Welcome to Bugs & Bros! This is a collaborative, design-oriented TTRPG game, meant to get players chatting, create some comedy, and get to know each other in light-hearted spirits.
How it Began:
Since all of us shared very different backgrounds with TTRPGs, we first met up to play a TTRPG together. During the process, we collectively took note of things we liked from our play and things we did not like, including game mechanics, DM/GM, dice-play, collaboration vs. competition, etc. Using this conversation as our springboard, our mission became to create a TTRPG game in which no DM/GM was required, where collaboration was key, with fun game mechanics, and little to no dice play. We broke off with a task to brainstorm ideas for the narrative and system that reflected our interests.
Exquisite Corpse Inspo:
Initial Concept:
Since the instructions suggested using an exquisite corpse, Elle had the idea to create a narrative around “bug woman”, who was naturally dexterous and charming. After discussing potential narratives for what could make a game about bugs interesting, we chose to focus on the interactions between bugs and humans. Our initial idea was that a technologically advanced bug society had sent bug scouts to the human world to learn about humans. Anticipating this, some humans would act as bugs, while bugs posed as humans – and in the chaos that results here, we have our game. Our current idea is similar to this, but with important modifications.
With the initial idea, we had trouble teasing out the humans’ motivation, character quirks, a cohesive narrative, and more importantly, identifying how to keep the game collaborative. At this point, our goal was to create a collaborative, social deduction game. At this point during development, we faced a challenge and had to decide whether social deduction was the right path to take or not. We were interested in two different storylines – one where the bugs have to assimilate to human society, and one where the bugs gather information about humans. Although both narratives are similar, we realized the overarching themes would be different and had to make a choice about which one to pursue. We chose the latter because we wanted to keep the social deduction element of our game.
Character/Rule/World Building:
A lot of our work for world building was taken off our hands because the game is meant to be collaborative. So, we took some creative liberties in places where it made sense that the players should get to decide the world they are in, their characters, or their events. That being said, for game mechanics and rules, we started off by building a set of bugs and humans that are playable, with skills that can be upgraded. For game rules, we set up a structure using which the game is playable, so that the game encourages social deduction, collaboration, and interacting with players in a light-hearted manner – by way of our events. To level up skills, we introduced a dice roll system, with the goal of not making the game play dependent on dice rolls, but the dice rolls allow level ups. However, as we tried to build a game system surrounding dice, we realized that the dice element does not add anything new/exciting to our game. Instead, it made the game play more challenging & nebulous. Given this, we decided to remove the dice element. However, to aid with the game mechanics and make sure there is structure to the game, we decided to introduce a game master element to the game, the “bug master”. The bug master serves to facilitate the spawning of information about the city and set the scene before the players enter a new area. Moreover, they also let the players use their abilities and inform them of the consequences of ability usage.
Challenges & To-Do’s:
A big challenge has been time management and scheduling. Since this week was busy with other commitments for all of us, we ended up having to push back some of the deadlines we set out for ourselves. However, we still managed to communicate effectively and build out the game mechanics & rules. For our to-do’s, we need to flesh out more the game system, the skill tree, and the type of adventure we are creating. Since we began our process with what we wanted the game to be as opposed to where the game is situated, etc., we still need to put more thought into our game system.
(Edit) Playtesting in Class:
We playtested the game in class twice. During the first playtest, all our players chose to interact as bugs. During the second playtest, all our players chose to interact as humans. While we received positive feedback on the character abilities, collaboration aspect, and character art, the biggest criticism was that players did not feel there was a strong motivation for social deduction. As our game is intended to be a collaborative, social deduction game, this was cause for concern. We regrouped with two options for our game: either to make it a bug-only game, where bugs explore the human world, or to make it a mafia-style game where bugs and humans may play. Because our existing game mechanics best supported the first option, and because our players enjoyed the collaborative game play, we restructured our game to be a bug-only game.
With this change, we removed all our human characters, instead making them playable as NPCs. For playable characters, we introduced more bug characters options. To make the gameplay between bugs more interactive and compatible, we revised the character abilities to include characters who intentionally had more supportive abilities, opening the possibility of some players being the supporter/helper while others can choose a more aggressive approach. We modified the game to allow players the most freedom possible in character design, allowing them to free-write their character disguises. We maintained the social deductive approach, but simplified the event system such that bugs had a common goal to collaborate with each other to explore the human world. The game ends on Day 5 when the bug report is due, which all bugs (players) must draft together.
Author(s): Antrita Manduva, Nora Jovine, and Elle Thompson
