Onix for a Bellsprout in whatever this city is (Violet) offers a Corphish for a Kecleon. Things to keep in mind if I ever find a Kecleon. That I can catch.

In no version of this game have I ever done this egg thing. I was unaware there even was an egg thing, since anything that requires me to pick the right word out of the hat of words bores me to tears. Then I started watching too many people play Pokemon games on the internet.

-Googles how to get egg-

So normally, you can get a Mareep, Wooper, or Slugma. In the spirit of the Chainlocke, even though I said gifts were cool, we’ll take the Wooper egg. Vote now on whether or not it’ll actually be a Wooper. I don’t know how to use the Randomizer.

Hm. Iiiiiiinteresting.

Chance, Headbutt some trees on the off chance that a Water pokemon falls out, please.

It’s a Hoothoot.

I get the feeling that the Randomizer settings didn’t care about the pokemon found through Headbutting.

Route 32. Help.

Gligar. That is not help.

Rhydon is not help either. Likewise Torchic.

SQUIRTLE. THAT IS HELP.

...

...

...

Chance.

Why are you getting so many critical hits against your friends. Do you not want friends. Have I raised you to be so antisocial.

-sigh- Route 32 declared dead.

Ruins of Alph? Maybe you have someone Chance likes?

...

Why is Gligar everywhere.

I guess. I will go to the tower. With Chance. Just the two of us.

Plus the Gloom egg, which is looking like a very likely candidate for the only friend Chance will ever have. Besides the Mystery Egg we don’t have yet.

(Also Rock Smash HM get. Yaaaaay.)

Local level 11 Dewgong beats up 3 year-olds.

So many dead Bellsprout.

I haven’t run into any wild pokemon here, yet. Sadness. We will never know which new friend Chance was going to kill next.

SURPRISE!

It’s Medicham.

Chance kills it.

Partially because I can’t catch it anyway, partially because that is just what Chance does. Her sassiness belies her murderous intent.

Flash obtained with little fuss, and time to move on to Falkner. He of the coolest name. Yet another Gym Leader I wanted to be as a child. Even if he uses nothing but birds. Falkner is just the coolest name.

Oh, and it looks like there’s also Roselia in this tower.

I can’t do anything about it, but that’s nice.

I love how each generation of pokemon decides the Gyms need to be more extra.

They’re right and they should say it.

-five seconds later- Well that went by quickly. Good girl, Chance. Your murder spree continues. And our prize? Picking up the Mystery Egg! Which gets to be a genuine mystery for now! Chance! You might have a friend! In pure spite of your best efforts!

Time to spend an hour doing nothing but walking. I normally wouldn’t be so interested in hatching the eggs, but. I would kind of like to have a promise of Chance not being completely alone this entire game.

One down! His name is Cloud! He is... also Sassy (Chance, is this why you let him stay), level 1, and alert to sounds!

!

whatisitwhatisitwhatisitwhatisit

...Wow. Something I actually could have gotten legitimately in this Chainlocke. In theory. In a world where Chance is of slightly different temperament.

Her name shall be Sleet. She is Quiet and likes to run.

Hm.

I remain unsure if I’m going to actually use either of these new friends. The spirit of what I’m going for with this doesn’t really work with me just being handed two random Official Teammates. I might change my mind after a few more routes of things not going well for me, but for now, I think I’ll mostly stick to me and Chance.

..Though before I do..

They’re both level 1. I can be nice and not set them up for death. They can make it to level 5 before we say a cordial farewell. I can grind in this game. I can be nice.

-ten minutes later-

-tfw Ivysaur also lives on Route 32 because Route 32 is starter central-

Niceness done, let’s get on the road.

The road takes us, and our level 17 Dewgong, to Union Cave.

If you squint, this looks like fanart of a sleeping Sandslash.

Will we find the Water or Ice pokemon our team longs for here????

You have got to be fucking kidding me.

Uh.

Let me look up the rules for evolving Feebas in this gen. Because Feebas is pure Water. If I can’t evolve it, I’m better off killing it so I have more options available with what I can catch.

...

The internet says I need eight massages from Daisy (Blue’s sister. in Pallet Town.) to max its Beauty so it can evolve.

Chance. just. just do the thing. we all know how this ends.

So dies Union Cave.

Awww, how cute. A Shaymin. Now just one of the many corpses littered at Sunny’s feet. Hariyama is also here. A floor below, it’s the return of Grumpig. Plus Yanmega for the first time. Girafarig.

-SIGH-

Route 33. Do you want to save us?

Weezing.

WHISCASH. GIMME. CHANCE, SWAP OUT AND LET CLOUD HELP.

AT LONG LAST.

WE HAVE.

THE CHAINLOCKE’S FIRST CATCH.

FLUDD, WELCOME TO THE TEAM!

NEXT CATCH?

WATER OR GROUND!

LET’S END IT THERE WHILE THINGS ARE STILL GOOD.

Beginners Guide to Creating a Nation

Nations, states, countries, some sort of principality or kingdom. It comes by many names, but at the end of the day, it is just a place people live. The cities and villages can vary a lot, or there can be such a strong oppressive boot on the back of the people that there is a sense of uniformity.  When it comes to homebrewing, I talk about a lot. Whether it be the campaign, a creative twist to an old setting, or just building it a bit, I do talk about it a lot.  Anyway, as I was saying, when it comes to homebrewing for a new setting, to really introduce your players to the world, you only really need one nation fleshed out. The others can come with time.  Start simple, how much influence does the central or federal government have in small villages? Do they have any unusual laws that the players can incorporate into their backstories? Are they isolationists?  Do they have a mandatory or voluntary military service? These are some simple questions to really kick the thing off. Now, Roll4 has looked at this topic before, but a different contributor, different style, more of an introduction, a launching point.  People tend to think differently, what works well for some, doesn’t work at all for others, so here is the same concept with a different lens.  The early work comes off as more of a listicle, a checklist of things to consider, and to expand from. A good starting point if you are going blind, or unsure of what you are looking for, the minute you start filling in one or two of the sections, it really starts branching out, and making it easier to find the information for the next.  A listicle like that one is great for fleshing out more and more details or things you missed. Back when I was in high school I had a huge list of things I went over, and I continued to refine how I build countries until this point right now. I still have that huge list, and refer to it occasionally, but I tend to think a softer version with less hard lore works better for me.  So, about 10 years of work has gone into the advice I’m about to give, not consciously worked on, but through trial and error, mistakes in GMing, and just correcting it so I don’t have that issue again. Before we really get rolling, I do want to put as a side-I did google a few different phrases looking around for other people giving advice on how to build nations or countries for tabletop gaming. Honestly found them to be very lackluster, or at the very least unfocused, and it is what made me want to revisit this topic.   So let's go, to start with, at least how I start, ask yourself about the problems that face the country, or regions of the country.  It could be arid and hot, limiting the food potential, meaning famines are common. There could be a culture that thrives on the hardiness of those who can live through the tough times, meaning the common folk don’t squander food, they stretch every grain of rice or wheat to the fullest.  Mayhaps, the winters are so rough on them that during the inhospitable seasons, such as winter, there is a ritual of forgiveness for families that can’t handle their children, can’t afford to feed them, and give them to the spirits of the land, and the memories of children that aren’t properly honored, results in, let’s just say a rather sad, and dark plot hook. But the idea of starting from this position is to build flaws inherently into the society, whether it be the honoring of strength, meaning that the strongest is right even when very wrong.  “I can drink this poison, so clearly it isn’t poison!” Or it could be that the pursuit of knowledge dwarfs all other values, safety and life included, “What do you mean why? Why did I make a portal to the abyssal plane of unfunny comedians?  TO SEE IF I COULD OF COURSE!” These inherent societal flaws can lead to a lot of plot hooks, lots of quests for your players to be engaged by, or to include in their own character’s backstory.  A society that is known for having a corrupt king and corruption all the way down would produce a lot of thieves, don’t you think? But you get the idea, you can have any kind of flaw, from dormant dragons below all their castles to something small, like the occasional seasonal flooding.  The next big thing for me after that is asking how the society copes with, or fixes, the problem. If you have a legion of unwieldy scientists running about doing magical studies that result in possibly altering the very laws of nature, perhaps, there are strike financial burdens on those that harm others, or it encourages isolation by the most strange, or maybe, only mayors are entitled to that level, and part of the planks of their elections are the insane experiments they want to run.  “I wanted to vote for Rezog the Reanimated, but, well, the tax break just isn’t worth his promise to bring back all the dead in the city, so I guess I’ll vote Fleming, he only wants to make a super cold that makes you sneeze with super strength.” It could be a society with might makes right has gladiatorial fights, and puts scholarly pursuits on the back seat. Meaning they have to train their strength of arm, for arms and armor.  Selling their nation like mercenaries, and being manipulated by some foreign powerhouse. After that, I like to ask ‘Who is in charge?’  And make an NPC for that. Does he reflect the traditions, or is he a beacon of changing times?  Is he making things better or worse? If he is changing the nation for the better or worse, he can easily be marked for an assassination, and the PCs can be tied up in that political thriller, and that adds more twists and turns, is the assassin from within the nation, or are they a foreign agent?   I won’t dwell too much on that, NPC building could be a fun topic for the future, for now, we will stick to helping create a nation (or whatever you want to call it).  One of the next things I consider is reputation, what is the country known for, is it known for its Silver Mines? Well, it is a real shame those Silver Mines are running out, huh?  Or, the flip side, it was known for Silver a long long time ago, and is still known as the Kingdom of Silver, Ver, but, those mines have been empty so long, that the name seems almost mocking.  Are they known like Sparta was for great warriors? Or maybe Scholars like Athens? A reputation for exploration and establishing occupational garrisons like the England of Old? I also tend to find using comparisons to real world nations helps me get an idea for how I think it should be structured, as well as looking at certain times in history.   Focusing on the nation's reputation can help you plan out some twists and turns, and even get some basic notes on neighboring countries. Keep them short and simple to start with, trade agreements, and things like that. Don’t flesh out a country that may never be visited, or the players don’t care about, have a few interesting tidbits, and offer them a hook or two if they want to go that way, but if they don’t, leave it as a background decoration, like an empty book on a bookshelf, it makes the place look more complete, but it is hiding the truth. Now, this is the key part of what you should do when building a campaign as well, ask yourself this, is this nation important to my plot?  If you are running a sort of free-roam, let the players’ choose their own adventures, it is both yes and no, and you should just keep using their exploration and ideas to build it up.  However, if your plot is all about the spirit world, maybe not so much. You can let a lot of the nation building take a back seat unless it has some particular boon or drawback to the plot.  Like, say it is a militaristic naturalist country who thinks spirituality is asking for great unrest and thus the party’s exploration into that realm makes them wanted criminals, or perhaps, the king has a spiritual guide, and the party can communicate with him through the abstract and often confusing mind-scape.   I won’t dwell on this one too long, as your campaign is your business and tying the nation into it, and see how that shapes the journey the players must walk is something only you can really know, So, I only have one more important thing to say about making your nation.  Lie.  Lie your gosh-dang pants off.  Are any of your player’s agricultural experts?  How about experts on geography or tectonic plates?  Well, if they are, dude, nice skill set, but more than likely, they are not.  And that means, even if your geography for your nation is logically unsound, no one will catch your lie.  If your farming practices or seasons or a little off, no one will notice. If you act as the expert on these things, not to a condescending degree, but enough to give your player’s confidence that this world and society works, they will believe you.  Likewise, mistakes, let them happen, roll with them. If your player suspects something and is building up to the Priest-King of the Holy Kingdom of Eviaries actually lost his faith when his wife died, and has a really solid rationale behind it, lie, say you had it planned from the start.  They won’t know! Also, years later when you tell them you just stole that idea you can share a nice laugh. Anyway, this is more or less my beginner's class on nation-building, a little bit of helpful advice, a bit more focuses on the fluffy lore part of it, rather than the hard facts.  If this appeals to you, let me know, and I’ll be sure to do a follow-up, if not, well, I have a lot of other ideas I want to run through. Read the full article