October's Here, And That Means It's...

[these_balls]

That's right, Routers! Now that the Most Wonderful Time Of The Year™ is back again, we your mods wanted to give you a heads-up about our forthcoming game plot for the month!




SO WHAT'S GOING ON THIS YEAR?

A good question! As characters who've been in the game for a while may recall, earlier this year people had some wishes granted, courtesy of Jirachi, who showed up to the regions for a visit. Unfortunately, Jirachi's departure wasn't nearly so smooth, which is to say it never actually got the chance to leave at all — courtesy of Cobra Commander, who managed to catch Jirachi and deliver it to Team Rocket for their own nefarious purposes.

Unfortunately, wish-granting devices (and Pokemon) can be fickle things when they're made angry, and the problem with making wishes is that there's almost always a loophole to exploit if you look for it, no matter how carefully the wisher spells them out.

So, when Team Rocket wishes for new, rare, never-before-seen Pokemon...

...Sometimes you get things like this.


HOLY VOLTORBS WHAT IS THAT?

That, Routers, is a forthcoming Pokemon Fusion plot, heading your way this October!

BUT FUSION IS JUST A CHEAP TACTIC TO MAKE WEAK POKEMON STRONGER.

Not this October, it's not!

With the reluctant help of Jirachi, Team Rocket has gotten their hands on a rare artifact, the Fusion Orb, which holds the strange power of creating "new" and "never-before-seen" Pokemon by fusing together two existing 'Mons into a single unit. Unfortunately, what they're going to discover the hard way is the fact that, as a side effect of the fusion process, standard-issue Pokeballs cannot capture a Fusion Pokemon. Which means they'll have no real way of keeping these things contained, which means...

You guessed it. The juice is loose, and coming soon to a countryside near you.

SO IF WE CAN'T CATCH THESE FUSION 'MONS, WHAT ARE WE SUPPOSED TO DO WITH THEM?

Well, unfortunately, your characters will have to find out the hard way that standard Pokeballs don't work on them, too. (Rocket player characters will be permitted to know this from the start, but they'll be ordered not to make any big public announcements about it.) And because nobody likes being hit in the head with a Pokeball when they're already having an incredibly bad day, it may just be that the Fusion in question lashes out and causes damage to your character...

...Which would be bad, because it turns out that the Fusion effect is transferable, and your Trainers, Rockets, and Breeders are not immune to it, either.

WHOA. SO WHAT HAPPENS IF MY CHARACTER TAKES DAMAGE FROM A FUSION POKEMON?

In a nutshell, they will themselves begin to transform, temporarily becoming up to half Pokemon, themselves. Later on during the month, we'll be putting up an infopost with more specifics about the guidelines for how these transformations will work and what your characters will and won't be able to do with them. For now, we just suggest keeping your IC plans flexible for the last two weeks of the month, since your character may find that they're not quite themselves during that period!

...And, if they've ended up turning part-Ditto, they might be rather flexible, themselves.

WHAT'S THE TIMELINE OF THIS PLOT, THEN?

A very important question! It is as follows:

TIMELINE OF PLOT:

• Sunday, Oct. 18th to Tuesday, Oct. 20th — The Fusion Pokemon begin swarming throughout the regions; characters participating in the transformation aspect of the plot should encounter and be wounded by one during this time.
• Wednesday, Oct. 21st to Wednesday, Oct. 28th — The transformation begins to take effect on the characters wounded by wild Fusion Pokemon, turning them partially into Pokemon themselves.
• Thursday, Oct. 29th to Friday, Oct. 30th — ? ? ? ? ?
• Saturday, Oct. 31 — The plot concludes, leaving all characters to have a happy Halloween!


The Calendar for the month also reflects this!

I STILL HAVE QUESTIONS YOU HAVEN'T ANSWERED YET!

Please feel free to ask us here! However, please also note that we may reserve the right to hold off on answering your question until our forthcoming, more detail-specific infopost about the plot later in the month, which will focus more on the mechanics of the event and what your characters may and may not do with their transformation.

TL;DR: every question is helpful to us! We may just hold off on answering them until it's closer to the plot, when we can do it en masse for the game as a whole.

Comments

★ QUESTIONS FOR MODS ★

[these_balls]

If you have questions about the forthcoming plot, please feel free to ask us here! Remember, though, we may reserve the right to hold off on answering your question until our forthcoming, more detail-specific infopost about the plot later in the month, which will focus more on the mechanics of the event and what your characters may and may not do with their transformation!

[rocketralph]

Will we have a list of poke'fusions to pick from (hence the keeping our plans flexible bit) or is that one aspect we can go wild plotting with?

[these_balls]

We're not planning on making characters pick from a list, no! The suggestion toward staying flexible was more along the lines of, "if your character's figuring on getting married at the end of October, be advised that their happy day may be taking place in the midst of shenanigans".

As far as picking your Pokemon to fuse with, though, Legendaries will understandably be off-limits, but pretty much anything else is fair game!

Re: ★ QUESTIONS FOR MODS ★

[stonebones]

Is it up to half of one Pokemon, or could a character potentially get infected with multiple types? Is a fusion only able to pass on their own species (be it half or a mix of both) or is it just a genetic wish oops and a free-for-all?

[these_balls]

To answer your questions:

Yes, it's up to half of one Pokemon. Unfortunately, you'll have to choose just one per character; you won't be able to multi-type.

A character will only begin to transform into one of the Pokemon that comprises the fusion that wounded them. For example, if Buff Thorgbeef encounters a Skitty/Paras fusion and is wounded by it, he will only begin taking on the traits of either a Skitty or a Paras, but not both. He will not begin taking on the traits of a Dratini, because a Dratini was not part of the fusion that wounded him.

However, we're leaving it up to you to determine what sort of fusion your characters run into, so if Buff Thorgbeef's player really wanted him to become part-Dratini, they have free rein to have him encounter a Shuckle/Dratini fusion instead.

[stonebones]

Let's all take a moment to thank Buff Thorgbeef for his contributions to science.

[these_balls]

I'm sure he will cheerfully volunteer to be the subject of hypotheticals from here on out!

[pipers_son]

So.

Is it possible to take a selfie with Mewssingno?

[these_balls]

It certainly is! But please try not to get grievously injured for the sake of your ChespInstagramming. :|b

[tearsofademon]

If a Ditto were to try to transform into a fusioned human, what would happen? Would they transform into the human/pokemon hybrid, just the human half, just the pokemon half, would it just plain fail somehow, what would happen?

eta: Also what if said Ditto tries to turn into a fusionmon just in general?

Also, assuming that the local scientists would make an excess of Fusion Balls because they can't really know exactly how many fusion mons there are, if a character happens to have an extra one by the end of the plot, may they keep it? As a trophy/to give somebody to study five years down the line/etc?

[these_balls]

In response to both Ditto-related questions, unfortunately the Ditto will just end up confused! They might fumble around for a few seconds trying their best, but ultimately an attempt at turning into either a fusioned human or a fusionmon in general will fail, alas.

As to the Fusion Balls, characters may keep one as a trophy once the plot is concluded, yes!