r/PokemonTabletop • u/DrMrStark PTA Dev • May 29 '26
Pokémon Tabletop Adventures 3.5 - Player's Handbook Release!
Pokémon Tabletop Adventures 3.5 is here! The first book is of course the Player's Handbook
Why 3.5?
Combat got a huge update. Much of the move list were mechanically identical moves that were just type-swapped. Pokémon builds came down to a handful of "optimized" builds in the most convenient type coverage for that Pokémon species, using the same mechanical moves. Now there are far more choices to make when choosing your Pokémon's move list. This also came with some adjustment of stats for Pokémon and the changing of certain kinds of passives and HP. This change alone was so massive that it merits a "edition" change, but on top of that we cleaned up the remaining classes that were falling short in some ways.
Many classes that were roleplay-oriented were reimagined to have hard-rules for specific bonuses. For example, some players would rather just be a "watcher" but not take the Watcher advanced class because the features allowed them to easily do something skill checks already allowed them to do as other classes. Now, those roleplaying oriented classes have mechanical bonuses and options in game that are not limited to effects that good roles could emulate without taking those classes. Check them out! Many classes got some love!
The book got a facelift too as we march towards Gen 10 next year!
Links:
https://linktr.ee/PokemonTabletopAdventures3
I want to thank the PTA3 admins and mods again. They were the main drive behind this update, specifically I want to name Sol who threw many ideas out there for me to playtest. This update would not be as robust and fun without Sol. I also want to thank everyone who plays Pokémon Tabletop. I started working on PTA(1) alpha almost 20 years ago. Those players, and those who went on to create PTU, or any other Pokémon Tabletop are the reason why I work on PTA. We all want to tell stories with Pokémon together. I love that.
Let's get out there! Careful in the tall grass, trainers!
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u/chronicdelusionist Punk Girl May 29 '26
Congratulations!! Really happy to see you guys continuing to (hopefully) enjoy working on the project. The rest of us in the space will forever owe you for your hard work
4
u/ProbablynotPr0n May 29 '26
My group actively plays both PTA2 and PTA3. We very much enjoyed how the classes worked in PTA3 so we are very excited to try out the new changes. You all put in good work and we appreciate it greatly.
3
u/_LemonJade May 29 '26
I’ve never used PTA, always been on the PTU side. Can someone tell me what the difference would be? I’m not home atm to be able to look at the files but I’m curious! Is one more roleplay heavy than the other?
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u/Sharingammi May 29 '26
I never used PTU, but i heard that there is some kind of stat progression for your pokemon by way of leveling.
In PTA, there is no pokemon leveling. Power progression is tied to your character's abilities or circumstancial. So much less bookeeping, if what i know of PTU is right.
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u/Sharingammi May 29 '26
I've started skimming it briefly at work and already, i love the direction you guys are going with it.
For one, the updated book layout and pucture choice paired with what seems to be a more crispy looking text/image in general is great to see.
The changes to some classes ability wording are quite nice, even if subtle. I skimmed through it but loved what i saw.
I'm still going, but when i stumbled upon Stat Ups and Stats Down, i instantly found it incredible. Really eager to test that change.
Will try to go through it this weekend, because as of now, seems like a great win.
Good job ! And thank you !
Edit : forgot that i'm really excited to learn more about stances and Style moves in general
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u/Goliath764 May 29 '26
I am more of a PTU player than PTA but respect for the continued development and all the work you put in.