These would be color vials, able to be bought/traded/found in the wild. They would be added to an explore "card" to influence the palette/outcomes of the explore! Whether its creatures or items. Multiple can be used, for example a blue and grey together. It's the only way to GUARANTEE a color, though there will still be variety and chance!
- Bottled Rainbow
- Vial of Redcaps
- Tangerine Vial
- Bottled Sunshine
- Vial of Clover
- Powdered Morpho Wings
- Dried Flowers
- Vial of Pixie Dust
- Bottled Mist

These are food items... basically used to "attract" a certain kind of creature. These are the base ones I have so far (can't spoil what they each attract hehe), and I would definitely develop more over time as you guys discover more!

- My tentative idea for this is a shard of raw magic - it would add a boost of the user's choice to their explore. +1 luck chance, +1 creature encounter, +1 mutation chance etc, any number of things really. It would be a sort of rare/powerful item ideally

I have a few big ones I'm thinking of, that I'd love some feedback on and I don't think it spoils too much!

- Mutations/genes: All the creatures when I develop them, would have a set of genes based on their attributes. A "mutation" would be well... a mutation in a specific gene. Mutations would be unique to that creature, but say you'd manage to find/mutate something 2 times... it would become a new set of lines able to be found in the wild!

- The other thing I was thinking, is that all mutations become new sets of lines once discovered, some some special token/point going to the original discoverer :)

- Player cards: I don't want it to just be a typical copy and paste form for exploring - I'd like to try and develop explore cards, the idea being you fill out a form that has you select the region, any items, other stuff etc, and it generates a card made with art (by me), which you then submit as your "explore ticket". It wouldn't be hard to make the assets, and I think it would REALLY enrich the experience... so if anyone has any suggestions for websites I could use to build this, or tweaks to the system, I would love that!

- Environment drops: A BIG part of my plans for this explore and the eventual world involves environment drops (think things like a piece of vibrant coral, basalt rocks, exotic flowers, etc). Things that come from certain biomes/the world. I would LOVE some suggestions on things you guys would like to receive, as well as biomes you want to see. Both fantasy and real, all temperatures.

- The actual exploring: So, like I mentioned in the point above, I don't want this "explore" to be just about the creatures you can acquire, but us actually exploring and building a world together. Therefore the soft system I have in my head is this:

Actual exploring will be cheap, but will mainly result in items. That's not to say lame items, they will be things that contribute to world building, your own success and options as a player, and other fun things! But actual large scale, important creatures will be a more targeted thing to try and acquire, being more costly and more involved.

I'm thinking that the way I'll run it is sort of like this:

- you choose a starter little guy, for a medium/base price
- You can choose to "adventure" as/with ONE main critter, you will use this creature's attributes, bonuses, it will get exp etc
- You will have a sort of base/storage system for LARGE creatures, which can be used as your main explore companion (there will be limited slots but more can be purchased/earned). Smaller creatures (think companions/pets for your main critter) will be much less limited and more abundant
- Your main creature will level up and grow, being shaped both by your choices and their environment! Everyone's will be somewhat unique in this way :)

Because of all of this, exploring will have both more and less expensive options depending on your objective. I want to balance earning a bit of money from this, as it will be an involved project, with actually sharing this (hopefully very fun) experience with a wide range of people!