My latest idea...
Wolver - A Game of Predators In A Frozen Land
Heading for the dawn
Of our way of life
You're welcome to give it your best try...
Look me in the eyes, oh, wolver
This ain't your fairy tale...
The ones who seek justice,
Will pray for it all their lives...
They can and they will skin us all one day...
Oh can you hear them cries?
As far as the man can run from us we're following the trail of blood
So hunt my young ones,
The pack they have always feared is back
-Sonata Arctica
Wolver follows the exploits of wolves in a country similar to 19th century Russia. Play will occur in phases, the first being vignettes of action and adventure that can mark turning points in the pack’s fortune and the second phase filling in the rest of the year through the easier times.
Many of the action sequences will occur in winter, the most desperate time, and will involve confrontations with human civilization. When the big game disappears, and even the mice are buried under 3 meters of protective snow, the human and their livestock may be the only food available. But anger the men at your peril lest they hunt you with dog and gun.
This is intended to be a story told at the generation scale, if your wolf is killed you can continue playing as it’s offspring. Speaking of offspring, winning a mate will be important, you want the strongest one available but so does everyone else. Offspring will have stats influenced by those of both parents. So yes if the game continues long enough you can breed yourself a stronger character.
The game will use a point spend system, giving the players direct but limited control of their bonuses to rolls. Combat will be short and brutal, reflecting a narrativist style in which the intent of actors should be resolved in their favor most of the time. At least if you have the points to pay for it. If you want to rip out the throat of the peasant who is staring you down it’s probably going to happen. But he wants to stab you with his hunting knife if you lunge. That’s probably going to happen too.
Potential NPC female mates will only pay attention to the most impressive physical specimens available. Rivals for affection can battle for dominance. This is generally bloodless, involving lots of displays of size and some wrestling to prove strength. The loser of this contest must retreat from the field or the violence will escalate, probably not ending well for them. This may be a problem as there are generally slightly more males than females in a pack. Most pairs mate for life and are monogamous.
Prototype Stats
Size - Roughly reflects durability, also counts double for impressing mates
Strength - Used for hurting things
Agility - Used for escaping harm
Running - Used for tests of speed or endurance.
Senses - Find and notice stuff
Perhaps 6d6 points would be given to players to distribute amongst these statistics setting the size of the point pool. When a player must make a skill test related to one of the categories they can spend points from the pool for bonuses.
Starting players are assumed to be 2 years old. Each year they get 1d6 more points until they are 5 years old. At which point they start losing 1d8 per year. Wolves only live about 10 years in the wild.
Thoughts?