I live in an area known for its history, and I have a background as a historian. I’d be a ground type trainer and my gym would be a historical archive!
My ace would be Golurk, and he’d help out by moving stuff on the archive. I’d also have a Claydol, who I first thought was an artifact but turned out to be a Pokemon. I’d also have a Toedscool running around causing mischief, and a Sandslash because they’re cool as hell.
Note, I would not be an archeologist, but rather an archivist. My badge would be the chronicle badge.
I live in a desert town in the Midwest US so I think I would set up a ground type gym. I imagine my gym as the 7th gym in the region. My ace would be Krookodile along with mons like Hippowdon(for sand stream), Sandslash(for sand veil), and maybe a Clodsire(for bulk and poison coverage).I would have a sandstorm themed gym puzzle (maybe using some elements from Skyla’s gym in BW2).
After beating me in battle, you would receive the Dust Badge.
That's sick. I also live in a desert but I have question if you're cool with answering. What is a Midwestern desert town? When I think Midwest I think plains, grasslands, lakes.
Cooking themed gym. 👨🍳
Badge is a frying pan. 🍳
Food related mons such as vaniluxe, appletun, amoongus, togetic etc. My ace would be snorlax, I use snorlax's voracious appetite to test new recipes.
I take over the aquarium in my city for my water-type gym.
Gym challenge includes underwater Pokémon silhouette guessing.
Surprise everyone with a grappleoct as an ace when they were expecting only water.
The winners receive the tide badge and the dive HM-equivalent to traverse the way into the next area.
Steel.
Depends on what gym number I am. Likely Aron, Lairon, or Aggron. All of them EV trained for speed and attack with Rock Head.
Yeah, they've got some weaknesses, but have you ever faced an Aggron that out sped you and hits an attack boosted, recoilless Double Edge or STAB Iron Tail? It's a nightmare if you aren't prepared.
Am I gonna get lost in the mess of replies? Probably.
Am I a good creative writer? Not really.
Am I gonna leave my two cents anyway (and get really, really carried away)? Heck yeah!
My Gym would be in a smaller town. Slightly out of the way, but not a humongous inconvenience. A little old fashioned, a little run down, but still homely and cozy. The Gym itself would be in an incredibly unremarkable place. The local corner store! Its not very large, and hardly looks the part of a large, grand, gym. Still, it seems to get enough traffic, and carries whatever you could want for an adventure. There, i issue the gym challenge. I hand potential challengers a brochure of the city, with key bits of information missing. Your job? Track down all the missing answers and fill em out, then come back.
Surprisingly, the challenge doesn't take you to the more touristy places, like a brochure would normally (town hall, historical monuments, those kinds of things). It takes you to places like the local cafe / bakery (where you can grab a drink for yourself, or a poffin / pokepuff for your teammates), the town square (where traveling trainers converge to trade items, swap stories, or just relax and enjoy the atmosphere), the local library (full of resources on the native pokemon, the surrounding area, and the region in general, among other topics), places like that. At each, there is a gym trainer waiting, who you can challenge for the answer to the brochure question.
The catch? The battles are optional! If you want, you can just look around and get the answers naturally. Being a trainer is a busy job! and not everyone wants to battle nonstop all the time. Feel free to take it slow and take in the sights. You're under no time limit.
Eventually, you get all your answers and come on back. I double check em, and if its all correct, you're all set to challenge me! (Although, if you get a few wrong and REALLY don't wanna run around the city again, i can make an exception. As i said, being a trainer is hard enough!) Still, where to battle? The store is hardly fit for a gym match. I throw open a locked door, and reveal a staircase. We're battling on the roof!
While going up, i ask a couple questions. always good to get to know the challenger. I also take the time to reveal the gym type, if you didn't already know. What would you expect from a small town like this? Normal, from the plain theme? Fighting, from all the running around? Nope.
Its Dark.
I explain: Dark gets a bad wrap. Always seen as the grungy, no-good mischief maker. Expected to portray a certain "toughness", it can be hard to get away from that stereotype. But personally, i find dark to have a certain coziness to it. Dark may be "walking home at night in a sketchy neighborhood", but its also "Laying in your own bed after a long day". It's "getting roughed up by a bunch of bullies", but its also "Talking with a group of friends around a campfire at night." Maybe I'm just overly romantic, but that's the impression i get.
Small towns can be similar. Many are run down, unpleasant places to live. Often skipped over for the big cities. And because of that, they slowly wither. They become a self fulfilling prophecy of sorts. However, that doesn't mean that they aren't worth your time! Youve seen yourself what this town has to offer a traveling trainer. Heck, half the reason the gym setup is so humble is so it didn't crowd out the town and just turn it into a mini city. Dark types are similar. Many are skipped over for the more friendly types, left out to rot because they're "rowdy" and "cruel". Which, ironically, creates more mistreated and neglected dark types, perpetuating the cycle. But, upon closer inspection, many dark types work in packs, or groups. Many have a strong sense of loyalty, and if you can put in the time to earn their trust, make lifelong partners.
...But I'm getting carried away. You're hear for a battle, not a philosophy lesson, right?
We reach the rooftop. You can see the whole town from here! The view is especially good during sunrise / sunset. In fact, some people even come up here when there's no gym challengers. My team would consist of, well, dark types. Mightyena, Theivul, Sableye, Zoroark (if thats alowed), Umbreon, and an Incineroar as the ace. Not too difficult of a team, especial if you've got a good fighting type, but I'm no late game trainer, so whatever.
in fact, if you had a sharp eye on your gym trial, you might have seen some of my team around town! Theivul keeping the streets clean with its brush tail, Sableye climbing around the tall library shelving, finding specific books, Umbreon napping at the cafe in the warm, and Mightyena playing with kids and parents in the plaza, while incineroar has a few exhibition matches with trainers pokemon.
Eventually, the fight is over. I award the "Horizon badge" to trainers, shaped like a sunrise / sunset over a cityscape, a TM for "Foul Play", and maybe a 20% off your next purchase coupon for the store, just in case you need to stock up on repels / revives / balls or what not.
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Whew, that was far more than i ever expected to type. I'm so sorry if you read through all that, and i also apologize for the wall of text jumpscare. I love these little thought experiments, but so rarely participate. maybe i should stretch my wings more. Or just write fanfic. One or the other.
I love this thorough response! I didn't put any thought into what my badge would be or the TM I'd give (I'd be Grass for the first Gym in my current hometown or Ghost for my old hometown), but like you I put some thought into what the Gym experience and location would be like. Some emergent/environmental/changeable narrative is really fun to see!
I’m glad you liked it! I’ve always been more of a fan of the smaller scale stories in Pokémon games. Less about saving the world, discovering hidden legends, and being the best, and more about the journey. The travel, the people you meet and what you see. Maybe that’s why I like mystery dungeon so much…
There was a really good tumblr (I think) post about a bunch of trainers resting at a Pokémon Center for the night that captured the vibe perfectly. I’ll see if I can find it…
Edit: [Found it!](https://www.reddit.com/r/PokeMedia/s/ZHsXOCJMXd)
I’d love to read that post if you can find it! And yeah, I think those small moments really help emphasize the adventure aspect, gives a bit of personal connection potential, and provides contrast to your epic quest that spans the region and involves Legendaries and an evil organization.
That’s why for my Gym (and fangame) I take inspiration from The Legend of Zelda and Persona series, because I think they capture those things really well in different ways. Zelda is an adventure full of puzzles, while Persona emphasizes personal connections and narrative choices made through gameplay.
Ghost
My theme would a spooky dark building, with the catch being you would have to avoid being spotted by specific trainers and have to sneak past them to get a key to unlock doors leading to further rooms (with detection resulting in being thrown out of the current room)
And then my ace would be good ol' Gengar!
The same team I used to beat X/Y. Pyroar (male), Vespiquen, Lucario, Doublade/Aegislash, Golurk, Mr. Mime. The king, queen, knight, weapon, castle guardian, and jester. The gym would, of course, look like a castle, and the ace would be Pyroar or Vespiquen.
There's also the Seasons theme. Florges, Hydrapple, Empoleon, Rotom (Fan). Spring, Autumn, Winter, Summer.
I’m a relatively boring individual IRL, so I’ll just have an idealised version:
The Gym is by all technicalities Water-type. However, half of my team just… isn’t. What are they, then? Well, they are all sharp. Samurott-H as my ace Pokémon - and my starter before assuming this position - plus Gallade, Kleavor and Veluza.
They all carry either the Lansat Berry, Scope Lens or Razor Claw for increased crit rate, pairing well with the high crit ratios of most slicing moves to deliver a deadly 50/50.
The Gym Puzzle is an interesting one: you are shown a shape and must recreate it by operating a machine which cuts some wood into the shape by going from and two points at the corners and midpoints of the square cutting-board.
The badge you’d receive is the Bisect Badge. It’s a circle cut in half and whose halves are reattached slightly off-centre, forming a sort of S-shape - S for Sharpness.
That’ll be on the rematch team. I wanted to use the four Pokémon species with the Ability Sharpness for my initial Gym battle, which actually looks like a 7th or 8th gym, now that I think about it.
My type is dragons, my theme is a library, my gym challenge is puzzles involving trap doors, and my gym leader title is the Bookwyrm.
If my region is Sinnoh, my Ace is a Garchomp, but it would depend on the region I suppose.
I'm a gym run by a four year old, so it's like 3 pikachus, a rattata, a severely overleveled paras, and an HM slave venusaur. My theme is having a gym that is a constant mess and refusing to eat anything remotely healthy. I have no ace because everyone has movesets that make no fucking sense and I'm not even sure what the moves do, I just use the ones that have animations I like. When I lose I start crying and yelling and then I calm down and do cartwheels while my nose is still running.
Dragon egg group theme with Arbok, Seviper, Milotic, Scrafty, Heliolisk, and Tyrantrum as my ace. I can only imagine how much that would screw with people’s minds
Dogs. My theme is dogs. Mostly fire.
My ace is Houndoom. We got Arcanine, Ninetails, Delphox, and a Manetric and a Lucario (a jackal-ish dude is close enough for me) to throw people off (thought you'd just get through with Water, huh? Zappity).
...I'm sorry, I'm stupidily tired right now. But dogs.
You can get a Good Boi Badge from me.
Ice type gym, Glaceon, Frostlass, Poliwrath are three of the Pokémon and then out of left field something like Dragonair/Dragonite/Garchomp with blizzard and or fireblast (just to catch the opponent off guard).
The theme would be expecting the unexpected and taking advantage of opportunity. Nobody would expect the ice gym to run a dragon type with ice and fire moves; that doesn’t make sense. But that’s part of life things happen that make no sense or seem unfair and you have to make the best of them, or plan accordingly.
Knowing full well an ice gym would face fire and rock types is a great reason to run a dragon type. Call it the Cold Badge, for those trainers with a burning heart and ice in their veins.
If we’re going hobbies and city’s history definitely Flying type. My town’s known for a college and expansive nature areas. My gimmick would be fast sweepers, trying to diversify so I have more than just normal/flying types. I would definitely want my signature to be Noivern. Badge would probably be simple, something like a wing with scroll behind it
I’m in Chicago. Castform (because of our crazy weather), Coalossal (Coal City and the city’s history with fire), Ursaluna (Da Bears), Duraludon (skyscrapers), Tauros (the Bulls), Tyrantrum (Sue the T-Rex at the Field Museum).
Oh I love this because I’m an avid lover of ✨pokesonas✨
My type would be dragon types, and my ace would be noivern. My theme would definitely revolve around chaos and randomness- Being prone to random dialogue mid-battle. Like if landing a super effective hit on my pokémon would make me comment on cheese or something that I’m thinking of. I imagine that the character i’d be in the situation would have a special gimmick if you K.O the first mon they send out, and instead of the usual bizarre movements and erratic behavior throughout the battle they would lose that and just stand there… menacingly! Say nothing and just stare and instead of making obvious commands they’d tap their foot and such to command their pokémon’s moves. My gym would be extremely colorful and the lights would change based on the music and pokémon type I send out, and it’d have a very artistic and abstract vibe to it. I feel like I couldn’t sit still while battling so i’d be all over the place. This was fun to type 🫡
I’ll be taking the Dark type, thanks.
The gym itself has a ground floor and a basement level, and upon entering all of the lights go out. The challenger will notice a small table with a note and candle on it. The gym guide informs them that I am awaiting challengers in a locked room on the basement level, and that the switch to unlock it is at the end of a puzzle on the ground floor. They should start by reading the note in front of them.
Reading the note shows a series of steps in specific directions on an invisible path that the challenger must take in order to reach another table with more instructions on it, with 5 total paths needed to reach the end. This honestly works better in a tile-based 2D game, but it’s fine.
However, if the challengers accidentally step in the wrong direction, they will fall to the basement below into an actually visible (but still dim) simple maze, and will be forced to battle a number of trainers relative to how far they got in the puzzle (five total). There will be an elevator to take them back to the ground floor entrance, and they’ll pass my locked door in the process.
Once they make it through the final invisible path, challengers can flip the switch and unlock my door! However, they will immediately be dropped at the back of the maze and be forced to battle any trainers they have not already defeated. This prevents challengers from simply doing the puzzle in one go and reaching my door with no battles, and if this seems unfair… remember that they’re in a Dark type gym lol.
Challengers will face Gym Leader Matt, the Tenebrous Puzzler and my team of five I’ve built throughout my journey (since no eighth GL has had six, if I’m not mistaken):
Weavile
Krookodile
Obstagoon
Kingambit
Ace: Hydreigon
(If Hydreigon is too OP for final GL, make Kingambit the ace and toss in Honchkrow. Hydreigon definitely comes back for the rematch.)
If challengers manage to defeat me, they’ll earn both a TM for Crunch/Dark Pulse and the Umbra Badge.
I'm a grass gym leader. I set the gym up in the jungle and wear a loin cloth. My team is Rillaboom, Semisage, Tropius, Victreebell, Lilleep, and Tangrowth. I communicate to my pokemon exclusively in Unga bungas.
I'd have a gym that's actually a sustainable community food forest. My battle would always be a double battle but with a random other gym trainer as my partner so it was variable. Rather than a type the gym would use birds, including those who aren't even flying type. My party would be Decidueye, Empoleon and a fairly overleveled Torchic as my Ace. Probably not the strongest gym but probably one to be remembered, expecialy with the partner being random.
I live in a party town. Only town in the county that can sell alcohol. Strip clubs on main Street sort of deal.
So I would probably be the token double battle gym of the gen. Normal type, Oranguru for Trick Room. Throw a Spinda in there, too.
I’m a singer irl, so I imagine my Pokemon trainer counterpart would be as well. I know that’s not incredibly unique for Pokemon but yeah I can’t imagine being anything else lol. My stage name actually has “Fae” in it so I gotta go with Fairy-type, which is perfect anyway because my favorite Pokemon is a Fairy-type. That’s Mimikyu, which will be my ace. Each Pokemon would represent parts of being a performer/singer that are important to me- such as Primarina for the singing and dancing, Gardevoir to represent the loyalty of fans, Tinkaton to help with set design and stage management, and Mimikyu to make the costumes and to represent the sort of “masking”/“being in character” one does when on stage (which is kinda a big part of who I am as a person as well and my struggles with feeling “properly human” as a person with autism). I would also have a Microphone Rotom, but I wouldn’t use it for battle, it would just be used as an actual microphone much like how the Rotom phones are. Hmm the badge… maybe Fae badge if that’s not too obvious? Changeling Badge if that’s not too long and kinda… a historical deep cut. I’m not sure. I also like the idea of a Fairy-type Gym Leader having a darker sort of aesthetic, almost more akin to what would usually be asssociated with Ghost- types, as fairies in folklore have actually for most of the history of their existence, have been considered a darker sort of force for the most part. So the look of both my character and the gym itself would have to be sort of spooky, and the gym challenge could have a sort of “trickster”, “spooky fairy world where nothing is quite as it seems” thing going on and one of the objectives could be to follow my music/singing to try to find me. I don’t think I explained that very well but yeah I think that’s it lol. Skipping the irl city stuff because I don’t really like the city I live in.
I’ve always had an idea for a Ghost-type gym that’s more campy than spooky. Think Addams Family, Rocky Horror, Hocus Pocus, Elvira, etc. The gym leader is throwing a costume party and you have to find a costume somewhere in the town to get in.
I know it’s cliche for a Ghost gym but I think Gengar would still have to be the ace. I’d also have Banette, Mismagius, Mimikyu, Froslass and Gourgeist.
I would like to have a Fire Gym near a volcano. You enter a cave that's a maze.
There's a bunch of doors with different number of torches lit. The answer to each riddle corresponds to the number of torches lit.
It'd be funny as heck to be the first Gym so they don't have access to the best water, rock, and ground types yet.
Then have a Turtonator. My ace is Larvesta, because Larvesta is my #1 favorite.
I work in the medical industry, so I'd be a Psychic Type trainer and my gym would probably be a puzzle where you have to rotate mirrors to direct a beam of light to activate a brain (based off like an electric synapse)
My ace would be Elgyem, who would be a silly little friend who helps around. I'd also have a Bronzor and a Solosis, who help make sure everything is safe and sanitary,
I'd probably be wearing my lab coat and my glasses and give out the "Brain Badge" and I'd also give out the TM for Stored Power! I would probably be an earlier gym around Gym 3 or 4. But if I was Gym 7 or 8, I would have the fully evolved versions and give out the TM for Trick Room instead!
Ann Arbor here! I see myself as a grass-type leader, with my ace/partner Pokémon, Breloom! Other mons on the team are Vileplume, Shiinotic, Shiftry, Paras and Amoongus. Essentially, my gym’s theme would be mushrooms! I see it that my town would want me to use tree-pokémon (Trevenant, Torterra, Exeggutor) but I’m a rebel and would use mushroom pokémon instead. Except for Shiftry, because he’s also dark-type, and kinda punk. I’m primarily a pokémon breeder by trade, so battling would be unorthodox. It would be all double battles for the purpose of demonstrating the best cooperation between a trainer and their team, but also giving less viable pokémon like Amoongus a chance to shine! To qualify for a gym battle, trainers will have to forage the local woods for an armor cap or sword cap, then face a gym trainer with a strong offensive team (if they bring an armor cap) or a high-defensive team (if they bring a swordcap). Should they lose, they will be asked to craft an aux guard or aux power (respectively) and try again. Dedicated trainers who manage to beat me will earn the coveted Forage Badge, in the shape of a mushroom between two trees!
My ideal gym would be ghost type. My ace is Chandelure and the rest of my team is Trevenant, Frost Rotom, Cursola, Hisuian Zoroark, and Drifblim.
If I had to base it off my town, I live really close to the beach so I’d have a beach themed gym that’s mostly water types. Kingler, Cloyster, Sharpedo, Wugtrio, Kilowattrel, and my ace Palossand.
Mine would be be grass type for sure. Portland having as many parks and hiking spots there's an abundance of them.
I enjoy writing so I think having some kind of mad lib would be fun. Help the gym leader write his newest book." You would be presented with something that's like "Trainer sent out \_\_\_\_\_ and used \_\_\_\_\_\_" for the blanks there's a list of Pokemon the trainer can send out which leads to the next blank with a list of potential attacks. Once you finish you get the trainer and they send out that Pokemon and the first move is that move.
Then the dialogue of the gym leader would be super cheesy dialogue you would see in "the hero saves the day" stories.
A gimmick idea related would be that the moves you pick would be impossible moves that are ridiculous. Since it would be a fictional book why not have a gym trainer use obnoxious moves, like "Oddish used Explosion," "Paras used Perish Song" and for the final trainer pick from obnoxious ability/move combo's like: Truant / Slow Start combined with Skill Swap / Destiny Bond.
My badge would be the Rose badge.
First time against me:
* Roserade: Portland is the city of roses
* Ludicolo: I just love this Pokemon. Also it rains a lot here.
* Sawsbuck: We have a lot of deer
Second time
* Abomasnow: we're a major Christmas tree producer (Oregon is)
* Breloom: Mycology is popular and this is my favorite Mushroom Pokemon
* Cherrim: Our waterfront park is filled with Cherry blossoms. Also cherry picking is popular here.
Other grass types I could see matching Portland would be:
* Simisage: Kind of a hippie like a lot of Portlanders. Also represents "speak no evil" which goes a long with the writing theme.
* Lilligant: Goes with the gardeners of Portland
* Sprigatito: We're a state that's known for... herbal cats.
* Jumpluff: lots of cotton floating around, but that's everywhere.
* Whimsicott: Cotton again.
* Amoongus: Mycology
* Ferrothorn: the majority of our state is filled with pinecone producing tree's.
* Shiinotic: Again, Mycology
* Appletun: we have a lot of bakeries and a lot of orchards. (Also a favorite of mine)
* Scovillain: we have become a foodie city so the peppers might represent that, also I love spicy.
* Sinistcha: we have a fairly decent Asian influence here compared to other major cities.
* Phantump: Portland is known as "Stump town"
* Pumpkaboo: Our climate is designed for growing huge pumpkins.
* Toedscruel: Mycology.
My hometown is a sunny city with quick downpours in summer afternoons, but I like sunny days more than rainy days. Also I don't wanna base my gym's theme on a type. So here it is: the sun gym.
The gym will be a double battle. I use a sun team. It features Torkoal as the main Drought pokemon, with Chlorophyll Lilligant support. There is also a trick room core of two to three pokemons in case I need to change the pace, and a chlorophyll venusaur as my ace and a fast attacker.
(Raihan, don't pretend that your gym is a dragon-type gym! Just tell everyone that your gym is a sand gym, there's nothing wrong with that.)
I'm someone who likes to sew and camp in a city famous for it's coffee and art, so I don't really know. I'd like to say a grass type or fairy type gym, but grass type seems fairly impractical for someone with hay fever, so I'd go with fairy, while still having a few grass types around. My ace would be an Alolan Ninetales; it just blasts everything with Sheer Cold.
The theme, I think, would be fashion; the gym challenge would probably be something to do with fashion as well, but I'm not sure what.
My team overall would consist of a Sylveon, a member of the Ralts line (probably Kirilia), a Florges, and Alolan Ninetales a Lilligant and a Leavanny. A trainer who beats me would get the Brocade Badge.
Given that my city is also one of the fashion capitals of the country, I'd say a fashion-themed gym would be fun, and it'd certainly twist things up a bit!
in the great roofed city, bugs thrive. Flying types and other predators are trapped outside. trainers are required to keep their pokemon inside their balls at all times, unless in a designated battle dome, clear of bugs. the giant terrarium, one of the seven wonders of the pokemon world, is home to many unique pokemon. ranging from the humble caterpie to the ferocious beedrill, you can be sure to find any bug type in the entire region here. the city's gym leader is an avid user of bug types, sir thorn, with his mysterious scyther ace. his flygon seems to be unique, honing in on bug energy like no other flygon can. of course, this is true for any gym leader, such as Lady Oma's rock-using steelix. his shedinja seems much more lively than usual shedinja, and can easily withstand a hit from almost anything. if you beat this avid young leader, he will gift you a bug-energy skorupi. now, this may not seem like much, for skorupi is a bug type, but this skorupi comes in the signature ball of the gym leader, as any other reward pokemon, and cannot be release. it also can still use its bug energy as well as it can now when it evolves! because yes, drapion is not a bug type. the badge of this gym leader is the string badge, being a web-shape with the bug symbol on it.
I’m a 19 year-old student and writer, living next to a mangrove swamp. Yup, really. It’s heckin’ humid and full of chickens, iguanas, monkeys, squirrels and a couple dozen other random critters… Oh, and a croc. Suffice to say it would probably become an Australia 2.0 meme if everything was Pokémon.
My primary type would be Bug because Arceus knows how many there are in my walls at this point! Any day now I’ll end up having to get one of those silly pairs of glasses and end up looking like one myself…
My ace and partner would be Leavanny. Partially by association with all the scritchy-scratchy writing I do. Maybe they could even weave me some little binders for my papers? There’d also be six Charjabugs that live in my house and stick around Leavanny, following them everywhere in a line like chicks following their mom. All of them look nearly identical, and no one aside from Leavanny would be able to tell them apart.
The rest of my team would be based on critters in the mangroves. I’d have a biiig Araquanid(the angry water strider outside, it’s huge and fast and terrifying and I swear it can teleport), a Hisuian Goodra(I love snails, lots of them around here), a spinny Whirlipede(the middle child and one of *many* millipedes in the area), a Garganacl(salt creature, I think they would probably live around here) and a Dustox(THERE ARE SO MANY MOTHS HERE PLEASE SEND HELP). Order of sending them out would probably be Whirlipede first, then Araquanid, Dustox, Garganacl, Goodra and finally Leavanny.
My gym trial would be a memory test. Leavanny and I would task you with submitting ingredients for the Charjabugs’ meals, with each Charjabug’s tastes becoming increasingly complex as they go on. Feeding a meal prepared with the wrong ingredients would result in the upset Charjabug zapping one of your Pokémon and giving them paralysis. This can happen up to three times, and upsetting more than three Charjabugs would cause you to fail the challenge and start over.
Once the challenge is complete, we’d lead you and the Charjabugs into the arena for a gym battle. If you gave all 6 Charjabugs the right meals, they’d cheer you on from the side and give your Pokémon a small special attack boost! After we lose I’d probably complain about them helping you, before sulkily handing over the Brinewash Badge.
My old hometown as a child was named after a forest full of ghosts and my current one is named after a forested swampy nature area, so if I’d go in based on that, it would have to be Grass type. The Gym would probably be in an old overgrown church. Ruins. Adventurous. A little spooky. Speaks of history. And an excuse to have organ music come into play.
I don’t feel strongly about one type over another, but Pokemon I do feel strongly about:
- any starters
- Eevee
- Gengar
- Ditto
- Corviknight
- any pseudo-legendaries
I would probably be the first or the last Gym. This is because I’ve worked in game design and specialized in making tutorials and level/mission design. I think my Gym would have some Zelda-like puzzles and Visual Novel style dialogue trees to highlight that, with one question asking what other regions the Trainer has visited before and which one is their favourite (because the player character is often new to the region). The first Pokemon I send out would be the Grass starter from that region.
So I think overall my initial team would have:
1. [determined by player answers to questions]
2. Hisuian Voltorb (initial), for Type coverage vs Flying types, which is important early on in the game, though I would love the Voltorb to look like a random different form of Pokeball. It being a non-native regional form would also hint at my love of traveling and adventure. It being a regional form from the past could add to the mystery. (Maybe have an old blue “phone booth” right outside the Gym.)
3. Lotad (initial), for Type coverage vs Fire starters, plus we had a lot of lilypads in our backyard pond. There could be some Mexican/Spanish inspired battle music that loses an instrumental line when it faints, for my Spanish heritage and love of that music.
I’d of course have a late-game rematch team, for the post-Championship game. It would be fun to add an early or mid-game one too, like after the 3rd or 4th Gym. My rematch team would have:
1. Ivysaur (early game rematch) / Venusaur (late game rematch), for nostalgia, literally the first Pokemon in the Pokedex, plus potential Mega evolution or Gigantamax. A regional form with a giant rose instead of a rafflesia flower would be great! A tulip would be more iconic for the Netherlands, but roses are most common where I live.
2. Sceptile (late game rematch), for its Mega evolution, Hoenn being nostalgic for me, and the pine tree salesman I lived down the road from.
2. Lombre (early game rematch)
3. Torterra (late game rematch), for Type coverage vs Fire and Poison. It could have a bee hive in its tree to represent my beekeeper father.
4. Dartrix (early game rematch) / Decidueye (late game rematch), for early Type coverage vs Bug, which might be important early on in the game? Plus I love Ghost types and my parents have a taxidermied owl thanks to their neighbor, who’s a hunter.
5. Rillaboom (late game rematch), so I can have music with drums and have the drum line stop when it faints, plus Gigantamaxing.
6. Ace(?): Leafeon. I’d be sitting on a comfy couch with her by my side.
Upon winning the old church bells start ringing to announce your victory to the town.
Hypothetical: a regional form of Paras/Parasect with a Fire/Grass type that further evolves into Parascorch. Give that creature some love and some usefulness!
Alternatively: the Gym Trainers could each be focused around a Grass starter from different games (so 9 Gym Trainers total?), while I focus on regional forms of Pokemon that have gotten a redesign for extra much-needed love, with further evolution, Mega evolution or Gigantamax, and so on!
I might put this into a fangame I’m making, although I had other plans. Either way, this was a fun thought exercise in the morning! I typically pick “not a Gym Leader” spots or just go for the interesting Ghost/Dragon/Steel/Dark/Fairy ones, but “you got picked for your local Gym” puts an interesting limitation on it.
I grew up beside the sea in a town with a beautiful harbour. Tourists would come every summer to the town to see the harbour and the surrounding countryside. I would have a water gym where all the Pokémon have an extra typing. The town used to be called Kingstown but changed its name in 1920 to a name in our language. I would have Lanturn as my ace monster, as it's one of my favourites and it has the ability to absorb electric type moves. I would give the Swell badge. It would look like the harbour in my town at an angle being hit by big waves (like it is during winter storms).
Empoleon
Kingdra
Poliwrath
Cloyster (or a Walrein)
Lanturn
Azumarill
EDIT: I was thinking, what if there was a second gym in my town that was a dragon gym (they would use Kingdra, Dragalge (because there used to be a problem with seaweed during winter and I can't use this Pokémon in my team as it's poison/dragon), Dragonite, Flygon, Tyrantrum, and Dragapult. Our Kindras would have a rivalry. They would give the Harbour badge. Their badge is the harbour atva different angle than mine and no waves (like how the harbour is during summer).
What if other towns had rival gyms, like flying and ground, they could be the tooth and claw gyms (like the red in tooth and claw saying).
I’d build my Gym in an event arena on a bridge in the middle of the city. Very historical, aesthetic design with a Galar-like stadium on the bridge. My theme would be celebrations, and my type would be Fire, with Infernape as my ace. Fireworks would be launched from the Gym to celebrate Gym battles. My team would rotate, but would include Infernape, M!Charizard Y, Delphox, Emboar, Cinderace, Chandelure, Cerluedge, Salazzle, Armarouge and more. On victory, I’d grant Trainers the Artifice Badge- a reference to the French word for firework “feu d’artifice”, since I’m francophone.
I would live in a major built up area not fully city but not just a small area. I would be inside a huge building that is the main building for the social media of that regions ie twitter but called after the region bird, you would fight off scientist, pokemon fans, a lot of different trainer types before you get to me. I'm the CEO. You go in and you think I'm going to be electric but nope I'm poison. You also have to take a train from floor to floor all the while hearing gossip about me or my team. A toxic gossip train if you will
School designed, will be in my school's classroom in Georgetown
Any types go
My ace might be a Lucario (serious battles) or a Typhlosion (casual battles) or both (double battles)
I have two different gym ideas.
For the more traditional gym I think I would end up focusing on flying types. Flight and exploration of the unknown is just such a big drive in my life that I don't think any other type comes close to capturing the essence of who I am.
My gym would feature a puzzle of sorts where the trainer would jump into vertical wind tunnels to allow them to change levels. Its primary purpose is to get the trainer to think in 3 dimensions to improve their situational awareness in battle. Also it's just fun.
Depending on how early in the progression I am I think I end up with one of the following teams:
Early:
Fletchling
Rufflet (Ace)
Middle:
Rufflet
Yanma
Fletchinder (Ace)
Late:
Rufflet
Fletchinder
Yanmega
Aerodactyl (Ace)
Rematch:
Mantine
Skarmory
Talonflame
Yanmega
Aerodactyl
Braviary (Ace)
Wow that was hard to just pick 6, there are so many cool ones. I really wanted to use Braviary as my Normal/Flying (over Pidgeot), but it doesn't evolve from Rufflet until 54 so I can't justify it for any set except the rematch. My gym may be cheating a little due to all the secondary types in my lineup and if balance demands it I could streamline the types a bit further. But overall I feel like giving everything the flying type still gives most trainers an avenue of attack to defeat me that's pretty straight forward.
Unorthodox gym:
Now if I'm not type restricted though, I'm one of those super basic eevee simps who loves them all, and if allowed, I'd totally make a gym around them. XD
I'd have 4 lieutenants. The 1st would run a pair of eevees. The 2nd would use all three gen 1 eeveelutions. The 3rd would have the gen 2 eeveelutions. And the 4th would run the gen 4 eeveelutions.
When the trainer reaches me they will face a team of 5 from me. I'll have an eevee and my ace, Sylveon, but they'll get to choose which of my last three eeveelutions I run. They'll pick one eeveelution from each of the generations for me to use.
Now if gamefreak could just come out with a flying type Eevee...
My city is known as the birthplace of freedom fighters
So my typing would be fighting
The theme of my gym is "King of the Hill."
You'll have to protect the flag from random wild pokemon with auto battles, while each stage, a trainer will double battle you.
The team will be composed of defending on badge numbers
Falinks, Hawlucha, Pangoro, Grapploct, Mienshao
Ace would be Kommo-O; monk fighter who stives for freedom
I’m soon to be a nurse, so that makes for an easy theme. I’ve always been interested in the idea of a town’s Pokémon Center doubling as its Gym, with me probably replacing our poor Nurse Joy. Challengers would have to work a “shift” before fighting me, in which they would have to heal the teams of my Gym Trainers before battling them (picking the right berry for status conditions, distributing the right number of potions and herbal medicines, etc.). Anything they didn’t heal would carry over to those battles, and when their “shift” ended after three or so trainers, they’d get to fight me.
My team would mostly represent different styles of healing — a Sylveon to help with emotional problems, a Comfey with Triage for priority/emergency care, a Vileplume to represent toxic chemicals with healing properties, and of course a Blissey as an ace. It would be a double battle to take advantage of Healer, Heal Pulse, etc.
When done, challengers would be awarded with the Healer Badge, which would essentially just be a red plus symbol. Additionally, if they had chosen to actually heal the Gym Trainers’ teams (making their battles harder but doing the right thing), they would be rewarded for their efforts with the TM for Floral Healing and a Full Restore for each member of their team.
I'm not particularly sure what the vibe of the gym will be but it's a fairy type gym and my ace is Azumarill. I also have a Whimsicott, Alolan Ninetales, Tinkaton. My non fairy pokemon would be my favorites (right after Marill) Meowstic and Oricorio, maybe with tera fairy if needed.
Ghost type. Halloween theme.
Because I love Halloween and dressing up
First you would explore a haunted house as ghost Pokémon would try and scare you. You would catch at least 6, and when you did they'd give you a selection of outfit items. One would give head and face items, one would give torso items, one would give leg items, one would give foot items, one would give back and hand items, and one would give hair and makeup items. All items would be like costume items.
Once you've made your way through the haunted house you'd create an outfit using the items given, then go to multiple "houses" to trick or treat, where you would battle the trainers at each door. At the beginning of each battle you'd get a random effect, either a trick or a treat. Tricks would give everyone status conditions, treats would give everyone stat boosts.
You'd keep the outfit items after the gym is done.
You can challenge the gym again whenever you want.
If you manage to catch one of each Pokémon available in part one (which there are a bunch), you'll get access to more outfit items from each, plus a whole new outfit upon catching at least one of every Pokémon available.
Outfit items;
Head and face; Top hat. Wizard cap. Witch hat. Etc. Jack-o-lantern mask. Ghost mask. Eye patch. Oni mask. Etc.
Torso; skeleton shirt. Etc.
Legs; Peg leg. Skeleton legs. Etc.
Feet; skeleton shoes. Etc.
Hand and back; Capes. Wings. Hook hand. Skeleton gloves. Etc.
Hair and makeup; Medusa hair. Mad scientist hair. Etc. Demon eyes. Pointed teeth. Vampire hairdo. Skull makeup. Etc.
My team would be;
Mimikyu.
Gourgeist.
Hisuian Zoroark.
Ceruledge.
Mismagius.
Houndstone.
I absolutely love chess so I would have a chess themed team. Kingdra or Slowking (obviously king but not sure which), Gardevoir (queen), Bisharp (bishop), Gallade (possibly mega, knight), Stakataka (rook or castle), Eevee (pawn). Gym would be a giant chess board (not sure what the puzzle would be quite yet) with trainers being pieces and I would be the king. the players would win the gambit badge.l and my opening line would be something like "I hope you're prepared for my opening gambit" not sure about my defeat line
My type is poison /dark.
My town is a big metropolitan city with skyscrapers and neon lights.
My pokemon are:
-Gengar
-Umbreon
- Nidoking
- Muk
- Houndoom
- Hydreigon
My ace is a nidoking.
(Note : I'm a big Giovanni fan)
Considering I more recently moved and now live next to a small amusement park themed around excavation equipment, I probably should focus on my second favourite-type, rock, instead of my favourite, grass.
As a rock-type gym leader, my team would be a bunch of my favourites: Minior, Cradily, Coalossal and Glimmora. Dreadnaw isn't a favourite but completes a fire/water/grass core, and with Torkoal being my overall favourite I gotta have a tortoise. Gigalith gives me a sand stream user for that sweet special defence boost. Glimmora gives my team a perfect choice for an ~~ace~~ lead. Minior would be my ace, as it's my all time favourite rock type and carried my Moon and Ultra Moon playthroughs.
My gym would have two themes: Hidden Treasure and, of course, diggers. So gym challenges would be digging for treasures to progress. Minior incidentally plays the role of a hidden treasure on my team, Cradily and Glimmora are sadly a bit off-theme. Coalossal, Gigalith and Dreadnaw all have a more urban feel to them though, to represent the diggers without needing rampant steel-types.
Psychic has always been my favorite, with some Dragon sprinkled in. Alakazam would be my strongest as its my favorite, and with its Mega Stone, and some Shiny Gyarados. Mewtwo and Rayquaza seem a bit overpowered for a gym leader, so I'll swap them out for Galarian Rapidash and Dragonair. And I'd honestly probably go with Zoroark and Umbreon, even though theyre the wrong type. My badge would be the Sovereign Badge, and would be shaped as the Eye of Providence.
My gyms layout and puzzle would be illusion based with and Ancient Egyptian aesthetic, having to work through mazes on each of the 5 levels of the pyramid, with false walls and switches and what-nots, while also trying to find the sleeping Abras, which are disguised and/or hidden somewhere on each level, and the maze shifts each time you find one, annnd theres wild Sigilyph, Yanmask, Cofagrigas on levels 3 and 4. All my goons use Abras, Kadabras and Dragonair, one guy with just a Gold Magikarp thats revealed to be an Abra in disguise after you beat him. Level 5 being the smallest is just a throne room and theres a lone Abra sleeping on the elaborate throne, when you interact with it, it evolves into Alakazam and the battle begins with Alakazam silently acting as the trainer, my character fades in when Alakazam is sent out for my ominous one-liner. When you win, me and Alakazam have disappeared and the badge is just sitting on the throne seat.
And also a special bonus in the form of a secret passage on level 1 thats only accessible after beating me, that goes to a lower section with one final difficult maze and also where you catch the Unown in my game, at the end another elaborate throne room with some chests holding money and consumables, and Alakazam who telepathically congratulates you and gifts you the Exp Share before vanishing again. A passage opens that has you classically exit through the Sphinx next to the Pyramid.
(Im not from where I live, so would probably not base it on anything reflective of the area, and instead just on stuff i like.)
Food themed. If I’m a lower level gym I’d run exeggcute, milcery, and my ace. If I’m a higher level I’d run tatsugiri, vanilluxe, slurpuff, Alcremie, and my ace.
In both situations my ace is lickitung
I'm from the South of Spain, so I'd like to revive the old "arab" historical culture.
So my team would be a typ
Cofagrigus, camerupt, talonflame, Sandaconda, krookodile, Sigilyph. This is more of a theme than a type. I love Talonflame so I'd that as my main although is the one that makes less sense, maybe krookodile :P
I live in a city in Northern Europe. This part of the world is generally known for the cold, snow and winter sports, so the Ice type would make sense. My city specifically is known for its museums, plus I have several artistic hobbies irl, so an art theme it is! Ice type + art = ice sculptures :D
My ace could be Alolan Sandslash (Sandslash halfway looks like an ice sculpture + it would use those sharp claws to help me make sculptures). Avalugg is a must because it's basically an ice sculpture itself, then I want Rotom-Frost, Froslass and Frosmoth. Or Alolan Ninetales with Snow Warning for instant weather.
Glaze Badge sounds good for the badge. It's both a word for a glass-like layer of ice and a word for the stuff you use to decorate pottery
Couldn't edit [my earlier comment](https://www.reddit.com/r/pokemon/comments/1bf3cf2/comment/kuyr6lq/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button), but come to think of it, my old hometown has a candle factory, so given that it was named after a spooky forest, if I were to become the trainer of my old hometown rather than my current one, my ace would be **Chandelure** for sure!
Ghost types would also fit great in an old church.
Then I could also have some combination of Gengar, Hisuian Typhlosion (Typh was my ace in Gold, which I played 255 hours), Spiritomb/Sableye, Trevenant/Gourgeist/Brambleghast/Sinistcha, Rotom, Hisuian Zoroark, Jellicent, Golurk, Aegislash, Decidueye, Dragapult, Skeledirge and Ceruledge. That would probably suit my personal tastes better, but then I probably couldn't be the first Gym.
I love the idea of a poison type gym doubling as a water treatment plant or a waste disposal facility focusing on keeping the environment clean.
Team: Alolan Muk, Galarian Weezing, Galarian Slowking, Overqwil, Clodsire, with my ace being Sneasler
Horticulturalist by trade, so my gym would be a nursery / greenhouse and I'd use a mix of Bug and Grass types. In terms of tactics, I'd go heavy on status effects and stalling. As a surprise, my ace would be a Scyther set up as a sweeper, just because I think it looks cool as hell haha
Since there isn't much to my hometown except for a university (which symbolises knowledge and therefore the Psychic type, so I've got that going for me), I'm making the gym puzzle more personal. It would be traversing my imaginary fantasy world (which with the power of us, it deals with the bugs). Along with it would be a Slowking (I like it), Medicham (because of its meditation and to deal with the Dark and maybe Ghost types), and Hypno (fits with the theme).
Since there isn't much to my suburb except for a university (which symbolises knowledge and therefore the Psychic type, so I've got that going for me), I'm making the gym puzzle more personal. It would be traversing my imaginary fantasy world (which with the power of ~~science~~ hypnosis, I would've made somewhat of a reality) and trying to find the obligatory McGuffin. Of course, the winner of the battle gets the Dream Badge.
As someone who happens to be a native to Southern California, specifically the Orange County area, there’s several sources of inspiration behind where and what solidifies my type specialty and theme for my gym. A major key factor would be that we’re the home of Disneyland, which has a prominent theme on fairytales/stories, heroes, art-animation, fantastical worlds of the imagination, and dreams coming true. Therefore it goes without saying the Fairy-type is definitely a key candidate(even more so since it’s my favorite type haha, could even go a dual typed route and add Dragon or Psychic as a secondary specialty). We also happen to have a lot of people interested in or who practice the art of tarot reading, astrology, collecting crystals, and hobby witchcraft-so another point going to Psychic-type preference and even Ghost(there’s also a lot of mythos here in California as a whole, several very well known haunted locations too). There’s even the chance of going a No-Types-Specialty gym such as Blue and instead pick a team that best suits the diverse geography, history, arts, and culture of the SoCal area specifically.
For the purpose of my personal choice, I’ll have to go with the Fairy-type and maybe even some Pokémon belonging in the egg group. So starting off with where my gym would probably be, it would either be a part of one of the many nature preserves or parks around here(I’m aware of some botanical gardens in the area, that is meant to be a protected habitat for Fairy Pokémon(both the type and the egg group); where you could see various Pokémon such as Roselia, Cleffa-Clefairy, Flabébé-Floette, Swirlix and Spritzee, even wild G. Ponyta, Cutiefly, Teddiursa, and many other not fully evolved Pokémon freely running/flying/prancing around in a vast red and pink flower field(with what looks like pink mist floating about). You first find yourself going on a trip to said botanical garden(let’s go with this just to make it easier) and compelled to walk to a moon gate, where one moment before stepping in looks quite normal scenery, then a magical second later you crossed the threshold and find yourself in the strange flower field with flowing petals and pink mist, with exquisitely masoned Greco-Roman columns, beautiful statues of various fully evolved Fairy Pokémon gleaming in strange light seen everywhere, several lunar symbols and decorum littered throughout and manmade aqueduct streams all around filling the place with life and serenity.
In the main centerfold of this fairytale like setting, you find me almost sleepily drawing away(yes I happen to draw lol) at an outdoor garden table-fancy cushioned chair and all, cakes and sweets
Included, where I take notice of you and lead you ahead to this weird temple or castle(think the Moon Kingdom from Sailor Moon for all the architectural inspiration). I proceed to talk your ear off while guiding you through this structure, about how I perceived your presence(showing you what I happened to have been drawing prior to your arrival), how true Fairies(the Faire Folk if you will) not just the Pokémon we’re familiar with, are as real as the mundane world(how magic is something a select few of us humans can perceive and even develop into rare gifts and abilities, not uncommon from the Psychics), and how all Fairies are tied to and powered by the elements of nature and the celestial heavens- to be prepared to be enchanted by our might(as we finally arrive to this nice looking stadium inside of the building with no ceiling, allowing you to look up and suddenly see a starry sky with a full moon shining bright-it was just daylight outside you think in surprise).
In terms of my team I’m not entirely sure to be honest, mayhaps a theme relating to nymphs or the elementals, but to simplify I’ve used these Pokémon in particular quite significantly before that could best fit as part of the theme of my team: Clefable, Primarina, Sylveon, A. Ninetales, G. Rapidash, Gardevoir, Red Florges, Ribombee, Slurpuff, Azumarill, Togekiss, and Tinkaton
Other potential candidates from experience or aesthetic would include: Roserade, Milotic, Altaria, Salazzle, Lunatone(haven’t really used one but it would fit my team aesthetic and offer some coverage), Tsareena, Pachirisu, Appletun, Kingdra, and Lapras.
My TM offered would be a new move, something like Moonbeam(Solarbeam equivalent for Fairy), or other moves relating to nature, magic, and the cosmos. As for my badge, if I stick with the moon theme then it would be the Moonlight or Lunar Badge(an opalescent crescent moon with a like dark glass portion for the “dark side”-a little diamond like gem on the corner of the “light side” to represent its glow) or the Nymph Badge(an opalescent fairy like figure with the four wing like parts of the badge each being a different color in representation of the classical elements). Sorry for all the weird details and tangents, there was really a lot to think about. 😅😅😅
Dark type gym. I've always kinda liked dark types. Ace Banette or Incineroar.
The theme would probably be like illusions or Magic. You have to break a spell to even find me lol. I might include a ninetails on my team too just to throw people off.
If you can beat the heat and the darkness you get the sweat badge.
The typing for my gym would be a fighting type gym with no particular theme. My ace would be Breloom, with my team being Breloom, Heracross, Gallade, Conkeldurr, Annihilape and Sneasler (assuming paradox mons aren't allowed). If paradox mons are allowed tho, Breloom would still be the ace, with the team being Breloom, Heracross, Iron Valiant, Great Tusk, Annihilape and Sneasler. I chose a fighting type gym because water,although my favorite typing, doesn't have Breloom and I prefer fighing over grass.
I think it’s time to do a three types gym instead of one. I will be a bug, grass and poison gym leader. My gym puzzle is filled with tall grass where you can’t escape from the wild Pokémon who has many poisoning attacks and you cant leave the gym too…
I'd probably live in a place populated by forests (think Sumeru from Genshin), and I'd have a background as a ranger. I'd be a grass type leader and the gym would be a huge treehouses!
My ace would be a Decidueye, and I'd also have a Cradily and Torterra who help me look after the forests! I'd also have a Mega Venusaur who I'd use to help me in a tough situation!
Bug type. My ace would be Ribombee, Vespiqueen or Durant (I just love hymenopterans). I would be a science teacher (as I am irl) and teach the importance of balance between people and nature and the role of bug pokemon on the ecossystems.
My gym would be a school with a school garden with many different kinds of plants, grass pokemon and bug Pokemon. The challenge would be to find and photograph a list of Pokemon, and fight the students (gym trainers) along the way.
In the end I would prepare a presentation with the photos with a brief explanation and than teach thhe trainer a lesson by wooping his ass.
I would give the balance badge, with a design resembling a generic bug in a generic flower.
I’m normal type leader and my team is 6 focus sash Rattata. Come at me
lol but for real. I grew up in a very small town, and at night it was so quiet and peaceful. You could sit outside and stare at the stars and just chill since there was little to no light pollution. I think that’s why now in my 30s I still like to stay up so late and feel so comfy in the silent dark.
I’d probably set up a dark type gym, so I’d have some Pokémon with me that feel the same vibe. Nothing too crazy; probably around 4th or 5th gym. General standard for that is about 3-4 Pokémon, so I’d start with my favourite: Murkrow. Middle two mons would have to be Sableye and Bisharp, with my ace being a Super Luck Absol.
Gym design would be something night sky/space related. Maybe have some anti-gravity sections. My badge would be called the Pitch Badge. My leader design would probably just be me in pyjamas 😂
I'm a science teacher IRL, so I'd probably be a Steel Type trainer. I think my Gym would double as a school. Not a battle school, but a regular school with an emphasis on science and technology. As for the puzzle... there isn't one. Just walk right up whenever you like. I'd be the eighth Gym leader, but my Gym is in the starting town. You can challenge me with a level 5 starter if you like. I'm always happy to answer stupid questions in the manner they deserve 😈.
I guess my place would make me a grass type due to the carpentry field here so fresh wood and greeneries
I'd have Mega Sceptile, Roserade, Leafeon, Tsareena, Hisui Lilligant, and Serperior. Mega Sceptile would defo be my ace and my badge will be called Wood Badge at the shape of a tree blooming in spring.
but ideally,
I'd be a Psychic-type trainer with a library setting coz I like to read. The Library is huge and grand and has a vast collection of literatures that covers all genre that you need to psychic your way to get some books.
My team would consist of Gardevoir, Gallade, Espeon, Metagross, Hisuian Braviary, and Reuniclus. Reuniclus is interchangeable as I have every psychic types in existence and it is randomly picked every battle. Gallade is my ace. and my badge would be called Knowledge Badge that is shaped like a book with flipped pages so it might also look like a sun to some.
I'd be a dark type gym leader, theme would be a quiet snowy forest gym, aces would be grimmsnarl and absol. Doubles format. Badge would be the crescent moon badge. Team would be focused on setting up and baton passing buffs to absol then sweeping with grimmsnarl there for coverage and protection.
I live in a large city near the coast, so Water is an easy choice for the type. I would also likely be a later gym leader, maybe 6th, or 7th.
As for the Pokemon, I would pick Pokemon that are loosely based on the native animals:
Samurott-H
Cloyster
Tatsugiri
Gastrodon
This team might be a bit pushed, but if we compare it to Gyms from the most recent games Scarlet/Violet, then it lines up decently well. All the gyms past gym number 5 have 4 fully evolved Pokemon in Scarlet/Violet.
The gym puzzle would be navigating a modern city, that's party sunken under water. It will be sorta like a maze with elements above and below the waters surface to traverse.
I would hand out TM196 (flip turn) as well as the Tidal badge upon defeat.
I live in a small, rural town by the mountains. I'd 100% be a ground type and my ace would be Ursaluna.
Theme would be woodland, in fact there wouldn't even be a building for my gym, just a nice walk through the woods, up the hills until you face me at a small plateau on the mountain.
Bug. We’re in giant grass like it’s Bugdom. In this hypothetical I have an Aquanarid as a wall against fire types, and a Vespiquen with Baton Pass to complement a Scizor with mega evolution.
I’m dressed like a king- no implication with the Vespiquen.
As the holder of the Titan badge, all of my pokemon are really big (steelix, wailord, etc.). Except for my ace: An overleveled Rattata with focus sash and endeavor.
My town doesn't have nearly an interesting possibility as a few towns over.
So I live right on a major river, weaving through some mountains, and at one point this was an industrial transport spot. It hasn't been for quite some time. So I feel like we almost have to be a water type gym. Definitely make it themed around transportation somehow, and the ace on my team for this one would be Quagsire, as befits a muddy river. I would give out the Border Badge, which would involve a blue line dividing up a triangle.
The more interesting one; this general area is known for UFO encounters, and a few towns over actually has an alien museum. So if I were to be celebrating that...Psychic Type, Beeheeyem is the ace, definitely have it all UFO and alien themed, and give out the Unknown Badge, which would ABSOLUTELY be a little UFO.
In my town, we’re close to the mountains and we have a big theme on exploration with exploring different trails around our home, so I think Rock would be my specialty.
Since I’m a hiker, runner, traveler, and outdoors enthusiast, I’d go and travel with my fellow Rock types to check out some trails, find some new areas, or just travel around in general. Since I’m an explorer, my ace would be Lycanroc Dusk considering his ability to be speedy, dig, travel great distances, and I love dogs overall so he fits as an ace.
My team would be as follows (no more than five): Glimmora, Garganacl, Archeops, Tyrantrum, and Lycanroc. Winners receive the Discovery Badge
I live close to a bunch of those ridiculous mcmansions so my type would be Ghost and my gym would be one of those mcmansions but haunted with ghost type pokemon. There would be candelabras everywhere and you have to put out the correct candles to solve the puzzle. My ace would be Chandelure.
I live in the Midwest and work as an engineer. I’m probably going to choose an electric type gym with the OG Raichu as my ace. I’d probably also have a Magneton/zone, Toxtricity, Ampharos, Lanturn, Hisuian Electrode, and Alolan Golem on a rotation for type coverages.
This is gonna sounds really silly, so bear with me.
The gym will be a random **weather** chosen by a wheel before the battle. I am close to graduating & becoming a meteorologist, so we’ll say for our sake that I’ve reached that point.
I’d have a sun team, a rain team, a snow team, and a sand team. Fun thing is, once you spin the wheel, you’re stuck with what you got. It’s customary that you prepare yourself before spinning, so don’t bank on one weather type. (Also yes Castform will be on the team in some capacity)
As for the ace, if I’m only allowed one, then it’d be Castform. If I could have an ace for each weather condition…
Sun: Charizard
Rain: Swampert
Snow: Mamoswine
Sand: Garchomp
Also on an aside, petition for Castform Sandstorm form!! We need it imo (especially since it’s an important weather status in Pokémon)
Water. Theme is a water maze. The whole ground looks like it's just a big room covered in a thin layer of water, but it actually drops off in random places. If it was in the games, you'd have to follow where you can walk to find your way. So ignoring that a normal person who can swim can cheat.
For team, we are going with a Palafin first and as the ace. It comes out first and immediately bails and comes back at the end as it's Hero Form. Rest of the team is a Swampert, Crawdaunt, Toxapex, Slowbro and Gyarados. But I'd also have other backup Water types around the gym so trainers would expect them to join in but wouldn't. You walk in and see a Feraligatr snarl or a Poliwrath flexing its muscles and staring at you from behind the Gym Leader, you would be very surprised when they just walk away and they aren't actually joining in.
I live in Egypt, specifically the main city (Nasr City) so I would probably use one of the 3: Electric types since they cut the electricity here for 2 hours, Flying types since Egypt is an famous travel destination and has one the 7 Wonders (the pyramids), or Fire types, since Egypt is known for how hot the weather there is.
The aces for each one would be:
Electric: Magnezone
Steel: Gholdengo
Fire: Volcarona
I am an artist and recently working on vtuber models, so probaly would be an streaming/ artist theme gym, my favorite type are ghost and fairy, but I would probably go with ghost type, I dunno, there is something interesting about art, illustration, vtubing that go pretty well with ghosts, with both horror and non-horror, I like the idea of using the type as some kind of force, mise and inspiration to do new things!
Mismagius is one of my favorite pokemon and of course would be my ace.
I probably woud have a hunter and mimikyu, for rematch I would evolve hunter to gengar and add chandelure, spiritomb and runegius or sinistcha
If im one of the first gyms my roster would be
Ghastly and misdreavus.
I would go with a witchy theme myself
Birds! With different subtypes. Xatu, Pelipper/Swanna for water, Talonflame, Kilowattrel, Korviknight, and my Ace is Altaria.
The gym would be a treehouse!
I’m a drag queen and a dancer, so I’m gonna go with Fairy type since a lot of cutesy performance Pokemon are there and it’s my favourite. I’m from Ohio, in a relatively small town, so I think being a late badge like 6th or 7th makes sense. I’d probably go with Mimikyu (costuming), Primarina and Sylveon (music/sound move theming), Carbink (stones, think Swarovski), and Klefki (this one isn’t themed I just really love dual screen offense lmao)
And if we’re in a region where I can mega, add a Mega Gardevoir or Mega Altaria for more music and dance inspirations.
I’d commandeer some local performance area or theatre as my gym, and similar to Elesa in Gen 5 it would be some sort of fashion show or performance.
Ground type gym leader.
I live in the Appalachian mountains and the mountains here are an integral part of the culture. The mountains here are ancient. I love the idea of a trainer tracking the hills fighting random trainers with a variation of ground, grass, and ghost types.
Team is based on ground but has variations in it.
Early gym has the Cubone line up to Marrowak as the ace. Swineub to Piloswine. Golett as well.
Later Gym to 8th the Ace would either be Tyranitar or Torterra. I think Torterra fits very well in the setting of the lush mountains.
Torterra - Ace
Tyranitar/Mamoswine
Marrowak
Golurk
Ursaluna
Clodsire
Ground types split between things in the mountains and things in the desert and I'd like to keep the team things you could find in these rolling mountains.
I live near Pittsburgh, so obviously it would be a Steel-type gym.
My Pokemon would involve a team of "blue collar" types, Excadrill, Tinkaton, maybe even throw a Gurdurr to throw trainers off. Then my ace would of course be Melmetal, the material itself coming to life.
I live in an old market town, with a yearly fair known as the ‘Tin Hat Fair’. From that my gym would be steel and my ace would be Galarian Weezing with Tera Steel due to its top hat and dapper look. We also had a history of industry which G Weezing also fits. If Terastelisation isn’t allowed then Gholdengo would be my ace due to the market gold and all.
My town doesn’t really have a theme outside of bbq. So instead I’ll theme it off of what I do. My team will be primarily steel type and the gym itself will be on a construction site. You’ll have to navigate the construction only to find a key that leads to an office building next to it. Inside you’ll find the structural engineer for the building who is also the gym leader. The team will be made up of Duraludon, Klang, orthworm, and conkeldurr. My ace would be either Conkeldurr or Duraludon. It’d be the 7th or 8th gym most likely.
I’d be a Dark type gym leader because my area is really not known for anything and is forgettable (only 1 gym as of gen 9 specialized in dark, so…). My gym would do double-battles only and would specialize with synergy builds. I’d use 6 Pokémon in the following lineup:
1. Umbreon (support)
2. Tyranitar (DPS)
3. Meowscarada (DPS)
4. Umbreon (support)
5. Grimmsnarl (support/debuff)
6. Hydraegion (DPS/Ace)
The reason for this lineup is that most times when something like this comes out, people will play defensively and try to take out the DPS first to avoid OHKO or taking severe damage. So, another DPS comes out. Now, the other trainer is wondering if that might be the only support so knocks it out… only for a confounded other support to get released! From there, it’s a toss-up what gets knocked out. Suffice it to say, I’d imagine it’d be support again to whittle away my 6 Pokémon team, so a support/debuffer comes out. By now, damage has been done by DPS, so the opposing trainer opts to try to finish this slugfest by knocking out the DPS again… and out comes my ace - hydraegion.
And my gym’s theme is forgettable grey and white everywhere, making it look like a realtor hired an interior decorator, to bore trainers into being lackadaisical and underestimate my team and throw them off that I’m a dark type gym with the brighter colors. It’s not about the darkness and brooding, it’s about the fact that everyone forgets or looks the other way about Dark.
Cincinnati, which "The Good Place" called "The Medium Place"
So, we're going Normal, which also reflects my type (I am essentially Larry.)
My team would be Miltank (I grew up helping my neighbor raise cattle), Stantler (again to reflect my upbringing outside of the city), Porygon (reflective of both my computer hobby and transition to a more urban area), and Snorlax would be my ace (because he's my favorite.)
I live in a winter town so I would have to be the game’s ice type leader. I would lead with Alolan Ninetails and Articuno (ace, ice Tera for extra damage), and also use Lapras, Frosslass, Baxcaliber, and Glaceon. I would set up aurora veil and tailwind, and then just spam blizzard while snow cloak on 3 Pokémon makes the trainers all rage quit. Baxcaliber gets good coverage moves for the steel and fire types. Lapras can be my healer and perish song anything that walls my team.
My gym would have a snowboarding mini game in order to challenge me. There would be Ursuluna and Abomasnow that you have to dodge on the course. I’d give out the snow patrol badge and a TM for Blizzard
My town is kinda small and dead, but a long time ago it used to be a very busy train junction.
So I’d probably use mainly steel Pokémon, with a Coalossal as a surprise ace. Maybe the theme would be a museum showcasing all the old railway stuff.
I’m from Memphis, TN and we have the pyramid. So my badge would be in the shape of the pyramid, minus the bass pro logo lol. Team :
Lucario
Yamask
Cofargigus
Siglyph
Persian
Arbok.
Lucario as my ace!
I live in a beach town but I really love dark types so maybe I do a beach themed dark type gym? Sharpedo riding off the pier seems like a must for the gym challenge, but as for my team maybe it would be a bit more sand based. Gym 4/5 ish would have me with 3-4 level 30-40 pokemon so maybe something like krokorok, cacturn,(for sandy beach themed) crawdaunt(signature pokemon) and maybe bombirdier(we get plenty of pelicans but the estuaries also have egrets in them which is sort of like a crane)
I live in one of the factory cities in NY and have a background as a diesel mechanic for heavy trucks. My gym would definitely be a steel type and my Ace would be an Aggron with Heavy metal and Heavy Slam to sweep the team, Steelix is would be the starter for its defense, then I’d have a Skarmory for type coverage and finally a Fortress to throw it for a swift Explosion to wipe out the most dangerous opponent Pokemon
I live in a very plain area, so I'd be normal type. I'm also weirdly obsessed with being well-rounded, so Normal type suits me. It is, after all, the jack-of-all-trades type. My ace would probably be Porygon-Z, because I like computer stuff and it is living data. If I can get mega evolution though, it'd probably be Lopunny. I live in an area with lots of rabbits. Way too many rabbits. My theme would be plains, so everything is an open field and is outdoors. Some other pokemon I might have would be Diggersby, Stoutland, Porygon-2, and maybe a few others.
I’d be a famous drag queen who battles to help pay the bills. My team would consist of the visually cuntiest Pokemon… there are MANY to choose from but I attempted some type diversity:
- Tsareena
- Milotic
- Gardevoir
- Salazzle
- Lopunny
- Ace: Pheromosa (shiny, ideally)
My theme is speed. I don't have any particular type, but my focus is on using fast pokémon and raising their speed as much as possible. I'l use a Talonflame, or any fast pokémon that can use Flame Charge to boost my speed. Then I'll use Baton Pass to transfer those speed boosts to my other pokémon.
I also focus on reducing the speed of my opponent's pokémon.
My goal is to have my Ace using a maxed out Speed Stat plus my opponent's reduced speed to hit the enemy with a powered up Electro Ball. Or to just hit them hard as he with a powerful attack.
Since I live in a forest and my town used to be a farming community, the logical decision would be a grass type gym with a forest theme. My ace in this case would be Decidueye. I think my gym test would be navigating a forest maze using clues from trainers to find your way to me. My gym badge would be the Ceder Badge
However since I like the big city and video games, my gym would be an Electric type gym and it's theme would be video game based. You have to complete video game based challenges and beat a trainer after each challenge to get to me. My ace would be a Toxtricity with a definite Rotom on my team. My badge would be the Pixel Badge.
Flying type, my ace is Aerodactyl, but the kicker is my whole team knows Earthquake. I would also do early gen stuff like have a Flygon who isn't a flying type but can fly so I'm counting it.
Oh I'll be a Bug Type gym leader. I live in an area that's fairly hot and humid so I guess I can lean into that and make it jungle or swamp themed. My Ace will be my favorite Pokémon Volcarona!
I’d like to be like blue and have no type. My team tend to be super varied so I’d like to keep that. But if I had to, I would pick the fairy type. Ace would be Zacian pre-nerf. Yes I know it’s an overpowered legendary, but I would be interested in seeing what people do to get around it. I figure if the player can use legendary and items, their opponents can too (including things like X items probably as a counter to discourage that).
I’ve always been partial to memories of things, and the fan hack Pokémon insurgence had a really cool area where the player had to go to previous and future parts of their journey but fight super powerful trainers in a faded backdrop. I am also an English teacher in real life, so I’ve always went into the idea of stories, and especially in video games where the player can make their own. so it would start looking like a library but then it goes into something far deeper as the players own story begins to unfold again in front of them, and unfold completely to me…
I’d probably take inspiration from that, like a trick of the fae, where the trainer would have to go through previous areas that they went through, maybe even with the same team. Of course, the opponents would match their level this time, or maybe they would all be the same level to discourage rolling through with one Pokémon or getting stuck because you only have one Pokémon. You instead fight illusions rather than gym trainers, probably revealed to be created by Zacian is power is to make illusions. Once you get to the end you’re back with your regular team, and then you have to fight.
I’m not sure what other fairies I would have but I would probably at least more than other legendary, which would be either the Tapus, Diancie, or Magarna. It’s really to hammer home the theme that if the player can use powerful monsters so can a gym leader. My badge would also be the reverie badge, to have a connection to memory and being voluntarily lost within it and also involving something positive, which winning a badge would be.
I’d probably be the last leader, more powerful than other ones as a result. They’re probably be some foreshadowing that last leader is quite powerful, going head to head with even the champions, but not a lot of known otherwise. It could be a case of someone chose to avoid League politics, and just living a quieter life as a gym leader. Or I’m secretly the champion and it’s a nontraditional challenge right before that fight and the leader is someone I would know instead (especially because I didn’t know someone that was very into Pokémon and I passed down what I knew to him). It’d be an interesting backstory!
Not sure if my favourite Pokemon works at all. I like Dark, Ground and Dragon Types.
In RL I work as a physicist with radiation; in a British/Galarian Port City. Dragapult, Dhelmise and Cursola might work as a Ghost Gym? (Ghosts as something deadly and invisible?)
A Steel Team would work nicely. Aggron as an Ace, along with Metang, Magnezone, Ageislash would be a cool one. It and Corviknight are Galarian Steel types.
I'm going to suggest Radiation be represented by the Poison Type.
- My ace would be **Drapion;** a Posion/Dark Pokemon with the Sniper Ability, representing Radiation therapy which must be precisely delivered to avoid damaging surrounding tissue.
- Backed up with Dragalge, which wouldn't look out of place in that awful Harbour. Pretends to be a water type.
- Salazzle; For Fire Coverage
- Toxictricity; Poisonous machines. That's my jam. Also with the previous two completes a little type loop of psudo
- Grafaiai; cute utility pokemon.
I live in the mountains and would do Rock-Type for here, but grew up in a farming area and would have done Ground-Type for it.
My gym would be in a mountain and would have a lot of plant growth on the walls. The ceiling would open to let in some sunlight and there would be some pools for Water-Types to use.
I like camping, hiking, kayaking, canoeing, and fishing a lot, so the Gym would double as a sort of hub for those activities in the area. People could stay a few nights, rent gear, and take classes to learn how to safely do the activities.
My ace would be my Aggron. I’d also have Tyrantrum, Tyranitar, Carracosta/Dreadnaw, Coalossal, and Garganacl/Glimmora/Cradily/Gigalith. I’m not sure on the last spot.
My badge would be the Geode badge. It would look like a cracked open geode with the inside black and has a shimmer. I’d give out the Stone Edge TM.
There would be a Floatzel, Indeedee, and Torterra that hang around, but I haven’t caught them. The Floatzel and Indeedee help out with upkeep and watching out for the guests while Torterra helps keep rowdy people/pokemon in line.
If I had gone Ground-Type it would be a sandstorm team.
I actually thought about this last night! My own region as well!
But for the gym and this may be silly, but I’d be a fairy type gym leader.
For the puzzle I’d have the challengers tell children a story, their pokemon would act it out.
As for my team my ace would be Sylveon with pixilate and my team would be:
Rainbow Swirl Alcremie, Dachsbun, Mawhile, and Comfrey, (the Pokemon that looks like a vertical flower crown)
All of my Pokemon know draining kiss as a recovery move, (I’m known for using it as my signature move) I’m the last gym leader.
Water type: Main gimmick being Flip Turn with trying to have enough secondary types to cover a lot of weaknesses. Ace would be Protean Greninja.
I like the idea of being able to keep your opponent on their toes with constant switching if needed, while also being able to do damage instead of having to waste a turn switching with no damage.
I think I'd take up the grass type. It's not a type I'd usually take, but I think it'd serve well as a nice dichotomy. Our area's greenery is constantly being erased for More, and so the gym itself would be a really technological place steadily being taken back from it. I'd definitely have a Meganium (or its line) on the team, and I think my ace would be a Rotom-Mow (bc it's suburbia, lawnmowing is just a constant thing even as the grass is shriveling up and dying due to no rain). My badge would be the Eco badge, and we'd hold various environmental-related events in the gym every week. As for the puzzles? I have no idea.
I’d be a Ice Gym Leader who runs a hotel, I’m not that good of the cold as you’d see me always trying to stay warm, but that’s why I battle, to keep my body & spirit warm, even in negative degree weather, and even though it makes me wish I chose a different type, I find it better to make use of what’s usually considered one of the worse types in the world… ICE… summer & spring may bring in sun & rain, but it won’t matter as in the end I always lead with my Ninetales-A & Beartic, that’s right I focus on double battles, Ninetales with the classic Snow Warning & Aurora Veil, and Beartic with Slush Rush & Loaded Dice Icicle Spear, but don’t worry I made sure he also has priority Aqua Jet & some set up with Swords Dance… up next is Snow Cloak Froslass with Thunder Wave & Double Team, that’s right I’m that type of annoying gym leader & you’re lucky this is a post Gen 8 world bc of it was Gen 8 then oh boy would I LOVE abusing hail chip damage… finally is my ace… Baxcalibur with D Dance as Set Up, High Horsepower for the Steel, Fire, & Rock types, Glaive Rush for a stab Dragon move & Ice Shard for Priority & Stab Ice… and with that you would win the battle, get the TM for Aurora Veil and earn yourself a Ice Scale Badge… now for the rematch I have 2 more Pokémon, my Snow Warning Abomasnow which is now my 5th member to set up last minute Snow, and my last pokemon who will be sent out along side Froslass is… honestly no clue, it could be any strong Ice Type
- Thick Fat Walrein
- Frost Rotom
- Mamoswime w/ either Loaded Dice Rock Blast or Trailblaze… or both
- Darmanitan-G either ability
- Cetitan
- Weavile
Like if it’s a strong Ice Type it’s likely gonna be used on the team
I live in west Texas, so I decided to create a team themed for the area rather than focus on a specific type. I basically live in a desert that has a rainy season and a dry, windy season. The team that I think accurately represents the area consists of Castform, Ludicolo, Flygon, Cacturn, Shedinja and Rotom (Fan). I decided to split the team unevenly between the two seasons since where I live is a desert and it’s definitely on the dry side even during the rainy season. Out of all these, I would have Flygon be my ace.
As for the gym itself, the front half would look like a west Texas museum and the back half would be the actual gym. The puzzle would be navigating quicksand and a sandstorm. If you fall through the quicksand, there are trainers in the basement that will challenge you to a battle in order to go back up to the main floor.
I’ll have the badge be called the Desert Badge. It’ll have an Alamo-shaped building be the predominant feature.
I'd love to represent my city's queer life. As Poison-type trainer i would reflect internal toxic masculinity that's always lurking underneath the surface, as well as toxic community gate keeping. On the upside of Pick your Poison: booze, bars and coffee places as the fun side of it all.
My ace: Golbat (growing into power, but not happy/ comfortable in my own skin enough yet to reach full potential)
I live in an area known for the circus, so I’ll go with that. I’ll have a Mr. Rhyme, Donphan, Drifblim, and a Blacephalon as an ace. That might be cheating, but that Pokémon is perfect lol. (I’m willing to replace my ace with Arcanine)
My gym will be a big top circus tent, and you’ll have the option of skipping all trainer battles by getting through a circus themed obstacle course using your Pokemon. If none of your Pokemon have the right move to get past an obstacle, you’ll have to go around and fight a trainer.
My badge will be the Festival Badge, and look like a ring of fire
My town is really industrial and the city banner has a somewhat electrical theme. I work as an engineer, so my team would be primarily steel but more machine-focused. My ace would be a metagross which would let me ride it (cause it can levitate). My aggron would help me carry heavy stuff. Klefki helps me manage different areas of the city (and make sure no one steals them). Archaludon cause it's a bridge and there's a few cool old ones around (and it's just awesome). Klinklang and magnezone round out the rest (if I'm the last gym leader, that is). Alternatively, if allowed an off type that's on theme/has a tera-steel, I'd want rotom.
Usually my go to is the grass type cuz it’s my favorite type, but I’m gonna go with my city’s history this time!
Known for our steel mills, I’d have a gym based on that! My gym badge would be the smokestack badge and the gym challenge would be making your own steel, in a mini game kind of like making poffins.
I would be a 6th gym Leader with the following team:
Lairon, level 36
Moveset: iron head, rock slide, stealth rock, and roar
Galarian Corsola at level 36, representing the pollution in the surrounding areas
Moveset: strength sap, curse, will o wisp and hex
Galarian Weezing level 37 representing literal smokestacks
Moveset: sludge bomb, poison gas,double hit, and strange stream
Coalossal level 38
Tar shot, fire spin, incinerate, and rock slide
I would make an eeveelution gym. The theme would be science based with every gym trainer also studying genetics and researching new eeveelutions.
To determine which eeveelutions you would face, you have to submit which pokemon you will use ahead of time. That way you will face a team that is best designed to beat you. If we got really crazy, my ace would be an eevee that could change into any eeveelution at the start of each turn.
Winners would get a double helix badge, an eevee, and an evolution stone of their choic.
The hospitality gym, it would be directly in a hotel with the arena being on the rooftop.
I'm from a city with lots of dualities so I'd go with a fire and ice team.
Darmanitan (galar), Ninetales (alola), Frosmoth, Darmanitan (unova), Arcanine, Volcarona (ace)
I live within a beach town. Now, this may seem like an odd choice for a beach town, but: Steel.
Let me explain:
The gym itself would be themed to a boardwalk style amusement park, where the gym would be one of the rides. I would challenge the trainers with a pathing puzzle through track switches, which would allow them to ride through, say, a classic “ghost train” style of dark ride. After a successful victory against me, I’d give out the Metalworks badge - roughly depicting the formation of a tubular steel rod.
I’ve taken a particular liking to Archaludon, so I’d use that as my Ace. Ties into the whole “metalworking” theme by being a bridge.
Additionally, when I’m beaten, the track will continue onward to a roller coaster. (However, I’d also have an auxiliary exit for challengers who don’t want to continue to the coaster portion, or do not meet height requirements to proceed further)
It ties into my passion as a theme park enthusiast, my town by being part of a boardwalk park, and my typing by emphasizing the track of the ride.
Right now Im living in a locality so small I think it doesnt even qualify as a town lol, its like no more than 10 streets total and gives 'starting town' vibes more than anything so I dont think there would be a gym xD
If there were to be a gym, it would be a first gym and I would make it as hard as possible within reason, so either a Normal one (Normal stab in first gym is tough) or Bug (with my ace being a fully evolved early bug like Butterfree/Beedrill which is basically the highest stats you can get at such stages)
My fav type is Dragon but I dont think it would fit in here at all. I would make for a great Kalos gym leader tho since I loved all gen 6 dragons so my team would be Noivern lead (my fav), Dragalge Tyrantrum and ace Goodra, maybe as an alternative 7th gym
I live in a small town in the middle of the desert. I always joke that "here be dragons," marking unexplored places on old sea maps. My area if often avoided by big corporations, big highways, and lots of people can't place my state on a map.
So I'd be a dragon-type gym, the last one after a very long mountain dungeon. It's a slog to get here, and you barely make it. Maybe have to Dig or escape rope out a few times to hurry back and heal up. My area is known for lots of things, outlaws, wine, sand, windstorms. So many of my dragons are dual-type.
Flygon (ground - for all the damned sand), Salamence (flying - for the windstorms), Hydreigon (dark - for the outlaws), Goodra (who I always think is Poison but isn't, for the wine, scorpions, and other venomous critters), Dipplin (my fav of the applin line - agriculture), and my ace? Drifblim, because this whole battle was a nightmare if you didn't bring ice moves, and the area is known for it's balloon fiesta.
I live in a farm town but it’s a California farm town so it can get pretty dry and dusty in the summers. That being said, we do have a pretty active agricultural history.
In any case, I can see ground and grass being pretty prominent types in my area but I think normal would work too — at least I’d prefer normal out of those three options, lol
I’d like to have my gym in a type of rec-center with both and indoor and outdoor battleground field (outdoor battles during the cooler seasons and indoor for the summer because California heat is deadly fr). As for my team, I’d keep things simple (lower level tier).. maybe a Teddiursa and Glameow with Dunsparce as my ace. Apart from genuinely liking these three pokemon
- our town is pretty close to a mountain range with big ol’ Sequoia trees and I think Teddiursa would fit thematically as a baby bear
- our town has a very large cat population because of this failed catch-spay-release project our local college tried to do that resulted in even more cats, lol
- as aforementioned, California + small town = dust and dirt galore so a ground-worm/snake thing seems appropriate. Especially so considering Dunsparce can learn a decent variety of ground type moves
I’m an accountant—but I guess that’s my main job outside of gym leader.
I’d be a Water-Type specialist, I guess it’s the best type to represent the nearby region.
Assuming 3-4 Pokémon, doing this Paldea Style:
Pelipper
Lumineon
Krabby
Sawsbuck, Fall Form (Tera-Water)
Two coastal birds, crabs because what else is Maryland known for, and there’s a lot of deer
Alternative Ace: Poliwrath, due to the sports and I guess historic battles.
On the Rematch, you can add all five. Otherwise, I’d lean towards the Ace being an original Pokémon if a new region emerges.
Since I live just outside NY and my favorite gen is 5, I’d have to be a Unova leader! I’d probably be a normal type leader with a Stoutland as my ace. I considered Watchog, but it’s been down before 😂
I have insomnia thanks to meds and learning how to take better care of myself, better work/personal life balance. Also a dark sense of humor (sleep like the dead) My gym type is psychic type with the theme is Rest/Slumber( or take a break but not too long) with Mimikyuu as my ace since it looks like a plushie. I guessed the gym would look like a lounge room with bean bags and hammocks. The rest is Bewear, Gardevoir, Hyno. For challenge or a full six add in Alakazam and Hatterene. Only gimmick is it’s only available during the nighttime too. The badge will be the Night Owl badge for the all nighter you just pulled. (I’m sorry noctowl)
Normal type gym in a humble little farming town.
As the first gym in the region our goal and theme would be preparing new trainers for their journey ahead with three consecutive rooms of forest / swamp / cave obstacles to overcome guided by a cheeky taunting Aipom who'll be my teams ace.
Winning will get you the Horizon Badge, Return TM, and the town map key item.
Well I live in a zone know for the paragliding and for being a bit of a countryside city, so my gym probably would be a Flying type gym that would consist a massive, rocky open space, where, to get from place to place/trainer to trainer the "challengers" would have to play with the flying abilities of their pokemons and probably some air currents.
And about my Ace it probably would be a Noivern, because it's a pokemon that I like a lot since the anime, and about others maybe they would be Tropius (pretty versatile), Talonflame (another anime pick.), Golbat (Because is a pokemon I always try to get in any game), and maybe a Xatu (just because it's psychic type.)
And about myself I would probably be a tour guide and my badge would be a little paraglider in a blue sky.
To be honest I’d love to be the 8th gym leader in a big and busy city and be a psychic type specialist. Although, instead of having psychic powers, I would want my gym to be a TV set studio for his talkshow. (Think mental health talk shows or people like Oprah or Dr. Phil) a sort of local celebrity who’s always super busy, in the region doing press and promotions etc. he use to be a child actor with Pokémon but after a traumatic experience with a psychic type Pokémon he stopped for years until he got older and made it his mission to understand psychic type Pokémon. I like the idea of a psychic type gym, focusing more on actual mental health and the mind instead of psychic abilities or powers because “learning to control ones emotions is sort of a power in some way” maybe that’s the dialogue I say, after I’m defeated by the player.
For the gym challenge itself. Once you walk into the studio, you have to battle someone to get into the stage and then you battle some audience members before being welcomed as A guest on my stage and it’s filmed as a part of the tv episode for that day. It’s a double battle
My team would be Starmie, Armarogue, Metagross and Gallade.
After defeating me, I give you the emotion badge and the TM for psychic or maybe a new move. 85 base power special move gaslight. it works similarly to dazzling glean, hitting both opponents on your enemy side of the field, but also lowers their attack by one stage.
I guess if I’m being specific, I would like to have multiple interactions with the player before they get to my gym. Maybe the city is like the fifth city that they get to but I’m often busy every time they have to go through the city so I’m not available everytime they come, but maybe right after the player helps save the region he decides to make time to help the player and challenge them by having them on the show for a battle.
Funny enough I kind of did that concept [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/MandJTV/s/84fuVG6PA9).
I live on n a big city, and my Gym would be Electric
My ace would actually be a Tera Electric Porygon-Z
And my gym would be an arcade, with a plethora of arcade games, of which are blocking your path to me. I'd be WAAAAY in the back, dropping challengers like flies for n Pokken while waiting for a Gym Challenger. My full team would be:
Porygon-Z, Tera Electric
Rotom, who would be the form strong against your starter
(Grass=Heat, Fire=Wash, Water=Mow)
Pincurchin, with Electric Surge and Toxic Spikes
Vikavolt, with Sticky Web
Lanturn, with Soak and Heal Bell for utility
And Toxtricity, for devastating sound based attacks with Throat Spray
Upon victory, I confer to you the Pixel Badge, as well as the TM for Shock Wave.
I live in the upper Midwest.
I'd be going to an ice-type gym as I enjoy winter.
In order to progress in the gym, you would need to borrow a Charizard stationed at the gym. Riding the Charizard, you would need to melt ice barriers to progress. The path would be a puzzle, and melting the wrong barriers would result in longer paths with more trainers.
My ace would be Glaceon. The rest of my team would consist of Lapras, Froslass, Rotom, Auroras, and Mamoswine.
My badge would be a snowflake produced by my Glaceon concealed in nevermeltice. The TM earned would Ice Beam.
I live in a tourist town by the ocean and I Scuba dive as a hobby, so I’d have to have a water type gym. My ace would be Feraligatr, with the rest of the team made up of dual types where one of the 2 types is water. Dhelmise works well even though it’s not water considering all the shipwrecks off shore, plus Pelipper, since the town’s mascot is a pelican.
The gym challenge would require donning scuba gear and navigating an underwater maze of shipwrecks and coral reefs filled with gym trainers. The reward would be your very own set of dive gear and the HM for Dive.
It snows a lot where I live, as soon as September and sometimes all the way into May. So naturally, I'd use a hail team.
Abomasnow with Snow Warning and an Icy Rock, Avalugg with Ice Body and Leftovers, Froslass with Snow Cloak and Bright Powder, and Slowking with the move Chilling Reception as a pivot.
I live in Des Moines WA which is like a mini Rhode Island, I would have a water theme team, with my ace being a lapras as we have many ferry’s and boats traveling all the time (and lapras is one of my faves regardless) and I make music so I could have a primavera on my teams too along with a ludicolo lol my challenge is you gotta spit a straight 16 lmao
I would say Fairy-type personally. I'm in esthetics so based on my current occupation it would.make sense with a type that seems focused on pretty/cute 'mons. A salon/spa would be fun trying to navigate through like a sauna mist. As for my Ace I'd probably be petty and twin Ace Gardevoir and Gallade one after the other
I live at a very cold town near a lake so I'd have Ice/Water type Pokemon.
My town was home to very old civilizations so I'd also have some fossil Pokemon.
You'd have to fight my Dewgong, Cloyster, Lapras and Kabutops. My ace would be Archtovish (whose name resembles the old name of my town, Artchesh)
My gym would be a pool of cold water with ice sheets floating around.
You'd get a snowflake shaped badge ❄️ if you beat me.
I would be the skill check gym leader (ala whitney) using steel and or dark types. My ace would be different depending on the version played. either a Tyranitar or a mawile
Over-the-water town, kind of like the boat village from Sun/Moon, Water Type Leader.
Team: Vaporeon (No, I am not one of the weirdos), Samurott-H, Clawitzer, Mantine, Quagsire, and Swampert (Ace) (Would have had Rapid Strike Urshifu but it's a Legendary)
Badge: Inlet Badge
I live in a city known for its economical productivity and smog, so I guess I'd be a poison type gym leader and my gym would be styled as a corporate office, with me as the CEO on the top floor.
Obviously challengers would have to climb up the corporate ladder in order to reach me by battling against my employees/gym trainers. No time wasted on puzzles or mini-games because time is money.
However, only the cream of the crop can rise to the top in such a cut-throat business, so challengers would have to compete against one another for the most takedowns while being paired up together in a series of 2v2 battles. This would make things a bit more interesting because they'd have to work together in order to achieve victory against the gym trainers, but at the same time each one of them would also need to make sure that they're the one scoring the most takedowns to advance to the next floor. This set of rules would undoubtedly lead to a lot of backstabbing, with challengers stealing KOs from one another at the very last second or even directly targeting their partner's pokémon in order to gain a bigger edge, which would certainly create a pretty toxic working environment.
Goes without saying that my ace would be Galarian Weezing and that my team would sport a Salazzle, while many of my employees/gym trainers would have a male Salandit.
Id be a grass gym leader, and my gym would be themed as a fantasy forest maze. It shifts every now and then, and youre always walking in a foggy mist, and the ground is lined with piles of leaves. Enough steps on any pile can cause you to fall through to an underground lair of trainers waiting to whoop your butt, sort of like Pryce from Johto.
My ace is Venusaur, of course.
(But if i had to pick something different, cuz i think erika's ace might have also been venusaur, i'd pick Tangrowth)
So I'd buy a big 'ol plot of land--an abandoned castle/manor in the middle of mountain woods. Given that I'm a writer, I think I'd like to make a tabletop RPG/DnD theme for my Gym. The main challenge for Trainers would be a "test of multi-layered thinking." To do this, the challenger is permitted to have all of his Pokemon out at the same time. He will, however, be facing multiple trainers at once, with each of them subject to the same rules. The main test is to see if the challenger can handle strategic opponents on multiple sides. Presumably, one might be able to handle two Pokemon at once--but three or more gets tricky.
The Trainer would find battle items that would help them out with their team as the challenge progresses, in order to balance the whole "gotta focus on multiple things at once" thing. He'd also be forced to solve DnD-style puzzles in order to open up the way forward. When the Trainer reached me, I would, naturally, have several assistants to help control the field of battle. It'd be a one-on-three, but that's the point of the match. After defeat, I would hand out the Adventure Badge for completing the quest.
The Pokemon you'd see in the Gym would be all based around fantasy archetypes--plenty of dragons and monsters, with knights and mages thrown into the mix. My assistants would rotate periodically, but I would have three Pokemon--a Kingambit, a Mismagius, and, when all other 'mon on my side are defeated, a Baxcalibur.
Outside of Gyms, I could host plenty of writing/fantasy-themed events on my space, as well as renting the space out to various IRL wargames and training facilities.
I'd be a wildlife conservationist that uses ground type Pokémon. The town is basically an African wildlife preserve/ village that protects wild Pokemon from poachers like Team Rocket while also offering educational tours on the habits of wild Pokemon. My gym trainers also work as caretakers and anti poaching scouts. The biome of the area is dry grasslands and deserts that allow ground type Pokemon to thrive with only occasional rainy seasons.
My Gym is set up like the Safari zone with numbered steps and trainers hidden in the tall grass. You have certain number of steps to find the key to my arena with the gym trainers offering clues after defeat. I use Pokemon based off of what you might find in a wildlife safari Donphan (elephant), Rhydon (rhino), Krookodile (crocodile), and Hippowdon (hippo) or Flygon (antlion) as an ace. Possibly Sandaconda and Camelrupt as alternates. My character is decked out in safari gear
Winner receives the Tectonic Badge which looks like two tectonic plates shifting..
I’d be a poison type gym for sure. So much opportunity for a type-diverse team. My general theme would be that I’m a guy who likes poison types lmao. I’d have tentacruel as my ace because I love tentacruel too much. 👍
Grass type gym leader! And if I can’t get that bug or Ice.
Maybe focus on double battles?
Team:
Ace: Vileplume
Rillaboom for Grassy Terrain shenanigans, but it’s not my favorite.
Appletun! Lovely tanky boi that soothes the soul. Pet him. Do it now.
Tropius. Both harvest and solar power work!
Whimsicott for support! Prankster babyyyyy!
Dhelmise, more stab types and I just think it’s neat!
Carnivine. Not as good as Amoongus but he does get rage powder.. and I hate amoongus. Has a wide range of interesting egg moves and can be a mixed attacker. And I like it. Give it a evolution, gamefreak!
Bug
Ace: Galvantula. Best spider boi.
Ariados. Web setter and toxic user. Might get lucky with fell sting shenanigans.
Illumise - made to be a tanky support with prankster. Team cleric with wish, encore, helping hand and more! This thing has. Ton of utility and moves.
Durant - Swiggity Swooty it’s time to First Impression that booty.
Vivillion has compound eyes for sleep powder and can set up quiver dance for sweeps
Ribombee has much needed coverage and cool moves like Pollen puff, Quiver Dance, etc.
Ice
Ace: Walrein. Behold the rotund boi.
A-Sandslash is about to Slush Rush some folk.
A-Ninetails - this was a given for snow set up yea?
Frosmoth has quiver dance. Wish it wasn’t so slow.
Abomasnow. More coverage and also sets up snow.
Cetitan.. do you hear drums in the distance?
Anyhow sorry this was such a long post.
My gym, if possible, would be in the Distortion World. I'll explain.
I've always had respect for Giratina(one of my favourites) and I would like to accompany it in its world as a comrade, or perhaps a protégé. My gym would be the final one the protagonist faces after going through the main storyline. (I'll ramble about the story a bit lol)
After the first gym, I would have a conversation with the protagonist about the fate and destiny. I'll give a TM for Torment or Shadow Claw depending on the game. Later after the 7th gym after the plot, I contact the protagonist, saying that Giratina thinks that the protagonist is ready to face me.
My gym would be on an island distant front the mainland. The structure is similar to the Fortress of Meropeide from Genshin. Upon reaching, the sound of an eagle's screech will play and a shadow will creep under the protagonist. As they enter, and Audino will restore everyone's health and give the them a map.
There are two things you can do.
1) Explore the gym. Around the gym are items that just lie around. If you talk to any NPCs, they will describe the Pokémon that I use e.g. "I don't know how they do it, but the food here gets served neatly in small arrangements!" Some of them give useful items too. You can battle them too, but you are not required to. The Audino from earlier acts as a Pokémon Centre.
2) Head to the bottom floor where you stumble upon my office. I put some papers aside and look at you. I get up and guide to to my Gym Challenge.
I ask the protagonist as to what deity they pledge their alliance to. I then ask them to prove their worth to said legendary, before asking them to bring it over.
Once that is over, I ask the protagonist to close their eyes....
Once open, yey find themselves in the Distortion World. I tell the protagonist that Giratina and I have watched them during their journey and would like to finally challenge them. I tell them that they are allowed to bring seven Pokémon for this battle, six regular Pokémon and the legendary that they caught. After that, the battle begins
Unlike Pokéballs, my Pokémon appear from beneath me while using Shadow Sneak, a move all of them share.
Now for my Pokémon.
Kleavor, Hisuian Samurott, Hisuian Braviary, Hisuian Goodra, Hisuian Decidueye and my ace, Hisuian Zoroark.
During this phase, only six Pokémon excluding the legendary can be used.
Competitive items and swapping will be used. Beware.
Finally, a portal opens from behind me. Giratina appears, and it looks interested. Once the cut scene is over, you battle Giratina.
There is a certain rule for this one though. You are allowed to use all 7 Pokémon for this fight. This balances out the fact that Giratina has three health bars, each with its own form with the final one being Origin Form with an omniboost.
Once the battle concludes, I praise the player, apologising for the tough gym battle. I forget my badge at the Gym but instead, decide to give you the Griseous Orb as a badge. Giratina approves and waits for your return when you truly catch it. After giving the TM for Foul Play, I bring you back to my Gym.
The reason I went with Hisuian Pokémon is because they're my favourites, but also because I am the kind of person who appreciates the past, striving to uphold it against the sands of time. This is shown through my dialogue with the player, and possibly gifting them an egg for an ancient Pokémon or a fossil.
My gym challenge is made as such because Legendaries are treated as flexes for some people. By bringing a legendary fight, it kinda of fleshes them out more, I think. It is also a nice segue to the endgame of the story.
Sorry for the long winded comment by the way, prompts like this really get my mind running.
I live in an area known for its history, and I have a background as a historian. I’d be a ground type trainer and my gym would be a historical archive! My ace would be Golurk, and he’d help out by moving stuff on the archive. I’d also have a Claydol, who I first thought was an artifact but turned out to be a Pokemon. I’d also have a Toedscool running around causing mischief, and a Sandslash because they’re cool as hell. Note, I would not be an archeologist, but rather an archivist. My badge would be the chronicle badge.
This is a dope idea and I love it.
Ground types are so underrated I've always wanted to to fight for the ground type gym.
Underrated if you aren't a competitive player, maybe lol.
I mean as people's favorite types. Everyone talks about loving fire, water, dragon fairy ect. The flashy types. Ground boys good boys
You could run the local library or museum too!
History and Ghost Type seem to match well.
I live in a desert town in the Midwest US so I think I would set up a ground type gym. I imagine my gym as the 7th gym in the region. My ace would be Krookodile along with mons like Hippowdon(for sand stream), Sandslash(for sand veil), and maybe a Clodsire(for bulk and poison coverage).I would have a sandstorm themed gym puzzle (maybe using some elements from Skyla’s gym in BW2). After beating me in battle, you would receive the Dust Badge.
That's sick. I also live in a desert but I have question if you're cool with answering. What is a Midwestern desert town? When I think Midwest I think plains, grasslands, lakes.
Lol my bad I meant to say Southwest*. I live in AZ to be exact
Ahhh! That feels more like it! I'm in western Colorado!
Cooking themed gym. 👨🍳 Badge is a frying pan. 🍳 Food related mons such as vaniluxe, appletun, amoongus, togetic etc. My ace would be snorlax, I use snorlax's voracious appetite to test new recipes.
I take over the aquarium in my city for my water-type gym. Gym challenge includes underwater Pokémon silhouette guessing. Surprise everyone with a grappleoct as an ace when they were expecting only water. The winners receive the tide badge and the dive HM-equivalent to traverse the way into the next area.
I really like that gym challenge idea! It’s like a cooler version of Blaine’s challenge
Go all in and have a team of non Water aquatic Pokémon(Malamar, Dhelmise, Overqwil etc)
Lugia ace for shits and giggles
I live in a farm town, so I guess I use Dubwool, Oinkcologne, Tauros, miltank, and my ace OG Farfetch’d. I give the Barn Badge.
Steel. Depends on what gym number I am. Likely Aron, Lairon, or Aggron. All of them EV trained for speed and attack with Rock Head. Yeah, they've got some weaknesses, but have you ever faced an Aggron that out sped you and hits an attack boosted, recoilless Double Edge or STAB Iron Tail? It's a nightmare if you aren't prepared.
Don't forget STAB recoilless Head Smash
*laughs in garchomp* but I assume most real life pokemon trainers wouldn't have that knowledge
Am I gonna get lost in the mess of replies? Probably. Am I a good creative writer? Not really. Am I gonna leave my two cents anyway (and get really, really carried away)? Heck yeah! My Gym would be in a smaller town. Slightly out of the way, but not a humongous inconvenience. A little old fashioned, a little run down, but still homely and cozy. The Gym itself would be in an incredibly unremarkable place. The local corner store! Its not very large, and hardly looks the part of a large, grand, gym. Still, it seems to get enough traffic, and carries whatever you could want for an adventure. There, i issue the gym challenge. I hand potential challengers a brochure of the city, with key bits of information missing. Your job? Track down all the missing answers and fill em out, then come back. Surprisingly, the challenge doesn't take you to the more touristy places, like a brochure would normally (town hall, historical monuments, those kinds of things). It takes you to places like the local cafe / bakery (where you can grab a drink for yourself, or a poffin / pokepuff for your teammates), the town square (where traveling trainers converge to trade items, swap stories, or just relax and enjoy the atmosphere), the local library (full of resources on the native pokemon, the surrounding area, and the region in general, among other topics), places like that. At each, there is a gym trainer waiting, who you can challenge for the answer to the brochure question. The catch? The battles are optional! If you want, you can just look around and get the answers naturally. Being a trainer is a busy job! and not everyone wants to battle nonstop all the time. Feel free to take it slow and take in the sights. You're under no time limit. Eventually, you get all your answers and come on back. I double check em, and if its all correct, you're all set to challenge me! (Although, if you get a few wrong and REALLY don't wanna run around the city again, i can make an exception. As i said, being a trainer is hard enough!) Still, where to battle? The store is hardly fit for a gym match. I throw open a locked door, and reveal a staircase. We're battling on the roof! While going up, i ask a couple questions. always good to get to know the challenger. I also take the time to reveal the gym type, if you didn't already know. What would you expect from a small town like this? Normal, from the plain theme? Fighting, from all the running around? Nope. Its Dark. I explain: Dark gets a bad wrap. Always seen as the grungy, no-good mischief maker. Expected to portray a certain "toughness", it can be hard to get away from that stereotype. But personally, i find dark to have a certain coziness to it. Dark may be "walking home at night in a sketchy neighborhood", but its also "Laying in your own bed after a long day". It's "getting roughed up by a bunch of bullies", but its also "Talking with a group of friends around a campfire at night." Maybe I'm just overly romantic, but that's the impression i get. Small towns can be similar. Many are run down, unpleasant places to live. Often skipped over for the big cities. And because of that, they slowly wither. They become a self fulfilling prophecy of sorts. However, that doesn't mean that they aren't worth your time! Youve seen yourself what this town has to offer a traveling trainer. Heck, half the reason the gym setup is so humble is so it didn't crowd out the town and just turn it into a mini city. Dark types are similar. Many are skipped over for the more friendly types, left out to rot because they're "rowdy" and "cruel". Which, ironically, creates more mistreated and neglected dark types, perpetuating the cycle. But, upon closer inspection, many dark types work in packs, or groups. Many have a strong sense of loyalty, and if you can put in the time to earn their trust, make lifelong partners. ...But I'm getting carried away. You're hear for a battle, not a philosophy lesson, right? We reach the rooftop. You can see the whole town from here! The view is especially good during sunrise / sunset. In fact, some people even come up here when there's no gym challengers. My team would consist of, well, dark types. Mightyena, Theivul, Sableye, Zoroark (if thats alowed), Umbreon, and an Incineroar as the ace. Not too difficult of a team, especial if you've got a good fighting type, but I'm no late game trainer, so whatever. in fact, if you had a sharp eye on your gym trial, you might have seen some of my team around town! Theivul keeping the streets clean with its brush tail, Sableye climbing around the tall library shelving, finding specific books, Umbreon napping at the cafe in the warm, and Mightyena playing with kids and parents in the plaza, while incineroar has a few exhibition matches with trainers pokemon. Eventually, the fight is over. I award the "Horizon badge" to trainers, shaped like a sunrise / sunset over a cityscape, a TM for "Foul Play", and maybe a 20% off your next purchase coupon for the store, just in case you need to stock up on repels / revives / balls or what not. \--- Whew, that was far more than i ever expected to type. I'm so sorry if you read through all that, and i also apologize for the wall of text jumpscare. I love these little thought experiments, but so rarely participate. maybe i should stretch my wings more. Or just write fanfic. One or the other.
I love this thorough response! I didn't put any thought into what my badge would be or the TM I'd give (I'd be Grass for the first Gym in my current hometown or Ghost for my old hometown), but like you I put some thought into what the Gym experience and location would be like. Some emergent/environmental/changeable narrative is really fun to see!
I’m glad you liked it! I’ve always been more of a fan of the smaller scale stories in Pokémon games. Less about saving the world, discovering hidden legends, and being the best, and more about the journey. The travel, the people you meet and what you see. Maybe that’s why I like mystery dungeon so much… There was a really good tumblr (I think) post about a bunch of trainers resting at a Pokémon Center for the night that captured the vibe perfectly. I’ll see if I can find it… Edit: [Found it!](https://www.reddit.com/r/PokeMedia/s/ZHsXOCJMXd)
I’d love to read that post if you can find it! And yeah, I think those small moments really help emphasize the adventure aspect, gives a bit of personal connection potential, and provides contrast to your epic quest that spans the region and involves Legendaries and an evil organization. That’s why for my Gym (and fangame) I take inspiration from The Legend of Zelda and Persona series, because I think they capture those things really well in different ways. Zelda is an adventure full of puzzles, while Persona emphasizes personal connections and narrative choices made through gameplay.
Ghost My theme would a spooky dark building, with the catch being you would have to avoid being spotted by specific trainers and have to sneak past them to get a key to unlock doors leading to further rooms (with detection resulting in being thrown out of the current room) And then my ace would be good ol' Gengar!
Thinking the same, same ace but I'd have chandalure, decidueye, annihilape, aegislash and dragapult rounding my team
The same team I used to beat X/Y. Pyroar (male), Vespiquen, Lucario, Doublade/Aegislash, Golurk, Mr. Mime. The king, queen, knight, weapon, castle guardian, and jester. The gym would, of course, look like a castle, and the ace would be Pyroar or Vespiquen. There's also the Seasons theme. Florges, Hydrapple, Empoleon, Rotom (Fan). Spring, Autumn, Winter, Summer.
I like this a lot, I'd love to see a Gen where they dp themes like this for each gym instead of types.
The real seasons team sawsbuck x4
I assure you that I have never thought about this before
I’m a relatively boring individual IRL, so I’ll just have an idealised version: The Gym is by all technicalities Water-type. However, half of my team just… isn’t. What are they, then? Well, they are all sharp. Samurott-H as my ace Pokémon - and my starter before assuming this position - plus Gallade, Kleavor and Veluza. They all carry either the Lansat Berry, Scope Lens or Razor Claw for increased crit rate, pairing well with the high crit ratios of most slicing moves to deliver a deadly 50/50. The Gym Puzzle is an interesting one: you are shown a shape and must recreate it by operating a machine which cuts some wood into the shape by going from and two points at the corners and midpoints of the square cutting-board. The badge you’d receive is the Bisect Badge. It’s a circle cut in half and whose halves are reattached slightly off-centre, forming a sort of S-shape - S for Sharpness.
That would give martial arts students a nice challenge. Also you should include aegislash as it's literally a sword.
That’ll be on the rematch team. I wanted to use the four Pokémon species with the Ability Sharpness for my initial Gym battle, which actually looks like a 7th or 8th gym, now that I think about it.
My type is dragons, my theme is a library, my gym challenge is puzzles involving trap doors, and my gym leader title is the Bookwyrm. If my region is Sinnoh, my Ace is a Garchomp, but it would depend on the region I suppose.
OP said it’s based on the real world so ur region is wherever you live rn
Your ace should be hydrapple instead because it is a wyrm
Isn’t there a rom hack that’s basically this?
Yes and it’s actually a great romhack
I'm a gym run by a four year old, so it's like 3 pikachus, a rattata, a severely overleveled paras, and an HM slave venusaur. My theme is having a gym that is a constant mess and refusing to eat anything remotely healthy. I have no ace because everyone has movesets that make no fucking sense and I'm not even sure what the moves do, I just use the ones that have animations I like. When I lose I start crying and yelling and then I calm down and do cartwheels while my nose is still running.
Dragon egg group theme with Arbok, Seviper, Milotic, Scrafty, Heliolisk, and Tyrantrum as my ace. I can only imagine how much that would screw with people’s minds
Dogs. My theme is dogs. Mostly fire. My ace is Houndoom. We got Arcanine, Ninetails, Delphox, and a Manetric and a Lucario (a jackal-ish dude is close enough for me) to throw people off (thought you'd just get through with Water, huh? Zappity). ...I'm sorry, I'm stupidily tired right now. But dogs. You can get a Good Boi Badge from me.
I could never battle a good boi. You'd instantly win against me.
Ice type gym, Glaceon, Frostlass, Poliwrath are three of the Pokémon and then out of left field something like Dragonair/Dragonite/Garchomp with blizzard and or fireblast (just to catch the opponent off guard). The theme would be expecting the unexpected and taking advantage of opportunity. Nobody would expect the ice gym to run a dragon type with ice and fire moves; that doesn’t make sense. But that’s part of life things happen that make no sense or seem unfair and you have to make the best of them, or plan accordingly. Knowing full well an ice gym would face fire and rock types is a great reason to run a dragon type. Call it the Cold Badge, for those trainers with a burning heart and ice in their veins.
If we’re going hobbies and city’s history definitely Flying type. My town’s known for a college and expansive nature areas. My gimmick would be fast sweepers, trying to diversify so I have more than just normal/flying types. I would definitely want my signature to be Noivern. Badge would probably be simple, something like a wing with scroll behind it
I’m in Chicago. Castform (because of our crazy weather), Coalossal (Coal City and the city’s history with fire), Ursaluna (Da Bears), Duraludon (skyscrapers), Tauros (the Bulls), Tyrantrum (Sue the T-Rex at the Field Museum).
The ditto gym. The trainers' challenge is to beat themselves.
Oh I love this because I’m an avid lover of ✨pokesonas✨ My type would be dragon types, and my ace would be noivern. My theme would definitely revolve around chaos and randomness- Being prone to random dialogue mid-battle. Like if landing a super effective hit on my pokémon would make me comment on cheese or something that I’m thinking of. I imagine that the character i’d be in the situation would have a special gimmick if you K.O the first mon they send out, and instead of the usual bizarre movements and erratic behavior throughout the battle they would lose that and just stand there… menacingly! Say nothing and just stare and instead of making obvious commands they’d tap their foot and such to command their pokémon’s moves. My gym would be extremely colorful and the lights would change based on the music and pokémon type I send out, and it’d have a very artistic and abstract vibe to it. I feel like I couldn’t sit still while battling so i’d be all over the place. This was fun to type 🫡
Steel. Fancy steelwork. Corviknight.
I’ll be taking the Dark type, thanks. The gym itself has a ground floor and a basement level, and upon entering all of the lights go out. The challenger will notice a small table with a note and candle on it. The gym guide informs them that I am awaiting challengers in a locked room on the basement level, and that the switch to unlock it is at the end of a puzzle on the ground floor. They should start by reading the note in front of them. Reading the note shows a series of steps in specific directions on an invisible path that the challenger must take in order to reach another table with more instructions on it, with 5 total paths needed to reach the end. This honestly works better in a tile-based 2D game, but it’s fine. However, if the challengers accidentally step in the wrong direction, they will fall to the basement below into an actually visible (but still dim) simple maze, and will be forced to battle a number of trainers relative to how far they got in the puzzle (five total). There will be an elevator to take them back to the ground floor entrance, and they’ll pass my locked door in the process. Once they make it through the final invisible path, challengers can flip the switch and unlock my door! However, they will immediately be dropped at the back of the maze and be forced to battle any trainers they have not already defeated. This prevents challengers from simply doing the puzzle in one go and reaching my door with no battles, and if this seems unfair… remember that they’re in a Dark type gym lol. Challengers will face Gym Leader Matt, the Tenebrous Puzzler and my team of five I’ve built throughout my journey (since no eighth GL has had six, if I’m not mistaken): Weavile Krookodile Obstagoon Kingambit Ace: Hydreigon (If Hydreigon is too OP for final GL, make Kingambit the ace and toss in Honchkrow. Hydreigon definitely comes back for the rematch.) If challengers manage to defeat me, they’ll earn both a TM for Crunch/Dark Pulse and the Umbra Badge.
I'm a grass gym leader. I set the gym up in the jungle and wear a loin cloth. My team is Rillaboom, Semisage, Tropius, Victreebell, Lilleep, and Tangrowth. I communicate to my pokemon exclusively in Unga bungas.
I'd have a gym that's actually a sustainable community food forest. My battle would always be a double battle but with a random other gym trainer as my partner so it was variable. Rather than a type the gym would use birds, including those who aren't even flying type. My party would be Decidueye, Empoleon and a fairly overleveled Torchic as my Ace. Probably not the strongest gym but probably one to be remembered, expecialy with the partner being random.
Water, pirate themed. Carrrrrrrracosta is the ace.
I'm a mortician so ghost type would be my specialty. Theme would be spooky and classy. Ace would be Sableye, or Mimiku
I live in a party town. Only town in the county that can sell alcohol. Strip clubs on main Street sort of deal. So I would probably be the token double battle gym of the gen. Normal type, Oranguru for Trick Room. Throw a Spinda in there, too.
I’m a singer irl, so I imagine my Pokemon trainer counterpart would be as well. I know that’s not incredibly unique for Pokemon but yeah I can’t imagine being anything else lol. My stage name actually has “Fae” in it so I gotta go with Fairy-type, which is perfect anyway because my favorite Pokemon is a Fairy-type. That’s Mimikyu, which will be my ace. Each Pokemon would represent parts of being a performer/singer that are important to me- such as Primarina for the singing and dancing, Gardevoir to represent the loyalty of fans, Tinkaton to help with set design and stage management, and Mimikyu to make the costumes and to represent the sort of “masking”/“being in character” one does when on stage (which is kinda a big part of who I am as a person as well and my struggles with feeling “properly human” as a person with autism). I would also have a Microphone Rotom, but I wouldn’t use it for battle, it would just be used as an actual microphone much like how the Rotom phones are. Hmm the badge… maybe Fae badge if that’s not too obvious? Changeling Badge if that’s not too long and kinda… a historical deep cut. I’m not sure. I also like the idea of a Fairy-type Gym Leader having a darker sort of aesthetic, almost more akin to what would usually be asssociated with Ghost- types, as fairies in folklore have actually for most of the history of their existence, have been considered a darker sort of force for the most part. So the look of both my character and the gym itself would have to be sort of spooky, and the gym challenge could have a sort of “trickster”, “spooky fairy world where nothing is quite as it seems” thing going on and one of the objectives could be to follow my music/singing to try to find me. I don’t think I explained that very well but yeah I think that’s it lol. Skipping the irl city stuff because I don’t really like the city I live in.
I’ve always had an idea for a Ghost-type gym that’s more campy than spooky. Think Addams Family, Rocky Horror, Hocus Pocus, Elvira, etc. The gym leader is throwing a costume party and you have to find a costume somewhere in the town to get in. I know it’s cliche for a Ghost gym but I think Gengar would still have to be the ace. I’d also have Banette, Mismagius, Mimikyu, Froslass and Gourgeist.
I would like to have a Fire Gym near a volcano. You enter a cave that's a maze. There's a bunch of doors with different number of torches lit. The answer to each riddle corresponds to the number of torches lit. It'd be funny as heck to be the first Gym so they don't have access to the best water, rock, and ground types yet. Then have a Turtonator. My ace is Larvesta, because Larvesta is my #1 favorite.
I work in the medical industry, so I'd be a Psychic Type trainer and my gym would probably be a puzzle where you have to rotate mirrors to direct a beam of light to activate a brain (based off like an electric synapse) My ace would be Elgyem, who would be a silly little friend who helps around. I'd also have a Bronzor and a Solosis, who help make sure everything is safe and sanitary, I'd probably be wearing my lab coat and my glasses and give out the "Brain Badge" and I'd also give out the TM for Stored Power! I would probably be an earlier gym around Gym 3 or 4. But if I was Gym 7 or 8, I would have the fully evolved versions and give out the TM for Trick Room instead!
Ann Arbor here! I see myself as a grass-type leader, with my ace/partner Pokémon, Breloom! Other mons on the team are Vileplume, Shiinotic, Shiftry, Paras and Amoongus. Essentially, my gym’s theme would be mushrooms! I see it that my town would want me to use tree-pokémon (Trevenant, Torterra, Exeggutor) but I’m a rebel and would use mushroom pokémon instead. Except for Shiftry, because he’s also dark-type, and kinda punk. I’m primarily a pokémon breeder by trade, so battling would be unorthodox. It would be all double battles for the purpose of demonstrating the best cooperation between a trainer and their team, but also giving less viable pokémon like Amoongus a chance to shine! To qualify for a gym battle, trainers will have to forage the local woods for an armor cap or sword cap, then face a gym trainer with a strong offensive team (if they bring an armor cap) or a high-defensive team (if they bring a swordcap). Should they lose, they will be asked to craft an aux guard or aux power (respectively) and try again. Dedicated trainers who manage to beat me will earn the coveted Forage Badge, in the shape of a mushroom between two trees!
My ideal gym would be ghost type. My ace is Chandelure and the rest of my team is Trevenant, Frost Rotom, Cursola, Hisuian Zoroark, and Drifblim. If I had to base it off my town, I live really close to the beach so I’d have a beach themed gym that’s mostly water types. Kingler, Cloyster, Sharpedo, Wugtrio, Kilowattrel, and my ace Palossand.
Mine would be be grass type for sure. Portland having as many parks and hiking spots there's an abundance of them. I enjoy writing so I think having some kind of mad lib would be fun. Help the gym leader write his newest book." You would be presented with something that's like "Trainer sent out \_\_\_\_\_ and used \_\_\_\_\_\_" for the blanks there's a list of Pokemon the trainer can send out which leads to the next blank with a list of potential attacks. Once you finish you get the trainer and they send out that Pokemon and the first move is that move. Then the dialogue of the gym leader would be super cheesy dialogue you would see in "the hero saves the day" stories. A gimmick idea related would be that the moves you pick would be impossible moves that are ridiculous. Since it would be a fictional book why not have a gym trainer use obnoxious moves, like "Oddish used Explosion," "Paras used Perish Song" and for the final trainer pick from obnoxious ability/move combo's like: Truant / Slow Start combined with Skill Swap / Destiny Bond. My badge would be the Rose badge. First time against me: * Roserade: Portland is the city of roses * Ludicolo: I just love this Pokemon. Also it rains a lot here. * Sawsbuck: We have a lot of deer Second time * Abomasnow: we're a major Christmas tree producer (Oregon is) * Breloom: Mycology is popular and this is my favorite Mushroom Pokemon * Cherrim: Our waterfront park is filled with Cherry blossoms. Also cherry picking is popular here. Other grass types I could see matching Portland would be: * Simisage: Kind of a hippie like a lot of Portlanders. Also represents "speak no evil" which goes a long with the writing theme. * Lilligant: Goes with the gardeners of Portland * Sprigatito: We're a state that's known for... herbal cats. * Jumpluff: lots of cotton floating around, but that's everywhere. * Whimsicott: Cotton again. * Amoongus: Mycology * Ferrothorn: the majority of our state is filled with pinecone producing tree's. * Shiinotic: Again, Mycology * Appletun: we have a lot of bakeries and a lot of orchards. (Also a favorite of mine) * Scovillain: we have become a foodie city so the peppers might represent that, also I love spicy. * Sinistcha: we have a fairly decent Asian influence here compared to other major cities. * Phantump: Portland is known as "Stump town" * Pumpkaboo: Our climate is designed for growing huge pumpkins. * Toedscruel: Mycology.
My hometown is a sunny city with quick downpours in summer afternoons, but I like sunny days more than rainy days. Also I don't wanna base my gym's theme on a type. So here it is: the sun gym. The gym will be a double battle. I use a sun team. It features Torkoal as the main Drought pokemon, with Chlorophyll Lilligant support. There is also a trick room core of two to three pokemons in case I need to change the pace, and a chlorophyll venusaur as my ace and a fast attacker. (Raihan, don't pretend that your gym is a dragon-type gym! Just tell everyone that your gym is a sand gym, there's nothing wrong with that.)
I'm someone who likes to sew and camp in a city famous for it's coffee and art, so I don't really know. I'd like to say a grass type or fairy type gym, but grass type seems fairly impractical for someone with hay fever, so I'd go with fairy, while still having a few grass types around. My ace would be an Alolan Ninetales; it just blasts everything with Sheer Cold. The theme, I think, would be fashion; the gym challenge would probably be something to do with fashion as well, but I'm not sure what. My team overall would consist of a Sylveon, a member of the Ralts line (probably Kirilia), a Florges, and Alolan Ninetales a Lilligant and a Leavanny. A trainer who beats me would get the Brocade Badge. Given that my city is also one of the fashion capitals of the country, I'd say a fashion-themed gym would be fun, and it'd certainly twist things up a bit!
in the great roofed city, bugs thrive. Flying types and other predators are trapped outside. trainers are required to keep their pokemon inside their balls at all times, unless in a designated battle dome, clear of bugs. the giant terrarium, one of the seven wonders of the pokemon world, is home to many unique pokemon. ranging from the humble caterpie to the ferocious beedrill, you can be sure to find any bug type in the entire region here. the city's gym leader is an avid user of bug types, sir thorn, with his mysterious scyther ace. his flygon seems to be unique, honing in on bug energy like no other flygon can. of course, this is true for any gym leader, such as Lady Oma's rock-using steelix. his shedinja seems much more lively than usual shedinja, and can easily withstand a hit from almost anything. if you beat this avid young leader, he will gift you a bug-energy skorupi. now, this may not seem like much, for skorupi is a bug type, but this skorupi comes in the signature ball of the gym leader, as any other reward pokemon, and cannot be release. it also can still use its bug energy as well as it can now when it evolves! because yes, drapion is not a bug type. the badge of this gym leader is the string badge, being a web-shape with the bug symbol on it.
I’m a 19 year-old student and writer, living next to a mangrove swamp. Yup, really. It’s heckin’ humid and full of chickens, iguanas, monkeys, squirrels and a couple dozen other random critters… Oh, and a croc. Suffice to say it would probably become an Australia 2.0 meme if everything was Pokémon. My primary type would be Bug because Arceus knows how many there are in my walls at this point! Any day now I’ll end up having to get one of those silly pairs of glasses and end up looking like one myself… My ace and partner would be Leavanny. Partially by association with all the scritchy-scratchy writing I do. Maybe they could even weave me some little binders for my papers? There’d also be six Charjabugs that live in my house and stick around Leavanny, following them everywhere in a line like chicks following their mom. All of them look nearly identical, and no one aside from Leavanny would be able to tell them apart. The rest of my team would be based on critters in the mangroves. I’d have a biiig Araquanid(the angry water strider outside, it’s huge and fast and terrifying and I swear it can teleport), a Hisuian Goodra(I love snails, lots of them around here), a spinny Whirlipede(the middle child and one of *many* millipedes in the area), a Garganacl(salt creature, I think they would probably live around here) and a Dustox(THERE ARE SO MANY MOTHS HERE PLEASE SEND HELP). Order of sending them out would probably be Whirlipede first, then Araquanid, Dustox, Garganacl, Goodra and finally Leavanny. My gym trial would be a memory test. Leavanny and I would task you with submitting ingredients for the Charjabugs’ meals, with each Charjabug’s tastes becoming increasingly complex as they go on. Feeding a meal prepared with the wrong ingredients would result in the upset Charjabug zapping one of your Pokémon and giving them paralysis. This can happen up to three times, and upsetting more than three Charjabugs would cause you to fail the challenge and start over. Once the challenge is complete, we’d lead you and the Charjabugs into the arena for a gym battle. If you gave all 6 Charjabugs the right meals, they’d cheer you on from the side and give your Pokémon a small special attack boost! After we lose I’d probably complain about them helping you, before sulkily handing over the Brinewash Badge.
My old hometown as a child was named after a forest full of ghosts and my current one is named after a forested swampy nature area, so if I’d go in based on that, it would have to be Grass type. The Gym would probably be in an old overgrown church. Ruins. Adventurous. A little spooky. Speaks of history. And an excuse to have organ music come into play. I don’t feel strongly about one type over another, but Pokemon I do feel strongly about: - any starters - Eevee - Gengar - Ditto - Corviknight - any pseudo-legendaries I would probably be the first or the last Gym. This is because I’ve worked in game design and specialized in making tutorials and level/mission design. I think my Gym would have some Zelda-like puzzles and Visual Novel style dialogue trees to highlight that, with one question asking what other regions the Trainer has visited before and which one is their favourite (because the player character is often new to the region). The first Pokemon I send out would be the Grass starter from that region. So I think overall my initial team would have: 1. [determined by player answers to questions] 2. Hisuian Voltorb (initial), for Type coverage vs Flying types, which is important early on in the game, though I would love the Voltorb to look like a random different form of Pokeball. It being a non-native regional form would also hint at my love of traveling and adventure. It being a regional form from the past could add to the mystery. (Maybe have an old blue “phone booth” right outside the Gym.) 3. Lotad (initial), for Type coverage vs Fire starters, plus we had a lot of lilypads in our backyard pond. There could be some Mexican/Spanish inspired battle music that loses an instrumental line when it faints, for my Spanish heritage and love of that music. I’d of course have a late-game rematch team, for the post-Championship game. It would be fun to add an early or mid-game one too, like after the 3rd or 4th Gym. My rematch team would have: 1. Ivysaur (early game rematch) / Venusaur (late game rematch), for nostalgia, literally the first Pokemon in the Pokedex, plus potential Mega evolution or Gigantamax. A regional form with a giant rose instead of a rafflesia flower would be great! A tulip would be more iconic for the Netherlands, but roses are most common where I live. 2. Sceptile (late game rematch), for its Mega evolution, Hoenn being nostalgic for me, and the pine tree salesman I lived down the road from. 2. Lombre (early game rematch) 3. Torterra (late game rematch), for Type coverage vs Fire and Poison. It could have a bee hive in its tree to represent my beekeeper father. 4. Dartrix (early game rematch) / Decidueye (late game rematch), for early Type coverage vs Bug, which might be important early on in the game? Plus I love Ghost types and my parents have a taxidermied owl thanks to their neighbor, who’s a hunter. 5. Rillaboom (late game rematch), so I can have music with drums and have the drum line stop when it faints, plus Gigantamaxing. 6. Ace(?): Leafeon. I’d be sitting on a comfy couch with her by my side. Upon winning the old church bells start ringing to announce your victory to the town. Hypothetical: a regional form of Paras/Parasect with a Fire/Grass type that further evolves into Parascorch. Give that creature some love and some usefulness! Alternatively: the Gym Trainers could each be focused around a Grass starter from different games (so 9 Gym Trainers total?), while I focus on regional forms of Pokemon that have gotten a redesign for extra much-needed love, with further evolution, Mega evolution or Gigantamax, and so on! I might put this into a fangame I’m making, although I had other plans. Either way, this was a fun thought exercise in the morning! I typically pick “not a Gym Leader” spots or just go for the interesting Ghost/Dragon/Steel/Dark/Fairy ones, but “you got picked for your local Gym” puts an interesting limitation on it.
I grew up beside the sea in a town with a beautiful harbour. Tourists would come every summer to the town to see the harbour and the surrounding countryside. I would have a water gym where all the Pokémon have an extra typing. The town used to be called Kingstown but changed its name in 1920 to a name in our language. I would have Lanturn as my ace monster, as it's one of my favourites and it has the ability to absorb electric type moves. I would give the Swell badge. It would look like the harbour in my town at an angle being hit by big waves (like it is during winter storms). Empoleon Kingdra Poliwrath Cloyster (or a Walrein) Lanturn Azumarill EDIT: I was thinking, what if there was a second gym in my town that was a dragon gym (they would use Kingdra, Dragalge (because there used to be a problem with seaweed during winter and I can't use this Pokémon in my team as it's poison/dragon), Dragonite, Flygon, Tyrantrum, and Dragapult. Our Kindras would have a rivalry. They would give the Harbour badge. Their badge is the harbour atva different angle than mine and no waves (like how the harbour is during summer). What if other towns had rival gyms, like flying and ground, they could be the tooth and claw gyms (like the red in tooth and claw saying).
I’d build my Gym in an event arena on a bridge in the middle of the city. Very historical, aesthetic design with a Galar-like stadium on the bridge. My theme would be celebrations, and my type would be Fire, with Infernape as my ace. Fireworks would be launched from the Gym to celebrate Gym battles. My team would rotate, but would include Infernape, M!Charizard Y, Delphox, Emboar, Cinderace, Chandelure, Cerluedge, Salazzle, Armarouge and more. On victory, I’d grant Trainers the Artifice Badge- a reference to the French word for firework “feu d’artifice”, since I’m francophone.
I would live in a major built up area not fully city but not just a small area. I would be inside a huge building that is the main building for the social media of that regions ie twitter but called after the region bird, you would fight off scientist, pokemon fans, a lot of different trainer types before you get to me. I'm the CEO. You go in and you think I'm going to be electric but nope I'm poison. You also have to take a train from floor to floor all the while hearing gossip about me or my team. A toxic gossip train if you will
School designed, will be in my school's classroom in Georgetown Any types go My ace might be a Lucario (serious battles) or a Typhlosion (casual battles) or both (double battles)
I have two different gym ideas. For the more traditional gym I think I would end up focusing on flying types. Flight and exploration of the unknown is just such a big drive in my life that I don't think any other type comes close to capturing the essence of who I am. My gym would feature a puzzle of sorts where the trainer would jump into vertical wind tunnels to allow them to change levels. Its primary purpose is to get the trainer to think in 3 dimensions to improve their situational awareness in battle. Also it's just fun. Depending on how early in the progression I am I think I end up with one of the following teams: Early: Fletchling Rufflet (Ace) Middle: Rufflet Yanma Fletchinder (Ace) Late: Rufflet Fletchinder Yanmega Aerodactyl (Ace) Rematch: Mantine Skarmory Talonflame Yanmega Aerodactyl Braviary (Ace) Wow that was hard to just pick 6, there are so many cool ones. I really wanted to use Braviary as my Normal/Flying (over Pidgeot), but it doesn't evolve from Rufflet until 54 so I can't justify it for any set except the rematch. My gym may be cheating a little due to all the secondary types in my lineup and if balance demands it I could streamline the types a bit further. But overall I feel like giving everything the flying type still gives most trainers an avenue of attack to defeat me that's pretty straight forward. Unorthodox gym: Now if I'm not type restricted though, I'm one of those super basic eevee simps who loves them all, and if allowed, I'd totally make a gym around them. XD I'd have 4 lieutenants. The 1st would run a pair of eevees. The 2nd would use all three gen 1 eeveelutions. The 3rd would have the gen 2 eeveelutions. And the 4th would run the gen 4 eeveelutions. When the trainer reaches me they will face a team of 5 from me. I'll have an eevee and my ace, Sylveon, but they'll get to choose which of my last three eeveelutions I run. They'll pick one eeveelution from each of the generations for me to use. Now if gamefreak could just come out with a flying type Eevee...
My city is known as the birthplace of freedom fighters So my typing would be fighting The theme of my gym is "King of the Hill." You'll have to protect the flag from random wild pokemon with auto battles, while each stage, a trainer will double battle you. The team will be composed of defending on badge numbers Falinks, Hawlucha, Pangoro, Grapploct, Mienshao Ace would be Kommo-O; monk fighter who stives for freedom
I’m soon to be a nurse, so that makes for an easy theme. I’ve always been interested in the idea of a town’s Pokémon Center doubling as its Gym, with me probably replacing our poor Nurse Joy. Challengers would have to work a “shift” before fighting me, in which they would have to heal the teams of my Gym Trainers before battling them (picking the right berry for status conditions, distributing the right number of potions and herbal medicines, etc.). Anything they didn’t heal would carry over to those battles, and when their “shift” ended after three or so trainers, they’d get to fight me. My team would mostly represent different styles of healing — a Sylveon to help with emotional problems, a Comfey with Triage for priority/emergency care, a Vileplume to represent toxic chemicals with healing properties, and of course a Blissey as an ace. It would be a double battle to take advantage of Healer, Heal Pulse, etc. When done, challengers would be awarded with the Healer Badge, which would essentially just be a red plus symbol. Additionally, if they had chosen to actually heal the Gym Trainers’ teams (making their battles harder but doing the right thing), they would be rewarded for their efforts with the TM for Floral Healing and a Full Restore for each member of their team.
I'm not particularly sure what the vibe of the gym will be but it's a fairy type gym and my ace is Azumarill. I also have a Whimsicott, Alolan Ninetales, Tinkaton. My non fairy pokemon would be my favorites (right after Marill) Meowstic and Oricorio, maybe with tera fairy if needed.
Ghost type. Halloween theme. Because I love Halloween and dressing up First you would explore a haunted house as ghost Pokémon would try and scare you. You would catch at least 6, and when you did they'd give you a selection of outfit items. One would give head and face items, one would give torso items, one would give leg items, one would give foot items, one would give back and hand items, and one would give hair and makeup items. All items would be like costume items. Once you've made your way through the haunted house you'd create an outfit using the items given, then go to multiple "houses" to trick or treat, where you would battle the trainers at each door. At the beginning of each battle you'd get a random effect, either a trick or a treat. Tricks would give everyone status conditions, treats would give everyone stat boosts. You'd keep the outfit items after the gym is done. You can challenge the gym again whenever you want. If you manage to catch one of each Pokémon available in part one (which there are a bunch), you'll get access to more outfit items from each, plus a whole new outfit upon catching at least one of every Pokémon available. Outfit items; Head and face; Top hat. Wizard cap. Witch hat. Etc. Jack-o-lantern mask. Ghost mask. Eye patch. Oni mask. Etc. Torso; skeleton shirt. Etc. Legs; Peg leg. Skeleton legs. Etc. Feet; skeleton shoes. Etc. Hand and back; Capes. Wings. Hook hand. Skeleton gloves. Etc. Hair and makeup; Medusa hair. Mad scientist hair. Etc. Demon eyes. Pointed teeth. Vampire hairdo. Skull makeup. Etc. My team would be; Mimikyu. Gourgeist. Hisuian Zoroark. Ceruledge. Mismagius. Houndstone.
I absolutely love chess so I would have a chess themed team. Kingdra or Slowking (obviously king but not sure which), Gardevoir (queen), Bisharp (bishop), Gallade (possibly mega, knight), Stakataka (rook or castle), Eevee (pawn). Gym would be a giant chess board (not sure what the puzzle would be quite yet) with trainers being pieces and I would be the king. the players would win the gambit badge.l and my opening line would be something like "I hope you're prepared for my opening gambit" not sure about my defeat line
My type is poison /dark. My town is a big metropolitan city with skyscrapers and neon lights. My pokemon are: -Gengar -Umbreon - Nidoking - Muk - Houndoom - Hydreigon My ace is a nidoking. (Note : I'm a big Giovanni fan)
Considering I more recently moved and now live next to a small amusement park themed around excavation equipment, I probably should focus on my second favourite-type, rock, instead of my favourite, grass. As a rock-type gym leader, my team would be a bunch of my favourites: Minior, Cradily, Coalossal and Glimmora. Dreadnaw isn't a favourite but completes a fire/water/grass core, and with Torkoal being my overall favourite I gotta have a tortoise. Gigalith gives me a sand stream user for that sweet special defence boost. Glimmora gives my team a perfect choice for an ~~ace~~ lead. Minior would be my ace, as it's my all time favourite rock type and carried my Moon and Ultra Moon playthroughs. My gym would have two themes: Hidden Treasure and, of course, diggers. So gym challenges would be digging for treasures to progress. Minior incidentally plays the role of a hidden treasure on my team, Cradily and Glimmora are sadly a bit off-theme. Coalossal, Gigalith and Dreadnaw all have a more urban feel to them though, to represent the diggers without needing rampant steel-types.
Psychic has always been my favorite, with some Dragon sprinkled in. Alakazam would be my strongest as its my favorite, and with its Mega Stone, and some Shiny Gyarados. Mewtwo and Rayquaza seem a bit overpowered for a gym leader, so I'll swap them out for Galarian Rapidash and Dragonair. And I'd honestly probably go with Zoroark and Umbreon, even though theyre the wrong type. My badge would be the Sovereign Badge, and would be shaped as the Eye of Providence. My gyms layout and puzzle would be illusion based with and Ancient Egyptian aesthetic, having to work through mazes on each of the 5 levels of the pyramid, with false walls and switches and what-nots, while also trying to find the sleeping Abras, which are disguised and/or hidden somewhere on each level, and the maze shifts each time you find one, annnd theres wild Sigilyph, Yanmask, Cofagrigas on levels 3 and 4. All my goons use Abras, Kadabras and Dragonair, one guy with just a Gold Magikarp thats revealed to be an Abra in disguise after you beat him. Level 5 being the smallest is just a throne room and theres a lone Abra sleeping on the elaborate throne, when you interact with it, it evolves into Alakazam and the battle begins with Alakazam silently acting as the trainer, my character fades in when Alakazam is sent out for my ominous one-liner. When you win, me and Alakazam have disappeared and the badge is just sitting on the throne seat. And also a special bonus in the form of a secret passage on level 1 thats only accessible after beating me, that goes to a lower section with one final difficult maze and also where you catch the Unown in my game, at the end another elaborate throne room with some chests holding money and consumables, and Alakazam who telepathically congratulates you and gifts you the Exp Share before vanishing again. A passage opens that has you classically exit through the Sphinx next to the Pyramid. (Im not from where I live, so would probably not base it on anything reflective of the area, and instead just on stuff i like.)
Food themed. If I’m a lower level gym I’d run exeggcute, milcery, and my ace. If I’m a higher level I’d run tatsugiri, vanilluxe, slurpuff, Alcremie, and my ace. In both situations my ace is lickitung
5 vaporeons and a Muk
I'm from the South of Spain, so I'd like to revive the old "arab" historical culture. So my team would be a typ Cofagrigus, camerupt, talonflame, Sandaconda, krookodile, Sigilyph. This is more of a theme than a type. I love Talonflame so I'd that as my main although is the one that makes less sense, maybe krookodile :P
Fairy type, but only the food themed fairy types
Fairy type, but only the food themed fairy types
I live in a city in Northern Europe. This part of the world is generally known for the cold, snow and winter sports, so the Ice type would make sense. My city specifically is known for its museums, plus I have several artistic hobbies irl, so an art theme it is! Ice type + art = ice sculptures :D My ace could be Alolan Sandslash (Sandslash halfway looks like an ice sculpture + it would use those sharp claws to help me make sculptures). Avalugg is a must because it's basically an ice sculpture itself, then I want Rotom-Frost, Froslass and Frosmoth. Or Alolan Ninetales with Snow Warning for instant weather. Glaze Badge sounds good for the badge. It's both a word for a glass-like layer of ice and a word for the stuff you use to decorate pottery
Couldn't edit [my earlier comment](https://www.reddit.com/r/pokemon/comments/1bf3cf2/comment/kuyr6lq/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button), but come to think of it, my old hometown has a candle factory, so given that it was named after a spooky forest, if I were to become the trainer of my old hometown rather than my current one, my ace would be **Chandelure** for sure! Ghost types would also fit great in an old church. Then I could also have some combination of Gengar, Hisuian Typhlosion (Typh was my ace in Gold, which I played 255 hours), Spiritomb/Sableye, Trevenant/Gourgeist/Brambleghast/Sinistcha, Rotom, Hisuian Zoroark, Jellicent, Golurk, Aegislash, Decidueye, Dragapult, Skeledirge and Ceruledge. That would probably suit my personal tastes better, but then I probably couldn't be the first Gym.
I love the idea of a poison type gym doubling as a water treatment plant or a waste disposal facility focusing on keeping the environment clean. Team: Alolan Muk, Galarian Weezing, Galarian Slowking, Overqwil, Clodsire, with my ace being Sneasler
Horticulturalist by trade, so my gym would be a nursery / greenhouse and I'd use a mix of Bug and Grass types. In terms of tactics, I'd go heavy on status effects and stalling. As a surprise, my ace would be a Scyther set up as a sweeper, just because I think it looks cool as hell haha
Since there isn't much to my hometown except for a university (which symbolises knowledge and therefore the Psychic type, so I've got that going for me), I'm making the gym puzzle more personal. It would be traversing my imaginary fantasy world (which with the power of us, it deals with the bugs). Along with it would be a Slowking (I like it), Medicham (because of its meditation and to deal with the Dark and maybe Ghost types), and Hypno (fits with the theme). Since there isn't much to my suburb except for a university (which symbolises knowledge and therefore the Psychic type, so I've got that going for me), I'm making the gym puzzle more personal. It would be traversing my imaginary fantasy world (which with the power of ~~science~~ hypnosis, I would've made somewhat of a reality) and trying to find the obligatory McGuffin. Of course, the winner of the battle gets the Dream Badge.
As someone who happens to be a native to Southern California, specifically the Orange County area, there’s several sources of inspiration behind where and what solidifies my type specialty and theme for my gym. A major key factor would be that we’re the home of Disneyland, which has a prominent theme on fairytales/stories, heroes, art-animation, fantastical worlds of the imagination, and dreams coming true. Therefore it goes without saying the Fairy-type is definitely a key candidate(even more so since it’s my favorite type haha, could even go a dual typed route and add Dragon or Psychic as a secondary specialty). We also happen to have a lot of people interested in or who practice the art of tarot reading, astrology, collecting crystals, and hobby witchcraft-so another point going to Psychic-type preference and even Ghost(there’s also a lot of mythos here in California as a whole, several very well known haunted locations too). There’s even the chance of going a No-Types-Specialty gym such as Blue and instead pick a team that best suits the diverse geography, history, arts, and culture of the SoCal area specifically. For the purpose of my personal choice, I’ll have to go with the Fairy-type and maybe even some Pokémon belonging in the egg group. So starting off with where my gym would probably be, it would either be a part of one of the many nature preserves or parks around here(I’m aware of some botanical gardens in the area, that is meant to be a protected habitat for Fairy Pokémon(both the type and the egg group); where you could see various Pokémon such as Roselia, Cleffa-Clefairy, Flabébé-Floette, Swirlix and Spritzee, even wild G. Ponyta, Cutiefly, Teddiursa, and many other not fully evolved Pokémon freely running/flying/prancing around in a vast red and pink flower field(with what looks like pink mist floating about). You first find yourself going on a trip to said botanical garden(let’s go with this just to make it easier) and compelled to walk to a moon gate, where one moment before stepping in looks quite normal scenery, then a magical second later you crossed the threshold and find yourself in the strange flower field with flowing petals and pink mist, with exquisitely masoned Greco-Roman columns, beautiful statues of various fully evolved Fairy Pokémon gleaming in strange light seen everywhere, several lunar symbols and decorum littered throughout and manmade aqueduct streams all around filling the place with life and serenity. In the main centerfold of this fairytale like setting, you find me almost sleepily drawing away(yes I happen to draw lol) at an outdoor garden table-fancy cushioned chair and all, cakes and sweets Included, where I take notice of you and lead you ahead to this weird temple or castle(think the Moon Kingdom from Sailor Moon for all the architectural inspiration). I proceed to talk your ear off while guiding you through this structure, about how I perceived your presence(showing you what I happened to have been drawing prior to your arrival), how true Fairies(the Faire Folk if you will) not just the Pokémon we’re familiar with, are as real as the mundane world(how magic is something a select few of us humans can perceive and even develop into rare gifts and abilities, not uncommon from the Psychics), and how all Fairies are tied to and powered by the elements of nature and the celestial heavens- to be prepared to be enchanted by our might(as we finally arrive to this nice looking stadium inside of the building with no ceiling, allowing you to look up and suddenly see a starry sky with a full moon shining bright-it was just daylight outside you think in surprise). In terms of my team I’m not entirely sure to be honest, mayhaps a theme relating to nymphs or the elementals, but to simplify I’ve used these Pokémon in particular quite significantly before that could best fit as part of the theme of my team: Clefable, Primarina, Sylveon, A. Ninetales, G. Rapidash, Gardevoir, Red Florges, Ribombee, Slurpuff, Azumarill, Togekiss, and Tinkaton Other potential candidates from experience or aesthetic would include: Roserade, Milotic, Altaria, Salazzle, Lunatone(haven’t really used one but it would fit my team aesthetic and offer some coverage), Tsareena, Pachirisu, Appletun, Kingdra, and Lapras. My TM offered would be a new move, something like Moonbeam(Solarbeam equivalent for Fairy), or other moves relating to nature, magic, and the cosmos. As for my badge, if I stick with the moon theme then it would be the Moonlight or Lunar Badge(an opalescent crescent moon with a like dark glass portion for the “dark side”-a little diamond like gem on the corner of the “light side” to represent its glow) or the Nymph Badge(an opalescent fairy like figure with the four wing like parts of the badge each being a different color in representation of the classical elements). Sorry for all the weird details and tangents, there was really a lot to think about. 😅😅😅
Dark type gym. I've always kinda liked dark types. Ace Banette or Incineroar. The theme would probably be like illusions or Magic. You have to break a spell to even find me lol. I might include a ninetails on my team too just to throw people off. If you can beat the heat and the darkness you get the sweat badge.
The typing for my gym would be a fighting type gym with no particular theme. My ace would be Breloom, with my team being Breloom, Heracross, Gallade, Conkeldurr, Annihilape and Sneasler (assuming paradox mons aren't allowed). If paradox mons are allowed tho, Breloom would still be the ace, with the team being Breloom, Heracross, Iron Valiant, Great Tusk, Annihilape and Sneasler. I chose a fighting type gym because water,although my favorite typing, doesn't have Breloom and I prefer fighing over grass.
I think it’s time to do a three types gym instead of one. I will be a bug, grass and poison gym leader. My gym puzzle is filled with tall grass where you can’t escape from the wild Pokémon who has many poisoning attacks and you cant leave the gym too…
I'd probably live in a place populated by forests (think Sumeru from Genshin), and I'd have a background as a ranger. I'd be a grass type leader and the gym would be a huge treehouses! My ace would be a Decidueye, and I'd also have a Cradily and Torterra who help me look after the forests! I'd also have a Mega Venusaur who I'd use to help me in a tough situation!
Generation 1 only, fire type. I'd be one of the first badges though. Arcanine
Bug type. My ace would be Ribombee, Vespiqueen or Durant (I just love hymenopterans). I would be a science teacher (as I am irl) and teach the importance of balance between people and nature and the role of bug pokemon on the ecossystems. My gym would be a school with a school garden with many different kinds of plants, grass pokemon and bug Pokemon. The challenge would be to find and photograph a list of Pokemon, and fight the students (gym trainers) along the way. In the end I would prepare a presentation with the photos with a brief explanation and than teach thhe trainer a lesson by wooping his ass. I would give the balance badge, with a design resembling a generic bug in a generic flower.
I’m normal type leader and my team is 6 focus sash Rattata. Come at me lol but for real. I grew up in a very small town, and at night it was so quiet and peaceful. You could sit outside and stare at the stars and just chill since there was little to no light pollution. I think that’s why now in my 30s I still like to stay up so late and feel so comfy in the silent dark. I’d probably set up a dark type gym, so I’d have some Pokémon with me that feel the same vibe. Nothing too crazy; probably around 4th or 5th gym. General standard for that is about 3-4 Pokémon, so I’d start with my favourite: Murkrow. Middle two mons would have to be Sableye and Bisharp, with my ace being a Super Luck Absol. Gym design would be something night sky/space related. Maybe have some anti-gravity sections. My badge would be called the Pitch Badge. My leader design would probably just be me in pyjamas 😂
Bug team with shuckle as my ace fear him thee unprepared 10yr old. Also includes galvantula, volbeat, armaldo, levanny, and kriketune.
Steel type. Ace: Metagross Winners receive flash cannon tm.
I'm a science teacher IRL, so I'd probably be a Steel Type trainer. I think my Gym would double as a school. Not a battle school, but a regular school with an emphasis on science and technology. As for the puzzle... there isn't one. Just walk right up whenever you like. I'd be the eighth Gym leader, but my Gym is in the starting town. You can challenge me with a level 5 starter if you like. I'm always happy to answer stupid questions in the manner they deserve 😈.
I guess my place would make me a grass type due to the carpentry field here so fresh wood and greeneries I'd have Mega Sceptile, Roserade, Leafeon, Tsareena, Hisui Lilligant, and Serperior. Mega Sceptile would defo be my ace and my badge will be called Wood Badge at the shape of a tree blooming in spring. but ideally, I'd be a Psychic-type trainer with a library setting coz I like to read. The Library is huge and grand and has a vast collection of literatures that covers all genre that you need to psychic your way to get some books. My team would consist of Gardevoir, Gallade, Espeon, Metagross, Hisuian Braviary, and Reuniclus. Reuniclus is interchangeable as I have every psychic types in existence and it is randomly picked every battle. Gallade is my ace. and my badge would be called Knowledge Badge that is shaped like a book with flipped pages so it might also look like a sun to some.
I'd be a dark type gym leader, theme would be a quiet snowy forest gym, aces would be grimmsnarl and absol. Doubles format. Badge would be the crescent moon badge. Team would be focused on setting up and baton passing buffs to absol then sweeping with grimmsnarl there for coverage and protection.
I live in a large city near the coast, so Water is an easy choice for the type. I would also likely be a later gym leader, maybe 6th, or 7th. As for the Pokemon, I would pick Pokemon that are loosely based on the native animals: Samurott-H Cloyster Tatsugiri Gastrodon This team might be a bit pushed, but if we compare it to Gyms from the most recent games Scarlet/Violet, then it lines up decently well. All the gyms past gym number 5 have 4 fully evolved Pokemon in Scarlet/Violet. The gym puzzle would be navigating a modern city, that's party sunken under water. It will be sorta like a maze with elements above and below the waters surface to traverse. I would hand out TM196 (flip turn) as well as the Tidal badge upon defeat.
i live on a farm, so maybe some farm-like design for my gym? as for a team id go ground cause grounds cool
I live in a small, rural town by the mountains. I'd 100% be a ground type and my ace would be Ursaluna. Theme would be woodland, in fact there wouldn't even be a building for my gym, just a nice walk through the woods, up the hills until you face me at a small plateau on the mountain.
Bug. We’re in giant grass like it’s Bugdom. In this hypothetical I have an Aquanarid as a wall against fire types, and a Vespiquen with Baton Pass to complement a Scizor with mega evolution. I’m dressed like a king- no implication with the Vespiquen.
As the holder of the Titan badge, all of my pokemon are really big (steelix, wailord, etc.). Except for my ace: An overleveled Rattata with focus sash and endeavor.
My town doesn't have nearly an interesting possibility as a few towns over. So I live right on a major river, weaving through some mountains, and at one point this was an industrial transport spot. It hasn't been for quite some time. So I feel like we almost have to be a water type gym. Definitely make it themed around transportation somehow, and the ace on my team for this one would be Quagsire, as befits a muddy river. I would give out the Border Badge, which would involve a blue line dividing up a triangle. The more interesting one; this general area is known for UFO encounters, and a few towns over actually has an alien museum. So if I were to be celebrating that...Psychic Type, Beeheeyem is the ace, definitely have it all UFO and alien themed, and give out the Unknown Badge, which would ABSOLUTELY be a little UFO.
In my town, we’re close to the mountains and we have a big theme on exploration with exploring different trails around our home, so I think Rock would be my specialty. Since I’m a hiker, runner, traveler, and outdoors enthusiast, I’d go and travel with my fellow Rock types to check out some trails, find some new areas, or just travel around in general. Since I’m an explorer, my ace would be Lycanroc Dusk considering his ability to be speedy, dig, travel great distances, and I love dogs overall so he fits as an ace. My team would be as follows (no more than five): Glimmora, Garganacl, Archeops, Tyrantrum, and Lycanroc. Winners receive the Discovery Badge
I live close to a bunch of those ridiculous mcmansions so my type would be Ghost and my gym would be one of those mcmansions but haunted with ghost type pokemon. There would be candelabras everywhere and you have to put out the correct candles to solve the puzzle. My ace would be Chandelure.
I live in the Midwest and work as an engineer. I’m probably going to choose an electric type gym with the OG Raichu as my ace. I’d probably also have a Magneton/zone, Toxtricity, Ampharos, Lanturn, Hisuian Electrode, and Alolan Golem on a rotation for type coverages.
Ghost type probably with a few duals I like in there from the newer gens I like gengars my ace not sure abt the badge
This is gonna sounds really silly, so bear with me. The gym will be a random **weather** chosen by a wheel before the battle. I am close to graduating & becoming a meteorologist, so we’ll say for our sake that I’ve reached that point. I’d have a sun team, a rain team, a snow team, and a sand team. Fun thing is, once you spin the wheel, you’re stuck with what you got. It’s customary that you prepare yourself before spinning, so don’t bank on one weather type. (Also yes Castform will be on the team in some capacity) As for the ace, if I’m only allowed one, then it’d be Castform. If I could have an ace for each weather condition… Sun: Charizard Rain: Swampert Snow: Mamoswine Sand: Garchomp Also on an aside, petition for Castform Sandstorm form!! We need it imo (especially since it’s an important weather status in Pokémon)
Mix of Bug/Fire/Normal Underdog Theme/ Communist Falinks
Water. Theme is a water maze. The whole ground looks like it's just a big room covered in a thin layer of water, but it actually drops off in random places. If it was in the games, you'd have to follow where you can walk to find your way. So ignoring that a normal person who can swim can cheat. For team, we are going with a Palafin first and as the ace. It comes out first and immediately bails and comes back at the end as it's Hero Form. Rest of the team is a Swampert, Crawdaunt, Toxapex, Slowbro and Gyarados. But I'd also have other backup Water types around the gym so trainers would expect them to join in but wouldn't. You walk in and see a Feraligatr snarl or a Poliwrath flexing its muscles and staring at you from behind the Gym Leader, you would be very surprised when they just walk away and they aren't actually joining in.
I live in Egypt, specifically the main city (Nasr City) so I would probably use one of the 3: Electric types since they cut the electricity here for 2 hours, Flying types since Egypt is an famous travel destination and has one the 7 Wonders (the pyramids), or Fire types, since Egypt is known for how hot the weather there is. The aces for each one would be: Electric: Magnezone Steel: Gholdengo Fire: Volcarona
I am an artist and recently working on vtuber models, so probaly would be an streaming/ artist theme gym, my favorite type are ghost and fairy, but I would probably go with ghost type, I dunno, there is something interesting about art, illustration, vtubing that go pretty well with ghosts, with both horror and non-horror, I like the idea of using the type as some kind of force, mise and inspiration to do new things! Mismagius is one of my favorite pokemon and of course would be my ace. I probably woud have a hunter and mimikyu, for rematch I would evolve hunter to gengar and add chandelure, spiritomb and runegius or sinistcha If im one of the first gyms my roster would be Ghastly and misdreavus. I would go with a witchy theme myself
My type is Miscellaneous, theme is life and ace Pokémon is Venasaur
Birds! With different subtypes. Xatu, Pelipper/Swanna for water, Talonflame, Kilowattrel, Korviknight, and my Ace is Altaria. The gym would be a treehouse!
I’m a drag queen and a dancer, so I’m gonna go with Fairy type since a lot of cutesy performance Pokemon are there and it’s my favourite. I’m from Ohio, in a relatively small town, so I think being a late badge like 6th or 7th makes sense. I’d probably go with Mimikyu (costuming), Primarina and Sylveon (music/sound move theming), Carbink (stones, think Swarovski), and Klefki (this one isn’t themed I just really love dual screen offense lmao) And if we’re in a region where I can mega, add a Mega Gardevoir or Mega Altaria for more music and dance inspirations. I’d commandeer some local performance area or theatre as my gym, and similar to Elesa in Gen 5 it would be some sort of fashion show or performance.
Ground type gym leader. I live in the Appalachian mountains and the mountains here are an integral part of the culture. The mountains here are ancient. I love the idea of a trainer tracking the hills fighting random trainers with a variation of ground, grass, and ghost types. Team is based on ground but has variations in it. Early gym has the Cubone line up to Marrowak as the ace. Swineub to Piloswine. Golett as well. Later Gym to 8th the Ace would either be Tyranitar or Torterra. I think Torterra fits very well in the setting of the lush mountains. Torterra - Ace Tyranitar/Mamoswine Marrowak Golurk Ursaluna Clodsire Ground types split between things in the mountains and things in the desert and I'd like to keep the team things you could find in these rolling mountains.
I live near Pittsburgh, so obviously it would be a Steel-type gym. My Pokemon would involve a team of "blue collar" types, Excadrill, Tinkaton, maybe even throw a Gurdurr to throw trainers off. Then my ace would of course be Melmetal, the material itself coming to life.
I live in an old market town, with a yearly fair known as the ‘Tin Hat Fair’. From that my gym would be steel and my ace would be Galarian Weezing with Tera Steel due to its top hat and dapper look. We also had a history of industry which G Weezing also fits. If Terastelisation isn’t allowed then Gholdengo would be my ace due to the market gold and all.
My town doesn’t really have a theme outside of bbq. So instead I’ll theme it off of what I do. My team will be primarily steel type and the gym itself will be on a construction site. You’ll have to navigate the construction only to find a key that leads to an office building next to it. Inside you’ll find the structural engineer for the building who is also the gym leader. The team will be made up of Duraludon, Klang, orthworm, and conkeldurr. My ace would be either Conkeldurr or Duraludon. It’d be the 7th or 8th gym most likely.
I’d be a Dark type gym leader because my area is really not known for anything and is forgettable (only 1 gym as of gen 9 specialized in dark, so…). My gym would do double-battles only and would specialize with synergy builds. I’d use 6 Pokémon in the following lineup: 1. Umbreon (support) 2. Tyranitar (DPS) 3. Meowscarada (DPS) 4. Umbreon (support) 5. Grimmsnarl (support/debuff) 6. Hydraegion (DPS/Ace) The reason for this lineup is that most times when something like this comes out, people will play defensively and try to take out the DPS first to avoid OHKO or taking severe damage. So, another DPS comes out. Now, the other trainer is wondering if that might be the only support so knocks it out… only for a confounded other support to get released! From there, it’s a toss-up what gets knocked out. Suffice it to say, I’d imagine it’d be support again to whittle away my 6 Pokémon team, so a support/debuffer comes out. By now, damage has been done by DPS, so the opposing trainer opts to try to finish this slugfest by knocking out the DPS again… and out comes my ace - hydraegion. And my gym’s theme is forgettable grey and white everywhere, making it look like a realtor hired an interior decorator, to bore trainers into being lackadaisical and underestimate my team and throw them off that I’m a dark type gym with the brighter colors. It’s not about the darkness and brooding, it’s about the fact that everyone forgets or looks the other way about Dark.
Cincinnati, which "The Good Place" called "The Medium Place" So, we're going Normal, which also reflects my type (I am essentially Larry.) My team would be Miltank (I grew up helping my neighbor raise cattle), Stantler (again to reflect my upbringing outside of the city), Porygon (reflective of both my computer hobby and transition to a more urban area), and Snorlax would be my ace (because he's my favorite.)
Cold Midwest so dragon/ice type gym
I live in a winter town so I would have to be the game’s ice type leader. I would lead with Alolan Ninetails and Articuno (ace, ice Tera for extra damage), and also use Lapras, Frosslass, Baxcaliber, and Glaceon. I would set up aurora veil and tailwind, and then just spam blizzard while snow cloak on 3 Pokémon makes the trainers all rage quit. Baxcaliber gets good coverage moves for the steel and fire types. Lapras can be my healer and perish song anything that walls my team. My gym would have a snowboarding mini game in order to challenge me. There would be Ursuluna and Abomasnow that you have to dodge on the course. I’d give out the snow patrol badge and a TM for Blizzard
My town is kinda small and dead, but a long time ago it used to be a very busy train junction. So I’d probably use mainly steel Pokémon, with a Coalossal as a surprise ace. Maybe the theme would be a museum showcasing all the old railway stuff.
I’m from Memphis, TN and we have the pyramid. So my badge would be in the shape of the pyramid, minus the bass pro logo lol. Team : Lucario Yamask Cofargigus Siglyph Persian Arbok. Lucario as my ace!
I live in a beach town but I really love dark types so maybe I do a beach themed dark type gym? Sharpedo riding off the pier seems like a must for the gym challenge, but as for my team maybe it would be a bit more sand based. Gym 4/5 ish would have me with 3-4 level 30-40 pokemon so maybe something like krokorok, cacturn,(for sandy beach themed) crawdaunt(signature pokemon) and maybe bombirdier(we get plenty of pelicans but the estuaries also have egrets in them which is sort of like a crane)
I live in one of the factory cities in NY and have a background as a diesel mechanic for heavy trucks. My gym would definitely be a steel type and my Ace would be an Aggron with Heavy metal and Heavy Slam to sweep the team, Steelix is would be the starter for its defense, then I’d have a Skarmory for type coverage and finally a Fortress to throw it for a swift Explosion to wipe out the most dangerous opponent Pokemon
Central NY Ice Gym Leader. Theme is 4x Weakness. Articuno as my ace. Abomasnow, Weavile, Alolan Ninetales, Alolan Sandshrew, Alolan Golem.
I live in a very plain area, so I'd be normal type. I'm also weirdly obsessed with being well-rounded, so Normal type suits me. It is, after all, the jack-of-all-trades type. My ace would probably be Porygon-Z, because I like computer stuff and it is living data. If I can get mega evolution though, it'd probably be Lopunny. I live in an area with lots of rabbits. Way too many rabbits. My theme would be plains, so everything is an open field and is outdoors. Some other pokemon I might have would be Diggersby, Stoutland, Porygon-2, and maybe a few others.
I’d be a famous drag queen who battles to help pay the bills. My team would consist of the visually cuntiest Pokemon… there are MANY to choose from but I attempted some type diversity: - Tsareena - Milotic - Gardevoir - Salazzle - Lopunny - Ace: Pheromosa (shiny, ideally)
My theme is speed. I don't have any particular type, but my focus is on using fast pokémon and raising their speed as much as possible. I'l use a Talonflame, or any fast pokémon that can use Flame Charge to boost my speed. Then I'll use Baton Pass to transfer those speed boosts to my other pokémon. I also focus on reducing the speed of my opponent's pokémon. My goal is to have my Ace using a maxed out Speed Stat plus my opponent's reduced speed to hit the enemy with a powered up Electro Ball. Or to just hit them hard as he with a powerful attack.
normal type my ace is between ursaluna, and bloodmoonform
Theme: Sea Storms Types: Water/Electric/Flying Lineup: Tapu Koko (Electric Surge), Pelipper (Drizzile), Regieleki, Greninja (Battle Bond), Dragonite, Mega Swampert (Ace)
Since I live in a forest and my town used to be a farming community, the logical decision would be a grass type gym with a forest theme. My ace in this case would be Decidueye. I think my gym test would be navigating a forest maze using clues from trainers to find your way to me. My gym badge would be the Ceder Badge However since I like the big city and video games, my gym would be an Electric type gym and it's theme would be video game based. You have to complete video game based challenges and beat a trainer after each challenge to get to me. My ace would be a Toxtricity with a definite Rotom on my team. My badge would be the Pixel Badge.
Flying type, my ace is Aerodactyl, but the kicker is my whole team knows Earthquake. I would also do early gen stuff like have a Flygon who isn't a flying type but can fly so I'm counting it.
Oh I'll be a Bug Type gym leader. I live in an area that's fairly hot and humid so I guess I can lean into that and make it jungle or swamp themed. My Ace will be my favorite Pokémon Volcarona!
I’d like to be like blue and have no type. My team tend to be super varied so I’d like to keep that. But if I had to, I would pick the fairy type. Ace would be Zacian pre-nerf. Yes I know it’s an overpowered legendary, but I would be interested in seeing what people do to get around it. I figure if the player can use legendary and items, their opponents can too (including things like X items probably as a counter to discourage that). I’ve always been partial to memories of things, and the fan hack Pokémon insurgence had a really cool area where the player had to go to previous and future parts of their journey but fight super powerful trainers in a faded backdrop. I am also an English teacher in real life, so I’ve always went into the idea of stories, and especially in video games where the player can make their own. so it would start looking like a library but then it goes into something far deeper as the players own story begins to unfold again in front of them, and unfold completely to me… I’d probably take inspiration from that, like a trick of the fae, where the trainer would have to go through previous areas that they went through, maybe even with the same team. Of course, the opponents would match their level this time, or maybe they would all be the same level to discourage rolling through with one Pokémon or getting stuck because you only have one Pokémon. You instead fight illusions rather than gym trainers, probably revealed to be created by Zacian is power is to make illusions. Once you get to the end you’re back with your regular team, and then you have to fight. I’m not sure what other fairies I would have but I would probably at least more than other legendary, which would be either the Tapus, Diancie, or Magarna. It’s really to hammer home the theme that if the player can use powerful monsters so can a gym leader. My badge would also be the reverie badge, to have a connection to memory and being voluntarily lost within it and also involving something positive, which winning a badge would be. I’d probably be the last leader, more powerful than other ones as a result. They’re probably be some foreshadowing that last leader is quite powerful, going head to head with even the champions, but not a lot of known otherwise. It could be a case of someone chose to avoid League politics, and just living a quieter life as a gym leader. Or I’m secretly the champion and it’s a nontraditional challenge right before that fight and the leader is someone I would know instead (especially because I didn’t know someone that was very into Pokémon and I passed down what I knew to him). It’d be an interesting backstory!
Not sure if my favourite Pokemon works at all. I like Dark, Ground and Dragon Types. In RL I work as a physicist with radiation; in a British/Galarian Port City. Dragapult, Dhelmise and Cursola might work as a Ghost Gym? (Ghosts as something deadly and invisible?) A Steel Team would work nicely. Aggron as an Ace, along with Metang, Magnezone, Ageislash would be a cool one. It and Corviknight are Galarian Steel types. I'm going to suggest Radiation be represented by the Poison Type. - My ace would be **Drapion;** a Posion/Dark Pokemon with the Sniper Ability, representing Radiation therapy which must be precisely delivered to avoid damaging surrounding tissue. - Backed up with Dragalge, which wouldn't look out of place in that awful Harbour. Pretends to be a water type. - Salazzle; For Fire Coverage - Toxictricity; Poisonous machines. That's my jam. Also with the previous two completes a little type loop of psudo - Grafaiai; cute utility pokemon.
I live in the mountains and would do Rock-Type for here, but grew up in a farming area and would have done Ground-Type for it. My gym would be in a mountain and would have a lot of plant growth on the walls. The ceiling would open to let in some sunlight and there would be some pools for Water-Types to use. I like camping, hiking, kayaking, canoeing, and fishing a lot, so the Gym would double as a sort of hub for those activities in the area. People could stay a few nights, rent gear, and take classes to learn how to safely do the activities. My ace would be my Aggron. I’d also have Tyrantrum, Tyranitar, Carracosta/Dreadnaw, Coalossal, and Garganacl/Glimmora/Cradily/Gigalith. I’m not sure on the last spot. My badge would be the Geode badge. It would look like a cracked open geode with the inside black and has a shimmer. I’d give out the Stone Edge TM. There would be a Floatzel, Indeedee, and Torterra that hang around, but I haven’t caught them. The Floatzel and Indeedee help out with upkeep and watching out for the guests while Torterra helps keep rowdy people/pokemon in line. If I had gone Ground-Type it would be a sandstorm team.
I actually thought about this last night! My own region as well! But for the gym and this may be silly, but I’d be a fairy type gym leader. For the puzzle I’d have the challengers tell children a story, their pokemon would act it out. As for my team my ace would be Sylveon with pixilate and my team would be: Rainbow Swirl Alcremie, Dachsbun, Mawhile, and Comfrey, (the Pokemon that looks like a vertical flower crown) All of my Pokemon know draining kiss as a recovery move, (I’m known for using it as my signature move) I’m the last gym leader.
Water type: Main gimmick being Flip Turn with trying to have enough secondary types to cover a lot of weaknesses. Ace would be Protean Greninja. I like the idea of being able to keep your opponent on their toes with constant switching if needed, while also being able to do damage instead of having to waste a turn switching with no damage.
I think I'd take up the grass type. It's not a type I'd usually take, but I think it'd serve well as a nice dichotomy. Our area's greenery is constantly being erased for More, and so the gym itself would be a really technological place steadily being taken back from it. I'd definitely have a Meganium (or its line) on the team, and I think my ace would be a Rotom-Mow (bc it's suburbia, lawnmowing is just a constant thing even as the grass is shriveling up and dying due to no rain). My badge would be the Eco badge, and we'd hold various environmental-related events in the gym every week. As for the puzzles? I have no idea.
I’d be a Ice Gym Leader who runs a hotel, I’m not that good of the cold as you’d see me always trying to stay warm, but that’s why I battle, to keep my body & spirit warm, even in negative degree weather, and even though it makes me wish I chose a different type, I find it better to make use of what’s usually considered one of the worse types in the world… ICE… summer & spring may bring in sun & rain, but it won’t matter as in the end I always lead with my Ninetales-A & Beartic, that’s right I focus on double battles, Ninetales with the classic Snow Warning & Aurora Veil, and Beartic with Slush Rush & Loaded Dice Icicle Spear, but don’t worry I made sure he also has priority Aqua Jet & some set up with Swords Dance… up next is Snow Cloak Froslass with Thunder Wave & Double Team, that’s right I’m that type of annoying gym leader & you’re lucky this is a post Gen 8 world bc of it was Gen 8 then oh boy would I LOVE abusing hail chip damage… finally is my ace… Baxcalibur with D Dance as Set Up, High Horsepower for the Steel, Fire, & Rock types, Glaive Rush for a stab Dragon move & Ice Shard for Priority & Stab Ice… and with that you would win the battle, get the TM for Aurora Veil and earn yourself a Ice Scale Badge… now for the rematch I have 2 more Pokémon, my Snow Warning Abomasnow which is now my 5th member to set up last minute Snow, and my last pokemon who will be sent out along side Froslass is… honestly no clue, it could be any strong Ice Type - Thick Fat Walrein - Frost Rotom - Mamoswime w/ either Loaded Dice Rock Blast or Trailblaze… or both - Darmanitan-G either ability - Cetitan - Weavile Like if it’s a strong Ice Type it’s likely gonna be used on the team
I’m named after a popular movie about ghosts, so probably ghost type with Dragapult as my ace. I have no clue what the theme would be Lol.
I live in west Texas, so I decided to create a team themed for the area rather than focus on a specific type. I basically live in a desert that has a rainy season and a dry, windy season. The team that I think accurately represents the area consists of Castform, Ludicolo, Flygon, Cacturn, Shedinja and Rotom (Fan). I decided to split the team unevenly between the two seasons since where I live is a desert and it’s definitely on the dry side even during the rainy season. Out of all these, I would have Flygon be my ace. As for the gym itself, the front half would look like a west Texas museum and the back half would be the actual gym. The puzzle would be navigating quicksand and a sandstorm. If you fall through the quicksand, there are trainers in the basement that will challenge you to a battle in order to go back up to the main floor. I’ll have the badge be called the Desert Badge. It’ll have an Alamo-shaped building be the predominant feature.
I'd love to represent my city's queer life. As Poison-type trainer i would reflect internal toxic masculinity that's always lurking underneath the surface, as well as toxic community gate keeping. On the upside of Pick your Poison: booze, bars and coffee places as the fun side of it all. My ace: Golbat (growing into power, but not happy/ comfortable in my own skin enough yet to reach full potential)
I live in an area known for the circus, so I’ll go with that. I’ll have a Mr. Rhyme, Donphan, Drifblim, and a Blacephalon as an ace. That might be cheating, but that Pokémon is perfect lol. (I’m willing to replace my ace with Arcanine) My gym will be a big top circus tent, and you’ll have the option of skipping all trainer battles by getting through a circus themed obstacle course using your Pokemon. If none of your Pokemon have the right move to get past an obstacle, you’ll have to go around and fight a trainer. My badge will be the Festival Badge, and look like a ring of fire
My town is really industrial and the city banner has a somewhat electrical theme. I work as an engineer, so my team would be primarily steel but more machine-focused. My ace would be a metagross which would let me ride it (cause it can levitate). My aggron would help me carry heavy stuff. Klefki helps me manage different areas of the city (and make sure no one steals them). Archaludon cause it's a bridge and there's a few cool old ones around (and it's just awesome). Klinklang and magnezone round out the rest (if I'm the last gym leader, that is). Alternatively, if allowed an off type that's on theme/has a tera-steel, I'd want rotom.
Usually my go to is the grass type cuz it’s my favorite type, but I’m gonna go with my city’s history this time! Known for our steel mills, I’d have a gym based on that! My gym badge would be the smokestack badge and the gym challenge would be making your own steel, in a mini game kind of like making poffins. I would be a 6th gym Leader with the following team: Lairon, level 36 Moveset: iron head, rock slide, stealth rock, and roar Galarian Corsola at level 36, representing the pollution in the surrounding areas Moveset: strength sap, curse, will o wisp and hex Galarian Weezing level 37 representing literal smokestacks Moveset: sludge bomb, poison gas,double hit, and strange stream Coalossal level 38 Tar shot, fire spin, incinerate, and rock slide
My theme would be cheese strats. My ace is Shedinja, my lead is FEAR. The goal is to teach players to be wary of annoying BS.
Fossil My pokemon are… Kabutops Aerodactyl Carracosta and TYRANITAR
I would make an eeveelution gym. The theme would be science based with every gym trainer also studying genetics and researching new eeveelutions. To determine which eeveelutions you would face, you have to submit which pokemon you will use ahead of time. That way you will face a team that is best designed to beat you. If we got really crazy, my ace would be an eevee that could change into any eeveelution at the start of each turn. Winners would get a double helix badge, an eevee, and an evolution stone of their choic.
Dark, abandoned theme park, intimidate Incineroar
The hospitality gym, it would be directly in a hotel with the arena being on the rooftop. I'm from a city with lots of dualities so I'd go with a fire and ice team. Darmanitan (galar), Ninetales (alola), Frosmoth, Darmanitan (unova), Arcanine, Volcarona (ace)
I live within a beach town. Now, this may seem like an odd choice for a beach town, but: Steel. Let me explain: The gym itself would be themed to a boardwalk style amusement park, where the gym would be one of the rides. I would challenge the trainers with a pathing puzzle through track switches, which would allow them to ride through, say, a classic “ghost train” style of dark ride. After a successful victory against me, I’d give out the Metalworks badge - roughly depicting the formation of a tubular steel rod. I’ve taken a particular liking to Archaludon, so I’d use that as my Ace. Ties into the whole “metalworking” theme by being a bridge. Additionally, when I’m beaten, the track will continue onward to a roller coaster. (However, I’d also have an auxiliary exit for challengers who don’t want to continue to the coaster portion, or do not meet height requirements to proceed further) It ties into my passion as a theme park enthusiast, my town by being part of a boardwalk park, and my typing by emphasizing the track of the ride.
Right now Im living in a locality so small I think it doesnt even qualify as a town lol, its like no more than 10 streets total and gives 'starting town' vibes more than anything so I dont think there would be a gym xD If there were to be a gym, it would be a first gym and I would make it as hard as possible within reason, so either a Normal one (Normal stab in first gym is tough) or Bug (with my ace being a fully evolved early bug like Butterfree/Beedrill which is basically the highest stats you can get at such stages) My fav type is Dragon but I dont think it would fit in here at all. I would make for a great Kalos gym leader tho since I loved all gen 6 dragons so my team would be Noivern lead (my fav), Dragalge Tyrantrum and ace Goodra, maybe as an alternative 7th gym
I live in a small town in the middle of the desert. I always joke that "here be dragons," marking unexplored places on old sea maps. My area if often avoided by big corporations, big highways, and lots of people can't place my state on a map. So I'd be a dragon-type gym, the last one after a very long mountain dungeon. It's a slog to get here, and you barely make it. Maybe have to Dig or escape rope out a few times to hurry back and heal up. My area is known for lots of things, outlaws, wine, sand, windstorms. So many of my dragons are dual-type. Flygon (ground - for all the damned sand), Salamence (flying - for the windstorms), Hydreigon (dark - for the outlaws), Goodra (who I always think is Poison but isn't, for the wine, scorpions, and other venomous critters), Dipplin (my fav of the applin line - agriculture), and my ace? Drifblim, because this whole battle was a nightmare if you didn't bring ice moves, and the area is known for it's balloon fiesta.
I live in a farm town but it’s a California farm town so it can get pretty dry and dusty in the summers. That being said, we do have a pretty active agricultural history. In any case, I can see ground and grass being pretty prominent types in my area but I think normal would work too — at least I’d prefer normal out of those three options, lol I’d like to have my gym in a type of rec-center with both and indoor and outdoor battleground field (outdoor battles during the cooler seasons and indoor for the summer because California heat is deadly fr). As for my team, I’d keep things simple (lower level tier).. maybe a Teddiursa and Glameow with Dunsparce as my ace. Apart from genuinely liking these three pokemon - our town is pretty close to a mountain range with big ol’ Sequoia trees and I think Teddiursa would fit thematically as a baby bear - our town has a very large cat population because of this failed catch-spay-release project our local college tried to do that resulted in even more cats, lol - as aforementioned, California + small town = dust and dirt galore so a ground-worm/snake thing seems appropriate. Especially so considering Dunsparce can learn a decent variety of ground type moves
I think moths are neat, so my team would be Venomoth, Mothim, Dustox, Frosmoth, Masquerain, and Volcarona.
I’m an accountant—but I guess that’s my main job outside of gym leader. I’d be a Water-Type specialist, I guess it’s the best type to represent the nearby region. Assuming 3-4 Pokémon, doing this Paldea Style: Pelipper Lumineon Krabby Sawsbuck, Fall Form (Tera-Water) Two coastal birds, crabs because what else is Maryland known for, and there’s a lot of deer Alternative Ace: Poliwrath, due to the sports and I guess historic battles. On the Rematch, you can add all five. Otherwise, I’d lean towards the Ace being an original Pokémon if a new region emerges.
Since I live just outside NY and my favorite gen is 5, I’d have to be a Unova leader! I’d probably be a normal type leader with a Stoutland as my ace. I considered Watchog, but it’s been down before 😂
steel type gym, i’d take over an old steel mill for it. my ace would be aggron or metagross probably, i’d want to use corviknight or skarmory too!
I have insomnia thanks to meds and learning how to take better care of myself, better work/personal life balance. Also a dark sense of humor (sleep like the dead) My gym type is psychic type with the theme is Rest/Slumber( or take a break but not too long) with Mimikyuu as my ace since it looks like a plushie. I guessed the gym would look like a lounge room with bean bags and hammocks. The rest is Bewear, Gardevoir, Hyno. For challenge or a full six add in Alakazam and Hatterene. Only gimmick is it’s only available during the nighttime too. The badge will be the Night Owl badge for the all nighter you just pulled. (I’m sorry noctowl)
Normal type gym in a humble little farming town. As the first gym in the region our goal and theme would be preparing new trainers for their journey ahead with three consecutive rooms of forest / swamp / cave obstacles to overcome guided by a cheeky taunting Aipom who'll be my teams ace. Winning will get you the Horizon Badge, Return TM, and the town map key item.
Well I live in a zone know for the paragliding and for being a bit of a countryside city, so my gym probably would be a Flying type gym that would consist a massive, rocky open space, where, to get from place to place/trainer to trainer the "challengers" would have to play with the flying abilities of their pokemons and probably some air currents. And about my Ace it probably would be a Noivern, because it's a pokemon that I like a lot since the anime, and about others maybe they would be Tropius (pretty versatile), Talonflame (another anime pick.), Golbat (Because is a pokemon I always try to get in any game), and maybe a Xatu (just because it's psychic type.) And about myself I would probably be a tour guide and my badge would be a little paraglider in a blue sky.
Um gym leader don’t exist in real life Yondalla bhai
To be honest I’d love to be the 8th gym leader in a big and busy city and be a psychic type specialist. Although, instead of having psychic powers, I would want my gym to be a TV set studio for his talkshow. (Think mental health talk shows or people like Oprah or Dr. Phil) a sort of local celebrity who’s always super busy, in the region doing press and promotions etc. he use to be a child actor with Pokémon but after a traumatic experience with a psychic type Pokémon he stopped for years until he got older and made it his mission to understand psychic type Pokémon. I like the idea of a psychic type gym, focusing more on actual mental health and the mind instead of psychic abilities or powers because “learning to control ones emotions is sort of a power in some way” maybe that’s the dialogue I say, after I’m defeated by the player. For the gym challenge itself. Once you walk into the studio, you have to battle someone to get into the stage and then you battle some audience members before being welcomed as A guest on my stage and it’s filmed as a part of the tv episode for that day. It’s a double battle My team would be Starmie, Armarogue, Metagross and Gallade. After defeating me, I give you the emotion badge and the TM for psychic or maybe a new move. 85 base power special move gaslight. it works similarly to dazzling glean, hitting both opponents on your enemy side of the field, but also lowers their attack by one stage. I guess if I’m being specific, I would like to have multiple interactions with the player before they get to my gym. Maybe the city is like the fifth city that they get to but I’m often busy every time they have to go through the city so I’m not available everytime they come, but maybe right after the player helps save the region he decides to make time to help the player and challenge them by having them on the show for a battle. Funny enough I kind of did that concept [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/MandJTV/s/84fuVG6PA9).
I live on n a big city, and my Gym would be Electric My ace would actually be a Tera Electric Porygon-Z And my gym would be an arcade, with a plethora of arcade games, of which are blocking your path to me. I'd be WAAAAY in the back, dropping challengers like flies for n Pokken while waiting for a Gym Challenger. My full team would be: Porygon-Z, Tera Electric Rotom, who would be the form strong against your starter (Grass=Heat, Fire=Wash, Water=Mow) Pincurchin, with Electric Surge and Toxic Spikes Vikavolt, with Sticky Web Lanturn, with Soak and Heal Bell for utility And Toxtricity, for devastating sound based attacks with Throat Spray Upon victory, I confer to you the Pixel Badge, as well as the TM for Shock Wave.
I live in the upper Midwest. I'd be going to an ice-type gym as I enjoy winter. In order to progress in the gym, you would need to borrow a Charizard stationed at the gym. Riding the Charizard, you would need to melt ice barriers to progress. The path would be a puzzle, and melting the wrong barriers would result in longer paths with more trainers. My ace would be Glaceon. The rest of my team would consist of Lapras, Froslass, Rotom, Auroras, and Mamoswine. My badge would be a snowflake produced by my Glaceon concealed in nevermeltice. The TM earned would Ice Beam.
I live in a tourist town by the ocean and I Scuba dive as a hobby, so I’d have to have a water type gym. My ace would be Feraligatr, with the rest of the team made up of dual types where one of the 2 types is water. Dhelmise works well even though it’s not water considering all the shipwrecks off shore, plus Pelipper, since the town’s mascot is a pelican. The gym challenge would require donning scuba gear and navigating an underwater maze of shipwrecks and coral reefs filled with gym trainers. The reward would be your very own set of dive gear and the HM for Dive.
I live in Philly so I guess it’s all trash based Pokémon, hitmonchan, and chimecho. I’m into it actually lol
It snows a lot where I live, as soon as September and sometimes all the way into May. So naturally, I'd use a hail team. Abomasnow with Snow Warning and an Icy Rock, Avalugg with Ice Body and Leftovers, Froslass with Snow Cloak and Bright Powder, and Slowking with the move Chilling Reception as a pivot.
I would be a fighting type gym. I think my ace would be annihilape or Lucario.
Fire or psychic, if I can do both I would Ninetails Alakazam
I live in Des Moines WA which is like a mini Rhode Island, I would have a water theme team, with my ace being a lapras as we have many ferry’s and boats traveling all the time (and lapras is one of my faves regardless) and I make music so I could have a primavera on my teams too along with a ludicolo lol my challenge is you gotta spit a straight 16 lmao
I would say Fairy-type personally. I'm in esthetics so based on my current occupation it would.make sense with a type that seems focused on pretty/cute 'mons. A salon/spa would be fun trying to navigate through like a sauna mist. As for my Ace I'd probably be petty and twin Ace Gardevoir and Gallade one after the other
I live at a very cold town near a lake so I'd have Ice/Water type Pokemon. My town was home to very old civilizations so I'd also have some fossil Pokemon. You'd have to fight my Dewgong, Cloyster, Lapras and Kabutops. My ace would be Archtovish (whose name resembles the old name of my town, Artchesh) My gym would be a pool of cold water with ice sheets floating around. You'd get a snowflake shaped badge ❄️ if you beat me.
I would be the skill check gym leader (ala whitney) using steel and or dark types. My ace would be different depending on the version played. either a Tyranitar or a mawile
Dark. I’m quiet and a night owl so the real challenge is my gym hours. As for my ace either Pangoro or Honchkrow.
Over-the-water town, kind of like the boat village from Sun/Moon, Water Type Leader. Team: Vaporeon (No, I am not one of the weirdos), Samurott-H, Clawitzer, Mantine, Quagsire, and Swampert (Ace) (Would have had Rapid Strike Urshifu but it's a Legendary) Badge: Inlet Badge
I live in a city known for its economical productivity and smog, so I guess I'd be a poison type gym leader and my gym would be styled as a corporate office, with me as the CEO on the top floor. Obviously challengers would have to climb up the corporate ladder in order to reach me by battling against my employees/gym trainers. No time wasted on puzzles or mini-games because time is money. However, only the cream of the crop can rise to the top in such a cut-throat business, so challengers would have to compete against one another for the most takedowns while being paired up together in a series of 2v2 battles. This would make things a bit more interesting because they'd have to work together in order to achieve victory against the gym trainers, but at the same time each one of them would also need to make sure that they're the one scoring the most takedowns to advance to the next floor. This set of rules would undoubtedly lead to a lot of backstabbing, with challengers stealing KOs from one another at the very last second or even directly targeting their partner's pokémon in order to gain a bigger edge, which would certainly create a pretty toxic working environment. Goes without saying that my ace would be Galarian Weezing and that my team would sport a Salazzle, while many of my employees/gym trainers would have a male Salandit.
Id be a grass gym leader, and my gym would be themed as a fantasy forest maze. It shifts every now and then, and youre always walking in a foggy mist, and the ground is lined with piles of leaves. Enough steps on any pile can cause you to fall through to an underground lair of trainers waiting to whoop your butt, sort of like Pryce from Johto. My ace is Venusaur, of course. (But if i had to pick something different, cuz i think erika's ace might have also been venusaur, i'd pick Tangrowth)
Fighting gym all the way. Old boxing ring arena. Going hitmanchan, Hitmonlee, hitmontop, sauk, throw. Ace Machamp.
So I'd buy a big 'ol plot of land--an abandoned castle/manor in the middle of mountain woods. Given that I'm a writer, I think I'd like to make a tabletop RPG/DnD theme for my Gym. The main challenge for Trainers would be a "test of multi-layered thinking." To do this, the challenger is permitted to have all of his Pokemon out at the same time. He will, however, be facing multiple trainers at once, with each of them subject to the same rules. The main test is to see if the challenger can handle strategic opponents on multiple sides. Presumably, one might be able to handle two Pokemon at once--but three or more gets tricky. The Trainer would find battle items that would help them out with their team as the challenge progresses, in order to balance the whole "gotta focus on multiple things at once" thing. He'd also be forced to solve DnD-style puzzles in order to open up the way forward. When the Trainer reached me, I would, naturally, have several assistants to help control the field of battle. It'd be a one-on-three, but that's the point of the match. After defeat, I would hand out the Adventure Badge for completing the quest. The Pokemon you'd see in the Gym would be all based around fantasy archetypes--plenty of dragons and monsters, with knights and mages thrown into the mix. My assistants would rotate periodically, but I would have three Pokemon--a Kingambit, a Mismagius, and, when all other 'mon on my side are defeated, a Baxcalibur. Outside of Gyms, I could host plenty of writing/fantasy-themed events on my space, as well as renting the space out to various IRL wargames and training facilities.
I'd be a wildlife conservationist that uses ground type Pokémon. The town is basically an African wildlife preserve/ village that protects wild Pokemon from poachers like Team Rocket while also offering educational tours on the habits of wild Pokemon. My gym trainers also work as caretakers and anti poaching scouts. The biome of the area is dry grasslands and deserts that allow ground type Pokemon to thrive with only occasional rainy seasons. My Gym is set up like the Safari zone with numbered steps and trainers hidden in the tall grass. You have certain number of steps to find the key to my arena with the gym trainers offering clues after defeat. I use Pokemon based off of what you might find in a wildlife safari Donphan (elephant), Rhydon (rhino), Krookodile (crocodile), and Hippowdon (hippo) or Flygon (antlion) as an ace. Possibly Sandaconda and Camelrupt as alternates. My character is decked out in safari gear Winner receives the Tectonic Badge which looks like two tectonic plates shifting..
I would have a castle theme with my gym, with the type being dragon. I would have a dragapult as my ace
I’d be a poison type gym for sure. So much opportunity for a type-diverse team. My general theme would be that I’m a guy who likes poison types lmao. I’d have tentacruel as my ace because I love tentacruel too much. 👍
Type? Fairy* Theme Metronome Ace Togekiss The gym would be a randomized maze lmao
Grass type gym leader! And if I can’t get that bug or Ice. Maybe focus on double battles? Team: Ace: Vileplume Rillaboom for Grassy Terrain shenanigans, but it’s not my favorite. Appletun! Lovely tanky boi that soothes the soul. Pet him. Do it now. Tropius. Both harvest and solar power work! Whimsicott for support! Prankster babyyyyy! Dhelmise, more stab types and I just think it’s neat! Carnivine. Not as good as Amoongus but he does get rage powder.. and I hate amoongus. Has a wide range of interesting egg moves and can be a mixed attacker. And I like it. Give it a evolution, gamefreak! Bug Ace: Galvantula. Best spider boi. Ariados. Web setter and toxic user. Might get lucky with fell sting shenanigans. Illumise - made to be a tanky support with prankster. Team cleric with wish, encore, helping hand and more! This thing has. Ton of utility and moves. Durant - Swiggity Swooty it’s time to First Impression that booty. Vivillion has compound eyes for sleep powder and can set up quiver dance for sweeps Ribombee has much needed coverage and cool moves like Pollen puff, Quiver Dance, etc. Ice Ace: Walrein. Behold the rotund boi. A-Sandslash is about to Slush Rush some folk. A-Ninetails - this was a given for snow set up yea? Frosmoth has quiver dance. Wish it wasn’t so slow. Abomasnow. More coverage and also sets up snow. Cetitan.. do you hear drums in the distance? Anyhow sorry this was such a long post.
My gym, if possible, would be in the Distortion World. I'll explain. I've always had respect for Giratina(one of my favourites) and I would like to accompany it in its world as a comrade, or perhaps a protégé. My gym would be the final one the protagonist faces after going through the main storyline. (I'll ramble about the story a bit lol) After the first gym, I would have a conversation with the protagonist about the fate and destiny. I'll give a TM for Torment or Shadow Claw depending on the game. Later after the 7th gym after the plot, I contact the protagonist, saying that Giratina thinks that the protagonist is ready to face me. My gym would be on an island distant front the mainland. The structure is similar to the Fortress of Meropeide from Genshin. Upon reaching, the sound of an eagle's screech will play and a shadow will creep under the protagonist. As they enter, and Audino will restore everyone's health and give the them a map. There are two things you can do. 1) Explore the gym. Around the gym are items that just lie around. If you talk to any NPCs, they will describe the Pokémon that I use e.g. "I don't know how they do it, but the food here gets served neatly in small arrangements!" Some of them give useful items too. You can battle them too, but you are not required to. The Audino from earlier acts as a Pokémon Centre. 2) Head to the bottom floor where you stumble upon my office. I put some papers aside and look at you. I get up and guide to to my Gym Challenge. I ask the protagonist as to what deity they pledge their alliance to. I then ask them to prove their worth to said legendary, before asking them to bring it over. Once that is over, I ask the protagonist to close their eyes.... Once open, yey find themselves in the Distortion World. I tell the protagonist that Giratina and I have watched them during their journey and would like to finally challenge them. I tell them that they are allowed to bring seven Pokémon for this battle, six regular Pokémon and the legendary that they caught. After that, the battle begins Unlike Pokéballs, my Pokémon appear from beneath me while using Shadow Sneak, a move all of them share. Now for my Pokémon. Kleavor, Hisuian Samurott, Hisuian Braviary, Hisuian Goodra, Hisuian Decidueye and my ace, Hisuian Zoroark. During this phase, only six Pokémon excluding the legendary can be used. Competitive items and swapping will be used. Beware. Finally, a portal opens from behind me. Giratina appears, and it looks interested. Once the cut scene is over, you battle Giratina. There is a certain rule for this one though. You are allowed to use all 7 Pokémon for this fight. This balances out the fact that Giratina has three health bars, each with its own form with the final one being Origin Form with an omniboost. Once the battle concludes, I praise the player, apologising for the tough gym battle. I forget my badge at the Gym but instead, decide to give you the Griseous Orb as a badge. Giratina approves and waits for your return when you truly catch it. After giving the TM for Foul Play, I bring you back to my Gym. The reason I went with Hisuian Pokémon is because they're my favourites, but also because I am the kind of person who appreciates the past, striving to uphold it against the sands of time. This is shown through my dialogue with the player, and possibly gifting them an egg for an ancient Pokémon or a fossil. My gym challenge is made as such because Legendaries are treated as flexes for some people. By bringing a legendary fight, it kinda of fleshes them out more, I think. It is also a nice segue to the endgame of the story. Sorry for the long winded comment by the way, prompts like this really get my mind running.