Pokemon Music Shuffle Challenge

(Copied from /vp/)
Load up all your music in your music player of choice, put on shuffle.

The first 12 songs are: 

 1. Professor's Theme
 2. Rival's Theme
 3. Rival Battle Theme
 4. Wild Battle Theme
 5. Trainer Battle Theme
 6. Gym Battle Theme
 7. 'Evil' Team Theme/Battle Theme
 8. 'Evil' Leader's Battle Theme
 9. Elite 4 Battle Theme
 10. Champion Battle Theme
 11. Ending Theme
 12. Legendary Battle Theme

How sweet is your adventure's soundtrack?
 1. Don't Be Light (Malibu Remix) - Air
I'm seeing a young, smooth professor. He be cross stepping all the way to the lab, new trainers looking on in a mixture of fear and awe.



 2. Opus Of The Black Sun - The Amorphous Androgynous
My rival is a...hippy. Psychedelic (rock), man. He has a soul patch growing, and wears John Lennon-esque sunglasses all the time. He uses a mixture of grass and psychic types. He probably does "use grass", for that matter.



 3. Nowhere At The Edge Of Somewhere - The Amorphous Androgynous
Nice one iTunes. 531 artists and 13348 songs to choose from and you pick the next one from the same kerring album. Ah well, at least it works with the topic. Fighting to Psych Rock wouldn't be too bad.

Couldn't find a video, but it's more or less more of the same as above.

 4. Immune to Gravity - Moth
Ok, so all wild pokemon are Indie fans. I guess it could be interpreted as me enjoying battling so much that it makes me "immune to gravity" as it were. "When you're with me I'm immune to gravity" could refer to my pokemon. Ah, this was one of my first albums. Memories.

30 second preview. Best I can do.

 5. Why Can't I Be You? - The Cure
Well that's self explanatory. Everyone I fight wants to be me. "You're so gorgeous I'll do anything! I'll kiss you from your feet to where your head begins!" ...Ok, you're getting a bit creepy there, Cooltrainer Nathan.




 6. Sweetback - Curve
Tense and quiet, building into an energetic song that shouts power. I would love to battle to this. "If I were to die at this very moment, I'd be happy enough. Let fate decide if our future's going as high as the sky above." Those are gym battling thoughts, my friends.



7. Didjerama - Jamiroquai
Sounds like my Team X are nature lovers. Perhaps they aim to uncover the long lost grass type brother to Groudon and Kyogre, Forstrye, who wishes to cover the world in rainforest. You can imagine why he didn't do so well against his kin.



 8. The Secret Life Of Dr Calgori - Abney Park
Or perhaps that is only a cover story...Steampunk Industrial for nature lovers? There's something more afoot here. Maybe the leader actually aims to destroy poor Forstrye, in order to wipe out the rainforests! That way he can easily build over the lands they used to inhabit! The cads!
 I do however like the age old idea of a steampunk powered BBEG. At any rate Dr Calgori is my BBEG's name. Perhaps he use to be friends with my professor, but a parting of ideals lead them to become archrivals.



 9. Widescreen - Xandria
Ok, so I guess the subplot is that my PC aims to bring down the established government, and celebrity culture and stuff. Maybe he fights against cruelty against pokemon.



This isn't one of their better songs.

 10. Sam Rudich - Snowing
This song is on an album that has one of my favourite names, "Fuck Your Emotional Bullshit". But yeah, this is proper emo music. Slightly Math Rocky. This does mean, I suppose that my champion is a hipster emo math rock guy.



 11. The Willing Well I: Fuel For The Feeding End - Coheed And Cambria
7 minutes. Long credits roll.
"Could this be that hard for me? To configure the new love and paint. To my new entity or banish it home to the grave I will not save... Your world"

In a surprise twist, the PC almost takes down the champion (who maybe was Dr Calgori!?), but only at the cost of his own physical form and sanity. Touched by chaos, his form twists and warps along with his mind, until he becomes...the new BBEG! The ultimate sacrifice, gone wrong.
That sounds like sequel talk to me.



 12. Living The Wasted Life - Aesthetic Perfection
This is the theme of the being of chaos that Dr Calgori calls forth to battle me, the one that ultimately tears me form from me in a desperate bid to bring me down with it.

"Is this what's left of me, debilitated life. Look back and see nothing but my self wasted. Is this what's left of me? What's left will be destroyed. Is it ever ending my self-hatred?"

These are the thoughts it puts into my head (I guess it's a psychic type. Psychic/Dark sounds good.) that eventually reduce me to insanity.

"I am the cancer. I am the cause. I am the devil sitting on my left shoulder"

Who said pokemon can't be evil?




Well, that was fun. I invite you to do the same. Post it in the comments, or send me a link to your own blog or some thing.

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Pokemon: Tabletop Adventures - Episodes 12-15

At long last, I have listened to and edited for publication the next exciting installments of our Pokemon adventures.



Episode 12 (2:26:22)

In this episode Patrick and Yuki try their hand at fighting the local talent in Pewter City, while elsewhere a young mystic prepares himself for a gym battle, eventually going on to break Brock's Geodude with his shiny new Nidoran and it's Double Kick. Will the character's paths meet? Well obviously. Why did you even bother asking? Meanwhile, IRL the players are trying the Milk Challenge. Truly it is a laugh a minute here.

Finally I do some subtle railroading, and get the players to progress the plot.
The main bulk of story starts with all the them facing...a random encounter! Has there ever been a less appropriate term for something? The team find some Shinx, one of which Yuki captures to the tune of "DO WANT IT'S CUTE", despite Redrinder's attempts to gain maximum Exp from them. Duri9ng the course of this battle we find out that Patrick's Diglett, Dig Dug is apparently some kind of eldritch abomination, who devours it's foes in order to gain their powers.

Under direction of a mysterious stranger shaped remarkably like two long bits of metal that might carry some form of locomotive, they make their way to a small village just off Route 3. Ceil is a small village with little to few ameneties. They are greeted by Everard Joss, the village reeve (mayor, more or less) who gruffly informs them that the person they were looking for, Tara Gillian, has long since moved to Johto with her family. The group investigates the Gillian household, and locate a trail of psychic energy leading out of the village towards a cave.

This cave is guarded by a man with two fierce looking dogs, a Houndour and a Houndoom. The team are undaunted however, as Redrinder possesses the Houndoom, forcing it to run off a cliff, breaking its neck in the fall. No, really.

Episode 13 (1:38:23)

Following last time's horrifying events, the team move on as if nothing ever happened. Clearly they have suppressed the most defiantely traumatic memory of the death of a living, sentient creature by one of their own and there is every possibility that this will come back to haunt them. Just saying.

Progressing through the cave, all kinds of creepy stuff happens, with patterns swirling on the wall, amassing in a slithering mess of red light in a subterranean dome. Redrinder's Growlithe uses Odor Sleuth, dispelling the illusion, revealing the Mismagius hidden beneath. The group enter battle with the ghost, taking chunks out of it's health until it disappears, much to the irritation of Redrinder, who assumed it had actually been beaten. They then set about pokemon hunting, resulting in many Zubat falling, and Redrinder catching a Gastly.



Episode 14 (1:01:14)

Redrinder, having been stolen away by the Mismagius that had previously escaped, finds his way back to the group. Having done so, the group decide that they need to rest up. Burning through some snakes they make it back to village of Ceil, where they are taken aside by a kindly old lady and given food and lodging for the night. They wake up in the morning and deide to do some investigating. Heading to the Gillian household, Redrinder finds a pendant that, upon using his mystic powers, he works out belongs to the same organisation as the guy who attacked the others in Pewter. Shock! He also gleans a vision of the cave interior, seeing a large carvern filled with trainers working their pokemon to the limit, and beyond, and at the centre of it all, is the mayor! What does this mean? Who are these people? What will happen next? Find out....in the next paragraph!

Episode 15 (1:09:29)

In which our heroes go back into the cave. Bonsai tries to search for Abra. In a cave. Yeah. He doesn't find any. When they progress they find themselves faced with a wall of pure shadow. After some brainstorming and experimenting, Bonsai and Patrick team up and create a field of electricity through the use of Mist and Thundershock. This breaks the consentration of the two Haunter blocking their path, revealing them to the group. They consequently beat them. Onwards they go, finally making it to the cavern seen in Matt's vision. Alas, Everard was expecting them and the hapless travellers find themselves facing a room full of trainers.

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Pokemon: Tabletop Adventures - Breaking News!

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Pokemon: Tabletop Adventures - Episode 11 Part 2

Finally I got around to uploading the second part of the last gaming session.

Episode 11 Part 2 (1:55:11)

This one stars Josy's character Yuki a little more predominantly to start with, as she goes into Viridian Forest on her own to catch a Brock beating pokemon, something she finds in an Oddish. She goes on to train her Caterpie, eventually evolving it.

The group are rejoined and are chilling in the pokemon centre, planning their next move, when DRAMAZ. A stranger with a Koffing and a Weezing causes an explosion in the centre interior. The group proceed to act the part of Big Damn Heroes and run to fight the assailant.

The battle starts badly as Dr Bonsai decided to taunt God, however they quickly regain steam. Taking down the enemy Ponyta, they enrage the stranger, who assaults them with a large staff. After taking down the Koffing, the man continues his assault. What could possibly be his problem with the players? Bonsai tries to calm him down, but his efforts only serve to further enrage the man. Casey follows up with a heartfelt plea, which is backed up by Patrick's tried and true method of beating him senseless.

With little attacking power left, the stranger is beaten, retreating into himself, becoming a shell, capable only of basic thought. Casey takes advantage of this and persuades him to give her his Ponyta, while the rest of the team contemplate stealing the already stolen pokeballs. Luckily they think better of it.

After splitting up the loot, and the stranger is taken by the police, our heroes are left wondering. Who was that man? The group work out that he could be one of the "Demon Trainers" the city has been so scared about, but why did he attack them? Surely they will have to search for more information. Where will their travels take them? What new friends/weapons will they meet? Will the GM finally stop making things easy for them? Find out next time on Pokemon: Tabletop Adventures!

Lucky you gets 3 new soundbites!

One, Two, Three!

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Pokemon: Tabletop Adventures - Episode 11 Part 1

It's back, ladies and gentlemen. We return to our fictional world for a full hour and a quarter. Todays adventures merely rush us through a capturing and a couple gym battles in order to be prepared for the main event tomorrow. Nonetheless, there are some mildly smile-inducing moments, and if nothing else, you can be soothed to sleep by our voices.

Without further ado, part 1 of Episode 11

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The Diary Of James (Acoustic Version)

Finally, my exams are over, well, at least until the summer exam season. Rather considerately a cold decided to hold off until they were over. I was in my last exam, physics, and I could feel my throat getting rougher. It was like the cold was peering over my shoulder as I discussed gravitational fields and capacitors whispering "I've played nice kid. I've been fair. Now it's time to pay your dues."

But I have created a concoction involving paracetamol crushed to a cocaine like consistency mixed into a warm squash drink, so I press on. Yeah, I have a cold, whatever. Exams are over, I think I did pretty well and that's damn a sweet feeling to have. Got started on the next physics unit already, and that's pretty awesome. But more to the point, it's good news for you pokemon fans. Already I am restarting my writing and planning of events to come. Some time at the start of February (after two of my players have done their psychology exams) sessions will restart, and that means more recordings, more laughs, and a new player! Excitement.

Anyway, hopefully with exams out the way updates will return as normal. Scratch that. Hopefully updates will maintain some semblence of consistency. That said, I've never maintained a blog this long without quitting, so that's a positive. Since this wasn't much of an update, per se, I suppose some kind of complimentary present is in order. So here's an old picture of me apparently looking like David Tennant.

Careful observers will see a guy in a yellow Star Trek uniform in the background.

Have a good week.

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Pokemon: Tabletop Adventures - Episode 6.5

In which our heroes finish off fighting the Diglett. Except for Yuki. She ran away. The Diglett initially score 2 critical hits and a particularily heavy regular hit, forcing most of the party to switch pokemon. A particularily forceful blow from Mr Kipling, Casey's Mudkip enables Ace Trainer Patrick to catch one of the moles. The remaining two are quickly finished off, ending with a ferocious blow from Dave's Pidgey, "Superfly". Stay tuned for next session when our heroes face off with a dangerous foe...

Mediafire download here guys!

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Pokemon: Tabletop Adventures - Episodes 1-6

As promised, here are the recordings of my P:TA group's adventures. The links are in the titles. Enjoy.



Episode 1 (1:40:15)
In which our heroes continue their journey from the first, non recorded session. They threaten some chavs, consider extorting a small girl, critically fail stealing some pokedex, and get a guy fired.

Episode 1.5 (1:38:16)
In which our heroes stock up at the Viridian Pokemart and I explain the various leveling and experience rules. Dave and the Professor gain some on the side XP and catch a Spearow each. Nothing much else happens, hence the .5.

Episode 2 (2:01:54)
In which our heroes spend a lot of time in Route 2. Casey catches a Sentre, Patrick catches a Ponyta.

Episode 3 (46:52)
In which our heroes make it to Viridian Forest, Yuki catches a Caterpie, a trainer battle is fought, along with a random encounter or two.


Episode 4 (50:38)
In which our heroes enter the depths of the abandoned Viridian Research Facility, and our session is interrupted by some chav twats playing table football.

Episode 5 (44:33)
In which our heroes' pokemon level up, I realise I have fucked up the experience rules, and Bonsai not so much saves as aquires a family of Pikachu.

Episode 6 (35:26)
In which our heroes face some hurriedly created Diglett, and the GM learns a lesson in making up random encounters.

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Pokemon: Tabletop Adventures - Episode 1

A long time ago, an elegan/tg/entleman had a dream. It was a dream all of us who have ever played Pokemon have had, usually brought about by the question "What if I could...". What if I could be a member of Team Rocket? What if I could kill pokemon? What if I could focus on contests, without having to gym battle? And such things. And being a denizen of /tg/, he found others with the same dream. He realised that such freedom can only be obtained in one place. The Tabletop. And so it was that Dr. Mr. Stark and others created some rules that would be gathered to become the Pokemon Tabletop Adventures alpha.

I was not there at the beginning, alas. However upon discovery, it became something to look forward to. I downloaded the alpha, and had a look. Having never GM'd anything before, I (rightly) considered it too much for me to handle at this point. Nonetheless, like many others I eagerly awaited the release of the beta. Then it was released, and it was good.

And so it was that I got together some friends, and posed the simple quesiton to them, "Do you want to play?" After a couple innuendo based jokes at my wording of the question, it was generally accepted that this would be a fun thing to do, and after a few weeks it happened. We had our first session. It was decided that, while bumpy, it was pretty ok. Between that session and out next, I decided that I wanted to record our sessions. And that, my dear reader, is why I bring you here today. I have uploaded the audio recorded and invite you to listen and laugh at our 2nd session, in which I monumentally fuck up the rules, one of our players threatens a small child for money, and in-fighting starts between PCs.

Mediafire download
Episode has been reuploaded and listed in a later post.

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