u/S-KChairman

Trainers, explorers and fortune seekers! You have all made the dangerous journey to the Maeven region, home of the brave and the visionary. In these untamed lands, trainers are vital to preserve the ecosystem and protect settlements from danger.

The region will test your skill and mettle, causing you to grow rapidly as a trainer and a person. The bonds between you, your Pokémon and your fellow trainers will grow strong, while you make a real difference to the world around you.

Now, leave safety and comfort behind and venture outward. Once you and your partners are ready, I would love nothing more than for you to defeat me in battle.

• Maeven League Champion Bastian Alicea

Trainers make their way to the Maeven Region for many reasons: Some in search of glory, others to aid the local population and a rare few to research its strange and irregular migration patterns. While the coastal cities sport advanced infrastructure and modern amenities courtesy of corporate investments, the vast central areas of the continent are dangerous and largely uninhabited. Rangers keep small communities safe, often aided by traveling trainers, while researching the region's varied and unique ecosystems.

The region sports its own gym circuit and the journey will take trainers all across the region, where the journey between the cities might be as difficult as the gym challenges themselves. Some gyms even sport special challenges, to test more than just the trainer's use of Pokémon in battle. On this path, they need to grow as people, together with their Pokémon partners, and prove that they have what it takes to overcome the region's unique challenges.

However, hostile Pokémon and the untamed wilderness are not the only dangers that lurk in Maeven. The sightings of Legendary Pokémon in the region have gained the attention of a very dangerous individual, who's plans will be made known all too soon.
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This game will be ran as a small-group RP, with 2-3 players. This is done to keep it a focused experience and to give you the opportunity to pursue different things without giving your GM (me) a massive workload.

However, this does place a bit more of an expectation on each of the players. As you are a smaller group, it requires the participants to actively engage with the world and your surroundings to progress forward. I ask that all participants are able to post daily.

The system used will be Pokérole, which aims to make the game feel more like the anime than the games. Beginners to the system are very much welcome and I will not expect anyone to have any sort of experience with Pokérole at all. It comes with a good dice and info bot, courtesy of the community, and a comprehensive rules document.

I've ran pbp and voiced games for at least 10 years, us and am typically active from 12 to 9PM EST. As a GM, I enjoy focusing games around the player characters, to facilitate interesting and deeply personal stories where their choices shape the world around them. I enjoy high-stakes drama, fantastical locales and portraying unique and interesting NPCs to aid or hinder the group on their journey. I ask that all participants refrain from using generative AI for character art and writing. The game will be ran in a discord server, which contains multiple channels filled with additional region information and other useful things.
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How to apply?

Thank you for reading so far! I really appreciate the time you are taking to check out my silly little project here. If this sounds cool and something you want to be part of, please click the link below and fill out the application. If you have any questions, DM me directly or comment below.

https://forms.gle/ddxBKPLgPdLfPrzF6

(The application is written the way it is for flavor reasons and is not meant to be answered in-character)

"Above us, The City, Spire, stretches into the sky. Beneath us, The City, Heart, stretches into the earth. Down through dirt and rock and water, down into the depths of darkness, down into madness and sickness, down into something ancient and other."

"And now: You, thinking you've got it all figured out. Wonder what you're looking for..."

"...but the Heart already knows what you want. And by the Goddess, it'll give it to you or kill you trying."
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Heart is a game set in the mad, shifting chasms and ruins beneath a vast city. Groups of desperate people journey into it, looking for something important: secrets, truth, absolution or sanctuary. They band together for protection and companionship as they move through dangerous lawless lands in search of 'havens'; places of shelter, however impermanent, that offer respite from the Heart.

You are those people : Delvers. You will trek deep into the twisting nightmare world of the heart. It will form itself around you, and you will scar patterns into its flesh as it in turn scars you. IF you somehow survive it all to come back; you most certainly will not be the same.
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The game uses the game system known as Heart: The City Beneath. I liken it most to "Darkest Dungeon" in tone and themes - but a proper roleplaying system than a combative roguelike.

Newcomers to the system are very much welcome, and you will not be expected to know anything about the mechanics of the game prior to Session 0. All materials and VTT access will be provided and all you need in terms of supplies is a computer with a decent mic and working internet connection.

This is a roleplay-heavy game, where character relations, social abilities and your ability to think on your feet is more important than the damage your attacks inflict. The focus on the game will be on portraying the horrors the characters experience as they venture into the darkness, rather than the endless combat slogs dungeon crawling games are most known for.

Although, you will want to make sure the group is able to defend themselves against what awaits them below...

We are looking for 1 player at this point - the group currently consister of 2 male and 1 female players in US/EU, which I'd like to balance evenly in both number and gender by recruiting another woman to ensure all are comfortable around the table.
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Below is a list of practical information. This may be updated, in case I miss something important:

• The game will run Weekly on Wednesdays at approximately 6 PM EST.
• Sessions are expected to run for ~4 hours, varying roughly 30 minutes in both directions.
• Lines/Veils will be used as the primary safety tool.
• All players must be 18+.
• The game will not include any sexual content in any form.
• Group is very much LGBTQ+-friendly and there will be a zero-tolerance policy against any form of OOC bigotry.
• The game will be in English, over voice using discord (for now).
• Foundry will be used as a VTT. It is free (for you) and runs in your browser.
• No gen-AI content (art or otherwise) will be permitted as part of the game.
• The group will be 4 players + myself as a GM.
• Newcomers to the system are very much welcome.

As a GM, I value clear and consistent communication. Part of that is communicating what I expect out of you as players. If you read the list below and think "Well duh, that is obvious" then you will surely be a good fit for the game:

• I expect players to communicate any issues they have with their game, other players and other things ideally as early as possible to avoid drama.
• I expect the players to be able to take the game and the narrative seriously. While there is obviously space for jokes and goofy moments, this is not a comedy game at its core - nor does the group want it to be one.
• I expect you to be interested in and excited about the game. That doesn't necessarily mean being all high-energy all the time, but that you're engaged! I do think people have different ways of showing this, but that everyone has some sort of way of doing so.
• I expect you to communicate future absences as soon as reasonably possible.
• While this is not a big necessity, I do think groups work better if we enjoy spending time around one another even outside of the session. So, ideally, I would like the group to not abandon the group server after the session ends and until 5 minutes before it starts the next week. Gamenights are always peak.

This has been a lot of information-drops. Thank you for enduring my yapping (it was lovingly filtered by a player, hi <3). I promise I'm less dry in person. As for myself, I have ran TTRPGs for 10+ years, with a wide variety of systems. I enjoy Heart as it allows for very unique character stories and it an incredibly interesting take on both the horror and dungeon crawling genre. It's a very unique TTRPG and I really hope to get to play it with you.

If this sounds interesting, please apply through the (brief) form below:
https://forms.gle/XvFEeU8vRD5czHYP8

Please comment below or send me a DM if you have any questions!