Infection and resonance are two concepts that effect most things in Bug & Claw. Every Bug-kin has a crystal in their head. Over time, collaborating with others through arduous scenarios and encountering other strange, crystalline structures can increase the "resonance" of their crystal. Meanwhile, seeking rare ancient treasures in irradiated or chemical-doused lands and battling […]
Your journey and adventures demand a lot of your characters, but shouldn't demand as much from you Do you know what one of the biggest things I love about tabletop roleplaying games is? Epic adventures! In that regard, do you know what I dislike about some solo tabletop systems? They're too open-ended. Sandboxes are great, […]
One of the things I do in my day job is help teams focus. Part of how I do that is to ensure we're looking at our work through the right lenses. Like making design corporate, team, or design principles that we can then utilize when brainstorming to help generate ideas, or afterward when pairing […]
We already have the pocket filler table, but what about regular old general items– things that you can find in most any town or village? Well, here is the first batch. Most of these shouldn't be too surprising, as the majority are pretty standard OSR fare. There are a few in here however that you […]
As I get more budget for Bug & Claw, I have been trying to use it to collaborate with excellent industry creators. The last big one was a reimagined logo and brand identity by Tim Hastings of MindKillerInk. Now we have a few more excellent spot illustrations from tabletop legend Hodag! The following illustrations cover […]
I typically jot down problems I want to solve in the game and then ideate based on those in a giant Google Doc, but I thought I would share some of the more random ideas I've had recently as I ramp development on Bug & Claw back up. Reducing RNG and providing more agency One […]
Calgary, Sept 12, 2024 – Bug & Claw's new logo represents Monkey's Lunch's commitment to creating leading stories, experiences, and innovative gaming projects. Changes and what is staying the same The old Bug & Claw logo had a nice symbol paired with a hasty stack of the "Superior Title" font family. While the symbol represented […]
Most of these are one to two syllables, although there are a couple of homages here as well. I was inspired by arthropod terms, plants and herbs, the sounds I think bugs make, and my strange brand of OCD/echolalia (diagnosed), which gets random sounds and words stuck in my head. Of course, you can name […]
I've been blending my day job with game design, finding success. Recently, I applied service and systems design techniques to understand Bug & Claw's systems better. It's an adaptable and effective approach I recommend. System maps Who is this for? Why is this helpful? This type of technique helps quickly, visually understand how different systems […]
If you read the little introduction to Bug & Claw that I re-wrote a while back you may have noticed something hidden away in there– I grazed over some of the communication concepts. What I don't like about language options in some games is how similar they all are in application. There is more, I think, that […]
