#minisculia

[the-scattered-kingdoms]

It’s been a hot minute since I posted, but I’m very pleased to announce that Session 1 was a success! Today @lolyeahokaywhatever, @rosesreveries, and two other friends joined together for a good old-fashioned session of Bug D&D. Zoph, Bjorn, Tony, and Branch met in a tavern, as all respectable parties do. The place is called the Molehill, and it’s just that—a mound of dirt in the middle of nowhere with plastic Saloon doors and chunks of a busted brake light for windows. After some introductions, some drinking, and a dismally low Performance check from Tony, the gang spoke with the elderly barkeep named Sugar. She and a squad of drunk Ant soldiers filled the party in on some strange happenings around the tavern—strange voices at night, speaking in an unfamiliar language and giggling at night.

Tony and Bjorn both donated 10 Pollen (it’s our version of Gold) to a traveling priestess, who fed them both a little dollop of candle flame and granted them the Blessing of Aeya. This came in handy later, granting them +1 AC vs ranged attack rolls and +3 to Insight and Perception checks—after all, Aeya is the goddess of the sun, and her light reveals all falsehoods and hidden things. Also, it’s really hard to shoot arrows and spells into the sun. That +1 AC tracks flavor-wise, right?

Anyway, promised a free meal, free drinks, and a free night at the Molehill, the party descended to the cellar. They lit torches to light the darkness, avoiding disadvantage to the Perception roll I gave them. Bjorn nailed it with a 25, seeing through an attempted ambush by a gang of fleas that had moved into the cellar. They attacked first, landing a critical hit on Branch. But Bjorn answered with a Rage and a crit of his own, splattering a flea against the wall in front of him. Zoph’s ironclad hide proved a solid defense against the fleas’ probosces, and he crushed another one with a Sentinel attack. Tony’s bad luck turned around somewhat when he landed a Vicious Mockery, but his stomach turned even more when Branch picked up a dead flea and started eating it—the first use of my custom Feat, Macabre Feast!

All in all, it was a fun fight and session to DM. They left one flea alive but knocked it unconscious, then brought it upstairs for questioning. As a reward, the party was given little meat pies and honey pies that serve as potions of healing. And let me tell you, they’re gonna need them. They also got 40 Pollen off the fleas, and found a pair of Battlerager Boots, which will let Bjorn Rage for free once a day. On top of it all, they reached Level 2! Ki points! Smite slots! Jack of All Trades! Danger Sense I think!

We’ll start our next session with a…conversation of sorts. I need to come up with a name for a flea. Maybe a tragic backstory? A secret mission with the fate of the world in the balance?

In some more general campaign news, sadly, our Firefly @abbybutinspace will be focusing on school. As punishment, I will force her to make a podcast about Goosebumps with me. We will also be stealing @jabeaumont and turning him into a moth. I’m gonna put him in a jar!

Anyway, thanks for reading! This campaign has me really excited and I’m glad to jump into 2025 with a new creative outlet. Minisculia rocks!

—The Entomologist

[the-scattered-kingdoms]

Session 2 was a hell of a ride! The party interrogated Pulga the flea, who in exchange for his life and a bite (actually a suck) of meat pie gave the party some key intel. Thanks to Branch and Tony’s good cop/bad cop routine, Pulga revealed that the Red Teeth are camping out in the Grassblade Forest, and their leader Red Tusk is planning to raid the Molehill—the very tavern they’re staying at—in the next 2 days!

Turns out the fleas were holed up in the cellar to sabotage the inn and the soldiers staying there. But, now a jobless turncoat, Pulga asked to join the party as a companion. So did Lieutenant Sh’vaar of the Black Hammer, the leader of the soldiers staying at the inn.

Sh’vaar also told Zoph something concerning—a fellow Beetleguard has abandoned his post. A knight named Baelar was traveling south, with a dark look in the eye. But he left three days ago. He’s probably far away, and the threat of Red Tusk is Zoph’s priority. Baelar will have to wait…

We had a few nice roleplay moments tonight. Zoph blasted (and lied) to impress Sh’vaar, getting the party in her good graces. Tony and Beorn (sorry for previous misspellings) both shared their truths with Tichi, the firefly cleric of Aeya. Tony told her about the Church of Chirping, a loose order of bards and storytellers. Beorn shared his shame—that since he gave his stinger up for Queen Bezeera, since she gave him back his life, he’s felt something missing. Like he’s incomplete. “I feel your shame. It is out in our Lady’s light,” Tichi told him. “Our Queen grants us many gifts, but life is given by the gods.” But Beorn’s god is the Queen, he reminded her.

Meanwhile, Zoph had a beetle brain blast. He gave 5 magic stones (sling ammo—actually just pop rocks) to Sugar the bartender to bake into an explosive pie. Tony nailed 3 skill checks and helped Sugar bake an explosive pie. Zoph plans on sending it right into Red Tusk’s face. The experience also got Tony a pretty blue amulet that lets him cast Shocking Grasp. She advised him to use it on various pieces of metal he will find throughout the world.

After gathering their explosives, equipment, and companions, the party took off for the Grassblade Forest to take down the leader of the Red Teeth. As they arrived at the “treeline” they saved a panicked and injured moth from a mantid that had gone feral, earning 50 pollen and getting a sneak peak at the dangers that await them in the forest!

The party got a lot done tonight. I had a lot of fun and I can’t wait to see what happens next! As always, thanks to the party for partying and to the readers for reading. See y’all soon!

—the Entomologist

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I’m so excited to start on Friday here’s some fanart of all the little bugs I get to make dance and fight and cry~

we’ve got a lovely, lovely party

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some items our protagonists started out with!

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Session 3 gave the party a lot to chew on today—well, at least Branch. I’m sad to say it, but we nerfed her bug-devouring feat to be a limited thing each day (CON+Proficiency Bonus=3 times per rest). In the name of Balance, may she smile upon this campaign. Speaking of which…

Branch ate the feral Mantid the party defeated at the end of the last session. It tasted…off. After some Perception and Survival checks, she deduced that the Mantid was from a city, and had been wandering the wilderness for days. City bugs don’t tend to go feral—Branch reached out to her ex Thorn (a Bard, “She’s in a band,” according to @lolyeahokaywhatever) via sending and learned that some poisons can cause bugs to go feral.

The party then traveled onward, into the Grassblade Forest. After a successful skill challenge, the party came across a group of Red Teeth about to execute a Stag Beetle. Beorn jumped into action and the party enjoyed a surprise round. The fight netted our protagonists our first +1 weapon, the Mapleseed Blade (a scimitar that gives you an extra attack once per day), and a new ally for the coming battle: Yama the Relentless. He was out looking to join the Red Teeth, but was ambushed by them instead. Now he wants revenge. He was particularly impressed by Branch’s appetite.

The party got a long rest, then set out for the encampment once more. After an uneventful day of travel, they arrived outside Red Tusk and his soldiers’ campsite. Tony disguised himself and spoke with one of the camp prisoners, a Black Ant named Kuro. He told Tony to head a north to find “a relic of the Giants.” With a 23 on his History check, Tony recognized this relic as a Ghost Chariot, and remembered an old saying attributed to the giants: “Sometimes you must take a few steps backwards, before going forwards.” Us Giants would recognize this relic to be a little wind-up cop car toy. Enlisting the help of Zoph, Tony got the Chariot running, winding up its wheels with the Beetleguard’s strength and activating its ancient banshee wailing with his newfound ability to cast Shocking Grasp.

Originally the party planned to stay in disguise, handing in Beorn, Zoph, and Sh’vaar as prisoners. But, as Tony’s player said later, I had given the party a missile. Plus, we had to wind up our session quickly. So, they sent the thing crashing through the tent belonging to Pulga’s former commander and into Red Tusk’s own. Several Red Teeth broke rank, terrified by the Giants’ magic and the devastation it caused. Red Tusk was another story. Then session ended with the grizzled bandit leader storming out of his tent. I don’t know about you, but I think the next session is gonna be mostly combat.

Thanks for reading! Thanks to the party for playing!

—the Entomologist

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FRIEND ALERT

A new party member has expressed interest in being a bug! We will now be rocking with a Firefly Warlock, and servant of a minor deity called the Starswarm—it’s a swarm of gnats who loved the moon so much they ascended to divinity to dance around the moon god Haartep’s head and recount his deeds in song. I’m so excited to have another member join!

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INTRODUCTORY POST:

I don’t expect this blog to get much attention, but tumblr is a quick and simple format that I know I can use to archive this campaign. To begin, hello. If you’re following me thanks so much. I only hope what you see here is interesting and inspires you to make your own materials for D&D 5e. If you have a good grasp on the rules, I recommend giving homebrew a try, even if it’s just a fun item or a busted feat. 5e is very good for custom content, and when it comes to our imaginations, the sky’s the limit.

So, about this campaign. I was driving with my wife and a friend when my friend mentioned how cool it would be if we were all bugs. I agreed and added “oh that would be a funny D&D setting—what if you were a party of bugs?” and we all got a good laugh, and I have basically not stopped thinking about it for two months.

I did things the classic way: I started with a map, decided who lived where, what happened recently to establish The Way Things Are, and what kind of bugs will be the ones to change things up. Then, I leaned into the hyper fixation, creating a potent blend of custom races, somewhat game-breaking items, and definitely game-breaking feats. I gathered 4 of my favorite people together to answer the question “What can I do to make it look like you’re going crazy up there like a little bug?” The players were limited to North American insects, and chose a Beetle, a Mantis, a Bee, and a Cricket. Details on classes and backgrounds will arrive after Session 0.

And that’s how we got Minisculia! It’s a smattering of bug city-states and kingdoms, located entirely within the backyard of an abandoned house, somewhere in American suburbia. 10 years ago (basically like 500 years ago in Bug Years) the Golden Alliance of the Hive defeated the foul Apocritan Wasps in a devastating conflict called the Last War. Now, as a result of the Treaty of Convergence, the two powers keep to their territories and common folk enjoy a tenuous peace. But not all is well. Reports of Red Ant raids in Black Ant territory terrify the peasantry, and have the guards clamoring for action. The Good Queen Bezeera has decreed any adventurers who solve the problem shall earn their weight in Pollen (our stand-in for gold), as well as lands and noble titles. Investigating the crisis will be the party’s unifying goal.

To keep the game itself simple, I ruled that for classes, backgrounds, spells, and equipment we’ll be using the 2014 Player’s Handbook and nothing else. I’d describe the plot as a delicate mixture of a Bug’s Life and Game of Thrones—several factions are vying for power, and most of them are loose collectives of different cultures or military arms of small kingdoms. All of them are bugs, however, and all of them cling to what little power they’ve scratched out for themselves in a big, dangerous world. Will the party join in that unending political game, or will they bring change to the Scattered Kingdoms once more? Time will tell!

Also I’ll be posting bad art and usable 5e content here. Playtest it, tweak it, criticize it for being too strong, ignore it, do whatever you like. But I’ve made too much NOT to share, you know? Like I said up top, I hope you at least find what I post here interesting. I’m excited to play D&D with my friends more than anything.

Talk to you soon!

—The Entomologist

[the-scattered-kingdoms]

Session 0 went off without a hitch. I am VERY excited to get started. It looks like next week will be the week we begin! I don’t have much in the way of updates, but I’ve met everyone’s character and I am LOVING this party. We’ll introduce everyone after session one, probably next Friday!