Creature Design Philosophy
Creature Design Philosophy posted in Gamma World forum comment posted by derek_holland Some older critters could use a refresher.
Buggems, parasitoid termites from Legion of Gold, had no described behavior or culture. I was watching a documentary on fungi last night that included a couple species cultivated by termites and a more useful variant came to mind. These buggems are farmers and merchants, selling not only edible and medicinal species of fungi but also dyes, fibers, fungal livestock and mycoremediation.
The last, best described in Mycelium Running, uses fungi to clean up pollution, using the organisms to destroy the chemical pollutants. I would expand that to not just removing chemicals from the soil, but also adding them. This creates conditions that allow specific species of plants to grow and thrive. It is different from mycorrhizae (sp?), where the fungus acts as additional roots for plants. Both could be sold by the buggems, but their effects would be different.
For their behavior, I would go to the Dragon Magazine ecology of the aspis in 260. Those of the insect people from the A series of modules and the mindset described works very well for other intelligent arthropods.
Now how to add Mycena chlorophos? It just screams Gamma World.
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