NOTE: This page is under construction. If you happen to stumble across it in this development phase--though I'm not sure how you would, why you would or why on earth you think you'd have a reason to--well, that's why it's all fragmented with notes and unfinished stuff and everything all subject to change. So go away until it's finished, k? K.

ASB Reffing 101

Note: This guide assumes that you have at least a basic understanding of Animé-Style Battling; in other words, you've read your forum's ASB rules and have "watched" (read) at least a few battles. It's even more helpful if you've participated in at least one semi-completed battle yourself. If you have no idea what's going on, you might want to leave and read up on ASB before checking back here; you can also read this basic ASB guide. You should also note that this was more or less written with The Cave of Dragonflies Forums' ASB in mind. It should be applicable no matter what forum you go to, but be sure to read their ASB rules very carefully so you understand exactly what's expected of you as a ref.

Table of Contents

• Introduction
  • What Is Refereeing?
  • How Do I Become a Ref?
  • And What do I Get out of This, Hmm?
  • The Basic Reffing Process
• What to Consider When Reffing
  • Damage and Energy Costs
  • Attack Order
  • Handling Status and Other Similar Effects
  • Changes to the Battlefield
  • Battle Logic
  • The Description
  • Laying Out the Reffing
  • Reffing Tools
• Acceptance/Rejection
• Now That You're a Referee
  • Timeliness
  • Double (or more) Battles
  • Three (or more) Trainers
  • The Unpleasant Stuff: Bias, Disagreements and Cheating
  • Creating/Adapting Your Own Reffing Scale
• Closing

Introduction

So! You are a member of a forum that has an Animé-Style Battling (ASB) section. You've lurked around it for a while, read through some of the battles that your forum friends have been waging... and it looks exciting. So exciting, in fact, that you'd like to give it a shot. So, you sign up for a team, try out a battle or two and have a blast; the person who refereed your match is writing up excellent descriptions and making it feel like you're actually there, watching your Pokémon trade blows with your opponent. It looks pretty cool, now that you think about it... hm. It might be fun to be a referee!

But wait... how exactly do you go about doing that?

That's where this little guide comes in. What I'll do is explain a little bit about what reffing is and what it takes to become a ref, and then walk you through all of the things you'll need to consider when writing up a reffing: calculations, logic, style, all of that. Since a lot of reffing style comes down to personal preference (within the logical boundaries of your particular league), this information should help you make decisions about how you want to handle things. Next I'll give you a few pointers about dealing with the mock reffing you'll be tested on before you're accepted as a ref. When you've finished reading this page you should be ready to ace your ref test and start reffing some totally awesome Pokémon violence.

What Is Refereeing?

I'm sure you've heard the term "referee" used in the context of sports before. In most real-life sports, a referee sits on the sidelines of a game and watches it progress, pointing out any mistakes or rulebreaking he/she sees and deciding how to handle such situations properly. In other words, a referee's job is basically to make sure that the game remains fair. This is also true of ASB referees: when two (or more, as the case may be) ASB players decide they want to battle, the ref ascertains that both players are following the rules. There's a bit more to ASB reffing than that, though. Since ASB is an entirely text-based game and all that the trainers give are commands and instructions, it's the ref's job to actually describe how those commands are carried out and figure out the effects and results of those commands. What happened when the trainer told his Charmander to use Flamethrower? How much damage did the Stantler take when it fell off of the battlefield? Does the arena have any effect on what happened? Is one player's Pokémon poisoned? Confused? How does that change the way that Pokémon behaves? It's the ref's job to tell the story of the battle as it happens, and also to do all of the math that comes along with it to provide a more concrete way to see what happened during that round.

Reffing isn't difficult—it's only a bit of math, writing and logic. The math is pretty easy; it's all addition and subtraction with a tiny bit of multiplication and division thrown in on the side. You learned all of this in second grade, if not sooner. The writing can be a bit more challenging, but it should be fun if you enjoy that sort of thing. If you write stories or participate in paragraph roleplays, the descriptive part should come naturally to you. And I certainly hope you can think logically—it's mostly simple logic that you can pick up on from playing the games, watching the animé or simply understanding that, no, a big heavy feathery eagle-like bird cannot swim and is going to have trouble in the water. The hardest part of being a referee is actually keeping up with it. Even though you don't get paid any real money or get any real benefits out of doing it, when you sign up to be a referee you are applying for a job and making a commitment. If you're not going to set aside a little extra time to make sure you've updated all of the battles you're reffing—and being late a few times isn't necessarily the end of the world, as we all have lives away from the Holy Internets that need attending to—and to make sure that you're doing it properly, then perhaps this isn't for you.

How Do I Become a Ref?

The answer to this question will vary based on your ASB league. In general, there will be a topic called the "Ref Tower", "Referee Headquarters" or something like that, usually stickied/pinned in the ASB's administrative area. Read the first post in that topic; the head ref (or other person-in-charge-of-ASB) will explain how refereeing works in that particular league, what rules referees must follow, what rewards there might be, etc.. Also make sure that you are familiar with the general ASB rules; if you think you might be a little shaky on them, double-check and don't be afraid to glance back whenever you're curious about a ruling or need a refresher. When you're certain that you understand everything, your "Ref Tower" should have instructions on what you need to do to apply. This usually involves passing a "reffing test" by refereeing a "mock battle". A mock is just a single round of a hypothetical battle; the person in charge of the Ref Tower normally just chooses two Pokémon, an arena and some commands for the Pokémon to carry out, and it's your job to write up a reffing for that round. The head ref will then judge your mock reffing to make sure it meets the league's standards (do you know the rules, did you check your math, do you not spell like a five-year-old, etc.); if it does, you're accepted, and if it doesn't, you usually need to wait for a new mock round setup to be added to the thread before trying again.

And What Do I Get out of This, Hmm?

Again, this varies based on your league. Since refereeing is a "job", as I mentioned before, the ASB officials normally pay referees in the league's respective currency; this means that you get a paycheck that you can use to purchase more Pokémon or whatever other things the league might offer. You may also be given other "perks" such as free Pokémon or discounts in ASB businesses. And, of course, refs get paid for every battle that they ref. Furthermore, many ASBs have different "ranks" of refs; more accomplished and more active referees get extra rewards on top of the usual ones. The Ref Tower topic will normally explain exactly what your payment will be and how to advance in rank, if that is possible.

The Basic Reffing Process

Once you've been accepted as a referee you can start looking for battles to ref. Each battle is generally handled by one referee from start to finish. This is to help maintain stylistic and reffing scale consistency throughout the space of the one battle, and also prevents two people from writing up a long reffing that only one person gets to post. Review all of the available battles carefully and choose one that you're sure you're willing to keep on top of. (Don't just ref battles for your friends or whatever, though, or only battles that follow one, small, exact subset of rules—you will be expected to pull your weight, and if that means reffing for someone you'd rather not every once in a while then so be it!) A ref can have an unlimited number of open battles to his or her name at a time, but try not to stretch yourself too thin. I'd start with no more than two at a time while you're still getting used to the system, and then taking on more at a time later when you're more comfortable. If you can't finish a battle for some reason, or at least won't be able to update it for an extended period of time, another ref can fill in at that point. When the battle is finished any and all prizes are distributed to the battlers, and the referee receives any applicable payment.

What to Consider When Reffing

Reffing requires a great deal of work—there's a lot to keep in mind when you ref, from the math to the status conditions and from the arena to how you want to set it all up for your battlers. Aside from a few ground rules most leagues allow their refs to interpret things as they see fit—you can create your own damage scale if the one the other refs use doesn't quite make sense, you can change the duration of status effects like paralysis or weather effects like Sunny Day. As long as the head refs think it falls within reasonable boundaries then you have carte blanche when it comes to your reffings and reffing style. Understanding those "reasonable boundaries" is important, though, as is remaining consistent and sticking with whatever it is you ultimately decide to do. This section covers everything you'll need to be aware of when reffing and developing your damage scale and general style.

Damage and Energy Costs

In order to keep track of when the battle should end in as fair a way as possible (so that players don't argue about how "no, actually my Pokémon isn't really that beat up!" and things like that, as they might occasionally in a game with no calculations at all), the damage taken and energy used by all Pokémon needs to be tracked carefully. Every battle scenario is different, so the damage and energy will not always be consistent—someone's Charmander might use Flamethrower while out in a grassy plain in one battle, again during a monsoon in another battle, and again on another planet with lower oxygen levels than that of Earth, and the damage Flamethrower does to Charmander's opponent and how much using the move taxes Charmander will vary in each situation. This variation is expected and logical, but it is helpful to find a way to define baseline damage dealt and energy used for each attack. This baseline can then be scaled up, scaled down or otherwise modified when the situation calls for it.

The method of determining baseline damage varies between leagues. Most tend to use a system based on the base power of the attacks in the video games. Generally, they take the base power of the attack (let's just keep using Flamethrower as an example, which has a base power of 95) and divide it by 10, rounding down first if necessary, before converting the number to a percent. Flamethrower, therefore, would do 9% damage at baseline. A few ASB leagues use a looser guideline, however, simply listing an attack's damage as something like "light, good, moderate or excellent" and providing an average damage range for each step in the scale. Either system can be used (or even other systems if you can come up with another one), and since each ref is allowed their own variation of the damage scale you can use whichever you prefer, but for the purposes of this explanation I'll stick with the base power method.

After you have the baseline damage, there are a number of things that can increase, decrease or otherwise modify that damage. Generally you get the basic Pokémon stuff you learned from the games out of the way first: is the Pokémon using the attack the same type as the attack (and so eligible for STAB)? Is the opponent weak or resistant to the attack's type? Does either Pokémon have any stat increases or decreases, like from Swords Dance or Tail Whip? Base stats are usually ignored in ASB (aside from speed, depending on the referee, but we'll get to that later), and base stats are technically what make evolved Pokémon stronger than unevolved ones, but it's still generally agreed that evolved Pokémon should be just a little stronger than unevolved ones—generally, evolved Pokémon get an extra 1-2% added on to their damage, depending on the stage of evolution and the ref's individual scale.

Once you've taken those modifiers into account, you must then consider any other conditions that might apply to the battle and affect the damage of the attack. In a battle on a simple, open field there probably isn't much to modify at all, and so you can generally just stop there; most battles won't have too drastic an effect on damage output unless there is something explicit in the rules or arena description you'll need to be aware of. All the same, there are many potential reasons to modifiy damage and so there is no hard and fast rule about any of it other than "use your common sense and don't skew things too high or too low". It shouldn't be too difficult to figure out the best way to make any necessary modifications on your own as long as you think carefully about it, but if you have any questions then you can always ask another ref how they might handle that particular situation.

There is no "base energy" to work from in the games; the closest you get to that is PP. If you'd like to use PP as a basis for determining energy cost, remember that lower-PP moves are generally considered more strenuous. A move with 40 PP takes precious little effort to perform; a move with 5 PP is going to be quite taxing. Or you can give the energy cost some relation to the damage the move does—having a move drain energy equal to the damage done is a little much, but a few points less than that will usually work. The only problem with scaling energy cost up or down with damage dealt is that it clearly doesn't work when an attack does no damage, like Attract. At that point, all you can really do is make your best guess based on common sense.

To show you an example of how all these things fit together, I have a simplified version of my own damage/energy scale; the one I actually use has a few extra steps added, but they're personal preference and you don't need to worry about them while getting the basics down.

Show/Hide Scale

Damage

1. Determine the attack's base damage. To do this, find the base power of the attack (Heat Wave's is 100, for example). Divide that number by 10. Therefore, in ASB Heat Wave has a BP of 10%.

2. If the Pokémon shares a type with the attack it is using, it gets a Same Type as Attack Bonus (or STAB). STAB multiplies the move's damage by 1.25, rounded down if necessary. Therefore, a Houndoom using Heat Wave would be doing 12% damage so far. If a Pokémon does not share a type with the attack it is using, do nothing.

3. Modify the damage based on the Pokémon's level of evolution. If the Pokémon:

• -is the first in a two-stage or three-stage line (Charmander, Barboach, Pichu, Tyrogue, Porygon, etc.), subtract 1%.
• -is the second in a three stage line or the first in a two-stage line IF the Pokémon previously had no evolution (Charmeleon, Roselia, Scyther, etc.), do nothing.
• -is the second in a two-stage line, the third in a three-stage line or has no evolutions/pre-evolutions (Charizard, Whiscash, Scizor, Absol, etc.; fully-evolved Pokémon, in other words), add 1%.

Since Houndoom is a fully-evolved Pokémon, add an extra 1% damage to Heat Wave's total, giving us 13% so far.

4. Calculate weakness and resistance. Multiply the attack's current damage total as follows:

• -If the opponent has a double weakness to the attack's type, multiply the damage by 2.
• -If the opponent has a single weakness to the attack's type, multiply the damage by 1.5.
• -If the opponent is neutral to the attack's type, do nothing.
• -If the opponent has a single resistance to the attack's type, divide the damage by 1.5.
• -If the opponent has a double resistance to the attack's type, divide the damage by 2.
• -If the opponent is immune to the attack's type, multiply the damage by 0 (it does no damage). If this is the case, stop calculating damage here.

Let's say that Houndoom is attacking a Smeargle. Heat Wave's damage so far would still be 13%.

5. Account for any stat bonuses and penalties the Pokémon might have. For every level of stat increase or decrease, add or subtract 2% to the damage dealt. An increase in an offensive stat and a decrease in an opponent's defensive stat will add to the total damage; a decreased offensive stat or an increased defensive stat will subtract from the total damage. So, for example, say that Houndoom uses Nasty Plot one time before attacking the Smeargle with Heat Wave. Nasty Plot raises special attack by 2 levels, so add 4% to Houndoom's damage. Heat Wave would do a total of 17% damage to Smeargle. If Smeargle then used Amnesia and raised its special defense by 2 levels, you'd subtract 4% from the damage and Houndoom would do 13% damage again. Changes to the speed, accuracy and evasion stats would not be handled this way; you will need to work out how you want to deal with those yourself (and they're more or less irrelevant to damage calculation anyway).

6. Determine whether or not the attack is a critical hit. Most moves have a 5% chance of landing a critical hit; some moves may have a higher chance. If the move is a critical hit, add damage to the total equal to the move's base power (some leagues may put a cap on critical hit damage). So, for example, if Heat Wave is a critical hit, add its BP (10) to the damage for a total of 23% damage to Smeargle.

7. If there is anything else that would alter the damage dealt, apply it now. In most cases everything will be done by step 6, so there's no need to worry about this step often. There can be times when certain things would further alter the damage dealt, however. For example, say that a Rattata is going to use Quick Attack. But the Rattata is paralyzed, and as a result is forced to move more slowly. Logically it shouldn't be able to build up a lot of momentum while using the move, and Quick Attack probably won't hit as hard as a result. There is no set way to modify the damage in situations like this, although in most cases the damage probably shouldn't increase or decrease by too much. Use common sense.

Energy for Damaging Attacks

1. Find the attack's base power and multiply by .7, rounding up (not down!) if necessary. So, for example, Heat Wave (BP 10) would cost about 7% energy.

2. If the attack would have STAB, subtract 1%. Houndoom's Heat Wave would cost 6% energy.

3. Modify the energy based on the Pokémon's level of evolution. If the Pokémon:

• -is the first in a two-stage or three-stage line (Charmander, Barboach, Pichu, Tyrogue, Porygon, etc.), add 1%.
• -is the second in a three stage line or the first in a two-stage line IF the Pokémon previously had no evolution (Charmeleon, Roselia, Scyther, etc.), do nothing.
• -the second in a two-stage line, the third in a three-stage line or has no evolutions/pre-evolutions (Charizard, Whiscash, Scizor, Absol, etc.; fully-evolved Pokémon, in other words), subtract 1%.

Since Houndoom is a fully-evolved Pokémon, subtract 1% to Heat Wave's energy for a final cost of 5%.

4. If there is anything else that would alter the energy cost, apply it here. Again, for the most part the calculations should be done by step 3. But if that paralyzed Rattata from before were trying to use Quick Attack, it would probably put a lot of strain on the poor little rat's muscles to move at such a fast clip. So paralyzed Pokémon, for example, would probably use more energy (about an additional 1-2% or so) when trying to move around a lot.

Energy for Non-Damaging Attacks

There really isn't much to do in most cases other than make the best possible estimate based on how strenuous or effective the attack is. Generally, the more the attack does, the more energy it should cost. Leering at something shouldn't take much effort at all, no more than 1-2%; changing the weather from a raging sandstorm to a mighty hailstorm is going to take a lot more work, and so should probably cost anywhere from 8-10% energy. Toxic has a stronger effect than Poisonpowder and so should cost more energy. If the Pokémon is the same type as the attack (Stunky using Toxic, Milotic using Rain Dance) then 1% energy or so can probably be subtracted. Moves like Light Screen that need to be maintained for several actions might have an extra 1-2% upkeep cost at the end of each action. Try to be relatively consistent and don't let any non-damaging attacks cost more than about 10% energy at their most strenuous unless absolutely necessary.

The PP of a move can be helpful in determining how much energy it would normally cost. Moves with 40 or so base PP are generally not very strenuous at all, while moves with 5 PP are more taxing.

It seems complicated, but after a few battles it gets easier and easier and a lot of this can be done by memory or even in your head.

When creating your own scale, either from scratch or by tweaking someone else's, remember to keep the factors mentioned above in mind. Also understand what constitutes "a little bit of damage/energy" and "a lot" in ASB—1-2% damage/energy is generally paltry, but 11%+ tends to be considered a lot. Weakness and resistance or extreme stress can sometimes spike damage/energy up to 18% or more, which is really a lot, but if you have Flamethrower do 20% damage even before you modify it with weakness and stat boosts then you've gone too far. Also remember that no successfully executed attack can ever cause less than 1% damage or cost the user less than 1% energy. If you have absolutely no idea where to start with your own scale, I'd suggest using this one and then steadily changing it to whatever makes you more comfortable (again, within reason) as you get used to it.

If you need help understanding my scale or are incredibly lazy, I have created simple damage and energy calculators that you can use instead of doing the math yourself; just punch in a few values and it will compute everything for you. I have tried to get the energy calculator to account for non-damaging attacks but it doesn't always give what I feel is a logical value; you will still probably need to tweak those results yourself before they make sense.

Attack Order

Players take turns giving their commands for the next round of battle: player 1 attacks, player 2 responds, reffing, player 2 attacks, player 1 responds, reffing, so on and so forth. When it comes time to write the reffing, however, you'll need to know which Pokémon is supposed to actually act first. There are generally two ways to do this: you can go by the Pokémon's base speed and have the faster Pokémon move first, or you can have the Pokémon that belongs to whoever attacked first move first, with the argument that the second Pokémon's commands are a reaction to whatever the first Pokémon does before it. Either method is fine for most leagues, but as with everything else you will need to be consistent.

Moves with a high or low attack priority, like Quick Attack and Whirlwind, are exceptions to this. If one Pokémon uses Quick Attack and the other uses Growl, the Quick-Attacker should obviously go first. A Pokémon that has had its speed raised or lowered should also move faster or slower depending on how big the boost/penalty is. There may be other situations that change attack order; just use common sense.

Handling Status and Other Similar Effects

Pokémon in ASB can be affected by negative status conditions just as they can in the video games. The same status conditions apply: the major conditions poison, sleep, burn, paralyze and freeze as well as minor conditions like attraction, confusion, flinching and several others (taunted, Ghost-cursed, foresight-locked, etc.). They don't work exactly the same way as they do in the games, however.

Major status conditions, as well as attraction and confusion, are not as absolute as they are in the games; sometimes a Pokémon will be absolutely crippled by a condition, while at other times it won't be affected very much at all. Think of it this way. Which sounds worse to you: a Rattata that has been paralyzed by a stray jolt of electricity from a Barboach's Spark attack, or a Rattata that has been paralyzed by taking a Zap Cannon to the face from a Magnezone? ASB status conditions have what are called "stages of severity", generally ranging from light to mild to moderate to severe; the higher the severity, the worse the condition is and the more adversely affected the Pokémon will be. A lightly paralyzed Pokémon will still probably be able to move around (if a bit more slowly), generally only locking up about 5% of the time, but something suffering from repeated Zap Cannon abuse would be pretty severely paralyzed and could lock up 25% of the time or more. A Pokémon that is moderately asleep will not wake up as soon as one that is sleeping lightly. A Pokémon that is attracted to an opponent that has been super-nice to it throughout the battle will be a lot more reluctant to attack than one that is still fairly suspicious of the object of its "affections". A severely frozen Pokémon might be entirely encased in ice, but a mildly frozen one might only have one leg that it can't move. A Pokémon with severe poisoning will take more damage per round than one with moderate poisoning.

Toxic poisoning (caused by the moves Toxic, Toxic Spikes and Poison Fang) increases the damage it deals as time goes on. Whether you have it double its damage each round as in the games or have it increase by a set amount is up to you, but most ASBs generally prefer that it caps off at some point instead of increasing indefinitely. The usual toxic poisoning cap is 10% damage per round.

Confused Pokémon can hurt themselves in their confusion, but they don't always. Sometimes they might misunderstand their orders, misfire an attack, or just sit down, hold their heads and wish they didn't feel so awful and muddled. Woozy Pokémon are unpredictable like that!

Be aware that in ASB it is possible for a Pokémon to be afflicted by multiple status conditions at once; a Pokémon that has been burned, poisoned, confused and paralyzed is something that you may see every once in a while, so you will need to be prepared to keep track of the effects of all those conditions as well as the effect they have on the Pokémon's mood, behavior, etc.—the battler is probably going to be a lot more discouraged or angry than something that has been burned and nothing else.

Some conditions, like sleep and confusion, lessen in severity and eventually wear off with time; paralysis generally wears off after a very long time has passed, freezing may take a while to wear off depending on the temperature of the arena, and burn and poison usually don't go away at all unless forced by a move like Rest or Refresh. Harming a Pokémon that is asleep or attracted may wake it up or cause it to dislike its lover, and hacking away at the frozen part of a Pokémon's body might just free it faster. Battlers can even temporarily circumvent certain conditions or use them to their advantage. Why not club your opponent over the head with your frozen fist? A Pokémon might be in love with its opponent and unwilling to harm it, but what if you can make the attack sound like something beneficial? No, no, Venusaur, of course Sleep Powder won't do anything bad to Charizard. But doesn't he look so tired? You really ought to help the poor thing fall asleep... things like this can also affect the severity and duration of a status condition, so keep them in mind if your battlers try them.

Other "status conditions", such as the effects of the moves Taunt, Leech Seed or Nightmare, last for different amounts of time, may or may not have different "severities" and may or may not be possible to circumvent and/or remove. Your league should have a thread called the "Attack Guide" or similar that defines all legal moves as they should work in ASB; look up the attack in question to figure out more about how it will affect the battlers.

Accuracy, Evasion and Speed

These are technically "stats", but in ASB they're handled a bit more like status conditions. The more severe a Pokémon's accuracy loss or evasion increase, the harder it will be to land attacks, obviously. This usually amounts to shaving about 10% off of an attack's base accuracy (see below) for each level of evasion increase/accuracy decrease, although no attack should generally go below 10% accuracy. Double Team and Minimize are special cases. The accuracy of an attack used against Double Team is usually a 1 in X chance of hitting the real target where X is the number of clones plus the user of Double Team. Minimize cuts a Pokémon's size in half each time it is used (at least up until the point where the Pokémon would be too ridiculously small to do anything), and really all that it accomplishes is making the user a much smaller target to hit. A Snorlax that managed to Metronome Minimize one time would still be a pretty decent-sized target.

Even when stat changes aren't a factor not every attack is going to hit its mark or be successful every single time; attacks have an accuracy stat that you'll need to account for. Under normal circumstances, using the attack's in-game accuracy is fine. Tackle has 95% accuracy, for example, so just roll up a number on the RNG; if it falls within that extra 5%, it misses. Remember that almost all attacks have the potential to miss, however. Treat attacks with 100% accuracy as though they have 99% accuracy. The only attacks that cannot miss/fail are those that have no accuracy listed at all (either because they're "foolproof", like Swift or Aura Sphere, or because they are self-targeting or arena-effect moves like Howl or Trick Room), and even then the battle conditions might occasionally cause those to mess up.

How you handle changes to the speed stat is up to personal preference and how you handle speed in general (see also Attack Order, above). If you work with base speed in your reffings (and so have Weavile, with its 125 base speed, consistently attack before Floatzel, which has 115 speed), speed increases and decreases will generally modify that base stat; changing the stat by 10 or 20 points for every level of speed increase/decrease would be reasonable in that case. The games handle speed increase/decrease by boosting or reducing it by 25%, 50% or more, depending on the potency of the change, so that's also an option. If you do not use base speed, however, then you'll have to work something else out based on whatever makes sense to you. A Pokémon with drastically lowered speed would logically attack last each action, but any further detail will be up to you. Remember to be consistent about whatever you decide to do.

Changes to the Battlefield

If two Pokémon are battling in an empty and very sturdy bomb shelter, there probably isn't much they can do to damage the arena around them. If that bomb shelter has a wooden table in it, however, then that table can probably be smashed if you whack it hard enough. Using Hydro Pump while battling on a tile floor can cause excess water to spill onto the ground, making it slippery and treacherous. If your Rhydon digs a huge hole in the ground outside, well, then, there's a Rhydon-sized hole in the ground that could lead to a tunnel of varying length or depth. If the tall grass is exceptionally dry and your Growlithe isn't careful with its Overheat, it might just set the field on fire (I have done this, it is awesome). It is entirely possible that something may happen to the battlefield during the course of the battle, and if the arena does undergo any major changes then you'll need to make sure you keep on top of them and take them into account during your reffing, if necessary.

Battle Logic

When playing the video games you can use most of your Pokémon's attacks at any time. Lost in Kanto's Victory Road and need to bring down that Onix? Go ahead, use Surf on it. Think your Blissey can use Seismic Toss on that Snorlax? Sure, why not?

These scenarios aren't always going to work in ASB, however. Surf, for example, generally has the user forming a wave in a nearby body of water and crashing that wave down on the opponent. If your arena doesn't have a suitable body of water, where are you going to get the fuel for your Surf attack? Blissey might be able to learn Seismic Toss, sure, but Blissey is also very physically flimsy and has stubby little arms. Snorlax... is huge and weighs half a ton. Be realistic. Do you honestly think a Blissey could lift that kind of weight, let alone toss it around like a football? Maybe, just maybe, it might be able to lift it. Maybe. An inch off the ground, perhaps. At the very least, there's no way a Blissey could do it as easily and effectively as a mighty, muscular Machamp.

Pokémon have a lot of talents and have myriad moves at their disposal, and most of them should be good to go at any time. But there will be occasions when you'll have to think hard about whether or not your battlers can get away with what they're trying to do. It doesn't really require anything other than some common sense or a quick question to the head ref; just be careful. If you decide that what you're battlers are trying to do is illogical or outright impossible, have their Pokémon's action fail and then tell them why it didn't work. (See also the section on dealing with your battlers, later in this article.)

The Reffing Description

The name of the game is animé-style battling, and while we can't actually animate and air any of the battles that are happening the goal is to try and have the written accounts be as detailed and exciting as they can be. This means that your reffing cannot consist of single-sentence statements or super-bland paragraphs. Not only are those potentially boring and decidedly un-animé-like, they can also lead to confusion. Your readers need to be able to understand what's happened during the round, and if you skimp on the description then they probably won't have any idea that their Pokémon's attack missed or why it missed, or why they suddenly lost a whole bunch of energy for no apparent reason.

This does not mean that you have to write a novel every round! And you certainly don't want to get too long-winded, for the sake of your own time and sanity and everyone else's. Try to be as detailed as you feel comfortable being; if that means that you have five beautifully fleshed-out paragraphs that describe the sparkle of every Swift star as it flies through the air or that you have three smaller paragraphs that are a little more utilitarian but still get the point across, it's fine either way. Just make sure that your reffing is not three sentences long and that it explains everything that needs to be explained.

Laying Out the Reffing

Once you've done all of your calculations and you've written up your totally fascinating account of what has transpired in the round, all that's left to do is format it and post it. When posting your reffing you need to make sure that all necessary information is clearly visible and can be easily understood by you, your battlers and anyone else who might be reading the reffing. The following information must always be visible somewhere in each round you post:

• -The name, species, gender, ability and item of each Pokémon involved
• -The health and energy percentages for each Pokémon involved, stated in numbers
• -The current status of each Pokémon involved (is it paralyzed, confused, does it have Double Team clones, etc.)
• -The written description of everything that occurred in this round
• -Any necessary notes about what's going on: has the battlefield changed (i.e. there's a big hole in it from Onix using Dig), is it raining, did something happen that might require a little extra explanation from the ref, etc.

Most refs generally list the Pokémon information, health and status twice in one reffing, once before the description of the round and again afterward; the first listing summarizes the current state of the Pokémon as the round begins, and the second is their updated state after all attacks have been exchanged and all new developments have been taken into account. When you start the next round, copy the end stats from the previous round and use those as the new beginning stats.

How you lay these things out does not matter in the slightest as long as it's logical and easy to read. You are allowed to lay out your reffing in whatever way makes sense to you; you can base your format on another ref's or come up with something totally unique. You can use the Pokémon's sprites or just list their names, you can center the text, you can even add color here and there if you'd like. Just make sure whatever color you use can be seen and won't cause eyebleed on any of the available forum skins; that green color you used to show that a Pokémon is at full health might look snazzy on one skin, but it could be almost invisible against a skin with a green post background.

You also have the freedom to add any extra information or tidbits you like as long as you don't clutter your reffing up. It might be helpful, for example, to list the battle's rules and its arena description at the beginning of each round. You can summarize the calculations you made so that the battlers can check your math if they think you made a mistake. You can list the commands each trainer has given its Pokémon, or maybe add a few extra paragraphs of pre- and/or post-round description. You might also want to add more information about the Pokémon's status aside from just "poisoned" or "taunted" or "substitute has 15% health remaining". Does it have a headache from repeated punches to the face? Is it limping, is it bleeding slightly? Is it in a good mood because the battle is really going its way?

As an example, this is the first round of a battle between a Buizel and a Slowpoke. The entire battle can be viewed here, if you're interested. Your reffings don't have to look like mine by any means; this is just one way you can do it and it gets all of the most important information across (including extra comments I had about some of the battlers' commands, etc.). It also serves as a nice example of description that is detailed, interesting and of a reasonable length, by the way; it's a little longer than most of mine are, but that's because there are some introductory paragraphs included to start the battle off.

Show/Hide Reffing Example

Wyvern vs. Blastoise, Round One

Pre-Round Stats

Team Wyvern (3/3 Pokémon Remaining)

Ben (M) [Swift Swim]
Health: 100%
Energy: 100%
Status: Looking around excitedly
Ben's Commands: Rain Dance ~ Pursuit ~ Mud-Slap

Team Blastoise (3/3 Pokémon Remaining)

Hippocampus (M) [Own Tempo] @King's Rock
Health: 100%
Energy: 100%
Status: Staring into space
Hippocampus's Commands: Zap Cannon ~ Trick Room ~ Trick Room/Psychic

Arena: Imperial City ruins

The Imperial City used to be teeming with activity. However, with the fall of the Empire, it was quickly weathered down to an almost flat ground. Although it was tall enough to be seen from anywhere in Cyrodiil, even White Gold Tower has been reduced to nothing but dust. The only thing that still stands intact is the Temple Cauldron which is protected by the power of the Divine, Akatosh.

During each round, there is a 20% chance of the Divine, Talos, joining his power with that of Akatosh and causing the Dragonfires to ignite in the cauldron for 5 rounds. Its mysterious energy raises the power of Fire and Dragon type moves by 1.25 times the normal amount. However, the spirit of the flame burns brightly in the hearts of all Pokemon which cancels all effects of the Burn status other than the damage.

The presence of the two Divines suppresses evil, causing all Dark type moves to do only 3/4 of the normal damage. Also, Dark type Support moves have no effect (meaning that Nasty Plot would be useless, but Crunch can still lower your Defense).

Round One: Begin

An orange and purple sky hangs over the shattered remains of the Imperial City. Long ago, the sunset would have been broken by the silhouettes of magnificent buildings, the skyline dominated by the colossal White Gold Tower, but now it runs uninterrupted along a horizon dotted by structures reduced to gravel and rubble. A sad sight, perhaps a little haunting... but the perfect location for a fast-paced Pokémon battle.

The huge Temple Cauldron, all that remains of the city's former grandeur, sits in between two smallish Pokémon. Ben the Buizel chatters energetically and gives his forked tail an experimental twirl or two, eager to get his very first battle started. His swift and fearsome opponent, Hippocampus the Slowpoke... sits there and stares into space. Ben glances over his shoulder, confused and wondering what on earth is back there that is so much more fascinating than battling him; when he sees a whole lot of nothing behind him he shrugs, writes Hippocampus off as a lazy bum and returns his attention to the battle that is about to begin.

Ben scratches his side idly as he thinks. Hm. Feels dry. He doesn't really care for dry too much; he should do something about that. The Buizel drops to all fours and then leaps into the air, bounding erratically around the cauldron and chattering up at the yellow-tinged clouds in the sky. Those clouds suddenly begin to thicken and bulge outward, darkening to a sinister gray and finally bursting open with chilly rain. The low fires in the cauldron hiss angrily, and steam can be seen rising from its mouth. The dust on the ground quickly turns to a slippery gruel as the rain hits it, and Ben, satisfied with his work, stops to enjoy the sensation of the cold water running down his face and back.

Hippocampus stares into space.

It takes another twenty seconds of lying uselessly on the ground with rain splashing and splattering all around him for the Slowpoke to notice the drops at all, let alone remember that he's supposed to be doing something right now. He rises (slowly), shakes a kink out of his tail (slowly), opens his mouth (slowly) and reveals a tiny ball of bright yellow energy that pulses, shudders and grows. What started as a small orb is soon a sphere the size of Hippocampus's head, floating outside of his mouth now and jerking erratically in random directions. It flies forward with a grunt from the Slowpoke and changes direction immediately, rocketing upward and then to the left, to the right, back to the left, down at an angle toward Hippocampus and then forward again, bursting with so much volatile electricity that it seems unable to make up its mind about where it wants to go. It finally settles on "right into the Buizel's stomach" and collides with Ben, who shrieks as several thousand volts course through his wet body and horribly scramble his nerves, leaving him in great pain and with less-than-ideal motor coordination. Hippocampus nods (slowly) ten seconds after Ben's agonized screams die down, belatedly satisfied with his work. And then he goes back to staring into space.

The slow-witted and slow-moving Slowpoke would normally be quite an easy target for a simple smacking with pursuit, but Ben simply cannot bring himself to move. His entire body feels like it is buzzing unpleasantly, and the buzzing quickly escalates to pain whenever he tries to sit up or stretch. Deciding that it would be best to give himself time to recover, he whimpers and remains still, looking rather forlorn in the heavy rain.

Hippocampus stares into space.

His vacant staring belies a brief spurt of mental activity, however. Slowly but steadily, the Slowpoke's brain puts out a field of psychic energy that spreads around the ruins, surrounding them in a nearly invisible dome that occasionally warps and shimmers when a stray gust of wind disturbs its surface. Were Hippocampus a bit more alert, he might notice the way the energy field makes him tingle, makes him feel... different, perhaps... faster? No, he probably wouldn't quite call the sensation "faster" in the normal sense of the word; still, he would find it incredibly odd if he cared to pay attention to it. But he doesn't; he just keeps staring at whatever nothing in particular is situated in front of him.

Ben doesn't really notice the effects of the trick room at first, either; he's too busy trying to pull himself together after the crippling shock of the zap cannon. But when the Buizel finally stands up he feels... slower? No, no... backwards, perhaps? Ben can't describe the feeling, nor is he entirely sure what caused it, but he does know that it isn't making him feel any better. Anxious to work out his compromised muscles and hopefully shake off this awkward, newer sensation, he stretches, twirls his tails again, and then turns around so that his back faces his foe; he lowers his spinning tails to the soggy ground, kicking up a spray of mud that flies in Hippocampus's direction. Hippocampus, as usual, seems entirely unconcerned with whatever Ben may or may not be doing; the flying mud does an about-face a few inches from the dopey Pokémon's nose, however, and sails right back into Ben's face. Several flecks of wet dirt and tiny grains of stone work their way into the unfortunate Buizel's eyes, and Ben yelps and scrabbles at his face. Hippocampus congratulates himself on a particularly well-timed psychic...

...and stares into space.

Round One: Close

Post-Round Stats

Team Wyvern (3/3 Pokémon Remaining)

Ben (M) [Swift Swim]
Health: 79%
Energy: 91%
Status: Paralyzed (severe), Accuracy -1; frazzled, twitchy and upset

Team Blastoise (3/3 Pokémon Remaining)

Hippocampus (M) [Own Tempo] @King's Rock
Health: 100%
Energy: 78%
Status: Still staring into space

Arena Status: Rain falls steadily over the ruins and shows no signs of stopping anytime soon. The air around the battlers ripples and shimmers with psychic distortion that is currently disrupting time in the area.

Rain Dance: 4 rounds remaining
Trick Room: 1 round, 2 actions remaining

Ref's Notes
-You can't really "aim" Zap Cannon, as it's more or less the attack's trajectory after launch that is unpredictable, but Hippocampus got lucky and scored a hit anyway.
-Ben was fully paralyzed on the second action.
-Since Psychic was specifically directed at Mud-Slap, it did no damage to Ben on its own.
-For clarification, Hippocampus still acted second on the last action because he was told to redirect the Mud-Slap and so had to wait for it before moving.
-Due to Trick Room, Wyvern attacks first next round.

Reffing Tools

You've got your damage and energy scale and you know how you're going to handle status conditions or awkward commands, but there are still a few more things you'll want to keep in your reffing "toolbox", if you will. This section contains links to calculators, lists and programs you'll probably find helpful. Equivalent tools or information can also be found elsewhere, of course, so if you know of a reliable resource that you prefer you can use that instead.

The RNG

You'll need some way to randomize certain things, such as whether or not an attack hits its target, whether or not an effect kicks in, etc.; it isn't fair for you to just decide things off the top of your head, especially when any potential outcomes aren't very clear-cut. You can roll dice or try other methods of randomization if you like, but a good random number generator (or computer/online dice roller with different dice numbers/settings) is something you should look into. I use this one. Just set it to select a number from 1 to 100 and let it go.

If the attack Metronome is used, you'll also need a way to randomly determine the attack it calls. You can try using an RNG for that as well by assigning a number to each existing attack (Veekun has the in-game number of all attacks, so you can use that and set the RNG to pick from 1 to 467), or you can use a Metronome generator like this one. You can use the same method for the attack Sleep Talk; just keep re-randomizing until it pulls up an attack that the sleep-talker actually knows.

Conclusion

So, that's about it. ASB Reffing in a nutshell. It all boils down to picking a set of calculations and sticking to them, having a little descriptive talent and keeping your good old-fashioned common sense on hand at all times. The job can get a little tedious and can sometimes be hard to pick up in the beginning, but it's worth it when you get to ref a really exciting or goofy battle between two really cool Pokémon. If you have any questions feel free to leave feedback.

All site content (fanart, articles, layouts, whatever) is © 2008-2010 Kyra "Phoenixsong" King. Anything that belongs to anyone else (i.e. Pokémon) is © its respective owners and I do not claim to own it. None of the content on this website can be used elsewhere without Phoenixsong's express permission unless otherwise stated.
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