Basics

The Game

Pokémon Odyssey is a tabletop RPG for playing Trainers in the world of Pokémon that puts a primary focus on tactical combat using a map and grid. Inspirations include, but are not limited to, video games like Divinity: Original Sin, and combat-centric tabletop RPGs like Dungeons and Dragons 4th edition and Lancer. Play follows a standard structure in Pokémon Odyssey—players decide what kind of adventure to pursue, procure supplies for the trip, embark on their adventure while managing their limited resources, then take a breather during downtime which allows them to take on personal and side projects before the cycle repeats. The rules for resolving non-combat situations tend toward the lighter side, but players familiar with traditional tabletop RPGs can expect staples like challenge rolls and a skill system.

You might have found us through previous TRPGs we've worked on, such as Pokémon Tabletop Adventures and Pokémon Tabletop United. If so, welcome back! Pokémon Odyssey definitely shares DNA with those projects, but we hope you approach it as its own game without expectations of carrying over ideas from our previous works.

The Players and Game Master

Pokémon Odyssey follows the pattern of a more traditional TRPG. Players create characters and narrate their actions within the world. A Game Master, or GM, narrates the events of the world, plays as various non-player characters within it, and presents challenges to the players. While in this arrangement the GM has more narrative and logistical responsibilities, both the players and GM work together to bring the world to life and tell the style of story they agreed upon.

System Intents: A Designers' Note

What makes Pokémon special? You could ask five random fans and get five completely different answers about what they value in the franchise and what they'd look for in a TRPG for playing out their Pokémon fantasies. We'd be remiss then not to lay out what we're aiming to create with Pokémon Odyssey so you can decide whether or not this is the system for you.

Our number one priority is to create satisfying Pokémon combat where everyone can feel good playing with their favorites and each Pokémon species feels distinct and well expressed in the system. We've written every single Pokémon's stat block and move list from the ground up with custom moves designed to promote more tactical play on a grid. Defined battlefield roles give Pokémon more specific jobs to do in battle while working as a team. Custom move lists make even Pokémon species that are similar in concept play differently and give them a distinct identity. All of this has demanded a certain level of complexity in the turn-to-turn combat gameplay and a certain depth of content when it comes to Pokémon Moves, Abilities, and other traits. If you're familiar with the inspirations we've listed above and enjoy that kind of combat, you'll feel right at home here.

Years spent making and playing various Pokémon TRPGs has taught us to let go of many "rules" of Pokémon from the video games. Battles in Pokémon Odyssey are assumed to always be team vs team affairs, not 1v1 duels. Trainers carry fewer Pokémon at a time to make a full traveling party of Trainers more manageable. Pokémon are caught outside of battle, after they've been Fainted, to keep gameplay rolling at a good pace. And we could go on and on. In short, expect many departures from the video games to make for a better tabletop game.

Speaking of what makes for a good tabletop game, we've found the most compelling way to challenge a full party of Pokémon Trainers on an adventure is through attrition. Posing a credible threat to such a party in a single battle takes approximately an eternity and a half, so wearing down a party's resources over multiple adventuring days and battles becomes the better way to create a challenge. Thus, resource management plays a big role in Pokémon Odyssey, including setting off on each adventure with a limited set of supplies based on the GM's estimate of the adventure's length.

The non-combat adventuring rules in Pokémon Odyssey lean towards the light side. To be honest, it has never felt very good to us to make a lot of rolls when resolving adventuring challenges in Pokémon tabletop systems. More often than not, a challenge is greeted by a player coming up with something one of their Pokémon would reasonably be able to do, like a Steelix shoving a boulder out of the way with ease or a Gengar slipping under a door crack—or even walking through the door—to unlock it from the other side, and the GM going "oh, okay I guess that works." Many of us are the type of players who like to roleplay doing cute things with our Pokémon and often find excessive non-combat rules are ignored at best, or get in the way at worst. Nonetheless, a basic challenge resolution system is useful, and we're too cowardly to fully get rid of those traditional mechanics and replace them with something radically difficult anyway. But we did work the more potent supernatural powers that many Pokémon have into the resource management loop of Pokémon Odyssey to strengthen that theme.

Finally, when you consider the entire breadth of the Pokémon franchise, Pokémon Odyssey enables a core but fairly narrow fantasy among all of the possibilities. Players take on the role of Pokémon Trainers who do battle with Pokémon. A lot of battling. The Trainers might get mixed up the scraps themselves, or they might not. They certainly don't have to. If you're not interested in tactical battles at all, there are definitely better suited Pokémon TRPGs out there for a less combat-focused adventure. If you're expecting to play as a Pokémon like in the Mystery Dungeon games, Pokémon Odyssey doesn't support that well and would be tricky to hack for that purpose. If you want to play as a Ranger who keeps a revolving door roster of wild companions befriended in each new locale they visit, the bookkeeping to support that may exhaust you. And finally, there are a number of non-combat competitions in Pokémon like Contests and the Pokéathlon for which we haven't written rules. That doesn't mean you can't feature them in your campaign—we fully support having the party enter a Contest as a roleplaying activity with minimal or no mechanics. But it does mean a campaign that tries to focus on those aspects of Pokémon has very little to draw on from our system.

Our Discord Server

Feel free to join our Discord server at https://discord.gg/2dzbT6r and ask for campaign advice, give us feedback about the system, or just hang out with Pokémon fans! Help us make the best version of the game we're aiming to make.