>>31561141
I don't get it?

bump

File: Spoiler Image (962 KB, 1000x1000)

962 KB PNG

>>31561086

File: Spider_Witch_by_GENZOMAN.jpg (128 KB, 650x906)

128 KB JPG

>>31561086
I've been thinking about the concept of giant sentient spiderfolk for some time now. I feel like you do, somewhat.

I set up a race of giant spiders with a caste system. Hunters (the soldier caste, esentially), they gather food for the web-city and protect it from invaders. Artisans (the closest they have to a peasant caste) they spin buildings and roads from excessively productive silk glands, and they also produce clothing, cook excessively fine meals from what the Hunters gather, and sell their wares to the other castes. Weavers (the philosopher caste), naturally more intelligent than most other castes, they are the storytellers, thinkers, philosophers, scientists, and advisors. Each city has a great think-web where Weavers debate how spiderkind society should develop, constructing different ways of philosophical thinking (spider-Communism, nihilism, etc.) and proposing them to their fellows. One of the greatest ongoing debates is the necessity of the caste system. And the last caste, the Royalty. Mostly female, and naturally the largest, their job is to take the Weavers philosophical quagmire and apply it practically to each spider city-state as a whole.

>>31561086

Well if you make them polite intellectuals... I feel like it's opening a bizarre can of worms. I mean, if they're large enough to eat people, what WOULDN'T they prey on? Or perhaps because they're intelligent, they'd only hunt wild animals?

>"I say, you appear to be caught in my web, sir! I'm dreadfully sorry, I shall endeavor to put up more signs in the future."

The kindly spiderfolk descends from the trees like a creature of nightmare, soundless and inevitable. Time seems to slow as its top half bends over, its almost human, chitinous hand reaching out to your face. You nearly vomit in terror, clenching your as shut as it reaches ever closer.... and readjusts your hat for you. It continues to speak- its wretched mouth struggling to form common speech. The web barely so much as sags under its weight as it dances around you nimbly, attempting to pry you off the web.

>"This happens dreadfully often, but I can't make my webs too obvious, you know! I spider has to eat, after all."

It lets out a hoarse, gasping excuse for what might be a laugh, each guffaw ending in a hideous clicking sound. You can barely breath as the deformed monstrosity, not quite man or spider, begins to rip you off the web, its vice like grip nearly painful on your fleshy arm.

>"I'm horribly embarrassed by all this, boyo, but it seems your clothes will have to be cut off for you to leave! You're quite well and stuck."

Panic and fire race through your veins as the creature bends down and begins to forcibly tear you out of your clothing, piece by piece. You thrash and fight, trying to defend yourself but to no avail as you are systematically removed from your clothes, left only in your underwear before dropping down to the forest floor. The moment your feet touch the ground you are off like a rocket, fleeing the woodland monster without a backward glance.

>"Dear me, he appears to be hysterical!"

>>31561778
This is hilarious. Someone attempt this as a GM.

hmm, for me spiders are usually hobos, bandits, ninja, or bums.. depending on whether they roam, set traps, spring on things, or just lay around in webs..
either way they don't like folk on their porch unless they're edible folk and that porch is a trapdoor

>>31561778
Maybe they refuse to eat other sentient species? Like in Pathfinder it is considered cannibalism to eat anything with human level intelligence even if its a human eating an intelligent water snake. Ask me how my lawful good character was turned to chaotic evil without realizing it.

Maybe in this setting the gentlemanly spider folk have a similar attitude that eating something sentient is seen as disgusting as cannibalism.

bump

File: 1303247021177.jpg (81 KB, 474x692)

81 KB JPG

>>31561573

What kind of spiders you talking about? Because jumping spiders are different from orb weavers which are different from more mobile wolf spiders and don't get me started on the differences between Old and New World tarantulas...there's different behaviors going on here.

You gotta narrow it down to a kind of spider and go from there. Because sure, I could see web building spiders being lazy philosophers, but a society based on wolf spiders would be too busy moving around, possibly with matriarchal hints or something.

tl;dr: there's an alternate universe out there where intelligent spiders are posting in a Primatefolk thread.

>>31564200
What about there being different races of spiderfolk?

Web spinning spiders are gentlemen philosophers. While the wolf spiders you mentioned would be more like nomadic gypsies, traveling from town to town in caravans and telling people's fortunes for money.

bump

Portia spider folk . Let us speculate on such people.

>>31567120
>A jumping spider that preys on other spiders
The spider version of a vampire perhaps?

bump

>>31561778
This is how to do spiderfolk best. Bonus if they react... ....poorly to people who use violence during their panicked attempts to get away and thrash the ruffians.

>>31568777
No, more like the spiderfolk version of an orc.

Bump

>>31570420
Perhaps its Portia spiders who have given spiderfolk a bad name with the other races? Most spiderfolk are decent people but a few sub-races like Portias are prone to rampaging across the land eating people and stealing their valuables.

Post you fools!

File: image.jpg (94 KB, 405x1000)

94 KB JPG

>>31570864
I really like this idea. Also, even if the nice spiderfolk are... ...nice, people are still going to react poorly to pic related.

>>31578077
I suppose that would depend on whether people were used to them or not. Like if the spiderfolk lived together in cities as their own nation and traded and traveled to other nations just like other races do them people would probably be used to them.

However if spider lived on their own like real spiders do in nature then yeah people would probably be freaked out by them.

>>31561778
Is it that spiderfolk are incapable of speaking common or is the trapped guy just too freaked out to hear him?

This is an interest thread topic why is no one posting?

>>31582461

Probably because it's the saturday.

Regardless, I hope these spider folk don't have obvious human apperances to them. I'm rather fond of a more alien approach to spiders, like their fore limbs having the hands that allow them to manipulate things but otherwise just looking like fuck huge mansized spiders.

>>31561573
>6-legs
>spider

>>31582612
>its Saturday
Everyone's off looking for someone/thing to fornicate with are they?

>>31582612
Is something like the pic in this post >>31578077
too humanoid?

>>31584592
Pic related is perfect IMO.

>>31585650
Where do you stand on the structure of their civilization? Should they be isolated individual living out in the wild or should they form kingdoms and societies like other races do?

>>31584592
Maybe if you gave it less humanoid clothing? Webbing between the limbs, a segmented mask with lots of eyeholes, etc.

>>31586968
They'll need at least some degree of cooperation for sharing their ideas with each other.

Also, to catch prey in webs directly or to farm it in web-fenced corrals?

>>31587002
If we're going with an organized spider civilization they would probably farm their food. Maybe raising dire flies in some sort of fly coop like we do with chickens.

>>31586980
Why a mask?

>>31587002
>>31587046
What sort of food do you suppose spider people would raise/farm? Just flies would be rather boring.

bump

>>31587196
If human-sized, why not just ordinary cows and chickens? Only difference is instead of cooking them, just wrap them in webs, inject digestive acid, wait for a few days and suck out dinner over the course of a month or so.

>>31587196
Guinea pigs, like a combination of the ancient Peruvians and those metallic spiders from The Future Is Wild.

>>31588495
I like this idea.

Also, spiderfolk religion. Got any ideas?

>>31588515
The great web of life. possibly something about using spider silk to mummify the dead?

>>31588527
Eww, no way, mummification is how you deal with food.

>if there's an Egypt-ish culture in the setting the spiderfolk probably think they eat their dead

>>31588570
Fair enough, but surely they'd use their silk for things beyond just webmaking and food storage.

>>31588586
Clothing, banners/flags/tapestries and trade with other cultures. Human nobles would probably be willing to part with wooden and metal goods in return for fancy spidersilk clothing.

>>31588527
Spidersilk prayer flags.

If that's the case I want scorpion banditos.

>>31588515
An Anansi like trickster god is their main deity. Spiderfolk are notorious for being practical jokers and skillful thieves. When playing on tabletop spiderfolk make good Rouge characters.

>>31588823
Are scorpions enemies of spiders in nature? If so maybe we could have them as an evil orc like race which is constantly at war with the spider people.

>>31589037
You know, I am unsure. Feels like they would avoid each other in whatever environments they both inhabit. What generally prey upon spiders?

>>31589271
Birds.

>The mountains the spiderfolk inhabit have a pest problem with Rocs.

>Trade silk and farmed food with the dwarves living inside the mountains for metal weapons or hire PC mercenaries to kill the Rocs?

>>31589271
Other spiders, birds, lizards.

>>31589340
>lizards
Yet one more race determined to genocide the Kobolds.

>>31589468
Sapient-eating pigmy headhunter kobolds?

>>31589756
Kobolds are cannibal pigmy headhunters?

>>31589786
Why not?

>>31589329
Will these Rocs be merely animals or an intelligent species they have to contend with?

>>31589340
Etrusci themed Lizard men?

>>31589786
Medieval Poland themed kobolds.

>>31589811
Oh its just that in my mind I associate Kobolds with Cutebolds. I think of them as mischievious but ultimately cute and harmless race.

>>31589920
I was personally thinking small, industrious, business-minded Kobolds, like a kind of East India Trading and Mining company. I could see Roman Lizardfolk, as that kind of ties into the reptilian-ancient alien-illuminati conspiracy thing.

File: 1397421443700.jpg (45 KB, 498x558)

45 KB JPG

>>31589950
So, merchant republic kobolds. Sure ok. As for roman lizards, I just thought it would be neat to see them in something that isn't mayan centric.

Plus burly lizard legionnaire men seem very imposing and a decent antagonist for our Gentlemanly spiders.

We'll make the Rocs german.

>>31590229
>merchant republic kobolds
No, more like they mostly live in small, tribal communities, but somehow one clever Kobold managed to (through various business deals, etc, etc) create the first joint-stock company, specializing in mining- using his Kobold connections to get ore from the various sites near to his people's villages. From there they moved on to trading, once they had established a large enough fleet of ships out of necessity from shipping ore and equipment to/from their sites.

File: 1397859784320.jpg (275 KB, 889x889)

275 KB JPG

>>31590320
Well I'm not opposed to that.

So each tribe it's its own little corporation then?

>>31590379
I suppose each village probably holds some stock, which, along with the head of the company's holdings, makes up the majority; with the rest going to upper level employees, investors, various nobles from different nations, etc

Okay this is the impression I'm getting so far.

The main ideas about the spiderfolk so far is that they are a society of intellectual philosophers and spiritualist who also have a reputation for being tricksters and thieves due to one of their main deities. One anon suggested an Egyptian-ish culture where them mummify their dead. Also suggested that they are great exporters of silk. And their main enemies are monstrous Rocs, scorpion people, and a race of lizard people.

It feels to me as though they are shaping up to be a medieval middle eastern/Arabian nights sort of civilization. Maybe something based on the Abbasid Caliphate.

>>31590589
Yes, with barbarians to the north, mystics to the east, crazy crusaders to the west, and mountains to the south.

>>31590589

What about working in this >>31589950
>>31590229 idea of Roman lizard folk? Only basing them on Italian merchant republics who are the main trade rivals to the spiderfolk.

>>31590589
Main allies:

• Human nobles who trade for silk. Presumably the supply of silk traded is artificially limited to keep the value up.
• Dwarves who trade metal tools for food.

>>31590747
Hmmm, I could see it, as I was thinking of the Kobolds as being African anyway, so they could be the latter-day Carthaginians/Ethiopians to the Italian Reptilians.

>>31590809
So North African Kobolds with Italian merchant Lizardmen with a penchant for mercenary legions? With the Spiderfolk being exporters of silk I'm smelling lots of trade war kind of stuff going on with this.

>>31590780
Maybe few human traders are willing to interact with large spider people, as well? Throw in some superstitious fears I suppose. Given this region is filled with possibly imperalistic lizardmen and other nasties, it seems like humans would be a bit hesitant to enter there for trade.

Now what level of technology would this setting be?

>>31590930
>What technology level
Medieval to go with the Arabian nights theme suggested here >>31590589

>>31590930
>Lots of trade war kind of stuff going on
Exactly, with stock options, royalty, churches and all sorts of other intrigue and politicking going on.

Blackpowder guns and steam trains.

File: f9637bcffde6bc268f5990fbc(...).jpg (508 KB, 636x900)

508 KB JPG

>>31590966
Seems suitable.

>>31590988
>Steam engines
I'd reserve those for the dorfs at most, but I am a fan of blackpowder weaponry in my fantasy settings. Anyone opposed?

>>31590966
>>31590975
Then I guess the next step is to establish the general geography of the places these races inhabit.

I'm assuming some modified version of the Mediterranean and north africa and mid east like was suggested?

I think the lizardmen should be kind of split into a few nations, one, a group of noble merchant republics, and perhaps some militaristic city state with imperialist ambitions?

Spiderfolk with egyptianish culture? Well we could have a couple flavors of spider, the more desert dwelling ones and some others which inhabit some forested/jungle region?

Kobolds are in the middle reaping the shekels.

File: 600px-T_and_O_map_Gunther(...).jpg (132 KB, 600x600)

132 KB JPG

>>31591106
>I'm assuming some modified version of the Mediterranean and north africa and mid east like was suggested?
Yes, I was going for the classical world-view of a T-&O map.

>>31591162
>look up t and o map
Well that's neat.

So, should the story be about a posh Spidergentleman and his fabulous misadventures throughout the world? Then he acquires companions along the way and establishes an organization of exceptional and noteworthy individuals who travel via fantastical arcane/steam modes of transport?

>>31591232
I personally think steamcraftery is a bit too high in tech level for this setting.

fucking furfags, get off my tg

>>31591232
This, so much this.

>WRITEFAGS ASSEMBLE!

File: tumblr_lrayxkTTZ31qg1h92o1_400.jpg (35 KB, 350x531)

35 KB JPG

>>31591258
Well alright.

I guess we should sort out the lore for the spiderfolk then.

>>31591106
It doesn't feel to me like blackpowder would fit. By the time blackpowder was being used in the middle east the Abbasids had long passed along with their golden age of intellectual study which I think was supposed to be the defining attribute of these spiderfolk. It also wouldn't fit with the Arabian Nights flavour suggested.

As for geography perhaps we could base it on the medieval Islamic empire which had several cultural groups united under one flag which would allow you to create several different sub-types of spiderfolk based on web-spinners inhabiting the forested regions of the empire, Portia spiders being raider tribes who live in the mountains and decend to pillage and eat innocent spide citizens, Nomadic Wolf spiders who live in the plains and deserts, etc.

>Jewish Kobolds
This needs to be a thing.

>>31591352
That's just my opinion, of course. We can always work from pre-medieval to medieval, to renaissance to steampunk time when we build up the Spiderfolk cultural history.

>>31591372
I thought it was Jewish dwarves, headhunter pigmy kobolds? Did this change? Because if so, can we at least have headhunter dwarves?

>>31591408
The Italian lizard folk have several regiments of adventuring Dwarven mercenaries as part of their armies.

>>31591469
>The boatmurdered foreign legion?

Also, anyone submitted this thread to suptg and/or started a 14dchan page for this setting yet?

>>31591533
Nope.

>>31591372
Well I'm open to just about anything. We could have the setting progress into blackpowder things if we ever decide to do anything with it. I certainly don't mind keeping blackpowder out. Or give it to the dorfs and they closely guard their knowledge of it. Because the chinese had it long before the mid east and euros did, and wouldn't be too ridiculous.
>several cultural groups united under one flag
I'm not too versed on how the Caliphate was run, I imagine it was a kind of confederacy? I'm certainly intrigued by this idea.

We'll have the Scorpions be Castillian.

>>31591408
Well, given how dwarves are with their Holds we could have a clan of headhunting dwarves roaming some jungly mountains. I was also pondering on pagan German influenced Elves or something.

>>31591533
Well, there isn't enough just yet to put it in any places like that.

One trait I'd like to suggest for the spiderfolk is that they are rather spacy. They have a tendency to allow their thoughts to wander off and lose focus until some external stimulus snaps them back to attention. I picture this trait having come from the spiders they evolved from hanging in a web all day with nothing to do but think until something flies into their web to snap them back to attention.

When you're in a conversation with one of the spiderfolk they have a tendency to ramble and to get sidetracked by interesting tangents. I suppose a group of spiderfolk having a discussion very often veer off topic much like discussions on /tg/ do.

>>31592033
>spider academic/scholar talking to a small group of adventurers regarding local knowledge or something
>constantly flies off topic and is distracted by his vast library

I do that myself as well when people coax me enough to talk about history or the subject is just barely related to it.

>>31592099
>spider academic is talking to the adventurers and goes off topic
>ones of the adventurers taps him on the shoulder to get his attention
>this particular academic is a jumping spider and is so startled that he screams and jumps up in the air
>ends up clinging to the chandler and thoroughly embarrassed, asks the adventurers to please go find a ladder

File: 1397795896426.png (757 KB, 706x608)

757 KB PNG

>>31592211
>his face when
>G.I. Joe group laughter from the adventurers
This sounds fun.
Also, will tarantulas be part of the sub-races? They could be the mostly shy and non hostile of the spiderfolk who as a result are preyed upon by the raiding spider peoples. Should also come up with names as well for the kingdoms/nations.

Mainly for kawaii moments of timid taurantula-folk.

File: 1397335727927.gif (366 KB, 480x384)

366 KB GIF

>Spiderfolk composers and a spider orchestra

Along with that, there should be some notable philosophical/academic figures in their history. Spider equivalents to Plato and Archimedes.

They are as agile with a rapier as they are with a quill.

>>31592415
Since tarantulas are so much bigger than regular spiders I picture them as boisterous, rough and tumble barbarians.

>>31592719
With ridiculous, cockney lower-class accents to match.

>>31592779
>this, so much this

Also, thread is now on suptg. Remember to upvote.

>>31592211
>Why use a ladder? You've got webs. Lower yourself.

>>31593587
To do so in the presence of others would be impolite.

>>31593622
>webbing things in front of others is a social faux pas

Seems reasonable.

>>31592719
Well in nature they are kind of neutral/shy creatures but we could go with that, and >>31592779

Now, lets work on our standard issue arachnid-gentlemen. Race/nation name? I'll start looking into various things from the medieval era Mid east to get some inspiration.