Does anybody know of a gaming background with a race of sentient (giant) spiders in?
I was cleaning the house this afternoon, and came across a mother spider guarding a dozen babies, all wrapped in a fine web. It’s the time of year that spiders come indoors to get out of the encroaching cold and wet, so that wasn’t terribly surprising, but it made me wonder whether the whole creepy-spider thing had been really tapped. Sorry, I should have said I was cleaning the house and thinking about games…
I’ve seen giant spiders as wandering monsters in D&D for decades, and there’s a character spider or two in LOTR. Then you have the odd dark elf centaur that’s half elf and half giant spider. Not a lot of actual sentient spiders though.
Is this because they haven’t got a face that you could recognise emotions on, or perhaps they’re just too creepy for them to be anything but animal (insect)? Could it be some sort of anti-spider conspiracy (you never know)? Or, is it that I’ve just missed them?
They make a great starting point for SF or fantasy aliens. I mean, just look at them!
Quirkworthy 
Well, there are the acromantulas from Harry Potter. They really didn’t play a huge part beyond the second book though.
Also, are you telling me there are actually people who don’t think about games in the back of their minds at all times!? Mind blown
Yes, so I’m told. I know, weird.
The relthoza from Spartan games planetfall series of games
Yes! I realy like their spaceships since they all have a vertical desig instead of a horisontal.
http://www.spartangames.co.uk/products/firestorm-galaxy/firestorm-armada/the-relthoza
http://www.spartangames.co.uk/products/firestorm-galaxy/planetfall/the-relthoza
Driders (half elf, half spider) are a pretty major component of D&D when you’re in the Underdark. – The goddess Lolth is a pretty major thing in general, I believe.
Thanks Compel. That’s right – they’re the spider centaurs I referred to. Never can remember their proper name (never had the “pleasure” when I played D&D).
Infernal, a game that recently funded on KS (https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/778845804/infernal-horror-miniature-skirmish-game/description) has one faction run by giant spiders.
Cool.
In the book, Castle Roogna, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castle_Roogna , one of the main characters is a sentient spider. It’s one of the best books in the series.
I was just telling my son about this series
I love Jumper Spiders now
Spelljammer had the Neogi. http://spelljammer.wikia.com/wiki/Neogi
“A cross between a spider and an eel”. Now there’s a combination you don’t see every day!
How about Starship Troopers and their Arachnids. Not techincally spiders I know but close enough. Theres this too:https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/basement-city/how-to-kill-a-spider. But actual miniatures on a table? Can’t say as I’ve seen any. Spiders is a common enough fear that it might actually deter some people from playing.
They haven’t appeared in any games, that I’m aware of, but Star Wars has the Harch. We see a couple of Harch generals in Star Wars: The Clone Wars.
http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Trench
Exile series from spiderweb software very awesome
Going back to the 70’s, how about the giant Spiders in Doctor Who and the planet of the Spiders?
These were giant telepathic Spiders…
John Pertwee’s last appearance as the Doctor before he turned into Tom Baker
Were they the ones that jump on your back and then sort of melted into you? That’s dredging things from the fuzzier corners of my memory there…
I only ever read the book, but if I remember right, there were blue crystals involved. And there was a Matt Smith episode where the crystals were unearthed from the depths of the Tardis.
The Burning Wheel “Monster Burner” had a series of “life paths” (character creation system) for sentient giant spiders. It was interesting because the details given sounded like a thought out, developed society for them, but I’ve never found a full write up of them.
You mentioned LOTR, but there was also a colony of sentient speaking spiders in The Hobbit that captured the dwarves in the woods.
No to mention Ungoliant from Sillmarillion.
The Arachnids from Starship Troopers, the book not the movie, come to mind. It’s a single throwaway line but Heinlien mentions that humans had diplomatic relations with the Arachnids prior to the Human/ Arachnid war.
Maybe a new faction in the mantic universe… Since most of their races are humanoid in nature it would be interesting to see a cross over variant that weren’t humanoid in nature but still advanced in their own way. Maybe more organic tech in nature with different “species” variations like a class system…very interesting idea sir.
The Arachnids from Steve White’s Stars at War series: In Death Ground and The Shiva Option
Aranea were a sentient spider race from the D&D Setting Mystara.
More informations:
http://pandius.com/aranea.html
http://pandius.com/aranea2.html
http://dnd-wiki.org/wiki/Canon:List_of_Dungeons_%26_Dragons_creatures_%28A%29#Aranea
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Dungeons_%26_Dragons_creatures_%28A%29#Aranea
And the Neogi from SpellJammer…(showing my age).
Didn’t see them way up there. I’ll need to pay more attention in class.
There’ll be a written test later.
https://www.facebook.com/dogespider?fref=ts
He’s trying desperately to make spiders as cute as cats, and doing an admirable job.
Not squish plz
Have a friend who benches 300 but can’t stand spiders. I don’t think it’s a conspiracy, people just don’t like them!
I believe there was an evolved arachnid race in the Traveller universe as far as RPGs go.
From a brilliant computer game Star Control 2 (there is an open source version called The Ur-Quan Masters), the Ilwrath:
http://wiki.uqm.stack.nl/Ilwrath
Some great stuff here guys. Interesting that they should appear so much more often in computer games than on the tabletop as models.
I’ve got a follow up for today’s post. Maybe you can help there too 🙂
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It’s because they are creepy!
I had to turn off pictures in my web browser to read the blog today -_-
😛
Not sure if you check this one anymore, but the most alien creature would be the Mantis Shrimp and Cuttlefish
Cuttlefish is kind of done because it looks like a Cthulu face, but cool creature
Mantis Shrimp is just bizarre on a lot of levels
They are most strange. I rather like them as the basis of aliens.
Hmmm… there is this one game about futuristic sports that has these eight-limbed beasties called Koris…….
Can’t imagine what you’re talking about.
Can’t believe no one mentioned the Shadows from Babylon 5, it’s even Sci-fi. The amount of disappointment I am feeling hear is palpable.
Nobody saw them… too dark.
They would be terrible Shadows if we saw them clearly 😉