Energy's Herb Shoppe
Introduction: There are three types of Herbs usable as items in ASB battling: Mental Herbs, Power Herbs, and White Herbs. The Herb Shoppe allows trainers to grow and "cure" their own herbs for use in battle for a small price.
Here, you can buy either prepared herbs for one point over their list price, or Herb Seeds for 2 Item Points which can be planted into an Herb Plant.
The Process
Herbs are grown very similarly as Berry plants, but there's a catch: all three Herbs are derived from the same initial plant species. The Herb Plant grows and matures after 2 days, and produces 2-4 leaves (random).
Each herb, however, gains its individual effects by the growing and curing process. Growing basically encompasses the number of times the plant is tended and watered, and curing is the process of drying the leaves so they become more potent and gain their effects. Here is a database for information on each herb.
Mental Herb
Description: A crisp, fresh leaf which has a flavor that helps snap the user's mind back into reality.
Effect:
Item Cost: 2
Activation: When hit be Attract, Disable, Encore, Taunt, or Torment.
Requirements: Water: 6-7 times, each watering round only when soil is
not saturated. Curing: 2-3 days.
Power Herb
Description: A somewhat potent herb with the right combinations of flavor and dryness which temporarily boosts the user's metabolism.
Effect:
Item Cost: 2
Activation: When using a charging attack (Solarbeam/Sky Attack etc.)
Requirements: Water: 4-5 times, each watering round only when soil is
not saturated. Curing: 4-5 days.
White Herb
Description: An extremely potent and dry leaf which immediately destroys any negative forces working on the user.
Effect:
Item Cost: 2
Activation: When hit by a stat-down resulting from an attack (holder or opponent).
Requirements: Water: 2-3 times, each watering round only when soil is
not saturated. Curing: 6+ days.
The Planting Process
Each trainer must buy a small plot of land for 15 Trainer Points. This land can hold up to 3 Herb Plants.
The soil will have 2 stages:
dry and
saturated. When the soil is
dry it can be watered. When the soil is
saturated, it cannot. Since Herbs are very hardy plants, the soil's dryness will have no effect on its growth rate, however, you should be able to get the right number of "waters" in before it flowers in 2 days (after which the leaves MUST be harvested or the plant dies). The soil changes from
saturated to
dry in 3 hours.
When the plant blooms, it must be harvested within 12 hours, or it will die and the leaves will be lost.
Anytime during the planting process, wild Pokemon or environmental hazards (rain, hail) can occur. Pokemon can be fought off in "mini-battles", usually just one or two attacks (Charmander, drive away that Wurmple with Ember!), by the trainer's own Pokemon, or else they may damage the plants. Alternatively, the player may build some kind of fence or moat to prevent these encounters, but these are risky and may backfire (fence falling and crushing plants, etc.).
The Curing Process
There is a second step to preparing herbs, which is to cure the leaves, otherwise, dry them. Curing takes much longer than the actual growth of the plant, the more potent the herb is to be, the longer the curing process would be.
Leaves are cured by stringing them onto a string and hanging it on a ceiling or similar. All trainers are allowed to use the communal curing rack, which can hold infinite plants. However, there is a 10% chance that at the end of curing, the leaves would be mixed up and you will receive somebody else's herb instead.
You can also buy a private curing rack for a mere 5 trainer points. It holds up to 10 leaves at a time. When a herb is done curing, it must be removed before the next interval of curing takes place (for example, if a Mental Herb is left on the rack for 24 hours after its 3rd day of curing, it becomes a Power Herb. However, there again is a catch. Since it probably has more "waters" than a Power Herb, the leaf would be ruined and useless).
Curing can be sped up by numerous Pokemon moves, namely Fire type attacks. However, there will be a chance that the leaf will be incinerated and destroyed, which increases with the power of the move. Absorb, Mega Drain, and Giga Drain can also be used to instantly finish curing, but will result in a weaker herb with one less use.
Imperfect Herbs
When the exact combination in "waters" and days of curing does not match any herb, the result, at the end of the curing process, is an
Imperfect Herb. For example, if I water my herb plant 4 times (Power Herb) but cure it for only 2 days (Mental Herb), the result would be an
Imperfect Herb. There really is nothing you can do with these but trash them, as they serve no purpose whatsoever.
The Role-Playing Part
Registration Desk:
Kept by OP and contains information about the whereabouts of each trainer's current herb status (curing: x days, growing, x days, etc.)
Entry Post:
The
trainer posts what they want to buy (plot of land, curing rack, seeds, prepared herbs, etc.) or an action they want to perform (check on leaves on their curing rack).
The
staff either sells whatever item the trainer wants to buy, or directs the trainer to his or her plot of land/curing rack.
Planting Post:
The
trainer role-plays planting their herbs.
The
staff points out any random items, dead plants, or wild Pokemon, as well as weather and environmental events.
The
trainer can carry out the appropriate response (telling their Pokemon to guard the plants, engaging in a mini-battle, etc.)
Harvesting and Curing Post:
The
trainer picks the leaves off of his/her herb plants after 48 hours. Then he/she states whether he/she will use the communal or a personal drying rack, which leaves to dry (label the leaves by number of waterings, ex. "I want to place two 4-leaves on the communal drying rack), and if any Pokemon will help the drying process.
The
staff doesn't do much, except tell the trainer if any random events (leaves accidentally incinerated), happen.
Finishing Post:
The
trainer removes any leaves off of the rack.
The
staff tells the trainer whether the herb has been successfully prepared or if they screwed up and got an Imperfect Herb. The
staff then gives the finished herbs to the trainer and posts a link in the OP.
This is just a concept and I'd like to know any problems or improvements. Just an interesting way of getting Herbs since we already have Berry planting as a concept.