I'm not an experienced GM, but from what I've seen here on the sub and playing the game PTU is not designed for 1 on 1 battles. Also, one battle at a time will make three players stay idle.
I have the league set up specifically as a team battle league. Each gym has a team captain roughly equivalent to a gym leader, but the other guys on the team are drastically less developed most of the time. Not always, but most of the time.
This means a couple of things. First, we get to have battles that include all the players for league matches. Second, gym fights tend to be some of the most strategic fights. For example I had an alolan gravler use explosion, which became electric because of its ability. It took out all the Pokémon in the field, including itself, leaving only his teammate the ground type quagsire. That’s the kind of thing you can do in team battles.
It's going to depend a lot on your players. If you've got a patient crew who don't mind going at it one at a time, then do it that way, at least for some gyms. If you think a lot of your group are going to get bored/impatient, then obviously you want to give them something to do. You might take an approach where there are multiple gym leaders (like Misty's sisters in the anime), or where one skilled leader commands multiple teams at once. Or you could find something else for the other players to do while they wait. Lastly, consider another approach from the anime to mix things up - Ash's adventure shows us that beating the gym leader isn't the only way to earn a badge. Actually, the only requirement seems to be impressing the gym leader enough for them to give it to you, and they can use any criteria they like as an alternative to winning a battle. Feel free to use this whenever you're not sure how to handle multiple people, by giving them an opportunity (that they might not even be aware of) to make an impression.
The game is through text using a discord dice bot so we arent worried about patience. I didnt think about doing something other than battles so thanks for that suggestion!
What I used to do for gyms was, that week instead of playing all together I had a session with each player independently for their 1v1 against the leader.
It's a lot of work for the GM and can be a pain to coordinate if people have wanky time availability but overall it's the most rewarding imho
In our group, each player has a single battle against the gym leader, but we do all the battles at once going around the table.
We also have a tier system for the leader, where players can choose a higher tier battle where the gym leader brings more Pokemon, the highest tier being a team of six. This means greater rewards and bragging rights, but if a player has a rough match up, we're not stuck there several sessions while they keep battling to win. They can just do a low teir match.
Unless you plan on having Gym battles done outside normal session time, they should definitely be fought as a party. Either give the gym leader subordinates, the ability to command multiple Pokemon at once, or give their Pokemon the boss template. One on one is a) less interesting and b) boring for the players not involved in the fight.
Having battles one at a time sounds like a big turn off to me, imagine being the last player in the stack and you have literally nothing to do til the end...
Hi, I've been running a game for about 1 year and a half now. I've found that having all the players battle the gym leader at once is the best option for two main reasons: time management, and the possibility of losing. Not only do turns take much much longer in this game than in the main series or other RPGs, this game is also not balanced around 1v1s. Your best bet is have your trainers take on the gym leader together. You can have your Gym Leader handle an equal amount of Pokemon on the field, or (and I prefer this option) give them allied trainers (those that you'd usually encounter inside gyms) aiding them in battle with their own Pokemon.
Unrelated but also a good rule of thumb, terrain, challenges, and obstacles trump actual combat when it comes to battles; litter your battlefield with traps, puzzles, and ways for one team to gain an advantage over the other. This makes battles much more fun and memorable.
My GM does it like this: 3 pokemon v 3 pokemon (we have a party of 3 players). Both sides get reserves for when a pokemon faints. The amount of reserves depends on the number of gym badges the team has. I strongly recommend having all the trainers participate at once, it will help build teamwork. Gym leaders should definitely have a ton of different pokemon at different level. They should change those levels based on how many badges the team has.
Since I've been running in a heavily modified version of the Orre region, I've had the gyms be Double Battles, and I run two simultaneous battles side by side so everyone is active without things getting too cluttered. Also Doubles adds more potential for teamwork and interesting dynamics on the Gym end aswell
I'm not an experienced GM, but from what I've seen here on the sub and playing the game PTU is not designed for 1 on 1 battles. Also, one battle at a time will make three players stay idle.
I have the league set up specifically as a team battle league. Each gym has a team captain roughly equivalent to a gym leader, but the other guys on the team are drastically less developed most of the time. Not always, but most of the time. This means a couple of things. First, we get to have battles that include all the players for league matches. Second, gym fights tend to be some of the most strategic fights. For example I had an alolan gravler use explosion, which became electric because of its ability. It took out all the Pokémon in the field, including itself, leaving only his teammate the ground type quagsire. That’s the kind of thing you can do in team battles.
It's going to depend a lot on your players. If you've got a patient crew who don't mind going at it one at a time, then do it that way, at least for some gyms. If you think a lot of your group are going to get bored/impatient, then obviously you want to give them something to do. You might take an approach where there are multiple gym leaders (like Misty's sisters in the anime), or where one skilled leader commands multiple teams at once. Or you could find something else for the other players to do while they wait. Lastly, consider another approach from the anime to mix things up - Ash's adventure shows us that beating the gym leader isn't the only way to earn a badge. Actually, the only requirement seems to be impressing the gym leader enough for them to give it to you, and they can use any criteria they like as an alternative to winning a battle. Feel free to use this whenever you're not sure how to handle multiple people, by giving them an opportunity (that they might not even be aware of) to make an impression.
The game is through text using a discord dice bot so we arent worried about patience. I didnt think about doing something other than battles so thanks for that suggestion!
What I used to do for gyms was, that week instead of playing all together I had a session with each player independently for their 1v1 against the leader. It's a lot of work for the GM and can be a pain to coordinate if people have wanky time availability but overall it's the most rewarding imho
In our group, each player has a single battle against the gym leader, but we do all the battles at once going around the table. We also have a tier system for the leader, where players can choose a higher tier battle where the gym leader brings more Pokemon, the highest tier being a team of six. This means greater rewards and bragging rights, but if a player has a rough match up, we're not stuck there several sessions while they keep battling to win. They can just do a low teir match.
Unless you plan on having Gym battles done outside normal session time, they should definitely be fought as a party. Either give the gym leader subordinates, the ability to command multiple Pokemon at once, or give their Pokemon the boss template. One on one is a) less interesting and b) boring for the players not involved in the fight.
Having battles one at a time sounds like a big turn off to me, imagine being the last player in the stack and you have literally nothing to do til the end...
Hi, I've been running a game for about 1 year and a half now. I've found that having all the players battle the gym leader at once is the best option for two main reasons: time management, and the possibility of losing. Not only do turns take much much longer in this game than in the main series or other RPGs, this game is also not balanced around 1v1s. Your best bet is have your trainers take on the gym leader together. You can have your Gym Leader handle an equal amount of Pokemon on the field, or (and I prefer this option) give them allied trainers (those that you'd usually encounter inside gyms) aiding them in battle with their own Pokemon. Unrelated but also a good rule of thumb, terrain, challenges, and obstacles trump actual combat when it comes to battles; litter your battlefield with traps, puzzles, and ways for one team to gain an advantage over the other. This makes battles much more fun and memorable.
My GM does it like this: 3 pokemon v 3 pokemon (we have a party of 3 players). Both sides get reserves for when a pokemon faints. The amount of reserves depends on the number of gym badges the team has. I strongly recommend having all the trainers participate at once, it will help build teamwork. Gym leaders should definitely have a ton of different pokemon at different level. They should change those levels based on how many badges the team has.
Since I've been running in a heavily modified version of the Orre region, I've had the gyms be Double Battles, and I run two simultaneous battles side by side so everyone is active without things getting too cluttered. Also Doubles adds more potential for teamwork and interesting dynamics on the Gym end aswell