Ok, folks! I’ve got an idea for a brand new Fourthcore Team Deathmatch map. And it’s a crazy idea, brought forth partially by the death knells of the 4e Character Builder and partially by what I think is iconic behavior and feel for a first person shooter.

Ok, so what am I talking about? Who’s played Doom or Unreal Tournament? [show of hands?] So what do you start with after you respawn? Everything you have access to, as in regular FTDM, or just a pistol with no armor? Yeah, see? So I got thinking, how do you introduce this element into FTDM? That spawn->gather->kill cycle of FPSs? First things first, start the Dungeoneer off with nothing except the genre-appropriate “pistol”. A practically blank character sheet with crud defenses and sad basic attacks.

What do you gather? Rocket launcher, armor, rail gun, etc? Probably easier to remain genre-appropriate. So you scatter collectible class and race tokens around the map. Keep it simple, but make each choice meaningful. You might be a dwarf barbarian one spawn, but an elf wizard the next.

But what if? What if “that guy” has the class or race you really want? Kill ’em. Pay the iron price. Discard the abilities that made you a killing machine and don a new skin. And that skin? All prearranged and part of the arena rules. There’s no reliance on the Character Builder, and FTDM transcends 4e.

So obviously, I pretty much have this ready. Mechanically. I’m just super stumped as to how to theme this. I’ve thought about using Gauntlet (to blend in with my previous video game themed arenas, Pac-Man and Mario World), or maybe Final Fantasy Tactics. The issue with Gauntlet is that I would feel limited to elf/wizard/warrior/valkyrie. Tactics makes me feel like the map needs variable elevation and an isometric view, but the switchable “Jobs” system is almost a perfect fit. Team Fortress classes? Just call it Doom or Quake?

And, that’s my question, folks. How should I portray this, both thematically and graphically? I got Gauntlet, Doom, Guerrilla War, Final Fantasy Tactics, Team Fortress, Quake, Contra, Highlander… WHICH WILL IT BE!?