Does anyone here remember/know what happened to BugWorld? I really

I've never heard of this in my life, enlighten me

>>49920652
Like everything else on /tg/, without (you) to keep it going, it died. You're the reason it died, OP.

>>49920652
It petered out, like Lost Source or InfiniCon or any other projects of collective brilliance.

I think that some sort of like dedicated restoration project for /tg/'s most promising concepts would be a worthwhile time investment with the right people behind it.

Engine Heart could do it, so why can't we?

>>49920733
An RPG Setting with insectoid races. Like A Bug's Life fucked Tolkein.

>>49920652
Who thought moth warriors were a good idea? Poor things would get torn to shreds.

>>49921197
They'd be much better Mages

>>49920754
But I tried so hard to keep it going, everyone just stopped in the end
I was one of the namefags

>>49921197
Moths were an innately magical race, so they were more like clerics and mages than warriors.

>>49921176
We'd have to find the people who pioneered the setting to start it back up again, and I only know what happened to one of them

>>49921348
There's also archived threads

>>49921456
Shit you're right

Was it purely insectoid, or how did mollusks or (god forbid) arachnids fit in?

Also how was it decided which races got the four arms/two legs v two arms/four legs bonus? Or was it an optional thing, like DPS vs agility?

>>49921197
Look again- that's a moth cleric.

>>49921521
Honestly it never got into stats and what-not and focused mainly on world-building, which may have been a factor that killed it.

Arachnids and mollusks were in it, in the forms of spiders, scorpions, crabs, lobsters, and shrimp.

LETS DO THIS!

BUG REBIRTH FROM THE COCOON HATCHING EX INFINITY VER.

>>49921560
So all arthropods were sapient? Interesting.

>>49921614
WE NEED MORE ART. FIND PR. OR MAKE SOME ON YOUR OWN

>>49921626
Almost all. There was some creative liberty taken, with some creatures, such as aphids, worms, and ticks, being domesticated.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1pAduIU7TDaKHvvaUfzRbgYj44TX_hApLeNeVu2d5bbM/edit#heading=h.1khtyf1faqa8

Here's the googledoc of BugWorld stuff in case anyone cares to look. Maybe we can bring it back from the dead.

As far as rules go, I think keeping it as simple as possible is best. What type of system? d20? d100? 3d6? Cards?

>>49921878
There was a playtest that was done on a system brewed up by a handful of the namefags that was dicepool based. I'll try to see if I can't find anything on it.

>>49921711
Holy shit, that's all awesome
>>49921878
GURPS would be pretty easy to run with this

>>49921948
That's actually where an initial split came in the threads. Some people wanted a system neutral setting, while others wanted to make a system to go along with the setting. The threads died out before a system could really be fleshed out.

>>49922085
There's no reason a setting has to be tied to one system. As for a game, taking an existing system and tweaking it is a HELL of a lot easier than building one from the ground up.

>>49922119
Exactly. Part of why I think GURPS would be great for this is because it's a system specifically built with the intention of being tweaked to fit the setting.

>>49922085
Eh. At that point someone just needs to be the hero this board needs and do it, without the threads. Coming up with ideas for a setting is easy. Actually turning that into something playable is actually quite difficult.

>>49922210
The setting would need to be finished first, as there are quite a few holes and underdeveloped parts.

>>49922119
I personally felt it would be more of /tg/'s own thing if a system was made to go with the setting, but I understand where you're coming from. Someone did convert it to 5E, which can be found somewhere near the end of the googledoc.

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>>49921711
I TOO HAVE GOOGLE DOCS.

IT WAS A PROJECT NEAR AND DEAR TO MY HEART AND IT SHALL RISE AGAIN

Bug World Lore Dump: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1pAduIU7TDaKHvvaUfzRbgYj44TX_hApLeNeVu2d5bbM/edit#heading=h.1khtyf1faqa8

DnD 5e bug stats:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ifPJEhGw1EE3-2RPhxC-fct5sxrBrePJERB2VcwvyRw/edit

>>49922341
trilobite?

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>>49922362
Locust

It may seem sacrilegious but do you think some kind of platform with more permanence might benefit projects like this

Like getting a 1d4chan page up or something

>>49922404
Ah ok. Trilo was the first one to pop into my head. I was Map. I no longer have the maps.

Alright. Bug World project revival checklist.

> Track down original devs
> consolidate all the information relevant to it in one place
> establish how much is done and what needs doing
>???
> Profit

>>49922473
We really should make a 1d4chan page or something.

I know for a fact that some of the races were severely underdeveloped, if only because they seemed to overlap with other races.

>>49922543
Ok namefag time

In my mind, we can get a fresh look at the whole project now that we've been away from it so long.

In my opinion, the things that really really stuck on to me were the really alien and bizarre, near-mythic levels of mysticism and by having cultures that weren't directly analaguous to human ideas of culture, and all of this mysticism and surrealness are juxtaposed against the fact they're bugs. Like, they're tiny little fuckin bugs. An entire setting could be encapsulated in an acre with some trees, a field and a pond.

In my opinion, we'd be doing ourselves a major disservice by lining out exactly who and what is where, and would be better served by establishing tropes and "building blocks" for settings using regional cliches and ideas, and not directly dictating how they are in relation to one another.

For example, we wouldn't say "this is where the Bee Empire is." We'd instead say "this is what Bee Empires are like, here's an in depth example or two of a Bee Empire, and here's how they jive with other major factions and regions."

>>49922850
Okay, now that's a good idea. Giving DMs room to construct their own setting from fleshed out components is almost always the best plan

>>49922850
Cont.

Not to step on map anon's shoes but I personally think that mapping the entire setting is too ambitious for its own good. I am definitely in favour of mapping out many sub settings though, if that makes sense.

The races I think should generally be broken down into the following overall categories, names need DIY obviously but these are the cliches we are working with:

Flappy Bugs: Moths and Butterflies. Both were decently developed and I think fill a similar niche, with butterflies being the more regal and thespian of the two and moths more down to earth. Definitely priestly, magey, or finesse fightery in the case of butterflies.

Buzzing Bugs: Bees and flies both fulfill a similar niche of being bulky, stout, and numerous to the point of expendability.

Beetles: classical "big guys." If we use a system or make a system with size mods, these guys are definitely in my opinion larger than the average character size and that's part of their whole design.

War Bugs: Mantis, locusts, and wasps. All are angry killing machines that fulfill the same general niche, with some bad apples / colonies spooling the reputation of all of them.

The question is if we want more playable bugs or want to focus on what we've got and see how it goes moving forward.

We should also immediately start work on the system IMO. Our best bet is probably poaching another system, but in my opinion is rather stay the hell away from D20.

Atomic Highway's V6 system could work well, and I've liked it ever since I first read it, or we could play it safe and do a d100 adaptation, using something like Dark Heresy as a starting point. Seht's UESRPG has done nothing but prove to me the versatility and adaptability of FF's dank heresy as a system.

I guess the big question is if we want to go pulpy or go gritty?

>>49922990
No offence taken to the stepping of shoes, I was originally just trying to contribute something original/get discussion moving.

Based on what you're saying would you want to cut out the arachnid races altogether? I feel that after the scorpion fiasco it would be a shame to lose them.

I like the idea of piggybacking a d100 system like dark heresy, don't go too ambitious with a system.

>>49922990
We could do it taxonomically. Dipterans, Coleopterans, Lepidopterans, Arachnids, Crustaceans, et cetera

Bogleech would probably be a valuable source of intel on this one

Yeah he's a bit of a cuccboi but he's actually volunteered information before on some Mortasheen threads so we know he's willing to post here

>>49923157
OH I forgot about the arachnids, ants too. The difficulty with those are player races is that they can't fly, which sort of I think funks around with encounter design and stuff but you could compensate them in various ways. But I think that's one of the cool design things right now is since everyone can fly, you can really take advantage of 3D spaces and verticality and stuff, but compensating for that as a legged bug could be equally as challenging and enjoyable.

I don't know about anyone else but spiders seem like a monster race to me.

I didn't have a hand in the scorpion or spider stuff so I'm not as attached as some contributors are obviously but I don't wanna leave anyone out in the rain.

In my opinion, small spiders and scorpions could work, without infringing on the beetles' "big guy" niche, and without being too monstrous.

I actually just watched ANTZ the other day again and the fight against the termites was awesome, and I'm definitely in favour of having some races be NPC / monstrous NPC only unless we get a lot of steam going.

>>49923171
I don't even know what those words mean other than arachnid but I can dig it

>>49923263
Flies, Beetles, Butterflies, Crustaceans

>>49923256
We could limit it to just Insects as player races

As in within the Class Insecta

>>49923157
We should definitely have the attributes spell something out.

Like

Intelligence
Nimbleness
Strength
Endurance
Charisma
Tenacity

Or something equally comfy.

I don't know about you guys but I feel like the big draw is the juxtaposition of comfy and alien, in tandem with how universal and understandable the concepts of a bug world are. Any DM worth his salt could spend an afternoon making an appealing setting with it, especially if we give him the tools to do it by making a great collection of puzzle pieces so to speak so that one can build a setting like its IKEA furniture without being limited in any way.

>>49923256
I feel like we need to keep the scorpions around, given how much work went into them.

I do agree that spiders could possibly be a monster race, given that the lore we have for them currently shows that there was some problems when they tried to become a more civilized race.

>>49922990
>The question is if we want more playable bugs or want to focus on what we've got and see how it goes moving forward.
Definitely focus on what we have. Once we have a solid basis for building things then we can start tacking things on.

On another note, I'm>>49921948 & >>49922210. I'm actually reconsidering my suggestion of GURPS.
One aspect of insects that >>49922990 pointed out is that they're mostly expendable. Part of me thinks that that should be a main thrust of the system, emphasizing how tiny and expendable they are, and only once they get more powerful do they become differentiated. If we decide to do this, GURPS definitely wouldn't be the way to go, because each actually requires some work. I've got to go, so I'll think about some mechanics.

>>49923256
PErsonally, I think arachnids (and possibly ants/termites) should be "monster races". They can be well developed sure, but I think there should be something kind of terrifying and alien about them, since (if I'm not mistaken), almost all of the current PC races are herbivores.

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I remember back when it was just some anons spitballing the Mothfolk, and the one anon pushing Farapidaan.

I enjoyed those threads, though I never got into the threads when we talked about the Hiruda and whatever the Flies were called.

I still look fondly on those times, and on my precious Farapidaan

ANENZU AKBAR!

>>49923317
>>49923375

I have no strong opinion either way. I was never part of the scorpion fiasco but IMO they should be "centaur style" monstrous NPCs, same with spiders. I don't think there's a good way to do them as "bipeds" without it being hammy and looking like Black Arachnia from Beast Wars

I'm at work right now but I'll start up a google doc when I get home tonight so we can start laying out the rules.

Bug World WILL rise again

>>49923424
I'm also leaning towards making some of the races more monstrous/NPC like. Looking back, there were waaaay too many races, and the problems with fluff came from having too much that overlapped. The races that got the most were the ones that were unique, like the butterflies, the flies, the beetles, and the mantis. Stuff like ants and termites ended up too much like the flies or the beetles or something, and didn't feel like their own group.


>>49923444
Careful about calling them centaurs, you'll start it all up again

>>49923546
Hahahah

So playable races are looking like:

Moths + Butterflies (subraces of same)

Beetles

Flies and Bees (subraces of same)

Edgy bugs: grasshoppers, wasps, mantis

Each category should be relatively similar with a few flavour or stat differences between them.

I'm starting work on a classical d100 system on Pen and paper right now at work. Will report back when I've made some progress.

>>49923624
Cockroaches were also a well fleshed out species for some reason. I think what we need to do is go through the doc and look at what has a lot of fluff, and the decide if they should be playable or not.

I say this because I feel like the wasps shouldn't be playable based on their lore, unless the game is "evil" so to speak.

>>49923671
I'm only including them because mechanically they will play very similarly to locust or mantis. Hence the edgy races disclaimer. I tried to lump together things that will be mechanically similar and therefore the least amount of up front work.

>>49923707
Do you think it would be a good idea to limit magic to certain races/have the magic how it was originally? I still like the idea of bees having fire magic, moths and butterflies get moon/light magic, etc.

>>49923813
Yes definitely. I think the schools should be relatively small but relatively exclusive. Maybe have a tree for "hedge magic," but I think most magicks should be race exclusive since it's so conductive to each cultures identity.

>>49923844
Based on how the cultures and races are so distinct, and given that we're talking about an actual system now, I think that we should do the whole "race is class" thing that certain systems do. Given that the races are so distinct, classes might just add too much bloat.

>>49923916
Hmm, well things like Bees could just as easily be fighters or mages

>>49923916
I think we should do the typical d100 thing and have the game break down into

Attributes: the big numbers, the character at a glance. Feed into skill tests
Skills: fixed list of skills, give a positive mod to tests
Talents: "special rules / class features" if you will.
Misc: movement speed, hp, etc.

Using XP to buy options. Since some races have distinct advantages, perhaps different race choice at the start will cost more starting XP

>>49921176

There was another setting from back in the day. I can't recall the name but the idea sprang from something like military schools like SeeD from FF8.

You had one group that was essentially Big Boss mixed with Native American Catchans, another group of ousted nobles who's military consisted of vat grown children of noble houses, a group of psychics on an island that researched paranormal shit, and a futuristic paramilitary group that formed teams based on experts.

Someone even got as far as making rules for Fate although one guy went nuts when going into detail with one of the groups and it all fell apart from there.

I really wish I would have saved a lot of the details from it.

>>49923916
Maybe do it like ACKS does it, where class determines race, but there's multiple races per class.
So you have Fighters and Mages, who are Humans, but instead of just having a "Dwarf" class, you can be a Dwarven Vaultguard or a Dwarven Craftpriest.

So if we want to go class-based, we could have 1-3 classes per race/race-group.
Stuff like "Bee Pyromancer" and "Bee Hiveguard" or "Butterfly Heliomancer" and "Butterfly Sunblade"

>>49924083
*multiple classes per race

>>49923965
>>49924083
I feel like the talents tree and "1-3 classes per race" could work very well, with an Edge of the Empire type skill tree for what you want to do as a race, spending experience to get into different trees

>>49924083
I personally would rather avoid hard and fast classes and would rather opt for DIY XP buy, but that's just me. Full class design is hard, and if we were to do full class design, we'd need to keep it very limited because making distinct, balanced, AND wholely unique classes would be very ambitious, and there's already any number of fixed class games out there that can be jimmied to work.

>>49924137
Nah man no talent tree. Just talents floating there loosy goosey. Character creation would be like

Here's a pool of starting XP to spend.

First step is spend XP on a bug race. This sets your stat baseline plus any immediate special features from the race. So a Beetle would have a larger size mod and a bee would have access to the pyroturgy school of magic.

Next you spend XP on boosting some attributes.

Then you spend XP on buying some skill bonuses, like +10 to Magic Casting, or +10 to Persuasion, etc.

Then you spend XP on some free floating talents. Some have pre requisites but most shouldn't.

Every session you get a trickle of XP to save or buy more stuff.

By all means we could develop "fast play" class packages, or pre built class packages that are cheaper than the sum of their parts to encourage certain play styles, but I think we should avoid hard and fast classes if we actually want to get this developed in a reasonable amount of time.

>>49921176
>/tg/ projects keep falling through!
>we need a new project to revive these old projects!
Uh...

>>49924270
I'm worried that if we do talents just floating about that we'll end up with something like Pathfinder. Too many talents and not enough reason to take them. I like the other ideas though. How would starting XP be determined?

Whoa, this is pretty cool. I am reading through the details of each of the bugs and it is really fun. Are you guys going to try and finish this project?

>>49922426
Honestly, that's a brilliant idea. Or having shared rooms like MoonEdit or IRC with which to not only quickly communicate, but also save logs thereof.

Posting from mobile

>>49924173
I agree with this. There should be a suite of generic abilities/featurees/maneuvers/whatever, and then some that are exclusive to each race.

>>49923965
>>49923624
I'm not so sure that d100 is the best way to go.
I spent some time thinking about this, so I'll go ahead and throw out the system I came up with. Let me know if you guys like it. If not, then that's cool too. I'll roll With whatever the majority likes

The basic method of accomplishing things is roll d20, and then add the appropriate modifier. There are six ability scores, three static, three variable.

Static ability scores range from 0 to +10. They are physicality, mentality, and size. Additionally, size can be a negative value, to - 10.

Variable modifiers start 0, then go to 1. After 1, you begin increasing for die size. The dice range up to a d12. The three variable ability scores are attack, flight, and perception.

Whenever you want to make a check, you roll 1d20+modifier. If it's a variable modifier for which you have a die, then you also roll the appropriate die alongside it.

>>49924430
Looks like we're going to try to make an actual system this time around. Last time we made it through 19(?) threads before they started to die before post limit.

Welcome aboard!

>>49923256
RE: non-flyers and 3D space
Ants can't fly, but they can crawl on most surfaces can they not?
It is more limited, but not completely debilitating.

Hence, if we go with the stats outlined here >>49924439, flight would be replaced by climb for those bugs

>>49924498
Or maybe, seeing as Mantises can jump, maybe a generic movement/agility skill?

>>49924439
How would you increase the variable modifiers?

>>49924498
>>49924523
Id be fine with that. Call it maneuverability instead.

>>49924533
All ability scores would be increased using a point buy system. Increasing the die size for a variable ability scores would cost about the same as increasing a static score by 2. Haven't figured out exactly what that relationship will be yet, I'll see what I can work out once I'm home.

Also, the way that I would prefer to handle racial modifiers to ability scores would be by having different races be able to purchase certain skills more cheaply, rather than having a set bonus at character creation.
So for instance, since beetles are tough, they might be able to purchase physicality at half the price most races do.

I remember termites needing some work back in the day, I'll jump back on them if anyone cares

>>49924820
Definitely keep doing what you're doing. We can bounce ideas around until we all come to consensus.

What I've got right now for the d100 version is:

Rolling system: roll equal or under TN, the higher without going over the better, blackjack style. The tens are DoS. In combat, the ones are hit location.

TN (target number) is determined by Attribute + relevant Skill. If relevant skill is untrained, it's at -20. GM also has a chart of modifiers because most rolls will be modified in some way because the baseline TN basically represents a vacuum with time sensitivity and pressure to succeed but no other factors.

Attributes:

Intelligence: a bug's smarts and perceptiveness.
Nimbleness: a bug's agility and motor skills.
Strength: a bug's brute force and brawn.
Endeavour: a bug's spirit and intuition.
Charisma: a bug's people skills and identity.
Toughness: a bug's endurance and fortitude.

Average "above average" bug is 30 across the board, but various racial modifiers will change it. If playing a "heroic" campaign rather than gritty, stats average is 40 across the board and only -10 for untrained.

Skills:
Athletics (st/tg)
Alchemy (int)
Beast Mastery (cha/int)
Command (cha)
Commerce (cha/int)
Deception (cha)
Dodge (nm)
Fighting Style [field] (st/nm)
Investigate (int/cha)
Lore [field] (int)
Medicine (int/nm)
Mysticism (en)
Navigate (en)
Persuasion (cha)
Sneak (nm)
Subterfuge (nm/int)
Survival (en)
Trade [field] varies

Most rolls are a test of some sort, and attributes will feed into other characteristics like hp and movement and action points and stuff. Will keep posted.

I know it's vanilla and kind of boring but it's only the skeleton of the system before we get to add all the flashy stuff (talents and magic and combat)

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>>49925079
For schools of mysticism we so far have as far as I remember:

The Moonlight Cult of the moths
The Heliomancers of the butterflies
Pyroturgy, which is bees
Necromancy which is cicadas and forbidden
Alchemy which was made by flies and is available to all to close the gap between the normies and the magical

I think there were venom wizards too?

>>49925079
>>49925336
This is good! How would you roll you stats? And how would DoS work with a blackjack style dice system? Do you have any idea for talents? Also would you have to be the certain race to buy into the magic trees?

>>49925646
Stats would probably be either point buy or just racial baseline + 1d10 for a starting character, or take 6.

Magic would be race locked except alchemy because it's for the normies and hedge magic type stuff which doesn't really have a school.

No idea for anything else yet but feel free to shoot some ideas. Starting character is probably like 1000xp with different things having wildly different costs but in general

Broad = expensive
Specific = cheaper

>>49925646
DoS would be the tens of a roll that passed. Thinking no degrees of failure because most systems that have them, DoF don't really tend to do anything meaningful except decide who lost WORSE, but in cases where both contestants fail and one of them NEEDS to win, the one with the higher TN will probably just default win.

So to clarify, no degrees of failure. DoS are the 10s

So if you rolled a 51 under 55, that's 5 DoS. It's mathematically identical to counting backwards since you have the same potential range for DoS maximums, but involves 0 math and the risk is le spicy

Why mantis and spiders are not playable races?

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THIS THREAD NEEDS MORE INSECTS DRAWN AS FIERCE WARRIORS AND HEROES

THERE ARE NOT ENOUGH PICTURES OF ADVENTURER BUGS IN THIS WORLD

Anyone have that writefaggotry about the mercenaries fighting the "dragon" that was a hawk or something?

>>49926063
That should be in the googledoc somewhere if I remember properly

Reading this I am reminded just how much crazy shit found its way into Arath

>psychotic warrior monk Peacock mantis shrimp driven mad by lovecraftian horrors only they can see

>Bird dragons

>Metamagic CHIM timey wimey nonsense

>>49925079
I think we should try to come to a consensus as soon as possible, before we have two incompatible systems going and everyone gets devoted to one.

Since it looks like we're the only two trying to work out mechanics, maybe we should exchange E-mails so we can exchange notes more easily? Or we can start a discord channel if you prefer that

>>49926186
Good or bad when you mean crazy shit

>>49925904
Mantis was a very fleshed out race, so I think it should be a playable race. From past threads spiders were canabalistic, so they could be playable, but could also make for good "evil race"

>>49926220
Discords are excellent "get shit done" tanks

>>49926220
I wouldn't mind a discord channel so that we can have a way to throw ideas back an forth. Plus that'll kinda force us to work on this if you use discord often

>>49926223
Good, in my opinion.

>>49926079
It's not there. Do you remember what thread it's in?

>>49921626
I believe spider wizards with sense of right and wrong(tm) is what started it. Then people started theoretizing about how they and other insects do magic and few days after first bug world thread was created.

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I once had an idea of a society of spiders that were the hidden lore masters of the setting, weaving webs of different thickness to keep archives of all, sending out adventurers to bring back news to further increase thier history collection. They could play similar to bards, or sound magic. The link below i just found when looking for something else, but i feel would still be relevent if we wanted to make spider race a thing, possible making them not evil/ a non evil faction to play as. It even comes with three convenient branches for development


http://www.druidry.org/library/animals/spiders-spiritual-guides

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Here we go. I made a server, so hopefully we can get some actual stuff done. I think there's three main areas we need to work on, of varying immediacy:

1. Character Role and Advancement- figuring out what a player's general goals, and abilities will look like. What kind of powers they'll have, and what kind of role they're generally expected to be filling (Scouts? Diplomats? Murderhobos?). Additionally, we should probably discuss what the tone of the system will be (Pathfinder with bugs? Or should it emphasize the horror of being a small bug in a big universe, where everything wants to eat you?). I think these are probably the most important areas that have yet to be discussed.

2. Mechanics for Play- figuring out how the system will actually work, what the base crunch of the system will look like. (As discussed >>49921878, >>49921948,>>49922210,>>49922990,>>49923157,>>49923367, >>49923624, >>49924439, >>49924820, >>49925079,>>49925336, >>49925720).

3. The Role of Racial Traits- What role racial characteristic will actually play, and to what extent they'll determine play style (As discussed >>49924498, >>49924523,>>49924820, >>49925689)

I tried to quote all the discussion that we've had in this thread about mechanics, etc.

I think we should also look to the story hooks and literature that have been written already, to make sure that any system we create is geared towards the tone that we're going for.
Here's a discord server I made:
https://discord.gg/kWNBjHr

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>>49921560
sounds neat, and explains some of the art I've seen floating around. be willing to pitch in how I can, just not super regular on here

setting first seems the best. worst case, can be run in just about anything by the sounds of it

>>49926945
join that discord, we're gonna make this happen for real this time

>>49926998
Which Discord is this?

>>49927348
it's in this post at the bottom >>49926737

>>49927348
Nevermind, got it. Missed that post.

>>49927354
glad to have you on board

Found a couple stories about insects that could trigger your world-building needs, bugworld fellas.

http://www.northofreality.com/tales/2016/2/17/funerals-for-insects
http://www.northofreality.com/tales/2016/2/26/the-dreams-of-ants

>>49928066
But nothing about that band of mercenaries hunting that hawk dragon?

>>49928066
Those were excellent! Thanks, IndoGent!

http://shadowsoftheapt.com/blog/29
Hmm.

>>49928275
Ah, mentioning the "Bugworld" bit of that?

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>>49921632
Boo

I can explain partial why Bugworld died off at the time - a big chunk was that I couldn't find the time to re-write, edit and type up suggestions meaning a huge backlog of ideas were stuck in limbo. This was due to my job taking up a lot of my time.

Things like stories and small fluff parts were written in detail but huge swathes of core lore wasn't or was in a hiatus status which slowed a lot down as lore had to be confirmed before it could be built upon.

Personally I'm glad that the project has not been forgotten and I look forward to seeing how it continues now that a level of organisation has been achieved.

We will be watching

>>49930007
>>49926945
>>49925940
Who makes the art for this, it's pretty damn good. Also is the google docs link the only place with full info on the lore/setting?

>>49930007
Is there any art on the scorpion people? The whole part about them debating and fighting over walking poise is interesting.

>>49930109
That's the problem

No one knew how to draw them.

>>49930159
Well hopefully someone finds a way to draw em soon, cause I am thinking of GMing this for a few friends and I kinda want to have scorpions as a major involvement on the story.

>>49930102
Currently the only place the lore, etc, is settled is in the doc, though a group of us have been working through rewriting the mechanics and will be addressing the lore/fluff as we progress.

>>49930286
Is there any way to keep up to date with this stuff and follow it?

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>>49930159
These were the two variants in doodleform

>>49930384
CENTAUR MASTER RACE

>>49931270
It begins

The scorpions in general remind me of Cat's race in Red Dwarf who started a holy war over if their hats should be red of blue.

The original intention was that they would be green

>>49930310
The discord channel (>>49926737) looks to be the main place we'll actually be working on things.

>>49930007
Well well well, look what the gnat dragged in.
Great to have you back on board!

>>49930384
A looks much better

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>>49920652
BugWorld was fun. Some anons and I ran a playtest with a system we tried to develop.

We really needed to fix armor. And magic. And a lot of shit.

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Don't forget that there are many centipedes that look awesome and could use as mounts/monsters/cattle and some caterpillars too; they might even end up as pcs

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>>49931977

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>>49931988

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>>49932003
Dragonflies too

>>49931270
CENTAUR MASTER RACE REPORTING IN

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cordyceps

>>49932178

>By the Horn of the Father! Smite that unholy beast!

This project looks really interesting. I'd love to help in some way.

I'm curious, has anyone heard of the Adrian Tchaikovsky books? Shadows of the Apt? He based the series off an RPG called Bugworld. His book characters are more humanoid than insectiod, but it always interested me.

>>49932178
And here we have zombies

>>49932655

They've been around for a while.

Cordyceps is an ancient bio-tool of the Trilobites.

>>49932771
Based Trilobites

Gieger lovecraftian super science bros

>>49931799
Holy shit my shitty map. Someone saved it. I'm touched

>>49932771
Get in that discord Trilo, we're getting Shit done

>BugWorld
>not Arthropocalypse
Pleb.

>>49934259
But it's not post apocalyptic

>>49934295
Educate yourself: http://arthropocalypse.forum-motion.com/t17-starter-thread-new-to-arthropocalypse

>>49933996
Twas me who saved the map MA.
And I'm already in the Discord

>>49934457
Isn't the world name Arath or something to that effect?

>>49934612

I think that was the unofficial official name for the setting's world.


The setting as a whole is BugWorld.

>>49934789
Ah. So it's like Dragon Age or Elder Scrolls?

>>49935050

Pretty much.

>>49932513
Someone had mentioned them earlier in the thread, yeah.

>>49935452

Man Deva are fucking hardcore

>>49922341
Were you part of that roll20 group using the original system?

I willing to collaborate on it if there are other interested to work on it

I'm down for a roll20 game of we get a system going

>>49939197
I'd be fucking down

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>>49939197
Same here

>>49939197
>I'm down for a roll20 game of we get a system going

Prepare for a roll20 game with a shitload of players lining up for it

>>49939197
Make sure you Storytime it.

>>49943221
What's storytime?

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>>49932098
>>49930384
hey guys just remembered this from a vidya

could be cool to have one claw more as a sort of shield/grabber (think emperor scorpion) rather than a crushing weapon and would free up a hand to be used for an actual weapon instead of awkwardly trying to use both claws and a weapon.

could include two sets of weak hands that are more for holding objects instead of swinging weapons.

>>49945456
Well it should be noted that anything beyond the Emperor Scorpion (Bipedal Anthro schlock made by unimaginative autisits) is the result of horrible curse, so a wide array of variation is to be expected

>>49948277

>>49945431
If I remember right, it's someone describing the game as a tale of epic proportions, rather as a bard would tell it.

>>49939197
There'd have to be an application process, like once you're out the next in line steps in

> another shitty autistic homebrew that should and will never be finished

The point of 4chan isn't to create you fucking speds it's to destroy yourself and others

>>49951248
Eh. Why destroy when we can have fun and create?

>>49951248
We get it, you like to remove kebab. Fuck off.

>>49951265
This.

Bugs for the bug god.

>>49951248
Ha, worthless dreg.

>>49951265
"""Fun""" is just tolerated autism for manchildren

>>49951476
>/tg/blr confirmed
Racism is the only reason people come to 4chan you stupid fuck

>>49951833
*tips fedora*

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>>49951248
Seriously?

>>49952282
>>>/out/

>>49952742
>>>/reddit/

>>49952543
> le ebin "u r wrong fish"

>>49952838
Calm down, friendo. You don't like people making a system? That's fine. No need to be a prick about it.

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>>49952838
What is your malfunction?

Did somebody swipe your cheerios when you were a kid or something?

>>49952838
>>49952893
I bet his domination wife/sister keeps him beaten remorselessly like a poorly behaved slave and this is the only site that she doesn't have child-locked on his commodore

So back to Bugs. We're thinking the size of the bugs will be up to the GM running their game, as we have been split on whether they are bug-sized or rodent-sized. Thoughts?

>>49953236
Uhhhh bug sized definitely.

It's bug world, not rodent world

>>49953236
Rodent sized? What? Why?

>>49953823
Because a lot of the anons working on it are fucking dumb that's why

It's one or two guys with some strong backwards ass convictions pushing for their way or the highway

>>49953236
Bugs should be bug sized, that way things like rodents are scary

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>>49953236
Bug size, why would they be rodent sized?

>>49954065
Not really. It's been pretty open-minded so far.

As far as the bug-sized vs rodent-sized thing, it seems to be mostly based on the physics of the thing, and allowing for some leeway in the environment. Regardless, it's ultimately up to a GM how they choose to size things.

>>49954487
basically this.
i dont care what is eventually decided on, if i ever run this setting i would do it human-sized with everything scaled up so the physics are still at least recognizable.
and i could have super giant skyscraper trees

>>49954582
That seems to be the end result things reached. I mostly just wanted a topic I knew would divert from the troll.

>>49954954
Why not a discussion on bug culture? The termites and ants have been pretty similar in our previous fluff, how should they differ?

I like to think the termites build massive, single, skyscraper like buildings, while the ants build sprawling megacomplexes

>>49955174
i've always pictured ants as kind of like hobbits
simple, hardworking folk. few of them go into adventuring, but there's so many of them that a fair amount of ant adventurers pop up anyway

in contrast, i pictured termites more obsessive, a bit like dwarves

>>49955255
of course that's not to say i imagine termites with beards and scottish accents. just the general tone of the culture is what i mean

>sea bugworld where you play as thing like nudibranchs and urchins
would you play it?

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What about some phasmatodea swashbuckler tradition?

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>>49951248

Ignore bait.

We need more Trilobite bio horrors and Ammonite Hollow Shell automata

>>49956439
We've already been working on Stick Bugs, but they are a little bit different from what you are saying. The grasshoppers are more of the swashbucklers in the lore. We are trying to make stick bugs more of a stealthy people, since they do hide in plain sight. We have their lore sheet in the discord chat.

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>>49957153
Eurypterids living fortress. Used by trilobites like huge mother ships during the war against the Ammonites. One can still be disabled on the seabed, or even have been dragged to the ground and fossilized. It would be a good dungeon to go through the horrors of internal organs reconstructed by trilobites.

>>49958057

LOVE IT

Bio-ship war machines are go

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>>49958057
>>49958306
The interior been like the Giger's desing for Alien. Walls covered in legs, shells and shine black compound eyes. A lab full of old charts and parts of different creatures from the past, tortured and disfigured by trilobite experiments.

Was there a system in mind when designing this? With odd arm numbers and weird body shapes this would work amazingly in GURPS.

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>>49959421
Ok, what the hell is the source of these? I've always wondered whether this turtle thing was a reference to something, but I could never find anything

>>49959514
We're actually building a system in the discord chat!

>>49958573
Hot damn that sounds dope as hell. Would any experiments be awake to torment the group?

>>49960234

Perhaps there are. Perhaps not. The trilobites created many terrible things, and not all of them died out.

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The world need crazy treehoppers prophets.

>>49959992
hows that going along?

>>49930384
Maybe Scorpions can switch between A and B freely? Thought specific scorps often prefer a specific movement style because of the way the size of their claws affects their ability to manipulate things with them

>>49958057
The Ammonites naturally contacted their Belemnite allies and used them to bring forth Orthocone war engines.

>>49958057
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Megarachne
Clearly the Trilobites made use of these when a simple Eurypterid didn't get the job done.

>>49958057
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jaekelopterus
Now THIS is a dungeon crawl...Maybe the players could even reactivate it?

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>>49964029
The consequences would be terrible. Fungal latent strains could be awakened by the attempt to reactivate these behemoths.

>>49963993
In the final days of the Great War, eurypterid fleets would be used in sieges against underwater fortresses of ammonites. A huge orthocone would be the last desperate line of defense.

>>49964029
>>49964218


Trilobite Biomancy is needed to control those lumbering monstrosities. Should non-trilobites enter the war machines, a horse of bio-horrors would swarm the attackers.

>>49964982

Dropped my name

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How insects handle the rain? Taking into account the size of them, any rainy day can turn into a disaster of biblical proportions. Not to mention seasonal changes. Winters would be nightmares for hunters and predators.

>>49966576
Pfft. To not drown: crawl up there on some grass, that's easy; to not get your stuff drowned: build cities and castles on/inside of trees
Winter? Most of the insects die when the Dark Season comes, so surviving for longer than 9 months gonna be a luxury provided only by civilisation

>>49967455
That's actually something that we haven't thought about yet, what happens in winter. Only well stocked cities offer safety from the cold of the Dark Season. Those that make it through alive are either battle hardened, lucky, or rich. Probably two of the three

>>49967537
Wow, I wonder what that does to their perception of time, a year is probably a huge event to be happy about, maybe some kind of huge annual festival?

>>49967605
That's a good point! Time would pass differently for them, given both size and life span, so a month might be a massive occurrence.

I know that the Lunarians have festivals to coincide with the full moon, but that's just restricted to that religion

>>49967680
maybe different religions/cultures celebrating new month in different moon phases?

>>49968881
I remember once watching a documentary, there is a species of termites in the amazon that can not survive the drop in temperature during the night, so they bury themselves in. This means that some members have to stay outside to close it up, who will eventually die. For them a day is pretty important.

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What's the policy on snails?

Most garden bugs only have a lifespan of 12 months, if they're lucky. Snails can live up to 20 years. I like the idea of snails as wise, venerable, mystic, sage NPCs, with knowledge going back a great many generations, but relayed in a subtle, vague way that is almost indecipherable to must insects and most don't have the patience to listen. They move so slowly that they blur the lines between the living and the dead, more connected and in-tuned with the world around them, moving at its flow and speed. If you find a snail, it's only because they've wanted you to, or because you've slowed down enough to appreciate the world for what it is.

>>49967680
>>49968881
I really like the idea of that! It means that seasonal changes and time differences are magnified. Something as simple as it becoming night or a slight shift in temperature might have a big impact.
But yeah, more festivals. I think that worlds have too few things to be celebrate and it makes time matter.

>>49969973
Neat idea.

I think that the non-intelligent ones are beasts of burden, slow but reliable.

I think I might try my hand at writing a short story at work tonight. Dunno who or what about yet, but something quick set in Bug World.

>>49970832
Attaching my name so peeps know who I be. Internet's been spotty, so I haven't been able to stay in Discord

I remember one specific thread, the topic of common garden animals being sort of rare "mega beasts", such as birds being this settings equivalent to dragons. I'd really love to see a house cat, or maybe a mole would be better if not around houses, for this settings Tarrasque

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>>49970974
don't forget anteaters, monkeys, human exterminators/children with magnifying glasses, and ect.

>>49970974
Imagine encountering some kind of really weird house pet you'd never think someone would have. Like crocodiles.

If you fuckers think I'm kidding, look it up. Some rich folks keep them as pets.

>>49971059
>>49971076
same anon, but personally I like the idea of the distinct lack of humanity in the setting, sort of like this little self contained world in a garden or something like that, rather than having humans having an impact on the inhabitants of Bug World, but that's just me

>>49971059
Mega creatures are dragon level threats in BugWorld, there's a fantastic story about an anteater attack in the google doc
we've chosen to leave humans out of the lore entirely, leaving it up to gms to include them or not

>>49971150
praise allah anon, no humans is best creative setting

>>49971150
>>49971146
>no humans

I suppose. Although I'm the kind of guy who loved A Bug's Life as a kid, and remembers the big city made out of garbage outside the house. Stuff like that wouldn't really be feasible, but then I read some of the cool stuff in the G-Doc and figured 'OK, this'll work without humans.'

Still wanna see bugs take down a crocodile as a final boss. Why? Because look at the size of that thing.

>>49971319
Bug World: Swamp Critters, featuring suicidal lightning bugs fire mages who think their own light is the truest flame, noble dragonflys guarding their queen in heavy armor and heavily feudal beliefs, shamanistic mosquitoes who worship the Lifeblood, stealing it from the heretical and sharing it with fellow believers, agile and sneaky water striders, and of course stilt towns with shady underbellies.

>>49971397
oh, and an ancient evil sleeping on the swamp floor, a scaled beast who is told to have a maw that leads right to hell, and a cult of amphibians itching to reawaken their boss croc

>>49970124
Maybe they are so slow to think and speak that everyone treats them like pack animals but they are actually just slow, like if the ents in LotR were so slow people mistook them for trees

>>49970124
>>49971655
Ents is a good comparison, other bugs would skit about so quickly that they would rarely even recognize that snails were even there, they'd just become part of the landscape, their hard shells would just make them seem like stones.
Realistically, I think they'd probably be too slow to be useful as beasts of burden, at that small a level, snails would barely seem to move at all, but I guess there's room for artisitic liberty.

bugs are fucking rad

>>49972182
Bugs are the raddest
moths also make good waifus

Sweet to see this revving back up again. I contributed to the old Bugworld(Coastal-Anon. I wrote the Testimony of Amph Tally in the doc, some of the stuff on Snapping Shrimp and the mantis shrimp story that isn't in the google doc about the young apprentice looking for a master to teach him). I'll be keeping an eye on this, and I might write some more to see what folks think. I have a horseshoe crab wedding party idea somewhere.

>>49972904
There's a discord link in here somewhere, try to join that if you can!

so will the setting have planes like DnD or Pathfinder, or is that a concept we should shy away from?

>>49973750
I think having the size be insect proportioned (if you so choose) you could just have a landscape with enough variety that they feel other worldly, and distanced far enough away that only higher level characters could reasonably reach them

>>49971414
Crocodiles are now Cthulhu.

Toads are now high-level Cthulhu-worshiping monsters.

>>49974031
Wouldn't those birds that fly in crocodile mouths be a better fit?

Especially since birds prey on bugs.

>>49974140
Shit, you're right.

Praise the Providing Maw.

Lest the truth devour all.

>>49974140
but then you can't have a southern smooth talking toad trying to buy your soul

>>49974201
Sure you can, you can have more than one type of bad guy.

>>49974201
>>49974362
The cult of the Providing Maw should know no limits. Bugs converted to it may not fully grasp the mystery, but other creatures from higher up the food chain have a taste of the big picture.

In the birds' case, that might be literally.

The scary part? The croc's a mother. And its babies are on the way.

>>49974471
legend tells of a being as ancient as the creature the Providing Maw worships, the Roaming Isle. if the stories are to be believed, this benevolent ancient may hold the only way of making sure the foul leviathan never surfaces again, if only you could find the island...

>>49923624
>no ants.

>>49974881
ants are a special case that require further rulings for play. The current idea with ants is that ant PC are leaders of 2 or 3 other ants which carry out their bidding in the same way a rigger uses drone or a 40k techpriest uses servitors

>>49974616
>>49974471
>>49974185
>>49974140
This shit is fantastic. If any of you are in the discord put it in, it WILL be used because it's amazing.

I would add it but I'm on mobile currently

>>49974471
This would make for a sick adventure hook. I'd play it

>>49975080
How about... male ants as questing knights, adventuring to win their queen's heart?

>>49979766
And of course they come with a squire/bat-ant or two.

>>49979766
>>49981608
Also, maybe cause they can't fly, they're geared toward flying mounts and shit?

>>49981950

Yes, the Devouring plants. Bugs are tempted by a smell that speaks of something sweeter than the best honeydew, but are devoured instead.

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>>49923624
Are you accepting other playable races? If so, I put forth the infamous earwig.

>>49982158
Fit evil campaigns

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>>49981616
Sounds damn rad
Imagine ant cataphracts on these monsters

>>49981950
>laughingplants.jpg

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fuckyeah bugworld

Fucking Cicada's buffs when? Seriously a swarming insect with no defense other than flying really fast and being loud and annoying? and who thought it was a good idea to make them need to eat so much and not live for very long?

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>>49941196
reminds me of this

>>49987042
They have necromancy dude. Cicadas are busted