Heart Gold Kingslocke: Episode 7

Introduction/rules here.

We stand at a crossroads.

On route 38: a dirt road with white picket fences, flowers and trees on either side.
Outside Ecruteak City: a dirt path, trees all around, a signpost, a cave entrance to the east.

With Morty defeated and the Fog Badge in hand, I can continue west from Ecruteak City, towards Olivine City, or turn and head east, towards Mahogany Town.

Johto’s mid-game is pretty open; you can do the next three gyms in almost any order.  Whichever way I go, I’ll need Surf, either to investigate Lake of Rage or to cross the sea to Cianwood Island – but not immediately.  I don’t have any Pokémon accessible at the moment who can use Surf, but the Kingslocke rules do make exceptions when you need an HM to move forward in the story; if it becomes necessary, I’ll be able to defy the Eight of Wands and withdraw Abazigal the Dratini to handle that.  Still, it would be better if I didn’t have to… and I think my odds are best if I head to Olivine City first.

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Heart Gold Kingslocke: Episode 5

Introduction/rules here.

Last time we left off, I was hoping to prepare my team to challenge the Goldenrod City Gym and its infamous master, Whitney’s Miltank.  There’s a lot of trainers up to the north of the city that we can fight before we move on to earn some more levels, and some of them even have personalities!

Talking to a young man with spiky hair on route 35: I don't want to miss anything you do from now on!

This is Juggler Irwin.  Irwin has heard about the Slowpoke Well incident, is now the player character’s fanboy, and wants to hear about everything they do.  I am not certain this is an appropriate relationship for him to have with a preteen child.

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Heart Gold Kingslocke: Episode 4

Introduction/rules here.

When we last left off, the cards had dealt me a new team of two Pokémon – Breeze the Pidgey and Trixie the Gastly.  Trixie is only level 4, so we’re just going to time-lapse over some grinding in Ilex Forest and skip to the good stuff.

Call from Liz: They're also working to bring back legendary Pokémon that haven't appeared in front of humans since long, long ago. That's amazing isn't it?

I neglected to screenshot the first line of this call from Picnicker Liz (which was something like “the Kimono Girls aren’t just good dancers, you know!”), but it seems like she’s plugged into some surprisingly deep gossip!  The Kimono Girls and Professor Elm don’t even tell the player about this stuff until the end of the game, and you’re supposed to be helping them somehow!

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Heart Gold Kingslocke: Episode 2

Introduction/rules here.

Last time we were off to a very strong start, with four team members and only one nasty card in play (although it is the pseudo-Nuzlocke card, which can be fairly vicious). Let’s see if my luck holds.

On route 31, off the path and near some grass and trees, talking to a kid in a straw hat. Kid: You can catch Pokémon even if you have six with you.

This helpful little dude is Bug Catcher Wade, and he’s the second trainer you can exchange phone numbers with.  He’s not really all that important (I don’t even think his Weedle is in the top percentage of Weedle), but I think we should ship him with Youngster Joey.  It’ll be good for morale.

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Heart Gold Kingslocke: Episode 1

Introduction/rules here.

Sunrise over water

Hello, Johto, my old friend; I’ve come to play through you again.

Title screen with Ho-oh

There is some deep part of my nostalgia that Heart Gold and Soul Silver touch in a way that Fire Red and Leaf Green somehow don’t.  Maybe it’s just that they’re better put-together than their predecessors, or that the original Gold and Silver were better put-together than their predecessors.  Maybe we’ll figure out what it is.  There’ve been longer shots, after all.

Of course, I’ll have enough on my mind just keeping my insane tarot-based challenge rules straight.

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Heart Gold Kingslocke: The Rules

all right, b!tches, let’s gold up this heart

So here’s the deal: this is gonna be a test of the Kingslocke Advanced Rules.  The second test, in fact (I’ve already run the Advanced Rules once on X and made a couple of changes based on that experience, although I didn’t fully document that run).  The Kingslocke, for anyone just joining us now, is the dumbest and most convoluted Pokémon challenge run ever devised by a mortal fake gamer guy (I am the guy; it me).  Its basic mechanic is just that, whenever you visit a new location, you have to draw a card from a tarot deck and follow a unique rule based on the card you draw.  And that is the only simple thing about the Kingslocke.

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Kingslocke things

So I finished work a little while ago on the Third Revised Edition of the Kingslocke rules, the latest refinement of the diabolical instrument I have created to bring elemental Chaos screaming into the world at the behest of the Dark Forces from Parts Unknown whose will I ultimately serve. And I am a little bit wary of doing more Kingslocke stuff, because it has been a fairly significant chunk of my output lately and I can imagine it might be getting boring, but I’d like to solicit some feedback on that (besides, I also want to finish the prophesied Advanced Rules, the version that will give different rules to the four suits of the Minor Arcana). I have ideas in my head for other things I want to write, but the trouble is, one of those things is my PhD thesis, which I need to have more or less complete by the end of this year, and right now I don’t want to commit to anything big or interesting that I know I’ll probably just have to abandon in a month or two because I need to crunch out a chapter. Writing up playthroughs at a leisurely pace is at least relatively low-effort.

I’ve had some support expressed on Patreon for doing a run of Heart Gold/Soul Silver, which would be fun; I have a lot of nostalgia investment in those particular games. I’d also like to see how the Kingslocke plays in gen VIII, which I still haven’t tried, or even go back further and test it in gen I or II; really there’s a lot of options here. The other thing on my mind is how I want to handle publishing the Advanced Rules. I actually have a complete draft of them already, and I’ve been doing an undocumented run of X to test them, but I definitely think they still need some balance patches, and even on a conceptual level I’m not 100% committed to whether the Advanced Rules should be harder or just more complicated. What had occurred to me as something that might be fun was to start a run without actually publishing the new ruleset and then reveal what all the cards do as they appear. All the new card effects in the Advanced Rules are variations on the standard effects of the Minor Arcana in the Third Revised Edition, so stuff wouldn’t come completely out of nowhere, but there’d be some interesting surprises, I hope.

To recap: are people feeling bored of this Kingslocke nonsense? If not, which game would be fun for me to play next? And how does that plan for the Advanced Rules sound?

Kingslocke Rules: Third Revised Edition

Welcome once again, trainers, to what I think I can confidently say is the dumbest and most convoluted Pokémon challenge run on the internet.  And that’s a Pokémaniacal guarantee: if you think you can find one that’s worse, show it to me and I’ll think of a way to make this one even stupider.  This thing is already based on a tarot deck and the rules to a complicated drinking game; do you think I’m afraid to somehow blend it with strip poker, Japanese chess and Mornington Crescent?  Try me, I fµ¢£ing dare you.

Welcome… to the Kingslocke.

This is the Third Revised Edition of the rules, which incorporates changes inspired by my recent run of Black 2 and the simultaneous runs of Black 2 and White 2 by Josh and Tanner of the EXP. Share podcast.  The changes in this edition are mostly aimed at making the rules smoother, more consistent and easier to understand: I’ve tried to present the most important information first, use more keywords with consistent meanings, and make the whole package less intimidating and easier to navigate using collapsible sections and clickable links.  However, there are also some “balance” changes and several new rulings for corner cases.  Design notes and commentary on the changes will be available soon; if you’re interested in the Kingslocke’s history and design, you can also look at the First and Second Revised Editions, the Ur-Rules and my fully documented runs of Pearl and Black 2.  If you just want to play this ridiculous thing… read on.

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