>>38228353Now I'm thinking a lot about Gym Leaders in less conventional locations than just sitting about in a designated Gym building 24/7.
I got thinking about a Hiker Gym Leader who loves going out for most of the day with his Pokemon, enjoying the mountain air. If you show up to his Gym, chances are the guy at the door will tell you he's out hiking. He's back for a few hours a day so you COULD just wait for him to get back.
Or you could head out after him and follow the long mountain trail yourself, you'll find him out there somewhere but it's a looong route.
In my mind he'd be moving up and down this route in real time. So if you just missed him you could run and try to catch up. Or catch him on his way back if you were late.
Realistically this would never be in a game, it would be way too frustrating for most players to either have to go down a long-ass route or wait several irl hours for the Gym Leader to come home (I can already picture endless threads bitching about it). But I love exploring and I love most of these kind of time-based events. Gen 4 had a bunch of them and they made the world feel so much more alive.
Granted a few were total BS, like clearing out the Windworks on a Friday meant you had to wait an entire week for Drifloon to appear, and Honey Trees were often very disappointing for the time they required. But the ones that are at a regular time every day (like Rotom) are a lot of fun.
