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Anyone with a channel operator status in the roleplaying channel is considered to be a gamemaster, which gives them absolute authority to do with your characters whatever they want without that you have any right to complain - in theory. In practise, gamemasters will commonly wield their power courteously, though not obligated to do so, and ask whether their actions are to the liking of all involvees before carrying on.
Each session is started by a gamemaster opening it with a roleplaying post. On default, this post contains a sliver of information on the whereabouts of all active players' characters, potentially expanded on with NPCs, though any player is welcome to opt-out of this post if they would rather enter later.
Also at the beginning of the session, a turn-order is established either by collaboration or by gamemaster definition. If there is any reason for anyone to deviate from the turn-order, please mention this in the OOC channel, even if it is just 'brb'.
<c> denotes a continued post. If someone's post has this at the end of it, they have yet to complete their turn.
Please note that many, many players in Sehto spend a lot of time with their posts. Responses may take up to fifteen minutes, though there is no time-limit - that being said, preparation is encouraged to keep response time down out of courtesy.
Sehto is freeform, which means that battles are decided by collaborative effort, not by competition. Individual moves hit or miss based on the victim's decision.
(In case you've never roleplayed freeform before, this means that you are expected to describe your attacks in a manner of: * Attacker sends a SHADOW BALL toward Victim. - and not in a manner of: * Attacker send a SHADOW BALL toward Victim, which then plows into Victim, knocking them off their feet.)
You're encouraged to keep the likeliness of pokémon moves hitting in mind when you are being attacked with them, but ultimately, it is not that important, along with the large majority of stats, including the pokémon level.
You should, however, have something of an overview of the power of moves, and inwardly work with approximately 200 counter-points (which you can consider being your pokémon's health points for ease of understanding). Additionally, type strengths and STAB (same-type attack bonus) (50% boost) apply - so if a move has 50 power in itself and is used against a pokémon it is super effective against by a pokémon that has a matching type, it will hit with 150 power force, leaving that pokémon with 50 counter-points.
Please keep in mind the '200 counter-points' are there as a sketchy guideline to follow. First and foremost, the roleplay is freeform, and it is up to victim or gamemaster discretion how and if moves damage their target - so do not cry foul if you've struck a rock pokémon with SLASH so and so many times and it is still standing.
You are free to work with pokémon abilities (generation III or above).
There is no limit to the amount of moves pokémon can learn.
Self-destructing moves are lethal to the pokémon using it, unlike in the games, where the pokémon only faints.
Additionally, while humans are not pokémon in Sehto, they do have a type for considering when they are attacked: Normal-Psychic.
Kanto, Johto and Hoenn exist in the Sehto world, but they are distant and Sehto is mostly isolationist, so the cultures from the other regions do not typically affect Sehto. Try to avoid mentioning them. Especially try to avoid pokémon contests from these regions, they are basically unheard of - and those that know of them do not hold them in high regard.
Sehto's primary language is English. The only other language spoken on Sehto is Xhosa.
Pokémon trainers get mixed reception, though it is mostly indifference. The gym circuit is a thing for eccentrics in Sehto - pokémon battling is the decision of a few, not a mass phenomenom, though only very few people consider battling unethical. The objection most often raised is that pokémon trainers are little better than bums, loafing about on basis of a hobby that no one needs, leeching off the good will of people they come across during their travels.
Badges have no significance in Sehto, other than to look pretty and sparkly and boost your ego. Knock yourselves out. (Pokémon don't listen to you just because you sent other pokémon out to get a few shiny plastic scraps.)
Pokémon generally have the intelligence level of small children (approx. age three). In other words, they're more intelligent than most animals, but not as smart as most humans. Friends of pokémon thusly tend to overestimate their intelligence, whereas those who regard them like animals tend to be underestimating them.
Please keep this in mind when posting for a pokémon character - your pokémon's 'speech' is not very extensive, much less the thought processes behind it.
By correlation, most pokémon who choose to fight do so because they feel they would lose the friendship of their trainer if they did not, or otherwise are subconsciously pressured to do so.
This also means that pokémon do not usually understand their trainers - they can pick up on emotions and can adopt such a fine understanding of the nuances that it may seem like they understand speech, but they typically do not recognise words. Trainers, in turn, do not usually understand their pokémon - but here, too, they can pick up on emotions and adopt such fine understanding of them that it appears as though the pokémon's thoughts have been read.
Exceptions to any of these must be approved by a gamemaster.
Additionally, as you've seen in the 'Battling' section, there are no level considerations during battling. However, because pokémon need to have a certain level to learn certain moves, you are encouraged to keep track of an arbitrary level number that will increment as follows: each battle you roleplay or the gamemaster recaps as you having done counts as an arbitrary level-up, whether you lost, you won, you caught the opponent or not.
This 'level count' ends at 50. Evolutions occurring later than this or moves learnt past this point are all learnt when hitting level 50.
Gamemasters will not automatically keep track of your move sets - with the exception of technical and hidden machines - and evolutions - except for those without level requirements - for you. You're expected to keep a sensible level count on your own. If you want help in establishing the veracity of your move set, please let a gamemaster know.
Pokémon cannot exit their pokéballs at will, nor can they sense what is going on in the world around them when they are contained this way. They live outside time and space within the pokéballs, and when called forth, no time has passed for them since they were put in, regardless of the timespan actually passed.
A pokéball does not alter a pokémon's personality - so if it was pissy at you for you catching it before, it certainly won't listen to your commands just because you just summoned it out of its pokéball and might even attack you.
Of course, such an attack would be easily thwarted, as pokéballs can retrieve a pokémon once caught with them without that the pokémon can protest. They're not, however, bound to the pokémon in that if something happens to the pokéball, the pokémon suffers - this is common in some other fanfiction, but does not apply in Sehto.
Typically.
The above applies to all pokéballs available at PokéMarts or in most of Sehto. Certain characters may be allowed by the gamemasters to have certain pokéballs that are modified so that time does pass in them and the pokémon can exit at will - Dakarai N'Sehla, for example, exclusively uses pokéballs of this sort, but he seems to only have a few of them. The downside of this contraption is that it also cannot force pokémon to return to their pokéballs, so he cannot withdraw fully fainted pokémon from the battlefield.
Finally: there is no specific, set limit to the amount of pokéballs a trainer can carry.