Why do I like my D&D campaign?
Because Pokemon, duh.
But really, Pokemon are just a tool for me in my campaign (and quite frankly what inspired the entire campaign). I could have easily have used known animals or created monsters of my own design, but known animals don’t quite have that fantasy feel to them and creating my own monsters would have taken time away from building a story for my friends. So Pokemon seemed like the perfect tool, especially since my friends, my party, love Pokemon too.
Now, as I said, Pokemon was also the inspiration for the campaign. You see, every new Pokemon game has always felt like they took an established region, well worn with massive cities, clearly defined paths, and swarms of people going to and fro and decided to call it a “new world”. I’m sorry, but how is that new?
While trying to pass the time on a slow day at work, I doodled a map. A map which became a plot, then an entire world. The world of Velia. Funny how something so small can bloom into a full blown campaign.
Being a first time DM, I limited my party to three people. I will only address them by their character’s names for the sake of anonymity and simplicity.
The first of my three is Dahlia, the overly excited trainer in love with grass, poison, and fairy type Pokemon. She has a complicated past with another member on the team, Doug, so she acts aggressively towards him. The young woman playing Dahlia is a close friend of mine from when we were in middle school. Though she is great at portraying her character’s excitement and love of Pokemon, her hostility tends to come across more as bullying than the passive aggressive rivalry she means to show, but she is working on it.
Next is Doug, the all too enthusiastic bug trainer with an annoyingly nasally lisp. We as players affectionately refer to him as Dougsy, a tribute to Bugsy the second generation gym leader focused on bug types. Doug is played by Dahlia’s fiance; I’ve come to know him as a pretty good guy.
Lastly, and most ridiculously, is the “Nurse Joey” of the party. Originally the player wanted their character’s name to be Nurse Joy (like in the show) but with an awkward accent. I honestly couldn’t do it, so we had agreed it would be Nurse Joey, or Joey for short. As a character, Joey is a pretty laid back guy with almost a surfer like lingo. His starter was an Eevee named Pride, so as a player he was a bit disappointed when he couldn’t have “Pride and Joy”. At first that combination went right over my head; I couldn’t get past his pronunciation of “Joy”. I don’t know Joey’s player too much, but based on how he plays his character he is the quickest to catch on to the lessons I try to teach.
So that is my team: Dahlia with her starters, Chikorita and Igglybuff, Dougsy with his Nincada and Paras, and Joey with his Eevee. I hoped to give them quite a story.
In the first session, my players arrived by boat in the small port town of Leofrun where they were greeted by Professor Max, a reference to the cannon television character Max from the Hoenn. My players, along with their rival team of Marcus, Shaunna, and Carter, were immediately given missions to help the town. My players’ first mission? The town was running low on food and they must venture outside Leofrun’s walls to hunt a Pokemon.
What?! Hunt a Pokemon to eat? Blasphemous! The Pokemon world has no concept of hunting! Well, you’re right, Pokemon does not (at least, not one actively demonstrated on screen). But then again, this is not the Pokemon universe. This is Velia, my universe, and Pokemon are just a tool for my story.
My rag tag set of adventurers set out on their first quest beyond the gates, unsure of what awaited them. It wasn’t long before they came across a Bidoof, a Pokemon that looks like a dopey beaver. They struggled against the Bidoof in their battle. Dahlia’s Igglybuff had put the Bidoof to sleep shortly before the Bidoof fainted. The party did not realize the little beaver had fainted and continued to attack it. Afterall, it just looked like a limp, sleeping Bidoof. Dahlia’s Igglybuff landed the final blow, a fact that would come to trouble Dahlia later on.
When they finally realized the Pokemon had died, my party paused and began to question their actions. I think it surprised both my players and their characters to see what they are capable of. You see, Pokemon is designed for children. This level of violence is unprecedented in a show that so strongly preaches love, respect, and compassion towards Pokemon. And yet, here my players stood over a Bidoof carcass, having just killed something that we all grew up believing was pure.
They questioned their morals to the point where Joey’s player realized that if he was going to survive this world, having Joey as a vegetarian was going to be very difficult. It was Dougsy who had the honor, and the burden, of butchering the Bidoof. The meat collected was split between the three of them to carry back to Leofrun where they sold it to Jacob, the town’s butcher.
And with that, I ended the first session. We had been playing for a few hours and I figured I had put my players through enough emotional distress. Surprisingly, they enjoyed it and wanted to continue.
At this point in our adventures, we have completed six sessions. I never imagined we would’ve gone this far or that my players would be this interested. I thought we would maybe have one session every week or two, but we have all been so excited about the campaign that we have been playing two to three sessions a week.
I am grateful to my friends for the opportunity to be a Dungeon Master. They have been incredibly encouraging, supportive, and understanding that it is my first time as a DM. I look forward to future sessions and don’t worry, I plan on writing about our adventures, as well as my schemes that the players have yet to discover.
Dev With Dana 