Episode 187 - Creepy Crawlies

Saving the Game

As October continues, so does our "Spooky Fall" lineup of horror and horror-adjacent topics. This time, we're talking about "creepy crawlies" - the vermin and pests from snakes to spiders to locusts that can cause problems far bigger than their apparent size.

We start off as usual with a host check-in, but we really haven't had much going on lately. Well, except for Jenny, who had a very topic-appropriate nuisance to contend with. Our Patreon topic this week comes from Mike F who puts us on the horns (or perhaps in the fangs?) of a dilemma by asking "Would you rather spend two weeks in quarantine with a goblin raised by wolves, a wolf raised by goblins, or two children under three?"

Once we've sorted that out, it's time to talk about rodents, and bugs, and snakes, and arachnids, and all the other various and sundry small things that can cause big problems and be used to signify various spooky things in our games and story telling. But sometimes these things we think of as gross aren't quite so unequivocally bad. Rats can sniff out landmines, and peacock spiders can be straight-up adorable. There's also a lot of interesting science and culture around insects out there. Massive ant wars and the unnerving world of parasitic wasps, just to name two examples. And of course, there's plenty of potential story uses as well.

Scripture: Exodus 10:13-15, Psalm 78:45-46, Revelation 9:7-11

Other links: Animal trials, Japanese entomology culture