Pokémon Aspect

[K]

Pokémon will exist on the site, and one may encounter them "randomly." Admins and mods will control the Pokémon account. However, one is not required to participate in the aspect. It's just there for those who wish to. Also, some moves will have to be changed a bit to fit the site, which we'll determine as we go. The great thing about pokémon on an RP site is that you don't have to just have a little monster that doesn't have much non-battle use. For instance, if you catch a Lapras, you have a mode of transportation over water, and you don't have to make the Lapras learn Surf, not just a water pokémon. Catch a flying pokémon that's strong enough to carry you, and you have a way to fly. Catch a Shuckle, and you have a steady supply of berry juice. Catch a Miltank and a Tauros, and you can start a ranch, selling and trading milk like crazy. There are more pokémon out there that are productive; it's up to you to go out and put them to use!

[Noah Ivaldi]

By the way, there is no 6-pokémon-per-team limit. If you can carry 10,000 pokéballs, you can carry 10,000 pokémon. You don't have to carry them around in pokéballs all the time, of course; you're free to start your own miltank and tauros ranch, carry your pikachu on your head, or whatever else floats your proverbial boat.

[Bianca]

Excuse me, um...are Civilians capable of having Pokemon if they do not use them to attack...?

[Joanna Larken Shosmyth]

You're so silly, Bianca. If anything, civilians are encouraged to go get pokémon more than others, as denoted by the fact that they get a starter pokémon on their first pokécenter visit, and there's no restriction on attacking with them. The point in a civilian isn't to be forbidden from battle; it's to start out sucky in battle and more play-housey, then work xir way up as xe wishes.

Oh, speaking of civilians, there are some posts in Site Properties that you'll want to hit up. ^_^

[Bianca]

...Okay...I will...I did not know that about Civilians getting Pokemon when they go to the Center...I'll move Mei Yi there today..thank you...-^_^-

[Joanna Larken Shosmyth]

Uh-huh. It's in the Pokécenters' descriptions. Any time, love. ^^

[Noah Ivaldi]

Pokémon descriptions tend to be ridiculously exaggerated and/or totally illogical. Thus, we can expect to logically dismiss some traits as being superstitious jargon, but not actual capabilities, on Seinvocc. Examples include a celebi's time travel, drowzee and hypno dream tastes/identification, most ghost stuff, or a slowking's inexplicable intellect, especially when increased just by the evolved shellder injecting more venom into the head.
On a similar note, when evaluating speeds, powers, and such, we're going to go by actual statistics, not the arbitrary and insane descriptions that are given. I'm sorry, but 20,000 volts just from touching the tails of an electivire is a bit ridiculous. Ampharos have way higher SPATK (MAG, but we'll still call it SPATK when speaking of pokémon), so ampharos are a much better electricity source. Pokémon staff are really bad at mathematical estimations, I guess.
While we're mentioning that, I should also say that the stat stages system of pokémon will be unchanged, which means that stat-augmenting moves and abilities can be pretty significant. They magically identify whether or not a battle is ongoing and remain in effect until the end of one. If used outside of battle, the effects last for three minutes from the end of a successful status move. For example, if Swords Dance is used three times with a half-minute interval between each usage, they will also wear off in half-minute intervals after three minutes have passed from the initial usage.
However, no matter how speedy you make a pokémon, it will only follow one command at a time, making battles more turn-based, like the games, than it might otherwise be. It's just programmed into their DNA and stuff. This is mostly to keep a balance on them; hasty dudebros would be at a much more significant advantage otherwise.

That being said, I'm composing a list of monsters that have traits that are practical outside of battle, whether they have a move/ability in the games that has such a programmed usage or not. Thanks to Crevasseus for giving some ideas and brainstorming with me.

I'll be understandably skipping type-based, obvious stuff. For instance, any fire dudebro can be used to ignite things; you don't need me to tell you that. I won't mention poison pokémon as poison sources unless they're especially prolific/have certain properties that set them apart, and the same goes for monsters with claws/fangs/other points/shells/other body parts that could be handy in a broad sense. I won't mention every instance of fur/hide harvesting, but will point out some that are noteworthy for desirable qualities. I will also not mention aromatherapy for every grass pokémon with any capacity for it, but will point out substantial individuals. Finally, it is safe to assume that all caterpillar/worm/spider monsters can be sources of sticky string.

Practical Pokémon
Bulbasaur - excellent caretaker, using a "Bulba-by" technique, rocking small creatures to sleep with its vines
Beedrill - honey
Arbok - can regrow its body in a few weeks as long as it has the head; good source of body
Sandslash - quills and claws can break off or shed, then grow back quickly to provide points for equipment
Paras and Parasect - mushrooms have medicinal properties, esp. for extended lifespan, but are also parasitic when planted
Jigglypuff - lullabies
Wigglytuff - extra fine fur
Poliwag family - decent oil sources
Graveler - regenerates over time
Golem - sheds its highly defensive shell once per year to grow
Slowpoke - tail drips a sweet, sappy substance that is attractive to many fish and can be used to make candy - tail regrows if cut off
Farfetch'd - cook - comes with a leek or spring onion
Doduo - good guard; at least one head awake at all times
Dodrio - great guard; at least one head awake at all times - three sets of hearts and lungs for great endurance and giblets
Gengar - flies - can turn invisible in shade - heat sink (almost 10 degrees F reduction in close area)
Onix - a big enough digger to be efficient at making tunnels of good size
Krabby - regenerates claws rapidly after losing them
Voltorb and Electrode - traps because duh
Exeggutor - when heads fall off, they can transform into their own exeggcute
Koffing and Weezing - gasses are lighter than air and flammable; weezing gasses can be severely diluted to make high-grade perfume
Chansey and Blissey - remedial eggs - blissey's also inspire caring and pleasant dispositions - blissey can sense sorrow
Horsea, Seadra, and Kingdra - horsea can shoot ink; safe to assume that evolutions can (and guaranteed if you breed the Octazooka move in) - seadra dorsal fins secrete venom with benefits in herbal medicine
Dragonair - weather control
Dragonite - smart, fast, and elementally talented enough to serve purposes as a courier, escort, and plenty of other roles
Chikorita family - increasingly great aromatherapy values
Hoothoot - living clock; potentially train to give physical signals to indicate time or something
Chinchou and Lanturn - underwater lighting
Xatu and perhaps Natu - potentially able to communicate clairvoyance
Mareep - wool continually grows - fleece sheds at start of summer and grows back within a week - wool has many air pockets, allowing for adaptation to heat and cold
Flaaffy - less wool than mareep, but highly fluffy to store more electricity - rubbery skin - can shoot electrified hairs as projectiles
Ampharos - huge light power for lighthouses and other beacons
Marill - lightweight oil in tail bubble - water-repellant fur
Azumarill - can make air bubbles for aquatic rescues - excellent hearing
Sudowoodo and Bonsly - tree trap
Hoppip family - can be used to predict/measure gusts
Skiploom - rough estimate thermometer
Jumpluff - controlled aerial combat
Yanma (and feasibly Yanmega, but specification in descriptions is lacking) - effective guard; 360-degree vision and skillful flight
Wooper - coats itself in a slimy film while on land; film is toxic, causing shooting pains when touched, and is also good at holding in moisture
Espeon - weather prediction - possible clairvoyance in other areas
Murkrow, esp. when led in flocks, feasibly by Honchkrow - thievery - foraging - being a creepy deterrent
Girafarig - lackluster guard - second head can keep watch and awaken the rest of the monster, but that head is dumb and may not be alarmed to calm, quiet intrusions
Pineco - touchy mine
Gligar and Gliscor - echolocation - silent flight - scorpion poison source
Shuckle - stores berries, ferments them in its digestive juices, and can offer up the resultant juice as a tasty treat - can also dispense digestive juices to deteriorate objects, such as rocks to hide in/under
Teddiursa and Ursaring - instinctively know how to make honey via bee pollen and fruits
Swinub family - warm, long, thick fur
Corsola - when kept in clean, healthy water, regularly sheds its growths and regrows them overnight
Remoraid - required for mantyke to evolve into mantine - basically a revolver with water bullets
Octillery - ink source
Delibird - courier, of course
Skarmory - wings fully regenerate once per year - feathers are sharp enough to be makeshift blades
Houndoom - chemicals that allow its fire attacks have high toxicity, making wounds difficult to heal and adding a powerful odor to the flames
Stantler - antler balls can be ground into sleeping powder, but no regeneration capabilities are present
Smeargle - painting - since it can magically mimic other moves, potential other uses are abound
Miltank - can produce more than five gallons of calcium-rich milk per day
Suicune - water purification
Lugia - weather control
Celebi - purification/restoration of plants and shadow pokémon
Sceptile - crystallizes nutrients into "seeds" on its back that it can tear off and crack to revitalize trees
Nuzleaf - makes music with leaves
Gardevoir - loyal, powerful, and clairvoyant guard
Aron - sheds iron armor when it evolves
Sharpedo - fangs regrow quickly
Numel and Camerupt - great pack camels because they are pretty strong, bulky, common enough to acquire readily, and can keep things warm
Swablu (and presumably Altaria) - flying maid
Castform - weather control
Tropius - fruit only grows twice per year naturally, but is full of sugar and nutrients
Absol - weather prediction
Clamperl - upon evolving, holds its precious pearl core, which is supposed to enhance psychic power
Latias and Latios - shapeshifters - telepathy and enough intellect to learn the human language - higher form of telepathy, in which they share sight with each other and nearby individuals - overall amazing recon units
Weather trio - limited weather control; note: On Seinvocc, groudon and kyogre Drought and Drizzle abilities, as before Gen VI, will not drop in turn counters as long as the following statements are true: The ability in question is on the respective monster, which is to say that Skill Swap, Trace, or the like will not allow another pokémon to retain this permanence. The respective monster is presently active, not in its pokéball or unconscious. The weather has not been overwritten by another weather-changing ability or move. If either of the first two statements become false, the weather effect starts counting down on a five-turn (eight if subject is holding a Heat/Damp Rock) timer. If the weather is overwritten, it's simply overwritten.
Jirachi - can magically seek out and teleport desired objects to the owner via usage of one of its three wish tags
Grotle - grows berries and acorns - instinctually finds pure springs
Bidoof - constantly growing teeth
Bibarel - beaver work
Luxray - amazing eyesight - able to magically see through objects
Combee - finds honey - groups unite to use their bodies as structures
Vespiquen - makes honey - breeds, raises, and controls combee - signature moves don't require other combee if it already has young ones being raised in its hive "dress"
Pachirisu - forms furballs with static when it sheds - likes to hide foods and stuff in said furballs for safekeeping
Buizel - uses its tails as a propeller, even going so far as to fly like Miles "Tails" Prower from the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise or a bee (presumably no longer possible as a Floatzel due to increased mass and different proportions)
Gastrodon - capable of regenerating lost body
Drifblim - hot air balloon with gas control for altitude adjustment, but no lateral control on its own
Lopunny - sheds soft and fluffy fur twice per year
Chatot - can feasibly be trained to act as a communications relay
Gabite - scales have medicinal properties
Croagunk - poisonous fluid from finger is a powerful ingredient in a remedy for lower back pain
Snover - grows snoverberries around its midsection in spring, which have the texture of frozen treats
Lickilicky - saliva is sticky and capable of decomposing objects by contact
Tangrowth - easily regrows its arms
Uxie, Mesprit, and Azelf - teleportation of self and others
Manaphy - Heart Swap has its stat change level-switching property in battle and can do the mind/body switch deal outside of battle for anywhere from 15 seconds to 35 minutes
Shaymin - purifies air and releases the resultant water and light as Seed Flare (which can also be used without impurities) - can communicate with telepathy
Victini - can share energy with friends by touch (though it can't just provide infinite energy, as the descriptions state)
Pansage - leaves from its sprout are natural energy boosters with anti-stress hormones
Panpour - fills water with nutrients in its crest and expels the healthy water out its tail to water plants
Excadrill - especially great tunneler; has an instinctual habit of boring complex tunnel systems, and has the power and speed to do it
Audino - great hearing - feelers can detect vibrations to act as stethoscopes
Leavanny - natural tailor
Cottonee and Whimsicott - can produce cotton
Petilil - bitter leaves have revitalizing effects
Darumaka - droppings retain heat and can thus be used for heat packs
Zorua and Zoroark - easily generate illusions of significant complexity - can change shape and even mimic humans, but tail remains showing in human forms
Minccino and Cinccino - maids - Cinccino fur feels great, repels dust, and doesn't build static due to an oil that is produced
Foongus - trap
Alomomola - heals by contact - instinctual lifeguard
Axew - regenerates and regrows tusks quickly
Reshiram - weather control
Meloetta - can turn invisible
Genesect - has a flight mode - can spin sticky string with its arms
Fennekin family - hidden ability "Magician" allows item theft with attacks
Skiddo and Gogoat - milk - natural mounts that can take signals by your grip on their horns, allowing them to move as though you were telepathically connected
Spritzee and Aromatisse - variable aromatherapy
Clauncher - potential shoulder-mounted cannon contests
Helioptile and Heliolisk - living solar panels
Sylveon - stress relief
Trevenant - can use its roots as a magical nervous system to control trees

[Dycedarg]

Chances
Because pokémon battles are so calculative, die chances will need to be used to determine hits and status affliction. If you want, you can leave the rolling to people who have access to the Pokémon account to roll and post the results for you, but you can also do it yourself by going to Old Sein and using the dierolls (Click on that text for the password.) account to post in the Dice Rolls thread. To keep things simple, all success points are assumed to be 1 unless stated elsewise at the time of the roll. Remember that a 0 is a re-roll, or else use dice of one less value than needed.
Critical hits are so much simpler in Gen VI, so calculating that will be a breeze. The worst probability is just a 1/16 roll for every successful hit.

Catching
Catch rates are stated on the individual pages for each pokémon on reputable websites, and there are full lists, too, so it's easy for the Pokémon NPA to keep them in mind and remember the ever-so-simple formula (currently operating on Gen V), but it's silly to manually calculate the shake checks with every toss, so we'll keep the overall chances in mind and use those to determine, likely by die roll, the odds of success, but we'll just randomly decide on shakes. Critical captures won't be a thing.

Pokéballs, Great Balls, and Ultra Balls will be commonly available, while other pokéballs will be available at random, like so many other things.

When a ball fails, it breaks. In fact, it shatters into tiny fragments that are difficult to even pick up, and it loses the magic that makes it work, so you have a useless orb even if you do manage to reassemble it. Unless a ball is specifically developed otherwise, they are not reusable.

Friendship
Because we won't keep track of friendship in numeric values, "Friend Stones" (which are pink and have lighter pink heart designs on them) will be the items to use for friendship evolutions.

Some moves can only be learned with maxed friendship, in the games. The requisite here will be just whether or not you've been treating a monster nicely for about an in-game week or so, typically. It'll be a subjective judgement, but we'll make it easy enough. We will keep base friendship values in mind as starting points, too.

Return and Frustration are moves that almost any pokémon can learn, in the games. They refer to friendship values to determine their power levels. Since we're not keeping track of friendship values, here, they are not available anywhere.

Caught pokémon who like you (It's safe to assume that it'll like you enough if you treat it nicely for at least a few days.) will allow you to catch them in a new pokéball to call its home. Whichever ball a pokémon regards as its home (whatever it was caught in, by default) has a 100% catch rate against it because the monster doesn't resist, but they will resist other pokéballs unless they like you enough for a transfer. This allows you to conserve some money/resources on pokéballs with higher catch rates by transferring occupants to weaker pokéballs, then reusing the better ones.
Note, however, that this isn't always the case. Pokémon that are caught in a Master Ball will always refuse to move, for instance.

Power Level
Pokémon aren't so overpowered as they're described to be. A Lv100 Arceus (245 in every stat but HP, which is 444) is at about the same power level as a Lv4 character. Granted, pokémon have those insanely powerful stat-up moves, but a Lv4 char should be more evasive and have xir own tricks that put xim at a significant enough advantage. 100 is still the maximum level, and you can't even have a Lv100 dudebro until you're at least a Lv5 char. The maximum level that you can find or raise a pokémon to is 20 * your Level.

Level-ups occur when a pokémon faints. Every pokémon that used any move in battle (They don't necessarily have to deal damage or even succeed in performing the move; they just have to participate. Even support moves qualify.) receives a full level when the pokémon that they acted against faints. Rather than gaining millions of experience points, this flat-rate, full-level deal massively cuts down on the grinding that pokémon games so heavily rely on. You'll notice throughout this post that a lot of changes are present to make the system easier on you.

Stats
IVs and EVs are not a thing, here, and "natures" are not statistical multipliers, either. Your dudebros can have personalities and all, but that doesn't make them better or worse in anything. HP will be calculated as though all pokémon had maximum IVs (31) and EVs (252), which simply means that they have 94 HP more than they would otherwise have. This allows battles to be interesting; without IV and EV variance, the majority of battles would otherwise be nothing more than a series of two-shots, since damage calculations of pokémon favor attack stats over defense stats. That little bit of extra health requires people to put more thought into their choices. Plus, it's just easier to see what a monster's capabilities are by looking at its base stats, level, and movesets, rather than guessing at how it's been raised and keeping track of your own.

If they implement any more statistical changes than they already have over the generations, we'll attribute them to dimensional flux, here.

Moves
There is no Four Move Syndrome. A pokémon doesn't normally forget moves and doesn't have to in order to learn new ones.
As a result, Last Resort's requisite changes to, "The user must use three other moves in the same battle before using this one. The counter resets if the pokémon is recalled."
Also, smeargle can always produce fluids and paint, but can't use its magical Sketch move while it knows four other moves. It constantly knows Sketch, but the move is disabled as long as four other moves are learned. Therefore, smeargle does have a "permanent" Four Move Syndrome unless it encounters outside help in order to addle old moves away.

All pokémon start with all moves that they learn by level-up, as determined by the most recent generation's list for that pokémon. I recommend frequenting Bulbapedia, Serebii.net, or something similar to see move lists for any dudebro that you have. Note that this only applies to level-up moves: If a monster could learn something from tutors (across any of the games; it's not like I'll refuse to let any move tutors show up just because there are none in Gen VI), TMs, or breeding, that's all up to trainers.

PP is not a thing, here. It would just serve to bring more pokécenter visits unnecessarily.
As a direct result, Spite is turned into a variation of Disable, and Grudge works as a battle-duration Disable.
Trump Card gets its power increases with successive uses.
Struggle is a non-existent move.
Pressure's effect reads as follows: When the foe uses a move for the third time*, that foe is disabled from using that move for the remainder of the match.
*This is tracked through switching and not affected by status or battle status conditions. As long as the Pressure-bearer is out, that move is on the count.
*If three or more Pressure instances are on your side, the countdown becomes 2. If the second use of a move KOs a Pressure-bearer, it is still disabled. However, other countdowns that are in progress are not stuck at the 2 maximum; they are able to be used a third time before disability as long as the third instance of Pressure is not replaced.
Leppa berries, which previously restored 10PP to a move, are eaten when a move(s) becomes disabled; they remove disability from the most recently disabled move.

As I mentioned in the first post, there are other move changes, too, for the sake of logic. I'll list them in this thread. Please feel free to point out any other moves that don't make sense as-is or don't seem to make sense when coming from one monster, but do for another. I will make any changes or clarifications known publicly.
Sleep Talk is now a sound-based, special attack like Round or Echoed Voice. It has a power of 40, an accuracy of 100, and no special effects beyond being able to occur while the user is asleep.
Pay Day will utilize coins and such that the pokémon is given or finds as a throwing attack. Extra coins will not actually be produced or summoned.
Autotomize now only halves weight, and only on the first usage. Successive uses display the same animation, but only act like uses of Agility.

HMs are now TMs, and TMs are no longer numbered. They are simply "TM (Move)," special machines of dubious origin that somehow upload knowledge of the given move into the mind of a pokémon. As is the case in newer generations, they can be used multiple times.
TMs can be found as randomly as other treasures and can sometimes be bought. They're not all as common as each other, so their prices and availability have high variance.

Move tutors can be found in specific locations (such as in the games) and roaming. Characters can ask around to learn whereabouts/contact methods. Move tutors educate pokémon as mysteriously as TMs; it's unknown how exactly they are able to know and teach moves, though it is known that they do so.
Some move tutors can teach moves to pokémon that would not be able to know said moves normally, but are able to in some games as a result of a Nintendo event or some other special factor. For example, mareep do not normally learn Reflect or Shock Wave, but can have those in Gen V when caught in the Dream World. On Houcm, there are some move tutors that can teach those to mareep. There are also the special Draco Meteor, Blast Burn, Hydro Cannon, Frenzy Plant, ___ Pledge, et cetera tutors, plus some that teach egg moves. Some move tutors will work for free, others will charge money/trades, and others will vary depending upon the move. Usually, the roaming tutors have broader selections/better prices.

Abilities
Abilities are considered to be in one of three "slots." Normally, a monster's possible abilities can be labeled as Abil1, Abil2, and Hidden, with Mega Evolution abilities in an extra slot of their own. Abil1 and Abil2 are sometimes the same, and some don't have a hidden ability, either (e.g. Castform always has Forecast). A monster has one ability, thus one active slot. That slot remains active when it evolves, so poochyena with Run Away evolve into mightyena with Intimidate, while poochyena with Quick Feet evolve into mightyena with Quick Feet. If the unevolved pokémon has only one ability, but its evolution may have one of two abilities, then it has a 50% chance of acquiring either ability, determined by die roll. Gen VI introduced "Ability Capsules," which contain gasses that switch a monster from Abil1 to Abil2 or vice versa.
However, on Houcm, it's possible to train additional abilities onto a pokémon. This is usually impossible or unlikely before a monster's level is at or near 100. Vigorous training or ability treasures can fill in slots that already exist as possible abilities, abilities of pre-evolutions (e.g. Vibrava and Flygon have Levitate in stead of whatever they had as Trapinch, but they can be trained to have Hyper Cutter, Arena Trap, or Sheer Force in addition to Levitate.), and even extra abilities. The typical maximum, no matter what training or treasure you acquire, will be five abilities, and extra abilities will typically be weak additions, such as Compound Eyes, Keen Eye, or Pickup. They'll take an inordinate amount of dedication for disproportionately low yield, as a general statement, but it is available.
When something like Trace, Role Play, or Skill Swap copies or trades an ability, it only sees the "original" slotted ability, which can be altered with an Ability Capsule between Abil1 and Abil2, but otherwise is just what ability the target had by default. Likewise, when an ability or move like Mummy, Worry Seed, Entrainment, or Gastro Acid replaces or negates an ability, it operates in this priority: original slotted, Hidden, Abil2, Abil1, both extras together. The latter end of that list is largely impertinent, since multiple uses of such abilities have the tendency to be surpassed by the enemy KOing you.

Breeding
Pokémon can be bred as long as both the dad and the mom are of the same egg group (sans "undiscovered," which means that they have no known way to breed), or either parent can be replaced with a ditto. Pokémon will not breed under most circumstances, but will do so when left alone at a Pokémon Breeding Center, which is basically a day care that may be located anywhere and is run typically by NPCs. Getting an egg is pretty much totally random; it's bound to happen eventually if you give them enough time, but there's no way to catalyze or hinder the process.
Eggs will hatch Lv1 monsters, as in later generations. There will be no respect to the Flame Body/Magma Armor abilities, but hatching times will be all fairly low. The Pokémon NPA will, with knowledge of the "egg cycles" rating for each pokémon that you have an egg of in your party, post when one of your eggs hatches. However, by some oddity of the temporal dimension, eggs will not develop until taken out of storage and carried around, just as in the games. A hatched monster will acknowledge you as its trainer and allow you to catch it in a pokéball of your choice, but just once. It will also have a slightly boosted base friendship. If we were valuing them numerically, I'd call it about 20 points.
If either parent (as in Gen VI) knows a move that is classified as an egg move for the baby (Refer to Bulbapedia, Serebii.net, or something like those to see lists for each pokémon. Be sure to check both Gen VI and Gen V! Since Gen VI currently lacks a way to trade up older-gen pokémon, egg moves that can be learned from older-gen monsters are not shown in the Gen VI lists.), that move is passed down. Remember that incense-requiring babies can have different egg movesets than others of their family, e.g. the egg moveset for azurill being different than that for marill.
TM and tutored moves are not passed down. It is recommended that you do any breeding first, then tutor up the baby so that you have all the moves.
Volt Tackle is still a thing. Any pichu that is bred with at least one parent holding a Light Ball will know Volt Tackle. Because the Light Ball item is pretty rare, but not horribly so, one may actually find a wild pikachu with the move and/or a Light Ball.
Ability slots (or, if multiple ability slots have been activated, whichever was the original) are inherited 4/5ths (80%) of the time usually or 3/5ths (60%) of the time if it's the hidden ability. They're inherited only from the mother unless it's a father or genderless pokémon with a ditto. Unlike in the games, though, the chances are always evenly split between the other two slots (10% and 10% or 20% and 20%), so getting hidden abilities is much easier. If the parent (except ditto, of course) holds a Destiny Knot, the inheritance rate is a 100% chance of the respective slot.

Etiquette
Houcm allows for a lot more freedom than Pokémon games, obviously. However, there are taboo pokémon actions that are frowned upon by even many of the more morally ambiguous or unsound characters that wouldn't seem like the type to care. Such offenses include:

• using a pokémon against another person unless that is the agreed-upon paradigm of a spar or the battle is unwarranted and you just need the monster to keep the person out of your hair while you escape (though, even in that latter case, some people will not like it, and others will be at least skeptical)
• using too many pokémon at once - If you're in a five-on-five battle and both trainers want to have everyone out at once, that's one thing, but pitting your three dragons against this one enemy monster, even though it's a bad monster that everyone wants dead, is seen as very unsportsmanlike. If the enemy is of a high enough power level, using two or three at once is usually fine (though this is all subject to individual variance, mostly on the strict side; some chars don't want you to use two unless you're absolutely in a pokémon double battle), but don't push it.
• combining efforts of pokémon and yourself or allies - If you want to have your pokémon help to heal you up after a battle, that's usually seen as okay (though it should be noted that healing effects have 1/10th the power on non-pokémon, and they are all heavier on PS/MS of the pokémon than you'd think, so you do have to be wary of your treatment of them), but anything from powering up your attacks with Helping Hand to an occasional Wish to a Reflect/Light Screen/Safeguard assistance and everything in between is a big no-no. Even against many über-strong, maniacal, deadly monsters, this is either okay in part or not even at all, depending on who you ask. Even those that respect such actions under such conditions also only respect it in the form of the pokémon supporting each other and attacking, not actually passing support to you, such as with Helping Hand, Reflect/Light Screen/Safeguard, or maybe even Wish. As a general rule, this kind of stuff is seen as so unsportsmanlike that some people would honestly rather watch you die.
• any form of cheating, of course, such as somehow tampering with a pokédex, mind-reading, or unfairly outnumbering another trainer's pokémon in battle (bringing a stampede of Tauros to a would-be double battle)
• using unapproved items to assist - There are items that are supposed to be used to enhance battles, and their names are indicators, e.g. "PokéPotion," which are fine to use in place of a move command, but busting out some of Grandma's Elixir Soup to fully heal your monster and give it doubled attack power is out of line.

Now come the consequences.

1. Pokémon can tell when you're using them unfairly, and they don't like it, even if they're described as having the kind of conniving personality that you'd think to be cool with it. They may still obey, but they'll lose respect for you, which can lead to later disobedience and other issues. They can even develop psychological issues as a result, which can lead to all sorts of trouble.
2. People will notice, they will not like you, and they will tell others. Not everyone will react peaceably, either, especially depending on the severity and frequency of your offenses. Some will try and may very well succeed to put you in your place, others will confront verbally, others will refuse the services of their shops or whatever they would otherwise do for you, plenty will see you as a prime robbery target, others will badly hurt and maim you, and others will just get up and kill you. Some will even react that way when you really didn't seem to have another choice; saving your life with a pokémon may actually lead to losing it to someone else. Rumor has it that some people even use trap Rare Candy items that actually reduce a pokémon's level or worse.
3. Royals will know, especially if a bunch of other people are complaining. A Royal may warn you, or xe may deplete your pokémon's level, your Level, funds, stuff, abilities, or life. Xe may steal your pokémon, obligate you to release it, or just show you how to properly use it. Don't count on mercy, though; proper usage is common knowledge, and, even if you don't know, someone will make it apparent that you need to research.

All in all, yes, you do have the free will to use your little monsters in all sorts of unfair ways, but the consequences are brutal and sometimes too brutal, so you really should watch yourself.

Misc
Pokémon resist death. If an attack would overkill beyond KO, they just go to the exact KO point, in stead. When unconscious, they take only 10% damage and no damage from pokémon sources. Furthermore, if they would be killed by an attack or a combo, they are left with just a sliver of life left in them unless they already had that much or less (typical "Second Chance"/"Last Chance"/"Once More" effect).

Fossil pokémon are not extinct, here. You just find them in the wild in appropriate habitats.

You receive a pokédex upon your first visit to a pokécenter. You have to ask for one, though; the staff will assume that you have one. Rather than telling you ridiculous hyperboles of what a monster is capable of or how useless it is, a pokédex will scan monsters to show you their levels, base stats, current stats (Whenever you want that information displayed, either ask and await the Pokémon NPA response or go to this pokémon calculator, select the right dudebro (blank set), set the level, and set the IVs and EVs to all 0 except 31 and 252 for HP.), status conditions, known moves, lists of egg moves minus those that they learn naturally, current and potential abilities, and a command cursor. Rather than battles devolving into contests of who can most quickly follow the trainers' shouting match, trainers send mental signals to their monsters with a pokédex, then they move in order, much like in the games. It's fine for faster monsters to have a speed advantage, but a chaotic mess that arises from differences in monsters' intellect, their hearing ability, and cheaters' abilities to mess with sound waves is just too much to keep track of for battles that can get complex enough, as it is.

Because characters from other dimensions have brought Pokémon series games and shows with them, the differences between them and what we have are well-known and well-documented. Atypical Institution sensei often advise a handy-dandy compendium of the knowledge that is set forth in this thread to characters, and much of it is at least mentioned in schools.

If any of this seems to be unfair or illogical, feel free to discuss it. I'm fairly confident in this paradigm, but it is subject to change by popular demand.

[Ejio Tisco]

Lunar Dance normally restores PP, so it here cures disability.

Struggle is kinda' a dumb move, to begin with, and the PP issue makes it almost unusable, but maybe we should leave it as a move in case Encore + Torment/Disable combos occur. Thoughts?

Pressure counts carry over, in case it wasn't obvious. If you have one dudebro with Pressure and I use Seed Flare, then you switch to another dudebro with Pressure and I use Seed Flare again, Seed Flare is on a 2-Pressure count, so it'll be disabled after I use it one more time or, if we're in a triple battle, you bring out two more Pressure monsters.

[Shir-Nuzreh]

Because IVs are not a thing, Hidden Power is a nonexistent move, to most pokémon. The exception is unown, which has it as a psychic-type, signature move. To compensate for how useless unown are on their own and to flow with their theme of being able to make bigger things happen together, Hidden Power gets doubled power when another pokémon has already used it in the same turn, just like Round.

Abilities (cont.)
As I mentioned, Ability Capsules allow you to switch between Abil1 and Abil2, allowing you to determine which one is examined for copying/trading/switching with mega abilities. If your original ability is the hidden one, that normally means that Ability Capsules are useless to you, right? Yes, but there are exceptions.

1. If you started with a hidden ability, but then trained to add Abil1 or Abil2, but not both, you can then use an Ability Capsule to switch which one of those two you have.
2. There are rumors of special Ability Capsules that give far more freedom in determining which ability a pokémon has ("originally"). Some say that they allow one to switch between Abil1, Abil2 (even if it's some extra ability that's been trained into the slot, not just a normally available Abil2), and Hidden. Some say that they allow a mega evolving monster to sacrifice its extra abilities (necessarily both) for its mega ability, while others say that they actually allow you to designate one or both of the extras as the original. Exactly what these new, improved Ability Capsules can and can't do is very unclear, but one thing that everyone can agree on is that they're so rare that it's much more practical to just breed until you get one with an ability that you don't mind losing, then training that one to have other abilities that will stick with it.
3. If your original ability stops being the hidden one and somehow becomes Abil1 or Abil2 by some other means (special event, special Ability Capsule, whatever), that ability can be switched with a normal Ability Capsule, as one would expect.

In case this was unclear to anyone, a mega evolution ability is always inactive while a monster is not mega evolved, and, when it is mega evolved, that ability takes the place of whatever ability it already had. When a mega evolution occurs, the new ability takes the place of Abil1, Abil2, or Hidden, whichever is normally active. For instance, if you have a blastoise with Torrent (Abil1), then mega-evolve it, as long as it is in its mega form, Mega Launcher (its mega ability, thus normally inactive) takes the Abil1 slot, and Torrent goes inactive. If you have another blastoise with Rain Dish (Hidden), then you mega evolve it, it gets Mega Launcher in its Hidden slot while Rain Dish goes inactive, and this remains as long as it is mega evolved (i.e. reverts at end of battle, of course). Mega gengar always get Shadow Tag in place of Levitate. It's all the same process: Mega ability and active ability trade places. It's always that simple, with one ability.
However, what happens when you have multiple abilities? Well, by default, we follow the "original slotted" rule; if you have a blastoise with Torrent and Rain Dish, whichever one it originally had (which can not be switched with an Ability Capsule, in this case, since Torrent is both Abil1 and Abil2, whereas Rain Dish is the Hidden) is traded for Mega Launcher. Upon further training for ability expansion, a pokémon can mega evolve to activate its mega evolution ability without deactivating any other abilities.

Example: Your ampharos originally had the Plus (Hidden) ability. When you first mega evolved it, it temporarily lost Plus to have Mold Breaker. However, you've trained it, since then. It now has Static (Abil1), Illuminate (extra in place of Abil2), Plus (Hidden, original), Volt Absorb (ex), and Magnet Pull (ex). If you mega evolve it, now, it'll still lose Plus for Mold Breaker, but it will still have all the others. You can then undergo some special event or get some new kind of Ability Capsule if you want to make another ability be the one that is sacrificed for Mold Breaker.

Exception: Say that you train your gengar to have not only Levitate, but Cursed Body (extra in place of Abil2), Pressure (extra in place of Hidden), Insomnia (ex), and Prankster (ex). You give it an Ability Capsule so that, if someone copies, trades, replaces, or nullifies an ability, it's Cursed Body, not Levitate. When you have it mega evolve, it loses Levitate and gains Shadow Tag, even though Levitate is no longer considered to be the original ability. This is not variable due to the design of mega gengar. As of yet, this is the only case of a mega ability taking the place of a certain ability every time, rather than whichever is the original.

More on Pokéballs
The magic that makes pokéballs work is what determines catching success (based on species-specific interference that we refer to as catch rates, as mentioned earlier), not physical struggling by the monsters themselves. This is why sleeping/frozen/paralyzed monsters can still escape, though status ailments compromise their magical interference, and it's also why catch rates are dependent on species, not the physical ATK stat. This same magic also goes inactive when one tries to use it on KOd dudebros. Shortly put, there's a logical explanation as to why pokéballs work the way that they do in the games, and that's because it's a specific kind of magical conflict, rather than, "Uh, just because we think that it's fair. Science!"

More Practical Pokémon
I mentioned earlier that the fennekin family can have the Magician ability for stealing items. Likewise, some dudebros can have Pickpocket, which is another theft ability, but it works whenever an opponent uses an attack that comes into contact with the ability-bearer, whereas Magician (which, by the way, is also a hidden ability of klefki, but that's less practical because klefki are usually desired to have Prankster and dedicate their time fully to team status support, esp. with its signature moves) works whenever the ability-bearer lands a move on an opponent. That even includes status moves, like Hypnosis, by the way. Those with Pickpocket as hidden abilities are as follows:
Sneasel and Weavile
Seedot family
Binacle and Barbaracle

I'm mostly leaving monster-choosing tips and ideas up to you, but, if requested, I can compile lists/discussions on topics such as considerations to make for a poké-mount, abilities with out-of-battle practicality, good choices for turning the tables on a particular type weakness (e.g. Crawdaunt as an obvious anti-fire choice on an otherwise grassy/buggy/steely team), and whatever else may occur to you, so feel free to ask if you want something detailed.