Bug Vengeance: What Are They Pissed About?

[Mike Taylor]

What they are angry about is up to the GM. One approach to take would be that the Atlanteans were to blame. Transplant the ancient history of Atlantis from Rifts to Systems Failure. Another approach to consider is that of a lie. We never did anything to them. They just sprung the "revenge" comment on us to scare us whan all they really want to do is eat.

[Colonel Wolfe]

On Stargate SG!, they had an episode where they sent a probe bot through the gate.. it ended up on some kinda high tech wolrd and got destroyed... the "creatures" f that planet sent one of its kind to destroy the earth, the Radio waves form the probe caused massive damage to the Creatures, who were some kinda Eletronic Life form.... maybe Wally Cleaver is to Blame...

[Jefffar]

I thought they were pissed off because they only got one book while Rifts got 40.

[BookWyrm]

Chalk it up to Natural Predation. Perhaps on thier original homeworld, they were on the low-end of the pecking order, until they 'evolved' to their current state & wiped out all the "hairless monkeys", then decided to do the same to the rest of the Multiverse.

[Mike Taylor]

Only Bill Coffin knows for sure.

[Svartalf]

I thought they were pissed off because they only got one book while Rifts got 40.

Something like that... That passage, as well as the ones where they mention the possibility of bugs not described in the book is one that makes me resent the fact that SF never went beyond main book... It just called for at least a couple more.

What led to those never being made, I don't know, especially if the game was such a great success as some claim... maybe because KS screwed with Bill Coffin once too many?

[Shawn Merrow]

I thought they were pissed off because they only got one book while Rifts got 40.

Something like that... That passage, as well as the ones where they mention the possibility of bugs not described in the book is one that makes me resent the fact that SF never went beyond main book... It just called for at least a couple more.

What led to those never being made, I don't know, especially if the game was such a great success as some claim... maybe because KS screwed with Bill Coffin once too many?

What lead to them was they were never planned it was supposed to be one book from the start.

[Svartalf]

That's something I just can't understand...

Publishing an RPG with plans never to make any supplements anyway, whatever the thing's success...

That's especially true with games like SF that have huge holes in them just begging to be plugged.

[Shawn Merrow]

That's something I just can't understand...

Publishing an RPG with plans never to make any supplements anyway, whatever the thing's success...

That's especially true with games like SF that have huge holes in them just begging to be plugged.

It was supposed to be a joke book to make fun of the Y2K craze Bill just did a really good job on it. I would have liked to see more books but they were just never ment to be.

[abtex]

I thought they were pissed off because they only got one book while Rifts got 40.

I think that I am a Bug.
Or at least that I can understand them.

[Mike Taylor]

That's something I just can't understand...

Publishing an RPG with plans never to make any supplements anyway, whatever the thing's success...

That's especially true with games like SF that have huge holes in them just begging to be plugged.

That's where folks like ourselves come in, writing up material for the Rifter or posting it on fan sites.

[Mike Taylor]

It has been postulated that there is more than one Swarm in the Megaverse. The exact number is unknown. However, there is nothing to indicate they are sending energy back to any homeworld. The Bugs are characterized in the book as energy gluttons, meaning they consume MUCH more than they need for mere survival. In fact, they don't really need to consume external power sources at all, as they are capable of deriving nourishment from simple sunlight. They are also known to gorge themselves to get a sort of electronic "buzz" like humans do by drinking lots of alcohol or using drugs.

[Shawn Merrow]

You, could do something with the stories of Earth having ancient advanced civilizations. If Earth did it may have fought a war with the bugs driving them off at the cost of the collapse of there civilization.

[dark brandon]

Our house landed on their wicked step sister then we grave-robbed her?

[Mech-Viper Prime]

its about the internet and porn is the reason the bugs are upset

[dark brandon]

because they found out we ate the cream filling.

[glitterboy2098]

Bug Vengeance: What Are They Pissed About?

RAID.

[Mike Taylor]

Early in the book (I don't have it, I only leafed through it a few time at my FLGS), a bug invades the White House through a wall socket and kills everyone attending the press conference. Before the bug killed the President though, he asked why were the bugs invading. His answer can be summed as "Oh well, we're here anyway so it doesn't matter if you remember what you did."
Although in all seriousness, what brought them to the SF world is a good question, not as good as the one on how to send them back though.

Who cares 'bout sending 'em back! Bugs is good eatin'!

In all seriousness, I doubt that there's anywhere to send them back.

[Mike Taylor]

Bug Vengeance: What Are They Pissed About?

RAID.

They probably don't much care for the band Black Flag either.

[abtex]

Oh no...how can you not like Black Flag?! I think it's cause they don't have ice cream or chocolate

I think that you hit it on the head.
Chocolate withdraw. They feed on energy and cannot have their Chocolate fix.

[Mike Taylor]

Oh no...how can you not like Black Flag?! I think it's cause they don't have ice cream or chocolate

I think that you hit it on the head.
Chocolate withdraw. They feed on energy and cannot have their Chocolate fix.

Yeah, that's a logical assumption. I can't think of anything worse.

Being cranky and bloated and not having your chocolate fix?

[Roscoe Del'Tane]

Okay, this one is a bit weird, but bear with me on this.

It's a circle of violence. The bugs invade this specific human world due to some horrible acts of violence that were perpetrated centuries or millinia ago by their perspective. They get all fired up for revenge, invade and enslave, and humanity fights back and, eventually after a few decades, wins the war. The humans have captured a few lightning bugs and use their ability to traverse dimensions to go to Bug Central, only it turns out to be in the Bugs past, essentially making an infite loop of agression and battle...

[bigbobsr6000]

It's just a personality conflict. We take it personal that they conflict with us.

[LostOne]

Maybe to answer this question of why the bugs are pissed, a GM needs to run a game where the players are all bugs recruited to the invasion force.

[Vidynn]

haha, stupid humans and their reasons! bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

[LostOne]

I read through the book and found certain things to come across a little disjointed, particularly with the part regarding some past transgression. It would have been something else to find out what that was.

I assumed this was left intentionally vague so the GM could easily come up with their own reasons.

[LostOne]

It just felt disconnected, as if it should have been expanded upon, even slightly or never should have been included in the first place. That's all.

Maybe it was intended to be spelled out more in another book.

[Library Ogre]

It just felt disconnected, as if it should have been expanded upon, even slightly or never should have been included in the first place. That's all.

Maybe it was intended to be spelled out more in another book.

The problem with that theory is that there was never intended to be another book.

[bigbobsr6000]

Facts make my warped mind hurt.

And stop making sense! Dang it!

[LostOne]

It just felt disconnected, as if it should have been expanded upon, even slightly or never should have been included in the first place. That's all.

Maybe it was intended to be spelled out more in another book.

The problem with that theory is that there was never intended to be another book.

Not by Palladium, however, Bill Coffin had said to various fans that he had hoped to talk Palladium into letting him do a sourcebook for it, so he may have had plans on it and therefore didn't try to squeeze stuff into the main book (for all I know he was limited on number of pages).

[LostOne]

That's hilarious. I think we have a winner!

[LostOne]

I realized you're serious, and think it's one of the most original and interesting ideas suggested so far.

Rifter article!

[Beatmeclever]

Perhaps the bugs experience time in reverse (much like Merlin in the myths) and so they are seeking revenge for the horrible defeat they will someday (have already) feel at the hands of the human race. That would mean that bug that has been chasing you around the city all week, you know the one you just killed yesterday; he just experienced his first day in existence and he was trying to kill you because you were trying to kill him! He's not the bad guy in his experience, YOU ARE!

[Library Ogre]

Yes, they were. However, I never determined what that something might be, hoping that if I just dropped a hint at it, the players would pick up on it and come up with their own reasons.

I suspected the real cause might be for some horrible crime we did to the bugs and never even knew we were doing it. Thus, while they were getting revenge on us, it was for something we couldn't really be blamed for because we never had the opportunity to realize what we were doing. We never could acknowledge the impact of our actions on the bugs and choose whether to stop or continue. If we were to run with this line of reasoning, then for game purposes, the vagaries of our moral complicity with whatever we did to the bugs is also lost on the bugs. They either don't grasp those vagaries or they simply don't give a fig. They want blood, and by gum, they have come to get it. Perhaps along the way, their invasion might also serve a colonial purpose for them, so the Y2K invasion serves dual purposes for them, and makes them that less eager to leave.

I asked Bill.

[Peacebringer]

I don't think the bugs are really mad at all. Perhaps, it's about survival and nothing more.

[Tearstone]

I love my GM's explaination:

1. Area 51 scientists developed a really really rudimentary Rift.
2. A team of explorers qwent through said rift.
3. They found bugs, tried to make first contact.
4. Hostile was not the word for the bug's reaction.
5. Area 51 recalled the explorers and closed the Rift by dropping several megatons of nukes on the bug's homeworld.
6. The bugs figured out where we were and SF picks up from there.

Simple, works for us, and Colonel Parker (me), Lt. Hastings (NPC/PC for when our 3rd guy can make it), and Lt. Bonneville (PC) are currently kicking buggy booty every Thursday from 5 pm til.

I like this idea, and it sounds very much like how our military thinks.

[LostOne]

It's been years since I read the book but I do remember getting the impression the bugs are invading due to some ancient transgression or humiliation at the hands of humanity.

Well not so ancient, but you could use someone like Nikola Tesla as the reason. Maybe Tesla coils having a reaction on the bug's homeworld, like the equivalent of an atomic bomb. Or the Tesla coils somehow channel energy from the bug's homeworld, starving them out. Like if an alien race figured out how to suck the water or oxygen or sunlight away from Earth.

Assuming they're in a different dimension maybe time passes differently and it's been thousands of years to them while Tesla was born in 1856 and died 1943, so is fairly recent history to us.