Cyrostasis Employment Agencies are often considered the last refuge of the skilled and desperate in civilized space. The concept behind them is simple; People who are in debt, wanted, shunned, or otherwise at the end of their rope are put in suspended animation and left there for an amount of time at least equal to 1.5 times their species natural lifespan, and then woken up and matched with one or more job offers.
When you reached the end of your rope, you decided to hit the reset button on life and sign on with such an agency. During your pre-freeze entry exams, you struck the jackpot when it was discovered that you possess the sought after commander gene, which lets you handle Pokeballs. You were assured at that point that there would be several attractive offers waiting for you when you woke up, and you were not disappointed; Many people are willing to pay good money for a commander who's loyalty is all but assured because they know nobody else to be loyal to. After sifting through many attractive offers, you decided that the following interested you the most:
Commander,
My name is Hans Drachenzwerg, and until recently I was a captain for the now bankrupt salvage company known as Apex Exploration and Reclamation. I have just purchased the rights to the 'Apex' name and brand, a HON2003 Walrein Class Transport Ship fully equipped and modified for salvage jobs, and the company book of leads from the bankruptcy liquidation auction. I intend to rebuild Apex from the ground up, and that is where you come in.
We will be traveling to the edge of civilized space, where the owner of the third planet from the star WS-ABFR has granted us full salvage rights on the world's surface. WS-ABFR-03 has been home to ancient civilizations and battles, as well as more recent research and manufacturing by various disreputable institutions who wished to avoid detection. The planet owner wishes to extract as much of this accumulated wealth as possible, and use his cut to terraform the world into a resort. WS-ABFR-03 is home to several relatively primitive, but well entrenched, feudal civilizations who have proven hostile to salvage operations in the past, so I have decided to hire several commanders to protect my employees and put the fear of the gods into the locals.
Since I lack the funds to offer a competitive salary for a commander, you will instead by compensated with a 5% owning interest in the company. If you and your fellow commanders prove successful we should all end up quite wealthy. You will be provided with basic supplies, as well as command over two Apex employees, so if wealth and adventure appeals to you, all you need do is sign up.
Sincerely,
Captain Hans Drachenzwerg
Principle Owner, CEO, and Head Pilot
Apex Exploration and Reclamation
What is this?This is a
Pokemon Tabletop United campaign. We will be using the 1.05 Ruleset. I would prefer to run the game on a Saturday or Sunday, in the evening or nighttime pacific time, but I am able to run on evenings during the week if that works better for potential players.
House Rules:-Anything from the PTU 1.05 Handbook and/or the ‘Do Porygon Dream of Mareep’ supplement is fair game. Stuff from the other splatbooks may be made available upon request.
-Most Pokemon are sentient, and many speak languages that a universal translator might understand.
-Unless specifically marked as 'non-sentient' all Pokemon have access to all skills. Skills not mentioned in a Pokemon's dex entry start as untrained. When genning a Pokemon, randomly pick two skills not mentioned in the dex entry to lower to pathetic. You can pick which skills to lower on your starters.
-Pokeballs are dangerous objects powered by a contained spacial distortion. Any being loses HP for each round in which they come in contact with a Pokeball. The HP lost is equal to the absolute value of the balls capture bonus plus 3. HP loss will never KO the target of a capture attempt. A captured creature may safely touch its own Pokeball. A human with the Commander Gene may safely touch any Pokeball.
-Pokeballs have brainwashing abilities. During the capture process, basic obedience is instilled in any creature, so even hostile sentient beings start at loyalty 2. In addition most Pokeballs have a Bond Enforcer switch. When switched on, the Bond Enforcer raises the captured creatures loyalty by 1 every three encounters. A creature whose loyalty is raised to 7 this way is permanently stripped of free will, and becomes its owner’s unquestioning puppet.
-It is highly dangerous, even for somebody with the Commander Gene, to keep more than 6 full Pokeballs on one’s person. A PC system is in effect. You can access your storage from your personal cabin or the bridge.
-Loyalty is no longer a secret stat, and players are responsible for tracking it.
-Humans without the command gene may be captured and treated like a Pokemon. I will write up a dex entry/details if somebody actually goes that route.
Application:Fill out the below form if you want to play. Entry is not first come/first served, but based on quality of your written backstory as well as how your available time to play matches up with the other potential players. I also don't like taking more than one player with the same class. If you want to start on your character sheet early, PCs will be starting at trainer level 5 and with 10000py worth of items from the core rule book or scifi splatbook.
Character Name:
Planned Class or Classes:
Bio: (Why did you end up turning to a Cyrostasis Employment Agency?)
Preferred Starters: (Pick five from the list below in order of preference. You will receive two if accepted)
1:
2:
3:
4:
5:
Times Available to Play:
List of Starters:Drachenzwerg has managed to sign on the following 12 Pokemon for this job, and each player will be responsible for two of them. As these Pokemon are salaried employees who signed up willingly, their Pokeballs do not come with bond enforcers.
Name: Bellesparta
Race: Weepinbell
Gender: Female
Nature: Adamant
Level: 32
Unique Skills, Quirks, and Abilities: Knows the tutor move Bullet Seed. Has Adept Combat Skill, Adept Athletics, and Novice Acrobatics.
History and Motivation: Bellesparta was born into a highly militarized primitive culture, and trained as a front line soldier. When her planet was terraformed and colonized, her home culture collapsed, and Bellesparta was one of many soldiers who quickly adapted to life as space-faring sellswords. Like most remnants of her society, Bellesparta is an ardent worshiper of Heatran, god of War, Chaos, and Destruction. As such, she views battle as a holy sacrament, and has joined up with this operation in hopes that a commander might help her grow into an even stronger implement of Heatran's will.
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Name: Hugo 'Wonder Cripple' La'Vare
Race: Hitmontop
Gender: Male
Nature: Hardy
Level: 26
Unique Skills, Quirks, and Abilities: Knows the Bonus Moves Psychic and Telekinesis. Overland Movement Speed is 4. Has a Levitate Movement Speed of 2. Cannot learn Triple Kick. Infamous and disliked among fans and participants of combat sports. Has Adept Combat skill, Novice Acrobatics, and Expert Focus. Owns a Psychic Type Booster in the form of a purple anklet.
History and Motivation: As a Tyrogue, Hugo La'Vare was one of the best fighters on the junior circuit, and widely considered to be one of the top cage fighting prospects in all of civilized space. When he evolved into Hitmontop, however, one of his three legs turned out to be underdeveloped, messing up his balance and rendering him unable to use Triple Kick: the signature move of his species. To everybody's surprise, he began to enter tournaments anyway, and miraculously won 14 straight fights! The Wonder Cripple was an inspirational hero and A-lister on many planets, but that all fell apart when it came to light that he possessed some latent psychic ability and was using it illegally to win matches. Hugo was banned from all respectable promotions, and shunned by respectable society. After blowing through his savings, he decided flee to the margins of civilized space and take up salvage work to lay low.
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Name: 'Tweet' Arroya
Race: Swellow
Gender: Female
Nature: Docile
Level: 26
Unique Skills, Quirks, and Abilities: Knows the Bonus Move Fly. Has Expert Focus Skill, Untrained Combat, and Expert Technology Education. Owns a Talon Control Modual which can be installed in most vehicles to allow a bird Pokemon to easily control them. Owns 'Booster Rockets', a held item that increases Sky Speed by 4.
History and Motivation: Tweet was a talented stunt pilot on the carnival circuit, who dreamed of striking it rich and seeing the universe. When a band of space pirates saw her skill in the cockpit, they offered to let her join, and the young Swellow accepted without much thought. It turned out Tweet was a poor fit for piracy, because although she was easily one of the best pilots in the gang, she didn't have it in her to hurt innocents. Eventually the other pirates got sick of her, and abandoned her at a Trade Station, taking her personal spacecraft and most of her other possessions with them. She has signed on with AER in hopes of making enough money to buy a new craft so she might continue to follow her dreams.
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Name: Cujo Exile
Race: Luxio
Gender: Male
Nature: Bold
Level: 32
Unique Skills, Quirks, and Abilities: Knows the Bonus Moves Rain Dance and Hidden Power (Water). Pathetic Focus Skill, Adept Technology Education, Adept Occult Education.
History and Motivation: Cujo always had a natural talent for both science and the supernatural, so when he came of age his pack sacrificed much of their modest accumulated wealth to send him to a fine university in hopes of getting him certified as a planetary terraforming technician. Cujo, however, lacked the patience for book learning and after several years of struggling in school eventually dropped out. His furious pack promptly disowned him. Since then he has scrapped by working for small grey market terraforming operations too cheap to hire licensed technicians. Upon hearing rumors that WS-ABFR-03 might have been home to experimental terraforming research, his curiosity got the better of him and he signed up for the salvage job.
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Name: Dr. Corri Blinksoul
Race: Simipour
Gender: Female
Nature: Bashful
Level: 25
Unique Skills, Quirks, and Abilities: Novice Athletics Skill, Adept Acrobatics, Adept General Education, Expert Medicine Education, Expert Focus. Has the Medic Training edge as a Pokedge. Owns 7 Hyper Potions and 5 Full Restores. Owns a Medicine Satchel, a held item that allows a Pokemon to hold any number of restorative items.
History and Motivation: Abandoned at birth, Corri was raised in a temple devoted to Shaymin. When she was old enough, Corri tried to repay her debt to the nature god by becoming a priest of Shaymin, but found the seminary where such holy men are trained to be a living hell; Shaymin is, among other things, a trickster god, and quiet bashful Corri was a favorite target for her fellow priesthood candidates looking to earn divine favor by pulling nasty pranks. Near the end of her rope, Corri went to the local Bishop for help, who advised her to focus on the fact that Shaymin is also a god of restoration, drop out of seminary, go to med school, and serve her lord as a healer. Corri did just that, and signed up with AER to pay off her student loans.
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Name: Specimen BIN-F2
Race: Binacle
Gender: Female
Nature: Decisive
Level: 31
Unique Skills, Quirks, and Abilities: Knows the Bonus Moves Poison Jab and Earthquake. Has the Trained Salvager Homebrew Pokedge (+6 to all skill checks made to ID technological or supernatural artifacts). Adept Perception Skill, Adept Survival. Owns a Small Hover Chair, a hold item which grants a small sized Pokemon a levitate speed of 5.
History and Motivation: One of Captain Drachenzwerg's first salvage jobs for AER had his team work an abandoned biology lab. Inside they found 44 specimens of the rare Binacle race, which they decided to sell off to various researchers and breeders. Before the shipment company could pick them up however, Drachenzwerg fell head over heels in love with the specimen designated specimen designated 'Female 2'. The feeling was mutual, so Drachenzwerg wound up blowing most of his cut from the lab job to purchase F2's freedom. Since then, Drachenzwerg has kept his girlfriend busy training as both a fighter and an expert on salvage, and the couple just now feels that F2 is ready to tag along on jobs.
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Name: The Marix Collective
Race: Dugtrio
Gender: Male
Nature: Proud
Level: 25
Unique Skills, Quirks, and Abilities: Knows the Bonus Moves Shadow Claw and Teleport. Adept Combat Skill, Master Stealth Skill. Owns a Razor Claw.
History and Motivation: A Dugtrio formed from three Diglett of various backgrounds who met at the Marix Academy, a shadowy training center the produces elite Dugtrio assassins. Sadly for this collective, however, the academy has been a bit too prolific of late, and there are presently more trained Dugtrio hitmen than there are assassination jobs in civilized space. Unable to find work in the field it was trained for, the Marix Collective signed on with AER, which always has work for burrowing ground types.
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Name: Thalmerp Arias
Race: Slugma
Gender: Male
Nature: Naughty
Level: 33
Unique Skills, Quirks, and Abilities: Knows the Bonus Moves Shockwave and Magical Leaf. Adept General Education, Expert Occult Education. Owns a set of Red Mage’s Robes, a hold item which grants Thalmerp the Protean ability.
History and Motivation: Thalmerp was born heir to a successful weapons printing business on a highly populated business. When Thalmerp told his doting parents that he wanted to become a Red Mage, they spared no expense finding their son a skilled master to work with. The young Slugma learned quick, and within a few years was wandering the stars and taking apprentices of his own. Eventually he settled down as the curator of a university library on Red Magic, a position he has held for the better part of a decade. Recently Thalmerp has been looking for work in starsystem WS-ABFR, claiming he had a specific hypothesis he wished to prove regarding the area, and signed up with AER when he found out they were sending a crew that way.
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Name: Pu-Prong
Race: Baltoy
Gender: N/A
Nature: Patient
Level: 28
Unique Skills, Quirks, and Abilities: If chosen, you may choose any three of your character’s mind and/or spirit skills that are higher than a Baltoy’s default skill level in that skill: Pu-Prong’s level in those skills become equal to your own. Owns 4 Nano-Assimilation Swarms (If held can be thrown like a Pokeball; On a successful capture roll, the target undergoes physical and mental changes, becoming docile and willing to be captured if it is not already). Owns an Inorganic Birthing Core (Can turn any stone or clay object that is either a held item or an evolution item into a Pokemon).
History and Motivation: Pu-Prong was created by the Core Beings, one of the countless minor hiveminds that spring up in Wild Space from time to time. Like many Wild Space hiveminds, the Core Beings were eventually targeted for destruction by the Black Pontificate, a theocracy that views the use of psychic power as the gravest of sins. The Core Beings lacked the manpower or resources to fight the Pontificate off, and as their leaders fell their lesser troops began to gain more independence and individuality. Pu-Prong was once such peon who was able to realize that the war was a hopeless one, so it stole some resources from the Core Beings and fled, looking to someday form a new hivemind, perhaps incorporating a powerful commander as a base...
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Name: Simiana Overlord
Race: Aipom
Gender: Female
Nature: Calm
Level: 27
Unique Skills, Quirks, and Abilities: Expert Combat Skill, Adept Technology Education. Simiana owns a set of custom fit Arceus-Class power armor, a held item that functions as both a weapon and a stat booster, and also grants an ability, when a Type Plate item is attached to it. All the attributes of Arceus-Class power armor depend on the equipped plate. Simiana owns a Bug Plate and a Ghost Plate.
History and Motivation: Always one to love a good scrap, Simiana joined up with her homeworld’s militia as soon as she was old enough. She proved more than capable in battle when the minority Sentret population began to revolt, and eventually rose high enough in the ranks to be trusted with expensive power armor. Peace was eventually restored at a high cost to both sides, but Simiana remained in the militia where she eventually became a ranking officer. She had to flee her homeworld, however, when the Sentret began pushing the system-wide court to prosecute those who committed war crimes while putting down the revolt. After drifting between mercenary jobs for a bit, Simiana ended up falling in with AER.
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Name: Rex Del’Sol
Race: Volcarona
Gender: Male
Nature: Brave
Level: 30
Unique Skills, Quirks, and Abilities: Has the bonus move Morning Sun. With the exception of moves learned at level 30, Rex must be genned using Larvesta’s move list.
History and Motivation: Rex was born into a bloodline that prides itself on working with mighty commanders, and as such he has been traveling with humans since he was very young. Rex’s adventures often end up in disaster however, and he has witnessed no less than three human companions die in battle while under his protection. The rage brought about by the most recent fatal incident in Rex’s life was enough to spur his evolution, and luckily for him no amount of superstition or sinister reputation would make a company like AER think twice about hiring somebody of a species as powerful and respected as Volcarona.
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Name: Malversa Grandvisor
Race: Spritzee
Gender: Female
Nature: Quiet
Level: 33
Unique Skills, Quirks, and Abilities: Has the bonus move Snarl. Has Expert Guile Skill and Expert General Education. Has the ‘Local’ Homebrew Pokedge which grants +4 to all rolls to know about the events and notable individuals on WS-ABFR-03. Malversa owns a Communications Orb, which allows her to discreetly stay in touch with her nation wherever she happens to be.
History and Motivation: The only member of the team originally from WS-ABFR-03. Malversa is of noble birth among the Lightblades, one of the more powerful feudal nations on the planet. Malversa is adviser and confidant to Prince Niko Lightblade, who seeks to align with the aliens to seize control of the throne from his father and brothers. Malversa has kindly volunteered to serve as a go-between and aid the AER team however she can.