Pokemon Battle!

Have you ever wanted to battle some pokemon with a friend but you didn't both have your gameboy? Are you totally uninterested in the Pokemon Trading Card Game? Do you have a printer, some pencils, and some dice? Then this free, printable game is for you! It's (hopefully) easy to learn even if you have no knowledge of pokemon, though it's probably more fun if you do.

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How to Play:

1. Download the PDF at the bottom of this page, print it out, then cut out the pokemon. Grab some pencils and a set of polyhedral dice.
2. Draft teams of 6 pokemon. Or don't! This step is optional.
3. Both players secretly select one Pokemon to use.
4. After seeing the Pokemon their opponent has selected, both players may pick 4 moves. These are the moves they will use during the battle.
5. Players roll a die. The highest roller goes first.
6. Players take turns using moves. Mark down damage, status effects, etc. under the pokemon's name. I also find it's helpful to make your own checkboxes to keep track of effects that last multiple rounds.
7.  The last pokemon standing wins, and the winning player keeps the sheet for both pokemon. Keeping the sheet is optional, but it shows who's winning if you're playing more than one battle!

General rules:

• A pokemon can only have one status effect at a time and can only get each status effect once per battle. A pokemon cannot be paralyzed twice in the same battle for example. The only exception is self-inflicted status effects, which have no limit.
• Other effects can stack. For example, you may have to roll 3+ on a d6 twice from 2 different effects. In general though, moves that cause ongoing effects should not be used again until the effect is over. For example, sand attack should not be used again until its effect has ended. However, a pokemon under the effect of sand attack may choose to use a move that requires rolling a d6. The player would then have to roll twice just to see if the attack even hits. If the pokemon is also under the paralyzed status effect, the player might have to roll three times.
• There is no "PP" in this game. You may use a move as many times as you would like unless the move itself states otherwise.
• Always round up.
• Once a pokemon is used for a battle (i.e. it's been written on), it cannot be used again in a later battle.
• If there are any situations that occur, or if a particular move combination seems unbalanced, work it out together. 
• Feel free to come up with home rules that suit you. Want to be able to switch out pokemon? Do it! Want to add less effectiveness to moves? Go for it! Wanna try out double or triple battles? Heck yeah! Just make sure everyone playing agrees to the rules.

Status Effects:

• Burned: Take 1 damage/round until cured or battle ends
  Frozen: Pokemon cannot move for 1d4 -1 rounds (Pokemon may be immobile from 0-3 rounds)
  Paralyzed: For the next 4 rounds, Pokemon must roll 3+ on a 1d6 or their move fails
  Poisoned: Take 2 damage/round for 4 rounds
  Asleep: Pokemon cannot move for 2 rounds
  Confused: Pokemon must roll 2+ on 1d4 or lose their turn and take 1 damage. Lasts 3 rounds.

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FAQ:

Q: Why did you make this?
A: I work at a public library in a small town and we had a mini comic con. I made this as an event for that, and I thought it was so fun I wanted to share it with everyone!

Q: Why isn't ____ pokemon here? Why is ____ pokemon included?
A: I  tried to pick pokemon with a wide range of types and type-pairings. I also tried to pick pokemon that were more likely to be recognized, hence there are a lot of gen 1 pokemon. I also decided to only do the base evolution of each pokemon. I also added a couple that are some of my favorites (Pumpkaboo, Absol, etc.)

Q: Can you add this pokemon?
A: Maybe? I could probably do it pretty quickly but will my motivation be there to actually do it? Who knows. If you could come up with the moves yourself, that would definitely make it more likely to happen!

Q: Can you make a blank template so I can make my own pokemon?
A: If I get even a single person who actually asks this question, I'll look into seeing if I can make one, because I think that sounds cool too but I don't have the motivation to do it right now.

Edit: okay! We got one person who asked, so I tried to figure out how to make this work. I think the best I can do is just provide a link to the template and you can edit it yourself in Canva! You'll need a Canva account to edit this, but you can make one for free if you don't already have one! https://www.canva.com/design/DAFmA5CYKxs/UXgVMaOU9IH-wDRqFODgeQ/view?utm_content... Let me know if for some reason that doesn't work!

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This is not an official Nintendo licenced game.

All Pokemon names, designs, images, move sets, and the Pokemon trademark itself are property of GameFreak and Nintendo. I'm not making any money from this, but if there's a copyright problem, I'd be more than happy to remove this promptly!

All images via Bulbapedia

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Feel free to leave a comment if you try it out! I'd love to know if the instructions are clear and if you had fun. This is by far my most popular game by views and downloads, but I've gotten very little feedback on it so I have no idea if people are actually playing/enjoying it.