A game with a concept most similar to Redwall, though perhaps combined with elements of The Rats of Nimh, Fantastic Mr. Fox, Watership Down, and similar "talking woodland animals" properties.
Player-Characters could either be AU'd versions of themselves into the setting, or a more normal Jamjar type experience, but in all cases they would inhabit the form of a woodland creature suitable for the setting, chosen according to their personality or other character traits. Particularly cunning characters might become rats, or weasels, big beefy guys or people who spring readily into a fight could be badgers, gentle folks become small rodents or bunnies, or you could even play against type and have a wolverine prefer to stay home and bake bread, or little mouse turn out to be a ferocious fighter, a la Martin the Warrior. Choosing your animal species would be part of the app process, and the options available would come off a list, which might induce other restrictions, such as starting location, capabilities, and of course an explanation for why you picked that particular creature.
It might even be interesting to have a factional element where characters would arrive one of several ways: getting lost somewhere and being found wandering in the woods, waking up to total darkness and wandering deep in underground tunnels, or washing up onto a beach just outside a certain mountainous stronghold. They would be introduced to several factions based on their starting location, who might initially be at odds with one another, and upon a breakdown in normal diplomacy would employ player-characters as a sort of proxy, whether for violence, trade, or cultural exchange. That might be a bit too complicated, though, and would depend primarily upon the number of players— too few, and no amount of factions works well. In any case, best to start with just the one.
The overarching plot could have several phases with each unlocking more options, locations, and/or starting factions. Each of these would take place over several events, with reveals happening more quickly in the first year, but slowing down as things became more established. For example, players would begin in a purely Redwall-type setting, with good and evil creatures, limited travel, and an overall disempowered atmosphere, but would have to deal with a scourge of pirate-type rats who are seasonally incurring upon the peaceloving creatures and must be fended off. Having discovered the strange newcomers (and their unusual knowledge and capabilities) these rats would then spread this knowledge to other factions outside the immediate geographic area, leading to a rat enjoy from a community of NIMH-style rats who, though they are not hostile with the "redwall" creatures, are equally non-hostile to the pirate rats. Then the Thorn Valley location would open up, and players might begin appearing as rats thereafter.
Similarly, there could be multi-stage events within this large unlocking: The build-up of tension and supplygathering, keeping watch, being told that this happens every year. Then there's the attack itself, with the pirats penetrating deep into the good guys defenses and only being fended off by jamjar characters superpowered knowledge and potential actual superpowers. Maybe a clean-up phase afterwards, with the potential for finding suspiciously familiar treasures among the trash and detritus— though oversized, with canon-transplated objects being the correct relative size to the creatures that characters have become. Are there humans in this world? What does any of it mean?
ect ect, the usual jamjar mystery probably being the result of some magical amulet or whatever works best.
no subject
Player-Characters could either be AU'd versions of themselves into the setting, or a more normal Jamjar type experience, but in all cases they would inhabit the form of a woodland creature suitable for the setting, chosen according to their personality or other character traits. Particularly cunning characters might become rats, or weasels, big beefy guys or people who spring readily into a fight could be badgers, gentle folks become small rodents or bunnies, or you could even play against type and have a wolverine prefer to stay home and bake bread, or little mouse turn out to be a ferocious fighter, a la Martin the Warrior. Choosing your animal species would be part of the app process, and the options available would come off a list, which might induce other restrictions, such as starting location, capabilities, and of course an explanation for why you picked that particular creature.
It might even be interesting to have a factional element where characters would arrive one of several ways: getting lost somewhere and being found wandering in the woods, waking up to total darkness and wandering deep in underground tunnels, or washing up onto a beach just outside a certain mountainous stronghold. They would be introduced to several factions based on their starting location, who might initially be at odds with one another, and upon a breakdown in normal diplomacy would employ player-characters as a sort of proxy, whether for violence, trade, or cultural exchange. That might be a bit too complicated, though, and would depend primarily upon the number of players— too few, and no amount of factions works well. In any case, best to start with just the one.
The overarching plot could have several phases with each unlocking more options, locations, and/or starting factions. Each of these would take place over several events, with reveals happening more quickly in the first year, but slowing down as things became more established. For example, players would begin in a purely Redwall-type setting, with good and evil creatures, limited travel, and an overall disempowered atmosphere, but would have to deal with a scourge of pirate-type rats who are seasonally incurring upon the peaceloving creatures and must be fended off. Having discovered the strange newcomers (and their unusual knowledge and capabilities) these rats would then spread this knowledge to other factions outside the immediate geographic area, leading to a rat enjoy from a community of NIMH-style rats who, though they are not hostile with the "redwall" creatures, are equally non-hostile to the pirate rats. Then the Thorn Valley location would open up, and players might begin appearing as rats thereafter.
Similarly, there could be multi-stage events within this large unlocking: The build-up of tension and supplygathering, keeping watch, being told that this happens every year. Then there's the attack itself, with the pirats penetrating deep into the good guys defenses and only being fended off by jamjar characters superpowered knowledge and potential actual superpowers. Maybe a clean-up phase afterwards, with the potential for finding suspiciously familiar treasures among the trash and detritus— though oversized, with canon-transplated objects being the correct relative size to the creatures that characters have become. Are there humans in this world? What does any of it mean?
ect ect, the usual jamjar mystery probably being the result of some magical amulet or whatever works best.