Making a homebrew setting

When I eventually read some Dn D material, I might consider running a game in a setting I made up. The kicker: it takes place in a mouse world where tribes of arthropods do battle and centipede cultist worship an all devouring mother. I've asked around ways to sell the setting and find ways to make it less of an alienating plot.

It all boils down to "your a bug in a big big world where birds are like dragons and mice are bears."

So far I want to change the races and classes but mostly the races. Though, last of people are telling me the idea is It sounds too ambitious for a project and I kinda agree. I just don't want to make a rp g since that even takes more time and energy then needed.

Im not sure im quite following; are you making a homebrew for a game youre planning to run or creating an rpg from the ground up?

If its the former; just go with your plan and change races/ keep classes.

For example Grasshoppers are Elves, Termites are Dwarves etc

Are you sure you want to do this with D&D? I could see this idea working better with a different system - something like Fate Core, for example, or better yet Fate Accelerated, both of which are pay-what-you-want.

I'm mostly asking because while it's a fascinating setting image, I'm not sure a game with as much mechanical weight as D&D is the best place to start building it - particularly with the wide variety in capabilities bug PC's would demonstrate (some can fly, some are tiny, some are enormous, some can carry multiple times their own weight, and so on).

With Fate Accelerated, for example, instead of having to come up with a bunch of bugs and stat them up, people could just pick their favourite bug and build based on that - a tiny little wasp might have high Sneaky and no Forceful, while a giant beetle would obviously have those ratings reversed!

As for actual setting-building, my recommendation would be to start with feel and figure out what you need to bring that feeling about. A King Arthur style setting where tiny little "knights" quest out against spiders and mice for honour and glory is going to feel very different from "early season Attack on Titan, only the monsters are lizards". Also, if you need a map, just pick a location and fill it with bugs and other creatures - it could even be your own house, if you wanted!

butterflies represent elves' s]ess while grasshoppers represent elves' connection to nature. there will be no social insects in my game (mostly cuz screw bees) maybe i should use fae. less painstaking.

edited 28th Dec '17 1:00:52 PM by ewolf2015