Robin stepped out of his apartment, recently empty after everything was moved to storage, and hefted his backpack. It was a less-than-perfect day to start out on a journey, as the rain started falling, but the excitement of getting his own Pokemon and starting a Tourney-Journey was enough to keep his spirits high. Tourney-Journey, the sheer amount of marketing that dripped off of that name was almost unbelievable, but they were going to give him a Pokemon, so Robin wasn't complaining.
"Alright, I just have to stop off at the distributor on the way out of town to get my Pokemon and I'll be set to head off." Robin remarked.
The Tourney-Journey was how new trainers were licensed in this region, making sure that Pokemon weren't being caught willy-nilly and breeding strong camaraderie, or rivalries, among trainers. Every month, six new trainers from a wide range of ages were accepted into the program, given Pokemon that had been caught but unused by past trainers, and sent on their way. The routes between Einpointe and Zwo Cliffs were where trainers started really building their teams, and often by the time they left Zwo Cliffs they had been recruited for the full Tournament portion of the Journey.
Robin arrived at the small building at the edge of town that housed the TJ Distributor, knocked, and entered.
"Hello there Mr. -"
"Robin Greene, I'm one of the six trainers this month."
"Indeed you are! Just let me know which Pokemon you'd like and you're set to start your Journey."
"Well, they might be a little rare, but I've always been fascinated with Porygon. Do you have one?"
"As luck would have it, I have one of every Pokemon on the list we sent you."
"beepbeep. boop."
Porygon acquired!
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And with that, I'm set to go as well. I'm going to keep my teams
here for easy referencing and to keep track of my items and passes. I'm going to ask people to post your Pokemon's natures and moves, as well as items you purchase and what you use your Custom Passes on, just to make sure rules are being adhered to. You can either do it in the thread, as some of you have already, or you can just enter them in new columns on that sheet. You're welcome to post the info after the round if you want to keep strategies secret, though!
Name: Thingamajig
Species: Porygon
Item: Sitrus Berry
Nature: Relaxed
Ability: Trace
Moves: Psybeam, Tackle, Conversion, Conversion 2
How do the routes work? Will we be given any information about the routes before we choose, or are the Pokemon on each route randomized?
So yeah, as you can see there's a gigantic table I'm making. It'll be parsed down to have lists of available Pokemon you can choose on each route. I'm trying to have it make sense so you should be able to just think, "Oh, there's a cave, I can probably get a Geodude, a Zubat, a fossil Pokemon, or maybe a Machop. I will say now, though, that there are going to be some weird things popping up if there are unique features of the route, so it might be worth skimming through the lists once they're built to see if you can get something you didn't expect.
Edit: Also, you're welcome to wait until I have the map and routes done until you choose your starter. It's a strategically sound move and I won't be starting the tournament in earnest until I'm done with setup anyway.