Campaign Idea: The Song of Pentecost

[Spectre Incarnate]

Hey all,

A couple years ago I originally got into the idea of a huge campaign based on a D&D game that I ran, but it never came to fruition because I realized that I couldn't do what I thought I could... yet. Recently I started up WC3 again and some custom maps have really inspired me to try and take a crack at making one again. I'm going to tone it down and try something a bit simpler this time.

This new campaign is based on a book called The Song of Pentecost by W.J.Corbett, which is about a group of animals of various sorts going on a very serious adventure, much like Watership Down or The Secret of Nimh. A human city has spilled over into the countryside where they live and this has forced them to find a new home.

Here's a screenshot of the first map.

This first map is much like a prelude, learning about the first character and his plight. Nothing major, just a flat surface for now. I just wanted to see if I could make the Oily Green Pool look oily and green and test a snake model out and see how it worked. (Snake model by Domokun.) I might use a different model later, but for now it's a garter snake.

So then, what do I need? Well, first of all, to be honest I am unsure if anyone would take this idea seriously. Regardless, I'm definitely going to try. There is very little of this style of campaign, but I have seen it done a couple times. In particular I am fond of The Spider Queen campaign, which was phenomenal in it's execution of introducing us to an animal hero. It had to eat other small animals to grow while avoiding being instantly killed by an ogres' foot... that whole little prelude map was one of the most interesting scenarios I've ever seen to this day and it really stuck with me.

Second of all, I need ideas for quests and things to do in each scenario, otherwise it'd be like making a cinematic movie. What kinds of single player scenarios do people like and not like? What do I do about the "wordy" dialogue of the story?

Thank you very much for listening! If you know of any other maps or campaigns that are about animal heroes, please let me know!


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[Spectre Incarnate]

I received some nice replies from another site, so I'll list the updated ideas over here also.

I think I would like to change the scale. Have the animals be the same relative size as a humanoid hero, but make the environment a tad larger. Not as large as the Sim Ant or Ant Colony maps, but definitely an animal's perspective. I will try my best to scale things consistently.

These are the heroes so far:
---Snake of Oily Green Pool is a shifty creature with sleep and hide abilities.
---Pentecost Mouse is the leader of a group of mice and helps the expedition with morale boosts. He's actually the brains of the operation and usually handles any talking.
---Frog is a rude liar and I don't think he should be a "hero", because he's actually not coming with you willingly. I can't even think of anything he could perform to make him useful, but I'll try and think of something... stupid lazy Frog. lol
---Little Brother is a muskrat if I remember, but there's a great beaver model I found, so I'll probably make him a beaver instead. He didn't do a lot other than make conversation, but I think I'll make him a named healer type since he hated violence.
---Fox of Furrowfield is around later in the book, but I think he should be introduced sooner, because you just didn't get to learn much about him and that, sadly, made him almost pointless. I haven't seen a fox unit, however, and this is frankly very surprising. A wolf unit is too bulky, but perhaps the dog?

Mice and rats are the main infantry and builders. There are no rats in the book, but I'm putting them in anyway.

There's no magic in the book either, but the cranky elders who complain a lot could be like shamans. The beavers, as mentioned, would be healer types. I apologize, but due to my lack of experience, spells will be standard for right now. I am not making too much custom stuff until I learn some basics.

Gold and Lumber could be changed to something a bit more suitable, possibly leaves and twigs? I haven't decided yet if food should be gathered also... but since there's a large variety of animals who all eat different things, I'm not sure how I would go about that. We might just stick with houses, since the book had Great Aunts who were weaver mice that were very good at building nests (and anything else you might need!)



Questions:

Do people prefer a very large map with a lot to do at once, or a bunch of smaller maps with goals spread out?

Would any of these ideas be very complicated coding/triggering? I will try to do it myself, but I may need help finding codes for certain things.

Would people be put off by the fact that most critter models do not have attack animations? Would it be possible to find someone to animate them?

Should Snake have an inventory as per a normal hero?

I'm unsure how many doodads is too many. Is there a general estimate per map size?

Any other suggestions or ideas are certainly welcome!


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