I'll try to explain. Quality > Quantity, right? The quantity of the origins made me think of how the project is lacking quality. I'm not saying quantity is bad, but it looks as if you've written the backgrounds on a napkin, first things off of the top of your mind.
Compare Fallout 1 and 2 with "A post-apocalyptic setting where intelligent mutant plants and animals with psychic powers compete with androids and cyborgs?"
I can do better than you in a second. The nuclear holocaust takes place in the 90's, the USSR attack the US upon the very day when a grunge band released the album Nirvana. The game takes place 10 years after the holocaust, when the Player Character is 27. Survival is possible as the bombs that fell upon the US are essentially Hiroshima-Nagasaki sized. The game takes place in Seattle.
Can you see how there is, I know it sounds pretentious, more quality to my note? IMHO, it's hardly a pitch, by the way.
Quality translates to relativity. That the players can relate to what's in the game.
Morrowind is a medieval Fantasy. So is Oblivion and Skyrim. Fallout feeds on sex, drugs and rock & roll.
You cannot just invent something novel and claim it's of good quality if it is off the beaten path, can you?
No offence meant, just talking with you.
I wasn't trying to make any claims about quality. I want to make something, get it criticized, and iterate on that.
I think you're confusing quality with specificity and detail. So you want specific details about the background and setting? I can do that.
As it stands in my notes thus far... The setting is superficially similar to a city in the United States (real or fictional), sometime between the 1980s and the 2020s or some unreal anachronistic mix thereof. The distinction is that monsters, or nightcrawlers as I like to call them, are real and live secretly among the muggle populace.
Several such nightcrawlers have formed various fraternities and political parties that have different ideals for how to manage their little underworld. Two of these groups drive the main conflict of the story in question. On one side you have conservative meritocratic types who believe that power must be earned and have instituted a series of rules and brutally enforce these rules... but apply said rules selectively and in ways that benefit those with more power and connections at the expense of those with less. You need to be very cautious and brutal to get ahead among them, even if you follow the rules exactly. On the other side you have more liberal collectivist types who believe in sharing power democratically and not brutally punishing rule breakers, while ironically still responding best to intimidating displays of power and violence while supposedly preaching egalitarianism. In practice this means that criminal and paranormal activity runs amuck in neighborhoods they've claimed and this attracts attention from both police and monster hunters who have to clean up after them.
This sort of conflict isn't new, but the few times I've seen it the writer doesn't really give much reason why the sides are fighting or the pros and cons of each approach. At least in the few urban fantasy games.
New Vegas made it a point to give the factions pros and cons.
There are other associations with their own beliefs and goals, but in general these groups either align themselves with one of the two political blocs or stay out of their way. This results in a fair amount of friction within the blocs since they ally out of convenience more than because their beliefs and goals really align.
You can probably notice the social commentary easily, but that wasn't intentional. It's meant to be a more general freedom versus control conflict because that seems to be the most relatable compared to other possible conflicts like primitivism versus technophilia or... I forgot what else I was going to list.
Anyway, to distinguish the characters from the obvious vampire bias in fiction, the nightcrawler community includes all sorts of species including shapeshifters, fairies, ghosts, magicians, undead, demons, golems, mutants and so on. While their species has basic significance, it doesn't define their personality or who they associate with. For example, the mad scientist newsletter accepts members of any species who have an interest in mad science and sharing their peer reviewed research in the journal.
The tone is one of ham, comedy and irreverence. The characters are supposed to be colorful and larger than life, theatrical and neurotic. The nightcrawlers routinely tell self-aggrandizing lies about their collective and personal history, such as claiming to be descended from Dracula, assuming the identity of a historical figure like St. Germain or Joan d'Arc and fighting other impersonators to the death, or inventing self-styled "global councils" that hold no actual power. Despite this, there would also be movements of levity, tragedy and even straight up horror to contrast (or mix with) the comedy.
So... Am I getting anywhere?
