Pokemon Coordinator Questline
At its barest fundamentals, the Coordinator Questline may seem similar to the Trainer Questline: you have to go around and collect ribbons instead of badges and if you collect enough you get to compete in bigger events. That is about where the similarities end. While just about all Coordinators are also Pokémon Trainers, not all Trainers are Coordinators, and this is to their detriment, for as you will see, the Coordinator Questline offers some interesting gameplay mechanics that will make you a better Pokémon Trainer.
Core Objective: Collect Ribbons won from Pokémon Contests. Note: These are completely different from a Show (the competition site for Pokémon Breeders).
Coordinator Global Association (CGA) is the primary organizing and governing body for Pokémon Festivals, Grand Festivals, and Contests. Earning Ribbons from these Contests are almost-guaranteed to count anywhere, baring the various more obscure rival organizations that exist. There are many organizations affiliated with the CGA, and by extension the CGA has branches all over the world. Whether a Festival/Contest is specifically hosted by CGA or not, so long as the event is officially certified by the CGA, then a Ribbon earned from it will count toward future CGA Contests, including World’s. It is the DM’s job to decide if a Contest is certified or not—but keep in mind, that CGA-certified contests are not the only ones that matter, for many local Contests will count at the county and state level, which can then be used to win CGA Ribbons.
Pokémon Contests: Regularly scheduled and hosted competitions, Pokémon Contests can be found all over the world and in far greater frequency than Pokémon Gyms. Do not mistake frequency for ease of acquisition. They go by many names, including “Contests,” “County Fairs,” “Festivals,” and more.
Most contests will have separate judgings for each of these five categories—but some won’t have any distinction at all! Local events are the most likely to combine categories into one big judging pool, but you never know what other events could be happening. In general, you will want to appeal to the category type to earn additional favor (“points”) from the judges. Like in the games, these are improvable condition stats found on your Pokémon’s character sheet.
Local Contests: Intended for specific municipalities or even counties, these seldom ever require entrants to have won prior Ribbons and is where most start their Coordinator journey. It’s common for them to have specific themes related to whatever larger event is going on, and judges will score accordingly. Because of this, it is important to be mindful of themes—for example, perhaps don’t show off your Gengar’s skull-and-bones shaped Shadow Ball attack at an Apple Blossom Festival. No matter how incredible the artistry may be, the less skillful Vulpix with petal-shaped Fire Spin embers will win over the Gengar.
State-Level Contests: These competitions typically require at least 1 Ribbon to enter, but some may require 2 or even 3.
Regional/National-Level Contests (“Grand Festivals”): These typically require 5 ribbons, with at least 3 of them being in the category that you are competing in. Winners receive a Grand Festival Ribbon.
International Contests (“International Grand Festivals”): The requirements can vary widely, but most require 7 CGA Ribbons, including 1 Grand Festival Ribbon, and 5 of the Ribbons must be in the category that you are competing in.
World Grand Festival (“Worlds”): Specifically requires contestants to have at least 10 CGA Ribbons, including at least 1 Grand Festival Ribbon. Additionally, Coordinators are expected to have at least 1 Gym Badge.
The fives winners (one for each category) receive the following World Champion Ribbons:
Cleverness: Mercury Ribbon
Any Coordinator who earns all 5 World Champion Ribbons (cumulative) will receive the Milky Way Trophy, in addition to any other rewards that the Game Master/narrative may come up with.
Standard Contest Appeals:
Appeals Round: This is the time to show off your stuff to the judges! Your score is based on the following factors:
Contest Condition (an improvable stat)
Move Appeal (and success)
Grooming Check (let your Breeder skills shine!)
Battle Round(s): You’re going to show those judges what you and your Pokémon are made of—in combat! However, these battles are about more than just your strength and skill, but your artistry in combat, too. Many newbie Coordinators enter the Battle Round with several Gym Badges thinking that they’ve got this in the bag, that strength is all they’ll need, and then lose to someone who displayed greater artistry and creativity to their technique than them. This is not to say that winning doesn’t matter, it most certainly does, but it is not the deciding factor. Score is based on the following factors:
Beautification of attacks (or whatever adjective you want to use for your category)
Note: In these rounds, using an attack outside of your category will not lower your score, but the judges will look more favorably upon the Pokémon who successfully incorporates attacks from their category. A cute Pokémon using cute attacks will receive greater points than the beautiful Pokémon using cool attacks.
The outcome of the battle (this is more than just who won)
The exact set-up of a Contest will vary from event to event and Coordinators are expected to be prepared for any set-up.
Contest Condition is an improvable stat found on your Pokémon’s character sheet. Each ranges from 0-50 on all Pokémon, and it is only increased by feeding them Poffins, Pokeblocks, or enacting daily regiments that enhance that trait. Feebas evolves into Milotic by maxing out its Beauty Condition.
To calculate this, literally just take the Condition Value of whatever category your Pokémon is entered in and add any buffs and debuffs you might have. That’s it.
Move Appeal is calculated by its Base Appeal, its success, its creativity, and combos.
The Base Appeal is a value assigned to every single attack (a full list of attacks is provided separately) and then multiplied by 3—or some other number, if your Contest uses non-standard rules.
The Success of the attack is a standard accuracy check. Failure to execute an attack in this round will result in a loss of 20 points.
Creativity: Subjective. Scores allotted range drastically all dependent on complexity, theme, imagination, artistry, skill, and execution. There is no specific rubric and is the primary source of points in the Appeals Round. Failure to “beautify” your attacks (or whatever adjective you want to use for your category) will result in a loss of 10 points—this is not additive to failing a Success Check. See “Creativity Mechanics” for more information on this.
Correct Category: Displaying a move of the incorrect category will net you a loss of 25 points, except for combos but only if one of the attacks used is of the correct category.
Combos: Not applicable to all Contests, but many allow for contestants to perform multiple techniques in their Appeals Round. If a successful combo of moves is performed, then their combined Base Appeals are multiplied by an additional x1.5. There is no requirement that all or most moves in a combo be of the same category, nor is there a bonus for this by the standards of the CGA.
Grooming Check: Simple! Is your Pokémon groomed properly? Roll the d20 and find out. The resulting number after any buffs or debuffs is your score, but no more than 20 and no less than 0.
Attack Beautification: Every time an attack is successfully beautified during combat (including counters), the Pokémon receives +3 points for simple beautifications and +7 for complex beautifications. This can be subjective, and is the other primary source of points.
Outcome of Battle: Judges care more than just who won, but also how well each party performed.
Winner receives +30 points.
Loser may receive additional points in non-elimination Battle Rounds for how much HP the Winner has left. If the Winner has:
95% or more of their HP left: +0 points
90%-94% of their HP left: +1 points
Creativity (with a capital “C”) is the meta-game mechanic/stat/money system that players can acquire overtime and exchange with their Game Master in order to enhance a Pokémon’s attacks. Meaning that this is not a literal real in-universe stat, but rather a mechanic in place for players and their Game Master to instigate a fair and objective standard for allowing move enhancements and the development of new techniques. It allows players to have customizable movesets (like what happens in the anime), but only with effort.
Simple Move Enhancements:
Aesthetic: The most basic enhancement type. No Creativity Points are required to begin this.
Appeals Round: 15 successful training rolls
Battle Round: Costs 15 Creativity Points and 7 successful in-combat rolls (see explanation below)
Range Increase: Costs 25 Creativity Points per +1 Tile, only applicable to Special Attacks. Must also perform 20 successful training rolls.
Protection Extension: Costs 20 Creativity Points per +1 Tile, allows defense of allies, applicable for all barrier moves. Must also perform 20 successful training rolls.
Shield Endurance: Costs 20 Creativity Points per +1 turn, applicable for all barrier moves. Must also perform 20 successful training rolls.
Complex Move Enhancements: Pokémon must have earned at least 15 Creativity Points in its playtime.
Appeals Round: Costs 25 Creativity Points, plus 30 successful training rolls.
Battle Round: Costs an additional 10 Creativity Points if you have already mastered it for the Appeals Round, plus 15 successful in-combat rolls (see explanation below).
Power Increase: Costs 35 Creativity Points per +5 Base Power, plus 20 successful training rolls. (Up to 5 per Attack)
Accuracy Increase: Costs 30 Creativity Points per +5 Base Accuracy, plus 15 successful training rolls.
New Technique: Pokémon must have earned 30 Creativity Points.
Costs 100 Creativity Points. Must perform 60 successful training rolls.
Rule #1: New Techniques, as long as they are derived from an existing attack (and it almost certainly will be), do NOT take up its own move slot. Instead, your Pokémon will be able to select between the different variations of the same attack.
Rule #2: Once a move has been independently created by someone, it can then be tutored to other Pokémon through standard Move Tutor mechanics. HOWEVER, type-variation of a new technique between Pokémon does not count as the same attack and must take up its own move slot.
How Do I Earn Creativity Points, and How Do They Work?
Trial and error. When a player is training their Pokémon to learn an enhanced or beautified method of performing a particular move or combo, Creativity Points are steadily earned.
First, players may start off working on simple aesthetic changes to attacks. Maybe you want your Squirtle to really capture the beauty of rainbows when it uses Water Gun, so you and Squirtle work on finding the best angles to guarantee rainbow refractions for use in Appeals. But the Appeals Round of a contest is very different from combat, and so in the Battles Round your Squirtle should be able to produce rainbows from its Water Gun attacks even in the heat of battle! Because of this, it takes more training and effort to pull off move enhancements in combat than in Appeals. Does that make sense? Great.
But how does the Creativity Mechanic come into play?
Your Game Master deems the rainbow Water Gun to be a Simple Aesthetic Enhancement, so no prior Creativity Points are needed. Players have to start somewhere, after all! Move enhancements require a certain number of successful dice rolls, based on what the enhancement type is and the Pokémon’s trainability stat. When the player rolls successfully, a Creativity Point is earned (almost) each time—up to 5 points a day. These Creativity Points can later be used on the same Pokémon who earned it, or saved for a later Pokémon.
It took Squirtle 15 successful rolls to learn rainbow Water Gun for Appeals, so now you have 15 Creativity Points. It just so happens that in order for Squirtle to be able to utilize rainbow Water Gun in combat, the player must spend 15 Creativity Points in addition to the 15 successful in-combat roles that is required. Basically, the Creativity Points are used to unlock access to more complex/difficult move enhancements, but the Pokémon will still have to go through training.
Calculating Successful Training Rolls:
Use Pokémon’s trainability stat.
Roll a number between 1-100.
If the number rolled is less than the Pokémon’s trainability stat, you may proceed. If not, then you failed and your turn is over.
Roll either a d6 (Simple) a d10 (Complex) or a d12 (New Technique).
If the number is a critical roll (highest number on the dice), then the attempt was successful and your turn is over.
Congratulations, you also earned a creativity point!
YOU CANNOT EARN MORE THAN 5 CREATIVITY POINTS IN A DAY.
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