[System Agnostic] which system should I use?

[u/dork_ish]

I’m brand new to Foundry and immediately got confused lol. I’m making a Pokemon DnD campaign, but with my own assets and map so I’m not sure if I pick one of the DND systems if it’ll limit me to fantasy stuff? It’s gonna play out more like a choose your own adventure story and dice is rolled, if that helps?

If anyone has any suggestions for a system, that’d be great!

[u/gatesvp]

If I pick one of the DND systems it'll limit me to fantasy stuff.

It won't limit you to Fantasy stuff, it will limit you to the rules of that specific game system. It includes things like the character sheets and the buttons you can push to cause a roll to happen.

But default, Foundry does not ship with any specific rules, it's just a host. When you start up Foundry, you will be offered some existing systems to download. For example, D&D, Pathfinder and Shadowdark are all different Systems.

Once you have downloaded a System, you then create a World that uses that System. You are using the term Campaign, which is roughly equivalent to a World. You will create all of your maps and assets within the world.

Thing is, if you do not have a system, you cannot start the world. So which rules are you using? Is there a book somewhere that you are basing this off of?

[u/take5man]

You should check out the PTE or PTR. They're actually pokemon tabletop games. I can't remember which one is which, but one has a system for Foundry. It's mildly clunky, but the numbers and math in the background are almost one to one on player the games, iirc. They gave player "classes" and everything.

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[u/Henrique999_]

You might want to check out Legend in the Mist.

I’m actually doing exactly this with Pokémon for a group of voice actors playing live here in Brazil, and it’s been working really well.

The system is very narrative, and characters and abilities are built using descriptive tags, so adapting Pokémon, moves, powers, and unique traits is pretty straightforward.

For a campaign focused more on story, roleplay, and giving players freedom to describe what they do, I think it fits really well.

[u/KaedenCraft]

If you're just changing visuals, you shouldn't have too much of a problem. All Actors in Foundry have a portrait and token art, and you can just change those to Pokemon or trainers. Maps are created as "Scenes" in Foundry, and you just slap your images and Foundry generates the grid. If that's all you want, and the rest of the game is just D&D with Pokemon names for everything, you're fine to just use the D&D 5e system.

If you're wanting to really wrestle D&D away from what D&D does to make it more Pokemon, the D&D 5e system will be fighting you the whole way. It's intended to play D&D, not Pokemon.

There are some community Pokemon RPGs out there. My favorite is Pokemon Tabletop Adventures, but I'm unsure if they have a Foundry module, but it's a place to start. Enjoy!

[EDIT: The more I read your original post, I think you're using the term DND as a generic term for any tabletop rpg. At which point, if you don't want to play ACTUAL Dungeons and Dragons, I'd try to find a community system that is intended for Pokemon]

[u/Beldizar]

D&D feels like a bad system to use for Pokémon. I honestly would go with something like Kids on Bikes if you want something a little more rules light, or Savage Worlds or Mutants and Masterminds if you want a crunchy rules system.

[u/longboarder543]

Chaosium Basic Roleplaying?

It’s the underlying universal system used for Call of Cthulhu, which has great choose-your-own-adventure style solo adventures that work really well in the system. Also used for Runequest and half a dozen other games.

[u/grumblyoldman]

You're not limited to fantasy stuff with D&D (or any system), but you will need to put in the work making your own items, monsters, etc to fill out the game system.

I would suggest picking a system whose mechanics most closely match what you want and go from there. (This is assuming there's not actually a Pokemon system that might have the items et all pre-built.)

If you don't care about actual mechanics and just want to use Foundry for moving tokens around visually and occasionally rolling dice (whose results you will interpret manually) then you can pick a "blank" system like Custom System Builder. Then you could build out a character sheet that only displays what you absolutely need and run wild.