I will indeed take the shaman route -- aleady got a seed of a backstory. Also, I decided that for now the scope will be smaller, and have a main storyline. The game will most likelly incorporate cooperative gameplay of up to 4 people -- since I'm not even adept at that sort of stuff, it will be a feat as it stands!I will deffinetlly go with what PropheticEdge suggested and make the equipment intangible, such as Unforgiving Claws of the Bear (illustrated as massive talons on the avatar) or Arctic Thick Fur (illustrated as a thick white fur on the avatar). Those are just examples (quite lame ones actually). And the backstory for now less involves humans, so there won't be much problem with gathering equipment/awkward plate-wearing wolf -- I'll focus it on a mythology mixup.
What most interests me is the fact that in most games, equipment is easy to identify "as you look on someone" -- you see a dude in a plate and can at a glance tell that it is either a unique piece that you know (such as a Gladiator armour part in WoW) or at least quite strong (visually flashy). Developing that in an animal enviroment might prove tricky, bacause, as VReality said, we do have our own mental images of these animals, how they look and behave. Hopefully that will be countered by the setting, but do you think that a WoW approach to visualising equipment (almost each part is different, and it is visibly apparent you are wearing something strong) is suitable for a 4 player coop game? For comparison, Diablo I had only around 3 visual armour representations, despite having a myriad of equipment pieces. As I look back at it, it didn't much matter that my character looked like a hobo while wearing an ultra-rare, low level leather armour, or a high-level katana looking like a tooth-pick. Same goes for the recent Rusty Hearts -- very few visual changes, with little to no complaining from my side (except when I see someone who obviously looks cooler...).
Also, French Revolutionist sparked an idea that would beautifully fit a mini-MMO setting I was considering for the game. How to represent levels? Make animals grow. Like pets in WoW, it isn't apparently visible that you have a higher level (to yourself at least, you don't notice the growth that much), but compared to a low-level, you are just huge! As for the tattoo idea -- I really liked the visuals of Okami, especially how the main character looked -- those are the tattooes I'm aiming for. Maybe trully they should to a lesser degree represent equipment -- it may get messy once all the stuff has been applied (given I'll find an artist for this project, or doodle something that remotelly looks non-repulsive). I'll let my brain crunch on that for some time. In the meanwhile, feel free to drop some ideas/suggestions/requests for more info, as I'm liking the responses/discussion I'm getting here
