Collaborative Story Requests and Discussion...

One idea to explore as well is that technically a Panther is any large wild cat. The defining factor of a Panther is that they are black. This could be the "in" that you need. There are panther cougars, panther jaguars etc. As such one of the defining characteristics of the Panwere is that even when they change into another cat type, they are still black. This would also allow your main character to access the abilities of the Panwere while still remaining a Jaguar.

In fact, you could take it a step further and say that each individual shapeshifter must choose a "primary" class/cat and that is what they always revert to after shapeshifting. All other roles are just mantles or masks they put on for a purpose.

Of course it would still be rare for someone to become a Panwere. Either some kind of rare blessing, rare quest line, nuclear waste accident. Whatever. Perhaps it requires a certain level, (thus the awe and power of Funakoshi among others) but we find that the MC didn't "accidently" arrive at this starting location but the game engine selected him for a rare attribute, in that he already /is/ a Panwere. And only needs level 10 to unlock it, and it's a surprise to everyone. He started here, because he as much as anyone /belongs/ here.

Lo and behold, his first shapeshift. Black Jaguar. Raised eyebrows and astonishment. Better get him to Funakoshi to figure out what's going on. If we stick with only females can be panthers, then it's pretty odd to have our main character as one. It is then revealed he's not s panther but a Panwere.

 

I posted a little twist in how one becomes a shapeshifting cat. I'm thinking that requiring the task be done within a level creates a nice elegant setup where the person has to meet a minimum requirement while simultaneously creating a limiting factor and challenge. If you spend too many attempts at the quest, killing mobs or whatever then you will eventually level up and lose your opportunity. Also these are cats. All cats are stealthy, even lions, and so someone coming along and just smashing mobs and killing everything with no finesse, guile, stealth, or prioritization would be eliminated very naturally as unfit in their personality for the role.

 

Also I just had a thought that this could carry over to other shapeshifting clans. Take the wolves that we talked about. Maybe they have a similar limitation. The quest must be completed during level 10. Only theirs are more direct. The mobs are closer and it's pretty much impossible. Their key is that you have to group up. Wolves are pack hunters and you can't be in a wolf pack with a lone wolf mindset. So you group up and suddenly the experience is split multiple ways, and that's the key to completing the trial without breaking the level barrier and being disqualified.

 

I had a different thought, not sure which is better.

What if Piper was the other Panwere. Normal panthers could only be the tawny or black colors but Piper can be pink because she us a Panwere and they can become any animal and any color.

 

I like the idea of limiting them to cats and not just full fledged animagus of any animal. It creates limitations and you have to be creative with your narrative. I can really tell you want her to be able to change colors. I can think of a couple of mechanics that could work.

1. This is a LitRPG, and she wants what she wants so she goes to the developers and purchases a color scheme add on that allows her to bypass the normal ruling that Panwere's and Panthers are black.
2. There's a learned trait in the skill tree that allows for color adjustment. But instead of most people's response of using it to camouflage, she uses it to do the opposite and turn herself pink.

 

@Elbryan @Jenny Haviland @Paul Bellow

The dying/respawning/penalties questions are actually good ones. What do you guys suggest? I like the idea of the White Wolves being asshole players, same level as the Big Cats (around 80+) who have moved into the Big Cats area to harass them and try to claim their territory.

But I never played WoW, so I'm not sure what should happen to the players when they die. Obviously there should be penalties, and I'm assuming this takes place somewhere in the future so it's fully immersive, in other words the players can feel pain (though they can set filters so while it hurts, and it's uncomfortable and annoying and frustrating, its still not quite as bad as real life).

In DC Universe Online all that really happens when you're in the open world is that your armour takes damage, so you have to pay to get it fixed, and you respawn in a nearby safe area. If you're in a dungeon you get thrown back to the beginning of the dungeon and the big bosses reset, though the minions stay dead.

In Dungeon Siege you can resurrect a member of the party if you have a healer. If your whole party dies you get resurrected at a nearby friendly town, but you lose most of your armour, weapons and items. So it's usually better to just restart the game from a saved point.

In Log Horizon the towns are safe areas, patrolled by high-level NPCs, so (theoretically) you can't target other players in a town. The moment you leave a town you are fair game, though. That's why most players group up for protection.

My suggestion is something like this: A character can't kill himself or herself, so the Wolves can capture players and play their vicious little games with them, as long as they don't kill them. Obviously you can log out, leaving your unresponsive character behind, but when you log back in you're still stuck in the same position you were when you left. That's why it's so important to find a safe area before you log off, just like all animals have to find a safe area before going to rest, unless they want to wake up while being torn apart by predators. The safe area can be in a town, or in a big group, with players taking turns to keep watch.

You can abandon your character and start a new one, but since the equipment is expensive it costs a LOT of money to make a character. So, unless you are filthy rich (like the White Wolves) most players can't afford to just discard their characters and start over.

If you are killed you can be looted, so the Wolves enjoy targeting weaker players. If you are killed by NPCs your loot will remain there, though it will be damaged in the fight, so you can travel back and go get it, unless another player passed by and looted your grave before you get there.

Just some ideas: What do you guys think and suggest?

 

Okay i like it. I would also make some other recommendations I've seen some authors use and that I'm working through on my own end. Respawn timer. Some authors say you have a 12hr respawn timer, which can get reduced to 6 through and Emperial Favor (Vasily Mahanenko) others is almost instant or comparatively short-a couple of hours.

I figured the corporation wouldn't want you to be pulled out of the game from dying from a rat. So Standard NPC's killing you wouldn't trigger a long respawn time. That changes with special events, especially PVP. Standard pvp (getting ganked) might result in an hour respawn time. Might as well log out, eat and use the restroom. But when it passes a certain critical threshold of players into a Battleground. The respawn penalty quadruples to a four hour respawn time. The purpose of this might be so that if your sacking a city the players can't just continually respawn and fend you off. So when they go to fight the wolves there's a sort of actual consequence. Four hour respawn timer and you have all that time to loot and pillage.

I picture that you would get a System Message like:
**Warning! You have entered a PVP Battleground. All respawn timers have increased to four hours until the battle is resolved or you flee the Battleground.**

 

If we are going to maje gear lose durability when you die, will it take the same loss when you die to a npc as to another player? I know in wow fir example it only lost durability if you died to a npc.

On them holding and torturing people why would this not be stopped by gm's? I know I personally would not play a game where that type of behavior was allowed.

 

Yeah, you can have durability loss as it is used. You hit something with your weapon or get hit in the chest with an arrow or club or something.

As for players interaction, it means get depend on the level of player sensitivity. If you can feel pain I could see administrator intervention in the case of deliberate torture. If you can choose whether to feel pain or not they might limit their influence.

There may even be ways around it. For example The Way of the Shaman, Mayan gets bullied by some players for an item he's got. He is a prisoner serving his term in game and one of the punitive aspects of his incarceration is his sensitivity is 100%. But the Heralds don't allow diliberate torment particularly of prisoners due to this unique aspect. So the players shout a warning to the zone that they will be conducting "tests" on their Area of Effect spells and warns people to leave or they can't be held liable. And then mockingly ask Mayan how he keeps getting stuck in their ice rain and asking if he's intentionally getting in their way.