u/soldierpallaton

Having Dark Link as the mini-boss of the Water Temple feels off to me. I get the idea that it is a reflection of Link and is found in basically a reflecting pool but it feels more fitting in one of the later temples.

Shadow Temple- Dark Link represents the death Link has given and failed to prevent. The hidden bloodlust Link has from killing as many monsters as he has.

Spirit Temple- A reflection of the darker parts of Link's soul. A cursed version of Link from Twinrova or Ganondorf. Plus, as the Spirit Temple is more or less the penultimate dungeon it would be a cool parallel to Phantom Ganon being the boss of the Forest Temple.

Ganon's Castle- Having Dark Link as a guardian once the mini-dungeons are beat would have been cool and served as a final challenge before Ganondorf himself.

EDIT: I mentioned this in the beginning about it being a reflecting pool and therefore meant to be reflection of Link. I don't agree with that and find that it doesn't work out in the same way.

So I saw a post asking what hero deserves an open world game similar to Insomniac's Spider-Man or Arkham Knight and it reminded me that I've had an idea that I wrote up for an open world Superman game for a while now. I also realized that I never shared it to this subreddit!

So without further ado, here is my pitch for

"Superman: A Better Tomorrow"

Each act takes place at a different location, each increasing in difficulty and having a different hub world. Once you move into the next Act you can return to the previous hub world.

Act 1 is Metropolis and dealing with Intergang as they continue to amass tech that makes them a larger and larger threat throughout the first Act. Specifically the weaponry they are getting is powerful enough to stun Superman, not enough to take him down unless there is a lot of damage done. Act One ends with Superman being able to take down Intergang leader Bruno Mannheim in what looks to be an alien battle suit with the symbol of Mongul on it.

Act 2 is on Warworld. Through the events of the first Act, Superman learns that Intergang's tech is alien in origin. The first boss does take place in Metropolis and opens the act. The sound of a roaring engine is heard as THE MAIN MAN Lobo lands in Metropolis, having being given a bounty on Supe's head. After beating Lobo Superman learns about the symbol on Mannheim's suit and goes seeking Warworld. This is even after being told by Lobo that he'd end up dead.

The first part of Act 2 deals with Supes crashing through Warworld, fighting guards and moderate sized mini bosses until he smashes into the arena section. When he lands in the center he hears Mongul call out from the stands, "Well well well. Looks like I did right hiring Lobo. I knew you'd come Kryptonian. It's just like the New God promised if I gave Earthlings Apokolips tech. Strong warriors to fight for my amusement". As he does this the room fills with a red glowing light, "I've set the red sun energy to half. Don't disappoint me". He releases Kalibak, who seems to relish the chance to fight Superman on his father's orders. Superman doesn't stand a chance against Kalibak in his current state so part of the fight includes destroying the red sun generators in the arena.

After the fight Superman sees Mongul is gone and has to go hunt him down until it takes him to Warworld's bridge where Mongul is sitting, waiting for him. Mongul once again relishes the chance to fight Superman and serves as the Act 2 main boss. Through their fight Superman learns about Darkseid and the New Gods, and also learns that Darkseid has been the mastermind behind Intergang. Superman rips control of Warworld away from Mongul and traps him in one of the many cells of the ship and takes Warworld to Oa on the way to confront these so called New Gods.

Act 3's hub world is New Genesis. When Superman lands he's immediately assumed to be an agent of Darkseid and has to fight Mister Miracle. Act 3 is largely about working with the New Gods and occasionally saving the day on New Genesis from Darkseid's interference as the New Gods and Supes form a plan to challenge Darkseid to a 1 v 1 fight for the fate of all worlds. Naturally Darkseid serves as the final boss.

Act 1 bosses:

-Shockwave

-Blackrock

-Livewire

-Bruno Mannheim

Act 2 Bosses:

-THE MAIN MAN Lobo

-Metallo

-Kalibak

-Mongul

Act 3 bosses:

-Mister Miracle

-Big Barda (post fight Mister Miracle and Supes convince Big Barda she's on the wrong side of things and she switches sides)

-Desaad

-Steppenwolf

-Granny Goodness

-Darkseid

Side bosses

-Toyman (Metropolis stage)

-Amazo (Metropolis stage)

-Silver Banshee (War World stage)

-Orion (New Genesis stage, wants to test Superman)

-Mister Mxyzptlk (the little shit keeps showing up in every hub world to mess with Superman and having him do challenges for his amusement. Up to and including having Superman have to fly through rings.)

I was thinking about this due to The Sacrifice comic and other zombie media. So there tends to be a sliding scale of how much the world can recover from a zombie apocalypse in media, you have Walking Dead which eventually ends into a nice equilibrium where the zombies eventually become a little more than a nuisance. Then you have Dead Rising where the zombies are basically used as entertainment and ways to mass produce cures. But you also have Zombieland where you have small pockets of survivors with really no hope of establishing a proper civilization again.

So when it comes to left 4 dead, where do you think that apocalypse falls? I know that the military is still operational to some degree but is very broken up and has begun operating on their own more or less. There are obviously survivors as seen in the safe rooms, but with how vicious the hoard of zombies are and how rare carriers seem to be, chances are a lot of those survivors are part of the hoard the carriers kill.

So I had a campaign that didn't last super long due to interpersonal drama but had done the research for the campaign. So one thing I do for my campaigns is kind of have an intro song to help set the mood, as a kind of opener to the session. I had come up with a playlist of songs for basically all of the sections of Barovia and a few for specific characters who might have had large focuses in a session. Figured I would share. The couple sections I was missing were Van Richten's Tower, Ol' Bonegrinder and The Amber Temple (which, to showcase as a truly cursed place, wouldn't have had any music and probably would have just been whipping winds or something sinister like that).

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In general/Barovia and the lower lands-Horizons Into Battlegrounds by Woodkid

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Vallaki- Happy Face by Jagwar Twin

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Berez- Way Down We Go by KALEO

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Castle Ravenloft- The Dead Are Watching by Shadow's Symphony (an instrumental piece)

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Argynvostholt- Soldier by Fleurie, Tommee Proffit

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Krezk/The Abbey- Blood//Water (acoustic version) by grandson

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Wizards of Wines- Dead Drunk Friends by Hollywood Vampires (the druids I was planning to portray as very similar to Manson Family/70s cult)

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Werewolf Den- Willow Tree by Twin Wild

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Yester Hill- Where Evil Grows by The Poppy Family (see Wizards of Wines)

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characters

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Ezmeralda- Evil Eye by Franz Ferdinand

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The Mad Monk- Rhinestone Eyes by Gorillaz (the idea being that he's talking cryptically trying to tell the party how to help him but making no sense otherwise)