Monster Trainer Setting: Collaboration Edition

[beejazz]

re: xath

I'm just saying Ash is supposed to be the best because he has a more special bond with his pokemon. There should really be room for variation, and as you pointed out, if mons can fight people and people can fight for their mons, a certain kind of respect can develop. So what I'm saying is you could be like Ash and develop camaraderie, or you could be the rival and be a real dick towards them. Magically compelled loyalty (at least) is there though, and can be addressed in a number of ways. Some may find the capture of mons morally repugnant, even given the threat mons can pose.

As for uniqueness, I'm saying it would be different and kind of cool if every individual mon was its own species. So there aren't pikachu all over; there's just one pikachu.

"Story format" mostly applies to adaptation as a comic or story (which has come up). Though in-game rationale would be that there wouldn't exactly be an army of mons hanging around each town.

RE: Feudal Japan

Make it postwar Japan, if we're going that route I think. I can't remember the name of that one manga/anime with the weird kid and his eyeball dad, but there's an existing aesthetic there that would go great with pokemon. But I think ordinary people in a semi-modern world are part of what make pokemon pokemon, and the others tend to bump things forward if anything. There are probably enough wandering samurai fighting against / alongside monsters out there in the anime world, and they don't have much of a mons feel. Not that I don't love the occasional anime in that genre.

[Ninja D!]

Now we need GamerPrintshop in here.

Framing it around Japanese folklore and Shintoism should work really well and be a justificattion for why the world isn't too different from our own.

To address beejazz's concerns, I think we should not set the game in actual Japan. I think it should be an original island continent, based on Japan. That worked for Pokemon and then we can ignore historical accuracy. At least that's what I would like.

Unique monsters would be cool but sort of difficult to make work. I would say a halfway point would be best. There are many kappa but they're not all exactly the same.

They different 'types' of monsters could come from there being physical ones, which would most likely follow you around, just spirits that you would need to summon, and then magical creatures that are somewhere in between. Thoughts?

I think, since this site was made by and for gamers, we should build a fairly simple game system alongside the setting. Maybe that's just me, though.

[beejazz]

Of course an alternate world/history would be an improvement in terms of our time investment and quality (the research into anywhere/when real could bog us down), but I see big potential in the rapid development, poverty, and age demographics that skew especially young. Also, it's a mixed modern setting where everyone walks everywhere, and a fictionalized version would allow for the minor scifi elements characteristic of several works in the genre.

[Ninja D!]

Pokemon handled technology worst of all monster games. What they have and don't have just doesn't make sense. Dragon Quest Monsters has advanced technology and it still works quite well. Monster Rancher showed pretty well a world whose technology had developed differently because of the monsters.

[beejazz]

Pokemon handled technology worst of all monster games. What they have and don't have just doesn't make sense. Dragon Quest Monsters has advanced technology and it still works quite well. Monster Rancher showed pretty well a world whose technology had developed differently because of the monsters.

I only semi-disagree. Situations where cellphones and PCs creep into places without roads can happen under specific circumstances. Cars and trains might not be a big deal on a small island chain, for example. Walking is a big part of what makes pokemon pokemon (at least), and so is some minor level of modernity. There's a lot of room for making the world different in ways much more subtle than the pokequivalent of magitech.

Pokemon was dull because it didn't acknowledge the weird tech level that let animals be stored digitally, but wouldn't let Ash get on a bus. But acknowledging it can go a long way to figuring out the "real" setting in which this kind of thing might have taken place.

[Ninja D!]

That was my problem with how Pokemon handled technology. They also had motorcycles (at least in the anime and manga) and steam ships and I remember at least one truck. I always assumed that they had cars and things, you just didn't have access to them because you were a child. They really just didn't address technology. Also, like much of Japan (or any dense urban area), a lot of normal people probably didn't have cars. They would use public transportation, bikes, or walk.

In any case, it doesn't matter. We can do it how we want to do it and address it in our setting.

[Steerpike]

It should probably be decided how much the setting should derive from Pokemon.  Personally I wouldn't be as big a fan of modern tech since a lower tech level allows for the various mons/demons/whatevers being used more frequently and creatively for labour purposes.  If there are planes there's not much reason for riding on the back of an Onmoraki.  If there are guns/flamethrowers/grenades, why bother training a fire-breathing chicken to fight for you?

[beejazz]

It should probably be decided how much the setting should derive from Pokemon.  Personally I wouldn't be as big a fan of modern tech since a lower tech level allows for the various mons/demons/whatevers being used more frequently and creatively for labour purposes.  If there are planes there's not much reason for riding on the back of an Onmoraki.  If there are guns/flamethrowers/grenades, why bother training a fire-breathing chicken to fight for you?

What if we took it back to WWI tech-wise, kept a postwar reconstruction vibe, and used a chain of small islands. No commercial flights, minimal roads between towns, maybe there are ferries. Scrounging for fare or a simple storm could get you stuck every now and again. Until you pick up flying/swimming mons, at least.

[Ninja D!]

If we're not going to have advanced technology (and I don't think we need it), I would like it to be a step down from WWI technology. At least in the area of weapons. Maybe allso transportation but that is less of a big deal.

I allso think that a sort of reconstruction vibe could potentially be cool but rather than post war, I think it should be post cataclysm of some sort. Maybe even a disaster caused or relatted to thesee monsters in some way.

[Steerpike]

WWII tech with a reconstruction/cataclysmic feel might be interesting, with people reverting to monster-drawn carts and flying mounts.  If the realm is modeled after Japan, a Hiroshimaesque disaster would seem to be in order.  What about some kind of "spirit-bombing"?  Cities overrun by Yurei, spirits of concentrated hate released by a massive "pokeball"-style weapon.  Survivors of the disaster emerging as twisted shade-things, possessed or mutated, with elongated necks or monstrous Oni faces... what do you think, beejazz and others?

Also, wikipedia has a great list of Mononoke/Yokai etc.  They could be used whole-hog or adapted/based on these creatures.

[Nomadic]

WWII tech with a reconstruction/cataclysmic feel might be interesting, with people reverting to monster-drawn carts and flying mounts.  If the realm is modeled after Japan, a Hiroshimaesque disaster would seem to be in order.  What about some kind of "spirit-bombing"?  Cities overrun by Yurei, spirits of concentrated hate released by a massive "pokeball"-style weapon.  Survivors of the disaster emerging as twisted shade-things, possessed or mutated, with elongated necks or monstrous Oni faces... what do you think, beejazz and others?

Also, wikipedia has a great list of Mononoke/Yokai etc.  They could be used whole-hog or adapted/based on these creatures.

I'm liking the feel of this! It has my vote.

[Ninja D!]

That sounds good by me. Some Pokemon-style conflict could come from the existence of that sort of weapon. Traditionally, people would tame or befriend these monsters in the same way you would a normal animal. This pokeball-like thing traps the creatures and enslaves them, instead.

[Xathan]

Just to let everyone know, I love the direction this is going.

Since I kickstarted this, I'm going to go through the thread and get a rough draft of what everyone seems to have agreed on to post, though I might not get it done before X-Mass, and keep discussing. :)

[Steerpike]

Cool.

Do you guys think monsters should be contained in portable form as in Pokemon?  If so, how?  Or might there be multiple methods?

[Nomadic]

Cool.

Do you guys think monsters should be contained in portable form as in Pokemon?  If so, how?  Or might there be multiple methods?

I think there should be two forms. If you train and care for one it will probably stick around like a companion and you wouldn't really contain it. Alternatively some people bind the souls of these creatures to eldritch items (small stone tablets? sickly gems?) and can summon them forth and control them from these devices. Such creatures could be pushed much farther and would be more dangerous, but if the owner loses control of them they could very well have a rampaging beast on their hands.