pokemon notes #1: time, league, rocket, technology, education

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Hashed out details for Operation: Make Pokemon Somewhat Realistic.

Oh, and I refuse to acknowledge anything beyond 151. Yet.


Time estimates:
One hour gameplay = one month. It took me 50-odd hours to beat the Elite 4, which would be around 4 years of intense training with that goal in mind.


The Pokemon League:
An actual league, boasting eight gyms and a championship run. There are two career paths: training mastery and type mastery.

training mastery
Like the game. Run around, collect the strongest/most liked starting line up, see if you can beat everyone you come across. Badges required. When fighting the Elite 4, they are fighting down to see if you can compete on their set standards.

There are 3 attempts to beat the Elite 4 and then you're sent home; campers are not allowed. If you beat them, you're interviewed by every Master to ensure you're not some sort of sociopath or Pokemon abuser. Frequently, one master will sponsor the candidate to help pay back the cost of getting up to the Plateau.

Then you get a shiny ring and are initiated into the League proper, meaning you can be sent out on training missions/explorations/help back up a Gym in need/whaaatthefuckever. Every year the League holds an actual conference that ends in a big tournament showdown. The masters actually try to beat down the upstart newcomers and it is big and flashy and nationally televised. Akin to the Olympics. If you win that, you're the actual League Champion. Until next year.

type mastery
You pick a type to focus on. Badges are recommended, but not required. Comes in three ranks: apprentice, journeyman, and master. Master with a capital M is reserved for the actual Master of 'em All. Apprentices are still collected their set and learning how to train their type. Journeymen are usually confederates in their allied gym, weeding out the incompetent challengers. Masters go out to do their Master's bidding, and compete in the aforementioned tournament. They also get a shiny ring indicating their type mastery (garnet stone for fire, sapphire for water, etc). Masters are expected to beat down anyone who comes their way, regardless of type advantages/disadvantages. Legendaries are not required to gain mastery.

Masters
Are Gym Leaders, and a great deal work or worked for Rocket, usually as Elites (this is canon). The leader of the Gym Leaders is Giovanni and the leader of the Elite 4 is Lance. They all fight down to the same strength, so Brock isn't necessarily any more challenging than Giovanni. The point is to demonstrate tactical knowledge and basic strength enough to beat all 8 major Pokemon types. They also more or less help run the city-states, although there are democratically elected governors for each city-state.

Junior Trainers
A trainer who has not yet acquired all 8 badges. They wear some sort of patch or badge, like the JR cap, or a jacket or something, and prowl outskirts of cities. Unofficially, a junior trainer who is out of money or usable Pokemon turns his cap backwards or some other signal so as to ward off challengers, and it's usually followed. Someone who chooses not to advertise their suckitude/bad luck takes a Walk of Shame, which in congested areas lasts all of five minutes before someone catches on and picks up some easy money. Lasses, Bug Catchers, Rock Climbers, and Gamblers fall under this category.

random other stuff
If a trainer dies in a Pokemon-related activity (falls into a volcano, like one of my MC's dads, or drowns, or whatever), the living spouse/family can apply for a pension from the League. It's usually not sufficient to live off alone.

The minimum age to go off training is 18; 17 with a parental waiver. Licenses showing that you're not a retard and know what you're facing can be earned at 16 and there are classes that can be taken. Licenses can be revoked for rampant and dangerous acts of stupidity.

Each town has Rest Houses with a few rooms that transient trainers can crash in for a small fee. Unfortunately, the bigger cities are more expensive and tend to be overrun by hobos and thieves. Larger Poke Centers can also be used as shelters during inclement weather or if a Pokemon is in critical condition and the trainer wants to stay nearby. It's a bad idea to stay anywhere without a League sanction displayed on the wall somewhere.


The role of Rocket
They're in charge. It's essentially a dictatorship run by an organized crime group. It's not uncommon for them to manipulate a governor's election and they completely control technology, giving themselves the best parts. The League is uninvolved with them and they've more or less developed a 'don't ask don't tell' sort of uneasy truce. As long as the former Rockets in the League don't do anything stupid, it's all okay.

Rocket doesn't like competition so other crime groups are short lived. Occasionally a band of highwaymen will start to crop up on the longer Routes but those are usually mowed down soon enough.

Kanto is completely isolationist. The other regions (Johto etc) exist, but the average Kanto citizen is more or less unaware of them. Their ignorance maintains Rocket's trade monopoly. It's possible to get out of Kanto, but getting in again is a completely different story.

City-state governors (city-states because they're mostly autonomous) have little power. Their role is to take care of pesky, boring things so Rocket and the Gym Leaders can focus on Pokemon and Taking Over The World. As long as the governor doesn't get too ambitious or incompetent, everything goes. If they DO, Rocket will come in and correct them.

Rocket is a huge organization, so it has its fanatics and zealots, and its younger wannabe crew who tend to pick fights and get into trouble with Jr. Trainers. This is more or less tolerated because it instills (or is SUPPOSED TO) a respect for Rocket at a nice young age. When you take over the world, always start with the children and all that. That, and there are too many wannabes to financially justify keeping them in line all the time.

Guns exist. But only Rocket has them and even then, only the senior and trusted and competent members. Tabs are kept on each gun so they don't fall into the wrong (read: anyone else's) hands.

Other than that, Rocket is content to work mostly behind the scenes making hefty profits, and Kanto people live a pretty unconcerned life. I'm taking an Organized Crime class this semester, so I'm actually really looking forward to the mob thing and everyone else can rest assured that at least in this respect I know what I'm talking about.


Technology: Transportation, Entertainment
transportation
Trains, ships, and cars are a go, but limited. Most people can't afford a car, and most don't want one when almost everything is within walking distance anyway. Cabs are also relatively cheap, as are underground trains between cities. Diglett's Cave is an abandoned train tunnel, an experiment by Rocket to see if Digletts and Dugtrios could be used to expedite digging. As it turned out, the species is too flighty and easily distracted to be financially worth it, but Diglett's Cave is maintained as an easy pedestrian route. Ships are a little more on the upper-class elitist side, and don't really go anywhere anyway. Ships, like the Lady Anne, are almost entirely cruise ships of varying degrees of luxury. No planes; Kanto's too small to really need them.

entertainment
TV, telephones, game consoles, cable, and a rudimentary Internet are a go. Poke Centers use the Internet to help trainers keep in touch (email/video) but the average Joe can't afford one/doesn't want one. It's also how PokeDexes work, for those privileged enough to have one. Almost everyone has a phone and a cable TV though. And of course electricity and indoor plumbing and all that stuff.


Education
Generic public education through age 18, although only mandatory through age 16 when the majority of kids get started on their Pokemon-related careers. There are specialized secondary education institutions catering to those who'd rather be a Nurse or Officer or researcher or whatever. A kid in one of those is a big bragging right.



Next up: Pokemon Biology and (Specific) Technology