Strange Nature WIP?

Hosted Games Works In Progress
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Started out as just a talk about werewolves and petting gags.

1XXX A.D.: You’ve been living in this boring paranoid town for a while and aside from all the noise every full moon night you haven’t really come across any sign of danger. Well there are some poisonous things out there but it’s not like they’re forcing themselves into your mouth.
While you have broken just about every piece of advice the townspeople have given you breaking the law is something you haven’t done but that noise that keeps you up has been going on for way too many years in this otherwise boring town. Why not just check it out once and for all?

2XXX A.D.: During a sleepover with your best friend you accidentally pet them and discovered monsters are real. What to do with this new information?

Some scarce details ahead.

Cursed: Whether from the direct involvement of spirits possibly generations ago or from someone they peeved trying a ritual they didn’t really know that much about these people usually have the hardest time with their monstrous natures.

Communers: Whether power seekers or new age druids trying to get in touch with their totem they literally asked for their monstrous natures. That doesn’t make it easy street though.

Naturals: They’ve had their whole lives to get used to their monstrous natures and their families are usually encouraging.

The list above is about different sources of monsters. Should “infected” be listed as its own thing?
Well lets get on to a list of reaction types.

Refuser: For even the most benign monster types these are ticking time bombs.

Mixer: Blending into society perfectly while still using their monstrous natures. They might even be using their monstrous natures TO blend in.

Indulgers: Embracing their monstrous natures so much that they come off as weirdoes or just creepy but still staying socially acceptable enough for the law.

Power Embracers: Egotistical braggarts that usually consider themselves above everyone else. They also never remember (and some don’t even look up) what their weaknesses are.

Wild Embracers: Whether they think they see some kind of duty to the planet or just a different lifestyle these try to discard their human selves. At least they know how not to get caught.

End listing.

I’m actually not sure what kind of direction to have the story head in.

At least I’m a decent coder.

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So are they two different story ideas?

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Do you mean those two time periods listed at the top? Well maybe I have some direction for the story.

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This sounds cool. What kind of interactions are there between the different sources of monsters?

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Well a Cursed could be jealous of… everyone.
Communers could be jealous of Naturals.
Naturals may pity Cursed.
Naturals could consider Communers wannabes.

Plenty of room for exceptions of course.

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Is the MC going to be a monster or just discover that they exist? The 1XXX section sounds like the former, but the 2XXX section sounds like the latter.

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They discover they exist. Sorry for the confusion.

Seeing as the 2XXX MC is supposed to face consequences from 1XXX MC maybe they could be a monster actually.

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This is cool I’ll stay tuned to see how it goes

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So we have sources of monsters and their reactions to being one but what about the types of monsters? It’s not like I could cram all of mythology into one story.

The setting will probably be an American town from back when superstition still had an iron grip on the general population.

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Question. Aside from social interaction is there any physical mental or mystical traits that stand out within these divisions?

Abilities or disabilities that can be picked out for each in human or beastial form?

Say how a pit bull is different from a wolf. Each has unique characteristics but they are still powerful canines.

Perhaps there are prices to be paid for control? Maybe a sect can influence other animals but not be able to speak as a human would.
Or another having like sixth sense but suffer from mild insanity.

Or yet another be completely Quadrapedal yet among the most gifted physically whilst others bipedal and retaining a certain amount of dexterity and presence of mind.

Just curious as to the extent of the differences between these critters.

Needless to say I believe there’s more play in terms of werewolf types than Hollywood.
Chupacabra
Wendigo
Lycan
Kilamanjaro??
These can all be considered a breed but there’s something to say for creative licence.

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Well Communers have their spirits on speed dial and Naturals can use their talents as easily as breathing or maybe making a fist (would make Natural Refusers the biggest time bomb of all if it happened).

I’d considered characters that gave up human speech but to “return to nature” but yeah they could get fluent in animal in exchange.

It actually takes more lower body strength to hold a bipedal stance but we are dealing with fiction here. A mellow quadruped could hold a presence of mind but of course not the dexterity.

Now let’s see these monster suggestions
Kangaroo hopping reptilian goat sucker or ridged wild dog thing? Well they are around the American area.
Man eating beast thing no one can agree on the full appearance of? Problematic but maybe workable.
A classic. Should I ask which interpretation?
Can’t seem to find whatever monster you’re referring to there but I’m certainly seeing a lot of entries about a mountain. I even tried putting “monster” in the search bar.

With so many people of European descent involved I was considering the 1XXX A.D. mayor turning out to be a vampire (bat monster instead of undead though).

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I wasn’t being terribly literal with those critters, but did the best explaining I could on break with a smart phone. BUT now I’m on a computer.

Anyway to elaborate.

Lets take the chupacabra for what it is, small and very elusive, could also be drawn as a parallel to the japanese Kitsune which is a supernatural figure aswell as a possible witch. SO with a little twisting, one can call this a form of lycanthropy.
So the Chupacabra/Kitsune could be the ‘small elusive’ types radical and near mystical shape changing abilities maybe.

Wendigo- is a late winter man eater and a TERROR so consider it the wolverine of werewolves, very strong, ugly and nigh unkillable though with little self control. Perhaps a seasonal beast? Or regulated by imbibing large quantities of meat inorder to maintain ones self control? And so seasons or periods of food shortage these maneaters have little choice.

Lycans: I much like the greek origins of this, Lycaon trying to trick a god was cursed with the form of a wolf. and lets say this is a very OLD bloodline, say dire-wolf old. Aka an animal nearly as big as a large pony. More majestic and ‘wolf-like’ the whole ‘I’m better than you kinda vibe’

I honestly can’t remember the name of the last one, but Kilamanjoro for some reason came to mind, simply because its like an african critter. I know its based around panthers and how men disappeared within the jungle. In this case one can take the ‘climate’ into account and create a warm weather jungle beast, nimble agile, kinda like underworld’s cat-wolf hyrid design or as one of the production guys called it in the dvd commentary ‘sexy’ werewolf. Upright and sleek design ect… this beasty being the tight spaces and shadowy sort.

We can even use places to name werewolves using history, I’ve always liked the name Wittlich, germanic town where one was purportedly killed. So the Wittlich breed could be your typical druid/english phase of the moon beasty. Maybe a rare and potent breed. Like you mentioned bipedal with greater control?

anyway I’m just shooting ideas because its a very fun subject to me. And yeah I know I’m not being historically copacetic but the wonderful thing about myths is that they bend with the time and the telling, so one can really muck with the little details as long as the ‘roots’ go undisturbed.

OOOoo your last statement could be a really interesting idea, perhaps he could be the last Wittlich werewolf? something for the player to grab onto, rarity and specialness that makes us all cozy when ging through these games.

hope you don’t mind my ramblings, and feel free to stop me if I run on too long.

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And one could claim Aesop had seen Kitsune to hand wave any non Japanese ones. Seeing a Chupacabra and a Satyr (or faun) try to get along could be a bit funny though.

Somehow you got me thinking about the antisocial butcher from Reemus. How large are we talking (quantities of meat I mean)?

Big as a large pony? I must’ve missed that part.

“panther” seems to bring up the whole library of big cats. The “black panther” is just a melanistic version of other big cats it seems.
There’s the Florida panther which lives in forests.
I actually rented that DVD way back.

That makes naming a bit easier.

Werewolf isn’t the only were word out there but yeah it could be something like that.