Pokémon Contests

An Introduction to Contests

Pokémon Contests are an alternate non-violent form of sport and competition that many Trainers choose to

participate in. These Trainers are often called Coordinators, and the Trainer Class of the same name is built to

specialize in Pokémon Contests. Contests are conducted in front of an audience and a panel of judges who the

contestants try to impress by having their Pokémon use their Moves in dazzling performances.

The Contest Circuit

Similar to Pokémon Gyms, many cities have Contest

Halls where Trainers gather to compete in Pokémon

Contests. And similar to how Gyms often specialize in

a Pokémon Type, a particular Contest Hall may cater

to a specific Contest Type – either Beauty, Cool, Cute,

Smart, or Tough. Many Contest Halls, however, host

Contests of all Types.

Winning a Contest rewards a Trainer with a Ribbon, and

a Ribbon from a prestigious Contest Hall often carries

the same weight as a Gym Badge in demonstrating a

Trainer’s prowess and skill. Many Gym Leaders are

themselves famous Coordinators as well.

Like Gyms, Contest Halls are organized into a Contest

Circuit, and there are often large events called Grand

Festivals similar to a Pokémon League tournament that

require a certain number of Ribbons, usually five, for a

Trainer to qualify to compete.

Differences With Battling

Much like in Pokémon Battles, a Pokémon’s Moves

are their main tools in Pokémon Contests. Unlike in

battles, however, Pokémon competing in a Contest do

not aim to fight each other (except perhaps in certain

non-traditional Contest formats!) but instead use their

Moves to put on a show, such as creating fireworks with

Fire-Type Moves.

Preparing a Pokémon for a Contest is usually quite

different from preparing them for battling. Some

Moves that may not add much to a Pokémon’s battling

arsenal may complement its other Moves in Contest

Effects very well. Where battlers often seek Vitamins to

improve their Pokémon’s Base Stats, Coordinators look

for Poffins to improve Contest Stats.

It may be worthwhile in campaigns where Contests are

prominent for a Trainer to raise Pokémon specifically

for these competitions separate from their battling team.

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Contest Stats

Pokémon Contests have their own set of Stats; Cool,

Tough, Beauty, Smart, and Cute. These Stats are

used to power up a Pokémon’s Moves during Contests.

Instead of with flat values, these Stats are calculated in

Dice; always a certain number of D6.

The five Contest Stats correlate directly to five of the

Combat Stats; Attack to Cool, Defense to Tough,

Special Attack to Beauty, Special Defense to Smart, and

Speed to Cute. And just like the Stat Ace specializes in

a Combat Stat, the Style Expert specializes in different

Contest Stats.

In addition, each Contest Stat is roughly associated

with a few Types. This doesn’t mean every Move in the

associated Type will match up with the Contest Stat, but

usually a large proportion of Moves do line up. Some

Types are associated with multiple Contest Stats and

some more spread out throughout all the different Stats.

Beauty is often associated with the Fire, Ice, and Water

Types. Cool is often associated with the Dragon,

Electric, Fighting, and Flying Types. Cute is associated

with the Fairy, Normal, Psychic, and Water Types. Smart

is associated with the Grass, Ghost, Poison, and Psychic

Types. Tough is associated with the Fighting, Ground,

Normal and Rock Types.

Each Contest Stat has two Allied Stats and two

Opposing Stats. In the following chart, each Contest

Stat is allied with its adjacent Stats and opposed to the

other two. These will factor into Contests that are tied

to a specific Contest Stat. The most common Contest

Variant has one Contest Type the entire time.

Pokémon can gain Contest Stats in two main ways:

through their '''Combat Stats and through eating Poffins'''.

For every 10 Points of the matching Combat Stat, a

Pokémon has +1 Contest Die in the correlating Contest

Stat, up to a maximum of 3 at 30. Combat Stages are

never taken into account.

Contest Stats can also be gained from Poffins! Pokémon

may consume 1 Poffin, plus one more for every 5 levels

they gain, up to a maximum of 6 total Poffins at level 25.

Poffins each raise one Contest Stat by +1 Dice. Additional

Poffins past the maximum of 6 have no effect.

To use your hard earned Contest Stats, when you use a

Move of the appropriate Contest Stat, you may use up

to 3 of your Contest Dice in that Stat to add the same

amount of d6 to an Appeal Roll. Once those Dice are

used, they may not be used again in that Contest.

For example, if you have a Cool Stat of 4d6, when you

use a Cool Move you may add up to 3d6 to the appeal

Roll. On the following round, if you use a Cool Move

again, you may add a maximum of 1d6 since you already

used 3d6 of your Cool Stat dice. It’s important to time

your extra dice when you think you’ll be able to get the

most use out of them!

COOL

BEAUTY

SMART CUTE

TOUGH

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Playing a Pokémon Contest

The first step to playing a Pokémon Contest is to figure

out what Contest Variant is being used. There are three

main Contest Variants, though you should feel free

to come up with your own ideas! All of these Contest

Variants operate with the standard Contest mechanics

and involve only Pokémon as performers. At the end

of the basic Contest rules, we’ll provide you with a few

non-traditional Contest Variants as well which throw in

twists such as direct Trainer involvement, integration

with battles, and other nifty ideas!

Standard Contest: A Standard Contest picks one

Contest Stat – Cool, Cute, Tough, Beauty, or Smart

– to have as its Contest Type the entire time. Usually

these Contests are advertised as ‘Cool Contests’ or ‘Cute

Contests’ so that participants may prepare do their best

in that particular Contest Stat.

Supercontest: Supercontests are a simple and fun

variant of Standard Contests; instead of having one predetermined

type, at the beginning of each round the

GM randomly decides which Type will be the dominant

Type for that Round. Simply roll 1d6; 1 is Cool, 2 is

Tough, 3 is Beauty, 4 is Smart, and 5 is Cute. Re-roll on

a 6.

Festival: A Festival is a very intense contest with

many rounds more than usual! Simply play them

like a Standard Contest or Super Contest until the

end – subtract Fumble from Appeal as usual, then,

the participant with the lowest amount of Appeal is

eliminated, and the Contest starts from the beginning

with one less participant! Appeal carries over between

each ‘Contest’. When there’s only Three contestants left,

the Contestant with the most Appeal Points at the end

of that Contest is the winner!

When you’ve determined what Contest Variant is being

used, and you’ve made your preparations, it’s time to

begin the Contest! Contests occur in two stages: the

Introduction Stage and the Performance Stage.

Introduction Stage

In the Introduction Stage, a Pokémon is sent out and

the Trainer introduces themselves and the Pokémon to

the audience! Each Trainer chooses Charm, Command,

Guile, Intimidate, or Intuition. Roll 1d6 for each rank

of the chosen Skill the Trainer has. For each die that

comes up a result of 3, 4, 5, or 6, the Trainer gains

one die in a Contest Stat that may be used during this

Contest just like a Pokémon’s Contest Stat Dice. Charm

rolls generate Cute Dice, Command rolls generate

Cool Dice, Guile rolls generate Smart Dice, Intimidate

rolls generate Tough Dice, and Intuition rolls generate

Beauty Dice. Trainers who make a roll using the Skill

matching the Contest Stat of a Standard Contest begin

the Contest with two bonus Appeal Points.

Experienced Trainers also make use of Held Items and

Grooming that allow them to make additional rolls to

generate more Contest Stat Dice in the same manner,

with one die being generated per result of 3, 4, 5, or 6.

These bonus rolls do not have to match the

Contest Type of their chosen Skill.

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Appeal Points

The Winner of the Contest is determined by who has

the most Appeal Points. In Contests, you have two

different Stages in which to earn Appeal Points; the

Introduction Stage, the Performance Stage.

During each stage, you will be rolling many d6 to try

and earn Appeal Points.

»» Whenever you roll a 1, you gain 0 Appeal Points for

that roll.

»» Whenever you roll 2, 3, 4, or 5, you gain 1 Appeal

Point for that roll.

»» Whenever you roll a 6, you gain 2 Appeal Points for

that roll!

This is the general rule, but this changes when you are

the Center of Attention.

Once per contest, each Pokémon will be in the middle

of the stage, and will be the Center of Attention. This

round is important because it offers a chance for

many points – but also failure. If you are the Center of

Attention, score points as follows instead.

»» Whenever you roll a 6, you gain +3 Appeal Points.

»» Whenever you roll a 5 or 4, you gain +2 Appeal

Points.

»» Whenever you roll a 3, you gain +1 Appeal Point.

»» Whenever you roll a 2, you gain 0 Appeal Points.

»» Whenever you roll a 1, you gain 0 Appeal Points and

gain 1 Fumble Point.

Fumble Points are negative Points; at the end of a

Contest, you subtract any Fumble Points from your

Total Appeal.

Voltage

There’s one more thing to keep track of during Contests

– Voltage. Voltage represents how much attention each

participant is drawing from the audience. Manipulating

Voltage is important to winning Contests

Each Participant has a “Voltage” Meter, which starts at

0 and gets to a maximum of 5. Voltage is raised and

lowered by Moves throughout the Contest.

For each point of Voltage at the Start of the Turn,

Contestants gain +1d6 to their Move that turn.

Performance Stage

The Performance Stage is the main part of a Contest,

and takes place over a number of rounds equal to the

number of contestants. When the Performance Stage

is finished, Fumble Points are subtracted from Appeal

Points, and the contestant with the most Appeal points

is the winner!

At the beginning of the Performance Stage, each

Participant is assigned a letter (A to E if there’s 5

participants; simply adjust letters to the number of

participants). These letters are retained for the entire

duration of the Contest. Letters are assigned based on

the number of total Contest Stat Dice gained at the

Introduction Stage, from highest to lowest. If a Trainer

rolled a Skill matching the Contest Stat in a Standard

Contest, add two to their total for the purposes of

assigning letters. If there is a tie, simply flip a coin.

During each round of the Performance Stage, each

Pokémon performs a Move from their Move list, and

uses its Contest Effect to gain Appeal Points. You may

not use the same Move twice in a row during a Contest.

You do not need to pay attention to the normal battling

frequencies for Moves as your Pokémon is using them

for performance instead of seriously executing the

attacks.

Moves are declared in turn order, which is specified on

the next page, based on the Position of the Contestants.

Moves may affect only Pokémon adjacent to them that

turn.

If a Move matches the Contest Type of the Contest,

the Move rolls an additional 1d6. If the Move is of an

opposing Type, it rolls one less 1d6 (or gain a Fumble

Point if the Move would roll no dice). If the Move is of

an allied type, no changes are made.

For example, in a Cool Contest, using a Smart or Cute

Move will cause you to roll one less die; if you are rolling

no dice, you instead gain a Fumble Point. Using a Tough

or Beauty Move will not affect your roll. Using a Cool

Move will add +1 die.

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Turn Order and Position

Turn Order and Position are very important tactical

information during Contests. Turn Order is determined

by Position.

Remember those Letters assigned to Participants at the

beginning of the Performance Stage? Those are used to

determine Position. The charts below show positions

for 5, 4, and 3 Person Contests each round.

Each round, simply line the Contestants up, and place

them in the spot that matches their letter.

Position is important because you can only affect

Pokémon adjacent to you each round. During a Contest,

a Pokémon is adjacent to each other participant exactly

twice, regardless of the number of participants.

Position is also important, because when you are in the

position with the yellow column below, you are at the

Center of Attention. See the Appeal Points section for

more details on being in the Center of Attention.

Turn Order is determined by Position; see the charts

to the right. The top row designates which contestant

goes first, then second, etc. For example, in the first

round of a 5-person Contest, Contestant A goes first,

then Contestant B, then Contestant C, then Contestant

D, then Contestant E. On the second round, Contestant

B goes first, then Contestant E, then Contestant D, then

Contestant A, then Contestant C.

Position Charts

Turn 5 Turn 3 Turn 1 Turn 2 Turn 4

Round 1 E C A B D

Round 2 C D B E A

Round 3 A B C D E

Round 4 B E D A C

Round 5 D A E C B

Turn 2 Turn 4 Turn 1 Turn 3

Round 1 B D A C

Round 2 D C B A

Round 3 A B C D

Round 4 C A D B

Turn 3 Turn 1 Turn 2

Round 1 C A B

Round 2 A B C

Round 3 B C A

Contest Experience

Contests are demanding experiences, and grant Experience much like Battles! Grant a Pokémon Experience as if

they had defeated X Pokémon of their own Level, where X is half of the Pokémon they beat in the Contest, rounded

up. Note that this is an exception to the usual round down rule! Use a relatively low Significance Multiplier;

perhaps x1.5 or 2. You could go higher if Contests are relatively rare occurrences in your campaign, or if they’re

very common occurrences in your campaign and this is a particularly decisive Contest for a Contestant’s career! If

you run a Festival, calculate Experience for the total event, not each sub-contest.

For example, if a Level 10 Pokémon comes in 1st Place in a 5 Person Contest, and the GM uses a significance

multiplier of x2, they would gain 60 Experience! If they came in last place, they would still gain 20 Experience.

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Contest Effects

Attention Grabber: 1d6 – Each adjacent competitor

loses up to two Voltage; you gain Voltage equal to the

amount lost this way.

Big Show: 1d6 – You gain +3 Voltage

Catching Up: 2d6 – Roll +3d6 if all adjacent competitors

have more Voltage Points than you do, and you gain +1

Voltage.

Desperation: 5d6 – All results of 1 grant you +1 Fumble,

and all results of 6 grant you +1 more Appeal Point. This

Stacks with being at the Center of Attention.

Double Time: Xd6 – You lose 2 Voltage. Roll +1d6 for

every point of Voltage competitors adjacent to you have,

minus 1d6 for each point of Voltage you have remaining.

Excitement: 3d6 – You gain +2 Voltage

Exhausting Act: 4d6 – If you have 2 or more voltage,

roll +2d6; you then lose 2 Voltage

Gamble: 2d6 – All results of 6 this round grant you +1

Voltage.

Get Ready: 1d6 – You lose 2 Voltage. Double the number

of Dice from your Move next round. Bonus Dice from

Contest Stats and Voltage are not doubled.

Good Show: 2d6 – Roll +3d6 if all adjacent competitors

have less Voltage Points than you do, and you gain +1

Voltage.

Incentives: 3d6 – If this Move matches the current

contest Type, you gain 1 Voltage and each adjacent

Competitor loses 1 Voltage.

Inversed Appeal: Xd6 – X is equal to 5 minus your

current Voltage.

Reflective Appeal: Xd6 – X is equal to your current

Voltage.

Reliable: 3d6 – If you used the same Move last turn, roll

+1d6 and gain 1 Voltage. Moves with Reliable may be

used consecutively.

Sabotage: 3d6 – All dice rolled this round do not give

points; instead they give all adjacent competitors that

many Fumble Points.

Safe Option: 4d6 – Rolls of 6 during this round only

grant 1 Point, but you cannot gain Fumble Points from

rolling a 1.

Saving Grace: 1d6 – You lose 1 Fumble Point for each

level of Voltage you have. If you lose two or less Fumble

Points this way, you gain +1 Voltage. You cannot gain

Fumble from Competitor’s moves for the remainder of

the round.

Seen Nothing Yet: Xd6 – You lose all Voltage. For each

point of Voltage lost this way, roll +2d6.

Special Attention: 5d6 – Each adjacent competitor

gains 1 Voltage

Steady Performance: 5d6 – You gain +1 Voltage

Tease: 4d6 – All results of 5 or 6 grant only +1 Point; but

all results of 6 cause each adjacent competitor to gain +1

Fumble Point.

Unsettling: 5d6 – You lose 2 Voltage, and each adjacent

competitor loses 1 Voltage.

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Contest Demo

Turn 3 Turn 1 Turn 2

Here’s a quick three participant Contest to show you how they run! To the right, you’ll see the Position and Turn

chart for such a Contest.

Let’s meet our contestants:

Aren’t they cute? Well, they had better hope to be, because this demo will be a standard '''Cute Contest'''!

The Contest begins with the Introduction Stage, where the Trainers

for each of our contestants roll to determine how many extra Contest

Stat Dice they’ll have to work with during the Contest. Each of the

Trainers for the Zubat, Lickitung, and Mawile choose to roll for Cute

Dice. This would normally be a Charm roll for each of them, but the

Mawile’s Trainer has Grace and is able to use multiple Skills to roll for

each Contest Type. They choose to roll Guile.

The Lickitung’s Trainer has Expert Charm while the Zubat’s has

Adept Charm and the Mawile’s Adept Guile. They roll [5,1,3,4,4],

[4,3,1,6], and [2,5,6,2] respectively. This nets them 4, 3, and 2 Cute

Dice, meaning Lickitung is assigned to letter A, Zubat to letter B, and

Mawile to letter C. The turn order and positions for the contest are

displayed in the table on the right.

Round One: The Lickitung goes first and gives the audience a flirtacious wink as it uses Attract! The Excitement

Contest Effect increases their Voltage by +2, and they roll a 3d6 for their Appeal, increased to 4d6 for matching

the Cute Contest Type. They roll [3,2,6,1], and because they’re in the Center of Attention, they gain 1 Appeal

Point for the 3, 0 Appeal Points for the 2, a whopping 3 Appeal Points for the 6, and a Fumble Point for the 1.

The Zubat goes next, using U-Turn, doing a somersault in the air! This has the Inversed Appeal Contest Effect,

allowing the Zubat to roll 5d6 + 1d6 for the Contest Type. They roll [6,1,2,1,5,1]. They gain a total of 4 Appeal from

this.

The Mawile takes their turn last in the Contest and opens up their maw to release a pleasant aroma into the

Contest Hall. '''Sweet Scent'''! They spend 2 Cute Dice on the Appeal roll, hoping to catch up with the others, and roll

5d6 and gain 2 Voltage, for [2,2,6,4,1], also a total of 4 Appeal.

At the end of the first round, everyone is tied at 4 Appeal Points, though the Lickitung and Mawile have 2 Voltage,

and the Lickitung has 1 Fumble Point.

Round Two: The Zubat doesn’t like the fact the others around it are gaining Voltage! It opens its mouth wide and

shoots out a ray of disorienting light. Confuse Ray! It has the Unsettling Contest Effect, meaning each competitor

adjacent to Zubat – in this case both Lickitung and Mawile – lose 1 Voltage, while the Zubat loses 2. Already at zero

Voltage, the Zubat doesn’t mind this at all. The Zubat’s Trainer has fed it Poffins, giving it 3 Smart Dice, which it

proceeds to spend on this Appeal, rolling a total of 8d6! The risky move results in a roll of [1,1,4,6,5,1,6,2]. This is

a whopping 10 Appeal for Zubat, but also 3 Fumble Points.

Mawile goes next, and aiming to recover and further increase its Voltage, it sheds Fake Tears for the crowd,

another Excitement Move. Why not Sweet Scent again? Because in a Contest, you cannot repeat the same Move

two turns in a row. Its Voltage increases by +2 again, and it rolls 3d6 for Fake Tears, plus another 1d6 for its one

Voltage at the beginning of its turn. [6,6,3,5] is the result, netting Mawile 6 Appeal Points!

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Finally, Lickitung has its turn this round and it opts to swish its tail with a splash of water. Aqua Tail! This Move

has the Steady Performance Effect, meaning its base dice roll is 5d6, and it increases Lickitung’s Voltage by +1.

Lickitung chooses to spend 3 of its Cute Dice on increasing its roll, rolling a total of 10d6 from that, Voltage, and

the bonus for matching the Contest Type. It rolls [1,5,3,3,4,6,6,5,3,5], getting a huge 11 Appeal Points.

At the end of Round Two, Lickitung leads the pack with 15 Appeal Points, 2 Voltage, and 1 Fumble Point. The

Zubat has 14 Appeal Points, 0 Voltage, and 3 Fumble Points. Mawile has only 10 Appeal Points but 3 Voltage.

Round Three: This round, it’s Mawile’s turn to go first! Desperate to recover and make use of their Voltage, it goes

on a rampage on stage with a Giga Impact! Its Voltage gets set to 0 by the Seen Nothing Yet Contest Effect, but

they roll 2d6 for each Voltage lost this way, for a total of 6d6. They also do get to add their Voltage bonus for the

turn regardless, and their Trainer has bed them Poffins for two Beauty Dice. Their final roll is 11d6, and they’re in

the Center of Attention! The result is [2,5,1,2,4,5,3,2,2,1,4], which is terrible news for Mawile. However, its Trainer

has the Coordinator Class Feature, which allows them to re-roll one Appeal Roll each Contest! They spend it here,

and the new result is [3,4,5,4,1,5,6,4,1,6,2], which adds up to 17 Appeal Points and 2 Fumble Points! Will this be

enough to bring them back from last place? It’s all up to the other competitors now.

Lickitung goes next and decides to go for disrupting the Mawile instead of gaining more Appeal. They’re not sure

they can beat that Appeal, but they can sure cut it down some! It curls up and rolls around the stage, getting in the way

of the other contestants. Defense Curl! This Move has the Sabotage Effect, meaning it gives adjacent competitors

Fumble Points instead of gaining Appeal. They spend three Cute Dice, one of them from the Introduction Stage

and two of them from their Speed Stat, and roll a total of 9d6, counting their Voltage and matching the Cute

Contest. The roll is [5,3,1,3,5,1,3,6,6], which means Mawile gains 9 Fumble Points. Ouch!

Zubat has the last word in this Contest and flits about in Frustration. This Move has the Desperation Effect,

which means all 1s result in a Fumble Point, but all 6s reward an extra Appeal Point! They spend their 3 Cute Dice

on this turn, making their total roll 9d6. They get rather lucky, with a roll of [5,6,4,6,6,4,3,1,3], netting them 14

Appeal Points and only 1 Fumble Point to show for it.

The GM tallies up the final score for each Contestant. Lickitung had 15 Appeal Points but 1 Fumble Point, giving

them a final score of 14! Mawile had 27 Appeal Points but 9 Fumble Points, giving them a score of 16! Zubat had 28

Appeal Points and 4 Fumble Points, giving them a final score of 24. If Lickitung hadn’t Sabotaged Mawile’s efforts,

they would have won, but instead Zubat emerges victorious in the Contest! The GM calculates and distributes

Experience Points to everyone involved, and the Zubat’s Trainer walks away with a new Contest Ribbon.

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Non-Traditional Contest Variants

Rotation Contest

Not all Contests involve just one Pokémon per

participant. One interesting Contest variant forces a

Trainer to perform with a different Pokémon each round

of a Contest, or allows a Team of Trainers to compete by

each taking the reins for one round of the Contest.

These are simple to run. Before the Contest begins, a

Trainer picks a number of Pokémon equal to the number

of competitors in the Contest if they’re going it alone.

A Team of Trainers must be composed of a number of

Trainers equal to the total number of competing Teams.

Each Trainer in a Team picks one Pokémon they will

use during the Contest.

During some Rotation Contests, a Trainer or Team

may pick at the start of each round who will be making

an Appeal, though each Pokémon may only make one

Appeal during a Contest. In other Rotation Contests,

you may decide that each Team or Trainer must decide

the order their Pokémon will make Appeals before the

Contest begins. The latter case is quite interesting if

each round of the Contest features a different Contest

Stat and it’s pre-determined beforehand which Stat goes

with which Round.

The Introduction Stage of a Contest works as normal for

a single Trainer. They pick a Skill to roll to gain Contest

Stat Dice. In a Team Rotation Contest, each Team picks

one representative who makes a roll for them during the

Introduction Stage.

The Performance Stage works as normal as well, with

just the change that each round sees a different Pokémon

making the Appeal. There is one crucial difference,

however, which is that a Trainer or Team in a Rotation

Contest cannot spend more than a total number of

Contest Dice per Contest equal to twice the number of

participants in the Contest.

For example, in a 5 Team Rotation Contest, each Team

may only spend a total of 10 Contest Dice during the

Contest. This is because otherwise there’s no reason

for each Pokémon to spend the maximum number of

Contest Dice possible each round since they will only

appear once in the Contest.

One other important rule in a Rotation Contest is that

anyone with a Feature that affects the Performance

Stage of a Contest may use it at any time, even to target

another Trainer’s Pokémon during their Appeal. This

is so even if a Team has only one Coordinator or Style

Expert in a Rotation Contest, they can use their skills to

benefit the whole party and guide them to victory.

When calculating Experience Points for the Contest, use

the total number of Pokémon involved in the Contest,

but a Trainer or Team must split this Experience equally

among all of the Pokémon they used in the Contest.

Trainer Participant Contest

Many Trainers choose to learn to fight alongside their

Pokémon, and they may choose to bring their combat

skills into the Contest Hall too.

In this Contest Variant, Trainers can use Moves to

perform Appeals as well as their Pokémon. There are,

once again, multiple ways this can be implemented.

The simplest is to allow both Trainer and Pokémon to

perform Appeals during each round of a Contest. The

player can decide whether their Trainer or Pokémon

performs an Appeal first during each round. Another

way is to have the Trainer and Pokémon alternate turns

making Appeals.

Using the first method, Trainer and Pokémon track

Voltage separately, though effects that refer to adjacent

targets affect both the Pokémon and Trainer. For

example, an Unsettling Move causes both an adjacent

Trainer and Pokémon to lose 1 Voltage. You may allow

certain interactions between the two using Contest

Effects, such as a Trainer’s Get Ready Move doubling

the dice from their Pokémon’s Appeal in the same round

instead of their Move on the next, or using Attention

Grabber to transfer Voltage from Trainer to Pokémon.

Using the second method, the Pokémon and Trainer

would share a single Voltage score and may both affect

it with their Moves. In both methods, the Trainer and

Pokémon share a single pool of Contest Stat Dice, and

a Coordinator or Trainer with similar Features may use

them on either themselves or their Pokémon.

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Battle Contest

In a marked departure from the Contest norm, you may

also run Contests that blend battling skill and dazzling

performances.

This is a good chance to allow Trainers who have a mild

interest in Contests but are otherwise mainly focused

on battling to try out the Contest Circuit without feeling

in over their heads. It’s also a good way to conduct a one

on one Contest without making the two sides feel like

they’re just playing Solitaire without interacting with

each other much.

The winner of a Battle Contest isn’t whoever knocks out

all of the opponent’s Pokémon. Rather, at the beginning

of a Battle Contest, the two competing Trainers decide

how many Pokémon they will each use in the Battle

Contest, from 3 to 6. The Battle Contest runs for a

number of rounds of combat equal to twice the number

of Pokémon the Trainers decide to use – so anywhere

from 6 to 12. At the end of the last round, or when all of

one Trainer’s Pokémon are knocked out, Appeal Points

are tallied up, and the Trainer with the most Appeal

Points wins the Battle Contest.

The Introduction Stage of a Battle Contest works the

same as a normal Contest; each Trainer makes a Skill

Check to generate Contest Stat Dice, which any of their

Pokémon may use during the Battle Contest, though

this doesn’t affect turn order or Initiative in any way.

Battle Contests play out much like normal battles,

except that along with making Accuracy and Damage

Rolls with each attack, Pokémon make Appeal Rolls for

each Move they perform. Struggle Attacks, even those

used to perform Combat Maneuvers, aren’t generally

considered performance-worthy and do not have

Appeal Rolls.

Obviously, there are a few differences in Contest Effects

that have to be applied to a Battle Contest. Turn order is

decided by Initiative like a normal battle, and positioning

is different as well – all opposing Pokémon on the field

are counted as “adjacent” for Contest purposes.

A few special rules are in place too that will affect basic

combat mechanics. Voltage is tracked per Pokémon on a

Trainer’s team, and only the currently active Pokémon’s

Voltage applies to an Appeal Roll. Whenever a Pokémon

knocks out a foe with an attack, they gain +2 Voltage. If

a Pokémon is knocked out via damage over time effects

such as Poison, Burn, or Hail, then this Voltage bonus

simply goes to the opposing Trainer’s current active

Pokémon. Whenever a Pokémon is recalled into its

Poké Ball, it loses 2 Voltage. Being recalled as a result

of Baton Pass, U-Turn, and Volt Switch does not trigger

this Voltage loss – this includes uses of Juggler Features

which perform a similar effect to these Moves.

Whenever a Trainer has a Pokémon knocked out, the

Pokémon they send out as a replacement is in the Center

of Attention for the first turn that it acts.

In a Battle Contest, it is important to weigh the benefits

of knocking out foes quickly versus setting up powerful

combos with Contest Effects and gaining Voltage. The

Moves with the most useful Contest Effects for a given

round aren’t always those with the best in-battle effects

for the current situation.

There’s also a trade-off between using one Pokémon

consistently through the Battle Contest and switching

often. Keeping one Pokémon out lets the audience

see then for longer and allows them to build up their

Voltage more consistently than if you were switching,

but it can open you up to an enemy exploiting Type

Effectiveness. Switching consumes Pokémon turns that

would otherwise be used for gaining Appeal Points, but

it can also allow you to expose a variety of Pokémon

that each have their own pool of Contest Stat Dice to use

throughout the Battle Contest. Even so, it’s common in

a Battle Contest for a Pokémon to go completely unused

due to the limited number of rounds.

It’s possible to use this Contest variant for double

or triple battles as well, but keep in mind that rolling

Appeal in addition to Accuracy and Damage already

extends the amount of time that Battle Contests take.

Further extending this by introducing more combatants

may not be the best idea!