"Lets talk about Pokemon Mystery Dungeon, as a possible tabletop roleplaying game."

Hello r/pokemon!I recently started replaying my old copy of Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Time, a game I loved back when it was new and honestly still do. The dungeoncrawling is fun and the battle system can be both simple and in-depth, but I realized when playing the story that in and of itself, it’s nothing else than an RPG where you play as pokemon. Which got me thinking. I believe that there is enough foundation in the Mystery Dungeon series to be able to translate the concept to a tabletop RPG. Of course you’d have to rework some things - the battle has to be simpler so you don’t need a computer to know how much damage you dealt, the characters need to be easier to handle with paper and pen and be more than just a bunch of stats, and there is a multitude of more questions to be answered - but the core idea is there. The main question is, would it be fun? Quick disclaimer: I'm no expert at neither tabletop RPGs or pokemon. I'm just a big fan who wants to combine two fun things into another fun thing. So bear with me, please!What is Pokemon Mystery Dungeon? You can read about it yourself here, but I’ll try to explain in a simple way, using Explorers of Time as I played that one the most. In Explorers of Time, you and a friendly pokemon form a “rescue team” at a local guild - essentially a group of explorers and adventurers. The rescue teams in the guild take on various missions given from other pokemon - things like “find my missing brother!” or “take down this criminal!” The guild also tackles exploration and adventures, researching rumours and hunting treasure. The story handles a lot of things beyond that (Spoilers: Dialga goes crazy and time stops) and the combat is another chapter completely, but that’s the gist of it. If you want to, you can check out this silly animated series based on Explorers of Time, or these animated trailers for Gates to Infinity with small scenarios out of the game. I think they both show what roleplaying Pokemon Mystery Dungeon may be like - but it could be so much more!Why would people want to play? This is why I'm here today, to ask you this very question. A game is pretty useless if nobody has fun playing it. So what would make this sort of game interesting? Of course, the first step is playing tabletop RPGs in the first place - if you wanna know why I think this is fun, maybe this or this video can explain it better than I can. Other than that, I think it comes down to three factors: exploring the world, enacting a scenario, and playing a character - all appealing differently to different people.Exploring the world is probably what is most important to me. It’s about creating something interesting to explore, which can be all sorts of things. In Mystery Dungeon, you explore caves (dungeons), and that could be cool - finding loot, battling, avoiding traps, all that. But maybe you’d like to see something more epic, like a huge mountain destroyed by the battles between two Salamence? Or the glade deep in the forest, where Meloetta sings to a small crowd of pokemon? Or maybe you want to explore pokemon society! Everyday life and livelihood - do pokemon live in the wild or in a village? Can they use tools? How do water creatures interact with land creatures? Is there a hierarchy, and what is it based on? There is probably more people like me, who wants to create and explore the world of pokemon.Enacting scenarios can be many things, but I think mainly of battle. Battle in Mystery dungeon is pretty lame; battle in the main title series is a little cooler and flashier. In a tabletop RPG, there is no limits except your own imagination. Grounded in a few combat rules, I think battle in a pokemon RPG can be anything from main series to go flashier and more intense than the TV series do battles. Anything is possible, from neverending storms of blows, to weird combo attacks between pokemon… As long as you think it’s fun! There is definitely people who might like that.Finally, playing a character is just what it sounds like - roleplaying. This is what I find hardest to motivate personally: why would you play as a pokemon, when you can either play as a trainer and do pokemon battles instead, or even play another RPG altogether? You will surely have epic adventures either way. Stepping into the role of a creature might not be very intuitive for some people. On the other hand, some people might find this the best part! Roleplaying characters who can just randomly levitate things, or generate electric shocks, or suddenly fall asleep and crush something, or become so angry you actually start burning… There is many fun mutant/superhero RPGs which does this amazingly, and if you can just settle into your role as a 1’ electric mouse, or a 5’ tortoise with cannons on your back, you’ll probably have a lot of fun with it.If you like the idea, why don't you just get on with it? Well, I feel like I need a target audience. I have few IRL friends who can or wants to play at the moment. So I need people to discuss with, and that’s why I’m here: to start a discussion! My sincere hope is to get some input and ideas, and hopefully get a good discussion started. Essentially, do people even want this? I'm here to find out.Do you think this is an interesting, and potentially working, idea?Can you imagine playing it, and what gets your imagination going?What kind of scenarios would you like to play in?And even beyond that - what potential problems can you see? How would you change the rules to make it easier to do with paper and pen? Do you think this is a crappy idea, and why? Share all of your thoughts, I'm happy to hear them! (Oh, and if you're thinking about playing a Pokemon Mystery Dungeons game: I can't speak for all of them, but Explorers of Time is amazing, so I encourage you to do it! The same goes for tabletop RPGs like Dungeons and Dragons too, by the way.) via /r/pokemon http://ift.tt/2As7sOM