Pokemon Oster - Fakemon and Regional Forms
In case a reader stumbles upon this post accidentally, I am a player in a friend's Pokémon Tabletop United campaign, which is set in Oster, our pokemon world's stand-in for Australia. Given I am our group's resident artist, the GM has asked for my help in designing regional variants of existing pokemon in order to make them more Australian. Pictured below is what we've come up with so far.
Osterian Cubone and Marowak take the Bonemerang idea to it's extreme. They have bones sharpened and carved into a true Boomerang shape, and resemble more crocodiles or lizards than their Kanto counterparts. Complete with bone akubras and fly swatters made of their hunts. They are Dark types because they are devious rangers that hunt for sport.
Osterian Yamper and Boltund take the domesticated dog Pokémon and make it Dingo. The Dingo is a domesticated canine that were introduced to Australia by our Aboriginal predecessors. The redesign mostly meant recolouring Boltund and Yamper and redesigning parts of the body e.g. ears and tails, to look more like a Dingo. Rather than a solid colour, I chose to stylise these Pokemon's coats to resembles Aboriginal Australian dot painting. Their desert habitat is what gives them a Ground type, and since they are more wise guardians than their counterparts, Cubone and Marowak, they have a Fairy typing.
Osterian Chatot is made to resemble a Cockatiel, a small Australian parrot. Cockatiel's are part of the Cockatoo family, mostly larger parrots with elaborate head crests and more muted colours. It's regional evolution, Didgeritoo, is based on the Yellow Tailed Black Cockatoo. Some local stories say that a Black Cockatoo flying overhead can foretell coming rain. So Didgeritoo, named for a traditional Australian woodwind instrument, is interpreted as a Pokemon associated with bad omens, particularly coming weather. Didgeritoo cannot learn any water type attacks, but it's arrival can make it rain.
Osterian Psyduck is reinterpretation of a typical Psyduck's not so duck shape, as a Platypus. Platypus are not birds, but have duck shaped bills, and males can produce a venom in their hindclaws, hence why Oster Psyduck is Water/Poison. It's Evolution Molduck takes the Platypus idea but leaning more into an Australian mythical creature called the Bunyip. There's many interpretations of what this cryptid could be, but a common theme is swamp monster. Molduck is named for both the toxic mould covering its body, and because Platypus are sometimes referred to as duck moles.
Oster Tarountula is based on one of Australia's many native spiders, the trapdoor spider. Trapdoor spiders wait in ambush in holes plugged by rocks or wood that they lift like a trap door to attack passing prey. Spidops takes the trapdoor idea and uses its ambush rock as a helmet to more resemble a famous old Australian outlaw, Ned Kelly, who wore a metal helmet with a slit for his eyes. This Spidops is not a true outlaw itself, but the helmet it wears is possessed by spirits who were lawless in their past life, hence the Ghost type.
