Game-Making Consternation
I've been -extremely- inspired, as of late, to work on my battle monster system that's been coming along really well for the past few weeks. I've been doing some great concept/worldbuilding and getting the cheesy anime-reference/type terminology hammered out for maximum cuteness (and to maintain the cheesy-but-cute stereotype of the genre!)
Then, last night, it hit me! I now had to choose between two MAJOR choices, and what I choose will radically effect the rest of the game's construction, feel and theme as a whole! Looooong story short, (I'm omitting details and mechanics for various reasons) I'm wrestling between making them creatures based off of Magic, or Data. I feel (especially as a Druid) that technology and magic are at the opposite sides of the "External Adapting to your environment" scale. I don't want them together, because I strongly dislike worlds/stories/environments when both are put together, and work together... Based on my views on how they're both polar opposites, to me, I feel like it's just a writer/creator trying to have the best of both worlds.
For Magic, this will give me more creative room to move around in, and I'd also be paving the way for a new approach that hasn't been done for the big-time battle monster genre. Alas, since it's made from Magic, everything would feel to be rather... Overly anime-ish (which, although the system is meant to be a tip-of-the-hat to the genre I REALLY don't want it to be viewed as anime-themed!) And being from a magical persuasion, this often leads to lazy writing, and too much Deus Ex Machina under the guise of "Because it's magic". I know that I could personally write the system and the world to fit appropriately to avoid that feeling, but since this is being made into a tabletop setting, I only have so much control as to where people (GM's and Players alike) take their games and worlds and explanations, after I set the general rules. We've all seen it happen... Someone gets lazy, and they want something cool to be involved, and instead of coming up with a good reasoning behind it, they just go "'Because Magic" I don't want my system to turn into that, and so it's why I'm heavily considering the alternative....
The other choice, is making the creatures come from Data, very similar in core concept, to Digimon. Digital monsters (although, to avoid copyright issues, they would be called something else) would be a lot more familiar, and more pleasant for newcomers to the system to observe, not only because of Digimon and it's well-recognized place in the genre, but also because data and computers are precise, measurable, and in this day and age, people feel more connected with computers because they all tend to know a little bit about them. When you say "They're made of bits and bytes of data" most people will go "Oooh! Like ones and zeroes!" And BAM, instant association equals instant subconscious connection which is a GREAT help to gain and keep interest in the system. This way, even though my creativity would be a bit more restricted (I'll have to keep everything themed to technology, which is FAR less fudge-able than Magic), I have a GIGANTIC base to work from, and players will generally catch on to the world and concepts a bit quicker, and I don't have to worry as NEARLY as much about 'suspension of disbelief', because their whole existence is based off of data, numbers and logic. The downsides are potential copyright issues, seeming like a copycat, and just... Limitations, because a lot has already been done with it, so I'm limited to trying to utilize things that haven't been used, instead. It's easier to work completely freely being able to use whatever I come up with, instead of always being on the alert, and checking around to make sure that the idea I just came up with, isn't something that was used in Digimon, that I'm just not yet aware of....
I've been building up on both ideas, to try and see if one falls short, which would easily help decide which way to take the system. Un/fortunately, they both are still working out alright, and I know that dividing my attention and creative purposes between the two projects (which will grow further and further apart), will lead to BOTH of them getting not enough of my focus, and it'll all be buggered :/
Man, revolutionizing a genre is SOOOOO complicated! D:
