Greetings!


I was reviewing some of my notes pertaining to insect races of humanoids in my world of Thandor, and developing some adventures for the campaign, and I thought about such insect-like humanoid races seen in modules and books throughout the gaming hobby. Insect-like humanoids do not seem to be very prominent or even terribly interesting for the most part. In years past--decades, now--the world of Darksun's feature of Mantis-like insect humanoids being a notable exception. Players, from what I have seen, do not seem to be attracted to playing insect-like humanoids, often viewing them as gross, "ewww!" or otherwise too alien to really grasp meaningfully to roleplay such a character.


In developing a variety of insect-like humanoid races for the world of Thandor, I have always been quite amazed at the insect world's enormous diversity, brilliant colouration, and intriguing properties and attributes. Inspired by such real-world elements, I have developed a fair number of distinctive insect-like humanoid races for Thandor. The Insect-like humanoid races embrace a variety of different world views and philosophies--with some being savagely dark and evil, a few being good-aligned, though most being some brand of neutral. Aside from particular alignment dynamics, many Insect-like humanoid races seem like they would be fairly neutral in their disposition towards some humanoids, occasionally friendly, though with a general view of many other races of humanoids being either a threat, and thus enemies to be attacked and destroyed--or races that serve inexorably as food. The Insect-like races are first and foremost racist in their outlook, holding that their own race's success and primacy is the greatest priority. While not all Insect-humanoid races are evil and devoted to conquering and enslaving everyone, their natural philosophy of racial primacy makes them challenging to otherwise live peacefully with. Despite such challenges of Insect-like races being concerned with their own survival and primacy, eating most other humanoids they encounter, or at least being very cautious and suspicious of other races as being hostile threats and enemies, there seem to be interesting potential for including such alien races of Insect-like humanoids in the campaign world.


What kind of Insect-like races have you developed for your campaign worlds? Have you had many players embrace playing an Insect-like Character? How do you think having Insect-like races of humanoids in your world effects the milieu as a whole--if you have them--how have they impacted the social and political environment?


Semper Fidelis,


SHARK

I did a much larger writeup for several in Talislanta: The Savage Lands, which for space reasons didn't make the cut.


I was a little inspired by the Pe'Choi' of Tekumel, but of course they were nothing like them. Talislanta in the modern-era already had several insectoid races - but they were all *nasty* and dangerous. So my idea was "what if they originally were not as super-aggressive and nasty, but were relatively peaceable and more like nature-tenders" - the idea being that in-setting some of the Manrak were being corrupted by the energies of the Gyre (big magical chaos-storm that GM's can use to introduce all kinds of fucked up shit that devastates the world for centures).


The goal was to have enough room to give new players some "wonder" amidst the brutal desolation of the setting. Imagine coming in from Mad Max/Gamma World deserts, and finding an oasis of unbelievable splendor - vegetation, food, water, tended by these intelligent insectoids, that are partially hive-minded. Only to find out this insane resource is threatened by the "insane" insectoids (Manrak) that would try (and in canon succeed) in wiping out the "peaceful" hives.


It could have made for a really good series of adventures, that I wanted to tie into in-game products only to be found by the "good" Manraks. So there would be a LOT of RP opportunities and reasons to engage. Never made it into the book unfortunately - so Manrak's are traditionally big-mean-killing hive-bugs. Just like they are in all previous 5-editions of Tal.


Like the Xiticix in Palladium Rifts... And pretty much the majority of insectoid sentient races.

Greetings!


Hey Tenbones! Yes, now I remember Talislanta having some interesting Insect guys, too. That's awesome, my friend! It is so fucked up that it wasn't included in the book, man!


I think that Insect-humanoid races provide a cool, kind of alien-like flavour which borders into Mad-Max science-fiction, Planet-World kind of stuff, but I think that the themes provide a distinct dynamic which is different from Medievalesque Tolkien, but also traditional "Medieval Age" D&D. As a point of inspiration, while much of the insect world seems absolutely remorseless and entirely focused on killing and eating every creature that they come across--such is our knowledge of many real-world insects--it is also intriguing that there are some species--like you honed in on there, my friend!--that are inoffensive, and even peaceful. Some beetles, Ladybugs, some kinds of Ants, various Butterflies and such. Even within what seems like a rapacious and ever-brutal insect world, there are some which definitely provide a more benevolent nuance, which is particularly useful and inspiring when creating or playing an Insect race which could be considered Good.


It strikes me that if one were playing a benevolent and Good member of such a Good Insect race, such creatures may still possess cultural values or mind-sets that would blow our minds and seem quite bizarre or on the moral edge in a variety of contexts.


Interesting stuff! Hive minds, giant Insect cities, huge, Goddess-Queens, Royal Soldiers, all kinds of cool concepts. Royal Jelly! Rival queens, weird pheromones. I think some insect people could grow their own chitinous armour. Such Chitinous armour would regenerate when damaged in battle, and such a character would have no need of exterior armour. Some insects possess all kinds of weird abilities and attributes, too!


Semper Fidelis,


SHARK

The third-party 5e campaign Odyssey of the Dragonlords has an insectoid race that's confined to one or two small prisons, cut off from outside contact.






SPOILER




It turns out they learn very fast, and have enough of a hive mind to disseminate that learning extraordinarily fast. They're very much like stereotypical SciFi BUGS: players breaking through barriers to visit the island full of bugs in their magic pseudotrireme trigger a armageddon-level threat in a year or two, since the bugs observing the ship for long enough will lead to them building ships of their own & setting out to eat the world.

Synchronicity is in play...


I caught this on my feed this morning...

Quote from: SHARK on September 28, 2020, 01:20:46 AM

Greetings!


I was reviewing some of my notes pertaining to insect races of humanoids in my world of Thandor, and developing some adventures for the campaign, and I thought about such insect-like humanoid races seen in modules and books throughout the gaming hobby. Insect-like humanoids do not seem to be very prominent or even terribly interesting for the most part. In years past--decades, now--the world of Darksun's feature of Mantis-like insect humanoids being a notable exception. Players, from what I have seen, do not seem to be attracted to playing insect-like humanoids, often viewing them as gross, "ewww!" or otherwise too alien to really grasp meaningfully to roleplay such a character.


In developing a variety of insect-like humanoid races for the world of Thandor, I have always been quite amazed at the insect world's enormous diversity, brilliant colouration, and intriguing properties and attributes. Inspired by such real-world elements, I have developed a fair number of distinctive insect-like humanoid races for Thandor. The Insect-like humanoid races embrace a variety of different world views and philosophies--with some being savagely dark and evil, a few being good-aligned, though most being some brand of neutral. Aside from particular alignment dynamics, many Insect-like humanoid races seem like they would be fairly neutral in their disposition towards some humanoids, occasionally friendly, though with a general view of many other races of humanoids being either a threat, and thus enemies to be attacked and destroyed--or races that serve inexorably as food. The Insect-like races are first and foremost racist in their outlook, holding that their own race's success and primacy is the greatest priority. While not all Insect-humanoid races are evil and devoted to conquering and enslaving everyone, their natural philosophy of racial primacy makes them challenging to otherwise live peacefully with. Despite such challenges of Insect-like races being concerned with their own survival and primacy, eating most other humanoids they encounter, or at least being very cautious and suspicious of other races as being hostile threats and enemies, there seem to be interesting potential for including such alien races of Insect-like humanoids in the campaign world.


What kind of Insect-like races have you developed for your campaign worlds? Have you had many players embrace playing an Insect-like Character? How do you think having Insect-like races of humanoids in your world effects the milieu as a whole--if you have them--how have they impacted the social and political environment?


Semper Fidelis,


SHARK

Shark, you may want to take a look at some the early Arduin Grimoire stuff. Arneson had an insect/humanoid race called the Phraint which may provide some inspiration like you are looking for.

Tekumel has a few sentient insectoid species that could be ported into a home setting.


There's the Pe Choi Tenbones mentioned. Fairly dramatic looking, normally standing upright on powerful hindmost limbs, but mostly friendly with humans and many are well integrated into the human empires.


Then there's the scorpion-like Hluss, which are your nasty inimical hive-dwellers. A lot of their hives are nest-ships made of a body secretion, and they move around on the oceans and can show up almost  anywhere. One neat thing about them is that they like to adorn themselves with precious gems cemented onto their carapaces, so a mature warrior Hluss may be a glittering sight, encrusted with a fortune in gemstones.


And then there's also the crystalline, transparent Hokun, who like to hunt humans for sport.


All pretty cool.

I never got around developing an insect race for any of my worlds, but it's often been at the back of my mind as a possibility. I've always been fascinated with thri-kreen and every Dark Sun game I ever played featured at least one as a character. The subject of elves being the thri-kreen's favored food would always come up, and there was always at least one scene with a PC or allied thri-kreen devouring an enemy elf on the spot, and it would always be a source of tension between elf and thri-kreen PCs.

Spelljammer also has a race of space mantises called Xixchil, who were totally different from the thri-kreen. Unlike thri-kreen, who were savages, the Xixchil were highly intelligent and advanced, often skilled surgery and capable of performing physiological modifications on characters to grant them special advantages. But they were also strangely literal and unable to fully grasp the nuances of language and certain forms of expression employed by other races. The example given in The Complete Spacefarer's Handbook was of a character asking for "the sight of an eagle" as a physiological modification, then later waking up from surgery to find that they had the face of an eagle. And the Xixchil doctor would reply "You wanted to have the eyes of an eagle, the beak and the feathers are free!"

I've often toyed with the idea of adding a race of wasp people to one of my worlds, but I've never came up with an idea for a world where the race would fit as I envision them. But I've considered making them sort of an expansionists empire; fairly advanced, but highly regimented and militaristic, ruled by a queen-mother determined for her children to rule the world. If I ever get around to it I want it for a Sword & Planet style setting. Even if I make it fantasy I'd like to play up the alien feel to it and make it a non-traditional fantasy world, with strange landscapes and weird races.

Arguably*, the eponymous creatures from the Alien franchise are insectoid. They definitely serve as a good template for inspiration for an insectoid race.


*Equally arguably, they are not insectoid at all. Take your pick.

Quote from: RandyB on September 28, 2020, 06:17:46 PM
Arguably*, the eponymous creatures from the Alien franchise are insectoid. They definitely serve as a good template for inspiration for an insectoid race.


*Equally arguably, they are not insectoid at all. Take your pick.

Greetings!


Oh yeah, my friend! I definitely agree! I have an Insectoid-like race, the Rhuthak, which are similar. The Rhuthak are some weird composite creature which combines aspects of some kind of insect--or perhaps several kinds of insects, with elements of some unknown kind of reptilian monster. The Rhuthak organize themselves into vast hive-like nests, led by a gigantic Brood-Mother and Tyrant Queen. The Rhuthak are immune to mind control effects and mind-controlling magic, and entirely immune to fear of any kind. There have been explorers that have discovered several such Rhuthak Hive-Colonies deep within the darkness of the subterranean realms. Some sages have speculated that the Rhuthak prey upon the mind flayers and the Dark Elves. The mind flayers and Dark Elves like to talk a good game of being "masters of their environment" but even such terrible races as the mind flayers and Dark Elves have much to fear the terror that lurks in the darkness!


Some explorers have stumbled across great mind flayer citadels, or ancient Dark Elf cities, and marveled why they appear to be abandoned, eerily empty, and seemingly the shattered and blood-drenched charnel houses of mass graveyards.


Such truly terrifying and alien races keep things interesting in a campaign!


Semper Fidelis,


SHARK

As most people that play Tekumel already know...


The excellent book series "The Riftwar" by Raymond E. Feist (which borrows very heavily from elements of Tekumel) has a race called the Cho-ja. They're like a cross between a praying mantis and ant-centaurs from MMII. Hive-minded, yet capable of independent action on their own. They were *super* cool (and kinda scary). The companion series "Daughter of the Empire" gets deep into their culture and I *highly* recommend reading both series.


Definitely will give you food for thought, and have been big inspirations for me when considering this topic.