History SoYouWantTo / WriteAMonSeries

* ''Franchise/ShinMegamiTensei'' and the subsequent series (including {{Persona}} series) is an '''UnbuiltTrope''' to the {{Mon}} genre, instead of showing us SugarBowl country with RidiculouslyCuteCritter, it was a DarkerAndEdgier setting filled with UglyCute monsters. Also, '''TropeMaker'''.

Let's have a little history lesson. While heroes have made use of monsters as assistants throughout storytelling history, the Mons series as we know it today really began with the original Megaten game. The UrExample series is likely ''TheBardsTale'', where you could enlist monsters to join your party if you left a few slots open. The TropeMaker is ''ShinMegamiTensei'' for the NES, where you could enlist monsters (read as demons) you face down in battle to join your side. The TropeCodifier, [[CashCowFranchise through and through]], is ''[[Franchise/{{Pokemon}} Pokémon]] [[PokemonRedAndBlue Red]]'' [[PokemonRedAndBlue and]] ''[[PokemonRedAndBlue Green]]'', originally released on the Game Boy in 1996.

As for single- or multiplayer, this is a harder question than it looks. At first shy it seems that multiplayer would be the obvious choice. Then you must realize that you will have to test every monster you come up with twice as much, once for balance in the game itself, and once for against human players whose tactics are far, far different than an AI's. Just look at ''[[VideoGame/PokemonDiamondAndPearl Pokémon Diamond]]'' [[VideoGame/PokemonDiamondAndPearl and]] ''[[VideoGame/PokemonDiamondAndPearl Pearl]]''--Stealth Rock is situationally-useful in the main game and ''game-defining'' in multiplayer. Wanna bet that's due to insufficient testing? Likewise, a multiplayer component demands a wider variety of moves and abilities in order to make tactical decisions more involved, difficult, and thus interesting. If this is your first go on the game-design ride, you might wanna play it safe.

** Pokemon, however, brings up ideas of how training only one pokemon out of a possible team of 6 is very risky tactic and puts you in a disadvantage more often than not, and introduces hurdles to enforce the point that teamwork is better than a one-mon army. For instance, you can have the water type mon Blastoise to overpower a team by brute force, but it risks being taken down by grass-and-poison-type mon Venusaur due to a type disadvantage. You ''could'' have Blastoise raised to a high enough level that it will only fear those close to or exactly to its level (moreso if they are the aforementioned grass-type), but it is wiser to invest time in recruiting other mons, such as fire-and-flying-type Charizard, to tower over the mons who pose a threat against your Blastoise.

* Nearly every mon series to exist had played around with motifs, sometimes following every motif of the book for different groups of mons. Nearly any motif can be used on a mon, be it for the story behind a particular group of mons, or for the mon designs themselves. Some can cover every mon in the book, such as FightingFoodons whom is relatively mon-like where the mons are all some form of food, or DragonDrive where every mon are some form of dragon. Franchise/{{Pokemon}} and Franchise/{{Digimon}} are examples of covering a huge variety of different motifs, such as Digimon's devas being based on the [[EasternZodiac chinese zodiac]] and their bosses, the sovereigns, being based on [[TheFourGods the four directional gods]], or pokemon's legendaries being based around grouped themes like the creation trio Dialga, Palkia and Giratina (who are embodiments of space, time and antimatter respectively), the elemental bird trio Articuno, Zapdos and Moltres (who not only represent ice, electric and fire, but are all [[CaptainObvious flying types and follow a spanish-number-in-name theme]]), or the lake trio Uxie, Mesprit and Azelf (who [[CaptainObvious not only are found in Sinnoh's lakes]], but represent knowledge, emotion and willpower respectively and their ability to take such away if mishandled).

** Pokemon is an example of universal moves having priority over unique moves. Pokemon can learn moves such as Toxic, Return or Frustration, which are moves that are learned by nearly any pokemon, and although they have moves that more limited groups can learn, such as Thundershock or Water Gun, these groups are still quite wide and apply to more than one family of mons (in this case, Thundershock is a common move among electric types, while Water Gun is a common move among water types). There are more powerful moves that can be learned by an even smaller pool of mons, but still remain that there is usually more than one family of mons who can learn it one way or another. Out of the majority of the moves in the Pokeverse, only a small handful are unique to specific mons (some of the uniqueness [[{{Retcon}} being changed over the generations]]), such as Milk Drink being available only to the cow mon Miltank, Sacred Sword being unique only to the musketeer-motif quartet of Cobalon, Terrakion, Virizion and Keldeo, or Chatter being available only to the parrot mon Chatot.

Let's have a little history lesson. While heroes have made use of monsters as assistants throughout storytelling history, the Mons series as we know it today really began with the original Megaten game. The UrExample series is likely ''TheBardsTale'', where you could enlist monsters to join your party if you left a few slots open. The TropeMaker is ''ShinMegamiTensei'' for the NES, where you could enlist monsters (read as demons) you face down in battle to join your side. The TropeCodifier, [[CashCowFranchise through and through]], is ''[[Franchise/{{Pokemon}} Pokémon]] ''[[PokemonRedAndBlue Red]]'' [[PokemonRedAndBlue and]] ''[[PokemonRedAndBlue Green]]'', originally released on the Game Boy in 1996.

The ''Pokémon'' approach is the safest for games in part because it lends itself very easily to Crowning Moments of Awesome--leading an unlikely team of aberrations to victory is perhaps an inherently wonderful feeling. It also allows you to be more experimental, including a few "weird" beasts that might be intolerable in a one-monster-at-a-time game. The Monster Rancher approach has its benefits, though, such as having a much more intense connection to the monsters you raise, and room for much greater depth in monster stats and growth. The Battle Network style is rare and may be a borderline case of Mondom, but being able to raise a single monster like a WesternRPG character has a certain untapped potential, I think.

** Note that you could excise character levels or stat growth entirely, in which case your game will resemble MagicTheGathering or other collectible card games. This I haven't seen much of, and it might be really cool to see a game where Com Mons are as important as Olympus Mons for the sake of victory--you need the former to bide time to send out or protect the latter, and Com Mons may even be more useful than Olympus Mons in some situations. Consider this, game designers of the future!

* LevelGrinding: Hoo boy, level grinding. It's everywhere, pretty much a bunch of people hate it, pretty much a bunch of other people can't go ten minutes without filling a bar of some kind or the shakes start to come back. It's a real balancing act. While a little grinding is useful to test out your Mons and give rare Mons a better chance to show up, too much will utterly kill the flow of the game and threaten the interest of your players. There are ways around it, of course. Personally, I think one key is to make experience point drops ''significant.'' Look into LeakedExperience, too.
* OneGameForThePriceOfTwo: You know, you can make pretty much any trope work if you play it right, but I gotta say this is one you should be avoiding. Ever hear of {{Robopon}}? Know what that game was in America? One half of a game for two. Further, wireless trading and other internet-enabled trading has basically erased version differences beyond what you can catch on your own. Stay away from this one and you'll look like a more sound investment.
* PromotionalPowerlessPieceOfGarbage: It is not unheard of, and in fact very common, for a game of mons to have ultra exclusive mons available only by [[NintendoHard nigh impossible challenges]] or by special events. Whether or not you should add a mon or so (or several) to the list of exclusives only released through promotional means depends on many factors, and how well recieved doing this depends on the mon in question. For instance, it can be enticing to get a mon [[OlympusMons who is an absolute powerhouse in the games]] as a bonus and attract more people to the event in question. If the event is particularly exclusive, it can help increase its rarity and ease the players [[GameBreaker on its powerhouse potential shaking the meta game a little]], adding one of many secrets only given to the most devoit of your players. On the otherhand, if the mon is pretty yet [[ComMons rather usless]] if not [[AwesomeButImpractical overshadowed by pre-existing (not to mention more common) mons]], it becomes a waste of time to go after and will more than likely be [[TheScrappy the next vendor trash mon]] whom players would sooner buy a gameshark to nab in their game if [[LastLousyPoint they only need it as far as their mon-log is concerned]] than go to the event to get it. Then there is the event itself where you have to make it interesting to make it worth it for people to pay attention to, and give plenty of time and preparation both for your players and yourself to prepare. Don't fall for the disaster of releasing a wifi-connection event spur the moment, where few people were aware it was happening, fewer had bothered to connect with you and everyone else who heard it ran out of time to set themselves up for it. The promotion can be as big or as small as you want it, but organization and a fitting theme is a must. Maybe you'd like a small wifi-session online to encourage [[SocializationBonus the connectivity and trading aspects of your games]]. Or maybe, for the commercial-minded, you'd like to host a mini-convention of sorts for your players to physically gather to (which by the way it wouldn't hurt if there were other freebies, too). More so, keep in mind that if you plan to release mons exclusively through promotional means, ensure that these events reach out to as much of the globe as possible. [[NoExportForYou Your players will thank you for it.]]

Maybe you've played enough ''[[Franchise/{{Pokemon}} Pokémon]]''[[note]][[IncrediblyLamePun So You Want To Be A Master?!]][[/note]] and think it's about time somebody made the next one. Maybe ''ShinMegamiTensei'' captured your imagination and you want to write your own story about brave protagonists facing down impossible odds with the aid of supernatural beings. Maybe the idea of collectabeasts tickles your fancy, but what you really wanna do is [[{{Deconstruction}} tear 'em all down to show people what they're really made of.]] Now you wanna write a {{Mon}} series, and I'm here to help you do that.

** Pokemon is an example of universal moves having priority over unique moves. Pokemon can learn moves such as Toxic, Return or Frustration, which are moves that are learned by nearly any pokemon, and although they have moves that more limited groups can learn, such as Thundershock or Water Gun, these groups are still quite wide and apply to more than one family of mons (in this case, Thundershock is a common move among electric types, while Water Gun is a common move among water types). There are more powerful moves that can be learned by an even smaller pool of mons, but still remain that there is usually more than one family of mons who can learn it one way or another. Out of the majority of the moves in the Pokeverse, only a small handful are unique to specific mons (some of the uniqueness [[{{Retcon}} being changed over the generations]]), such as Milk Drink being available only to the cow mon Miltank, Sacred Sword being unique only to the musketeer-motif trio of Cobalon, Terrakion, Virizion and Kledeo, or Chatter being available only to the parrot mon Chatot.

Maybe you've played enough ''[[Franchise/{{Pokemon}} Pokémon]]''[[hottip:*:[[AWorldwidePunomenon So You Want To Be A Master?!]] and think it's about time somebody made the next one. Maybe ''ShinMegamiTensei'' captured your imagination and you want to write your own story about brave protagonists facing down impossible odds with the aid of supernatural beings. Maybe the idea of collectabeasts tickles your fancy, but what you really wanna do is [[{{Deconstruction}} tear 'em all down to show people what they're really made of.]] Now you wanna write a {{Mon}} series, and I'm here to help you do that.

Maybe you've played enough ''[[{{Pokemon}} Pokémon]]''[[hottip:*:[[AWorldwidePunomenon So You Want To Be A Master?!]] and think it's about time somebody made the next one. Maybe ''ShinMegamiTensei'' captured your imagination and you want to write your own story about brave protagonists facing down impossible odds with the aid of supernatural beings. Maybe the idea of collectabeasts tickles your fancy, but what you really wanna do is [[{{Deconstruction}} tear 'em all down to show people what they're really made of.]] Now you wanna write a {{Mon}} series, and I'm here to help you do that.

Let's have a little history lesson. While heroes have made use of monsters as assistants throughout storytelling history, the Mons series as we know it today really began with the original Megaten game. The UrExample series is likely ''TheBardsTale'', where you could enlist monsters to join your party if you left a few slots open. The TropeMaker is ''ShinMegamiTensei'' for the NES, where you could enlist monsters (read as demons) you face down in battle to join your side. The TropeCodifier, [[CashCowFranchise through and through]], is ''[[{{Pokemon}} Pokémon]] ''[[PokemonRedAndBlue Red]]'' [[PokemonRedAndBlue and]] ''[[PokemonRedAndBlue Green]]'', originally released on the Game Boy in 1996.

Broadly speaking, there are three common types of Mon games and two ways to do them. There's the ''[[{{Pokemon}} Pokémon]]'' approach, where you assemble a team of monsters and train them all at once, often swapping on the fly. There's the ''MonsterRancher'' approach, where you train one or a very small number of monsters at a time, and switching focus is more difficult or disadvantageous. And there's the ''MegaManBattleNetwork'' approach, where collecting new monsters is almost an afterthought, but ''customizing'' the monster you've got is paramount. Last, you'll have to decide if your game will be single-player focused or multiplayer focused. More on that in a moment.

* Nearly every mon series to exist had played around with motifs, sometimes following every motif of the book for different groups of mons. Nearly any motif can be used on a mon, be it for the story behind a particular group of mons, or for the mon designs themselves. Some can cover every mon in the book, such as FightingFoodons whom is relatively mon-like where the mons are all some form of food, or DragonDrive where every mon are some form of dragon. {{Pokemon}} and {{Digimon}} are examples of covering a huge variety of different motifs, such as Digimon's devas being based on the [[EasternZodiac chinese zodiac]] and their bosses, the sovereigns, being based on [[TheFourGods the four directional gods]], or pokemon's legendaries being based around grouped themes like the creation trio Dialga, Palkia and Giratina (who are embodiments of space, time and antimatter respectively), the elemental bird trio Articuno, Zapdos and Moltres (who not only represent ice, electric and fire, but are all [[CaptainObvious flying types and follow a spanish-number-in-name theme]]), or the lake trio Uxie, Mesprit and Azelf (who [[CaptainObvious not only are found in Sinnoh's lakes]], but represent knowledge, emotion and willpower respectively and their ability to take such away if mishandled).

** A series like {{Pokemon}} or MonsterRancher are set in a world where the mons live in unison with the trainers, and the humans not only have grown accustomed to the sight of these mons running around outside their backyards (or if they themselves are a trainer, inside their house) but utlize a mon's abilities to assist in the daily duties of life.
** In cases like ShinMegamiTensei 's spin-off VideoGame/DevilSurvivor it can also be a case where the trainers live in a setting much like our own reality, but the mons invaded or appeared into the setting in a world ''not'' accustomed to seeing monsters roaming around, and so the player takes on the role of learning of and controlling these beasts.

** ''{{Pokemon}}'', king of GottaCatchEmAll, LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters, CashCowFranchise, [[RunningGag and very popular]]. The setting are Vague and literally everything had to be connected with the {{Pokemon}} themselves. TournamentArc + ToBeAMaster = [[CashCowFranchise Profits]]. Largely '''TropeCodifier'''.
** ''{{Digimon}}'' is THE HotBlooded contender, with more modern, MagicFromTechnology setting, with SavingTheWorld [[WakeUpGoToSchoolSaveTheWorld ALWAYS]] became the focus. However they aren't started as a normal videogame, instead a SpearCounterpart to {{Tamagotchi}}
* ''ShinMegamiTensei'' and the subsequent series (including {{Persona}} series) is an '''UnbuiltTrope''' to the {{Mon}} genre, instead of showing us SugarBowl country with RidiculouslyCuteCritter, it was a DarkerAndEdgier setting filled with UglyCute monsters. Also, '''TropeMaker'''.

Maybe you've played enough ''[[{{Pokemon}} Pokémon]]''[[hottip:*:[[AWorldwidePunomenon So You Want To Be A Master?!]]]] and think it's about time somebody made the next one. Maybe ''ShinMegamiTensei'' captured your imagination and you want to write your own story about brave protagonists facing down impossible odds with the aid of supernatural beings. Maybe the idea of collectabeasts tickles your fancy, but what you really wanna do is [[{{Deconstruction}} tear 'em all down to show people what they're really made of.]] Now you wanna write a {{Mon}} series, and I'm here to help you do that.

* ToBeAMaster: An obvious starting point, but much like "[[GoodMorningCrono someone wakes you up]]" in {{Eastern RPG}}s, "[[YouAllMeetInAnInn you all meet at a tavern]]" in {{Tabletop RPG}}s, and "your new co-workers are barely-legal bunny girls in heat" in hentai games, it's [[DeadHorseTrope so very, very overdone it's basically a steak briquette at this point]]. That said, it ''is'' a useful starting point, and common enough that much like "I'm gonna fight crime" for superheroes, nobody bats an eye at collectabeast games having a protagonist who wants to be the very best, like no one ever was.

* ToBeAMaster: An obvious starting point, but much like "[[GoodMorningCrono someone wakes you up]]" in {{Eastern RPG}}s, "[[YouAllMeetAtATavern you all meet at a tavern]]" in {{Tabletop RPG}}s, and "your new co-workers are barely-legal bunny girls in heat" in hentai games, it's [[DeadHorseTrope so very, very overdone it's basically a steak briquette at this point]]. That said, it ''is'' a useful starting point, and common enough that much like "I'm gonna fight crime" for superheroes, nobody bats an eye at collectabeast games having a protagonist who wants to be the very best, like no one ever was.

* ToBeAMaster: An obvious starting point, but much like "[[GoodMorningCrono someone wakes you up]]" in {{Eastern RPG}}s, "[[YouAllMeetAtAnInn you all meet at a tavern]]" in {{Tabletop RPG}}s, and "your new co-workers are barely-legal bunny girls in heat" in hentai games, it's [[DeadHorseTrope so very, very overdone it's basically a steak briquette at this point]]. That said, it ''is'' a useful starting point, and common enough that much like "I'm gonna fight crime" for superheroes, nobody bats an eye at collectabeast games having a protagonist who wants to be the very best, like no one ever was.

* ToBeAMaster: An obvious starting point, but much like "someone wakes you up" in Eastern {{RPG}}s, "you all meet at a tavern" in {{Tabletop RPG}}s, and "your new co-workers are barely-legal bunny girls in heat" in hentai games, it's [[DeadHorseTrope so very, very overdone it's basically a steak briquette at this point]]. That said, it ''is'' a useful starting point, and common enough that much like "I'm gonna fight crime" for superheroes, nobody bats an eye at collectabeast games having a protagonist who wants to be the very best, like no one ever was.

The ''Pokémon'' approach is the safest for games in part because it lends itself very easily to Crowning Moments of Awesome--leading an unlikely team of aberrations to victory is perhaps an inherently wonderful feeling. It also allows you to be more experimental, including a few "weird" beasts that might be intolerable in a one-monster-at-a-time game. The Monster Rancher approach has its benefits, though, such as having a much more intense connection to the monsters you raise, and room for much greater depth in monster stats and growth. The Battle Network style is rare and may be a borderline case of Mondom, but being able to raise a single monster like a Western RPG character has a certain untapped potential, I think.

* DuelsDecideEverything: In fact, they don't have to! Admittedly, to paraphrase John Hodgman, the first thing you'll want to do if you get a domestic monster is to find another one and make them fight, but much like how western {{RPG}}s like to remind us that non-violent or differently-violent solutions to problem are possible, you can show the world how mons can solve conflicts peacefully. Hopefully this will be in a less-boring manner than most Pokémon not-battles.

* ToBeAMaster: An obvious starting point, but much like "someone wakes you up" in eastern {{RPG}}s, "you all meet at a tavern" in tabletop {{RPG}}s, and "your new co-workers are barely-legal bunny girls in heat" in hentai games, it's [[DeadHorseTrope so very, very overdone it's basically a steak briquette at this point]]. That said, it ''is'' a useful starting point, and common enough that much like "I'm gonna fight crime" for superheroes, nobody bats an eye at collectabeast games having a protagonist who wants to be the very best, like no one ever was.

* DuelsDecideEverything: In fact, they don't have to! Admittedly, to paraphrase John Hodgman, the first thing you'll want to do if you get a domestic monster is to find another one and make them fight, but much like how western are pee gees like to remind us that non-violent or differently-violent solutions to problem are possible, you can show the world how mons can solve conflicts peacefully. Hopefully this will be in a less-boring manner than most Pokémon not-battles.

* ToBeAMaster: An obvious starting point, but much like "someone wakes you up" in eastern are pee gees, "you all meet at a tavern" in tabletop are pee gees, and "your new co-workers are barely-legal bunny girls in heat" in hentai games, it's so very, very overdone it's basically a steak briquette at this point. That said, it ''is'' a useful starting point, and common enough that much like "I'm gonna fight crime" for superheroes, nobody bats an eye at collectabeast games having a protagonist who wants to be the very best, like no one ever was.

* The majority of the story's focus will be [[ABoyAndHisX The Player And Their Mon]] and the training of said mon(s) to reach their fullest potential and be the strongest (either strong enough to overcome whatever goal their is or the strongest ever). Depending on the mechanics you have behind it that define how much of the mon's stats you monitor and grow or what you do with them, you can potentially expand on the relationship you, the player, have with the mon, your partner. The most common theme is friendship, especially if your character and/or mon are the good-hearted type, and depending how much you integrate your mon's affection to your tamers in-game or story-wise, [[ThePowerOfFriendship you can work with a sub-plot that shows that a strong bond with your mon enables you to tap into your greatest strengths]]. For the reverse, you can also [[DeconstructedTrope deconstruct the idea]] of why [[FridgeLogic a mon would mindlessly follow a trainer who]] [[DefeatMeansFriendship horribly pounded the crap out of them on-sight when they first met]] by showing the trainer [[LevelGrinding strengthen their mon through grinding]] while ignoring [[UnfortunateImplications their underlying problems]] with this training regimen, ending with either the mon [[StockholmSyndrome giving in to this treatment]] to mindlessly stick with this trainer (for better or worse) or [[TheDogBitesBack get fed up enough and betray them.]]

Maybe you've played enough ''[[{{Pokemon}} Pokémon]]''[[hottip:*:[[AWorldwidePunomenon So You Want To Be A Master?!]]]] and think it's about time somebody made the next one. Maybe ''ShinMegamiTensei'' captured your imagination and you want to write your own story about brave protagonists facing down impossible odds with the aid of supernatural beings. Maybe the idea of collectabeasts tickles your fancy, but what you really wanna do is [[{{Deconstruction}} tear 'em all down to show people what they're really made of.]] Now you wanna write a {{Mon}}s series, and I'm here to help you do that.

* ''NaruTaru'', when you need HighOctaneNightmareFuel-filled {{Deconstruction}} {{Mon}} series, [[MohiroKitoh you know the man]].

** In cases like ShinMegamiTensei 's spin-off DevilSurvivor it can also be a case where the trainers live in a setting much like our own reality, but the mons invaded or appeared into the setting in a world ''not'' accustomed to seeing monsters roaming around, and so the player takes on the role of learning of and controlling these beasts.

Let's have a little history lesson. While heroes have made use of monsters as assistants throughout storytelling history, the Mons series as we know it today really began with the original Megaten game. The UrExample series is likely ''TheBardsTale'', where you could enlist monsters to join your party if you left a few slots open. The TropeMaker is ''DigitalDevilSaga'' (which would later develop into ''ShinMegamiTensei''), where you could enlist monsters you face down in battle to join your side. The TropeCodifier, [[CashCowFranchise through and through]], is ''[[{{Pokemon}} Pokémon]] ''[[PokemonRedAndBlue Red]]'' [[PokemonRedAndBlue and]] ''[[PokemonRedAndBlue Green]]'', originally released on the Game Boy in 1996.

Let's have a little history lesson. While heroes have made use of monsters as assistants throughout storytelling history, the Mons series as we know it today really began with the original Megaten game. The UrExample series is likely ''TheBardsTale'', where you could enlist monsters to join your party if you left a few slots open. The TropeMaker is Megami Tensei for the NES, where you could enlist monsters you face down in battle to join your side. The TropeCodifier, through and through, is ''[[{{Pokemon}} Pokémon]] ''[[PokemonRedAndBlue Red]]'' [[PokemonRedAndBlue and]] ''[[PokemonRedAndBlue Green]]'', originally released on the Game Boy in 1996.

As for single- or multiplayer, this is a harder question than it looks. At first shy it seems that multiplayer would be the obvious choice. Then you must realize that you will have to test every monster you come up with twice as much, once for balance in the game itself, and once for against human players whose tactics are far, far different than an AI's. Just look at ''[[PokemonDiamondAndPearl Pokémon Diamond]]'' [[PokemonDiamondAndPearl and]] ''[[PokemonDiamondAndPearl Pearl]]''--Stealth Rock is situationally-useful in the main game and ''game-defining'' in multiplayer. Wanna bet that's due to insufficient testing? Likewise, a multiplayer component demands a wider variety of moves and abilities in order to make tactical decisions more involved, difficult, and thus interesting. If this is your first go on the game-design ride, you might wanna play it safe.

** Pokemon, however, brings up ideas of how training only one pokemon out of a possible team of 6 is very risky tactic and puts you in a disadvantage more often than not, and introduces hurdles to enforce the point that teamwork is better than a one-mon army. For instance, you can have the water type mon Blastoise to overpower a team by brute force, but it risks being taken down by grass-and-poison-type mon Venusaur due to a type disatvantage. You ''could'' have Blastoise raised to a high enough level that it will only fear those close to or exactly to its level (moreso if they are the aforementioned grass-type), but it is wiser to invest time in recruiting other mons, such as fire-and-flying-type Charizard, to tower over the mons who pose a threat against your Blastoise.

Maybe you've played enough ''[[{{Pokemon}} Pokémon]]'' and think it's about time somebody made the next one. Maybe ''ShinMegamiTensei'' captured your imagination and you want to write your own story about brave protagonists facing down impossible odds with the aid of supernatural beings. Maybe the idea of collectabeasts tickles your fancy, but what you really wanna do is [[{{Deconstruction}} tear 'em all down to show people what they're really made of.]] Now you wanna write a {{Mon}}s series, and I'm here to help you do that.

* Besides the attacks themselves, there is also the matter of whether your mons should [[CallingYourAttacks call their attacks]], or simply attack. There are many reasons for and against this that many of the titles may either ignore or [[LampshadeHanging call attention to for lulz]]. On the pro side, you can think of creative names for the abilities your mons can use that better define the attacks, whereas it would've caused abilities like that awesome Calypso's Wrath attack be known by a general description like "that one watery move that causes the sea to crash onto you", or cause named attacks to be [[AllThereInTheManual only known by the few, proud, dedicated of fans you have]] otherwise if they weren't named. It can also help identify your mons better through their signature attacks if their names and appearances weren't memoriable enough. On the con side, however, if it takes particularly long for the character to charge up and launch the attack simply because [[TransformationSequence the obligatory move-intro scene of awesome or the reciting of the attack name]] [[RuleOfCool made it so]], it can be annoying ( [[{{Narm}} or hammy]]) otherwise, and in some cases the timing involved from naming an attack to ''actually doing it'' can bring up questions such as "[[FridgeLogic If my opponent is announcing they will stab me with a sword as The Poke of Doom, why don't I use that to my advantage and just shoot him from a distance?]]" or "[[WhyDontYaJustShootHim Why don't I attack them while they're showing off?]]"

* GottaCatchEmAll: In some (well, most) of the mon-oriented games in the market today, a key aspect of the game is to create as many mons of different themes, styles, and variations, the majority of which should be appealing and varied enough to have at least one of your mons favored by any player that picks up your game or watches your series. Similarly it is a given that, with so many varieties of mons in the game, the player has a flexible selection of what mons they can get, be it from the beginning or over time, and should they want to follow the GottaCatchEmAll mentality, it is a good sign that the mons you design are off on the right track. However, while it is reccomended that you should add rewards or possibly even a sub-quest (if not ''the'' quest) to catch 'em all, and it is '''mandatory''' to have most if not all of your mons be appealing enough to entice players to do just that, it is not necessarily law for you to ''have'' to force your players to catch them all. Some genres make it a point that, while you certainly get a generous selection of potential partner mons to care for and strengthen, you don't necessarily have to form a team of them to win, nor really force yourself to get all of them to reach the end of the game. {{Digimon}}, especially in its earlier seasons, for instance, star a handful of kid tamers whom each only get one mon partner in a world populated by over hundreds of variant species. It does not hinder them should these digidestined stick solely to their one digimon partner, and by sticking with that one mon, they grow stronger with them and keep in mind their strengths and weaknesses to better strategize. However, how closely you should follow or avert this trope depends on how effective your mons are in combat both singularly or in numbers. Going back to the {{Digimon}} example, a digimon as seen in the series can be quite effective on its own depending on how well it is trained and bonded with its tamer. Pokemon, however, brings up ideas of how training only one pokemon out of a possible team of 6 is very risky tactic and puts you in a disadvantage more often than not, and introduces hurdles to enforce the point that teamwork is better than a one-mon army. For instance, you can have the water type mon Blastoise to overpower a team by brute force, but it risks being taken down by grass-and-poison-type mon Venusaur due to a type disatvantage. You ''could'' have Blastoise raised to a high enough level that it will only fear those close to or exactly to its level (moreso if they are the aforementioned grass-type), but it is wiser to invest time in recruiting other mons, such as fire-and-flying-type Charizard, to tower over the mons who pose a threat against your Blastoise. Even outside of [[ElementalRockPaperScissors the elemental balance]], there could also be other factors that encourage you to diversify on your mon collection, such as in MonsterRancher where the cute monster girl succubi, Pixie, are very intelligent and excell in their abilities and move-point-drainage of the opponents, [[GlassCannon but are scared silly at having their frail bodies get hit]], parallelling the bulky Golems who high defenses and power allow them to pound opposing mons into next Tuesday with narly a scratch, but are about as fast as a snail stuck on frozen molasses and thus are outsped by the majority of other mons.

* Nearly every mon series to exist had played around with motifs, sometimes following every motif of the book for different groups of mons. Nearly any motif can be used on a mon, be it for the story behind a particular group of mons, or for the mon designs themselves. Some can cover every mon in the book, such as FightingFoodons whom is relatively mon-like where the mons are all some form of food, or DragonDrive where every mon are some form of dragon. {{Pokemon}} and {{Digimon}} are examples of covering a huge variety of different motifs, such as Digimon's devas being based on the [[EasternZodiac chinese zodiac]] and their bosses, the sovereigns, being based on [[TheFourGods the four directional gods]], or pokemon's legendaries being based around grouped themes like the creation trio Dialga, Palkia and Giratina (who are embodiments of space, time and antimatter respectively), the elemental bird trio Articuno, Zapdos and Moltres (who not only represent ice, electric and fire, but are all [[CaptainObvious flying types and follow a spanish-number-in-name theme]]), or the lake trio Uxie, Mesprit and Azelf (who [[CaptainObvious not only are found in Sinnoh's lakes]], but represent knowledge, emotion and willpower respectively and their ability to take such away if mishandled)

* Depending on the nature of your mon series setting, the plot could be anything, and being a flexible genre, the mon mold can be applied to a good number of situations. The key ideas on what can inspire a plot that works for your series come from A) the location (Your world or the mon's world? Are they the same or different?) B) the mons and their relationship to the trainers (Are the trainers used to the mons or are they a new discovery? Was it a fad that your trainer jumped in the bandwagon on or something that, by a stroke of fate, caused your trainer to stumble in on it? Are the mons like pets or like partners to the trainer? Are the mons friendly to the trainer, hostile and dangerous to them, or shades of both?) and C) the player's goals with the mons (what are they used for? Are they used to make the trainer powerful, or are the mons using the trainer to make ''themselves'' powerful? What does the player hope to achieve in training one or several walking killing machines?), among other things.
Some common plots in other existing mon titles include:

** [[BandWagonTechnique The mons are part of some popular game or the latest fad]] and the trainer is either [[NewMeat a newbie who lived under a rock of the whole thing]] [[VeteranUnit or a notable veteran]]. [[TheChosenOne Perhaps the trainer is destined for great things that unravel as the story goes on]], or perhaps they uncover an underlying, sinister plan underneath the fanfare.

* The location the setting should be can be incredibly flexible, but it all depends on the theme of your mons. Take a look at the kind of mons you have in mind for this kind of project. What kind of environment would they best fit in? It's one thing to plot the specific home nest of this mon, but it's also another thing to plot out what the rest of the world is like beyond just this small nest. The mon's relationship to their trainer in general should also be taken into account as far as what sets apart a trainer's life and a mon's life, especially when considering whether or not they live in the same or different worlds. A series like {{Digimon}}, DragonDrive or MegaManBattleNetwork is set in a normal earth-like world for the human trainers and a digital world where the mons live. In the former two cases, the physical representation of the digital worlds alter themselves into general elemental hubs that fit with the mons who live there (so you'll see things such as an urban city, volcanoes, a vast ocean, a jungle, etc, that may be programmed inside it), while in the latter case, the net navis live inside a world that appears very artificial and bizarre, constantly reminding you that you are inside the internet. A series like {{Pokemon}} or MonsterRancher are set in a world where the mons live in unison with the trainers, and the humans not only have grown accustomed to the sight of these mons running around outside their backyards (or if they themselves are a trainer, inside their house) but utlize a mon's abilities to assist in the daily duties of life. In cases like ShinMegamiTensei 's spin-off DevilSurvivor it can also be a case where the trainers live in a setting much like our own reality, but the mons invaded or appeared into the setting in a world ''not'' accustomed to seeing monsters roaming around, and so the player takes on the role of learning of and controlling these beasts.

** Digimon is an example of unique moves having priority over universal moves as the majority of the digimon have signature abilities as their main attacks and very few instances a mon shares an attack that can be used by another mon. In fact they are so exclusive that a digimon adopts an entirely new set of signature moves when it digivolves while losing (or revamping) its old ones, and some mons that are inherently the same may adopt different variations of the same move if not new moves entirely. For instance, Patamon, a cute rodent-like critter with wings for ears, has the signature attack Boom Bubble, which is only unique to itself, so unique that when it digivolves to the angelic man Angemon, he loses the Boom Bubble attack and gains the new signature attack Hand Of Fate. An example of a move upgraded from one form to another includes Agumon, an orange dino digimon who learns Pepper Breath, an ember-shooting attack, that grows bigger and powerful when Agumon digivolves to the even bigger dino Greymon in the form of Nova Blast. There are only a few number of moves shared among different digimon, most of them being shared because the species are expies of each other (Agumon has a dark expy known as [[PaletteSwap BlackAgumon]], both of whom learn Pepper Breath), but there are some exceptions even among expies (The Agumon from Digimon Adventure who is Tai's partner, for instance, learns a different set of signature moves from the Agumon of Digimon World Data Squad, who is Marcus's partner (although in the anime he learns more or less the same moves plus extras Tai's Agumon doesn't use)). One example of the rare shared moves includes Bubble Blow, a move universal to most In-Training level digimon. MonsterRancher is another example that plays the exclusive move factor much more straight, as every species learn a list of signature moves unique only to their species or the subspecies whom their own species is dominant of. For example, a Tiger who is a hybrid of a Naga learns the same moves as a pure Tiger because they're both primarily Tigers. The exception include rare cases or systems involving a monster fighting alongside or in place of another monster as aid, allowing the primary fighter to temporarily use an attack that was exclusive to their aid.

* PromotionalPowerlessPieceOfGarbage: It is not unheard of, and in fact very common, for a game of mons to have ultra exclusive mons available only by [[NintendoHard nigh impossible challenges]] or by special events. Whether or not you should add a mon or so (or several) to the list of exclusives only released through promotional means depends on many factors, and how well recieved doing this depends on the mon in question. For instance, it can be enticing to get a mon [[OlympusMons who is an absolute powerhouse in the games]] as a bonus and attract more people to the event in question. If the event is particularly exclusive, it can help increase its rarity and ease the players [[GameBreaker on its powerhouse potential shaking the meta game a little]], adding one of many secrets only given to the most devoit of your players. On the otherhand, if the mon is pretty yet [[ComMons rather usless]] if not [[AwesomeButImpractical overshadowed by pre-existing (not to mention more common) mons]], it becomes a waste of time to go after and will more than likely be [[TheScrappy the next vendor trash mon]] whom players would sooner buy a gameshark to nab in their game if [[LastLousyPoint they only need it as far as their mon-log is concerned]] than go to the event to get it. Then there is the event itself where you have to make it interesting in itself to make it worth it for people to pay attention to, and give plenty of time and preparation both for your players and yourself to prepare. Don't fall for the disaster of releasing a wifi-connection event spur the moment, where few people were aware it was happening, fewer had bothered to connect with you and everyone else who heard it ran out of time to set themselves up for it. The promotion can be as big or as small as you want it, but organization and a fitting theme is a must. Maybe you'd like a small wifi-session online to encourage [[SocializationBonus the connectivity and trading aspects of your games]]. Or maybe, for the commercial-minded, you'd like to host a mini-convention of sorts for your players to physically gather to. More so, keep in mind that if you plan to release mons exclusively through promotional means, ensure that these events reach out to as much of the globe as possible. [[NoExportForYou Your players will thank you for it.]]

* GottaCatchEmAll: In some (well, most) of the mon-oriented games in the market today, a key aspect of the game is to create as many mons of different themes, styles, and variations, the majority of which should be appealing and varied enough to have at least one of your mons appeal to a player. Similarly it is a given that, with so many varieties of mons in the game, the player has a flexible selection of what mons they can get, be it from the beginning or over time, and should they want to follow the GottaCatchEmAll mentality, it is a good sign that the mons you design are off on the right track. However, while it is reccomended that you should add rewards or possibly even a sub-quest (if not ''the'' quest) to catch 'em all, and it is '''mandatory''' to have most if not all of your mons be appealing enough to entice players to do just that, it is not necessarily law for you to ''have'' to force your players to catch them all. Some genres make it a point that, while you certainly get a generous selection of potential partner mons to care for and strengthen, you don't necessarily have to form a team of them to win, nor really force yourself to get all of them to reach the end of the game. {{Digimon}}, especially in its earlier seasons, for instance, star a handful of kid tamers whom each only get one mon partner in a world populated by over hundreds of variant species. It does not hinder them should these digidestined stick solely to their one digimon partner, and by sticking with that one mon, they grow stronger with them and keep in mind their strengths and weaknesses to better strategize. However, how closely you should follow or avert this trope depends on how effective your mons are in combat both singularly or in numbers. Going back to the {{Digimon}} example, a digimon as seen in the series can be quite effective on its own depending on how well it is trained and bonded with its tamer. Pokemon, however, brings up ideas of how training only one pokemon out of a possible team of 6 is very risky and puts you in a disadvantage, and introduces hurdles to further enforce that teamwork is better than a one-mon army. For instance, you can have the water type mon Blastoise to overpower a team by brute force, but it risks being taken down by grass-and-poison-type mon Venusaur due to a type disatvantage. You ''could'' have Blastoise raised to a high enough level that it will only fear those close to or exactly to its level (moreso if they are the aforementioned grass-type), but it is wiser to invest time in recruiting other mons, such as fire-and-flying-type Charizard, to tower over the mons who pose against your Blastoise. Even outside of [[ElementalRockPaperScissors the elemental balance]], there could also be other factors that encourage you to diversify on your mon collection, such as in MonsterRancher where the cute monster girl succubi, Pixie, are very intelligent and excell in their abilities and move-point-drainage of the opponents, [[GlassCannon but are scared silly at having their frail bodies get hit]], parallelling the bulky Golems who high defenses and power allow them to pound opposing mons into next Tuesday with narly a scratch, but are about as fast as a snail stuck on frozen molasses and thus are outsped by the majority of other mons.

* The majority of the story's focus will be [[ABoyAndHisX The Player And Their Mon]] and the training of said mon(s) to reach their fullest potential and be the strongest (either strong enough to overcome whatever goal their is or the strongest ever). Depending on the mechanics you have behind it that define how much of the mon's stats you monitor and grow or what you do with them, you can potentially expand on the relationship you, the player, have with the mon, your partner. The most common theme is friendship, especially if your character and/or mon are the good-hearted type, and depending how much you integrate your mon's affection to your tamers in-game or story-wise, [[ThePowerOfFriendship you can work with a sub-plot that shows that a strong bond with your mon enables you to tap into your greatest strengths]]. For the reverse, you can also [[DeconstructedTrope deconstruct the idea]] of why [[FridgeLogic a mon would mindlessly follow a trainer who]] [[DefeatMeansFriendship horribly pounded the crap out of them on-sight]] by showing the trainer strengthen their mon while ignoring [[UnfortunateImplications their underlying problems]] with this training regimen, ending with either the mon [[StockholmSyndrome giving in to this treatment]] to mindlessly stick with this trainer (for better or worse) or [[TheDogBitesBack get fed up enough and betray them.]]

* The location the setting should be can be incredibly flexible, but it all depends on the theme of your mons. Take a look at the kind of mons you have in mind for this kind of project. What kind of environment would they best fit in? It's one thing to plot the specific home nest of this mon, but it's also another thing to plot out what the rest of the world is like beyond just this small nest. The mon's relationship to their trainer in general should also be taken into account as far as what sets apart a trainer's life and a mon's life, especially when considering whether or not they live in the same or different worlds. A series like {{Digimon}}, DragonDrive or MegaManBattleNetwork is set in a normal earth-like world for the human trainers and a digital world where the mons live. In the former two cases, the physical representation of the digital worlds alter themselves into general elemental hubs that fit with the mons who live there (so you'll see things such as an urban city, volcanoes, a vast ocean, a jungle, etc, that may be programmed inside it), while in the latter case, the net navis live inside a world that appears very artificial and bizarre, constantly reminding you that you are inside the internet. A series like {{Pokemon}} or MonsterRancher are set in a world where the mons live in unison with the trainers, and the humans not only have grown accustomed to the sight of these mons running around outside their backyards (or if they themselves are a trainer, inside their house) but utlize a mon's abilities to assist in the daily duties of life. In cases like ShinMegamiTensei it can also be a case where the trainers live in a setting much like our own reality, but the mons invaded or appeared into the setting in a world ''not'' accustomed to seeing monsters roaming around, and so the player takes on the role of learning of and controlling these beasts.

* [[RuleOfCool Mons have awesome powers the majority of the time]]. The more powerful the mon is, the more awesome their abilities usually are. Or so the unspoken rule goes among many mon-oritented titles. A mon typically has very flashy abilities sometimes drawn from their power, and other times caused by amplified parts of their body (such as their claws that release power beams reflecting their slash markings they leave). The choices of what kind of abilities the mon should have and in what manner they should use it vary between mons, but it always tends to reflect some aspect of them. For example, a mecha mon may primarily use abilities shot out of its cannons or guns, while a mermaid mon may manipulate or call on water to attack. This doesn't necessarily stop you from breaking this trend, however, such as with [[MonsterRancher Monster Rancher's Doodle]], [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin an animated doodle of a stick figure man]], who is so random that it rides around on a rooster-cycle, shoots its head at people, and [[MindScrew summons a ginormous woman's foot wearing a stiletto to step on people]].

* Besides the attacks themselves, there is also the matter of whether your mons should [[CallingYourAttacks call their attacks]], or simply attack. There are many reasons for and against this that many of the titles may either ignore or [[LampshadeHanging call attention to for lulz]]. On the pro side, you can think of creative names for the abilities your mons can use that better define the attacks, whereas it would've caused abilities like that awesome Calypso's Wrath attack be known by a general description like "that one watery move that causes the sea to crash onto you", or cause named attacks to be [[AllThereInTheManual only known by the few, proud, dedicated of fans you have]]. It can also help identify your mons better through their signature attacks if their names and appearances weren't memoriable enough. On the con side, however, if it takes particularly long for the character to charge up and launch the attack simply because [[TransformationSequence the obligatory move-intro scene of awesome or the reciting of the attack name]][[RuleOfCool made it so]], it can be annoying ( [[{{Narm}} or hammy]]) otherwise, and in some cases the timing involved from naming an attack to ''actually doing it'' can bring up questions such as "[[FridgeLogic If my opponent is announcing they will stab me with a sword as The Poke of Doom, why don't I use that to my advantage and just shoot him from a distance?]]" or "[[WhyDontYaJustShootHim Why don't I attack them while they're showing off?]]"