[tshiggins]

Maybe a quest-type game that involves puzzle-solving and a challenging journey of some sort, in which the character must engage in sometimes-difficult interactions but with only limited (and avoidable, with good choices) violence?

Someone in the forums, here (I don't remember who) discussed a game with characters who were tiny people -- like The Littles or The Borrowers. Fraggles would work, too.

Basically, the ancient building in which the clan has lived for generations is about to be demolished as part of an urban renewal project. Now, the little people must send out a scout or scouts into the terrifying outdoors, on an epic quest to find a new, safe place for them to settle.

A modern structure simply won't do. Modernist and Bauhaus architecture is simply too minimalist for little people to survive unnoticed. No, they need a venerable older structure with wainscoting, and hollow spots, and nooks and crannies where they can create a new settlement, but also one that's inhabited by Bigs who maintain it properly and keep out the vermin.

Challenges for the scout include predatory animals, rain storms(!), getting noticed by the Bigs, communities of other Littles with different levels of trust and perhaps vastly different cultures, even different species of small people.

Basically, go with the plot from Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH -- the book, and not the Disney movie, unless he wants to go all wainscot fantasy, and not just pseudo-science action-adventure.