Only the Insects Survive

This is a world created by MacCallister of RPOL.net. He also created M's Matrix, and he is working on 'The Infinite Plane', and thinking about how neat a world based on 'The Mist' would be. I've helped him a bit as have some of my other players.

Anyone with suggestions is welcome to pitch in.

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AKA 'Only the Insects Survive' AKA whatever Mac wants to call it.

So what I was thinking was a slightly futuristic/modern setting however, due to a world-wide epidemic, humans were wiped cleanly from the earth, well almost cleanly. However during those last days, everyone who could do anything at all to find a cure, was. So of course, an entymology lab, backburnered their own research in order to contribute their own resources. These included some rudimentary nanotech, meant for genesplicing. So this doctor worked really hard at making a bacteria which could eat the virus, but was safe for humans. So in this effort, he combines some human DNA with the bacterial colonies, so that the bacteria would recognize human cells. Unfortunately he never saw this bacterial colony completed. Due to his efforts though the colony began to flourish.

Because of the mix of DNA, the bacteria began to develope in a similar fashion to full size humans. The twist is that since bacteria live, reproduce and die so quickly....it only takes a few years for the bacteria to accomplish what humanity took several thousand years to accomplish. Civilization. This was mostly due to the tools that had been left behind for them. The nanotech, the computers, the lab environment, and lots of DNA. Instead of developing like humans did, that is along a fire based society, these little creatures developed towards a biological base of existance. The components of cells, being easily modified and grown, were like humans and cars. So it was that they began to modify insects, which there were no shortage of in the labs, to carry their cities and transport them from one place to another, at first only in the lab. Then there was the discovery of 'Outside', that is, some brave souls found that there was a huge and vast landscape outside. With even more insects, and now...plants as well. The environment outside was usually fatal for any of the bacterium-men, unless they donned protective suits harvested from the chitin of some of their insects. But slowly this divided the society, splitting them between the outsiders, and the lab.

The Verser ports into this world as one of these bacterium, humanoid in shape and looks, but also kind of bubbly looking and he would get the chance to ride in a Dragonfly-pirate vessel.

The insect vessels use sound, visual cues and pheremones to communicate instead of radio. They would most often be grown with some kind of weapon, like pincers or claws. Some might have 'Troop Injectors' and poison stingers. Theres lots more I could go on about, just pick up a book and take a look at the insects and their arsenals.

So thats my idea, theres so much that could be done in a setting like that, and it would be awesome to play in. Let me know what you think! Any critique would be welcomed.

~McCallister

...The insect vessels use sound, visual cues and pheremones to communicate instead of radio. They would most often be grown with some kind of weapon, like pincers or claws. Some might have 'Troop Injectors' and poison stingers. Theres lots more I could go on about, just pick up a book and take a look at the insects and their arsenals....

1. Chitin Armor: (a Tech weapon): This is created by harvesting from insects in a hazardous operation since wild insects have harder shells for unknown reasons.: Density of Armor is 1@5: Coverage is Full, closed plate with a flexible underlayer at joints, and an open face for officers at 60%. Coverage is full face mask for men, and otherwise as for officers with 65% coverage.

2. Pincers (A Body weapon): Damaging: NOT Ranged: DR +10: RF 2
3. Claws (A Body Weapon): Damaging: NOT Ranged: DR -10: RF 3
4. Troop Injectors (neat idea): An Injector Needle Use skill is rolled vs. the Piloting skill of the other vehicle, or against the Agility of the targetted insect. Relative Success/5 determines how many are able to cross over per turn. An attempt at Disengagement requires a Difficult skill roll opposed by a Simple skill check.
5. Poison Stingers (A Body weapon): Damaging (Stinger): Not Ranged: Secondary Damage Rider Dangerous (Poison): RF 1
6. Dragonfly ships
7. Pheromone communication system
8. Sonic communication system--This is easy. Just like us, basically.

You'd probably have Dependent Symbionts as well. Aphids as liquid producers, and ants as guard dogs and donkeys....and these might be engineered to give them useful features like 1)Will not attack boss who smells like 'so'. 2) Higher intelligence.

Special Skills:
1. Superleap (due to inverse square law you can lift many times your weight.)
2. Utilize surface tension (to walk on water, or to break through it)

GM’s Note: This World uses a Donna’s Door. The reigning deity will continuously attack to cause a shrink to size until this is achieved, or until the person becomes infected with “Wipeout”, and is thus heading toward death. If he survives “Wipeout” then the deity leaves him alone. At this point, he finds an empty world with dried bones at the car seats, and houses with trees growing through the roofs.

I imagine things like spiders and scorpions would serve the role of tanks. Or maybe Bombardier Beetles (you all remember that fire-breathing tank bug from Starship Troopers, no?).

And would the bacterium-people of this world be
a: fluid/mutable in their forms, and thus able to flow through small spaces?
b: capable of amazing feats of regeneration (kinda like how it takes forever to get rid of a cold)?
c: able to infect/possess a Verser who does survive the Donna's Door and the Wipeout and, hidden inside his physiology, colonize other Verses?

Thanks. I forget for sure who gave me the bit about 'dependent symbionts' but it sounds like from here.

Mac's reply....

That's kinda cool PT...thanks for getting a broader perspective to think about for these.

I think some of these questions come down to scale and we'd have to define the scale of these beings a bit better. So I'd say that they would have to be either the smallest multicellular beings or amongst the largest single-celled creatures. I'd probably leave this to the particular GM to contemplate for his game depending on his tastes. However I'd thought of them as being about the height of the width of a human hair. Biologically I pictured them to look very close to human proportions and shape, perhaps a bit less defined features though. That said I would answer John7's questions thus:

a: I don't think they would be fluid in the sense of amoeba, since they are very humanoid and not sort of shape-shifters. Though they could certainly could fit into ultra narrow spaces because of their amazingly small size. I imagine that they all have an innate ability of contortion though. Keeping them humanoid would also make sure that the Verser doesn't just lose their minds upon entering this world.

b: I also sort of envisioned time as being sort of relative in terms of size of these guys. Weeks of our time, would be equal to months or years of their equivalent time, this is because they have that generation quality of bacteria, multiplying fast from our perspective. Though for them its more of a happy medium so that they wouldn't be multiplying out of control. This helps as far as gaming them. They would regrow limbs really fast though. Equivalent mortal wounds for a normal verser would likely kill them only 50% of the time, unless they are without the basic necessities: sugar/oxygen/shelter(or perfect environment); in which case it would be certain death as normal.

c: This one is I think the coolest question because it implies some other coolness. It really hinges on one thing: Is Scriff a chemical which can be ingested by a single cell/tiny multicellular creature, or is it an actual infection which is another living thing? In either case if the Bacterio-Sapiens(just came up with that) could understand what Scriff was capable of, they might inadvertently create 'versing vehicles' or try to utilize it in some other nifty way in their beasty-bots.

The scorpions and spiders as tanks is exactly the idea I had initially with this idea. The other side of that though it to think of the scale...in which a common scorpion or spider of normal size could house hundreds or thousands of these bacterio-sapiens. So then you realize that at that size that every normal sized insect could infact serve as a mobile village. Large ones like june-bugs, would be like a miniature cities, probably housed underneath those huge wing-casings...

After that I started to kind of think of them like you might look at the Enterprise in Star Trek, lots of people, but essentially a mobile community capable of combat. That's why I think that dragonflies or even moths would be an awesome setting for a verser storyline.