Hey all! I've recently had the desire to create a system focused around a bestiary of monsters. I'd want to support a few different styles of play, one where you play as more or less a Pokemon trainer for these creatures, one where you play as these creatures, and one where you play as a human side by side with a single other creature. The first one is probably the one that would get cut, since it'd have a huge amount of bookkeeping along with other issues. So I guess my question is what would you like to see in a system like this? What should I learn from video games in the genre, and what should I shy away from? 

I think the two things I'd really want to do are 1) customize my animal buddy and 2) explore my friendship with my companion; are we antagonistic? codependent? is this strictly professional? etc.

Something like Pokemon's elemental system would be a nice bit of icing on the cake as well, but not as necessary as those two are, IMO.

*Runs into this thread meowing loudly because this is a subject matter that I am emotionally invested in*

So there are already a number of tabletop RPGs based on Pokemon. Majimonsters. Familiars of Terra. There's even a Pokemon fangame! Thing is, all of these games are really your bog standard fantasy adventure game where every player is the Ranger Class and has an animal familiar who works very much the same way animal familiars do in any old fantasy adventure or dungeoneering game.

Are you hoping to make another one of those? Or something different? What would or wouldn't work really changes based on those kinds of decisions I think.

I'm really interested that you mention 'focused around a bestiary' in particular. Because the 'study' aspect of Pokemon and other collectible monster shows and games is really underutilised in my opinion. 

And you mention that a game where you play as a monster trainer would probly have to have the most amount of bookkeeping. I don't think that's necessarily true. It definitely is if you want to have a pre-written list of monsters with all the qualities and abilities they have, and you want to create an immersive open ended play experience that allows players to explore any and every aspect of being a monster trainer. But not so true if you focus it down. Center play on one specific aspect of being a monster trainer. Or go the Let's Go route and give the players one specific starter monster that the game centers around.

Honestly, I'm a bit disappointed that Pokemon Sword and Shield is bringing the three starters back just because it means we now know that there will be less interacting with the starter pokemon! I think the same applies to tabletop design. If you give the players fewer monsters to choose from, then that might appear more limiting on a surface level, but it allows for greater scope of play with less design work from you and less rule management/setup from players.

Switching out Pokemon and having it matter from a game perspective without it being overwhelming in terms of crunch.

Let me kiss Jesse and James.

Definitely would like to see a system where you develop a bond between individual Pokemon that not only translates to mechanical improvement but fictional wholesomeness. 

I was never particularly into the fighting, so I'm not sure if that's my advice or if that disqualifies me from offering advice in the first place. :P Not exactly because I felt bad for the cute things (though I definitely did), but even with all their cool, dangerous powers there just tended to be lots more interesting stuff to do with those powers when it wasn't just gladiator matches. A simplistic fix for this is to keep the training of pokemon for everything from public service to agriculture to warfare that shows up in various pokemon media, but back off on the sheer density of arena battles in the setting. But if you can really sell the story of cute monster MMA fighting separately from "like pokemon, but," that could work too. For me at least, it's a tough sell. I want to be friends with the squirrel turtle and go on adventures.

P.S. That said, I'm not suggesting either an ethical or otherwise realism. I think one of my favorite things about Pokemon other than the cute little critters is the absolutely baffling world building in the show. The Officer Jenny's and the Nurse Joy's and the complete lack of rules consistency in terms of what Pokemon can and cannot communicate with humans about--in addition to providing comedic moments intended and otherwise, it kept things floating in this whimsical narrative logic perfect for the road trip sort of plot arcing. You never know what weird thing you'll encounter the next town over because nothing really makes any sense beyond the scope of each individual Thing Of The Week's internal logic.

As such when it does come to fighting, I like the genre-savvy sort of arc to battle tactics over the more game-faithful approach that looks at resistances and so forth. What seemingly unrelated narrative obstacle needs to be solved before you can dig deep enough to win that boss fight with a massive thunderbolt? It's cheesy and it's great.

I've had this idea to try and make a pbta game based on Pokemon. Not sure what stats or moves would be, but I liked the idea of defining Pokemon through tags. Like for example Bulbasaur could be [Grass][Poison][Small], or maybe more specific like [Vines].  I like this because its easy to define existing Pokemon or make up your own.  Growth of the Pokemon could be changing and/or adding new tags. 

In theory the game would be about exploring, finding new Pokemon, and creative problem solving using Pokemon abilities, moreso than battling.

I agree with Gwathdring - I want to be able to hang out with my favorite mons (rattata! and other rodents!) and be friends and go on adventures without having to worry about type advantages.

A pokemon/FF tactics sort of mashup would be quite cool in a TTRPG format if you were going the combat route.

As Gwathdring and others have mentioned even cooler would be more adventure pals approach. Whatever you favourite critter is you pal around using your combined abilities, maybe you can make a few friends along the way, or maybe it's more about customizing the training path to suit your play style. 

Something like, "Rescue Monsters", you're a monster handler on a search and rescue team, and instead of dungeon crawling to kill baddies you're doing the same thing but rescuing injured/stranded heroes. Each member in the play group could a different role/monster pal. Heck, if you had a dual-character creation system where you build up both yourself and your chosen monster throughout the sessions... my oh my, I'd fund/buy that right now :-D