Pokemon Teams: How Much is Too Much?

[jasonwolf]

So having returned from the grave that is college I've been working on the 4th rewrite of my Medieval Pokemon fanfiction. I feel I've finally hit the right balance of seriousness and enjoyable over the top action with a good amount of humor here and there. One thing bugging me though are the pokemon teams. Because of the medieval nature of the world, and its position as an origin story of the pokemon league, there are no rules and regulation about pokemon, and as such I have planned to give between the main character and his allies a veritable army of pokemon to fight the actual army of the main villain. The thing is though as the numbers grow each pokemon who I've hoped would be their own interesting character has had to share the spot light between each other. I know for certain I want the main character to have a number of pokemon available, but at the same time I don't want to ruin the pokemon by giving him too many.

I'm trying to balance it between three main attributes: Combat, Utility, and Transportation. In this medieval world Mark (the main character) has to deal with the remnants of a war, the harsh untamed wilds, and the miles between civilization. His starter who will always be there except for a few moments when they have to split up for plot elements is a Scyther giving him a Tally in Combat, as all his utility is covered by Mark's weapons. From there I need to figure out what a good balance would be not only in which might be the best (for the reader) for me to focus on, and how many he can have. If I give him 12 pokemon at a time there will be no obstacle he can't overcome.

The third problem is coming up with a reason for why he can't have all the pokemon at once normally, but can all them all in for a massive battle. I do have a system for transporting pokemon in their crystals (story's pokeballs) so theres not the problem.


The final thing troubling me is the enemies pokemon. They of course have their army, and have their settlements all set so they can garrison a large number of pokemon. I mostly think its limited by supplies and by manpower as pokemon aren't instantly tamed in this they start as inteligent, but feral creature, but alongside careful human nurturing and training they can gain powers of reason and much higher mental capabilities alongside their instincts. Most of the army's pokemon are at that animal level where they are controlled by force. Later on as they reach the bigger main antagonists there will be people with well trained and obediant pokemon and they are the ones I really need to limit, but am not sure how. Yes time is a factor in training them, but this is an army that's been around for centuries with extremely skilled trainers.

 

[Drakon]

Maybe you can limit the number of "elite pokemon" by accounting for how many resources it takes to train them up to that level. I'm assuming that that kind of intensive training would tie up a lot of manpower (keepers, medical personnel, caretakers, trainers, "squires", etc.) and you can't just throw everyone into training these "elite pokemon" or else there will be no one left to handle the logistics of the army. Say nothing of handling the civilian resources and infrastructure.

Personally. I'd give him eight pokemon. To make things interesting, why not develop them starting from a base of archetypes like "the grizzled veteran"; "the hardass CO"; "the newbie" etc.

 

[jasonwolf]

To make things interesting, why not develop them starting from a base of archetypes like "the grizzled veteran"; "the hardass CO"; "the newbie" etc.

That's a really interesting twist on it. As I've said pokemon are still very much animals here, but they are not without personality. Reaper(his Scyther) is ever so slightly sadistic, but its more his predatory nature and he's also very much that "I thought I was the best, I thought I knew everything, and now the world just got thrown upside down" character.

His other two current pokemon are a Yanma (freshly caught) and a charmander (part of the origin of the regions having the starter pokemon.) Mark started with Reaper and Jercio (technically he got Jercio first, but within half an hour he was fighting Reaper and nearly getting killed because of his arrogance.)

Yes I did forget to put Charmander under his starters as that was a recent edit I will put that above.

But yes the idea of having these pokemon fill some of the military characters would be interesting. Mark of course isn't the only protagonist he has two other human allies (as lets face it two guys one girl works so well. There will be other protagonists, but these are the main/original 3 think like A:TLA they are building an army not only of pokemon but of people. Mark is the only one who travels though as Elizibeth is the mage and doesn't have anywhere near enough training, and Jake representing the rogue/ranger character is not willing to go directly into combat like Mark is, so he's providing field support and such.)

As for pokemon training that would work if Mark wasn't training pokemon on his own. It makes no sense that a young man with 3 months of training in combat, pokemon, and a number of other things (ergo all those topics have to share time between those 3 months) would be able to train pokemon skillfully while long time generals have to have many many people on hand to tend to their personal pokemon. As I mentioned the ones controlled by force need keepers and much more, but the personal pokemon of the leaders are loyal and intelligent. As well those best pokemon were trained by the main leaders who are basically replacing the pokemon gyms and elite 4 in this story. their pokemon are totally obedient more trusted allies than minions.

I do agree on the medical care though even with magic and all sorts of fancy alchemy medicine for pokemon would not be easy. Mark has an extremely powerful artifact that can heal 2 pokemon to full health, but only recharges every two days, and he got this from the second strongest mage in the western world, so they aren't just floating around.

All in all through my rambling I like it. The 2nd point is very interesting to apply to pokemon as I tend to give them personalities, but never assigned them ones like that. As for limiting garrisoned pokemon one thought I had for the pokemon controlled by force was that I'd give Mark basically Snag'em gear, but in medieval style so that he can turn them against their owners. Its rather interesting as the main character isn't a perfect hero, so he might even try to take some of the loyal pokemon if he has to. He's more than willing to "cheat" a bit, steal, use cruel tactics, but mostly only on enemies. If you REALLY pushed him he wouldn't care what side you are on you are going down. And keep in mind the villains aren't totally evil either. Yes they took over this nation who had a respected king, but they aren't slaughtering every or anything they declared war after a number of tribulations between the nations and it happened that the Archmage of the one nation was a turncoat, so they fell quickly.