Post by Q on Sept 25, 2007 10:24:06 GMT -5
No Special Offer right now, but stay tuned! There may be another one at any time!
Those of you who were in PRP back in the Snitz and TCGPlayer days may remember this topic – the Safari Zone. Essentially, this topic is PRP’s version of the Safari Zone minigame from the Pokémon video games. It works far differently, but that’s the basic idea. The rules are outlined below. At first, the original Safari Zone topic had a rule that it would only be open for 24 hours, once a week; I changed that rule in the TCGPlayer days, and I will not be changing back. The Zone is “open” 24/7, but do keep in mind Rule 6 under the Main Rules. There are a lot of rules here, but strict as they sound, most of them are somewhat flexible and they’re all really only there to facilitate the Zone running smoothly and being fair. If a rule really is unnecessary, I’m perfectly willing to consider striking it.
In-Universe Description:
The Safari Zone is located in Fuschia City, Kanto. Currently, the Safari Zone is not very well maintained due to lack of funding. There are many overgrown areas, and there may be areas with a lot of litter, etc. A large variety of Pokémon are found in the Safari Zone, in a number of different habitats. Most of the Zone is grassy plains, and there is a large lake. Although most of the Pokémon in the Safari Zone are naturally occurring, the Rangers have carefully imported a few species over time, especially from similar habitats in Johto, Hoenn and Sinnoh, most of which are off-limits to all Trainers for protection purposes.
There is a fee to enter the Zone, though not a large one – at least, not in the eyes of the average character. A character with unusually little money might have trouble paying the fee, but as a matter of scale, it’s about on the low end of what you might pay to get into a theme park, maybe less. It was less than that before, but again, due to the lack of funding (caused by the Pokémon League ceasing to provide financial support), it was necessary to raise the admission fee in order for the Zone to run at all.
The Safari Zone is run by a group of semi-volunteer Safari Rangers (of which Max Milen is one). It’s a paying job, but due to the lack of funding, not a very well-paying one; in recent months, many Rangers have had to take on a second job in order to support their families. The Rangers handle security, maintenance, and all of the other behind-the-scenes stuff needed to keep the Zone running.
Contrary to popular belief, the primary purpose of the Safari Zone is not to allow Trainers to catch rare Pokémon, but to protect the Pokémon and their habitat. Allowing Trainers to catch the Pokémon is a secondary purpose, as well as a means to control overpopulation and to keep the Zone running. Times when the Safari Zone has been “closed” could more accurately be described as times when, for whatever reason, it was necessary to declare it off-limits.
Main Rules:
1. The rules of the Safari Zone apply to everybody. Neither status on the boards nor RP storyline reasons will allow anyone to break the rules of this topic. Even an admin can’t give himself a Safari Zone exclusive without a proper catch, and even the most evil being to walk the earth can’t catch two Safari Zone Pokémon in one week. I may be running the place, but even I have to follow the rules. I’ll be fairly lenient, but I still expect, as a bare minimum, a good-faith effort to follow the rules.
2. If I, or a mod/admin, say that a catch is invalid, it’s invalid. That means that you cannot use that Pokémon on other topics until the issue has been cleared up, etc. If you’ve already made a post using the Pokémon and I declare the catch invalid, that’s your problem, not mine – but you still have to not use the Pokémon until the issue is resolved. If you think your catch has been declared invalid and it should not have been, you can appeal it to the person who made the declaration or to me (if I didn’t declare it invalid). Make sure to stay calm during the process – I respond to logical arguments, not threats. I expect most people here to be mature enough to handle this. Keep in mind; almost all “invalid catch” declarations are not forever, they’re “until the problem is resolved.” If I say your catch is invalid because the battle was too short, and you edit the post to make the battle longer, or if you convince me that it makes sense for the battle to be that short, I’ll let you keep the Pokémon.
3. No Pokémon can be caught in the Safari Zone except through this topic. This includes catching Pokémon through other topics as well as having characters start with Pokémon caught in the Safari Zone. Other topics can be set in the Safari Zone (I’m planning one myself), but characters cannot catch Pokémon on such topics unless those catches happen outside the Safari Zone.
4. No experience is gained in the Safari Zone. What this entails is pretty self-explanatory. No evolving your Pokémon on this topic, and the battles in this topic do not count towards strengthening your Pokémon.
5. The Pokémon must be caught in a proper battle. Unlike in the video games, you must catch Pokémon in this topic the same way as they are usually caught otherwise – by battling them down to low health then using a Pokéball (or variant thereof) to take possession of the Pokémon. Also, battles must be up to RP standards. This means a few things, but mainly:
- Writing with proper spelling and grammar. I’m not going to declare a catch invalid because of a single misplaced comma or the like, but if a large number of words are misspelled, capitalization is nearly non-existent, or I cannot understand your sentences, I will declare the catch invalid until the post is fixed.
- Not superplaying. Use common sense here. You guys know the rules on superplaying.
6. Only one post, with one catch, per character per week, maximum. This means that when a character makes a post in the Safari Zone, they cannot do so again until 7 days later. I may be forgiving if you’re only off by an hour or two, but if I see someone catch a Safari Zone Pokémon, then catch another Pokémon a few hours or days later, I will declare BOTH catches invalid. Also, if I see someone catch two Pokémon in one post, I will declare BOTH catches invalid. That includes a catch that is “let go” in the same post – you still can’t do it. If you really want to (say, for storyline reasons), you can have your character fail to catch a Pokémon, but even in the case of a failure, you can’t post again in the Safari Zone with that character for a week.
Note that this applies to characters, not users. If, for example, I were to have Max Milen catch a Pokémon in the Zone, then have Cal Mazone catch one two days later, I would be completely within the rules. They’re separate characters, so having entered the Zone with Max has no bearing on my ability to do the same with Cal. If I see abuse of this rule, such as a user creating 3 characters with two essentially being “sock puppets” for the other one, I will change the rule. Transferring Pokémon between characters, even characters both controlled by the same user, is of course allowed, but I can tell the difference between a storyline-valid transfer and an attempt to dodge the limitations, and I’m sure the mods and admins can as well.
7. A Safari Zone catch must be done in a single post. As you will be autoing the Safari Zone Pokémon as well as controlling your own, there is no need to wait for reply posts from anyone else. By all means, I highly encourage describing the search for a Pokémon, but you must finish the post with the successful capture (or, if you really want to, the failure, and your character leaving). To my knowledge, this board has no upper limit on how big a post can be, or if there is, it’s far greater than anyone would need for a Safari Zone post. If you do manage to hit the character limit without finishing your post, you can make it two sequential posts – but that’s the only exception to this rule, and I fully expect that it will never be invoked (if there even is a character limit, and you hit it, chances are the post’s too long).
8. If a Pokémon is not available in the Zone, you can’t catch it here. It is possible that I have missed one or more Pokémon that “should” be available in the Zone, or even that should be exclusives. If you find such a case, simply send me a PM; I’ll consider the case, and if I agree, I’ll add the Pokémon to the appropriate list. But until I do so, don’t catch the Pokémon here.
9. If a Pokémon is available in or exclusive to the Safari Zone, that status also extends to all members of its evolution line. For example, Riolu is an exclusive to the Safari Zone. This means that Lucario is also a Safari Zone exclusive. Likewise, Paras is available, but not exclusive to the Zone; therefore, so is Parasect.
Special Offers:
One of the really fun features in the old Safari Zone topic was Special Offers. Every once in a while, I would post that a Pokémon was available that was somehow unusual; there would be only one of this Pokémon, and the first person to validly post a catch got it. I am including this feature in this incarnation of the Zone, as well. A Special Offer is a Pokémon that is normally available in the Safari Zone, but it has some special feature. For all but the first of the Special Offers I’ve offered in the Safari Zone’s previous incarnation(s), it was an attack that the Pokémon could not otherwise learn (the first was a Shiny Blissey). You’ll see that often in the Special Offers, though I might also do Pokémon with Abilities they might not otherwise be able to have. When I make a Special Offer, I will make a post with the offer as well as editing the offer into the top of this post. As a storyline note, although users will obviously know when a Special Offer is available, characters do not know that a Special Offer even exists until they encounter it. Rules for Special Offers are listed below.
1. Only I can make Special Offers. If a character catches a “special” Pokémon in the Zone, and it is not a Pokémon I made available as a Special Offer, the catch is invalid. This doesn’t include Shiny Pokémon – only the usual rules apply for that (i.e. respect the fact that they really are supposed to be incredibly rare).
2. Each character can only catch one Special Offer, maximum. As a note, I am resetting this from the original – anyone whose character caught a Special Offer in one of the earlier incarnations of the Zone can catch one offered in this topic, as long as they haven’t done so already. I will maintain a list in this post of who catches which Special Offer Pokémon. If your character decides to trade a Special Offer Pokémon (or whatever), that’s your business, but that character can’t catch another Special Offer later; similarly, a character who receives a Special Offer from another character can still catch their own. However, as with Rule 6 above, if I see abuse of this rule, such as a player catching a bunch of Special Offers with different characters then having them all end up in one character’s hands (especially if said characters then effectively cease to exist), I will take action and change the rules, so don’t try it.
3. Special Offers are available for a limited time only. In past incarnations, this was 24 hours. I will probably stretch this, due to the relatively low amount of activity as compared to the old days, but Special Offers will not remain available forever. Once I say that a Special Offer is no longer available, even if nobody caught it, that’s it – it’s gone forever.
The Pokémon:
As in the previous incarnations of the Safari Zone, there will be two lists of Pokémon available in the Zone. The first list will be of Safari Zone exclusives; these Pokémon, as well as all other members of their evolution lines, CANNOT be caught other than in this topic, and characters CANNOT start with these Pokémon. (Obviously, this rule will not be applied retroactively.) The second list is of Pokémon that are available in the Safari Zone, but are not exclusive. Characters can catch these Pokémon on other topics, and can start with them. I am listing the “basic” form of the line in both lists. As for other forms, I’m not going to establish a hard-and-fast rule – just use common sense to figure out whether you can reasonably find that form in the Zone. You’re not going to find a wild Dragonite in the Zone, but you could easily get a Smoochum, and you might get away with finding a Lucario.
Pokémon EXCLUSIVE to the Safari Zone:
Scyther
Pinsir
Kangaskhan
Tauros
Miltank
Lickitung
Chansey
Farfetch'd
Tropius
Heracross
Sneasel
Dratini
Electabuzz
Magmar
Jynx
Sudowoodo
Croagunk
Skorupi
Carnivine
Riolu
Rotom
Phione
Pokémon AVAILABLE in the Safari Zone:
Exeggcute
Slowpoke
Paras
Pineco
Murkrow
Voltorb
Mankey
Machop
Growlithe
Onix
Spinarak
Skarmory
Doduo
Oddish
Geodude
Natu
Phanpy
Rhyhorn
Girafarig
Pikachu
Wobbuffet
Nidoran [male]
Nidoran [female]
Cubone
Magikarp
Psyduck
Goldeen
Poliwag
Venonat
Krabby
Tangela
Sunkern
Mareep
Aipom
Hoothoot
Snubbull
Stantler
Remoraid
Teddiursa
Ledyba
Houndour
Shuckle
Wooper
Marill
Bidoof
Roselia
Starly
Ekans
Yanma
Those of you who were in PRP back in the Snitz and TCGPlayer days may remember this topic – the Safari Zone. Essentially, this topic is PRP’s version of the Safari Zone minigame from the Pokémon video games. It works far differently, but that’s the basic idea. The rules are outlined below. At first, the original Safari Zone topic had a rule that it would only be open for 24 hours, once a week; I changed that rule in the TCGPlayer days, and I will not be changing back. The Zone is “open” 24/7, but do keep in mind Rule 6 under the Main Rules. There are a lot of rules here, but strict as they sound, most of them are somewhat flexible and they’re all really only there to facilitate the Zone running smoothly and being fair. If a rule really is unnecessary, I’m perfectly willing to consider striking it.
In-Universe Description:
The Safari Zone is located in Fuschia City, Kanto. Currently, the Safari Zone is not very well maintained due to lack of funding. There are many overgrown areas, and there may be areas with a lot of litter, etc. A large variety of Pokémon are found in the Safari Zone, in a number of different habitats. Most of the Zone is grassy plains, and there is a large lake. Although most of the Pokémon in the Safari Zone are naturally occurring, the Rangers have carefully imported a few species over time, especially from similar habitats in Johto, Hoenn and Sinnoh, most of which are off-limits to all Trainers for protection purposes.
There is a fee to enter the Zone, though not a large one – at least, not in the eyes of the average character. A character with unusually little money might have trouble paying the fee, but as a matter of scale, it’s about on the low end of what you might pay to get into a theme park, maybe less. It was less than that before, but again, due to the lack of funding (caused by the Pokémon League ceasing to provide financial support), it was necessary to raise the admission fee in order for the Zone to run at all.
The Safari Zone is run by a group of semi-volunteer Safari Rangers (of which Max Milen is one). It’s a paying job, but due to the lack of funding, not a very well-paying one; in recent months, many Rangers have had to take on a second job in order to support their families. The Rangers handle security, maintenance, and all of the other behind-the-scenes stuff needed to keep the Zone running.
Contrary to popular belief, the primary purpose of the Safari Zone is not to allow Trainers to catch rare Pokémon, but to protect the Pokémon and their habitat. Allowing Trainers to catch the Pokémon is a secondary purpose, as well as a means to control overpopulation and to keep the Zone running. Times when the Safari Zone has been “closed” could more accurately be described as times when, for whatever reason, it was necessary to declare it off-limits.
Main Rules:
1. The rules of the Safari Zone apply to everybody. Neither status on the boards nor RP storyline reasons will allow anyone to break the rules of this topic. Even an admin can’t give himself a Safari Zone exclusive without a proper catch, and even the most evil being to walk the earth can’t catch two Safari Zone Pokémon in one week. I may be running the place, but even I have to follow the rules. I’ll be fairly lenient, but I still expect, as a bare minimum, a good-faith effort to follow the rules.
2. If I, or a mod/admin, say that a catch is invalid, it’s invalid. That means that you cannot use that Pokémon on other topics until the issue has been cleared up, etc. If you’ve already made a post using the Pokémon and I declare the catch invalid, that’s your problem, not mine – but you still have to not use the Pokémon until the issue is resolved. If you think your catch has been declared invalid and it should not have been, you can appeal it to the person who made the declaration or to me (if I didn’t declare it invalid). Make sure to stay calm during the process – I respond to logical arguments, not threats. I expect most people here to be mature enough to handle this. Keep in mind; almost all “invalid catch” declarations are not forever, they’re “until the problem is resolved.” If I say your catch is invalid because the battle was too short, and you edit the post to make the battle longer, or if you convince me that it makes sense for the battle to be that short, I’ll let you keep the Pokémon.
3. No Pokémon can be caught in the Safari Zone except through this topic. This includes catching Pokémon through other topics as well as having characters start with Pokémon caught in the Safari Zone. Other topics can be set in the Safari Zone (I’m planning one myself), but characters cannot catch Pokémon on such topics unless those catches happen outside the Safari Zone.
4. No experience is gained in the Safari Zone. What this entails is pretty self-explanatory. No evolving your Pokémon on this topic, and the battles in this topic do not count towards strengthening your Pokémon.
5. The Pokémon must be caught in a proper battle. Unlike in the video games, you must catch Pokémon in this topic the same way as they are usually caught otherwise – by battling them down to low health then using a Pokéball (or variant thereof) to take possession of the Pokémon. Also, battles must be up to RP standards. This means a few things, but mainly:
- Writing with proper spelling and grammar. I’m not going to declare a catch invalid because of a single misplaced comma or the like, but if a large number of words are misspelled, capitalization is nearly non-existent, or I cannot understand your sentences, I will declare the catch invalid until the post is fixed.
- Not superplaying. Use common sense here. You guys know the rules on superplaying.
6. Only one post, with one catch, per character per week, maximum. This means that when a character makes a post in the Safari Zone, they cannot do so again until 7 days later. I may be forgiving if you’re only off by an hour or two, but if I see someone catch a Safari Zone Pokémon, then catch another Pokémon a few hours or days later, I will declare BOTH catches invalid. Also, if I see someone catch two Pokémon in one post, I will declare BOTH catches invalid. That includes a catch that is “let go” in the same post – you still can’t do it. If you really want to (say, for storyline reasons), you can have your character fail to catch a Pokémon, but even in the case of a failure, you can’t post again in the Safari Zone with that character for a week.
Note that this applies to characters, not users. If, for example, I were to have Max Milen catch a Pokémon in the Zone, then have Cal Mazone catch one two days later, I would be completely within the rules. They’re separate characters, so having entered the Zone with Max has no bearing on my ability to do the same with Cal. If I see abuse of this rule, such as a user creating 3 characters with two essentially being “sock puppets” for the other one, I will change the rule. Transferring Pokémon between characters, even characters both controlled by the same user, is of course allowed, but I can tell the difference between a storyline-valid transfer and an attempt to dodge the limitations, and I’m sure the mods and admins can as well.
7. A Safari Zone catch must be done in a single post. As you will be autoing the Safari Zone Pokémon as well as controlling your own, there is no need to wait for reply posts from anyone else. By all means, I highly encourage describing the search for a Pokémon, but you must finish the post with the successful capture (or, if you really want to, the failure, and your character leaving). To my knowledge, this board has no upper limit on how big a post can be, or if there is, it’s far greater than anyone would need for a Safari Zone post. If you do manage to hit the character limit without finishing your post, you can make it two sequential posts – but that’s the only exception to this rule, and I fully expect that it will never be invoked (if there even is a character limit, and you hit it, chances are the post’s too long).
8. If a Pokémon is not available in the Zone, you can’t catch it here. It is possible that I have missed one or more Pokémon that “should” be available in the Zone, or even that should be exclusives. If you find such a case, simply send me a PM; I’ll consider the case, and if I agree, I’ll add the Pokémon to the appropriate list. But until I do so, don’t catch the Pokémon here.
9. If a Pokémon is available in or exclusive to the Safari Zone, that status also extends to all members of its evolution line. For example, Riolu is an exclusive to the Safari Zone. This means that Lucario is also a Safari Zone exclusive. Likewise, Paras is available, but not exclusive to the Zone; therefore, so is Parasect.
Special Offers:
One of the really fun features in the old Safari Zone topic was Special Offers. Every once in a while, I would post that a Pokémon was available that was somehow unusual; there would be only one of this Pokémon, and the first person to validly post a catch got it. I am including this feature in this incarnation of the Zone, as well. A Special Offer is a Pokémon that is normally available in the Safari Zone, but it has some special feature. For all but the first of the Special Offers I’ve offered in the Safari Zone’s previous incarnation(s), it was an attack that the Pokémon could not otherwise learn (the first was a Shiny Blissey). You’ll see that often in the Special Offers, though I might also do Pokémon with Abilities they might not otherwise be able to have. When I make a Special Offer, I will make a post with the offer as well as editing the offer into the top of this post. As a storyline note, although users will obviously know when a Special Offer is available, characters do not know that a Special Offer even exists until they encounter it. Rules for Special Offers are listed below.
1. Only I can make Special Offers. If a character catches a “special” Pokémon in the Zone, and it is not a Pokémon I made available as a Special Offer, the catch is invalid. This doesn’t include Shiny Pokémon – only the usual rules apply for that (i.e. respect the fact that they really are supposed to be incredibly rare).
2. Each character can only catch one Special Offer, maximum. As a note, I am resetting this from the original – anyone whose character caught a Special Offer in one of the earlier incarnations of the Zone can catch one offered in this topic, as long as they haven’t done so already. I will maintain a list in this post of who catches which Special Offer Pokémon. If your character decides to trade a Special Offer Pokémon (or whatever), that’s your business, but that character can’t catch another Special Offer later; similarly, a character who receives a Special Offer from another character can still catch their own. However, as with Rule 6 above, if I see abuse of this rule, such as a player catching a bunch of Special Offers with different characters then having them all end up in one character’s hands (especially if said characters then effectively cease to exist), I will take action and change the rules, so don’t try it.
3. Special Offers are available for a limited time only. In past incarnations, this was 24 hours. I will probably stretch this, due to the relatively low amount of activity as compared to the old days, but Special Offers will not remain available forever. Once I say that a Special Offer is no longer available, even if nobody caught it, that’s it – it’s gone forever.
The Pokémon:
As in the previous incarnations of the Safari Zone, there will be two lists of Pokémon available in the Zone. The first list will be of Safari Zone exclusives; these Pokémon, as well as all other members of their evolution lines, CANNOT be caught other than in this topic, and characters CANNOT start with these Pokémon. (Obviously, this rule will not be applied retroactively.) The second list is of Pokémon that are available in the Safari Zone, but are not exclusive. Characters can catch these Pokémon on other topics, and can start with them. I am listing the “basic” form of the line in both lists. As for other forms, I’m not going to establish a hard-and-fast rule – just use common sense to figure out whether you can reasonably find that form in the Zone. You’re not going to find a wild Dragonite in the Zone, but you could easily get a Smoochum, and you might get away with finding a Lucario.
Pokémon EXCLUSIVE to the Safari Zone:
Scyther
Pinsir
Kangaskhan
Tauros
Miltank
Lickitung
Chansey
Farfetch'd
Tropius
Heracross
Sneasel
Dratini
Electabuzz
Magmar
Jynx
Sudowoodo
Croagunk
Skorupi
Carnivine
Riolu
Rotom
Phione
Pokémon AVAILABLE in the Safari Zone:
Exeggcute
Slowpoke
Paras
Pineco
Murkrow
Voltorb
Mankey
Machop
Growlithe
Onix
Spinarak
Skarmory
Doduo
Oddish
Geodude
Natu
Phanpy
Rhyhorn
Girafarig
Pikachu
Wobbuffet
Nidoran [male]
Nidoran [female]
Cubone
Magikarp
Psyduck
Goldeen
Poliwag
Venonat
Krabby
Tangela
Sunkern
Mareep
Aipom
Hoothoot
Snubbull
Stantler
Remoraid
Teddiursa
Ledyba
Houndour
Shuckle
Wooper
Marill
Bidoof
Roselia
Starly
Ekans
Yanma