The Web of Great Spiders

[luke]

Spiders are posted.

Crawl over to the downloads page and check them out:

http://www.burningwheel.org/html/modules.php?op=modload&name=Downloads&file=index&req=viewdownload&cid=6

-abzu

[ronnieB]

looks sweet and the "Alien" trait description sent me laughing when i came up with a mental image of a huge spider trying to be polite to humans
"i say, would you care to join me for lunch?"

[mike_ravenwood]

I'm totally arachnaphobic and am all about running them to scare the shit out of my players.

[Yagathai]

A couple of notes, courtesy of my arachnoculturalist girlfriend and I (I am, incidentally, an arachnophobe):

The plural of tarsus is tarsi.

One is never an arachnophobic -- one is either an arachnophobe or simply arachnophobic (the first is a noun, while the second is an adjective).

Extremely hard chitin bits -- stony chitin, bladed tarsi and the like -- should make the molting process extremely difficult and time-consuming. Also, if you're interested in true realism, molting should always carry with it some level of risk -- a poor molt can cripple or kill a spider. Poor molts can occur for a variety of reasons, including injuries to the abdomen or cephalothorax (the worse the injury, the greater the chance of poor molting), the wrong humidity level for the type of spider &c &c.

Also, spiders have the ability to lose entire legs without hurting themselves too badly. There's a shut-off valve in the shoulder joint of a spider that stops them from losing any ichor if the leg comes off. There's some temporary weakness, but nothing permanent. The leg comes back after a couple of molts. In fact, spiders with injured legs will often rip off (and then eat) their own limbs -- it's healthier for them to be missing a leg completely than to have a wound that can bleed, become infected, and/or impair their movement.

The Pronounced Fore-Eyes trait is presumably designed to simulate the fantastic eyesight that salticid spiders have with their "primary median" eyes. If that's the case, and if you're shooting for realism, the other six (or four, in some cases) eyes shouldn't be any less efficient than a regular spider's eyes. Of course, if you cripple the other eyes for game balance purposes, that's perfectly understandable.

Oh yeah, that's the other thing. Not all spiders have eight eyes. Many species only have six.

Have you considered putting racial 'packages' together, just to give your players the option of simulating a certain species of spider? For example, your average salticid (jumping) spider would have:

Brutal Fangs
Leaper
Pronounced Fore-Eyes
Silent
either: Natural Pattern or Bright Pattern

Plus, if it were, say, a Phippidus Aurax (http://www.livejournal.com/community/invertebrates/48993.html), Mark of Fear as well. Look at that tiny little frowning face!

Feel free to email / PM me if you have any other spider-science questions. Between my girlfriend and I, we should have you covered.

[Kublai]

Have you considered putting racial 'packages' together, just to give your players the option of simulating a certain species of spider. For example, your average salticid (jumping) spider, like say Phippidus Aurax, would have:

Brutal Fangs
Leaper
Pronounced Fore-Eyes
Silent
either: Natural Pattern or Bright Pattern


As it is now, those in the know, like yourself, can recreate giant versions of your favorite spider species. I think the traits necessary to do this are available either with buyable or lifepath traits. Are you saying you would like Luke to do this for you? Where's the fun in that? :shock: :( :o 8) :wink: :idea: :x :D :lol:

[eruditus]

All respect to realism lest us not forget that we're talking about creatures that if obeying the laws of physics would be crushed by their own exoskelitons. I think these as a fantasy species are great. I think its easier to say "these aren't spiders...their great spiders."

:)

otherwsie, kudos, Yagathai. I didn't know babyraven was a spider-girl... spiffy. One of my all time favorite species...

So you can imagine how happy I was to see Great Spiders as an addition to the monster burner...

[Yagathai]

As it is now, those in the know, like yourself, can recreate giant versions of your favorite spider species. I think the traits necessary to do this are available either with buyable or lifepath traits. Are you saying you would like Luke to do this for you?

Well... yeah. :wink:

Where's the fun in that? :shock: :( :o 8) :wink: :idea: :x :D :lol:

Laziness is its own reward. :D

[Kublai]

you are wise, indeed, Yagathai... :lol:

[mike_ravenwood]

just as a general monster Burner comment, having a section of pre-burned average, medium and advanced monsters would be convenient. If I want my players to end up in a mass of spider trouble burning several mooks spiders in addition to a few finely crafted ones is a little time consuming. Also knowing what an average level spider is different than a average human or elf.

[luke]

good point. The final Monster Burner will contain said examples. (of Wolves, Trolls, Spiders and whatever else we come up with).