Rodendom : First Look

[Nathan]

Hi folks,

All I can say is that I have been blessed with the writing bug. Here is a first rough look at Rodendom, the "Secret of Nimh-ish" game of a kingdom of rodents in a backyard somewhere. It has some Arthurian echoes. I remember checking out someone else's work on an arthurian game w/ furries, and I don't remember who that was. *sigh* It's late.

EDIT: James West, you dumb silly late night game designer guy. James, if you read this, let me know what you think. I liked the Questing Beast BTW. :)

But, boy do I have fun with this.

Only included so far is the basic background of the game, rodent creation, and just a couple of basic rules. If you notice by now, I use mostly the same rules for each of my games, with tweaks to try to make them a bit more tailored to each. I am more interested in getting my ideas down than in worrying about the system so much at first.

http://www.mysticages.com/Rodendom.rtf

I bought the Secret of Nymh DVD the other day, and I could not get through even a quarter of it without freaking out and thinking about the game. Really cool show... (Also, always has a place in my heart because it was the first cartoon I ever watched that said "damn"... which was pretty cool when I was 10 years old or whatever.)

Alright, let me know what you think.

Thanks,
Nathan Hill

[Lance D. Allen]

If you must borrow from "The Secret of Nimh", please, borrow from "The Secret of Nimh" rather than from the movie, Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of Nimh. The movie wasn't particularly bad, but... the book was immensely better... and there was a sequel, though I cannot remember it's title right off the top of my head which was pretty good too.

[Christoffer Lernö]

Haha, so far it looks cool. I only glanced through it, but it feels like something I want to try out. Definately. Go for it.

[Tim Denee]

I'm having trouble seeing Hamsters as mighty warriors. They're so... fat. Rats I can see as warriors (big, lean, powerful, vicious).

What I think might be interesting is if the story stopped after the second(?) battle, when King Whitetail and the adventurers set off. What if the players always played that original adventure, and chose from amongst set characters (with a few tweakable options here and there)?
    Like an InSpectres adventure, half the fun would be in finding out your group's ending to the story. I mean, let's face it, this ain't going to be an extended-play kind of game anyway, so you might as well make it maximum fun/minimum prep time.

[Nathan]

Sorry for mispelling NIMH.

I'm having trouble seeing Hamsters as mighty warriors. They're so... fat. Rats I can see as warriors (big, lean, powerful, vicious).

Hmmmm... I don't know. Does anyone remember when Wick was talking about how he was going to design Warhamster the RPG? Heh. In any event, I can see your point, but I still figure because of a hamster's bulk, they would be very tough opponents.

What I think might be interesting is if the story stopped after the second(?) battle, when King Whitetail and the adventurers set off. What if the players always played that original adventure, and chose from amongst set characters (with a few tweakable options here and there)?
    Like an InSpectres adventure, half the fun would be in finding out your group's ending to the story. I mean, let's face it, this ain't going to be an extended-play kind of game anyway, so you might as well make it maximum fun/minimum prep time.

This is a really good idea. I like it. I may use it in some manner. My next step was to take a more of a top down approach and talk about all the fantastic sights and places in Rodendom. Despite the defeat of the Beatle-Horrors, we know they are going to return. And what about Shadow? Surely he can't be dead. I had other tidbits too - such as a cult of rodents who worship the mighty fungus, an aging dog named Rex, and more.

My point of the story is to introduce Rodendom and then tell the readers exactly what their characters should do. I may need more detail in that though.

Here are two more inspirations for this:

My mother told me when I was boy she would often tell me stories to get me to go to sleep. The stories would be about a tin soldier that lived in my pocket and would come out and take me on adventures. I don't remember but very little of it all, but that is the feel I am going for.

Also, my favorite Tom & Jerry episode ever was the one where they are battling ala a war movie. What is so cool is that they have all these household appliances and use them as their war machines. Jerry uses a cheese grater like a tank or something, and he has a big hideout and pipes as like binoculars or something. Man, very cool!

In any event, I have a new system I thought up while taking a shower this morning. I am going to try it out.

Thanks,
Nathan Hill
nathan@mysticages.com

[Le Joueur]

I'm not sure where this is going, but have you looked into the Redwall series by Brian Jacques?  It's all about 'animals' in a 'medieval world.'  Never read it; just my bookseller roots showing.  Food for thought.

Also, my favorite Tom & Jerry episode ever was the one where they are battling ala a war movie. What is so cool is that they have all these household appliances and use them as their war machines. Jerry uses a cheese grater like a tank or something, and he has a big hideout and pipes as like binoculars or something. Man, very cool!

The cheese-grater/skate was a jeep not a tank.  I loved the 'hen grenades' and the 'light bulb bombing run' ending with the banana.  Unfortunately, when they show it during the day on Cartoon Network, you get the butchered, politically correct version that makes it look like violence for no reason (and only a few of the nighttime showings are 'uneditted').

This was always one of the classics for 'cartoon physics' discussions.  You know, how any two tubes held in parallel to the eyes magnifies vision and a pipe with two elbows bends light just like a periscope.  Road Runner cartoons took this to surreal 'high art' with the 'painted tunnels.'  Believe it or not, we've been collecting these for a premium to be only available on the Scattershot website as a set of Genre Expectations.  If you want to reminisce about those 'toon physics, just shoot me a Personal Message (That goes for anyone who's 'into it.')

Fang Langford