the masses thirst for the smallest drop of wank

[socksuke_uchiha]

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GAME IDEAS

[socksuke_uchiha]

[(Anonymous)]

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.

[(Anonymous)]

i never read redwall or anything but i get the gist and this actually sounds really cute and fun! i like the idea of there being some faction elements and having the type of animal be tied to that and actually relevant to your experience in the setting and not just flavor.

[(Anonymous)]

i read the redwall books as a kid and this plot idea is so nostalgic i love it sm!!!! turning dwrp into furries 2k24

[(Anonymous)]

this sounds so fun! i love redwall and these types of books and this idea has got a lot of appeal.

one thing i can see putting people off though is that some people might assume that it requires different icons or might find it weird to rp an animal while using human expressions in icons. finding icons suitable to the new version of their character might seem like too much work.

to help this you could see if you could provide some sets of icons for various creatures or link to resources for icon making.

alternatively you could make it a more heavily oc experience and encourage players to roll up their own original character and fit them into the setting. you could have a character building post like enable me please where players can bounce ideas off each other.

[(Anonymous)]

op here!

It was my thought that, at the least, I would provide a few links to some kind of icon options, but I've also been looking into what it would take to make a picrew that might serve the purpose, thanks to you pointing out this exact hurdle.

Ultimately, it's always going to be a challenge; if you want your setting to be about little woodland animals, you're going to have to cope with the setting having pretty much just little woodland animals!

[(Anonymous)]

not me thinking about warriors and silverwing as soon as you mentioned redwall and watership down. my elementary school reading list oh noooooo. also realizing just now that i recently got into another series (very cozy, not nearly as harrowing as the four mentioned series lol) that's all about the woodland critters so i guess some things change but one remains a furry for life. goddammit.

anyway...

making animals locked behind factions that can be added over time is an interesting concept, but i imagine locking some animals behind plot/progress walls might be discouraging for some people. it might help to have a list of available options for people to choose from to start? or making it so that a limited amount of a certain one can appear.

the biggest hurdle from the moderating side might be figuring out how to get npcs to work for people to interact with in this setting and how to keep the plot moving in a setting that would be heavily reliant on player driven plot beats. the biggest one on the player side is either convincing them that AUs are okay or that they don't need animal icons BUT WHAT IF- but i would love to see this sort of thing too.

[(Anonymous)]

OP here:

Your point about the animal options is well received!

One reason why I was thinking that starting in a more "standard/normal" Redwall-themed faction/region/geopoliticalwhatever would be that it would have a decent variety on the starting list of optional creatures: Mice, Moles, Shrews, Hedgehogs, Skunks, Turtles, Badgers, Squirrels, Raccoon, Possum, etc. A wretchedly North American collection, I know.

I have considered the idea of a "species cap" meant to preserve a rational ratio of various critters. It is more fun if there's a lot of variety, rather than some kind of overwhelming badger super-majority or something. Right?

On the other hand, maybe that's all just overcomplicating it a bit; I'd think of that as being more on the order of a secondary game mechanics question, something to keep in mind, and consider for if/when the game's population starts skewing unbalanced. Until it's a problem, it's not a problem, after all.


I also agree that keeping the plot moving would present challenges; it's a pretty bucolic kind of a genre, overall, and prone to narrative stagnation. Ther's a tendency on Jamjar games to try and lean on the central mystery of "oooeeeeewooo how did we get jamjarred!" as a motivating factor, but I don't think that's as compelling for players as it might (rationally) be for their characters.

My initial thoughts are a month with a more chill event, like a seasonal activity, cultural exchange, preparation/recovery/exploration related to previous or upcoming events..... followed by a more intense and action-heavy event the next month, alternating on and off like that.

For example: It's harvest season right now, and so there would be lots of concerns in an agrarian society like the one we're discussing surrounding the oncoming winter. Not getting the harvest in, the foraging gathered, and enough stores put away isn't just a cute activity, it's life or a slow, agonizing death by starvation. Players who've chosen creatures that hibernate might find themselves plagues by bouts of alternating insomnia and narcolepsy, and might need to be rescued from wherever they end up passing out. Preserving so much food is an all-paws-on-deck(hehe) activity, and people who've never heard of canning before are going to have to learn in a hurry or risk being ostracized. And to cap off the month, there's a big party! Dancing! Pumpkin feast! Cute cultural play featuring all the community's children telling a definitely not forshadowing spooky halloween story about frost ghosts that try to kill people all the time!

And then next month frost ghosts start trying to kill people! Oh no! What was the plot of that play and how did they fend them off again?


In any case, I've never moderated a game before! I'm not sure how well I might do. It's quite nervewracking to think about it.

[(Anonymous)]

I LOVE this idea and would be all over it! I've got a journal for Tagg from The Taggerung and I've often thought about how much fun it would be to AU my Viking warrior as a very angry wolverine. I will say you're going to have a niche audience for this sort of thing, and the last time I was in a completely AU faction game about seven years ago, what caused it to die is that there just weren't enough people to sustain the different factions. So maybe also consider ways to keep the game going if you've only got, say, ten players.

[(Anonymous)]

OP here:

Well, I was thinking it would have the *option* to AU your characters, simply having the slightly more normal jamjar experience of a character waking up one day to find that now they're a rabbit for some reason is certainly an option.

So it would be a hybrid type situation, to my mind.

Still, you have a good point! It isn't exactly the kind of idea that has mass appeal the way that the Big Boy games do... though maybe that's a good thing? I've never moderated a game before, and I'm much less intimidated by the idea of being "niche" than otherwise.

[(Anonymous)]

like other anons, I think this idea seems incredibly fun!

also, I want to toss the ttrpg Wanderhome your way as potential additional inspo: it combines a cozy-looking framework with some more complex and unsettling background lore that emerges as part of generating locations to visit, and I could see both halves of that being really fun with the kind of game you're describing!

[(Anonymous)]

OP here:

Oh, I've heard of Wanderhome! It looked really cool. I'll have to read up on it in more detail. Thank you for the reccomendation. :)

[(Anonymous)]

Curious which game premise would be more interesting these days.

Urban fantasy

Or

Sci-Fi/Space Adventures

[(Anonymous)]

for me personally, urban fantasy. sci-fi would have to have a pretty interesting gimmick to draw me in. i've tried a few and never really enjoyed them.

[(Anonymous)]

for mass appeal, urban fantasy

for something fresh in the current landscape, space

[(Anonymous)]

I feel like we have more space games right now?

da

[(Anonymous)]

which? only one i can think of top of my head is the revival project.

also da

[(Anonymous)]

there's an au/memloss game on a spaceship that opened like last month i think

[(Anonymous)]

fr?

[(Anonymous)]

urban fantasy for sure.

[(Anonymous)]

urban fantasy. i'm turbo burned out on sci-fi settings by this point.

[(Anonymous)]

Urban fantasy where the fantasy is out in the open, ‘our world except secret magic is there’ is played out.

Otherwise space.

[(Anonymous)]

fantasy that remains fantasy, not suddenly sci-fi