Re: Character Advancement: The Reason to Adventure

[Quest Lord]

Well, I think most things will be able to be represented with a skill and a level. For example, formic spray is used by some ants, as well as bombardier beetles, etc.

So the skill would be like:

Formic spray:
The user can spray formic acid at range to attack enemies. It will fire at a range of <skill level> centimetres, and cause any enemies hit by it to take <skill level>/2+2 acid damage a round for 3 rounds.

And there might be further skills:
Formic spray - range:
Each level of this skill adds 3cm to the range of formic spray.

Formic spray - wide spray:
If another target is within x cm of the original target, it will also be hit by formic spray. x is equal to twice the skill level of this skill.

[Bees]

Having favored abilities for each species may be incredibly difficult. Perhaps just fluff around the favored abilities? If a beetle takes Acid Spit as a favored ability, it can be a bombardier. If an ant takes Acid Spit as a favored ability, it can be a formic acid-spraying species (say, yellow crazy ant. )

Favored abilities for classes/orders would be appropriate though - all dipterans come with halteres, all mantids have front claws raptorial, many butterflies and moths taste bad.

[Quest Lord]

Well, it depends on whether we go with taking templates down to the species level. Since these would only be modifications on the class/order lists, this won't take as long as it might seem. So lets go with this crazy yellow ant example. It would have all the ant stuff and then would have:

Favoured abilities:
Social Advantage (5)
Formic spray (3)

Additional abilities:
Social advantage (7)
Formic spray (4)

Restricted Abilities:
Sting (0)

This would mean the species couldn't sting, would use half xp to level up formic spray to 3, and social advantage to 5, and would have the new cap of (7) for social advantage and (4) for formic spray. In all other ways, it would work like every other ant.

[Bees]

Applying that for every interesting species would take a lot of time, though, since at the very least you're looking at several hundreds. Perhaps give a few examples and leave it to GM discretion/prior agreement? (Say, player A wants to play a Howe Island stick insect, GM says Size advantage (6) and Speed advantage (4) as favored skills is appropriate since they get huge and are fast, and Camouflage (2) and Flight (0) restrictions since they're bright red and can't fly, player runs with that? )

[Quest Lord]

@Bees: That works, but we might as well crunch a whole bunch as well, if anyone plays this, they can add what they used to here. Maybe this site can become a living rulebook, in that we'll add new species, etc. to it. But the system should be such that it's relatively easy to make a new species, like your example.

Instead of having pages of magical equipment, etc. I see this system having more species, etc. anyhow.

[BrokenMuse]

A combination of guidelines/examples as Bees says and rules like Ability X locks you out of Ability Y should keep things from being too confusing and people creating flying centipedes that walk on water.

Supplement 12: Order Ponerinae?

[Quest Lord]

Well, it's less going to be supplements and more being just a living rulebook that grows, since we're not looking at releasing this commercially.

Example idea for skills reducing other skills:
Giant Mandibles:
Blah blah blah. Every level of Giant Mandibles taken will reduce the level of your Flight skill by 1, as it is hard to fly with giant mandibles. If you have no levels in the flight skill, then it remains at (0).

Note that if someone wanted to specialise, they could stack their points into flight, so they could still fly, despite having giant mandibles.

[Bees]

Another idea regarding skill blockages and requirements.

Honeydew
Requires: Piercing-sucking mouthparts (2), herbivore.
You produce a sweet-tasting liquid that can be used to barter. Ants especially love it. Higher levels produce more and tastier honeydew.

Feeding on poisonous plants and storing their toxins does not let you produce honeydew at the same time. You may not take this skill if you have Bitter Taste, and vice versa.

[Quest Lord]

Requirements for skills, also makes sense. Simple and easy. -like

[Alpharius]

Coming to a consensus on what sort of system to use should be our first priority, before we go into what-ifs about skills and abilities - Although that's still definately good stuff to cover, early or not.

[Quest Lord]

So it looks like we're using a d% system, modelled roughly on Dark Heresy. What does that mean for character advancement?

We also seem to have decided that levelling up is equivalent to moulting, shedding the old skin, and using the new with all the new traits and abilities now attached. Which makes sense, it lets us explain away the whole levelling up all at once thing.

[Naryzhud]

Here's an interesting one. What about all those species that only live for like a day? Some of them are pretty cool so banning them would suck, but how do we go around the short lifespan? Have them level up as subsequent, more powerful generations?

[Alpharius]

Here's an interesting one. What about all those species that only live for like a day? Some of them are pretty cool so banning them would suck, but how do we go around the short lifespan? Have them level up as subsequent, more powerful generations?

Chalk extended lifespan up to mutation, or have it attached to reproduction, it's only after you fuck that you die.

[BrokenMuse]

Or PC bugs are freaks that don't age as fast as their counterparts.

[Sasha]

Keep in mind that we ARE working with a setting where bugs for-some-unknown-reason have gained sentience. Changes to lifespan is an acceptable break from reality as well, I'd say.

Come to think of it, for those bugs that never eat as adults - maybe we should include some kind of reverse-molt thing? Stay as an adult until you run out of food, and then you MUST pupate back to the larval form? That might be a bit TOO weird, though, unless we start introducing outright magic into the setting.

[Quest Lord]

Keep in mind that we ARE working with a setting where bugs for-some-unknown-reason have gained sentience. Changes to lifespan is an acceptable break from reality as well, I'd say.

Come to think of it, for those bugs that never eat as adults - maybe we should include some kind of reverse-molt thing? Stay as an adult until you run out of food, and then you MUST pupate back to the larval form? That might be a bit TOO weird, though, unless we start introducing outright magic into the setting.

If we're upping lifespan, they spend longer as caterpillars/larvae building up resources for their adult stage? A short lived species still should be a short lived species, so mayflies will die young, just not as young.

[Sasha]

Keep in mind that we ARE working with a setting where bugs for-some-unknown-reason have gained sentience. Changes to lifespan is an acceptable break from reality as well, I'd say.

Come to think of it, for those bugs that never eat as adults - maybe we should include some kind of reverse-molt thing? Stay as an adult until you run out of food, and then you MUST pupate back to the larval form? That might be a bit TOO weird, though, unless we start introducing outright magic into the setting.

If we're upping lifespan, they spend longer as caterpillars/larvae building up resources for their adult stage? A short lived species still should be a short lived species, so mayflies will die young, just not as young.

Yeah, that sounds good to me.
And anyone trying to play a mayfly would know what they're getting into, anyway.

[Alpharius]

Keep in mind that we ARE working with a setting where bugs for-some-unknown-reason have gained sentience. Changes to lifespan is an acceptable break from reality as well, I'd say.

Come to think of it, for those bugs that never eat as adults - maybe we should include some kind of reverse-molt thing? Stay as an adult until you run out of food, and then you MUST pupate back to the larval form? That might be a bit TOO weird, though, unless we start introducing outright magic into the setting.

If we're upping lifespan, they spend longer as caterpillars/larvae building up resources for their adult stage? A short lived species still should be a short lived species, so mayflies will die young, just not as young.

Yeah, that sounds good to me.
And anyone trying to play a mayfly would know what they're getting into, anyway.

Why would you want to play a mayfly in the first place? All they do is eat and die.

[Sasha]

Keep in mind that we ARE working with a setting where bugs for-some-unknown-reason have gained sentience. Changes to lifespan is an acceptable break from reality as well, I'd say.

Come to think of it, for those bugs that never eat as adults - maybe we should include some kind of reverse-molt thing? Stay as an adult until you run out of food, and then you MUST pupate back to the larval form? That might be a bit TOO weird, though, unless we start introducing outright magic into the setting.

If we're upping lifespan, they spend longer as caterpillars/larvae building up resources for their adult stage? A short lived species still should be a short lived species, so mayflies will die young, just not as young.

Yeah, that sounds good to me.
And anyone trying to play a mayfly would know what they're getting into, anyway.

Why would you want to play a mayfly in the first place? All they do is eat and die.

Massive speed boosts, perhaps?
Or maybe leave them as "not-recommended-for-play".

[Alpharius]

Keep in mind that we ARE working with a setting where bugs for-some-unknown-reason have gained sentience. Changes to lifespan is an acceptable break from reality as well, I'd say.

Come to think of it, for those bugs that never eat as adults - maybe we should include some kind of reverse-molt thing? Stay as an adult until you run out of food, and then you MUST pupate back to the larval form? That might be a bit TOO weird, though, unless we start introducing outright magic into the setting.

If we're upping lifespan, they spend longer as caterpillars/larvae building up resources for their adult stage? A short lived species still should be a short lived species, so mayflies will die young, just not as young.

Yeah, that sounds good to me.
And anyone trying to play a mayfly would know what they're getting into, anyway.

Why would you want to play a mayfly in the first place? All they do is eat and die.

Massive speed boosts, perhaps?
Or maybe leave them as "not-recommended-for-play".

I imagine that a lot of things, like Mayflies, Aphids, etc. would be the equivalent of the D&D Peasant class.

[BrokenMuse]

For the role playing experience? Being a useless drain on the party until your character dies and you roll up a pillbug.

[Alpharius]

For the role playing experience? Being a useless drain on the party until your character dies and you roll up a pillbug.

Pillbugs: God-Tier tanks.

[Quest Lord]

For the role playing experience? Being a useless drain on the party until your character dies and you roll up a pillbug.

Pillbugs: God-Tier tanks.

Play a Pillbug
Advicebedbug.jpg
Make Chitin your dump stat.

And if anyone wonders why it's a Pillbug, well, it's to do with the thread on /tg/ which kicked this thread into existence.

[Sasha]

For the role playing experience? Being a useless drain on the party until your character dies and you roll up a pillbug.

Pillbugs: God-Tier tanks.

Play a Pillbug
Advicebedbug.jpg
Make Chitin your dump stat.

And if anyone wonders why it's a Pillbug, well, it's to do with the thread on /tg/ which kicked this thread into existence.

God damn bedbugs...
Pillbugs and beetles seem to me to be the obvious choice for tanks.

[Naryzhud]

Reposting this here from the cockroach thread as i think it applies across the board...

For levelling stats;

How about have different cost ratings that can be applied to each attribute as appropriate. So "Standard" would be <40 1pt = 10xp, <50 1pt = 20xp etc, "High" would be <40 1pt = 20xp, <50 1pt = 40xp etc, "Low" would be <40 1pt = 5xp, <50 = 10xp, and so on. Then roaches would have Str at "Standard" but Vitality would be at "Low"... Just thinking having a standardized set of costs would save on a lot of writing stuff out.

So 1 Stat point would cost x xp dependant on how high the stat was and which tier of stats it is in.

	<40 Stat	<50 Stat	<60 Stat	<70 Stat	<80 Stat	<90 Stat	<100 Stat
Low	5	10	15	20	25	30	35
Average	10	20	30	40	50	60	70
High	20	40	60	80	100	120	140

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