Personally, I would just give higher degrees of success for more 6's.

Lucas used Water Gun!
As my lungs thirst for air, my stomach whiplashes and coughs up a savory mass of water, slime and digested breakfast. In exhaustion, I lay my head on Fluffy's back, letting it smear all over his wool, and my face.

"Tiny.."
*cough*
"... aren't you ... looking awful ... awful ..."
*cough*
"looking awfully proud for ... someone who ...
"..for someone who..."

My voice gradually wheezes into a whisper.
"... nearly got me killed?"

Jet can't help but smile. The fear he felt, the frustration, the sadness - all of it faded to nothing the moment Tiny burst from the ground. He clings to the onix's back, a dopey grin plastered to his face. On hearing Lucas mumbling behind him his grin just gets wider. Laying his head against the rough stone of the onix back he let's out a long sigh. "Thanks bro. Ha. An here I thought I was supposed to be the one keeping you safe eh? You're never gonna let me here the end of this one are you?" Chuckling to himself he watches the rock walls of the tunnel fly by, taking full advantage of this chance to rest.

Are you sure it's healthy to encourage this sort of behavior?
Despite my exhaustion, I try my best to stay awake, while pondering whether it would have any benefit to make my ankle paralyzed or asleep.

Mown: You played your character well.

altimis: You get your Star Piece as promised, for your creative use of Pokémon items.


Altimis: In your mind's eye, everything slows to a crawl.

Stone Edge. A Rock-type move that attacks with sharpened stones from the ground. Approximately eighty percent accuracy. You calculate that the wave of jutting spikes will take three seconds to reach you.

Three seconds is all you need.

Sombra instinctively crouches as you fling your Poké Ball over her head and towards the oncoming Onix. You see the familiar red dot of the targeting laser, the chromed red finish gleaming against the gold, the slowly widening reptilian eyes of the Onix as the capsule splits in two...

The flash!

Ting!

The sandstorm subsides. The Stone Edge halts in its tracks. The Poké Ball lands on the cavern floor, throwing up a plume of sand and rolling before coming to a stop. You scored your third and final hit. You exhale and rise to your feet, kicking sand out of your boots and cradling Sombra in your arms.

But the Poké Ball is still moving.

Do you use the opportunity to run for your life and catch up with the others?

Or are you fool enough to actually try and catch this thing?

What do you do? If you stick around, roll 1d6 to capture the shiny Onix!

Given the circumstances, if I don't capture it, does it go away (it took its third hit)? For now, I'm going to stay, but under one condition.
As a note, if I have enough time to get into the Paras Tunnel, I'd rather go there, performing the same actions.

Sombra helps pulls Altimis out by his collar. He is giddy the entire way.

"Heh, ooh, that hurt... We need to get into the mouth of the Onix's tunnel." He says as they crawl together. Meanwhile, Altimis pulls out a bottle of repel and lines the mouth of the tunnel with it. He also marks an area just behind them, a sphere of protection. "There. That should do the trick." He says as the can sputters out. He wiggles his arms in whatever remains of the ominous gas; Sombra glares at Altimis, before she hides her nose with her paw.

Safely hidden, and moderately warded, Altimis strains his ears to listen to the sound of the pokeball just around the corner.

(I haven't gotten a shiny Onix yet. That would certainly be a story to tell the gang when we get out.)

Wiggle.

Wiggle.

Wiggle.

Click.

Congratulations! Onix was caught!

Would you like to give a nickname to Onix?

Altimis's breathing slows as he concentrates on the noises above. Not that it would be difficult to hard the explosion of Onix escaping.
Altimis hears the audible *click*.
(It just hit a rock while its wiggling.)
...
...
(It's really putting up a fight. If I knew that it would take this long, I would've kept running.)
...
...
(I can't look. If the timinig is wrong, I'm toast.)
...
Meanwhile, Sombra is uncomfortably thrashing about. Trying to keep her nose in her paws, she hides behind a boulder, but shakes her head. She turns quickly into a different groove and covers her nose to no avail. *pfft* She sneezes. She scratches at her face as if she'd be able to brush the repellant away.
She begins thrashing her head violently, and accidentally backs into Altimis. He loses his balance and catches a glimpse of the previously inhabited cavern on his way down.

The pokeball isn't moving, and the central light is glowing with a faint red light.

(What?) "Ommph, OOoooooh that hurts! Sombra you can get out of here now. I think we're clear."

Sombra was already running before he started the sentence. Partly to jump in front of him, mostly to get away from the repel-drenched walls.

Altimis' breathing settles, and he picks himself off the ground.

"It looks like you have a new playmate... Well, besides Isis." Altimis picks up the pokeball, then puts it back down. He turns to Sombra, and tends to any minor wounds quickly, then he picks up the pokeball again.

"We shouldn't keep it waiting. Let's meet our new Onix." He releases it in the cavern, and Onix unfurls a few feet away. Calmer than before, Onix warily eyes Altimis as he gives Onix a quick examination. He checks Onix for major injuries, and fixes the minor ones.
Sombra joins by sniffing his tail and cooing softly. Onix's replies are brief, but loud. They're saying something, and it appears that Onix is very sour about his recent defeat.

Altimis reaches into his pouch and hands some Cheri berries to Sombra among two Oran berries. He shuffles through the berries and pulls out a few [proud-related] berries among two Oran berries and holds them up to Onix.
Onix grunts.

Altimis laughs. "C'mon. You know you want to." Onix grumbles in response. Sombra sniffs at his hand, but Altimis gently brushes her away. Onix, once again, looks at the berries in his hand, but doesn't move.

"Fine," Altimis says. He ruffles Sombra's head casually to distract her from the berries as he places them on a boulder and backs up. "I'm going to leave these right he..."

Onix quickly bent down and swallowed them whole. Altimis took this time to reach out his hand and feel the luster of Onix's face. Onix eyes him a slightly less suspiciously.

"Welcome to the team, Aurumni." He says, as Aurumni brings its head back upright. "Now, where should we be going?"

==xx==


As far as bonds go... I don't think my bonds have changed per current roster seeing as there wasn't too much interaction between players this last gig.
However... relating to this Onix.

Arumni (Onix)
0 Loyalty (Or is it 1?)
Male, Rock/Ground, Proud nature
Arumni and Altimis like to prove themselves. (Currently, not to impress the other, but just to prove they're deservng of respect. Think Sherlock Holmes where he just has to be right.)
[/i]

I think it ran well, it was a little short

My biggest concern is with star pieces / dice rolloing... For example:
If you get a 6, you get a positive response.
If you get a 5, you get, essentially, a neutral response.
Anything else, is a negative response.

While that works, especially given the chance to redo with the star pieces, I feel that star pieces should be a rarer occurance. If that were to change, I don't know how you would want to change it, but the first thing I would look at is the starting loyalty. Maybe have 0 to 5 instead of 0 to 4 or some other way to more casually add (at least) one die to the roll? I feel if the base was three dice, the game would be better. It worked well given they were our starters, but what would I have done if I started battling with Onix? One die, and with effort I could bump it to two? While that works with the two to three, it doesn't translate well from one to two.
My suggestion would be: base loyalty is two, and starters start at three (with less star pieces), and maximum loyalty is then changed to 5.

I liked the way it was based on D6's, and I liked how the outcomes were determined, but I feel that a majority of the time it favored bad outcomes. It's difficult to say based on one session, but that's what I felt.

I greatly enjoyed everything else.

It's an illusion. Notice how the number of successes and failures were about even over the course of the thread? The math works out so that with 2d6, you succeed roughly 2/3 of the time and succeed without any complications 1/3 of the time. Those are great odds! Remember that there are lots of roleplaying bonuses to boost your chances as well. Also, it's no coincidence that all of the ways to increase Loyalty are based on facing adversity, so your Onix could very well have gone to 2 Loyalty in his first battle. Out of all the mechanics, I think the base resolution system is the least likely to change.

I understand how you feel about Star Pieces, and I agree that they should feel special. That said, they're meant to reward roleplaying, so they shouldn't feel too rare. They also serve the important function of ensuring that players succeed in the end, which is integral to the optimistic feel of Pokémon. I think I achieved a decent balance over the course of the game.

Regardless, thanks for your feedback!