Pokemon Master Trainer Board Game: Rules and How a Turn Works

Setup

1. Punch out the chips, sort them by color and put each color in its own storage tray bin. Keep the Pokemon facing away from the players.

2. Place a facedown chip on each large circle on the board, matching the circle’s color. Mix the four yellow chips and put them in the Unknown Dungeon at the bottom right.

3. Mix the six facedown Starter Pokemon chips (with spiky edges) and let each trainer choose one. Turn yours faceup in front of you, and return any extra Starter chips to the tray.

4. Shuffle the five Rival Cards facedown in the center of Indigo Plateau. Shuffle the Event Cards and Item Cards, then place each deck beside the board.

5. Each trainer chooses an Ash mover and places it on Pallet Town in the lower left corner. The trainer whose Starter has the lowest Power Points goes first; ties are settled with a die roll. Play passes to the left.

Turn by turn

• Moving along the road

  Roll one die and move that many spaces. After leaving Pallet Town, you can go only one way until Cerulean City. Beyond that, choose any direction, but don’t go back over spaces you just crossed.

• Catching Pokémon

  Land on a Catch ’Em space, flip the chip, then roll one of the numbers shown at its bottom. Remove the caught chip from the board and refill the space with a chip of the same color from the tray, if any remain.

• Trading

  When you pass another trainer, you can stop and offer a trade. Add Item Cards to sweeten the deal if you like. The other trainer can refuse. Starter Pokémon can never be traded, and trading ends your turn.

• Trainer Battles

  Each trainer chooses a Pokémon and secretly decides whether to play up to two Attack Bonus cards. Both roll a die. Add Attack Strength, the roll, and any bonus for each total. The higher total wins; ties mean another roll.

• After a battle

  The winner takes two random Item Cards from the loser, or draws from the deck if the loser has fewer than two. The loser’s Pokémon is knocked out and turned facedown. It cannot fight or count toward your 20 Power Points until revived.

• Reviving Pokémon

  Play a Potion, draw a Pokémon Center Event Card, or land on Cerulean City or Vermilion City. In either city, revive one Pokémon or try the Dice Challenge: if you have two or more knocked out, roll a 1 or 6 to revive them all.

• Cinnabar Island and Indigo Plateau

  Once your team has 20 Power Points at the end of a turn, head straight to Cinnabar Island. On your next turn, roll to enter Indigo Plateau, then travel clockwise around the hexagonal track until you land exactly on the Enter Final Battle space.

End of the game and scoring

Key rules

• Evolution Bonus

  If you hold every Pokémon in an evolution group, the most evolved one gets extra Attack Strength: +3 for a group of two and +5 for a group of three. The box cover shows the groups.

• Item Card limit

  You can hold up to seven Item Cards. If you end your turn with more, discard or play cards until you have seven. You can use no more than two Attack Bonus cards in a battle.

• Poké Ball cards

  Play one before rolling to catch a Pokémon. A Great Ball adds or subtracts 1 after the roll, an Ultra Ball adds 1 or 2, and a Master Ball adds 1 to 4. These cards never affect a movement roll.

• Poké Doll

  This Item Card stops another trainer from forcing you into a battle or trade. Discard it after use, so hang on to it until a trainer with a strong Pokémon comes by.

• Unknown Dungeon Pokémon

  An Event Card lets you choose one of the four yellow chips and roll to catch it. Miss, and mix the yellow chips again. These are the legendary Pokémon: Articuno, Zapdos, Moltres and Mewtwo.