City Lights:

Let’s face it, some pastimes are just “in” things. I once tried to explain baseball to a pair of foreign students in college, and they’re probably still puzzling over my words.

At least when you’re watching a sport you don’t understand, you can enjoy the spectacle of homers sailing over the fence or quarterbacks tumbling into the end zone. But how much would an outsider get out of Pokémon, the trading card game that’s hailed by some as one of the most impenetrable hobbies in the world? Saturday, the Bella Terra shopping center will host the Pokémon Trading Card Game Huntington Beach City Championships — one of the rounds leading up to the World Championships in Hawaii in August — and I doubt there will be much of a lay audience.

Still, as a reporter, it’s my job to learn tricky subject matter, so when news broke of the Pokémon tournament in Huntington Beach, I set out to understand the game. First, I logged onto the Pokémon website, which has a helpful demo titled “Learn How to Play!” Once you click on it, a woman’s voice leaps right into the intricacies of Pokémon cards, without any kind of introduction. Maybe she assumes you’re familiar with the basics.

Lesson 1, “What are Pokémon cards?,” begins: “Basic Pokémon are Pokémon that you can play directly from your hand, either as an Active Pokémon on your first turn or to the Bench. Every player needs a Basic Pokémon to start the game. Piplup is an example of a Basic Pokémon. Piplup has two attacks. The first attack, Peck, doesn’t require any Energy to use it. The second attack, Water Splash, needs 1 Water Energy and 1 of any kind of Energy in order to use it.”

Like I said, it begins with that. Later in the demo are segments labeled “Start the Game,” “Playing the Game,” “Knocking Out a Pokémon” and more. The fifth segment is labeled “Weakness/Resistance,” which about summarized my feelings looking at the many instructions to come.

But clearly, Pokémon isn’t a mystery to everyone. After my futile attempt to get versed in the rules, I e-mailed Chris Boutcher, the organizer of the Huntington Beach tournament, and he gave me a glimpse into the addictive nature of the game.

“I started with my daughter when it first came out back in 1999,” Boutcher told me. “Now she’s gone on to college and doesn’t play anymore, but I’ve met so many nice people over the years and the game is still challenging, so I’ve kept with it.”

He added that, once you get the hang of them, the rules don’t seem impenetrable.

“It’s not that the game itself is complicated, but there can be a lot of strategy involved in putting together a good tournament-worthy deck,” he said. “The game is simple enough where beginners can purchase a couple of pre-constructed 60-card ‘theme decks’ and be up and running in a manner of minutes.”

So am I capable of mastering Pokémon, like all the kids who will be flooding Bella Terra this weekend? Probably. But if we end up running a story on the tournament, I may have to pass this time on writing a sidebar explaining all the terms.

City Editor MICHAEL MILLER can be reached at (714) 966-4617 or at [email protected] .