Have you seen any systems, settings, or campaigns that make interesting use of the concept of microbes?
A Google search tells us that a human adult has anywhere from 28 to 36 trillion cells, while any given human is estimated to contain around 39 to 100 trillion microbes. These are everything from the Demodex mites that dwell in hair follicles, to the gut flora that assist with metabolism, nutrition, and resisting pathogens. It could be said that any given human is legion, is multitudes. Microbes are omnipresent in the environment as well, amidst every animal, every inch of soil, every ounce of the oceans.
In 2014, the microbiologists Jack Gilbert and Josh Neufeld published a thought experiment, in which they imagined what would happen if all the world's microbes were to abruptly vanish: a total apocalypse, yet one with neither decay nor disease, where every corpse remains pristine. This scenario is summarized here:
How can the concept of microbes be used in an interesting, relevant way in an RPG context?
For example, would microbes even exist in a fantasy world? If they do exist, would they be thought of as "little spirits" or something similarly animistic? Would there be druids focused on studying and shepherding microbes? Would this be old and established knowledge, or would this be a new breakthrough in understanding the world? Could there be some magical method of purging a person or an area of all microbes (e.g. cleansing, teleportation), perhaps out of some well-intentioned desire to banish disease and uncleanliness? Might there be someone so disgusted by the thought of these myriad creatures crawling around everywhere that they are now concocting a global-scale ritual to rid the world of all "little spirits"?
What if certain races/species, such as elves and dwarves, are so mystical in physiology that their bodies are actually free of microbes? How would this affect their outlook on the world around them?
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ur a redard because you cant have microbiology without a way to see microscopic things. people didnt have a concept of anything smaller than a gain of sand
If spells to detect and analyze the fabric of magic are among the simplest there are, I do not see why it would be impossible to formulate a spell for viewing microscopic life.
In our world, Antonie Philips van Leeuwenhoek was studying microbial life with a microscope in the 1670s. Conversely, the piano was invented in the year ~1700.
piano has nothing to do with it? what a bullshit false equivalency.
1670s is already well past the renaissance, almost into the enlightenment.
What I am trying to say is that, considering how anachronistic a fantasy world can get, it does not seem outré for microbiology to exist: perhaps as a nascent field of study amongst the most curious of wizards and druids.
I haven't made interesting use of them yet, but in my setting the power of gods is usually channeled through mushrooms and microbes. This ties the creation of alcohol, the return of corpses to the earth, and all sorts of other processes outside anyone's understanding to the divine quite nicely
It also makes libations more symbolically meaningful.
Oozes
https://2e.aonprd.com/Monsters.aspx?ID=751
Yes, the Pathfinder setting canonically has "microscopic creatures."
this entire thing is stupid in ways I don't exactly have the words to describe. Touch grass.
"It's stupid but I can't give a reason as to why. I actually admit that I can't express WHY it's stupid, nothing comes to mind when trying to think of why it's stupid, but uh... just trust me I guess"
Maybe try talking to people in the real world instead of just online Chinese shadow puppet forums for children and autists so you can learn how to express yourself. I'm sure you have a lot of interesting and thoughtful ideas in there that the world would benefit from! Just spouting unoriginal Twitter memes doesn't suit you!
Okay.
That scene at the beginning of Dark Knight Strikes Back where the one superhero is stuck in a petri dish battling microbes was cool.
Very interesting thread Anon, I am sorry it seems to be mostly populated by unicellular so far, as fitting as that may be.
I cannot recall a system, setting, campaign that made any mention of it. Then again this isn't really a part of peoples ontology beyond washing their hands, and if we are honest that's more of a sociological cleaning ritual than genuine, mindful awareness of microbes.
However, here are some thoughts on the receptions of the concept in our world, which are readily mystifiable: beyond the more well known negative consequences of the microbiome like disease and decay there are also positives beyond a healthy status quo. For example, there's a host of research on how the microbiotica of, for instance, your guts effect the greater organism. Likewise, the microbiome of soil builds a network transferring nutrients and working all sorts of magic which results in healthier crops and thus better harvest etc.
The only approach to really work with any and all of that without getting creative in a way that wouldn't be conducive to playing a game with other people is, as you point out, making it not all that different from magic though.
And at that point, making them actual "little spirits" as a shorthand is vastly more interesting than the reality of it. So the entire exercise would ultimately pull an ouroboros and you'd end back there with a more classic fantasy system. Thought it's a fascinating nexus to think about and bring you to a new appreciation of demonic possession and miasmic influences on a certain location and so on if you are science brained and can't find joy in those concepts without justification I guess.
A lot of deep/off-the-path science and even pseudo-science boils down to this in my opinion, very inspiring but mostly in ways that have already been done.
As a way to really get out there exploring the concept I'd go all in on "as above so below" and mix up the scales in a way that has players change the microbial below for..
I remember playing old Atari ST game, where you had task of defending as immune system manager of your MC body from infection of different kind microbes, kinda RTS Read Alert
also animated series of Once Upon a Time... Life
The only "fantasy" system i've ever seen mention microbes is the Ars Magicka manual, and that was just to say that "Animal Magic" doesn't work on microbes "because they haven't been discovered yet" or some bullshit.
Yes. Ars works on the paradigm with greatest support. At that time, germ theory does not exist.
It's not bullshit, it's how the metaphysics of the system work.
Depending on your definition of "'fantasy' system," Mage: The Awakening 1e and 2e both explicitly references microbe for Life spells.
I have been told that in the Mage: The Ascension supplement The Sorcerers Crusade, set in the Renaissance, one Life spell transforms a target's microbes into flesh-eating bacteria.
Even by your standards, this is a weird fricking thread.
oh shit gross this is an edna thread, I wish I hadn't replied.
qrd?
>https://old.reddit.com/user/earthseraphedna/
So someone just low-effort copied a reddit post here?
>someone
>implying it happened just once
look edna, i don't get what you are even trying to do creating all those make belief scenarios.
anyway which system would you play star rail in?
I am the gay who asked for a qrd and the answers still fail to make me see the significance. So it's some weird 'tismo who also crossposts, what's the issue?
The thread topic is at the very least thought provoking, and if he's actually going to keep the conversation going somewhat I couldn't care less he double dips. Implying that I am him for not keeping an up to date list of crossposters comes off as slightly unhinged.
answer the question
GURPS
I am /srpgg/
Plenty coherent imo. "Microbes are real, how do you fantasy?" Better than elf threads.
>GRUPS
heard that it is good for simulationist stuff but not much else. what modules do you include to run it?
Usually people just say go hack exalted but i don't think it's the right call
It was a meme answer for the most part. I am not familiar with Star Rail whatsoever so Generic Universal RolePlaying System sounds about right.
It's incoherent because it's a matter of hard science that doesn't map out to the way RPGs are actually played.
>elf threads
You mean the "tell me about [some inconsequential nogames bullshit] in your setting" threads? I'd kill for elf threads instead of shit like this.
he's been a thorn in /tg/'s side for years. If you remember the name "touhougay" from the days when 4th ed D&D was current, that's him. He graduated to playing pathfinder, and powergame wanks in there now, and his latest game is shotgun posting here, to a bunch of reddit pages, and possibly elsewhere too, because nobody will stay his friend on discord for long so he needs the broad-audience places to actually get engagement.
Okay now THAT is impressive
>it's a matter of hard science
It's very interesting to map those to fantasy in general. Science marches on but it's been a while since I have seen anyone weave that into something that wasn't outright sci-fi, and even that is hard to come by in quality.
>doesn't map out to the way RPGs are actually played
Granted. Until mods give me something between /tg/ and Ganker I will take threads like this every once in a while though.
>elf threads
You are right. Elves are actually in such an interesting spot with all the junctions that go into them, nature vs high culture, feminine principle (when viewed against dwarves or trolls; not calling them girlish per se. Broken Sword did it well), the fey heritage vs the ubermensch-in-your-face angle.
I was referring to the "do elfs wear bathsuits or swim naked" kind though.
Yeah. He's not breaking any rules, but he's an attention-starved autist who cannot fathom others thinking differently, yet simultaneously craves novel inputs, and freaks out whenever there is friction between these two things. He's posted an ungodly number of "I was in a game, it went wrong and I got kicked, tell me I was in the right" threads and posts over the years because he genuinely cannot see why people find him weird and awkward. It's like the defensive version of weaponised autism.
I guess that warrants pointing out. Still an interesting thread to me if only for the novelty and as a prompt for thought so far.
>It's like the defensive version of weaponised autism.
lmao
The fact that he's done the "I was suddenly blocked and kicked out of the discord server without warning" stories tells me he's not actually getting into those situations. He's repeating a formula because he knows it will generate a certain amount guaranteed engagement, especially if he returns to the thread and posts contrary opinions over and over that pointlessly harp on him deserving it because of some arbitrarily asserted sanctity of the GM's rulings.
no way he is the paizo 2e anime poster? damn. he's not bumanon though is he?
The degree to which people obsess over him is really weird and pathetic
>I am very familiar with the goings on on Reddit
Perhaps you should stay there
This homosexual crossposts every single thing he writes on /tg/ and reddit at the same time, moron.
homosexual who asks highly specific questions and makes up fake stories due to severe autism and boredom, and yes, he constantly crossposts on reddit.
It's a better thread topic than I've seen in weeks, honestly.
It's borderline incoherent, but given the general quality of /tg/ these days, that's far better than some threads.
Hi Edna. I wrote out a half-hearted reply to your thread, but the way you post the same thing to multiple boards and subreddits made me delete it. What you do reeks of desperation for engagement.
It's not even a good thread. All of the questions broadly apply to worldbuilding, not ttrpg's specifically, and the questions are so open ended that I can't give a meaningful answer. For example;
>Would there be druids focused on studying and shepherding microbes?
I don't know. It depends on the setting. Not all settings have magic, or religions, or a way to interact with microbes, or a way to see microbes. Hell not every setting even has microbes.
Like almost all the OP's on /tg/, your questions are so meaningless that they can't be answered without the answerer making tons of assumptions and that just leads the arguments in the replies, because the different posters have different built-in assumptions in their answers. In the future, please put effort into your threads.
Someone directed me to "The Tragedy of GJ237b," an "RPG" about microbes. It is more of an artsy, absurdist funpost than anything else, since it ends extremely quickly.
https://medium.com/@balehman/the-tragedy-of-gj237b-928cfeae460b