Wanting to Be the Very Best Pokémon: Playable Pokémon for Into the Oddish
A couple of months ago, I released a converter that would calculate Into the Oddish enemy stats for any Pokémon based on their game stats. This has seemed to be useful (for instance, the Blog of Forlorn Encystment put out an entire monster manual of the first 151 Pokémon with complete movesets and Toasted Bagel went ahead and converted stats for every single Pokémon). However, it raised an inevitable question: how do I create playable Pokémon? Because Into the Oddish has different rules for playable Pokémon (which have randomized stats, befitting an OSR-style game) work differently than enemy Pokémon. Unfortunately, the process is a lot more judgment based and can’t easily be run into a calculator. However, let this be your guide if you want to create your own playable Pokémon.
All of the playable Pokémon in Into the Oddish have three evolutionary stages, which limits which evolutionary lines are playable. I challenge some other blogger to think up the best way to make other Pokémon playable (as Farmer Gadda recently said on his post about vitamins in Into the Oddish, “one of you fucks are going to homebrew in the remaining 103 [original Pokémon] eventually”). The main issue is progression and power-curve, which is already a difficult needle to thread when some players are a worm that becomes a bee while others are a pseudo-legendary dragon. My guidance is based on each stage in a three-stage evolutionary line.
All of these guidelines can be tweaked or broken to taste. Sometimes you change things for “game balance”, not balance in terms of balanced encounters but so that it isn’t such a bummer to roll a Caterpie when everyone else are Dragonites and Charmanders.
Stage One
STR, DEX and WIL are all randomized for a Stage One Pokémon by 2d6 rolls for each, but the Starter Pokémon chart in Into the Oddish helps to make it so that the Pokémon with the lowest rolls are the ones with the lowest in-game stats and vice versa. When homebrewing your own playable Pokémon, I would recommend using a similar chart and mapping your additional Pokémon to analogous choices on the Into the Oddish table.
HP
As a general rule, for Pokémon with base Hit Points (all references to base stats refer to the in-game stats of the mainline video games) of less than 40 rolls 1d4 for their starting HP. If between 40 and 45, they roll 1d6 for HP, and if above 45, roll 1d8 for HP.
Armor
Most Stage One Pokémon will have 0 Armor, but they generally have 1 Armor if their base Defense is between 60 and 90. If their base Armor is greater than 90, they start with a whopping 2 Armor.
Starting Moves and Items
Stage One Pokémon by default start with any Moves their Pokémon starts with (i.e., that they know as soon as they hatch instead of learning upon level-up). Then they roll for their Pokédollars (1d6) which mostly functions to see what else they know. The general format for this is that a roll of 1 is some pretty useful TM Move that type of Pokémon can learn, a 2-3 roll is a HM that Pokémon can learn, 4-5 is a common useful Item, and 6 is perhaps a less common useful Item. However, here is a place where you can greatly improve upon Into the Oddish because you aren’t slavishly adhering to the original Gen 1 games: egg moves. Egg moves were introduced in Gen 2 as Moves a Pokémon might start with by dint of breeding with other Pokémon that know that move. It just makes sense to integrate Egg Moves into the Starting Moves randomization table. It even fleshes out the Pokémon by implying a particular parentage. Because the randomization table should generally have the “best” results for the lowest values, use PP to approximate which moves are the “best” for table structuring purposes. For instance, Bulbasaur’s improved “Start With” entry may appear as:
Start with: 1d6 HP, Tackle, Growl, and:
1: Razor Wind
2: Skull Bash
3: Petal Dance
4: Charm
5: Safeguard
6: Light Screen
For fun, here is Charmander’s “Start With” entry accounting for egg moves. Some enterprising blogger could probably do these for all the Into the Oddish Pokémon!
Start with: 1d6 HP, Scratch, Growl, and:
1: Ancient Power
2: Rock Slide
3: Beat Up
4: Belly Drum
5: Outrage
6: Bite
New Moves
This table is relatively easy to produce. List out all of the Moves the Pokémon’s Evolutionary Chain is capable of learning solely by leveling up, in order. Then turn it into a d20 list with equal odds (or as equal as possible) for each move. If you aren’t able to equalize the odds completely, I would err on giving greater weight to the higher entries, which makes them more achievable for lower HP Pokémon.
Like everything in this guide, you may need to alter the standard practice to accurately capture the Pokémon you are trying to create. For instance, in the example at the end of this post, Pichu learns Sweet Kiss as a level up move after Tail Whip and Thunder Wave, but Pikachu does not learn Sweet Kiss at all. Because of Pichu’s low base hit points, it has a maximum of 4 HP. If I just listed everything in order, this would result in only Pikachu learning Sweet Kiss, never Pichu. So instead, I moved Sweet Kiss as the first result and added a parenthetical that this Move is only learned if they are still Pichu and otherwise the result is Growl (a starting Move for Pikachu that is not a starting move or learned via level up for Pichu).
Also, there are some Pokémon (like Raichu) that stop learning new level up moves when they evolve. There are gameplay reasons for this in the games, but in Into the Oddish where you play as a single Pokémon, it would be a major bummer for that player (especially because you need to be a Stage Three Pokémon generally to access the full New Moves table). Some Pokémon tropes must be broken.
Usage for Playable Moves
For how Moves actually function, the above-referenced converter does a good job for calculating damage but not for usage because playable Pokémon have different rules for Move usage than enemy Pokémon. Here is a guide for determining how often a Move can be used based on its in-game PP:
| PP | Usage |
|---|---|
| 5 PP | 1/rest |
| 10 PP | 1/day |
| 15 PP | 1/encounter (or 1/day if more utility) |
| 20 PP | 2/encounter (or 2/day) |
| 25 PP | 2/encounter (or 3/day) |
| 30 PP | 3/encounter (or 3/day) |
| 35+ PP | unlimited |
Stage Two
Requirements
Typically, this is just surviving at least 2 dangerous expeditions (i.e., dungeons) or collecting at least 1 gym badge. However, for Pokémon that evolve at very low levels like the Caterpie evolutionary line, reduce it to 1 dangerous expedition. If a Pokémon doesn’t evolve until much higher levels than normal, you may decide to increase it. If there are conditions to how they evolve that are more unusual, then more creative solutions may be required.
Stat Increases
Since stats are variable, it isn’t as easy as using a calculator like with enemy Pokémon. Instead, I will give an "Average" value for each stat, but this will need to be translated into dice (including, the initial HP dice from Stage One) and also varies greatly so should not be taken as gospel. For the benefit of non-dice-mathematicians, a die has an average value of half its maximum plus one-half (e.g., 1d6 has an average value of 3.5).
| Base HP | Average HP |
|---|---|
| 0-49 | 8.5 (e.g., 1d6+2d4) |
| 50-59 | 9.5 (e.g.,1d4+2d6) |
| 60-69 | 10.5 (e.g., 3d6) |
| 70+ | 11.5 (e.g., 1d8+2d6) |
*As noted in the calculator post, for post-Gen 1, take the average of the Special Attack and Special Defense for the Special value.
Stage Three
Requirements
Typically, this is just surviving at least 5 dangerous expeditions or collecting at least 3 gym badges since your last evolution. for Pokémon that evolve at very low levels like the Caterpie evolutionary line, reduce it to 1 dangerous expedition or 1 gym badge. For Pokémon that require evolutionary stones to evolve, add consumption of that stone to the list of requirements. Some Pokémon have unusual requirements like trade evolutions (in Into the Oddish, this is translated to having the Pokémon be played by at least one different player for a session). In later games, there are all kinds of additional evolutionary requirements (they aren’t always additional to leveling up in the game, but I would keep the expeditions/gym badge requirement as an additional requirement, similar to the way trade evolutions work, in Into the Oddish). For these, creativity is encouraged. For instance, for “friendship evolutions” introduced in Gen 2, maybe the player has to provide snacks for all their fellow players for at least 2 sessions or not miss a session for 6 consecutive sessions in order to satisfy the friendship requirement of the evolution (with the number of sessions being halved if the Pokémon has a Soothe Bell).
Stat Increases
As noted with Stage Two, these are cumulative totals instead of incremental, which is what is listed in leveling up, so what the cumulative amount is depends on the difference between Stage Three and its prior stages (some evolutionary lines are late bloomers).
| Base HP | Average HP |
|---|---|
| 0-59 | 14.5 (e.g., 3d4+2d6) |
| 60-79 | 17.5 (e.g, 5d6) |
| 80+ | 20.5 (e.g., 3d8+2d6) |
Example: Pikachu’s Evolutionary Chain
The mascot of Pokémon isn’t playable in Into the Oddish. What a blunder! That’s entirely because it isn’t a 3-stage evolutionary line in Gen 1. In Gen 2, however, it is perfect for a playable Pokémon. So I’ll give it a shot and put my above guidance to the test.
Stage One: Pichu
Type: Electric
Resistances: Electric, Flying
Vulnerabilities: Ground
Start With: 1d4 Hp, Thundershock, Charm, and:
1: Dizzy Punch
2: Encore
3: Doubleslap
4: Bide
5: Present
6: Reversal
New Moves: Every time you survive a battle, roll 1d20. If the result is below your current HP, you may learn the Move listed for that result:
1-2: Sweet Kiss (only if Pichu, otherwise Growl)
3-4: Tail Whip
5-6: Thunder Wave
7-8: Quick Attack
9-10: Double Team
11-12: Slam
13-14: Thunderbolt
15-16: Agility
17-18: Thunder
19-20: Light Screen
Stage Two: Pikachu
Type: Electric
Resistances: Electric, Flying
Vulnerabilities: Ground
Requirement: You have survived at least two dangerous expeditions or collected at least one gym badge and have either brought snacks for the rest of the players for at least two separate sessions or wrote play reports for six separate sessions (this number of sessions is halved if you have the Soothe Bell during that session).
Benefit: When you evolve into Pikachu, you gain 2d6 HP, and you increase your Strength by 1, your Dexterity by 1d6, and your Willpower by 1 (up to a maximum of 20 for each).
Stage Three: Raichu
Type: Electric
Resistances: Electric, Flying
Vulnerabilities: Ground
Requirement: Since your last evolution, you have survived at least three dangerous expeditions or collected at least two gym badges and have consumed a Thunder Stone.
Benefit: When you evolve into Raichu, you gain 2d6 HP, and you increase your Strength by 1d8, your Dexterity by 1d8, and your Willpower by 1d8 (up to a maximum of 20 for each).
