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Rivals vs Randos; How to make rivals stand out?
Topic Started: Mar 5 2016, 10:24 AM (1,523 Views)
JimiboyGM
Pokémon Trainer
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Aside from the personality and roleplay aspects, how do I make rivals more interesting mechanically, and more memorable than random route trainers, without just giving them more levels?
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Jacquerel
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Pokémon Trainer
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Honestly the simple fact of having a repeat appearance, and seeing that their teams have grown and evolved at the same time as yours does a lot for this just on its own. Makes it look like these characters are actually out there doing things at the same time as you are.
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Dark Shadow
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Reploid
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Make sure the players have a personal investment in the mechanics. Maybe they show up having caught a Pokémon one of the PCs is desperately searching for. Maybe they build their team specifically to counter the strategy they lost to last time.
Edited by Dark Shadow, Mar 5 2016, 11:26 AM.
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Kagemaru656
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Pokémon Trainer
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You may also not want to decide on who is going to be a rival yourself, and instead see which characters your players like, find interesting or otherwie make a big deal out of, then have them show up again later with some power ups.
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ShadowSoul
Pokémon Trainer
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Rather than dedicate the character entirely to rivalry, give them their own motivations, especially ones that correlate to the party's. Fleshing out their personality and reasoning for doing things, and deriving rivalry naturally from those, will go a long way toward making the character more than just another battle or challenger.

You can even make a party or multiple rivals to act as foils or complements to your party's own motivations. Maybe the gung-ho championship seeker has a rival who is lackadaisical about the matter and in it for the adventure and fun. The gotta-catch-em-all type has a rival that wants to study Pokemon in their natural habitat instead. Or maybe the medic has a rival/friend medic in another party.

Where are they from? Why are they adventuring? How did they meet the party? Why did they not join the party? Why do they further interact with the party? What is the character's end goal? These are important questions for making a full rival.
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JimiboyGM
Pokémon Trainer
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I understand all of this, what I'm wondering is how to make rivals more challenging and interesting to fight than route NPC's.

Or are rival's supposed to be "average trainers" that just so happen to have a connection to the player?
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Grand Silver
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2 kewl 4 u!
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If you are talking about mechanically the Rivals should always be a few level higher than the players. Also look at the party and build them in such a way that they can sort of counter them. Do they have pokemon with a lot of attack build the rivals to be a bit tanky.

And like anything when you are the GM feel free to cheat a little, give the rivals some bonuses that players can't get.
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JimiboyGM
Pokémon Trainer
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That's more like it!
But are the basic layouts the same? Does everyone use the same Player-Rival-Trainer mechanics? If so it seems like trainers would be a lot harder to take down than in the games.
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Grand Silver
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2 kewl 4 u!
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I just take the same sheet the players are using and stat them up based on what the fight is going to be like. I put the rivals up a few levels give them classes and features that fit.

But it's really up to the individual I based mine on kind of being mirrored versions of the party.
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Slytherclaw
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Storyteller
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Huh. I don't use rivals at all, to be honest, but I suppose your best bet would be introducing a lot of NPCs and just seeing which your players /make/ their rivals, if any, and go from there. Maybe they can teach custom moves and will as a reward, but their mon also get them. I wouldn't give them huge mechanical bonuses though, but actually treat them and their mon the way a PC would. Do things that are logical and powerful and attack the things that make the most sense, etc. While a normal battle with trainers involved might avoid hitting the trainers with focus fire because, on a meta level, that removes the PC's ability to do so much, maybe in a rival battle they'll absolutely use dirty tactics.
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