Pokemon Writing Set in the "Real World"

[Yaziyo]

Hey all.

I've just signed up to this forum but I'm not new to Pokemon writing. I used to regularly take part in collaborative Pokemon RPs on other forums, but haven't for many years.

For a long time, I've toyed with the idea of setting a Pokemon adventure in the real world. In real life, I love travel and I love discovering new places and for me, that goes hand in hand with the classic Pokemon tale: young trainer travels the land to gain badges and enter the Pokemon league. Obviously, in order to do this, you'd need to take liberties to change things in the Pokemon universe, as well as changing things about the real world (in the same way that Harry Potter is set in the UK but is really a parallel universe of sorts).

Does anyone have any links to fics that do this? I'd like to write an adventure set in my home country of Australia but am curious to see how other writers have attempted this concept too.

 

[Beth Pavell]

If I were you I'd write an original region based on Australia. Reason being, a lot of things about Pokémon simply won't make sense set in the real world - the crazy biology, for one. That way you can also take liberties with the geography of your region.

My own Long Walk draws a lot of inspiration from the UK despite being set in Johto, by way of example. So yes, I've taken liberties with Johto even though it's a canon region, adding in new places in the region and generally fleshing it out from the game - and anime - skeleton

 

[Persephone]

The most common "real world" variant is to just have the first four regions be states in Japan, and it's presumed that everywhere else has mostly Pokemon and regional governments as well. Then Kalos and Unova sort of messed with that, but it's still doable if you just assume that NYC is a state now and France just never believed in devolution. But really those stories just stick to the regions and occasionally have the government of Japan do something.

I've seen summaries for USA Pokemon journeys on ff.net but never read any. The closest I've read were a story with mechanics similar to PMD III (that came out well before it) where people alternate between living lives in the Pokemon World and the real world, as well as a story where Pokemon just suddenly began to appear. My stories sort of zig-zag it, since they take place entirely in Kanto/Sinnoh but the rest of the world very much exists around it. WWII, colonialism, international labor patterns, the rise of English as a global language, Polynesian expansion, Hinduism, and Communism are all mentioned at various points and play varying roles in the story, but it is highly improbable that any real world locations get visited. It's honestly a nightmare to pull off so unless you want to do a story specifically designed to be challenging to write, I would just take Pavell's advice. Make a region with deserts, forests, and a large city that just happens to have striking resemblances to Sydney. Maybe make the myths of the region revolve around the Uluru expy. That would be much easier to pull off than trying to imagine all of the implications that real Pokemon would have on Australia.

 

[Glitchipedia]

I set the Pokémon regions as fictional countries on an alternate Earth, separate from the places that inspired them—the explanation for this being that Regigigas duplicated a couple of landmasses by accident. In the present day, Pokémon are scarce outside of these regions, while the reverse is true for real animals.

This is mostly to enable me to reference real-world events and other fictional works without having to "Pokémonize" them. There's only so far you can take that conversion process before it ceases to amuse or even be logical.

 

[Yaziyo]

I have a somewhat romanticised idea of the real world where, instead of animals, there are Pokemon. I envision a trainer finishing highschool and, instead of going to university like his parents expect of him, he takes a year to attempt the national Pokemon league gym challenge. He would travel the country by car, train in national parks and interact with other trainers on similar journeys.

Of course it would be difficult making a believable "real world" featuring Pokemon, but, in my eyes, that's the appeal of it. It's trying to figure out what wild Pokemon would make sense to be native to a place, and what wouldn't (inb4 Kangaskhan ). It's Mareep and Miltank farms. It's getting real locations and making them work in the context of Pokemon. I understand why you would set it in a fictional region which resembles the real world, but, in my mind, the appeal is the challenge of combining the two worlds in a way that makes sense.

By the way, Beth, I'm now currently reading your "The Long Walk". It's excellent. I can definitely see how you've changed Johto to resemble Britain.

Anyway I'm going to think about this more, and try to plan how I could make it work.

 

[Persephone]

If you must add species, I think you'd be better off just making lots of fakemons for Australia. Out of stereotypical wildlife, you have Kangaskhan and Krookodile (which would actually go well with Australia for a penal colony, desert, and saltwater crocodile joke all in one). But you don't have Koalas, Wombats, Platypi, Tasmanian Devils, Cassowaries, Funnel Spiders, Crocodile Hunters, or Taipans.

To me what you described really would work better as an alternate world that just happens to be a bit more realistic. Once you throw it into "the real world" you're usually kind of obligated to make it hyper-realistic if being in "the real world" is a major plot point. Fictionalizing things also lets you play around with the setting and mythology a lot more.