Hey folks,
This past year I have created a Pokémon board game called Pokémon Life. It's a very detailed dice-based board game in which you move across a board, battling and capturing Pokémon. Every Pokémon you capture has a unique ability you can use to influence the game. The combinations of different Pokémon in your team will ensure that every game is unique and fun. The game has been played over 300 times already, and has been tweaked and balanced extensively. I have created a website (http://pokemonlife.net) explaining the game thoroughly. My friends and I believe the game is amazingly fun, which is why I decided to share it.
Here is a picture of the (Johto) board:
As you can see, the board consists of multiple areas and has many different tiles. The main tiles are Grass, Duel and Event tiles. On grass tiles you have the chance to capture a Pokémon from your current area. On event tiles you may draw a card from the event pile, which can be many different things. On duel tiles you have to battle another player, and the winner may draw a victory card. All of these things award Master Points, and the player who has the most Master Points after the League has finished has won the game!
Here is a picture of a Pokémon:
Each Pokémon has a Battle Points value (show by the yellow fist icon), a Master Points value (shown by the GS ball icon), and an ability. For example, Bulbasaur's ability can only be used when it's healthy ("Active:"), and allows you to divide the outcome of the move dice by 2 whenever the outcome is 4 or 6. This ability gives you a lot of freedom to move to desired tiles. Battle Points are used in battle. When battling an opponent (or gym), you have to throw the dice. The outcome of the battle dice is multiplied by the Battle Points, resulting in the total battle outcome. The Pokémon with the highest outcome knocks out the other Pokémon and wins the battle. When a Pokémon has defeated an opponent in battle, it will evolve after the battle (if applicable).
Here is a picture of a match in progress:
There are several different items to use during the game as well. The most important one is the PokéBall. You always lay out your PokéBalls in front of you. You can only put captured Pokémon on top of empty PokéBalls. If you don't have any empty PokéBalls, you may always release one of your Pokémon to make room for a new one. If a Pokémon is knocked out in battle (or otherwise), you have to flip it. Knocked out Pokémon can't battle and their ability cannot be used (unless it's a Passive ability).
Here is another picture of a game in progress. As you can see, the opponent has three empty PokéBalls and one of his Pokémon is knocked out. Sudowoodo has two charge counters on it, which means that he has used two charges of its ability. Many abilities don't have charges and can be used as often as you like, while others have a finite number of charges (uses).
It is impossible for me to go over many abilities and game mechanics in a single post, but I hope I have sparked your interest in playing the Pokémon Life board game. You can read much more about it on http://pokemonlife.net (and you can even download the game there, if you wish).