Playing Pokémon for Pencils of Promise

Hey folks, and welcome to the latest instalment of the Ba-

...hold on, this isn't the Backlogbook. What's happened here?

To tell the truth, it's been pretty difficult finding the time and motivation to put together the Backlogbook blogs on even a semi-regular basis recently. For that reason, I'm going to put that feature on hiatus for a little while, while I work out how best to present it in a slightly more dynamic and interesting fashion for both myself and you guys who read these things. I'm also feeling like it would be a good idea to retire the Pokemon Sun Nuzlocke Challenge, since it's become a drag to write and has really started to impact on my enjoyment of the game. The latter is definitely more open to appeal if anyone out there is desperate to continue reading about my Alolan adventures, but given the readership for the last couple of chapters was pretty low, I'm guessing nobody out there will be especially sad to see it go.

But that's not why I'm here today. I've opened this window to type up a load of lovely words about my involvement with this year's Giant Bomb Community Endurance Run. It's something I've wanted to do for years, but this year I finally have the hardware to back up my enthusiasm, so I'm going to make it happen. For those of you who are unaware, the Giant Bomb Community Endurance Run is a community-driven game-streaming and speed-running weekend put on by users of this fine website. Now in its seventh year, the GBCER raises money for Pencils of Promise, a charity supporting the education of disadvantaged children in developing countries. It's a really worthwhile cause and, as someone who's seeking to train as a teacher in the next couple of years, it strikes a real chord with me.

For my first ever foray into the GBCER, I'm planning to attempt a Randomizer Nuzlocke of Pokémon Gold. This is a domain I have some previous experience with - a couple of years ago I managed to successfully complete a Randomizer Nuzlocke run of Pokémon Red. My primary aim for this run will be to beat the Elite Four for the first time and complete the Johto portion of the game within twenty-four hours. My stream is scheduled to commence at 9:00am BST on Sunday 7th May, and will be viewable through my Twitch channel.

What's a Randomizer Nuzlocke?

I'm sure most of you who follow me are well aware by now of what a Nuzlocke is, but for those of you who haven't heard the term before, I'll explain. The Nuzlocke Challenge, also known as Pokémon: Hard Mode, is a set of rules self-imposed on a playthrough of a Pokémon game with the intention being to create a tougher experience and a more emergent narrative. The Nuzlocke has three core tenets which almost every single run abides by:

• You may only catch the first Pokémon you meet on any given route.
• All Pokémon must be nicknamed to encourage stronger emotional bonds between trainer and Pokémon.
• If a Pokémon faints in battle, it is considered dead and must be either released or permanently boxed in the PC.

I'll also be adding a couple of my own personal modifiers, for the sake of keeping things interesting:

• If the first Pokémon encountered in any given area is a duplicate of (or from the same evolutionary line as) a previously captured Pokémon, the player may search for another encounter (this is dubbed "dupes clause" or "species clause").
• Any Pokémon gifted to the player by an NPC may be kept and used as an encounter.

This isn't just an ordinary Nuzlocke though - this is a Randomizer Nuzlocke. This means that various aspects of the game's code will be randomized before I start, to make the run more challenging and exciting. Obviously the more the game is randomized, the tougher it will be to plan ahead or lean on my pre-existing Pokémon knowledge as a crutch. How random will this Randomizer be? Well, that's in the hands of my donors, but I'll get to that in a minute...

Donation Incentives

Donations can be made to my fundraising page over at Pencils of Promise. Donations will be accepted for the duration of the stream, but I'm eager to get donations in advance for a couple of reasons that I'll outline below.

First, as a donation incentive, I'm offering the chance to nickname a Pokémon to everyone who donates. Simply indicate the nickname you'd like me to use when you make your donation, and I'll make use of it somewhere along the Nuzlocke run. There's no minimum on this donation incentive, so be as generous or as frugal as you like. Just bear in mind that the Pokémon I acquire over the course of the run will be random, so I recommend picking a general name rather than tailoring one to a specific Pokémon. Oh, and try to keep it to ten characters or less - the game has a ten-character limit on Pokémon nicknames, so I'll be forced to take poetic licence with anything longer.

In addition, for every $25 I'm able to raise before the event, up to my fundraising target of $200, an additional random aspect will be added to the Nuzlocke. To begin with, the only aspect of the game to be randomized will be the wild Pokémon encounters, but the more money we raise, the crazier (and more potentially broken) the game will become. The milestones will be as follows:

• $25 - Starter Pokémon will be randomized. Wave goodbye to Chikorita, Cyndaquil and Totodile, who knows what's going to be in Elm's Poké Balls?
• $50 - Static Pokémon (including Legendary Pokémon) will be randomized. Something other than Ho-oh might be waiting at the top of the Tin Tower...
• $75 - Trainer Pokémon will be randomized. Every Trainer and Gym Leader battle will become a fight against the unknown. Or maybe the Unown. The Randomizer will decide.
• $100 - Item locations will be randomized. Is that a Potion or a Master Ball at your feet?
• $125 - TMs will be randomized. The moves contained within each machine will become a mystery.
• $150 - Pokémon movesets will be randomized. Every move learned by level-up will be a surprise.
• $175 - Pokémon base stats will be randomized. Will each capture be an offensive monster, or a defensive powerhouse?
• $200 - Pokémon types will be randomized. At this point, almost everything I know about the basic Pokémon meta-game gets thrown into question.

Disclaimer

Now for the important bit. In the interest of fairness and to make sure I'm not misleading anyone, I feel like I should make you all aware that as this Nuzlocke becomes more randomized (particularly if we pass $150), the difficulty increases exponentially. If I meet my goal of $200 before the run begins, there's a very real chance of me running into something like a Blizzard-toting Kangaskhan, wiping out and losing the Nuzlocke at a very early stage. If this happens then I intend to acknowledge the failure, but then continue to play the game without the full Nuzlocke ruleset imposed (I will most likely stick to one capture per route, but death will cease to be a factor). This is to give me a reason to keep playing beyond the loss of the Nuzlocke, and to make sure that people get the content they're donating for. I'm really hoping it doesn't come to that, but I feel like I need to lay that down just in case it does.

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I'm really excited to be taking part in the Giant Bomb Community Endurance Run this year, and raising money for Pencils of Promise. Please donate, offer up your Pokémon nicknames, and be sure to tune into the live-stream on Sunday 7th May. It's going to be a lot of fun.

Daniel

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Currently playing - Yooka-Laylee (PS4)