Hello there everyone. As you can see, I'm kinda new on this particular forum, and I hope that I don't immediately seem to far out of step with the general tone of this place.

I've toyed with some game design stuff in the past, including an abortive attempt at Game Chef 2009. This year I intend to finish something or another, however.

I want to create a game that tackles a few of these world concepts head on:

*A semi-modern fantasy world
*Every character has a place in society, no wandering adventurers
*The idea of little bits of magic and wierdness touching everything

And some preliminary thoughts on theme...

Theme:
Journey to me implies starting in one place, and ending in another. This may be literal travel between locations, or a more internal journey. Or even both.

City: This informs the setting a lot, either one or multiple cities. A place where a lot of people are gathered and live.

Desert:A harsh environment, with a lot of conflict over reasources. I'm taking this pretty literally, with the game set in a literal desert.

Edge: So, if there's a city in the middle of a desert, it's always living on the edge of survival. An urban landscape surrounded by the harsh world. And of course, the cusp of something changing.

Skin: Skin is a kind of edge, really. The edge of your body before it becomes not your body. When skin is broken, this is a problem. Germs enter, and want to eat what's inside of your skin, the part that's more important. So, what 'germs' want to get inside a city's skin?

Anyway, I hope I'm not posting to early, and that this stuff sounds potentially intriguing.

Good luck, everyone.

Germs that want to get inside a cities skin: what about criminals. Criminals make a pretty good analogy for germs if your looking at the city as organism.

Welcome to the Forge!

If you wanted to further the "Skin of the City" venue, you may wish to consider a siege-type of situation or perhaps smugglers.  The kinds of characters which the city as a whole wants to keep outside of the skin of the city.

Luck!