From Prismatic Wasteland’s Heist-funding comes Into the Oddish - a Pokémon hack of Into the Odd- and Vileplume Mountain - a parody of the classic Whiteplume Mountain. I’ve a strong love for pokemon, so I rallied a party to try it out. This review will cover first the system, then the dungeon (spoilers abound in this section).
Into the Oddish is elegant both in design and mechanics. The layout is clean and effective, the physical book slick. All the art in the rulebook comes directly from the games, which really sells the whole vibe.
The combat system is the real selling point of the Oddish. Whenever a player uses a move in combat, they get stacking advantage/disadvante on damage rolls based on type matchup (and same type attack bonus). Most of the moves have a clause about rolling multiple dice, so getting a super-effective attack can be a big advantage.[1] Additionally, this makes status moves (like the often first-forgotten Growl) more valuable as options where you have no other effective move. Combat largely plays out like the video game it seeks to emulate but doesn’t fall into the trap of modelling it directly.[2]
However, I do have my gripes. The combat system is excellent mechanically, but having buttons to press in moves means your players are less likely to think creatively in combat. Thus, combat feels closer to “sport” than “war” in OSR parlance, but that’s very faithful to the source material.[3] Your taste may vary. Additionally, unlike Into the Odd, Pokémon do not make saves to remain up when they take critical damage; they are only knocked out when their STR or WIS is decreased to 0. This might help your starter Pokémon, but creates a lot of HP bloat for foes, especially large groups. Solo foes (boss mons) have the opposite problem: In my playthrough, 4 players could pretty easily stunlock (or para-flinch) singular enemies by stacking Paralysis, Confusion, and flinching moves.[4] The base Pokémon games were not built for 4-on-1 encounters.
I should also mention there’s a lot of incongruities that have been copied verbatim from Pokémon Red/Blue. Psychic types are immune to ghost types rather than being weak as intended.[5] Dragonite is weak to Dragon, but the only dragon type move does fixed damage, so this weakness doesn’t do anything. These incongruities are charming, but baffling if you didn’t know this was just how it was in ‘98,
Otherwise, mechanically, it’s rules lite and straightforward. For what this seeks to achieve, which is to model the 1st gen pokemon games, this succeeds greatly. But I do have one question.
What the hell can my pokemon do? Outside of combat that is. There’s little in the way of guidance, except for the Pokedex entries that describe each Pokémon. Let’s read some.
“Using your heavy muscles, you throw powerful punches that can send the victim clear over the horizon” - Machamp
“Your brain can outperform a supercomputer. Your IQ (intelligence quotient) is said to be around 5,000.” - Alakazam
“Almost incapable of moving, you can only harden your shell to protect yourself when you are in danger.” - Kakuna
If taken as gospel, these are all wild. Instead of fighting, can my Machamp punch my foe 3 miles away? Instead of solving the riddle, does my 5,000 IQ Alakazam just know it?[6] When my Weedle evolves into Kakuna, does my party need to carry him around the entire time?
PokeDex entries don’t really make sense because they don’t need to.[7] They’re flavor in the games and sometimes come up in the anime, but Pokémon abilities are not designed for players to interact with the world. This is an unavoidable issue for adapting a non-TTRPG setting for a TTRGP. But meeting where Into the Oddish is, while it does not simulate Pokémon interacting with the world at large, it does copy the traditional Pokémon game play loop very faithfully.
Overall, I think the system is quite robust and exceeds at what it seeks to accomplish. It’s definitely near top of my list of systems I’d like to run; the premise, humor, and combat system are strong pulls. The gaps not addressed explicitly by the text are either “fruitful voids” or frustrating depending on your viewpoint.
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Vileplume Mountain exemplifies love for another work: White Plume Mountain by Lawrence Schick. I’m honestly not a huge fan of this dungeon and much has been about it already. In meeting this product where it is, I’m not going to criticize the dungeon itself, rather the adaptation.
By far the best part of Vileplume Mountain is the art. Hodag absolutely kills it. “Put those Pokémon into a situation” I hear you say, and my god are they. The Geodude pondering the Voltorb. The Machoke sprinting through the spiral tube. Squirtle telling the dumbass Charmander “dude, just hop on a surfboard, it’s a good idea.” Love every single one. Honestly, you should get this just for the art.
I don’t have too much to say on this, other than it’s an improvement on the original. The layout is slicker, and the text reads smoother. The humor is amplified. The traps have been modified and improved (the Sudoowoodo turnstile is excellent) with many years of TTRPG best practices and experience. The stinkers are what’s been ported over 1-to-1, such as the Hall Pit.[8]
The only new material I have issue with is Bill, who should be the center piece of the module. But the way he’s written is hard to run. Despite being the last human, he’s “bitter and contemptuous" and barely recalls his past. So, he’s hard to talk to and might not even remember enough to hint that he’s human. For reference, when he insulted my players, they bullied him back (showed him his reflection in a mirror -- I ruled his human side would hate realizing he’s been turned into a Pokémon), stole the treasure, and fled.
My only other gripe is this adventure doesn’t come with a recommended level range. White Plume is for levels 5 - 10, which is pretty wide. I ran this with Stage 3 characters (Alazakam, Charizard, Victribell, Nidoqueen) and Charizard flying trivialized several of the puzzles -- but a wizard with the Fly spell could do the same. The enemy range is all over the place -- a few Goldeens is trivial but the room with 8 Mankeys could easily wipe a 2nd stage party.
I would always run Vileplume Mountain over the original. As a funhouse dungeon, you want to play up the laughs, and framing it in the Pokémon world certainly does this.
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In conclusion, I do really like this system and adventure. My group had a fun time running through the soggy tunnels of Vileplume Mountain. Playing as Pokémon is novel enough to overcome any hiccups of a lite system. The faults lie within the source material: either the 1st Pokémon games, or White Plume Mountain.
An Addendum: I’ve mentioned “meeting this where it is” a few times because it would be unfair to order a steak and get upset it isn’t vegan. However! This game needs more Pokémon Mystery Dungeon. You play as a Pokémon! It’s got dungeon in the name! It’s the perfect inspiration!
Make your players take a personality quiz to get a starter! "But only Gen 1 Starters are in Oddish!" I hear you cry. More to follow...
[1] Though not devastating. Pokémon traditionally doubles the damage of super-effective attacks, which means a Geodude could absolutely explode a Charizard with Rock throw. I like the less extreme approach here.
[2] Too close a copy and you begin to wonder why not just play the video game instead.
[3] I’ve been playing a lot of Pokémon Champions which is literally just battling other players.
[4] A common issue with games with status effects against solo enemies.
[5] This is due to an error in the code, corrected in later games (I think). However, this isn’t an issue as there is only one ghost type move (Lick) and only one Pokémon line (Ghastly) can learn it.
[6] Player skill vs character skill, etc.
[7] From Gen 2: Magcargo’s dex entry: “Its body temperature is roughly 18,000 degrees F. Flames spout from gaps in its hardened shell.” The Sun’s surface is 10,000 ºF.
[8] In my game, someone fell in, took 1 point of damage, and climbed back out without issue. W.F.S even rated this ⅕ in his review.
