Thankfully, there are no letters in your logo, so a name change is easy, but if you want to keep the "star" theme, you can use something like SuperStars, Sparks, Athlete, Sports, Speed, Body, and anything related.
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Your Evil Team
- Thread starter Totodile_ShyGuy
- Start date
Team Hunger (I need a better name)
The logo would be a Snorlax (or other food Pokemon) with it's head bit off. The leader hates Pokemon and all of the teams food is made out of Pokemon. For example, if you interact with food in a base it could say something like "This burger looks oddly like Pikachu...". All admins and the leader have Frustration on every Pokemon, and the team abuses Pokemon, so you could see Electric-type Pokemon being chained down to power everything, and Fire-type Pokemon being trapped to heat up rooms. There will mostly be Pokemon being abused instead of more practical solutions. There could be a Grunt/Admin that had left the team, becoming your rival. They would use friendly Pokemon, and all their Pokemon would have Return starting at some point in the game. Also their Pokemon would love them incredibly, because your rival had saved them from Team Hunger. They might have the Sw/Sh max happiness bonuses.
The logo would be a Snorlax (or other food Pokemon) with it's head bit off. The leader hates Pokemon and all of the teams food is made out of Pokemon. For example, if you interact with food in a base it could say something like "This burger looks oddly like Pikachu...". All admins and the leader have Frustration on every Pokemon, and the team abuses Pokemon, so you could see Electric-type Pokemon being chained down to power everything, and Fire-type Pokemon being trapped to heat up rooms. There will mostly be Pokemon being abused instead of more practical solutions. There could be a Grunt/Admin that had left the team, becoming your rival. They would use friendly Pokemon, and all their Pokemon would have Return starting at some point in the game. Also their Pokemon would love them incredibly, because your rival had saved them from Team Hunger. They might have the Sw/Sh max happiness bonuses.
The version exclusive legendary (either Water/Ice or Electric/Fire, who are either about freezing water or scorching electricity, respectively) had killed his parents (on accident) by either freezing them in a rainstorm, or burning them in a thunderstorm. Also, that makes his main goal to capture the legendary and make its life as miserable as possible, but when he catches it, he decides to eat it. You then have to rescue the legendary from him.
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Team Team. Does generic bad stuff from stealing Pokemon to not tipping the waiter at least 10% at the nearby diner. Uses a mixture of early game rodents/bugs, dark and poison types(and never the rare or interesting ones, stuff like Poochyena, Purrlion, and Zubat)
You must stop them from achieving their vague and poorly defined goals, which may or may not involve a legendary pokemon, even they aren't so sure, honestly, but they will disrupt(aka railroad) you enough to where you'll have to stop them regardless.
You must stop them from achieving their vague and poorly defined goals, which may or may not involve a legendary pokemon, even they aren't so sure, honestly, but they will disrupt(aka railroad) you enough to where you'll have to stop them regardless.
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One I've been thinking about:
Team Exotic. Pokemon poachers, catching things that are common here to sell in other regions and vice versa. Grunts specifically use common mons from other regions (Lechonk, Purrloin, Pidgey, etc) for their teams, scientists use teams of 6 mons from the immediate area, Admins/bosses use rare mons from other regions. The leader is Austin Cope*, who only shows up at the very end because he wants to know why this branch is having so much trouble.
Bases tend to have stuff found nowhere else in the region in the immediate vicinity, even if it doesn't make sense for the climate etc. This also allows for various weird trades and gift mons that don't make sense elsewhere.
Evil plot is purely about making money by catching rare and exotic stuff, which includes the legendaries, but the player can also see the damage being done to the local environment more clearly than in most of the games.
*Either Emboar, Tangrowth, Wishiwashi, Diggersby, Espeon, Swellow, or just a pseudolegend-heavy sand team, depending on which is more fun.
Team Exotic. Pokemon poachers, catching things that are common here to sell in other regions and vice versa. Grunts specifically use common mons from other regions (Lechonk, Purrloin, Pidgey, etc) for their teams, scientists use teams of 6 mons from the immediate area, Admins/bosses use rare mons from other regions. The leader is Austin Cope*, who only shows up at the very end because he wants to know why this branch is having so much trouble.
Bases tend to have stuff found nowhere else in the region in the immediate vicinity, even if it doesn't make sense for the climate etc. This also allows for various weird trades and gift mons that don't make sense elsewhere.
Evil plot is purely about making money by catching rare and exotic stuff, which includes the legendaries, but the player can also see the damage being done to the local environment more clearly than in most of the games.
*Either Emboar, Tangrowth, Wishiwashi, Diggersby, Espeon, Swellow, or just a pseudolegend-heavy sand team, depending on which is more fun.
Team... name undecided.
At first they just seem like generic bad guys, willing to do anything but an honest days work to get money quick. Then comes the pokémon with moves they shouldn't know that early. Then come the pokémon with moves they shouldn't know. Then come the pokémon with abilities they shouldn't have, and the admins who brag about the "test subjects working as designed". Then come the pokémon that have visibly been experimented on. Then comes the boss, who has gone so off the deep end from his once noble goal that he has created new life.
At first they just seem like generic bad guys, willing to do anything but an honest days work to get money quick. Then comes the pokémon with moves they shouldn't know that early. Then come the pokémon with moves they shouldn't know. Then come the pokémon with abilities they shouldn't have, and the admins who brag about the "test subjects working as designed". Then come the pokémon that have visibly been experimented on. Then comes the boss, who has gone so off the deep end from his once noble goal that he has created new life.
While I do not have a true idea down for them, here’s a baseline I’ve had for a while:
Ghetsis. He’s back. And he is not happy.
But rather than just rerun Team Plasma, he’d have long since established rule over a new group. Once again, I lack a name for it. Regardless, it’s not truly lead by Ghetsis, he stepped down at some point and now just oversees it, but it is now instead led by a much more humane character. Unlike Ghetsis, who is completely merciless when it comes to Pokemon, this group is led by yet another person with a Crobat.
But the main kicker of this group is not of their origin, but rather their actions - They’ll probably be the first professional Evil Team the world of Pokemon has seen (at least, in their specific region). The Grunts, while likely much less abundant than other teams, are well-trained with codes, strength, and most of all, Strategy. Doubt the protagonist would get little more than hints about their existence until that first run-in with a Grunt who blundered terribly.
But they’re prepared for a rumble. Remember how Ghetsis used to lead the team? Well, he knows of the threat that a Pokemon Protagonist has. And he’s done his research. One strong child trainer’s a coincidence - Two’s a trend. And both are not only silent, but also children.
And this research is now in the hands of a Leader who cares.
With this in mind, when you run into their base(s), you’ll see many posters up on the walls - Phrases like “Hear nothing? SAY SOMETHING!” and “Silence KILLS!” headline the tops of each one of them, with explanations of problems. Yet all of them have the phrase “SPEAKLOW” plastered somewhere in the words, usually referred to if someone “sees something suspicious”.
And later on, you discover a major problem about it. Remember how the leader has a Crobat? Well, a Crobat means they care about even the lowest of their grunts. So what if they employed a catchphrase to hint towards any drills they might’ve been taught?
Well, enter SPEAKLOW protocol, which you learn the meaning of yourself at some point:
Stop whatever it is you’re doing
Prepare an escape route
Eavesdrop onto the suspect
Alert your higher-ups if threat is genuine
Keep calm
Log any details you can about them
Out yourself from the situation
Walk away, your life is worth more than your job.
My friend, by the time you learn this catchphrase, not only do they know what you look like, but they also know that you are a huge threat. Not just to the job, not just to the team and its goals, but to each and every single member of the team. And now you know why that first Grunt encounter had them nearly at a panic attack.
And with a leader who cares, you know that the whole entire team is gonna do its absolute best to make sure you do not interfere, by any means necessary. And you know that they are heavily trained specifically for the moment they run into you.
From then on, you better watch your back and you better watch it closely - You now need to outsmart a group of professionals at their own game before they either end you or fulfill their goals. And lemme tell you - with Ghetsis involved, even as merely a spectator, those goals will not end well for the world if carried out in full.
Ghetsis. He’s back. And he is not happy.
But rather than just rerun Team Plasma, he’d have long since established rule over a new group. Once again, I lack a name for it. Regardless, it’s not truly lead by Ghetsis, he stepped down at some point and now just oversees it, but it is now instead led by a much more humane character. Unlike Ghetsis, who is completely merciless when it comes to Pokemon, this group is led by yet another person with a Crobat.
But the main kicker of this group is not of their origin, but rather their actions - They’ll probably be the first professional Evil Team the world of Pokemon has seen (at least, in their specific region). The Grunts, while likely much less abundant than other teams, are well-trained with codes, strength, and most of all, Strategy. Doubt the protagonist would get little more than hints about their existence until that first run-in with a Grunt who blundered terribly.
But they’re prepared for a rumble. Remember how Ghetsis used to lead the team? Well, he knows of the threat that a Pokemon Protagonist has. And he’s done his research. One strong child trainer’s a coincidence - Two’s a trend. And both are not only silent, but also children.
And this research is now in the hands of a Leader who cares.
With this in mind, when you run into their base(s), you’ll see many posters up on the walls - Phrases like “Hear nothing? SAY SOMETHING!” and “Silence KILLS!” headline the tops of each one of them, with explanations of problems. Yet all of them have the phrase “SPEAKLOW” plastered somewhere in the words, usually referred to if someone “sees something suspicious”.
And later on, you discover a major problem about it. Remember how the leader has a Crobat? Well, a Crobat means they care about even the lowest of their grunts. So what if they employed a catchphrase to hint towards any drills they might’ve been taught?
Well, enter SPEAKLOW protocol, which you learn the meaning of yourself at some point:
Stop whatever it is you’re doing
Prepare an escape route
Eavesdrop onto the suspect
Alert your higher-ups if threat is genuine
Keep calm
Log any details you can about them
Out yourself from the situation
Walk away, your life is worth more than your job.
My friend, by the time you learn this catchphrase, not only do they know what you look like, but they also know that you are a huge threat. Not just to the job, not just to the team and its goals, but to each and every single member of the team. And now you know why that first Grunt encounter had them nearly at a panic attack.
And with a leader who cares, you know that the whole entire team is gonna do its absolute best to make sure you do not interfere, by any means necessary. And you know that they are heavily trained specifically for the moment they run into you.
From then on, you better watch your back and you better watch it closely - You now need to outsmart a group of professionals at their own game before they either end you or fulfill their goals. And lemme tell you - with Ghetsis involved, even as merely a spectator, those goals will not end well for the world if carried out in full.
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Team Insidious Insectoids
The Bug type is underrated. I will fix that.
Plan: Catch an Arceus and use its power to rewrite the type chart so that the Bug type hits for super effective damage against every type and resists every type. Oh, and Drapion will be Bug/Dark and Flygon will be Bug/Dragon.
What will I use: Bugs.
What will my grunts use: Bugs.
What will my admins use: Bugs.
Uniform: BUUUUUUUUUUUUGS
The Bug type is underrated. I will fix that.
Plan: Catch an Arceus and use its power to rewrite the type chart so that the Bug type hits for super effective damage against every type and resists every type. Oh, and Drapion will be Bug/Dark and Flygon will be Bug/Dragon.
What will I use: Bugs.
What will my grunts use: Bugs.
What will my admins use: Bugs.
Uniform: BUUUUUUUUUUUUGS
The other day I was thinking about how Redacted because of spoilers reminded me a lot of Maxie and Archie from the Hoenn region's games, which in turn got me thinking about Team Magma and Team Aqua again. I feel like I enjoyed Scarlet & Violet's base game more than that of Sword & Shield's, but less than that of Legends, and I feel like one of the things that could have given the game a bit more of an identity would be if the Paldea region followed in Hoenn's tracks with version-exclusive evil teams of their own. Personally I've always been a fan of the idea that the same region could have multiple teams that are rivals with both the player and the other team(s), and while I know a number of fan games that do this, the only instances we've seen from the official core series games so far have been with the two Hoenn teams, and I guess you could count the two different factions of Team Plasma in Black & White 2 if you felt like it.
So with this in mind, I'd like to introduce Team Scarlet and Team Violet. Or as I like to call them, "the ideas I wanted to see in the actual game instead of what we technically got". The concept and execution of these two new evil teams would have been exactly what you would expect. Much like Team Magma and Team Aqua before them, these two teams would have opposing goals and values of each other, with Team Scarlet believing that the past is good and we need to go back to how things were, while Team Violet would believe in the possibilities of the future and promote progress towards it. Each of those teams could be led by Redacted because of spoilers and create an interesting story dynamic with one of the game's main characters, whose own beliefs would probably have lined up somewhere in the middle of that spectrum.
Don't get me wrong, I thought "this character's" storyline was just as touching as most of you probably thought, but while what we got was perfectly fine, I feel like this could have been taken even further. Maybe "this character" would have some kind of internal conflict because the two team leaders had opposing views and those disagreements were what split those characters apart. Maybe after the events of the main story and/or the DLC, these two leaders would cross paths again, not knowing the fate of what happened to the specific leader in your version of the game you're playing, only to realize it's perhaps late to make amends.
So with this in mind, I'd like to introduce Team Scarlet and Team Violet. Or as I like to call them, "the ideas I wanted to see in the actual game instead of what we technically got". The concept and execution of these two new evil teams would have been exactly what you would expect. Much like Team Magma and Team Aqua before them, these two teams would have opposing goals and values of each other, with Team Scarlet believing that the past is good and we need to go back to how things were, while Team Violet would believe in the possibilities of the future and promote progress towards it. Each of those teams could be led by Redacted because of spoilers and create an interesting story dynamic with one of the game's main characters, whose own beliefs would probably have lined up somewhere in the middle of that spectrum.
Don't get me wrong, I thought "this character's" storyline was just as touching as most of you probably thought, but while what we got was perfectly fine, I feel like this could have been taken even further. Maybe "this character" would have some kind of internal conflict because the two team leaders had opposing views and those disagreements were what split those characters apart. Maybe after the events of the main story and/or the DLC, these two leaders would cross paths again, not knowing the fate of what happened to the specific leader in your version of the game you're playing, only to realize it's perhaps late to make amends.
I've definitely been thinking about more substantial homebrew worldbuilding relating to [SV Endgame], but I never really felt that [character] had an ideology in mind. Scarlet has its focus on dinosaurs, while I feel that having a group of people wanting to go back to the past have a period of history (instead of prehistory) in mind.
Leaning into the imagination/book aspect ends up being a lot more general than past/future. When translating that to a Team, my thoughts ended up with a religious/cult aspect. They've got their angels, as described in their text, and those same creatures appearing in the world means that the apocalypse is nigh. Bow before your new God or be destroyed in body and soul.
At the moment though, I come down on a different position with the whole thing. It still very much feels that the original Professor's impetus is "wow, these described creatures are cool" and that going against that position runs contrary to what Pokemon is defined by. This then leads into another central idea for an antagonist (though there is absolutely room for overlap with the above): a group that believes that because the results of fantasy/imagination are Extremely DangerousTM, there should be extreme censorship to ensure that a Paradox cannot be created again. Of course, by placing this Team into a custom Region, this crusade can be as blatantly contradictory with the current reality as desired.
At the moment though, I come down on a different position with the whole thing. It still very much feels that the original Professor's impetus is "wow, these described creatures are cool" and that going against that position runs contrary to what Pokemon is defined by. This then leads into another central idea for an antagonist (though there is absolutely room for overlap with the above): a group that believes that because the results of fantasy/imagination are Extremely DangerousTM, there should be extreme censorship to ensure that a Paradox cannot be created again. Of course, by placing this Team into a custom Region, this crusade can be as blatantly contradictory with the current reality as desired.
If I ever came up with an evil team it would be.... well, Team Skull. They stole my thunder. They're also the only thing I actually like about Gen 7, and I want the concept to return. No I don't think Guzma and the Team Skull Grunt design are hot what are you talking about.
I would like Pokémon to have more of a political element to it. It's not something that Pokémon has ever actually shied away from -- gen 1 with Actual Crime, gen 3 climate change, gen 5 Pokémon itself as a political concept, gen 7 family trauma and also Team Skull, gen 8 also climate change. My perfect enemy team is for people to just be Really Annoyed Actually with society and how it's inequal, and to be trying to do something about it. Disrupt the state apparatus ceremonies by, in the Pokémon context, disrupting gym challenges and leadership. Riot and take over an entire town through disorder, because (in my fantasy) law enforcement are weapons of oppression and they screwed up over something so tensions boiled over. Overall, just reject the way that the society you're in says you "should be like" and do the opposite instead.
Team Skull actually checked all of these boxes which is what makes them so fascinating to me. Gen 7 handled Team Skull in such a way where they didn't actually go into the "the working class are screwed over by society and that's why they join such a team / community" but it was all implied with a little adult thought. If I ever put the time into making a ROMhack, I would make the evil team the same with more overt subtext instead of the implicative route Gen 7 took with Team Skull. And I would likely pull the same trick, wherein there is an actually just evil catastrophic presence in the region who the player character sides with the anti-social lot to handle, as somewhat of a redeeming arc to show their behaviour isn't because they're actually evil and being anti-establishment has its perks because you don't buy into the establishment's narrative.
It turns out edgy ROMhack writing can also happen in adults adequately disillusioned with society, go figure
I would like Pokémon to have more of a political element to it. It's not something that Pokémon has ever actually shied away from -- gen 1 with Actual Crime, gen 3 climate change, gen 5 Pokémon itself as a political concept, gen 7 family trauma and also Team Skull, gen 8 also climate change. My perfect enemy team is for people to just be Really Annoyed Actually with society and how it's inequal, and to be trying to do something about it. Disrupt the state apparatus ceremonies by, in the Pokémon context, disrupting gym challenges and leadership. Riot and take over an entire town through disorder, because (in my fantasy) law enforcement are weapons of oppression and they screwed up over something so tensions boiled over. Overall, just reject the way that the society you're in says you "should be like" and do the opposite instead.
Team Skull actually checked all of these boxes which is what makes them so fascinating to me. Gen 7 handled Team Skull in such a way where they didn't actually go into the "the working class are screwed over by society and that's why they join such a team / community" but it was all implied with a little adult thought. If I ever put the time into making a ROMhack, I would make the evil team the same with more overt subtext instead of the implicative route Gen 7 took with Team Skull. And I would likely pull the same trick, wherein there is an actually just evil catastrophic presence in the region who the player character sides with the anti-social lot to handle, as somewhat of a redeeming arc to show their behaviour isn't because they're actually evil and being anti-establishment has its perks because you don't buy into the establishment's narrative.
Team Name: Team Venom (wip name
Goal: Mutates and fabricates Pokemon in the name of Science in hopes of creating things that can outclass existing Pokemon, allowing the team to dominate the entire region.
Types Used: No one specific type is used, but Poison, Dark, Bug, Psychic, and Steel are common standouts. Most Pokemon used are semi-artificial or mutated, or something like that, commonly including the likes of Porygon, Ditto, and Varoom.
Admin Teams: Admins focus on specific types, and all have a signature Pokemon with a unique type combination. For example, one might have a Steel-type team with Pokemon like Scizor and Bronzong, and have a Revavroom as him signature.
Leader Team: This team design assumes a new main series game in which new Pokemon are designed for the villain team, which are loosely based off of existing Pokemon and have unique or rare type combinations. The leader of the team would use a number of these Pokemon, as well as a Ditto and a Genesect, with the Genesect as his signature.
Team Name:
Goal: This team has a weird obsession with art. In the outside, they pretend to be an ordinary group of random artists and musicians that do weird stuff and act weird like regular villain teams do.
Types Used:
Grunt Teams:
Admin Teams:
Leader Team:
this last one is a work in progress
Goal: Mutates and fabricates Pokemon in the name of Science in hopes of creating things that can outclass existing Pokemon, allowing the team to dominate the entire region.
Types Used: No one specific type is used, but Poison, Dark, Bug, Psychic, and Steel are common standouts. Most Pokemon used are semi-artificial or mutated, or something like that, commonly including the likes of Porygon, Ditto, and Varoom.
Admin Teams: Admins focus on specific types, and all have a signature Pokemon with a unique type combination. For example, one might have a Steel-type team with Pokemon like Scizor and Bronzong, and have a Revavroom as him signature.
Leader Team: This team design assumes a new main series game in which new Pokemon are designed for the villain team, which are loosely based off of existing Pokemon and have unique or rare type combinations. The leader of the team would use a number of these Pokemon, as well as a Ditto and a Genesect, with the Genesect as his signature.
Team Name:
Goal: This team has a weird obsession with art. In the outside, they pretend to be an ordinary group of random artists and musicians that do weird stuff and act weird like regular villain teams do.
Types Used:
Grunt Teams:
Admin Teams:
Leader Team:
this last one is a work in progress