This time we are talking about signature characters. The way that I design my games gives a lot of room to wiggle, so I like to include example characters, not only for pregens to use at con or quickplay options, but also as a way for players to see what a character could be. Since we’ve discussed Shadow Valley, I thought I’d give some idea of the sig character that area. His name is Cube.
Cube is a kid about 10 or 11 years old, dark skinned with short hair and a determined expression. He lives in Shadow Valley, so he’s well equipped to deal with anything that happens on his travels. The flack jacket and tactical knife have been pilfered from the corpse of a security officer; his jury-rigged glove requires an external battery pack to function. I has goggles resting on his forehead, a scar on his cheek and a gas mask that can be used for clean breathable air whenever Cloud Nation lets out its exhaust.
We spent the last couple of weeks narrowing down sketches and have ended on this really awesome piece. The idea we have is for Cube to have an insect-type monster. Playing around with the name “ShockRoach” as we’re wanting it to be a lightning insect, possibly ridable like a surfboard. Sketches of that as we go along. Again. this is all in the works.
Until next time.
With all this monster-y goodness, it would be awesome to host some kind of monster design contest, and see what comes up.
Oh yeah, there’s definitely going to be some sort of monster deign element to it. I’m thinking i want to get all the rest of my own ideas on paper first and then possibly have a Kickstarter level that allows backers to have their very own monsters in the game. All this is still in development, so the sky’s the limit with possibilities for the future.
So, not knowing too much of what you have in mind, I wanted to point out one of the potentials that your Sinister idea creates. Basically… why, in Pokemon is always creature vs. creature? Certainly in a more sinister version of that reality would have the trainers engaging in the fights too. So what about creatures that act in concert with their ‘trainers’, forming pseudo-equipment or otherwise granting advantages to their trainers rather than engaging themselves?
True. The way that Sinister is building, your trainers will be capable as well, so there’s no worry for you to not be able to act just because you don’t have a monster out. On the other hand, the goal is to win battles to get to Cloud Nation and shaming your opponent (not just outright slaughtering them, although some do that i’m sure) is the way to get the Cloud’s attention. I hadn’t thought of the pseudo-equipment type monsters. I’ll have to look into that and how it would apply to the world that i’m building, but that seems a little gimmicky at first thought.
The only response I have is to the ‘gimmicky’ comment. Biotech is actually a fairly common science fiction theme (eg: Farscapes’ Leviathans, Star Wars extended universe’s Yuuzhan-Vong). Still if you think it doesn’t fit, fair enough; it’s your game.