Now let's get to work. (Even MORE Important...

[Aether]

...Stuffz!)

(Couldn't fit it in the title. XD )

Anyways! Let's get down to business. From what I saw on the previous topic, we had 4 votes for Past; 2 votes for future; and 2 votes for present. Therefore, I am making the decision for the new site to be created in a past setting. If you have any problems with such or feel like heckling/arguing/calmly discussing the decision with me, feel free to do so on MSNM or PM me. I'd appreciate it if people would not go to other people behind my back if they have a problem with me or a decision I make and will respect you far more and take you far more seriously if you just come to me.

That being said, now we have to actually get to work on making the site (As people are wanting to RP; myself included.) I wish to involve the members in creating the site as much as possible; I believe you all have earned that right by remaining faithful to the site.

Things that we need to decided on:
Location: Island or mainland? (Remember the setting)
Type of Academy: (Mercenary Employers? General schooling? (Knights/Guadians might be the past-version of trainers; Clerics the past version of nurses/doctors; etc...)
Current storyline: (We can focus more on this once we're close to being able to RPing)
Places on campus and surrounding area: (More focus on this once Location is decided.)

I think those are the 4 main issues that need to be dealt with before we can start RPing, then whatever little issues arrive along the way can be kinked out.

[Acerbus]

I think the academy should be on mainland. You'd think if they were knights and guardians in training the area of the land would be a lot larger than that of an island. A mainland also might fit more for your sagas like say Starfall acting as a private militia for a period of war(curse my love for MAG). As for the type of academy, perhaps more so of a general schooling place but then again mercenary employers fits the feel of Starfall.

[hieisorcerer]

Well now I like how we're getting started here, allow me to throw my two cents into this little topic.

I say we should stick with an island, and I also say we should make it a general school. As it was stated, a guardian/knight would be a trainer for that day cleric healer and other such things. I say an island because it would be perfect neutral ground for a school to be founded on, though lets be honest we all know it won't be neutral ground. Plus again lets be honest, an island will be a better setting for some of our plot lines. Because this is all fantasy, we can make the island as large as we need it to be. I personally wouldn't find it hard to believe the island school was several miles in length. Another thing, where would you rather have a school for super powered beings to train? On the mainland where any passer-by could be hurt, or on an island where it would be extremely difficult for a passer-by to even... Pass by.

Another thing we might consider would be how/who the school is run by. Whether we just have a headmaster, or whether the school is ran by a lord, duke, marque or other such noble. And honestly for a past setting, I'm leaning more to wards a noble of some sort. Though this can be touched upon later I suppose.

[Jazzie]

I think the setting should also be in an island. I am still trying to understand how the school is going to run though. Basically, the classes will be somewhat the same but changed a little to fit the era? If so, then I think general schooling should be appropriate. Now from looking at Hiei's comment, about lord, dukes and what not. Shouldn't that mean, not just knights and guardians, but prince, princess, and just basically nobles should be present as well? I was also wondering about the technology. What about pokeballs. Will they resemble what Samuel Oak had in the Pokemon 4Ever Movie? Like this; bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/File:Sammy%27s_Old_Pok%C3%A9_Ball.png or maybe resemble more like apricorns since from what I read, pokeballs were made from apricorns? Or maybe we should just keep pokeballs the same to fit the era? I don't know; maybe I'm just thinking too far ahead with this.

[Aether]

I could go for either mainland or island, but I understand issues with both options. With a mainland, I guess it would be difficult if a passer-by were to stumble upon the academy grounds, but with the time era, I imagine the academy having some sort of wall or sort separating the school grounds and properties from the outside world. Though this would not mean that the school would be completely separated from other locations. I imagine the school having some sort of castle/fortress type set up and all other locations not pertaining to the school be outside the walls. Then there is the island option, which would allow us to have basically the same layout, minus the wall if we wished, but surrounded by water. I imagine traveling by water would be a little more difficult and dangerous back then. We'd have to rely on simple wooden boats (or if we wanted to be a bit more creative, used tamed Wailords and built boats on their backs.) However, with this option you would not be able to get the outside interaction that I think would be important in this particular time period. Perhaps there might be a way to combine the idea? We could have the actual school and school grounds on a island and have the living quarters and other location on the mainland. I think that might work. Any thoughts?

As for schooling, I am also in favor of the more general schooling, perhaps having unique classes off to the side of the regular classes for those students who know what they want to go into for a career.

I imagine there would be nobles, lords, kings, queens and other types of royalty and nobility in this era. (One of my characters is looking to be the son of a Nobleman.) If we were to be "governed" by someone such as a king, then we'd have to create the country and standing outside of the school in order to do so. I don't think having royalty and nobility in the school would be a problem. I'm sure the diversity of other countrymen would serve for an interesting event/saga at some point.

As for capturing devices, I was thinking of what we could do to replace the Pokeball. I remembered in Lucario and the Mystery of Mew when Sir Aaron trapped Lucario in his staff using that crystal. What would you guys think of using a crystal-like system using a special glove? The crystal would serve as the containment system whereas the glove could be used to hold the various crystals, and then the user could call out the pokemon using the glove/crystal combination. For capturing, the trainer would attempt calling the pokemon into the crystal. If the pokemon was called into the crystal and the crystal did not shatter, then the capture would be complete. If the pokemon did not make it into the crystal due to remaining strength or the crystal shattered upon capture, then the battle would continue on until either the pokemon was capture, the trainer fled, or the trainer;s pokemon were defeated. Thoughts or other ideas for the capture system?
Apricorns could work as well, basically in the same way as a pokeball would, only far more rustic.

[hieisorcerer]

Hmmm, you know what? I was just reading a book called Blood of the Fold. Good book, the series it's in was the basis for the Legend of the Seeker show. Anyway back to the point, what if we used either a system like the books. The school located on an island near enough to the mainland for a bridge to connect the two. The students could live in the castle like school, and be permitted to go out into the nearby city. At least depending on the students rank. The school could then get assignments from the mainland for the school to complete or fail, which ever. Or we could use an archipelago, series of islands, and we could work from their. Or we could just do as Tim suggested, and have the school on the mainland and have a wall around it.

I like the crystal idea for capturing pokemon, that would be the most convenient, but then I have an idea to go with it. We could have it based on rank. The glove and crystals be given to the higher ranking students, where as the lower ranking ones use apricorns. Or we could make it so everyone has apricorns, or everyone uses the crystal and glove system. Either way would work great, I would think at least.

As for the leader of the school, I've been doing some more thinking on that idea. The book deals a whole lot with prophecy, well how about the leader be a prophet? A prophet trying to influence the flow of certain prophecies, we could also use this prophet as a bad guy at some point or something. Other than that, we could have something more along the lines of a lower ranking noble. Like a Duke or a Marque. Or we could have something more along the lines of a wizard, or just a simple headmaster who once was a great warrior or wizard. Or... And this thought just occurred to me, how about a dragon?

Another thing I think we might want to include would be a power restricting system. This way we don't have too many ungodly powerful students at once. We could rank them E - A, and then once they reach their peak make them an S class. Or we could simply have them wear something that restricts their powers. My character for example will have skill in Sealing magic, so why not try that? Or we could use necklaces, or bracelets, or rings, or any number of other items.

Anyway, thats just a few ideas.

[Sjhasama]

Um.. to last to log in right now.. just want to say something/opinions.

School should be on the main land; allows more access/functionality

Schooling system should be devided,with a student put on a 'Coarse system' were depending on how they want to hone there skills, they are assigned coarses to help them (For example, a scout would get diffrent classes then a mage), even classed like battle strat. should be diffrent, becaus each would need to learn ina diffrent way; because there going tothing in diffrent ways.

As for the capture system; I think apricorns would work great, and the best idea; haveing a crystal system would be faily complicated(nd make it look like a cheap harry potterxPokemon spawn..o-o)

[David's Reaching Out]

Alright... here's an idea, submitted for your consideration.

-The Governing System of the World of Poke'mon as Seen in Starfall-
Version 2: Electric Boogaloo

How many times have you seen or read something set in the fantasy genre where there's a King and/or Queen in charge of governing a large landmass? Too many, I say.

Before I make my point, imagine (if you will) Europe circa 1400. There are kingdoms surrounding each other, each one ruled by it's own monarch - and each one, is very small. Now see, we all know that a monarch is usually quite power-hungry, it sorta comes with the job, so they fought to try and take lands from each other in the form of Lords' castles and then the surrounding countryside.

I propose the following; instead of having one governing system (i.e. King Leopold Whatshisface), why not divide the land up into several smaller kingdoms? This way, there's more call for a school training, as you've said, knights and mercenaries. There'd be a much higher demand to take a knight into Vassalage or contract a band of hired blades should the Kingdoms constantly be at ends with each other for crimes and expansion (i.e. King Whatshisface attacks a merchant caravan under the protection of King Whozits).

Plus, having different Kingdoms that the students sell or offer their services to would bring in an element of intrigue amongst the student body. Say, for example, one of Tim's characters and one of Sandy's characters are vassals to rival Kingdoms. Then, knowing that each is such, one may want to spy on another... or try to steal orders given to them from a Lord or Lady. Thus, a rivalry between the two on a personal level is born - a rivalry that may lead to a neat advancing in both characters' stories.

There's the general idea, it's an inkling, but I thought I ought to share.

[Aether]

Can't say too much at the moment, since I should be in bed, but I'm kinda fond of David's idea. I like it.

[Acerbus]

I like David's idea a lot. It's a unique twist on a typically cliche genre. I like that.

[hieisorcerer]

I agree, it's a good idea. David has proven once again why he's known as the Storyteller. It would definitely make things a lot more interesting between the characters, and probably open us up to more plot ideas in the future once we get things started.

[wildkuma]

Heya peoples, just taking another moment to cut in here. Looks like we're getting a closer idea of what's wanted for the set government, and I'm raring to get to work with everything else that comes with the territory, but I also wanted to raise some extra points about it, perhaps add a bit of depth and variation that makes it more sure this is the direction we want to take.

I was thinking the time line and current mindset of the people could add more interest to the framework David suggested. What if it were an early feudal system, that was only just beginning to grasp the practicality of taming Pokemon, and had grown up competing with or just fearing Pokemon's power in general? What if this new world being colonized by people was widely inhabited by Pokemon whereas they had almost been driven to extinction in the olden land? There could be conflict between people who risked using Pokemon and those who did not, causing those willing to try working with them to travel to the new world, where the Academy history begins. The need to develop the lands more quickly results in a demand for the domestication of Pokemon. This could serve as the reason for creating Pokemon Academy; an isolated institution for the development of a working partnership between humans and Pokemon, and consequently forming the first trainers.

But as for the isolation situation of PA, such as how we had in an island setting before, it could be because most common people are fearful of Pokemon, and for such a situation to be supported, it would have to be undertaken in a way that does not threaten or interfere with people in the common lands. This could be one of PA's distinguishing factors, along with the common source of students PA has.

I noticed a lot of the characters on the site in past time to be orphans, and I think this could be a good reason for there to be so many. If society had the type of fearful outlook, people would likely hesitate to send off their kids to work with dangerous elemental monsters, so a test population of students society wouldn't be concerned with, orphans, or those with special powers that may have been scorned in other areas, would be offered free tuition and care granted that they work with the Pokemon as they become older. Of course, there could be normal students who aren't concerned by working with Pokemon and that sign up normally, but it could serve as a reasonable explanation for other disadvantaged students.

Now then, that being said, who would serve as teachers when there's never been a school or people working with Pokemon to speak of? Probably past Pokemon hunters, or those with special cases on the side, get creative. Backgrounds for teachers can likely be very diverse too, and they will likely learn along with the students.

I could elaborate more, but I'm sure you've heard enough to chew on for now. ^_^' Just wanted to note this as a potential added aspect to the Feudal idea. If the setting was in a newly inhabited region as well, it could prevent conflicting backgrounds from the home nations from getting in the way of politics, at least while people are busy securing resources and establishing territory. It would create jobs for explorers, construction, possibly criminal set-ups by people posing as other people and using Pokemon in restricted areas. Among additionally grimy occupations for the rougher folk out there if rogues start to get an upper hand.

So then, thoughts anyone? ^^'