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View Full Version : [Feedback] PMD - Striders of the Stars: Project Idea



Neo Emolga
07-29-2015, 03:24 AM
I've told a few people about this idea already, but here it is in a more formalized promotion.

Also, enjoy this awesome Sky Tower remix (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2OKAs633E4I) as you read.


Pokémon Mystery Dungeon
Striders of the Stars
(Snazzy banner to come)

INTRODUCTION AND OBJECTIVE

What is PMD: SotS? Striders of the Stars is meant to be a Pokémon Mystery Dungeon team-based and team building ongoing event that puts players into the role of a special world-saving Pokémon that closely reflects their personality and tries to make it feel as if they really are a Pokémon saving worlds. In StoS, you take the role of yourself, a once-human now-Pokémon that most closely resembles you! In SotS, your real-life talents are your special powers, and you can use them to save Pokémon worlds across the universe that are in desperate need of your help!

SotS is also meant to help encourage people build upon their role playing skills, world-building skills, and urge them to improve on their writing, art, and other talents to help their guild grow and become stronger as they hone their own writing and artistic abilities. In SotS, your talents and skills are your special powers. You can role play to save worlds, use your art skills to help design and build your guild base to unlock new secrets, and use your writing skills to recruit more Pokémon to help you in your adventures across the universe.

Features:

As a special Pokémon that was once a human, you have access to powers and capabilities that not even legendary Pokémon have. Take the plunge into a deep and epic storyline and escape from the everyday norm into a universe where your alter-ego is a Pokémon with a big destiny ahead of them!
Traits and perks your Pokémon persona has also link to your actual zodiac sign. SotS features a whole new zodiac similar to the standard and Chinese zodiac where your actual birthday has an impact on what kind of special power is bestowed upon you!
Like world-building? Ever thought of giving it a try? SotS allows you to create entirely new worlds for players to discover, explore, and save from calamities, along with their own special story for the players to connect with. Everyone is welcome to design new worlds where you're only limited by your imagination. You take charge of the secrets, the challenges, the story, and the friends and enemies that await their arrival.
Players can discover new relics of power, recruit Pokémon to build and expand their guild, and go on an endless number of adventures dreamed up by other participants. As time goes on, special events will take place. Worlds that were saved in the past may return the favor. Cross-crisis situations may affect several worlds at a time!
There's tons of ways you can participate as much or as little as you'd like. Even if you don't think you can get all that involved, even just submitting art or a short story every now and then can help your guild grow. Or, if you really want to be extra proactive, you can go all out and join in as many RP world-saving adventures as you'd like.

BACKGROUND STORYLINE SUMMARY

Behind each human lies a special, hidden power called a Zenith. Almost all humans live out their lives and never discover it, but when the need arises, a human can be summoned and called as a Starstrider Pokémon and make all the difference in the world. When this happens, all kinds of new capabilities are unlocked. All they have to do is discover, train, and use them. A Starstrider Pokémon using the full power of their Zenith can stop some of the greatest challenges, build and create using their own imagination, and lead other Pokémon with charisma that not even the legendaries have.

Unknown to humans, their inner Zenith is why and how they're able to capture and train Pokémon even though they are creatures with far greater elemental power and strength than mankind. As it was decided many years ago, the closer humans became with Pokémon, the more they would be ready to lead, strengthen, and protect them if the need for them to be called upon as Starstriders became necessary. Even legendary Pokémon acknowledge this, but throughout all of time, the power behind the Zenith has been an extremely and closely guarded secret.

However, as time has gone on, tribulations and cataclysms have befallen many of the Pokémon worlds across the universe. As a result, a Nexus Sanctuary had been created to give a home for what would be long-term Starstrider Pokémon that would group together and make a joint effort to save these many, precious worlds from calamity, and perhaps find the root cause of all the tribulation. In the meantime, the Nexus Sanctuary would be a celestial home of bright and prismatic imagination and creation. Here, Starstrider Pokémon can build themselves an epic home among the stars, and find willing followers to help join them on an epic journey throughout the universe, saving worlds big and small, new and old, and strange and fantastic. It's anyone's guess as to where your destiny will take you!

In the past, worlds made up entirely of Pokémon have summoned Starstrider Pokémon before and have stopped worldwide cataclysms and dark futures from coming to pass (the actual Pokémon Mystery Dungeon games).

Now it's your turn!

(There will definitely be a lot more expanded onto this, but you get the idea)

BUILDING A GUILD

Creating a home in Nexus Sanctuary

There are several ways to build up your guild headquarters. Every guild starts with something like this:

Main Hall
Basic Sleeping Quarters (For five members, including Starstrider Pokémon (actual PXR Members) and NPCs (Pokémon you have recruited))
Dining Hall

Meanwhile, there's a whole slew of expansions that are possible! You can either buy them with money, use special artifacts you recovered from missions to summon them, or use your artistic skills to draw and design them to create them also!

Sleeping Quarters Upgrades (To house more members)
Research Hall (To discover identify relics found on adventures)
Medical Hall (Helps injured/tired Pokémon recover faster!)
Training Hall (Learn additional skills that might be useful during world-exploration!)
Garden (In the Nexus Sanctuary, there's all kinds of mystical and powerful berries, fruit, and things you can grow to help your missions! Plus, you need to keep your members well-fed.)
Mystic Fountain (You'll need it if you want Pokémon to be able to evolve!)
Workshop (Repair broken relics and items to good as new condition! Or create new ones!)
Defenses (No comment!)
And more!

And pretty much all of these could be upgraded multiple times. For example, the first level of the Mystic Fountain would allow for second stage evolution Pokémon evolutions while the second level of the fountain (Lv2 Mystic Fountain) would allow for third stage evolutions, and the final, third level of the Mystic Fountain (Lv3 Mystic Fountain) would allow for Mega Evolutions. All of the expansions to the guild hall will work like this. So a Lv2 Workshop will unlock being able to create better things and fix the stronger broken relics that the previous Workshop couldn't fix. And so on.

Recruiting

Adding NPC Pokémon is something that will be pretty helpful, and you can do that by writing "capture stories" for them by visiting worlds and helping a Pokemon in need. Or, you can draw them to try and recruit them (known as Starstrider Summoning). An "official" will determine if the recruitment was successful based on the quality.

These NPC Pokémon can join you in saving worlds as companions in your RP journeys, or they can stay at the guild headquarters by helping with some of the tasks, such as research, building, or defense. You just need to make sure they've got a place to sleep and food to eat.

IN CONCLUSION

These are some of the basic overview ideas I have for this project, and it's definitely a work in progress and most of this is still a draft. There are a few questions I'd like to hand out to people so I know exactly what would be the best way to continue designing this to meet peoples' interests. It would actually be a big help if people wouldn't mind answering some of these questions.

What do you think of the PMD: StoS idea so far? Since this is a pretty new and revolutionary idea that's unlike anything I've tried to run before, I'd like to know what people think of it. Rate it on a scale of 1 to 10 or give it a star rating, but it would be helpful if you highlight a few things about why you like or don't like it. Feedback would definitely help when it comes further building things up.

Do you see yourself taking part in PMD: StoS? I understand a lot still needs to be worked out, but at this point, I think most of the main idea has been laid out. I'd like to know if this is something you see yourself getting into. Note that a "not sure yet, would like to see more" answer is totally ok too. Also, if you are interested, what do you see yourself doing? RPs, building worlds and the quests that go along with it, doing art/writing to help build guilds, and so on? I will need some people to serve as judges in determining when recruitment is successful, when research/building is successful, and a few people that would be interested in the world-building component that will definitely be needed a lot in this project.

Any ideas or things you'd possibly like to see in this? There is still PLENTY of room to expand on this, and I'd love to see what kinds of suggestions and ideas people have that they'd like to see implemented into this. There's a few things I'm still considering (should the RPs be on the simple side, be more like Dungeons & Dragons, or something in between), but in general, the basic foundation of the idea is here.

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In any case, this is currently the BIG THING I'm working on. With excitement building for the new PMD game, I figured this would be a great way to prepare and celebrate it's coming with some good old-fashioned forum fun. I'm hoping it could potentially become as big as GCEA or ASB, so we'll see.

Chakramaster
07-29-2015, 04:47 AM
From what I read it sounds pretty interesting. The freedom to build your own guild or travel to other worlds to save Pokemon (assuming this also means other deminsions) it sounds like something I could give a try. With an RP I've always just had a hard time starting out. It's hard to get a base idea of were to start because you almost gotta think a large distance ahead so you don't conflict with your character(s). I could see myself trying this out. I think the Zenith, or hidden powers, would need a little more explaining once it were to start if anything (unless you mean to say it's maximum power once under full control of the Human-Pokemon is limitless to our creation). I'll reread it all later and see if there would be anything else I can mention, but that's all I can see right now. Hopefully art isn't a mandatory thing as my art skills are...kinda lacking lol. I'm probably gonna wait before I say more on anything that sounds like it would be a good idea to add.

The Nonexistent Tazz
07-29-2015, 07:22 PM
Well, this seems interesting. Hopefully I can be a slightly-active member in all of this, assuming it takes off. I'm particuarily interested in the whole Zodiac/Zenith aspect, but PMD is something I adore on principal. Raid the dungeons, steal the loot, stab your buddies, it's all awesome.

Noblejanobii
07-29-2015, 08:11 PM
Sounds amazing.

Morzone
07-29-2015, 09:58 PM
This sounds HUGE. It would need a good amount of people to do it properly I think. But it would be mind blowing if it worked.

Most of the confusion comes from lack of detail, so it'll probably be fixed in the future anyway. I do wonder a little bit if its possible to join and/or co-own another player's guild. Are NPCs the only recruit-able things or could a player join a guild instead of creating their own?

Also: creating pokemon worlds for others to explore and discover. Pure gold material there.

And yeah, I would definitely partake in this, PMD games are the best ever.

Neo Emolga
07-29-2015, 10:57 PM
From what I read it sounds pretty interesting. The freedom to build your own guild or travel to other worlds to save Pokemon (assuming this also means other deminsions) it sounds like something I could give a try. With an RP I've always just had a hard time starting out. It's hard to get a base idea of were to start because you almost gotta think a large distance ahead so you don't conflict with your character(s). I could see myself trying this out. I think the Zenith, or hidden powers, would need a little more explaining once it were to start if anything (unless you mean to say it's maximum power once under full control of the Human-Pokemon is limitless to our creation). I'll reread it all later and see if there would be anything else I can mention, but that's all I can see right now. Hopefully art isn't a mandatory thing as my art skills are...kinda lacking lol. I'm probably gonna wait before I say more on anything that sounds like it would be a good idea to add.

Heck yeah, it could mean other dimensions! The beauty of it is there's really no limit.

The powers will definitely get a lot more detailed. This was just a general pitch and overview.

I figured this would also be good to anyone that's had thoughts about starting an RP, but had trouble getting ideas off the ground or just needed a little something more of a starting point to get the wheels going. I plan on making a whole world-building guide for StoS so making worlds to explore is easy and simplified to the point where it's a breeze for the user to make the world as simple or as complex as they want it to be. And of course, I'll be around to help as a guide with that whole process. While I did make a General RP Worldbuilding Guide (http://www.pokemoncrossroads.com/forum/showthread.php?180-The-Pok%E9mon-Crossroads-Role-Playing-Guide-(Beginners-Advanced-and-Role-Play-Creation)&p=2490&viewfull=1#post2490) in the RP section, a lot of that will be simplified and customized for StoS.

Art is definitely not mandatory. Truthfully, as people expressed a disliking toward the WAR, ideas for ways to work around it started coming to mind, and the news of the new PMD game that is to come got me thinking. So I thought of other ways for this idea to offer a "something for everyone" platform where it caters to varying levels of involvement and varying ways to get involved.


Well, this seems interesting. Hopefully I can be a slightly-active member in all of this, assuming it takes off. I'm particuarily interested in the whole Zodiac/Zenith aspect, but PMD is something I adore on principal. Raid the dungeons, steal the loot, stab your buddies, it's all awesome.

I can tip my hat to that. In all honesty, I think the PMD games are vastly superior to the mainstream games.

I'll admit, I've done similar RPs where there was something a tad bit similar, so it should be relatively easy to come up with stuff for that. That is the kind of thing I would like help and second opinions on before it becomes official though, so it's debugged before it goes live. Sometimes I overlook certain things, so having a few extra eyes give me their opinion would be really helpful.


Sounds amazing.

Thank you, but I'm just getting started!


This sounds HUGE. It would need a good amount of people to do it properly I think. But it would be mind blowing if it worked.

Most of the confusion comes from lack of detail, so it'll probably be fixed in the future anyway. I do wonder a little bit if its possible to join and/or co-own another player's guild. Are NPCs the only recruit-able things or could a player join a guild instead of creating their own?

Also: creating pokemon worlds for others to explore and discover. Pure gold material there.

And yeah, I would definitely partake in this, PMD games are the best ever.

Given the positive reception, I'd say it has a good chance. But yeah, I don't think I'd be able to run it alone.

Anyway, you could join or create a guild, but you can only be a part of one guild at a time. You can, however, work alongside another guild for the same missions. The guild differences are mainly to allow different guilds to have their own themes, designs, and layouts. One guild may favor putting their efforts into relic research first while another guild may want to get their members trained in special skills first. Another guild may want to focus on building their member base first to be able to take on more missions at once. Plus one guild may have a different theme from another. One may be whimsical, another may be more noble, a third might be secretive and enigmatic, and so on. But in general, they're working together for the same goals. Plus, with multiple guilds, it isn't one guild's responsibility to have to take on every challenge. More guilds allows more worlds to be saved at once.

As a WAR leader this year, I did read a lot of the criticisms of the WAR (I was paying attention even though I know I locked the thread!), and thought this idea would do a decent job at keeping the things people liked about the WAR while taking out a lot of the things people had issues with, such as:

Week Submission Limitations - The WAR forced people to have to submit everything under a strict time limit of one week. In PMD: SotS, you can submit what you want, when you want, without a deadline and without having to be competitive against someone else or worry about judging bias. If you need a few more weeks to complete your art piece to build that special addition to your guild HQ or recruit that special Pokémon, take it!

Point Distributions - People felt there were issues with point distributions. In SotS, you don't need points. You discover entire worlds instead! You also earn money, find relics with stories, roles, and powers that will be useful in the missions to come, and develop your Pokémon alter-ego with skills and special traits instead. In the meantime, your contributions to the guild will have much more noticeable impact. Sounds way more interesting than points, doesn't it!?

RPing and the Storyline - Some people were not so sure about the WAR RP, and it happens, not everything will appeal to everyone. In SotS, there are new worlds to save and new worlds to discover. Even if one particular adventure didn't feel like your cup of tea, another one will be just around the corner. Also, PVP is very limited in SotS. The people who create the worlds the guilds will be questing in take charge of the enemies and adversaries, which are of no loss to the world controller if they're beaten, but still creates the enjoyable feel of a PVP setting where their adversaries are at least under the command of a human controller.

Team Sizes - One of the big issues in the WAR was the sizes of some teams versus others. In a way, guilds need to build up their HQ sleeping quarters before they can take in truckloads of members. Guilds are also not warring with each other, but are still free to have their own unique designs and approaches. A member might prefer the pace of a more easy-going guild that takes things casually while another heavily involved member might prefer the very active guild that wants to go big. SotS creates an environment where people don't feel like they have to do each other in to enjoy the experience at a pace that they feel comfortable with.

The Nonexistent Tazz
07-30-2015, 10:10 PM
So, Neo, do you need any help in getting this off of the ground, because it certainly feels like this could go somewhere.

Kentucky Fried Torchic
07-31-2015, 12:19 AM
Re: Your Questions

What do you think of the PMD: StoS idea so far?
Definitely giving it an eight out of ten simply for the pitch, especially because it seems to harken a bit to ToJ, and that always tickles my gizzard. I love the PMD concept on principle as well, and the idea of combining all these different creators and creative fields in a giant universe-building project appeals to the comic book geek in me, so you're really hitting all of my cylinders.

Do you see yourself taking part in PMD: StoS?
Yes, I do. While I enjoy the concept of the URPG and ASB in principle, they're much more right-brained than I would prefer, and with most creative outlets that I see as either outside of my usual scope or underutilized overall.

Any ideas or things you'd possibly like to see in this?
My one question off the top of my head is what the player interactions will look like?

Overall, excited to see this get developed more.

Pokemon Trainer Sarah
07-31-2015, 12:48 AM
I really like this idea Neo :) I have no idea how much time I'll have, but if I'm around, it's definitely something I would join in!

Would this work as a new large scale RPG with its own board? Or were you expecting it to be a limited-time event? :)

Neo Emolga
07-31-2015, 02:24 AM
So, Neo, do you need any help in getting this off of the ground, because it certainly feels like this could go somewhere.

Yeah, I'll definitely need at least a few other people. I'm going to try and start getting things organized this weekend, so if you or anyone else thinks they'd like to get in on the development of this, drop me a VM or a PM. This is the kind of thing I'd like to run that doesn't demand absolute truckloads of activity all the time, but I do intend to keep a steady development pace.


Re: Your Questions

What do you think of the PMD: StoS idea so far?
Definitely giving it an eight out of ten simply for the pitch, especially because it seems to harken a bit to ToJ, and that always tickles my gizzard. I love the PMD concept on principle as well, and the idea of combining all these different creators and creative fields in a giant universe-building project appeals to the comic book geek in me, so you're really hitting all of my cylinders.

I think one of the neat aspects is the fact you could use relics, artifacts, and equipment discovered in one world to help aid you in another. The other thing is you could have worlds very akin to the PMD games, worlds more like Trial of Juno, and even far beyond that. What you take from one world can be used in the next.


Do you see yourself taking part in PMD: StoS?
Yes, I do. While I enjoy the concept of the URPG and ASB in principle, they're much more right-brained than I would prefer, and with most creative outlets that I see as either outside of my usual scope or underutilized overall.

I used to be in the URPG, but I haven't been in the ASB. Even so, I'm a big fan of the PMD games and I kind of wanted to gear something more towards that. Plus, the idea of people taking the role of a Pokémon that really feels like them I thought would be a nice touch.


Any ideas or things you'd possibly like to see in this?
My one question off the top of my head is what the player interactions will look like?

Overall, excited to see this get developed more.

Player interactions will probably be taking several different forms, but mainly in the form of role playing. I can see each guild having their own thread and be a place to unwind, make upgrades, learn skills, and that kind of thing. It could even be done in character. Then, when a mission opportunity comes up, you relocate to a completely different RP thread and carry out your objectives there.


I really like this idea Neo :) I have no idea how much time I'll have, but if I'm around, it's definitely something I would join in!

Would this work as a new large scale RPG with its own board? Or were you expecting it to be a limited-time event? :)

I'm glad to see you're interested!

I foresee it needing its own series of boards, since I think it's going to need quite a few threads and to put that all in one particular already-existing board will probably crowd it up. Unlike the WAR that can kind of be unpacked and packed up with temporary boards, I'd like this to stick around, especially since guild development and building would be an ongoing thing.

Kentucky Fried Torchic
08-01-2015, 04:22 PM
Will there be an (optional) personality test to suggest Pokemon alteregos?

Neo Emolga
08-02-2015, 05:36 AM
Will there be an (optional) personality test to suggest Pokemon alteregos?

We're thinking of doing something like that, but probably in the form of a questionnaire that shoots more for open-ended answers rather than multiple choice things. After that, a panel of judges reads the responses and drops a few suggestions as to what Pokemon that person most likely is similar to.

SassySnivy
08-02-2015, 09:33 PM
I personally effing love this idea and I totally support it all the way. Reminds me of those PMD groups on DeviantART, except there's more to do.

This is like an epic sandbox game and asdfasdfdsafsd I LOVE THIS IDEA

SassySnivy
08-13-2015, 08:38 PM
So, is this still a thing or no? No one has said anything about it for a while now. o_o and honestly, over anything else being plann3d on pxr right now I'd totally like to see this happen

The Nonexistent Tazz
08-13-2015, 09:56 PM
We're still discussing a lot of the issues. Neo had a very broad idea here-we're working on the specifics of this very broad idea, but rest assured it's coming together! Just, slowly. Right now we're still in the 'ideas' stages, but I think we're close to the point when forms and stuff are coming out and we're getting a grasp of how the game works.

Neo Emolga
08-13-2015, 11:05 PM
So, is this still a thing or no? No one has said anything about it for a while now. o_o and honestly, over anything else being plann3d on pxr right now I'd totally like to see this happen

As Tazz said, it's definitely moving along, but slowly. By having a whole development team work on it and stuff, it's needed more time, but it's catching and correcting a lot of things that would make the whole idea a mess than if I had just decided to make it alone. We're still coming up with ideas and refining those same ideas, but the interest is still there.

Also, we haven't gotten around to playtesting the stuff yet. I don't want to give any kind of estimated release date yet, but rest assured, we're still giving it time and attention.

SassySnivy
08-14-2015, 01:09 AM
The reason I said something was because there hasn't really been any discussion on it for a while. I guess it was just my way of bringing the thread back up so it reminded people that this is still a thing, in a sense. :P