Battles & Captures
A battle is a scene with stakes, not a minigame. Before dice hit the table, say what's on the line: a badge, a ball, territory, a dare, someone's pride, a partner's safety. The stakes decide how hard both sides fight and what the aftermath looks like.
How a battle runs
Battles flow as a series of exchanges. Each exchange: your side describes what it does — the move, the positioning, the clever play — and rolls when the outcome is uncertain. The GM describes the opposing side the same way. The fiction drives everything: a move's description says what it costs and what it does, and the creature's condition and bond say how it's holding up.
- Describe the move and the intent. "Thunderbolt" isn't a button; it's a focused bolt launched from the cheek pouches that drains them with each use. Say what you're actually trying to do — and what you're risking.
- Roll with the trait that fits how your trainer fights: Wits to command and outthink, Grit to endure and press, Cool to keep the team calm under fire, Grace to pull off the precise play. Your partner's condition and bond shift what's possible — a struggling creature's moves cost more, a devoted one will push past its own limits for you.
- Resolve the outcome on the condition ladder. A solid hit drops a creature one step (fresh → winded → struggling → failing). A decisive hit — overwhelming power, a perfect type matchup, a desperate gambit that pays off — drops two steps. Down is out of the fight, not dead; how they went down is on you.
Types are truth, not a chart
Type matchups are real physics in this world: water quenches fire, lightning grounds through steel. When your move has a clear type advantage, you roll +1 and hits land harder — a 10+ can drop the target two steps outright. When you're at a disadvantage, you're at −1 and you'd better be clever about it. The classic advantages:
| Type | Hits super effectively | Type | Hits super effectively |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fire | Grass, Ice, Bug | Ground | Electric, Fire, Poison, Rock, Steel |
| Water | Fire, Ground, Rock | Flying | Grass, Fighting, Bug |
| Grass | Water, Ground, Rock | Psychic | Fighting, Poison |
| Electric | Water, Flying | Bug | Grass, Psychic, Dark |
| Ice | Grass, Ground, Dragon, Flying | Rock | Fire, Ice, Flying, Bug |
| Fighting | Normal, Ice, Rock, Dark | Ghost | Psychic, Ghost |
| Poison | Grass, Fairy | Dragon | Dragon |
| Dark | Psychic, Ghost | ||
| Steel | Ice, Rock, Fairy | ||
| Fairy | Fighting, Dragon, Dark |
The chart is guidance, not law — a Fire-type that fights from a flooded street can beat a Water-type, if the fiction earns it. And the fiction cuts both ways: an advantage you can't use in the moment is no advantage at all.
Capturing
To catch a wild Pokémon, first weaken it — most creatures are catchable once they're struggling or worse. Then throw a ball and roll. Add the ball's quality: Poké Ball +0, Great Ball +1, Ultra Ball +2, plus the trait you're using to make the throw count (Grace for the throw itself, Wits to read the moment, Charm if the creature is choosing to be caught). The rarer the species, the harder the throw:
| Regional status | Roll penalty |
|---|---|
| Common, uncommon | +0 |
| Rare | −2 |
| Migratory, not native | −3 |
| Rumoured | −3, and it may not be real |
On 10+ the ball clicks shut and the creature is caught, clean. On 7–9 the ball catches — but the creature is fighting it: the catch holds, and the creature comes out furious, frightened, or exhausted, and the bond starts from a harder place. On 6 or less the creature breaks free, and the situation gets worse: it flees, its family arrives, it attacks, or it remembers you.
Losing
You will lose battles. The aftermath is the point: a forfeit, a stolen badge, a broken ball, a partner who went down fighting for you, a rival who now has something over you. The world does not end — it gets more complicated, and the threads you ignored keep ticking. A loss that costs you your partner's trust is the most expensive loss there is.