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Show HN: Nests and Insects – A roguelike tabletop roleplaying game

Hey, everyone! I'm making a game: its title is Nests & Insects and I call it a "Roguelike Tabletop Roleplaying Game (TTRPG)". It is free, as in beer and speech. You can find the rulebook on the game's github repository, linked through the post title. Nests & Insects is a game for 1 to 7 players, one of which takes on the role of the Game Queen (GQ) and describes the game world to the other players. The players control characters who explore and interact with the game world. The players say what their characters do and roll dice to see what happens, then the GQ describes the results. Players' characters are mercenary arthropods raiding a Nest on a Job from a rival Queen. Characters belong to one of six classes: Ants (plural), Beetle, Ladybug, Scorpion, Spider and Wasp, all modelled after real-world species. Nests are the nests of eusocial insects: Ants, Bees or Termites. The Job is to assasinate the Queen, or the King, or steal larvae, or aphids, or fungi, etc. Nests & Insects is "Roguelike" because it borrows elements from Roguelike Computer RPGs (CRPGs): hack-and-slash, dungeon-crawling gameplay, with procedurally generated Nest environments, lethal combat, and a hunger mechanic. The rulebook on the github repo above is all text-based, but formatted with ASCII borders, text boxes and tables, etc. I wrote a bit of code to automate the layouting (if that's a word). You can find the code in the codez/ directory in the repo. You don't need to mess with the code to play the game, but some of you might want to eyeball the raw text with LaTex-like markup under the directory /game/rulebook/raw and then look at the layouting code. Or you might want to tweak the characters' stats under codez/data/, or make your own characters. The code is all in Prolog :) Nests & Insects is still a work in progress. The rulebook is about 60% complete. There's rules for rolling dice (oo lots of dice!), action resolution, combat and stats for all six character classes and a few enemies (just Termites). If you've run a few TTRPGs you can probably bash together a quick game session, although there's plenty of stuff missing (Items, procedural generation, other minigames besides combat etc). I'm posting here because I'm eager for some feedback and because I'm hoping to build a small community around the game. I'm in the liminal space between finishing my thesis and actually getting a PhD so I have some spare time, but I plan to keep working on the game until it's finished, anyway. Also: I'm looking for ANSI or ASCII art for the rulebook. Anyone know anybody who would want to contribute, please get us in touch. Have fun!

badprose 5y ago
Are there a lot other TTRPGs that have some software required to run them? Also this sounds like it would be fun to play based on these examples in the rules: > Example 3: Brody declares his character's intent: "I want Wasp to display her stripes and scare the living beejeesus out of the Worker Bees! I want her to dive in towards them, buzzing menacingly and waving her abdomen around in, like, a threatening and provocative manner! I want them to run away screaming from buzzing, venomous DEATH! BzzZZZzzZZZZzz!" > Example 4: Cody negotiates with the GQ: "But Wasp is Venomous so she can display her Stinger and maximise the intimidation of the Minor Termite Soldiers". I wonder what the origin of the fd100 system is. I haven't heard of it before.
- YeGoblynQueenne 5y ago
  Thanks for reading my game! The fd100 system is mine, it's a riff off the d100 system popularised by Chaosium's Basic Role Play. It's my homebrew system that I've been tweaking for the last ten years or so, finally written down in all its crunchy glory! The style of play is really up to the players. The mechanics don't encourage one style of play over another, except that "Dramatic modifiers" are awarded for creative and imaginative behaviour, described in sufficient detail. >> Are there a lot other TTRPGs that have some software required to run them? You mean less/more or a text editor? You don't strictly speaking need those to play the game - you could always print the rulebook and the character sheets out, and not have to use a computer at all. I'll make sure that this is easier to do in future versions (the page length is currently awkward for printing). On the other hand, I've considered delegating the procedural generation of the Nest environment to software which would then be necessary to be able to play. I don't know how well that would work and I'm probably going with rules for table-top random generation after all. But I might end up doing both, as altrenatives.
joe_the_user 5y ago
It's seems interesting. I run the pathfinder rpg, both online (play-by-post) and attempting restart in person. There was a time when my GM was designing rules-lite games and taking us through and this would have fit in quite well. My immediate reaction to this setting is that it would make an interesting "one-shot" but it would be hard to sustain a longer-term campaign around it. But certainly good for 1-4 session, as long as the rules are usable. My own approach as GM generally is never letting the rules get in the way of imagining the world the way I want to have. I could easily have a story that uses a story of raiding Eusocial insects with my standard character group - either transforming them into insects or with their characters as-is - and set further that would take them to a different world after 3-4 sessions. I don't know if this helps but I figured I'd share my reaction. Plus I generally admire your "work", your comments and posts.

badprose 5y ago

Are there a lot other TTRPGs that have some software required to run them? Also this sounds like it would be fun to play based on these examples in the rules: > Example 3: Brody declares his character's intent: "I want Wasp to display her stripes and scare the living beejeesus out of the Worker Bees! I want her to dive in towards them, buzzing menacingly and waving her abdomen around in, like, a threatening and provocative manner! I want them to run away screaming from buzzing, venomous DEATH! BzzZZZzzZZZZzz!" > Example 4: Cody negotiates with the GQ: "But Wasp is Venomous so she can display her Stinger and maximise the intimidation of the Minor Termite Soldiers". I wonder what the origin of the fd100 system is. I haven't heard of it before.

YeGoblynQueenne 5y ago
Thanks for reading my game! The fd100 system is mine, it's a riff off the d100 system popularised by Chaosium's Basic Role Play. It's my homebrew system that I've been tweaking for the last ten years or so, finally written down in all its crunchy glory! The style of play is really up to the players. The mechanics don't encourage one style of play over another, except that "Dramatic modifiers" are awarded for creative and imaginative behaviour, described in sufficient detail. >> Are there a lot other TTRPGs that have some software required to run them? You mean less/more or a text editor? You don't strictly speaking need those to play the game - you could always print the rulebook and the character sheets out, and not have to use a computer at all. I'll make sure that this is easier to do in future versions (the page length is currently awkward for printing). On the other hand, I've considered delegating the procedural generation of the Nest environment to software which would then be necessary to be able to play. I don't know how well that would work and I'm probably going with rules for table-top random generation after all. But I might end up doing both, as altrenatives.

joe_the_user 5y ago

It's seems interesting. I run the pathfinder rpg, both online (play-by-post) and attempting restart in person. There was a time when my GM was designing rules-lite games and taking us through and this would have fit in quite well. My immediate reaction to this setting is that it would make an interesting "one-shot" but it would be hard to sustain a longer-term campaign around it. But certainly good for 1-4 session, as long as the rules are usable. My own approach as GM generally is never letting the rules get in the way of imagining the world the way I want to have. I could easily have a story that uses a story of raiding Eusocial insects with my standard character group - either transforming them into insects or with their characters as-is - and set further that would take them to a different world after 3-4 sessions. I don't know if this helps but I figured I'd share my reaction. Plus I generally admire your "work", your comments and posts.