Writing a Pokémon

The dex is the heart of the framework — 278 entries and counting, each one a creature documentary rather than a stat sheet. Read ten entries before you write one. The voice will get into your hands.

The voice

Grounded, specific, and honest about danger. The best entries take the cute thing and tell you what it actually is:

"People see the red cheeks and think cute. The cheeks are batteries. The cute is a warning." — Pikachu

"It is a creature that carries its own mortality at the tip of its tail, visible to everything that might want to end it." — Charmander

Write like a field naturalist who respects the animal. Show how it lives, what it costs, what it fears. No stat numbers, no game language, no jokes at the creature's expense — the humor in this world comes from the gap between how Pokémon look and what they are.

The IPN convention

Every entry's description opens with its dex number: "IPN #025. The electric mouse." Keep the numbering consistent with canon species numbers, and keep it in prose — there's deliberately no structured dex-number field, so the number lives at the top of the description where readers already look.

Temperament vs. nature

The schema draws a sharp line and the entries honor it:

• Temperament is the species-wide truth — how Pikachu behave, how Charmander bond.
• Nature is the individual twist — "individual disposition varies: some bolder, some shyer."

Write both. A species with only one is half-written.

Signature moves

Up to five per species, and each one is { cost, effect } — never a damage number. The effect describes what the move does in the world; the cost describes what using it takes from the creature. The best costs are physical and honest:

"Each bolt drains the cheek pouches significantly. Repeated use leaves the creature with no charge — dim pouches, no spark, no defence." — Pikachu's Thunderbolt

A move without a real cost is a free button. A cost without an effect is flavor text. The two together are what the table plays with.

Evolution

Evolution trigger is a story, not a level requirement. The trigger should be specific to the creature's biology and emotion — Charmander's flame changing color, Pikachu's charge exceeding the body's capacity. Link the family with evolvesFrom / evolvesInto so the dex chains hold together.

Ecology

The species fields build a habitat, not just a creature:

• habitat — where it lives: forests, caves, tide pools, rooftops.
• socialStructure — solitary, pair, pack, colony, swarm, hive, loose herd.
• regionalStatus — common, uncommon, rare, migratory, not native, rumoured. This is a mechanic: the Player's Handbook uses it to set capture difficulty. Don't fill it at random.
• weightClass — light, medium, heavy, bulky. How it feels in the world and in a fight.
• presence and limits — how it registers to people, and what it can't do.
• build — how it moves and is put together.
• dexEntry — the catalog blurb, shorter than the description.

Types

Use the eighteen standard types, singly or in pairs. Type is physics in this world — it feeds the advantage chart in the handbook — so a dual-type creature inherits both truths. When in doubt, fewer types; a creature with one clear type is easier to write honestly than one with three.