How to incorporate item usage during Pokemon battle in the fic?

[CrystaI]

I never tried to use item during Pokemon battles in any of my past fic, because I do not know how to incorporate it in writings. But recently, I wanted to tried to make use of it, because I was trying the competitive gameplay strategies within writings. But the problem I found about competitive gameplay is heavily relying on the usage of item, especially the held item.

So how one can incorporate held item usage during battle in the fic? I know that the held item is rather mechanical, and was designed for in-game purpose. But how to do it if I wanted to use it? And how can pull it off "realistically", without making it too systematical as like the metagame?

There are also many question involve about it, such as how the held item functions, how they are consumed, how they are hold onto (or attached to?) the Pokemon, will the item be destroyed during moving or attacked, etc.

Any suggestion and discussion will be helpful.

 

[Beth Pavell]

Funnily enough, I was thinking about this recently in regards to Held Items. It seems obvious to me that literally holding the items won't work. You quickly run into all kins of problems when you think about it, not least of which is that not all pokémon have the appropriate anatomy to hold. The best solution I can think of would be for the item to be placed within a bag, probably with an elasticated strap. Likely there would be standard dimensions at the least for official competitions. The strap could be tightened around some part of the pokémon's body, and the close proximity of the item in some way activates its effects.

Consumables I imagine would dissolve or disintegrate upon usage. In the game you can't choose when the item is activated so that's not a problem in the story either. Berries are obvious. Some items might not be so much held as worn - the Assault Vest for example. Probably this would make them rarer and more expensive since they'd have to be tailored to fit each species

 

[Drakon]

Hmm. I usually have the pokémon wearing the items and/or having them dangling from a bandolier of sorts. And yes, multiple items can be worn and used.

Hell, had a concept of a very dirty fighting trainer who gives his pokémon multiple poison barbs and iron balls to throw at the opponent and then they can close in with melee attacks.

 

[CrystaI]

Many of the type-enhancing item, such as Black Belt, Black Glasses, Mystic Water and Silk Scarf, they are accessories to be wear on the Pokemon, so it is not a big matter of how they are hold onto the Pokemon. But then I cannot imagine how such item can provide power to the Pokemon such that attack of specific type become stronger. Because, they seems to be more like accessories rather than items with hidden power.

That goes the same with many of the in-battle effect items, especially the headbands and scarfs. I can't imagine how they can cause such in-game effects of limit move choice and/or increase stats of Pokemon, or limit damage. Though I don't think I'm going to use such items in my fic.

But I can imagine how Charcoal and Magnet functions, because these items contains physical properties that affects fire and electricity directly. But I kind of imagine they are more like one-time consumable items, because in my headcanon, attacks are to be hit onto the item in order to have its power increase. Same with the Gems, but with the Gems being much more rare and expensive to obtain, so no one will use it in battle as a power booster.

BTW, I like Drakon's idea of held items are there to be Fling, rather than having the described in-game effects (Though I would say such way of fighting is rather money-wasting). Maybe I should change a bit of how the held items are to be used.

 

[matt0044]

I'd recommend you don't. I mean, I'd hate to drag out battles longer than they need to.

 

[CrystaI]

I'd recommend you don't. I mean, I'd hate to drag out battles longer than they need to.

I kindly accept your recommendation. But, using items and competitive strategies (especially many of those suggested by Smogan) does not necessarily elongates the battle. Sometimes, it rather shorten the battles.

This might be a bit off topic for this thread, but I mentioned this because I was trying to make battles in my fic interesting and yet strategical. Battles are not just exchange attacks between two Pokemons, there are many tactics and strategies behind it. I was trying to think of the battles from the battler's view as well, not just from the writer's view.

 

[Persephone]

I, admittedly, write in more or less the canon of Generation One. Which means I don't really worry about held items much at all. But in practice they should not be terribly different from any other mechanic that GF gave us. I mean, I would not say "Wow! That Life Orb made the attack a third more powerful, but every time the user successfully uses an attack it loses ten percent of its HP!" no more than I would say "that Flamethrower was impressive, having 90 BP and all, and coming from a Pokemon with STAB, 140 base Special Attack and 255 EV's. In fact, my calculations show it should be a 2HKO on most resists!" This is presumably meant to be a story and not a war story. Just interpret things without quite so many numbers involved and keep the effects. Then consider how an item could plausibly invoke these effects.

For the aforementioned Life Orb, maybe it contains some psychological agent that makes a Pokemon lose sense of its physical limits. Sure, its striking a lot harder now but it also runs the risk of injuring itself because it's using moves so powerful that its injuring itself in the process and can't feel it. Then maybe make just how powerful the moves are or the extent of injuries vary on a case by case basis. Sure, it means that every item has to work somewhat differently, but that also gives a lot more options to explore a particular area of your headcanon.

If your question was "how does an Unown hold a Scope Lens?" I can't help you so much. But with enough creativity more or less any illogical aspect of canon can be explained away, as many of the above posters have shown.