Re: Monster Manual: What's playable, and what's just EXP waiting to happen?

[Grawflemaul]

That could lead to a very entertaining scene for a party to stumble across though... a small group of absolutely insane ants worshipping this anteater...

WHO GETS EATEN FIRST?

[LeftBower]

But who would listen? It'd be like an Elder Thing trying to communicate. It knows what you're saying, it knows how to respond back, but if/when it does, everything comes out garbled and just wrong. Not many would stick around to listen and those that did would be very demented individuals.

That could lead to a very entertaining scene for a party to stumble across though... a small group of absolutely insane ants worshipping this anteater...

This gives me an image of a nest of ants that raid other species' nests in order to capture queens to feed to the anteater. They then recruit from the now leaderless ants.

[Sasha]

But who would listen? It'd be like an Elder Thing trying to communicate. It knows what you're saying, it knows how to respond back, but if/when it does, everything comes out garbled and just wrong. Not many would stick around to listen and those that did would be very demented individuals.

That could lead to a very entertaining scene for a party to stumble across though... a small group of absolutely insane ants worshipping this anteater...

This gives me an image of a nest of ants that raid other species' nests in order to capture queens to feed to the anteater. They then recruit from the now leaderless ants.

That's just disturbing - a horrible thought to consider. Simply monstrous.
I love it!

[Naryzhud]

But who would listen? It'd be like an Elder Thing trying to communicate. It knows what you're saying, it knows how to respond back, but if/when it does, everything comes out garbled and just wrong. Not many would stick around to listen and those that did would be very demented individuals.

That could lead to a very entertaining scene for a party to stumble across though... a small group of absolutely insane ants worshipping this anteater...

This gives me an image of a nest of ants that raid other species' nests in order to capture queens to feed to the anteater. They then recruit from the now leaderless ants.

That's just disturbing - a horrible thought to consider. Simply monstrous.
I love it!

Yes YES YEEEEEESSSSSS!!!!!!!

[Quest Lord]

I'm bumping thise thread, so that everyone who has posted here gets an email, reminding them of this project. Let's get shit done.

[Sasha]

For any kind of starting adventure, I think we're going to need to assume they're taking on other arthropods to start. Maybe a small nest of hostile ants, maybe a larger bug that's gone feral and predatory. What do you think of there being a small but worrying chance of insects reverting to their ancestral state - losing their intelligence and becoming ravening predators?

[Grawflemaul]

We'd need to work out exactly how the bugs got sentient before we started asking if there was any chance of them going back.

I liked the idea, expressed somewhere else, that the Sentience was focussed on one area, so there's a real frontier feeling, with the superior, sentient bugs expanding out into unknown and feral territory, and outbreeding or ruling over the local savages. Maybe, in order to keep up variety, there were multiple Centres of Sentience across the globe, some of which have become linked up with trade routes. Or you could just have lone explorers or refugees from one CoS somewhere entirely different.

Also, I'd rather not have any species be exclusively NPCs. There's more than enough room for everyone to be a potential player character. Balancing those species is an entirely different matter.

[Sasha]

We'd need to work out exactly how the bugs got sentient before we started asking if there was any chance of them going back.

I liked the idea, expressed somewhere else, that the Sentience was focussed on one area, so there's a real frontier feeling, with the superior, sentient bugs expanding out into unknown and feral territory, and outbreeding or ruling over the local savages. Maybe, in order to keep up variety, there were multiple Centres of Sentience across the globe, some of which have become linked up with trade routes. Or you could just have lone explorers or refugees from one CoS somewhere entirely different.

Also, I'd rather not have any species be exclusively NPCs. There's more than enough room for everyone to be a potential player character. Balancing those species is an entirely different matter.

That...sounds like a good plan. Works pretty well with the "points of light" idea as well - smarter doesn't necessarily always mean stronger, and it's a dangerous world out there for a bug. Hell, even building towns could be dangerous - there's safety in numbers against predatory, feral bugs, but you might just wind up attracting the attention of sparrows if you do that.

[Naryzhud]

I'm liking this 'points of light' idea... And it means plenty of guilt-free xp out there

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