Gym Challenge Guide

[Akira]

Although it's much newer than the ones found in regions Kanto and Sinnoh, Midori is host to its own Pokemon League. That means it, like all of the others, has a set of eight Gyms that one must take on in order to challenge the League and have a shot at becoming the Champion. To do so, one must challenge and defeat the Gym Leader of each Gym, each of whom specialize in one specific Pokemon Type. Don't think it'll be as easy as simply bringing a Pokemon with a Type advantage against theirs, however. Each gym leader is an expert in their respective Type, and know of several ways to cover for their weaknesses.

Upon defeating a Gym Leader, the challenger will receive the badge for that Gym. This badge not only acts as proof that one has defeated the gym leaders, but also serve as an indicator of how much one has advanced as a trainer. As such, the more badges you have, the more challenging the next gym you challenge will be. How to interpret this is up to the gym Leader, though, generally speaking, more badges will likely justify pitting the challenger against a larger number of Pokemon and/or having them tougher and potentially fully-evolved Pokemon. Ultimately, it's up to them.

When you go to challenge a Gym Leader, first make sure that particular leader is open to new challenges in the first place. Last thing anyone wants is to suddenly have another thread pop up out of nowhere when they're already swarmed with posts. The Leader may, if they wish, put a limit on how many challenges they'll accept at a time to minimize the risk of them getting overwhelmed. Whatever the case, all a challenger needs to do start a thread in the leader's Gym. In this opening post, make sure to list which Pokemon you intend to use, so that the Leader can decide on what Pokemon they will use.

In addition to the badges, challengers who defeat Gym Leaders will also gain a nice monetary prize; 500 + plus an additional 500 for every badge they owned before challenging the leader they just faced. Needless to say, this can add up rather quickly. Lastly, whether you win or lose, you will have to wait a week before you'll be allowed to challenge/re-challenge a Gym again

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This last section is a small list of things for those who plan on making a Gym Leader to keep in mind.

1) You may throw in whatever twists and extra rules into a Gym Battle as you wish, but try to make it something that any challenger would be able to do regardless of their age, gender and/or physical condition. Anything that gives either you or the challenger any sort of advantage/disadvantage will be highly discouraged, but may be allowed so long as it can go both ways for both the challenger and the leader. Anything that can potentially harm the trainer will be outright refused.

2) So long as it's of the type that they specialize in, Gym Leaders can use any Pokemon they want during a battle. And I mean any Pokemon. Meaning that it does not have to be one of the Pokemon listed in their PC (which are referred to on the site as the Gym Leader's "Personal Team"). Of course, you're welcome to still use Pokemon in your Personal Team if you want, but if you don't actually own any Pokemon you think would provide a proper challenge to the opponent, then you're welcome to simply create one on the spot. After all, Gym Leaders are meant to be incredibly skilled and experienced within the setting, so it's only natural that they'd have many Pokemon at their disposal. Just keep in mind that you may only do this in official Gym Battles. Anywhere else, you're limited to what's in your PC.

Last bit not least, this probably goes without saying, but no Legendaries. Trying to pull something like that out of your ass will be a very fast way to lose your position.

3)While it's true that the challenger needs to list their Pokemon in their opening post, the same does not apply to you. You may, if you so wish, choose to keep the Pokemon you plan to use a secret in the interest keeping the challenger on their toes. Or you can play fair and show off your own Pokemon in the same manner as the challenger. It's entirely up to you.

4) Gym Battles are supposed to be challenging, but not impossible. Your goal is not to prevent challengers from getting a badge, but making sure that they earn it. In other words, keep it tough but fair.

5) There won't be any hard rules on whether your "NPC" Pokemon can have any held items, extra moves or their Hidden Ability. All we ask is if you do decide to include any of those, that you keep it reasonable. A common courtesy would be to only do such things if the Pokemon your opponent is using have the same, but it won't be required. Just don't abuse it is all we ask.

6) You're free to ICly reject a challenge, but we're going to want to know why, and the reason better be a good one. If we find out it's over some petty OOC bullshit that you have against the player rather than something IC, then you may or may not lose your position. Don't test us on this.