Ranma vs. Malevolent Architecture; could it work?

[lwf58]

No Jaegers; I freely admit that Girl Genius inspired me, but the last thing I want is to be considered ripping off from them.

They don't have to be Jaegers. Just the general idea of a warrior people dedicated to the purpose. Could be ninja, given the setting.

Of course, Jaegers are somewhat of an idea ripoff themselves. Their personalities remind me at least in part of the Pervects from the Myth Adventures series; Phil Foglio did the cover art and illustrations for those books, and also a comic series based on them. I'd be very surprised if the concept of the Jaegers was not inspired by the Myth books.

[pspinler]

Secondly, the Mansion needs an origin

Go the route of possessed by a vengeful or insane (or both) spirit. Aka the vengeful spirit doll storyline.

For an amusing origin of said spirit, let it be the spirit of a otherwise faithful retainer who the Saotome's (in their famously stupid greed) bilked out of something precious to his/her family, but ultimately silly. This might mean that finding and returning said object would cause the mansion to become faithful again.

Remember the Saotome family even raided their own ancestral grave, leaving behind only I.O.U's for Genma to find when he tricked Ranma into springing it open so *he* could raid it.

A good precious object might be something like a magic hairbrush purported to prevent baldness. That's an excellent tie in, because, of course, as soon as Genma would hear of such a thing, he'd of course have to heckle Ranma into going to get it. Even if Ranma finds it, Genma'll not want to return it, but instead use it himself, even if it's in the middle of the otherwise hostile mansion.

I was just wondering; would adding some more 'minion' like hazards to the interior of the Mansion (the equivalent of the House of the Dead's zombies, or Girl Genius's Devil Dogs) be valid, or would that be going overboard?

Depends on how it's handled, I suppose.

-- Pat