This is my dilemma. · 7:57am Sep 20th, 2016
I am intent upon creating an Ogres and Oubliettes story, one that takes place in the world of the game, rather than ponies playing the game. Why? Well, the reason is the same as the one I had for King Sombra and Changelings: It is territory with very little in the way of canon to get in the way. It is a blank canvas. And no one else has had the idea to do anything with it, or has tried to do a story with it. It is a new frontier, one with wide open spaces as far as the eye can see. I can do anything. I can do everything...
And there, perhaps, is the crux of my dilemma.
I have about a dozen ideas for my first story romping around in my old thinkpan, vying for dominance. Some serious, some goofy, some fun, some dark, some crazy. I can't do them all at once, but I have a prologue, a sort of foundation to work with. But I need to think about where to go from there.
I kinda have an idea for my first story, maybe. Perhaps some critique might help.
I'm just gonna type some stuff out here, so I won't forget it, and maybe it'll help me order my thoughts better.
Okay, the foundation I have, so far, is that a thousand years before the "current" Ogres and Oubliettes world, there were three city-states that ran the continent unopposed. Antiquia, an island acropolis of earth ponies. Arcanopolis, a seaside port city of unicorns. Cloudtop, a mountain bastion of pegasai. The three city states controlled a third of the continent, each, and each had secrets that they refused to share with the outside world. Amongst them were three special alloys: Orichalcum, the alloy of the earth ponies, was stronger than steel, but easily made from common metals, and required no magic to forge. Starlight Silver, an alloy of mythril that could only be forged through special magical rituals (Based on Tolkien's work, yes, mythril was a raw element, with an alloy forged by elves whose name translated to something kinda similar) and held enchantments like no other metal could. Avian Steel, a unique steel alloy that could only be forged by pegasai at incredibly high altitudes. The three races were divided by mutual distrust and paranoia, each coveting the others' secrets, and refusing to share theirs with others, an uneasy truce held due to respect for the military capabilities of their neighbors. Perhaps, in time, a truce would have formed, and the races of equinekind might have united as they did in Equestria.
However, then a calamity struck, and in the course of a single day, all three cities were wiped out. Nearly everyone died, and the few who did not did not possess knowledge of the great cities. This, the great secrets of the age were lost, and at the worst moment, for within a year after, the first oubliettes appeared. Oubliettes are dungeons, but not naturally occurring ones. Many formed suddenly, out of nowhere, and from them came monsters. Sometimes they formed in the middle of nowhere, other times in the middle of ruins of cities. Sometimes, they would form directly underneath a city, and start flooding the sewers with monsters No one knows why, or how. What is known is that there are treasures to be found within, and that if you wanted to stop the monsters pouring out, then you had to venture into the depths of these dangerous domains, and slay the lord of the oubliette. Historically, this has happened a few dozen times over a thousand years, but not enough to stem the tide of monsters that are emerging. Meanwhile, equines spend as much time fighting with each other as they do trying to conquer the oubliettes. Had equines been able to put aside their differences at the beginning, and unite, they might have not only been able to survive, but thrive, in the face of this adversity. Instead, by the time that equines were able to quit fighting amongst themselves, it was at the point where there was hardly anywhere else to go.
Spiketopia is the last city left, and things are looking grim, and for good reason. Garbunkle and his merry band have been able to hold off the various monsters seeking to end equinekind, but they are just one group, and sooner or later, they will fail (Total Party Kill, or their world's version of Wizards of the Coast comes up with a new edition that isn't connected to the current world, or they change to something like their world's version of Exalted. Regardless, something will happen and the Garbunkle crew will no longer be there to protect them). New heroes will be needed to save the city, restore the hope of the residents, and begin to make progress in reclaiming the continent from the forces of evil. However, it will be an uphill climb, especially since, even after one thousand years, no one knows what it was that sank the cities of yore, or caused the Oubliettes to appear, but whatever it is, it likely won't sit idle if it seems that ponykind might start to seriously save itself from extinction.
I have ideas for main characters, and I kinda wanna make them a party, rather than having them try to solo things.
The Ratter: The Ratter is a survivor of the only other city on the continent, before it fell: Trottingham. The city was destroyed due to a flood of giant rats, dire rats, and Lords Of The Rats that came flooding up from the sewers, under the direction of a King Of Rats. Unlike other monsters, rat monsters are not products of the Oubliettes, but rather what happens when normal rats eat the flesh of dead monsters. However, in spite of the testimony of The Ratter and a small number of other survivors, no one believes that giant rats could possibly be such a menace, and no one is willing to try and journey cross-country to Trottingham to confirm the existence of the Doom of Trottingham, due to the dangers involved. The Ratter, prior to the events of the story, has spent the years journeying through the sewers and the ruins beneath Spiketopia (Let's face it, every D&D city has monster infested sewers and some kind of ancient ruined city hidden underneath it, it is a universal constant), hunting specifically for the various types of giant rats, hoping that, by wiping them out before they can mutate to the King Of Rats stage, the Doom of Trottingham will not claim Spiketopia. A Ranger-type unicorn, uses weapons like firebombs, primitive flashbangs, and crossbows, in addition to a large dog as an animal companion.
Stalwart Sentry: This poor bastard was a town guard who ended up sleeping with the wrong mare, his commander's daughter (They were very drunk at the time), and ended up being stationed at the front gates of the city... on the outside, where monsters constantly came in search of sweet, delicious pony-flesh to eat. Someone has to keep the gate clear so it can be opened when the adventurers come in and out, and he has been stuck with that unenviable position. He has spent years at that post, fighting every day to stay alive, and has managed to do so, in spite of inferior equipment, little to no rest, and no backup whatsoever. Hasn't become an adventurer yet simply because the idea had not occurred to him. An earth pony tank/warrior type, he is able to take a beating, and has tremendous stamina due to having fought twelve hours a day, every day, for years.
Gorethyndryllos (Gore for short): An outsider and a dragon, he was born on another continent, and spent time adventuring there, but didn't get much fame or renown, in spite of his abilities, since his homeland isn't nearly as bad off as the equine continent is. One day, after getting spectacularly drunk, he received a "holy vision" that told him that while there weren't many monsters on the continent he lived on, if he journeyed across the sea, he'd find a continent filled with monsters to kill, treasure to claim, and more glory than he ever imagined. He got on a rowboat and rowed for twenty days and nights across the ocean, pausing only to sleep, eat, and punch out sea monsters along the way, before reaching his destination. He is crazy, but a silly, functional kind of crazy, and he also has a number of skills: Swordsmanship, blacksmithing, weapon and armor forging, potion brewing, and many other things besides. There's a reason for possessing all these skills: Due to a birth defect, he was born without claws or scales, and he has no teeth, so he learned to make substitutes out of steel. That same birth defect left him without fire breath, but he is great at producing large amounts of smoke, which can be surprisingly useful in battle. A warrior, obviously, but also the de facto party leader, and the guy who would bring the party together in the first place. The catalyst, you might say.
Still working on a third melee member, plus a party mage and healer, though, but this is a start, I think.
The healer should be some absolute nutjob. Maybe he/her can be someone really innocent looking and acting between strangers, but the entire party would fear him/her due to overagressive and downright sadist tendencies.
Or just have him/her constantly "sample" the medicines.
Or just have someone simply funny and loveable crazy, like the first emperor of the United states.
Or just have him/her be someone really not medic like, like a really obviously tsundere thief (I'm only healing you to because it would be a bother if you die), or a zombie. Yeah, having a rotting corpse mess around with wounds. What could go wrong?
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k yeah? "I was born without claws, fangs, or scales, so I forged them in fire and crafted tm of steel"?
Instead of a zombie, perhaps a cowardly unicorn that turned himself into a lich rather than die at Arcanopolis?
As for the listed heroes:
Ratter- he should be vindicated when the current party gets wiped by Rodents of Unusual Size.
Stalwart Sentry-hope he has cold weather gear with all that winter approaching.
Gore- so, humanity f
And incase you need ideas about a white mage....
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Though I do feel a slight mixing with the last two would make for some serious hilarity. Not saying the fore wouldn't be worth some serious laughs though
As for the mage... A Mr Torgue in fantasyland? There is nothing you cannot solve with the application of enough explosives after all. Doubly so if you can explode stuff with your mind. (S)He could have a character inspired by Skippy's list. As in "How the hell are you not beaten to death by your friends?"
does he have a french accent?
i mean,
are all dragons designed by France...so....yeah...
anyway, if its based on DnD, can we suggest races to add?
like the River Devil from 5.e homebrew?
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Not gonna lie, that just sounds plain amazing.
Also, I think going for a Wizard for your mage would be the best choice, since Sorcerers are just kinda like "I'm a do a magic" in D&D because they just have a lot of talent and don't really need much training, where as Wizards study for years. That and Wizards have access to every school of magic while Sorcerers have access to every one of them, except for 2 (to be chosen by the player at the start of the game). Or just make a necromancer like mage. That does tend to work out. Actually.... If you did go with the sadist healer, having a really kind and caring necromancer would be hilarious, at least to me....
And for a melee? I'd say a bard or a monk. You can have a lot of fun, playing as bards and it it fun to see what they can do. I said monk as a second choice but..... I don't really know that much about them....
Then again.... Bards aren't really all that melee... maybe a barbarian instead? or a druid?
The way you describe it sounds a lot like Oblivion (Elder Scrolls 4), with the Oubliettes acting as Oblivion Gates. Perhaps you could take some inspiration from that game, if you aren't already.
Well certainly not with that attitude. If anyone can combine all those ideas into something cohesive, it would be you.
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This is true. VERY true. Bucking is the only author I can think of that could do this and make it work, while both making it make sense and not make sense.
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Actually, the oblivion gates are portals to another world whereas the oubliettes sound more akin to planar bleed-over, which is what happens when the veil between planes is thin enough that things just "fall through".
This is glorious, and it's barely made it through the development stages.
Also, when you say Gore replaced his teeth, claws, and scales (or lack thereof) with steel, I got the strangest vision of a dragon with John DiMaggio's voice telling someone to "Bite [his] shiny metal ass!"
If you're having trouble with picking and choosing ideas, then just get a dartboard, tack the ideas on, and start throwing.
4219161 Six of one, half dozen of the other. The exact details don't really matter. Either way you have these mysterious gates with hordes of monsters flooding out of them causing disaster.
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More like a building that springs up out of nowhere, or maybe a building that suddenly changes radically in appearance, and the inside becomes something radically different from before. Think of something like Magi: The Labyrinth of Magic, or Is It Wrong To Pick Up Girls In A Dungeon? Or a lot of the recent manga that involve RPG-type worlds. Plus, add in a bit of the video game rogue-like scenario, where the dungeons change their layout each time you go in (Or, the recent version of D&D dungeons where the layout is decided on the fly by dice rolls instead of the DM plotting it out in advance). Sure, you can go in, delve deep, depopulate each floor of monsters, and come out with gold and treasure, but once you leave, any progress you made is useless, as the architecture changes, all the treasure chests restock... and all the monsters respawn. Rat type monsters, as mentioned, are one of the few anomalies due to their being the result of normal animals having mutated, but asides from those few exceptions, the Oubliette maintains a bizarre combination of sameness and randomness, until the lord of the Oubliette dies. And if a party of adventurers doesn't go inside at least once a week, then scores of monsters start pouring out on a regular basis.
Of course, there's also the free-roaming threats, like the Squizzard. And then, of course, there's the Ogres...
But we'll get to that later on.
If you choose to go with a nut job healer you might give the final chapters of samurai deeper kyo a look. Akari actively extorts blackmail material from people in exchange for heals. Also small nitpick: orichalcum is a magical metal in most settings. Adamant is closer to the idea of non magical but excessively durable. Still I have to say I am looking forward to this. Pony high fantasy adventure is welcome.
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The origins of Orichalcum actually go as far back as ancient Greece, where Plato mentions that it is a metal common in Atlantis, and when a ship was found that had sunk around that time period, and historians suspected it to contains ingots made of the fabled metal, they found it to be an alloy with copper and zinc, with several other materials mixed in.
As mentioned with Starlight Silver, it is an alloy of Mythril (And in Tolkein's work, by the time of the Lord Of The Rings, the alloy is no longer produced, although I forget if it was because of the rarity of the Mythril, or if the knowledge of how to make it was lost).
Avian Steel is similar to Damascus steel, in that it is an alloy whose production method has been lost to the ages.
The basic idea is that the ancient civilizations of the past knew how to make superior alloys, but that knowledge was lost when the current "Dark Age" began, and no one has been able to rediscover the method of recreating it. Even now, while we have a basic understanding of the principles, behind its forging, we cannot duplicate Damascus Steel, and the guy who came closest and created Wootz steel refused to share the secret, and it died with him.
This is a common thing in history, where someone finds out how to do something that could change the world, but refuses to share the knowledge for how to do so. So, when the secret is lost, no one can recreate it, and the world is poorer for it. Until the invention of patents, and making it profitable to share ideas with the world, this happened so often that it is absolutely ridiculous.
4220511 You could make Avian steel to be like aluminium. It needs electricity to mass produce, extremely useful in aerounatics due to low weight, and it was the most expensive metal before people realised it can be made from bauxite. Which is everywhere. (Aluminium literally went from being the most expensive metal to the cheapest overnight.)
Mithrill could be the equivalent of Titanium. Not as strong as steel (it's hard to be as strong as steel), but around half the strenght, for a third of the weight. Also, large scale work with it is really, really difficult.
Orichalcum could just be
a really high quality steel? Like Solingen? A blast furnace is not too hard to slap together, and aside from speeding up the process, it makes quality materials easier.Tungsten? High hardness and weight, though not exactly armor worthy.Having a real world equivalent makes it easier to give drawbacks to each material, and makes them a bit more believable amd easier to work with imo. Though I'm not sure that should be an issue with a fantasy setting.
This would kind of be from D&D 5e, but use a rogue that would have a sub class similar to arcane trickster. You could come up with a good story for one fairly easily, and they could be a partial healer since they're also spell casters, and are good if you have high intelligence and dexterity
personalty from what i have read i have not really seen a true dark story while i still would love the from out of know insanity i have seen i think this would be good for some of those dark moment like the area is very much constant fight for survival and the party some time sees those less fortunate but of course not with out those funny moment like a monster just dies in the most insane way like a spider slipping of on to a spike or something
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Fair point. I was considering everything from a d&d style given that o&o is obviously patterned off that. Though most of my experience with orichalcum comes from the old exalted games by white wolf. Fascinating how much we have lost from so many different cultures. Japan has been remarkably good about preserving traditions and we still don't know how they made some of the katanas from only 500 hundred years or so ago. (Or so I have heard.)