URPG Times November 2017

credit to Mako for the banner!​

EDITOR’S NOTE:


First off, I would like to thank MagikChicken for taking the time and putting the effort into making the URPG USUM Invitational a reality. I cannot express how excited I am that we as a community have taken the time to organize such a big event. It is such an honor that I am able to present December 2017’s URPG Times Article just in time for all of the fun!


Secondly, I would like to thank everyone for giving me the chance to be the editor for the URPG Times. I’m not sure how long I’ll be around, but I really hope that I can get these newsletters out to you in a timely manner and I hope just as much that you all will enjoy them just as much as I’ve enjoyed putting this together for you guys.


But, right now, I think it’s important that we welcome every new player coming to us from this invitational. Whether you find yourself, battling, contesting, writing, drawing or roleplaying, it puts a smile on my face that this community exists, and I’m sure that anyone here that is new will find something enjoyable. I know I sure have!


To wrap this editor’s note up, a small remark from Magik,the hard-working individual who made the invitational possible.


“This is URPG’s way of giving back to the Pokémon community by making a fun, open atmosphere for Pokéfans to mingle! It allows us to offer our game to those who’re interested, which is great, but it’s a community outreach event as much as it is a recruitment one”




TABLE OF CONTENTS

I. URPG USUM INVITATIONAL
II. ART OF THE MONTH
III. POKEMON OF THE MONTH
IV. POKEMON OF THE MONTH LORE
V. STAFF UPDATE - NOVEMBER 2017
VI. URPG ART AND WRITING SECRET SANTA / WINTER WRITING COMPETITION
VII. NATIONAL PARK UPDATE
VIII. AFTER HOURS UPDATE
IX. THE OMNYO REGION???
X. JURK POKEMON OF THE MONTH: DUSKNOIR

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URPG USUM INVITATIONAL

By Ralin

​

Hey guys! It’s an invitational! You know what that mean? New players, gambling your savings away on the Wheel, a raffle, and new events for the sections!


The Wheel of New Beginnings is here! Every day during the invitational players can spend some money and take a chance to win some cool prizes! What kind of prizes you ask? Well…check out the link below! Also! Since the new players is what this whole things about, enjoy your chance at the wheel for half price! That’s only $2,000 a spin!

Check out the Wheel HERE!


Also exclusive to the invitational is the raffle! Every day in the invitational discord staff will roll for a chance to have players earn AWESOME prizes!!! Heart Scales? Mega Stones? What will YOU walk away with?

Check out the raffle HERE


There’s even more where this came from! But if you wanna find out about all the cool stuff going on throughout the sections of URPG, read onwards!

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ART OF THE MONTH

By Mako

​

This Curator's choice for Art of the Month is none other than "Cry Foul!" submitted by our very own VeloJello! A Complex capture submission for Passimian, this piece features a lot of the hallmarks of Velo's style which I (and I'm assuming a lot of others!) have easily come to love: great linework, an added realism to the subject Pokémon's anatomy, and an overall strong sense of attitude!

And the tonal attitude for this piece is definitely one that is playful and energetic. The dynamic, cartoonesque poses of the two Passimian is something to be appreciated, though it looks like these Teamwork Pokémon need a little work on being a team!

All this too is set in a lush color scheme, jungle greens accentuating the otherwise muted black and white bodies of the Passimian.

You can view this fun piece here!

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POKEMON OF THE MONTH

By Mikey
​

Hello Everyone! Mikey57 here with your Pokemon of the Month for November! Originally, we had a bird Pokemon as our analysis today, but they were eaten whole… by the new Pokemon of the month! Let’s dive into the belly of the Pokemon who ate all of the URPG Thanksgiving dinner! Snorlax!


SNORLAX


The big bear of the Kanto Region, Snorlax is known for it’s high HP and overall bulk. With a massive HP stat sitting at 524, a Special Defense stat at 319, and a Defense stat at 229, this Pokemon will most likely sponge a few hits unless that physical fighting move connects! Although Snorlax is pretty slow at 159 speed, it’ll dish out some hard hitting moves with a base 319 attack stat. Also, as a small note, Snorlax’s special attack is at 229, just like its Defense, so it’d be better to attack with Physical moves.


Snorlax is an uncommon beast within URPG, very few have the sleepy boy. But, Snorlax has a lot of amazing things behind it. Its abilities are: Immunity (Immune to Poison), Thick Fat (Halves Damage from Fire and Ice moves by 50%), and has the hidden ability Gluttony (Consumes pinch berries at 50% or less HP). The trick to Snorlax is it’ll use that Special Defense stat very effectively with Thicc Fat on it, basically walling off any Game of Thrones users (Fire and Ice, get it?), and be able to do major work for the team.


Snorlax has a lot of strange moves within its grasp, especially because of the fact it’s been around since the original games. Currently, since the release of Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon, Snorlax has some amazing combat tricks and utility within its level-up pool. Let’s look into some of these niches the bear has!



With 32 Level-Up Moves at this big boy’s disposal, there are so many amazing utility/sweep/stall enabling moves without even putting in extra money!


Belly Drum > Body Slam, Crunch, Double-Edge, Giga Impact, Heavy Slam, High Horsepower.


Snorlax has some pretty great coverage just on it’s own offensive move pool highlights. Belly drum, draining Snorlax’s total HP in half as a cost, raises its attack to +6! Though it’s bulky, it’s still slow and you must be careful and have a well thought plan for facing a potential counter!


Stall: Stockpile, Amnesia, Defense Curl, Harden, Rest, Sleep Talk, Snatch


Now we have some huge staff boosting utility. With options to boost both defenses, Snorlax can easily become the major wall needed. Is your HP draining faster than you can set up? No Problem! Just use rest, because that’s what this big ol cat bear does best: sleep and sleep talk!


With all the extra moves outside of level up (™’sHidden Moves, Move Tutor Moves, Breed Moves and Special Moves,) there is So. Much. Coverage! Options like Toxic, Ice Beam/Thunderbolt/Flamethrower, Psychic, Rock Slide, Zap Cannon, Psych Up, Shadow Ball, the Elemental Punches, and more, Snorlax has a very wide variety of options to use against your opponents to keep them on their feet!


Also, It has three amazing Z-Moves!


Z Happy Hour will raise all of its stats by +1, cause Snorlax to become even more of a heavy hitting bulky Yogi Bear. Feeling like the offense? Try Z-Splash! Raising your attack by +3 is bonkers and your opponent will have a hard time out damaging you after that! But if you feel REALLY crazy, do the PULVERIZING PANCAKE! Snorlaxium-Z with Giga Impact transforms it into a 210 base powered physical normal move that will DESTROY your enemies!... except ghosts, ghosts will laugh at you for it.


With many, many options to make Snorlax something that could easily be more seen within URPG’s meta-game, I hope to see more pop up here and there as time goes on! Remember to claim your 1k if you own a Snorlax, and we’ll see you later this month for December’s Pokemon of the Month! Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving, and we’ll see you after Christmas! Merry early Christmas, by the way!

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POKEMON OF THE MONTH LORE

By Liam
​

Hello and WAKE UP YA FILTHY ANIMALS!! Sleep Studier Liam here with another issue of Pokémon Lore of the Month!! This month we have the ever drowsy, ever fattening, ever blocking of roads: Snorlax, the Sleeping Pokémon!

So I bet you wouldn’t see this hunk of wall on a bear team, would ya? WELL YA WOULD! Turns out all those years of me thinking Snorlax was a sort of play-on-words of the phrase “fat cat” WAS WRONG! Instead, Snorlax seems to embody a hibernating bear: a beast that really can pack a punch that eats a ton and then sleeps for a long duration of time! Okay. I see it. I guess I was just silly.

So what kind of bear? There are so many. Welp, Snorlax seemed to have been based off the idea of a hibernating bear, as well as a teddy bear (which I’ll get to in a moment), but if any bear in particular, it would’ve been the cave bear: a now extinct, large, brown bear that scientists believe stayed in caves for much longer than regular brown bears. What? These guys liked to sleep in? And the Sleeping Pokémon was based off them? NO WAY!

It’s Pokédex entries talk about how lazy and relaxed Snorlax are, to the point where children are safe enough to bounce on its belly. Most indicated this was because Snorlax was such a softy and so lazy, i.e. how it’s like a giant teddy bear! Other entries, although much fewer, indicated that it probably wouldn’t be smart to bounce around on a Snorlax’s belly until after it’s eaten its fill and has passed out; too tired and lazy to reach up and stop anyone.

Lastly its abilities, including its hidden ability, make good sense: Gluttony, as it’s constantly eating when not sleeping; Thick Fat, as it’s constantly getting fatter and can weigh more than 1000lbs; and Immunity- wait, Immunity? It can’t be poisoned? Why? Did game freak want people to get walled more by not being able to toxic this boosted bonobo?! NO! The reason is actually in the description of some of its Pokédex entries! Snorlax’s stomach is so powerful that it eats moldy food on the regular; it cannot be poisoned! Even in one of the more recent Pokédex entries from Pokémon Sun stated that a Muk, straight on Snorlax’s tongue, would not poison this Pokémon; the enzymes and bacteria in Snorlax’s belly really are something!

So if you want a binge eating, oversleeping, poison immune, hibernating trash disposal, then get yourself a Snorlax bud!!

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STAFF UPDATE - NOVEMBER 2017

By Monbrey

​

Much of what we've been discussing lately was also openly discussed as part of our general meeting, but I'm here to give a recap on where things have progressed internally since then.


Staff Applications


The biggest event for Staff this month was the round of applications. Harry and I were busy discussing which of you were the least-bad options, and unfortunately Harry said we had to choose SOMEBODY. We welcome Mikey, FierceDeity, Morru and K’sariya to the Staff team as Officials, and congratulate Liam and Nitro on their promotion to Moderator.

The section staffing has also changed significantly, with K’sariya and Mistral taking on the role of Head of National Park in the wake of Winter’s departure, and Morru stepping up as co-head of Contests with Ash K.


Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon


Being a sequel rather than a new generation, this was a pretty easy release. The Pokemart, Underground, Ultra Dex and Reffing Calculators have all been updated.

See Ultra Sun/Ultra Moon in URPG! for more information.


Legendaries


The discussion around repeated legend milestones is still ongoing. For professions, the popular compromise currently is to have a linear increase on the milestones, however with repeats on the table the actual value of the milestones is also being looked at. This won’t retroactively change any earned legends, so don’t worry. These talks have also led off into alternate methods of earning legends in creative sections, such as that implemented in After Hours where a purely numeric tracker is not a good indicator of progress.


URPG Challenges


The concept of URPG Achievements has been around a long time – developed by Pidge in its last iteration. We’ve been looking at revamping these for a while with tangible rewards as you accumulate points across sections. We don’t have a timeline yet but there aren’t too many things left to discuss.


Christmas Events!


No spoilers, but rest assured that all our usual Christmas/Winter/Australian Summer events are in the planning phases, plus all sorts of special end-of-year events in each section. Get ready!

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URPG ART AND WRITING SECRET SANTA

By Elysia

​

W O A H! Do you like writing, drawing, or doing any of those things for your friends? Art and Stories are teaming up for a butt-kicking collab event featuring the best of both worlds! Not only that, but to get in the festive spirit, your wishlist Pokemon will be reduced in rank, which is crazy! Sign up here before December 5!


Join Secret Santa Here!

WINTER WRITING COMPETITION

By Elysia

​

Holiday spirits got you in that warm fuzzy zone? GREAT! Time to celebrate the pinnacle of URPG writing by going head-to-head with your favorite authors! All you gotta do is write a story, so sharpen your pencil/pull out your typewriter/something, and let’s get cracking!


Check out WWC 2017HERE

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NATIONAL PARK UPDATE

By Mistral

​

Since K’sariya and I have been promoted to Park Heads, we’ve been working to bring change to the National Park. While the park has been around for some time now (at least 10 years), we realize that many of its systems are outdated and need to be brought into the current times. Of course, change takes time, but in the short time we’ve held leadership of the Park, we’ve already made some changes.


All of the most recent changes are detailed in the Park Changes (BMG | PWN | PXR) thread by K’sariya, but we have a quick round up for you in case you missed that thread:

• You can now be on one Individual Run and one Team Run at the same time.
  
• Items are locked individually into runs, with the exception of the Digital Camera and the Apricorn Box.
  
• You can claim Pokemon as you catch them until you hit the limit of Pokemon you can take out from the Park.
  
• The Enigma Ruins no longer has an additional fee.
  
• You can bring up to 2 Pokemon on a Beginner Run, 4 Pokemon on an Individual or Team Run or 6 Pokemon on an Endurance Run (Individual or Team). There is no charge with bringing extra Pokemon.
  
• Disc rewrites are free as long as they’re specified in the form when you sign up for a run.
  
• Aprijuice costs $500 and can be used to change the Nature of any Pokemon, including those caught in the Park.
  
• Common and Uncommon Discs as well as the PokePlayer have been removed. You can still use Voice Discs, but you can be creative about how they are played!
  
• Borderline Discs cost $7000, and Intermediate Discs cost $9000.
  
• We’ve buffed the encounter chances for Disc uses to 20%. You still get five uses.

But the changes aren’t done yet. We’ll be releasing more changes over the coming weeks. Here’s a quick preview of what we’ll be up to:

• We’ve revised the Infohub so it’s easier for newer members to read and for older members to find information. It looks a lot nicer!
  
• We’ll be hosting an Ultra Wormhole event! I won’t spoil too much about this event, but sign ups will open on December 1st, and they’ll be open for a week. Trust me, it’s going to be a great event!
  
• We’re aware of broken images in threads, and we’re working on getting those fixed. If you see any broken links or images in threads, please let us know so we can get it fixed up! We’re also working on getting a new map for the Infohub. We’ll also be making the National Park Shop look a lot nicer!
  
• We’ll be working on revising the Befriending system. It’s a little weird right now, so we’re going to be removing it from the revised Infohub and reworking it. We’re also going to be revising the Apricorn Ball system!

Those are all of the changes and upcoming things we have going on with the Park. As always, if you have any suggestions or ideas for the Park, whether it be improvements or just things you’d like to see, let me or K’sariya know! We’d be happy to hear your ideas on improving the Park to make it better for the members of URPG!

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AFTER HOURS UPDATE

By Smiles!

​

November in After Hours brings many exciting changes! For one, the amazing Liam has earned himself an Ace Chronicler role! We’re excited to welcome Liam to his promotion - he’s worked hard in AH, won Campaign, and works tirelessly as a Chronicler to contribute back towards the game in powerful ways! Welcome Liam, and congratulations!


Secondly, we’re excited to announce the creation of the Soul Confidants system! An initiative led by Ralin and K’sariya, Soul Confidants will allow you to to take your friendship with characters in games to new and profound levels. You will earn points for your pairings with other characters, whether that’s a friendship, a hateship, a sibling-ship and more! Furthermore, those points will go towards custom, amazing abilities that are unique to the duo in question! Plot and post out your Confidant bonds today, and read this thread to learn more about how it all works!


As per usual, Character of the Month will be released very soon~! Don’t forget that voting for character of the month and / or winning character of the month now directly contributes towards earning your After Hours legendary! Make sure to celebrate and congratulate the incredible characters who win this award, as well as the thoughtful player behind the character!


Stay tuned for our special invitational event occurring soon! We hope to catch everyone in game!

THE OMNYO REGION???

By Elysia

​

(the artist formerly known as Seconds Before)


URPG’s youngest section opens up its doors to you! Travel to a roleplaying adventure set in the mythical Omnyo Region, a feudal world at war! Start in one of the eight kua—factions split on culture, battle philosophy, and Pokémon—and begin your journey across the world. In your way are regional conflicts, feral Pokémon, and each kua’s leader, the Shi. Gather your allies, assemble your Pokémon team, and prepare to explore a lush and adventure-filled roleplay world!


The Omnyo Region is a brand-new RP section focusing on survival and long-term consequences. The decisions that you make at each turn will affect the rest of your journey, so plan your battles, level up your team, and use your supplies wisely. You can import Pokémon from your URPG roster to aid you on your journey, or you can recruit wild Pokémon to join your side in the Omnyo Region and in your URPG stats!


Interested? Read more at our Quick Start Guide here, and then jump in today! We’re super happy to welcome you into the adventure!

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JURK POKEMON OF THE MONTH: DUSKNOIR

By Juliorain

​

All right folks. Guess who is this month super j u r k? That’s right, from a Hearthome Gym Leader himself, who-lee-oh, will present this month’s Jurk! It’s Dusknoir. Dusknoir is pretty spooky and with great stats to boot! He really just won’t die.


If you have challenged my gym recently, you’ll know how impressive and annoyingly difficult for this specter to be vanquished into the nether realms. Dusknoir has a pretty lame ability which is Pressure so it means you better know what move you’ll be attacking since each move used against it will do 2 pp of damage. To compensate, Dusknoir gets Skill Swap, so please send your Greninja on Dusknoir. We all want Protean Dusknoir.


Dusknoir is known for its insane defensive stats. His HP stat is pretty crappy and his attack stat is decent for a walling ghost. The HP works to Dusknoir’s advantage because it just makes the god-awful move, Pain Split, work even more to its advantage. Its speed stat is depressing and can easily get outsped. But before you start sending in your Swords Dance Weavile on him, he gets plenty of fighting type moves such as Brick Break, and the legendary Power-Up Punch.

Dusknoir is a menace to any unprepared team. Not to mention Dusknoir gets trick room, so no matter what, if used correctly, he can sweep whole teams if you snowball the Power up Punches. With an attack stat of 299 (base 100), access to Rock Slide, Bulldoze, Earthquake, the elemental punches, Brick Break, Shadow Sneak, Sucker Punch, incredible bulk, and utility like Trick Room, Pain Split, Will-O-Wisp, Snatch, Taunt, Curse, Destiny Bond, Skill Swap, it’s no wonder why Dusknoir has nearly swept so many unprepared teams. He is a Jurk and should never have existed.


If used right, Dusknoir will get people’s heads banging on their heads on their desks very fast. And Dusknoir likes it when people lose their level heads. Dusknoir. Just. Doesn’t. Die. Damnit.

That’s to say it doesn’t have any weaknesses. It is very hard to get at Dusknoir physically. Most unboosted non-stab Super Effective hits will do roughly 1/3% due to its poor HP stat. Because he relies so heavily on maintaining is health and attack stat, moves like Toxic and Will-o-Wisp can severely cripple Dusknoir. Dusknoir doesn’t mind getting paralyzed since it is already so slow, you’ll just make him faster in trick room! Dusknoir runs in to competition with the other Ghost-type walls like Cofagrigus and Spiritomb, and a constant onslaught on the special side, since Dusknoir is slightly less bulky specially, can wear it down faster.


There aren’t specifically ‘good’ counters; you’ll probably be reliant on strong Dark Pulse or Waterfall flinchax to get rid of Dusknoir before it has a chance to set a Trick Room. Like Dusknoir is slow, so you will have to play its game or he’ll get ya. Intimidate users and pokemon like Mega Salamence could pose problems, as Dusknoir does not like getting set up on…Salamence better watch out dat Ice Punch, Haze, and Trick Room tho.


TBH Dusknoir sucks in the handhelds and it is no different than any other of the bulky ghosts. Like I would never run Dusknoir on the handhelds or on Smogon. But in URPG, Dusknoir is a hella monster that anyone challenging my gym will likely face. (Or Cofagrigus or Spiritomb or all three plus two Sableye then followed by a Mimikyu, Chandy, or Mega Gengar/Banette sweep).


See ya next time!

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I would like to thank every last person who wrote this month. I’ll be honest, I got this three days before release and was pretty panicked about getting everything done on time. Needless to say, it worked out just fine. I just wanna commend everyone on being so easy to work with, and I appreciate the effort you guys all put in!


WRITERS

Mikey: 5K for PotM!
Liam: 5K for PotM!
Smiles: 5K for After Hours!
Elysia: 10k for Stories News and Omnyo Reveal!
Monbrey: 5k for Staff Update!
Mistral: 5k for National Park Update!
Julio: 5k for Jurk Pokemon
Ralin: 5k for URPG Invitational Article
Mako: 5k for Art of the Month

THE COMMUNITY

Anyone who owns a Snorlax can claim 1k
Anyone who owns a Dusknoir can claim 1k
Velojello can claim 1k for their wonderful drawing
MagikChicken can claim 1k for their wonderful efforts towards the URPG USUM Invitational


If anyone has ANY feedback at all, please PM me on Discord or on the forums, I’d be more than happy to answer any questions you have or to learn what we could do better!

 

Awesome y'all! Claiming my 5k!

 

Good work, guys! So many promotions, which is really cool. I'm super excited for the Soul Confidants thing, can't wait to see how that plays out. And thanks, Morru, for the very nice words about my art. ;v;

Claiming my 1k!

 

one of the few cool people to own a snorlax, gimme my 1k

 

Claiming $5,000 for my article, and $1,000 for owning a Snorlax!

 

Claiming 1k for owning a Dusknoir!

 

Claiming 5k for co-hosting the Podcast, plus 1k for owning an invincible (so fast it can Substitute before a Slowking can Toxic it) Dusknoir.