I spent 3 days putting off doing Contests, got sick, typed it all up today... and the fucking site ate my post because I've had this tab open for days.
I'm sorry, but I'm not doing it again. Here's a quick overview of Contests:
They work like in the video games - you use Moves to generate Appeal and try and fuck over the other contestants, and there are 5 types of Contest Stats, also from the games. There are two big problems with Contests: Not many people actually care about them, and when they do they care about
. Unlike Pokemon Battles, which will probably happen all the fucking time, Contests are generally rarer and you need to seek them out in a city. And once you do find a Contest... I think the odds of the entire party wanting to do one is extremely low. So you can have a PC who's all about battling and making items to buff up their Pokemon in the same team as someone who's almost entirely focused on Contests and will always beat you if you ever dare to step up to the plate... and that's just a bad look.
There's a Contest Demo, which I think will highlight everything you need to know about Contests in this game.
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!
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.
In case you thought that wasn't enough rolling, there are multiple Contest Variants, like one where you use a different Pokemon each round, one where the Trainer can fight alongside the Pokemon, and one that's just a straight-up fucking Battle Contest where you're making all your regular combat rolls AND ALSO throwing buckets of d6s around for Appeal Points and shit. God have fucking mercy on our souls.