This is the RP thread for Pokémon Ranger, Almia goes old school. Almia goes old school is an adventure story centered on Pokémon rangers in a mildly historic setting. This RP is open for more characters to join, but please visit the discussion thread first rather than just jumping in. A cross between a sheriff, a rescue worker and a horse whisperer, the rangers and their partner Pokémon work to keep both humans and Pokémon safe in a time of lumberjacks, prospectors, traders, smugglers, poachers and all sorts of shady characters. Plus of course lots and lots of wild Pokémon.
A short recap of the opening post of the discussion thread:
The Game:
This will be a story driven RP without a GM. It's everyone's responsibility to come up with set dressing, region features, cultural details, plot hooks, encounters, characters and twists that make for a good story.
The story is intended as an adventure story full of danger, mystery and treasure. Other storylines such as romance are allowed, but should not be the focus of the RP.
The setting:
The story takes place roughly a century and a half before the present day. The Almia region and the surrounding lands as they appear in this story look like this:
Technology:
There are no electronics, no radios or telegraph lines.
There are no motorized road vehicles. There are no guns, and generally just no weapons of any kind, since those rarely appear in Pokémon media anyway.
There are steam engines, though they are large and clunky. Steam ships and trains and steam powered factories exist.
Pokémon:
Pokémon battling is not a sport in Almia (any other activity is fair game). Poké Balls are illegal in Almia and capture stylers do not exist yet, but Pokémon and people do live together, and Pokémon are kept for all sorts of purposes. Most of the wild Pokémon will be from the first four generations and often from the Almia browser, but partners and other human owned Pokémon can be from anywhere.
Rangers:
The player characters are all rangers, trainee rangers or some other kind of person that can easily and permanently be folded into a ranger team. Rangers have no ranks, they work together on a basis of equality and mutual respect. There is no set age of enlistment, there is no officer track. This is a job you learn on the job.
That said, the story starts here:
"Come on Jim," said the man known as Jake Southwoods, "Your operation can't be that bad."
"It isn't that bad Jake, which is why you're not coming," the blond haired man with the friendly face with the name Jim Blakes replied. "You know what time of the year it is. All the trainees meet back up at Bootcamp Island. Sharing their experiences and finding new assignments is important. We always do this unless there is a situation the veterans can't handle without them. We don't have a situation like that."
"No, we have a situation that requires pretty much everyone else's attention, leaving just a handful of us to deal with the entire meetup and whatever fresh recruits we have this time." Jake, the older man with the weathered skin, was on the defensive. "Can't you handle the rookies? You're great with people."
Jim smiled because he knew his sturdily build colleague was just being grumpy for the sake of it. "We're trapping smugglers Jake, you don't even like trapping smugglers. And that Rhyhorn of yours doesn't like trapping them off coast in the islands. You'll have fun, you always have fun with the rookies."
Jake knew this was true. Rookies were fun. They were often naive, and the really fresh ones would almost always fall for at least one of the oldest tricks in the book, but they were passionate, and it was fun to see them improve. He also knew it'd be no use switching out people from other operations. Those teams were too far away, travel time would kill efficiency. "Fine Jim, you go catch those guys. You know where to find me if anything comes up, me and my army of trainees."
"That's the spirit," Jim said. "Besides, you're not completely alone. We've scraped a few rangers out of the barrel where we could. You'll probably be the senior operative, but if you'd just signed up when you were young like normal people do you'd be used to that by now."
The two rangers exchanged smiles and greetings, and Jake and his Rhyhorn Lefty went on their way. They weren't in a hurry, they had about a day to arrive, so they just walked together. With the sun on his brown hat Jake spent his time thinking over the rookies he met over the past few years and what kind of experience they'd be looking for. 'This is going to be interesting,' he thought. 'Me as the face of the rangers welcoming the new recruits. How things can change...' As the hours ticked by and the sun set Jake reached the part of Vien Forest where you could clearly see the signs of civilizations. People chopped wood in these parts, gathered herbs and mushrooms, all things like that. Jake made camp early. A good night's rest and he'd get to Bootcamp Island early the next morning. 'Good night Lefty, you magnificent beast.'
While Jake had thought for a minute he might regret that decision, he didn't. When he arrived he was greeted by a young ranger who had started organizing the new arrivals. So Jake went for a round of informally greeting everyone he knew, and slightly more formally inspecting everyone who was new. "Okay, so what do we have here?"
A short recap of the opening post of the discussion thread:
The Game:
This will be a story driven RP without a GM. It's everyone's responsibility to come up with set dressing, region features, cultural details, plot hooks, encounters, characters and twists that make for a good story.
The story is intended as an adventure story full of danger, mystery and treasure. Other storylines such as romance are allowed, but should not be the focus of the RP.
The setting:
The story takes place roughly a century and a half before the present day. The Almia region and the surrounding lands as they appear in this story look like this:
Technology:
There are no electronics, no radios or telegraph lines.
There are no motorized road vehicles. There are no guns, and generally just no weapons of any kind, since those rarely appear in Pokémon media anyway.
There are steam engines, though they are large and clunky. Steam ships and trains and steam powered factories exist.
Pokémon:
Pokémon battling is not a sport in Almia (any other activity is fair game). Poké Balls are illegal in Almia and capture stylers do not exist yet, but Pokémon and people do live together, and Pokémon are kept for all sorts of purposes. Most of the wild Pokémon will be from the first four generations and often from the Almia browser, but partners and other human owned Pokémon can be from anywhere.
Rangers:
The player characters are all rangers, trainee rangers or some other kind of person that can easily and permanently be folded into a ranger team. Rangers have no ranks, they work together on a basis of equality and mutual respect. There is no set age of enlistment, there is no officer track. This is a job you learn on the job.
That said, the story starts here:
"Come on Jim," said the man known as Jake Southwoods, "Your operation can't be that bad."
"It isn't that bad Jake, which is why you're not coming," the blond haired man with the friendly face with the name Jim Blakes replied. "You know what time of the year it is. All the trainees meet back up at Bootcamp Island. Sharing their experiences and finding new assignments is important. We always do this unless there is a situation the veterans can't handle without them. We don't have a situation like that."
"No, we have a situation that requires pretty much everyone else's attention, leaving just a handful of us to deal with the entire meetup and whatever fresh recruits we have this time." Jake, the older man with the weathered skin, was on the defensive. "Can't you handle the rookies? You're great with people."
Jim smiled because he knew his sturdily build colleague was just being grumpy for the sake of it. "We're trapping smugglers Jake, you don't even like trapping smugglers. And that Rhyhorn of yours doesn't like trapping them off coast in the islands. You'll have fun, you always have fun with the rookies."
Jake knew this was true. Rookies were fun. They were often naive, and the really fresh ones would almost always fall for at least one of the oldest tricks in the book, but they were passionate, and it was fun to see them improve. He also knew it'd be no use switching out people from other operations. Those teams were too far away, travel time would kill efficiency. "Fine Jim, you go catch those guys. You know where to find me if anything comes up, me and my army of trainees."
"That's the spirit," Jim said. "Besides, you're not completely alone. We've scraped a few rangers out of the barrel where we could. You'll probably be the senior operative, but if you'd just signed up when you were young like normal people do you'd be used to that by now."
The two rangers exchanged smiles and greetings, and Jake and his Rhyhorn Lefty went on their way. They weren't in a hurry, they had about a day to arrive, so they just walked together. With the sun on his brown hat Jake spent his time thinking over the rookies he met over the past few years and what kind of experience they'd be looking for. 'This is going to be interesting,' he thought. 'Me as the face of the rangers welcoming the new recruits. How things can change...' As the hours ticked by and the sun set Jake reached the part of Vien Forest where you could clearly see the signs of civilizations. People chopped wood in these parts, gathered herbs and mushrooms, all things like that. Jake made camp early. A good night's rest and he'd get to Bootcamp Island early the next morning. 'Good night Lefty, you magnificent beast.'
While Jake had thought for a minute he might regret that decision, he didn't. When he arrived he was greeted by a young ranger who had started organizing the new arrivals. So Jake went for a round of informally greeting everyone he knew, and slightly more formally inspecting everyone who was new. "Okay, so what do we have here?"
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