WiP Idea: "Snake in the Grass" (MC is a snake)

Hosted Games Works In Progress
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Since you mentioned that this a game about animals creating a society I couldn’t help but think of this picture.

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My MC: Sir Talion Cottonmouth of the Pinewood meadows, first of his name and magistrate of the forest realm.

I’m imagining this game to be like an animal version of old timey Europe except that instead of taking lands during war you decide who gets eaten. When all these smaller nations were gobbled up by larger nations they’d cease to exist, now it’s happening the same way here just with actual eating of the losers.

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@Johnny101, Yep I obviously agree, and I want to see how many forum folks share your view of being open to an unusual MC. There’s no point in writing a story that no one would want to read. That being said, I know the forum folks are a tiny bit of the overall audience, but it’s still a decent barometer.

@Razgriz, I love the style of that illustration, and its blend of fantasy with just a bit of realism.

*My animals will be naked. My snake will not wear a little jacket like Sir Hiss.

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I love this concept. I like coming up with strategies. I see MC as a mean enforcer like The Big Bad Wolf in the Wolf Amoung Us games.

I think that since a new society based on humans is forming, all of the species specific male and female societal differences can be largely ignored. But, the biological aspect should be retained.

[details=rambles] Both herbivore and carnivore will starve if carnivores aren’t allowed to eat meat. The herbivores would suffer from overpopulation and lack of food due to that and no one would be happy. So, the issue is creating a system of prey harvesting that doesn’t lead the herbivores to riot.

Birth procedures, dating, and sexuality would play an important role.

The MC could tell the prey to be like China and limit the number of children to two per female and all extra young could be eaten by carnivores. But, prey culture is heavily rooted in having a lot of kids and that would make the prey unhappy, although they wouldn’t have to worry about their two children surviving to adulthood.

Sexuality could be targeted. The encouragement of same sex couples, interspecies relationships, and other things that don’t result in children would fix the prey overpopulation problem while resulting in less prey opposition because they have more freedom. (stricter reins on mating could accomplish the same thing, but would probably have greater opposition given prey mating rituals). This, by itself, does not address the predators getting fed.

The animals could starting hunting humans as the new prey, but the animals wouldn’t immediately be technologically advanced enough for this. Criminals could be fed to predators (or the criminals could be forced to mate and their offspring kept as a constant food suply), but I don’t think this is a good idea as crime would probably be low and mostly done by predators who killed other animals. The most useless species could be kept as a good source, but this is bad because snakes who have no limbs to work with and are only capable of talking are obviously the most useless in the new world.

The beat way to deal with the predators, in my opinion, is to employ them. They shall be the doctors and the undertakers. They can clear the land of dead, injured, and those too old to work. The scavengers would like this, but those who prefer to hunt and don’t like an easy meal might have a problem. This is where the encouragement of sexual freedom comes in; the predators can fufil their needs in concenting, non-lethal predator prey relationships. [/details] And, they all lived happily ever after.

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Are you truly proposing that my MC Lord Cottonmouth will not be wearing the finest of silks?! For shame sir,for shame.:wink:

It was mentioned that the gender will only be the colour of the snake and that it will have no actual standing during the game. But does that mean that there will be no gender choice at all? That may have been confusing.

I suppose what I’m asking is will we still be able to be called “he/she” or will it simply be MC name/ they?

Oh and if you make this game does that mean you have to change your profile picture to a snake until the next community college hero comes out?:laughing:

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@Sovereign2Lilith, Yes your MC could be mean, and your position as magistrate does give you power…more power than you’ve ever had, considering your mediocre position in life. And biology…instincts…the need for resources…fighting against natural inclinations to become “more advanced,” all would be issues.

@Razgriz, no finest silks for you! Unless…after the very last scene…sort of an “end credits” thing…your MC slithers up to some discarded human clothing at the edge of a settlement…and crawls right into a puffy shirt and rises up, and says, to no one in particular, “Oh I could get used to thissss,” hinting at a future sequel where the animals grow to wear clothes and look more like the animals in the pic you posted.

I wouldn’t think gender should make any difference storywise, but yeah why not toss it in as a skin variable? No harm, no foul. And yeah the same goes for pronouns.

No no no no no CCH is still my baby and I’m spending 96% of my free time on it. I’m finishing a big battle scene and I’m soon taking a week-long vacation to focus entirely on CCH and move the draft process forward.

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That sounds really really interesting actually. From there it turns into a Rise of the planet of the Snakes movie. Damn it Eric now you’ve got me excited for another game. I swear you and @Cataphrak love to hype up your main series then throw a curveball series like this or The hero of Kendrickstone that leaves us wanting more of both. You’re both evil evil men for showing us such wondrous stories then making us wait. :wink: Honestly I’m really excited to see how you’ll play this story out.

Ah that is very nice to hear. I usually play a male MC in most games I play so I enjoy for my character to be referred to as a male. Even if it adds nothing to the story the added immersion and depth are both appreciated.

On a different note I take it we’ll have to be wary of any Kingsnakes (if we meet any) that we run across as they eat even poisonous snakes such as the diamond back rattlesnake.

Well then I suppose you now know what you must do. You must add a side hero/villain that is a full fledged snake man that’ll either aid or fight them in the final book. :wink:

Btw this is a bit off topic but you mentioned that you had done a convention not to long ago. If you decide to do another one perhaps bringing other side stories like this one or others that you have rolling around may help attract attention to your booth. Not everyone is interested in superheroes but you might find a few people interested in the adventures of a snake.
Or perhaps let people pitch ideas to you. You know, something to engage them.

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Rise of the Snakes! I had forgotten how much I enjoyed the new Planet of the Apes movies! Yes, those movies would definitely be an influence as well.

@Cataphrak may in fact be evil (I cannot speak for him) but I view myself as more of a “good cop” kind of person. You know, the reasonable one. It’s just that I have been thinking about this particular story for quite some time and I am excited about the potential. Truth be told, I may end up pitching it in another format to a different audience if I don’t think it would go over well as a HG. We’ll have to see.

Yes, our meager rat snake is preyed upon by other snakes, as well as hawks and other predators. We’ll have to keep our eyes alert from danger from above or slithering on the ground right us.

And yeah I like the idea of having different offerings/genres. It just takes a lot of time to build it up. I also have an idea for a “lawyer-based CCH prequel” that would explore the rise of the Zeniths and all the new legal issues they cause. It would focus on superhero lawsuits and criminal proceedings, and we’d see how police interact with the heroes (and villains) in the old “Wild West” of the Speckverse. I’d start writing that tomorrow if I had the time.

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What!? A CoG where you can play as an animal ohhhh sounds really interesting I always like when you can play as a different species, fantastic creatures, monsters, animals…
You have my fully support, if you, not the author, but the one who is reading this is thinking, whoa, what a freak…
Well you are free to think whatever you want, World will be boring if everyone thinks the same

⌒(o＾▽＾o)ノ

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Hey! I am very reasonable!

Call the assassins, examples must be made.

I’m not big on animals, but you all know I love me some politics. Following this one with interest.

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Thus Snakes of Infinity was born.

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[quote=“Razgriz, post:30, topic:19119, full:true”]
Thus Snakes of Infinity was born.[/quote]

It writes itself. Snaaaaaaaakes of Infinityyyyy! Just like CCH Versus Zombie Exodus: Nebraska Bites it!

And @Cataphrak, I didn’t meant to imply that you were unreasonable, although upon a second reading, I can see that I was less than clear. I meant I was more reasonable than most other people (including hipsters, Republicans and people running around catching virtual egg monsters).

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Oh no, of course not! I’m glad we cleared that up.

scrub the op, and dispose of the amonita somewhere untraceable..

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By anthropic, what do you mean? Is it along the lines of ‘the snakes talks’, ‘it is a person with scales’, or something in between? I’m much more partial to the former than the latter, or else for something like how Anansi is displayed… if I get vibes of a typical ‘furry’-esque sort of anthropomorphism where it’s a scaly person with scary teeth, I’m probably going to jump ship.

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Sounds right up my alley.

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@Cataphrak, I’m also pleased that tensions have eased.

cancels request for Facebook Mega Cat to eliminate all threats, real and imagined

(Facebook Mega Cat is the most powerful entity in the entire HG/CoGverse. Ask anyone.

@DenPobedy, As far as appearance, think the new Jungle Book movie but with woodland animals. No clothes. No walking on two legs. No pop culture slang.

@Beezlebub, The more I think about the story, the more likely I am to spend a few days doing a demo (and I really shouldn’t do that)

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I know you mentioned a couple schools of thought in utilitarianism and natural law, but I’m wondering if you could elaborate more on how you intend to make the game philosophical.

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Being a normal snake really interests me :grinning:
Snakes are quite interesting creatures.

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@baconro, I think setting up any new political or economic system will involve thinking about the underlying philosophy of the system. Do bigger, smarter animals like raccoons, foxes, bears, etc., have more “worth” than more lowly animals like snakes, turtles, etc? Who decides that? Do they all have equal rights? What rights do they have anyway?

How are resources distributed? Does anyone really “own” the berries, mushrooms, grasses, etc? Will that change in the new system? And what about the carnivores? We all know what they must eat to survive. They won’t sign onto a new “system” unless their needs are met, so what is that going to look like? (hint: it won’t look pretty)

@RyseAbove, snakes actually creep me out a LOT. I’m still trying to think of a story where a snake is a “good guy.”

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There was this one fairy tale in which there was a young shepherd and a blue snake. The snake didn’t attack him though, and they ended up talking and sharing food. Turns out that the blue snake was actually a princes cursed by an evil wizard. (So, yeah, not an actual snake after all.) The details are a bit fuzzy. I’ll see if I can find it.

Edit:

Still haven’t found the story I was looking for, but did find two others that sort of fit the bill.

Binacabella and the Snake
The Enchanted Snake

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The Jungle Book. The real, actual book[s], that is, not the Disney one (or the Disney one). Or the Animals of Farthing Wood, in which one of the main characters is a snake. In both cases, the characters are somewhat cold and alien, but they’re definitely not villains. (It often seems sad to me that mammalian predators are given such good treatment in fiction, while snakes are generally just made villains without any real reason, as in the Disney Jungle Books.)

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