Totally ripping off – I mean RIFFing off – Vincent's game, I punted the idea of a pokemon game to my 9-year-old daughter. Jemima, I'm guessing, is less well-versed in Pokemon Lore than Vincent's boys. She has a stack of the cards and about a dozen of the plastic figurines. I think she might have read one or two of the books, and she has seen hardly any of the TV/film versions.

So our game is already showing some differences. Jemima's chr is called Mistie (she doesn't look like Misty but like a character from another anime, Mermaid Melody). She's quick and nimble, confident, and a natural talent. Her Foolishness is that she hates maths, and her Cover is RSPCA worker. Her Kicker is that her parents were killed by a giant Wartortle.

Mistie's pokemon is called Toffachu (this is an in-joke: our dog is called Toffee). It has a head like a collie and a body like a fancy serpent. It ended up with 6 Power (and a -1 Binding), so I don't think Mistie is going to be in full control. Toffachu Desires to be the cutest around, and Needs to eat dog food.

I began the game by telling Jemima that Mistie was now under the care of her Aunt Marlie, her last surviving relative. Up till now she'd been home-schooled, but now her aunt was sending her to school. We do some character play and I establish that Aunt Marlie is a cold bitch and not at all keen on having Mistie. At school she immediately meets these girls who try to give her a hard time, but Mistie ends up saying that she'll tell the teacher and the girls fade off.

I introduce the maths teacher, who is called Mrs Angle and keeps Mistie in at recess to finish her work. Mrs Angle is kind of important to me, because Jemima herself keeps saying she hates maths, so I'm looking forward to seeing how that will play out. Any maths educators can speak up now if they have an opinion.

So after a day coping with school, Mistie is about to go home in her aunt's limousine when the ground shakes and out comes a giant Wartortle! Mistie trys to dive into a hole, but the Wartortle's jet of water smacks her a good one. That's the first round. Second round, Toffachu comes out of her backpack, wraps its tail around the Wartortle (don't ask me how this scale thing works) and stabs it right through the heart with its tail-spike. Wartortle crashes to ground, end of fight. Toffachu starts posing atop the carcass.

I had to cope with a bit of player angst here. When Jemima reached for the dice, she said "What does 'lethal' mean?" "It means it can KILL," I said. Her eyes lit up and she said "Cool!", but when the Wartortle actually crashed to the ground she got a bit pouty and said that trainers wanted to catch pokemon, not kill them. Anyway, we got past that ("I told you it could kill and you seemed to like that idea at the time.").

I had the chauffeur whisk her into the car at that point and the end shot is Mistie looking back through the rear window and seeing one of the bitchy girls (Olivia) staring angrily after her. "Why would she be angry?" muses Jemima. Eyes go wide – "Uh oh! It must be HER Wartortle!" She's right, in fact.

I LOVE this!  Mrs Angle - nice name and great antagonist.  I love that you are trying to connect with your daughter (the Player) through use of this Character.  I hope you are able to learn something about her maths hatred from this. 

Ron -- pay attention.  Your next supplement is called "Kids and Sorceror".  Start taking notes.  :-)

Since I would like to try this with my daughter at some point -- how much guidance did you give as to construction of her character?  Did her Foolishness, Cover and Kicker come from her, for instance?  What kinds of questions did you ask to get her going on character creation?

And now that Jemima knows the consequences of Lethal -- do you think she'll be so eager to use it? 

And not to cause trouble for Mistie -- but my rich uncle's dog "Needs" steak and eggs for breakfast.  That's his "dog food". 

And I can't help wondering what the RSPCA's stance is on killing Pokemon?  (Is that the right word for the creatures?  Gods, I'm going to actually have to learn Pokemon, aren't I?  Any suggestions for primers?)

I'm fascinated.  Thanks for posting this (and thanks to Vincent for the other thread as well!).

~ nick caldwell

Hi Nick – Foolishness, Cover and Kicker all came from Jemima. I gave her Vincent's list of Foolery and she considered it, but made up her own. Cover was a bit trickier, but I pitched it as "what else do you do besides being a pokemon trainer?" (I didn't think of Vincent's solution). I pitched Kicker as "something really big that's changed your life", and she came up with the death of her parents.

I think Jemima will certainly be more judicious with the lethal power from now on. Toffachu has a non-lethal option (Aurora Beam – a jet of water and ice), so we'll see. Of course, Toffachu may have its own ideas. I'm totally using our dog as a template.

Mischievous suggestions that raise possible complications are always welcome. I'm actually wondering whether the whole pokemon thing isn't something for the RSPCA to get angsty about. I mean, cock-fighting? Time to create some RSPCA NPCs, I think.

I believe 'pokemon' is both singular and plural, but I am as a babe in the woods when it comes to the finer points. Bulbapedia seems to be a good place for ideas and info.