Alright! So I think I finally figured out a good plan for deciding on our Eldsona's pet bondeds/companions. Here we go:
Once we decide on what sort of bonds our character has, we'll vote on what species we want (unless we get magically bonded – then it will be Direwolf by default). The poll only allows a max of ten options, so I figure we'll split the species into groups for voting if it comes to that. The groups will be Avian Group (Rune Dragons, Phoenixes, Chillawings, Humming Bumbles, Glasswork Dragons, and Crows if applicable), Large Animal Group (Griffins, Sleipnirs, Ligers, Elkrin, Foo Dogs, Dire wolves), and Small Critters Group (Cuttlefish, Jackalopes, Otterlings, Prong Foxes, Sea Servals). Note that some species were removed since it's been established in lore that they do not bond or become companions.
So after we decide on the species we'll need to choose which particular pet we want for our Charmer.
Should the chosen species not have less then ten litters or pets released on the site currently (such as Chillawings or Glasswork Dragons) we'll have people nominate 1 - 3 of their favorites, and then narrow them down through a handful of polls.
If the chosen species has many pets released on the site we'll be doing this by a blind poll! Whooo! XP We're gonna add a bit of roleplaying to this bit. You'll get a choice of what path our Wolfkin will take. Each path holds several different litters of pets that were selected at random (I may try to tie it in so that the path is themed to the litters, but all the litters themselves will be selected at random before being put into groups, so it's unlikely to be very consistent). You'll then get to select which of those litters you'd like to chose a pet from.
Then we need to choose a pet from the litter we picked! Once again this will be random, and we'll throw some storytelling into it as well. Each pet will have small blurb written up about it, such as 'this direwolf comes bounding over to play with our Eldsona', or 'this otterling is distracted organizing sticks'. Each blurb will be assigned to a number (1, 2, 3, etc.) before we begin. Once the vote is decided I'll use
this list randomizer to randomize the entire litter, and whichever pet lands next to the number of the blurb that won is our Charmer's beloved pet!
So – what do you all think? A bit complicated yes, but it gives us the most choices, in the least amount of polls, as well as a good balance of pure randomness and choice. And I wanted to make sure all the steps were lined out for everyone so they could see my underlying thinking, and voice any concerns before we start. ^^