Edit: I've posted this in the GM's forum, but I've seen campaign ideas here, so perhaps it's better suited for the general thread. If needed, I'll delete one or the other. Sorry for the dup!

I'm running a game of Dark Heresy, group of friends, some seasoned roleplayers, others not so much, some new to 40K, others who've loved it for a while. Now, we've just started, and as I'd been reading over the fluff and some of the novels, something occured to me; with infinite worlds, it's very plausible that the acolytes of a campaign could run into anything, up to and including materials from other books, games (roleplaying and otherwise) and movies. Not only that, most of them would involve Heresy of some sort, so a decent plot could develop. I brought this up, and it was agreed that the 40K universe could indeed be very flexible.

Which led me to another though... what sort of things could be plausible in 40K, but still be either seriously enjoyable, or ridiculously enjoyable? I thought about dropping the Acolytes into the setting of the old RPG Deadlands, fighting the forces of Chaos there (The Reckoners), or perhaps into 7th Sea, to work with the Castillian Inquisition for once. Many laughs were had at the thought of Inquisitors in odd places, purging "evil".

And thus, the thought was born. Every other "episode" of game, we would have a cross-setting episode. Quicker than the others, less formal, still giving XP but if things went awry, it could always turn out to be a bad dream sequence or something. And the initial thought was thus:

How would the Inquisition react to Pokemon?

Now think about it. We're talking about /very/ sentient creatures, who casually violate the laws of physics like you any I walk down the street. A world where the Emperor isn't venerated at all, and life revolves around these obviously warp-tainted entities. Worse yet, some of them are most likely daemonic in origin... these people are consorting with the Enemy in the worst manner! So, a few of us agreed that we'd keep this plot idea between ourselves, and see how people reacted once they learned where the GM'd taken them.

So, here I am, developing the stats for some 50 Pokemon, and working on a plot to tie it all together for a one-shot. The idea seems very simple; during a warp-jump, a powerful warp-entity attacks the acolytes' ship, wounding the ship and forcing them into realspace, next to a small green world. They look to escape, only to find a warp-storm surrounding them and the planet. Their astropath/psycher player reports that he can definitely detect the source of the storm... it's coming from the world below. Thus the Acolytes set down, and set out to purge whatever vile phenomenon is causing their imprisonment. The world of pokemon takes a bit of an American McGee twist, having MewTwo causing the storm, ruling over the world as a mad God-King, his chief priests the Final Four, simpering madmen his followers... on a world inhabited by savage and strange beasts.

My question for you all is manyfold:

A. Is this a terrible suggestion or what? The players know this session is going to be a "hot springs episode", meaning it'll be more silly and non-canon to the overall plot.

B. Do you have any suggestions for the campaign? Pokemon that should make an apperance, how to set the scene, the atmosphere or whatnot?

C. Do you have any suggestions for stats? That's seeming to be the roughest part, is coming up with a way to render pokemon as creatures that actually eat meat to live, but aren't going to butcher the party whole.

TLDR? Acolytes crash land, attacked by warp creatures with a very similar resemblance to a Japanese cartoon from the beginning of the decade. Hilarity/horror ensues. Good? Bad?

Sorry, couldn´t be bothered to read it in its entirety.

The word "pokemon" is a real turn off for me.

Sounds plausable......Erm...Pokémon

It better involve Pikachu...and He better SURVIVE!

Ikkaan said:

I understand; personally, I loathe the show... but I find a peculiar joy in combining something as dark and dire as Dark Heresy with something as lighthearted and irreverant as small squeaky critters in a happy little world.

Oh, and Pikachu is statted... or at least, they are statted... haven't yet decided if THE pikachu will be a character, or perhaps an antagonist...

I'm turned off of the idea, Pokemon is a childs game/show, and Dark Heresy is all about ignorance to everything that is "abnormal". As an inquisitor, I would virus bomb the world and have done with it.

Ira said:

Well, it's all down to perspective. You could keep the children's show, if you'd wanted to. But it's much easier to twist things in a dark, corrupted sort of way. It's one thing to see the bright colors of the show, it's another to have your acolytes in a blasted forest, trees scraping at their faces like clawed hands as they face down a bloated, corpulencent Jigglypuff, whose unnerving siren song causing their bile to rise and their limbs to grow unnaturally heavy. Or watching in horror as a screamingly insane duck-billed creature savages the party's psycher, who wails as it's far more powerful mind attempts to rend him limb from limb in "self-defense", bloody claw marks appearing from nowhere as it thrashes on the ground.

As for the virus-bombing, that'd be the appropriate solution; the players simply have to get off the Emperor-forsaken rock first.

@ OP

I think you broke my brain. That is the silliest thing I've heard this year. Not saying its bad per se, just very, very, very silly.

If you're shooting for absurd comedy/just screwing around type fun, why the hell not?

Probablbly not my thing though.

cyclocius said:

Wrong. Wrong. Wrong.

Pikachu need a couple of bolt rounds right in the back of his little yellow skull and have his annoying cutsey innards blown all over the room.

"Pika this *****!" Blam! Blam!

Then toss on a vortex grenade, it's the only way to be sure.

Pokemon, gotta catch them all..and torture them till they confess!

The idea of crossovers have crossed my mind (no pun intended) but personally pokemon seems a bit to silly for my taste, I have thought about them running into a roguetrader crew, very akin to the crew of Firefly or some such...hmm would Darth Vader be classed as a heretic?

Cryxx said:

How could he not? The **** witch! Dangerous one at that, in leauge with the ruinous powers... then again, wouldn't all Jedi be witches by Imperial standards?

This just in, my techpriest who's in on the whole thing is very excited about the idea of capturing a Pikachu and turning it into a self-powered combat servitor. I had trouble breathing, I laughed so hard. And on a related topic... pokeballs? Can they capture people? Or daemons, if they were weak? They're tech-heresy, but how useful they might be... such Heresy to be had!

Mystrunner said:

After reading this I have to admit to some morbid curiosity. While I don't like Pokemon if I were in your game and you pulled out a bio lightning flinging pikachu I'd run my acolyte ass off the planet as fast as my agility would let me. Screaming like a little girl.

DocIII said:

:'( You made me cry good sir

sounds awesome. i've never been much into pokemon, but taking it and adding that dark future 40k twist would make for a great play experience. xenos tech found by the worlds original colonists that housed small daemonic "helpers"...over use of these items wore the fabric of reality thinner and thinner over the aoens until the world was cut off...one of the "helpers" manages to influence the local populace...selecting it's champions...good times...

"...i say we prepare for dust-off...nuke the site from orbit...it's the only way to be sure." ;-)

i'd like to hear more of this once you've run it.

I think some are taking this WAY too seriously and getting all bitter about WH40K mixed with Pokemon. I personally think there is some interesting things you could do with the Pokemon as inspiration for what could be considered a daemon race. Hell some of the Pokemon could be definately created with a darker and more perverse feel to them to make them befit the world even for a one shot or filler "episode"/ game session when all the players are unable to attend or just for a "And Now For Somthing Completely Different!" moment. I have to give you credit for taking up the charge on such an idea and having the "bollocks" as they say to even post the idea here on the boards. I think if done with a dark slant to it. This Pokemon idear could be worth developing further as a daemon realm.

I can see the Inquisition being really in to being able to use stasis technology to create bio-grenades containing a ravenous bugblatter beast of traal.

You may look unarmed, but with a pokeball under your coat you can unleash a horde of admech bread monstrosities at a moments notice.

Lictor! I choose you!

--

You could make a whole campaign about tracking down, capturing and breading the most dangerous creatures in the galaxy to better combat the Imperiums foes.

Call the pokeball a stasis prison and see how long it takes the players to notice they are playing pokemon.

Gotta Purge Em All

i own a cross over game system called Pocathulu and it is very fun to play. and when you think of it Pokémon is a very evil concept. a group of young kids walk around with an older boy who is a complete letch, catching sentient psykicly powerd being in red balls that that they then put to battle in a sort of dog fighting pit. sounds very dark heresy to me.

Inquisitor_VonDible said:

Definitely will keep you all informed when it hits; game's this Sunday, so not that long off at all. Thanks for the support.

Mystrunner said:

...

If I were one of your players I'd declare YOU to be warp-tainted and bring down an exterminatus to this insanely chaotic idea!

But seriously, i predict lots of dead and burning, fluffy animal-things. That I base on what always tempts the rest of the players when the Cleric in the gang decides to bring his Cherubim (that SINGS annoyingly) and his stupid frog that says "Repentiti! Repentiti!" all the time (something from the Inquisitors Handbook). The other PCs are always tempted at taking potshots at the singing Cupid-wannabe with their shotguns and bolters, and of course using a thunderhammer or equally blunt instrument to smash the annoying frog to a wet stain.

IMAGINE if we had to deal with POKEMON of all things? :X

Poor, poor pokemon. They will be subjected to such a righetous fury that is more righteous than anything have ever been before. XD

DocIII said:

I laughed so hard I fell on my chair! This wouldn't be so bad but I've just started work today and had to explain to the guy next to me why I was .

This truely has made my day, you sir, are a legend.......Pika this *****! hehehe

Well I am ashamed to admit I seen a few Pokemoon cartons and in one of them the story unfolded some background history of pokemon taht it is in fact two factions figthing each other on another plane and they used humans by letting them capture them and bring some of the fight to earth. Maybe have this world with the two deamon factions figthing each other and have some cult capturing them in small balls and use them for their on evil intentions. Just remember not to mention it is pokemoon and describe thise cute and cudly deamons.

Your acolytes could work for a radical who wants to get a yellow warp entity.

Acolytes Code Name is: Team Rocket

Calistarius said:

Ohdeargod. ;

This actually sounds like quite a fun idea. I often have unusual native animals on my planets, so a lightning throwing rodent would fit in just fine and dandy.

Pokeballs are also interesting. Some kind of stasis grenade for capturing daemons. I might possibly use them, although with a totally different name

I threw up in my mouth a little... if you want to do crossover I'm all for it. Hell I have a lot of ideas myself as far as that goes. But Pokemon?

POKEMON?

Crimsonsphinx said:

Pokeballs are also interesting. Some kind of stasis grenade for capturing daemons. I might possibly use them, although with a totally different name

Ghost trap?