Starting Small

[DM-Boneyard Ben]

This thread will be for a 'honey I shrunk the kids' sort of world

Story; Oh no! you've been shrunk! but, things arent what you expect. insects ar alot friendler than you imagined, there are even others like yourself other humans dressed in chitin armour of the various insects even some people who can understand the creatures and work as translators.

side notes: Metal is rare (in the forest) most things are made from chitin (bug skin) or wood and stone. anything made from metal is usualy how it was found. like a needle made into a sword.
insects are intelligent but only limitedly so, like main character animals who understand but lack ability to do much more outside their insect norms. the smartest are the queens most others can be used as mounts or pets
magic (if any) has heavy influence here. magic users are rare and often given high status.
also, sorry to you clerics and paladins but, your deity dont give two shits about you when your the size of an insect, so maybe some new deities are in order? idk.. just a thought.

Theres a large oak with a patch of yellow. a bees nest. where your welcomed to join the colony in making honey, trading or even odd jobs for the queen herself

a good ways away is the bees rival the ants. Living in a moutainous like mound. another nice colony that welcomes trade and willing workers but theyre a little more paranoid.

ajacent to the two kingdoms is a junkyard. run by a mysterious being known only as Boss. here youll find the roughest of the rough. flies, roaches and mosquitos are the mains here.

however in these kingdoms you notice somethings stange. someone is usually around wearing silk and spreading the gospel of the spider. a cult who lives under and worships a rather large spider.

lastly, is the snail carvans. a group of sluggish traders who travel between kingdoms. a group that does things at its own pace

and thats all. this is a world building exercise. try and come up with other factions or key characters. Use this idea in your next campeign if you like XD. i dont mind, i just wanna see what we can come up with
    

[DM-Delfon]

First up, super clever title.

I see the Snails as having great quality merchandise. I see a rival caravan group composed of catapiliars, who would easily push the Snails out of business if their workers would just stop turning into butterflies.

I see the Ants and Bees being rivals in only the loosest of terms. Bees control the skies, Ants control the ground. Next to no conflict there. Now that colony of Winged Ants from the colony adjacent to the junk yard, those guys piss off both Bees and Ants.

Since basically everything except potentially the players themselves would have darkvision I see fire as universally forbidden and extremely dangerous. This would also stop/hinder players from being able to become smiths. (Which is funny because my very first thought when I read your post was Ranger with high cha, handle animal, and craft armour smith / weapon smith)

I would say magic should be limited to the Fey, and maybe royals who became royals because they could use magic. I don't see deities ignoring players because they are smaller, so unless the junkyard has an anti-divine Magic blocking item laying around or something divine magic should work fine.

I love the feel of the Spider Cult. So many ideas broil when I thing on that group. Add a big bad guy that rides a sparrow, and a sneaky thief that rides a humming bird as unique characters.

That's it for now, I work at stupid o'clock in the morning. If I pass out right now I get just over 5h sleep.

[DM-Boneyard Ben]

Firstly, thanks :-) i thought it was cute XD

Rival caravan of caterpillar? Clever! I like it

You are dead on the money my man, theyre only rivals in the barest sense because theyre so different in what they make, however one of the Ant's exports is actually information that makes them paranoid and very secretive. The Queen, sees the Bees as a threat because they have aerial supiriority, however, the Bee Queen, ould really care less, as long as the ants arent messing with the flowers (and they dont). Shes quite content with simply being neighbors

The winged ant colony is a good idea, but i was thinking maybe a termite infection to mess with both factions? I mean some soilder ants do have wings, even if the colony isnt a flying ant colony. But, its something to think about

Right in the money, dude, fire isnt something bugs like, there is glowing moss if you need a light source and the bugs keep themselves warm. So if you want metal weapons you gotta get creative.

Good thinking on the magic, bud and your right, the queens can use magic, thats how theyre so intelligent or vice versa. As for the relic idea, genius! Love it, i never even considered a magic blocker, awesome idea, bud. And i gues your right about the gods, i guess its just the whole great old ones thing that git it in my head that if your smaller the gods wont care, but, meh..

Spider cult was actually from a different idea but i figured itd fit in nicely here :-) the humming bird idea works bu i think a sparow would be too big to be ridden on. I see bigger birds as a threat and/or a means of large scale transportation, yknow?

Anyway all in all, i love most of your ideas, bud, thanks for postin youve given me lots to think about. Good luck at work!

[DM-Delfon]

Termite army is a great idea! They would try to eat the tree that the Bees live in, and would be ground bound to mess with the Ants too. That's not to say we couldn't have both Winged Ants and Termites.

The thing about most deities is that, until you can cast 9th level spells you're basically not that important. In truth when you cast divine spells, your using such a tiny amount of your deities divine energy. It's like in real life, your divine spells would be the dead skin cells you loose constantly, millions fall without our notice.

I think any bird would be fine, as long as it isn't a bird of prey. Those suckers would be one step too far up the food chain in my opinion.

If you're developing this world as a DnD game to play here, I would focus on the Spider Cult. I really like the feel of them starting a religion all over, and then creeping into doom. Baddies could be everywhere, any race, any gender, any social status. Should we build on that? Or is this for some other purpose?

[DM-Boneyard Ben]

We'll have ta work on it, personally i like having a few wild cards in the mix

Alright so deities stay.

True enough, i just mean smaller birds and such the birds of prey wont really effect you whene your a insect

The game can be used for d&d playthrough or whatever else ys like this is just to help flesh it out. As for the spider cult i had no ideas for them other than their existance, an overall enemy is still an issue in this world, we need some great force to fight, maybe unite the kongdoms, or somethin. Id also like to create a war mongering race, the hard as nails, all or nothin fighter types yknow? Like spartans or vikings or the krogan? Except ya know, small XD maybe the termites? Idk hit me back with whatever ya come up with

Side note; rival mantis cult? Somethin to sit on

[DM-Delfon]

Scorpions, mo fo-in scorpions.

The praying Mantis is always bad-ass. I see them as the Buddhist monk of the insect world however. Quiet and patient, but able to kick your butt if you piss them off enough.

[DM-Boneyard Ben]

Awesome idea again, bud

Very true, especially the whole mantis style thing, i made the connection with them both being man eaters XD