Some responses to those comments.
Love that idea of a Borrower unit. Probably a "Hero unit" type -- in most miniature wargames, standard troopers are totally interchangeable, but there are subsets that can be unique and force you to track health on specific models despite them being part of a group. Like in Warmachine if I have Arcane Tempest Gunslingers they're all exactly the same, but if I bring the Black 13th Gunmage squad, each of the three troopers has a name and abilities apart from the others. I'd like the Borrower Swiss Army to be like that, so the champion with the knife blade, the rogue with the toothpick, the brute with the corkscrew, the cocky one with the bottle opener... each would have a unique power.
From the desk of Tevish Szat... A metal gaming miniature is about an inch and a half tall. A light book, climbing over which should be difficult terrain and grant elevation, is about 5/8 of an inch thick. a drink can (LoS blocking tall terrain) is around 4 inches tall.
I'd guess most "standard" sized minis (by in large the smallest things in the game) would be about 2 inches tall, fitting hobby minis, button mushrooms, microbots (?) and the like. Borrowers are canonically five or six inches tall but I think we could get by with 2 or 3 for our Little People. According to Wikipedia, House mice have an adult body length (nose to base of tail) 3.0–3.9 in. So our Redwall faction would have standard troopers that are about 4 inches tall, meaning they're not necessarily ogre scale. Black rats range from 5 to 8 inches long, though, so they'd be real giants if we have a legit black rat or Ratman.
I think, personally, that this setting should be super low magic. However, that doesn't mean NO magic. Maybe all "magic" (except whatever's animating the animate toys) is stuff that could theoretically be explained. Like borrower shamans might actually be using ground-up asprin tablets or fungus "magic" could be the result of their spores doing wacky things. But if we template it as magic, we leave the door open.
The Toy Train would have to be a big, impressive centerpiece. War games HATE it when units don't have a standard footprint, but they can manage. I'd probably give it to the green army men/wargame minis, along with possibly toy tanks.
Size stats are pretty common in minis war games. Often they also give a "standard" profile so if a Size 2 (2 inch tall) guy has his arms up, you don't have LoS if you couldn't see his 2 inch regular height.
Unit I'd like to see, for the borrowers: a laser cannon, made from a laser pointer! To quote xkcd
Quote:
A 1-watt laser is an extremely dangerous thing. It’s not just powerful enough to blind you—it’s capable of burning skin and setting things on fire. Obviously, they’re not legal for consumer purchase in the US.
Just kidding! You can pick one up for $300.
(side note, the price has dropped, you can get a 2-watt laser for about 300 now). Crewed by a few borrowers putting it on button wheels, aiming it, and mashing the button to fire