[Azure Dusk] Brainstorming

[Daniel Solis]

Okay, the forum is about to close, but I wanted to get some real quick ideas for Azure Dusk now that a few people have expressed interest in seeing it developed further. In case you missed the original post...

Azure Dusk
In a cosmos filled entirely with water, there are no traditionally discernible directions of up, down, left, or right. There isn't even any gravity. Instead, there are two directions, on one side is a realm filled with blinding light, on the other is smothering darkness. The two realms blend into each other in a vast, liquid gradient. Directly between the extremes is a ribbon of blue where dolphins swim, practicing their choir-oriented magics and fending off invasions of the horrors emerging from both the light and dark realms.

Players would be dolphins.... Doing... something. I dunno. The whole idea of this setting really calls out to me though, and I want to do something with it. I see pods of dolphins racing around coral cities grown from the massive skeletons of ancient leviathans, singing powerful song magics and going on adventures for adventure's sake, rather than profit or "advancement." I guess it's sort of a RPG version of the Ecco video games.

For a moment, I thought about making it a d20 game and the characters' alignment would be reflected as a sort of gravity. If you're edging towards the "good" end of things, you're pulled more heavily to the light realm, where your individuality is discorporated into the collective. If you become "evil," you're pulled to the dark realm and perpetual, maddening loneliness. I was even thinking about expanding the game to include other "races" of sea mammals as player characters, but I wasn't too sure about that.

So I'm just looking for any ideas: system, central themes of play, color elements, anything. I'm open to all suggestions.

[Emily Care]

Daniel,

Post this over in indie-games or rpg theory.  Don't want it to get cut off when this forum turns back into a pumpkin. :)

--Emily

[Daniel Solis]

I didn't know if it would be appropriate for either of those forums. I'll post it in the indie design forum though. Thanks!

EDIT: The thread is here now.

[anonymouse]

You have too many cool side-project ideas that don't get finished, man. ;) *looks longingly at G&S*

On-topic.. ECCO is definitely what I think of first, and that's pretty cool. It's a great visual, and I really enjoyed the games.

Goals of play would probably be something like: have an interesting adventure to while away the time.

..actually, this does remind me of G&S, just with a different focus. Instead of "heroic tribal story" it's more like "amusing diversion/life". If that makes any sense. Same kind of family structure, same kind of life.

I dunno, I've always seen dolphins as being rather happy animals. That, coupled with your desire for "Adventure for adventure's sake" leads me to..

GM-type: "Okay, this is a game of whatever. Remember when you were kids, bored in the backyard, and someone started up some crazy make-believe adventure? It's that, except now you're dolphins instead of astronauts or cowboys, and the entire universe is a sea."
D1: "Mm.. I'm checking out that coral reef!"
D2: "Aaand.. there's a shark in there!"
D3: "Shark widda laser!"

And off they go.

Themes would probably be things like familiy and friendship, discovering the unknown and the legendary.. "full lives". Live an -interesting- dolphin life.

Anyway, I'd play it in a heartbeat. The alignment/gravity rating would be an interesting thing to adjust after each adventure. The scale might govern the type of magic you do, and your appearance (KOTOR/Jedi?), in addition to the kinds of things you can bring into an adventure. Light characters have lots of "shining knights"; Heavy characters have the more "mature" storyline stuff to draw on.

Just thinking out loud here..

EDIT: This got posted before Daniel edited in the new link. Discussion of can go back over there! ;)