So what with all the current craze, I’ve been thinking about playing a Pokemon Trainer as a Masks character.
At first I thought I’d have to make a new playbook, but that’s a lot of work and I’m very lazy by nature. So then I took a look at the Nova.
The themes line up, I feel: Super versatile power with the potential to cause lots of devastation when their powers go out of control.
The one thing I’m kind of hung up on is how to charge your powers.
Maybe the character’s creatures start off in a small/docile state and have to be ‘activated’ in order to do their thing?
Initial thoughts: charging your powers is something you are assumed to be able to do unless outside forces specifically make that difficult, and your Burn only lasts until the end of the scene now, so it needn’t be a complicated ritual and really shouldn’t be if you want the playbook to work as intended.
So: for a Pokemon trainer I’d personally just say that summoning a Pokemon would suffice; you’re putting yourself and your Pokemon into a battle-ready state, getting psyched up, that kind of thing. The conditions you might take could be backlash from that psychic struggle for control between you and your Pokemon. Note that you needn’t charge up every time you want to switch Pokemon, any more than an Avatar-style elementalist Nova would need to charge up to manipulate fire instead of earth.
If that seems too simple, consider: if you were a Sorcerer Nova whose theme was summoning creatures from other dimensions, chanting in Latin with your eyes all a-glow while otherworldly creatures appear around you would probably suffice, yeah? Same principle, slightly different coloring.
I like.
So for ordinary, everyday psychic work, pull out a Psyduck or an Abra. But if you really want to get serious, then it’s time to call in Mewtwo.