As many of you have no doubt seen, NIMHmuck has been rather quiet on the RP front of late. While there are various reasons for this, perhaps one of the biggest is IC complacency. In other words, the Rats have it too good. While they have some minor problem from time to time, they can too easily retreat inside the colony and isolate themselves from these problems. The problems inside the colony are likewise of little or no concern to the average colonist; it's politics as usual, but nothing that would seem to affect someone one way or another. Nicodemus may have had the right idea by trying to keep the rats in peaceful isolation, but they are nevertheless still falling into the trap of complacency. Unchanging, static, relatively boring, unless some more or less contrived drama is conceived.

We need a catastrophe.

It isn't enough to just throw the next random bad-guy seeking revenge or power at the rats; we need to pit the rats against something that they can't hide or escape from unscathed. We need something that will allow every male, female and child a chance to grow as a character. Something that allows us to move beyond the stagnated plots of the past.

During a brainstorming session yesterday, some of the following ideas were presented (I try to give credit where I can):

• Any occurrence that would force the Rats to move.
• A catastrophic event would have to be bad enough to force a move, perhaps thin the theoretical population a bit. Anything that would terminally destabilize the social order of the rodents, so that they were forced to start over. (Tzolkin)
• Maybe some serious biological consequences of the NIMH mutation might be enough to cause issues...
• Governing/cultural breakdown from within...
• Discovery by humans other than NIMH?
• NIMH has the capability to bring about that collapse. It could have been forseen that NIMH would eventually return, and that information was passed to key individuals in order to try to prevent such a cataclysm. But, these same individuals unconsiously set into motion exactly the same sequence of events that brings about the discovery by NIMH warned of by Nicodemus. (Tzolkin)
• Not sure at all about who and what the staggs were or did, but I know they rivaled the NIMH rodents. Let's say they return or something and decided to take down the NIMH rats for good. They capture bunch of children and send them all one way, then wait for the search party to leave... a group of rodents well armed and knowledgable. When this group starts to search, they get anbushed and so does the colony, thus splitting the two groups and the search team becomes lost and fears all hope is lost for thier colony. So with heavy hearts, they build a new one or at least plan too, unaware of what happened to the main colony. (Zen)
  • We could say NIMH got thier paws on them if we wanted, but even then, they aren't nessisarly stupid. Zen is feral, but he catches on to things. It's a simple tactic, separte the group and you have less to deal with. (Zen)
  • The research about what makes the NIMH rats what they are did escape secure keeping when Tzol and Ayanna were given the treatment. It would only take one power-hungry NIMH rat to turn the Staggs into a superintelligent army of death. (Tzolkin)
  • An organizing factor for the Staggs might be one of those NIMH Rats who was passed Nicodemus' prophecy, and, dismayed that the colony had not already been prepared, NIMHs the Staggs in an attempt to raise enough of an army to put the colony on its toes. But at some point he/she loses control, and the hoard begins choosing its own leader, and making its own plans. So instead of one attack, we could end up with a war. A war which could end up alerting humans to the presence of the NIMH rats.
  • Maybe the Staggs turn other feral animals against them? They all would have reasons not to like the rats.
  • A lot of it would have been very covert.. as far as having it start is concerned, we could jump right into when Staggs start kidnapping. (Tzolkin)
• There's also an entirely different dimension presented by the semi-defunct NMC. What was going on there? Has it gotten bad enough that Mice will start trying to make it to the Valley? Will they bring anything with them? (Tzolkin)
• There might also be unforseen effects on the surrounding ecosystem (what happens when a feral animal eats or cannibalizes a NIMH creature?, or what effct does the farming endeavors of the Rats have?), driving the stability of the entire food chain out of whack. (Tzolkin)

Comments and ideas are welcome! I hope we can start RPing something along these lines soon. :)