Ratfolk Thread: Big Wide World Edition

They were elevated from little vermin to sapient beings with lifespans lasting more than a couple seasons. What are they pissed about?

the magic mutated them from the Mice and nobody living on the surface accepted them

I like these answers, but I gotta keep questioning.
Why do these supposed deposits of pristine machine parts exist?

lvl -1 Barmaid.

Who the fuck pours like that?

make toxoplasma gondii cultists a thing

Toxowhosit what-nows?

having cats makes you gay

Lazy motherfuckers that throw good machines out because of petty reasons.

Infected rat cultists who offer themselves up as sacrifices to their feline gods?

The Big-Big Gods leave their works behind for Rats to find, so that we might learn, the making, unmaking, & purpose of their gifts. The Big-Big Gods want us to learn so that we may join them in the Big World, til then we forage in the Small World to find their mysteries & learn their gifts of Teknologi. Keep your whiskers straight & we may find our place in the Big World.

>Rat Tech-Cultists
I'm so on board with this.
...Or should it be Rat Tek-Kultists?

No no no. We are Teknishins. We are not a cult. We are faithful followers of the Big-Big Gods & the Metal Mysteries

The Big-Big Gods command you to stop chewing the electric wires.

Excuse me, but those are zap strings and chewing them is the only way to solve their mystery.

I'm reminded of Pic-Related with good cause.
Keep going.

Yes-yes. See the zapstrings bring life. Life goes through the strings to make the gifts of the Big-Big God's move. If you touch a dying rat with the zapstrings they will come back to life. That is why we chew them sometimes. We get extra life power to do the Big-Big thinking needed to solve the Mysteries

But is important not to chew too hard or you get much-much life & you can't hold it so you explode

Ratfolk were the Shudrarashani, they were the street cleaners, the cleaners of sewer pipes, the mount caretakers, the drummers, the cleaners and cooks of the beef, the makers of leather shields, the makers of graves, the weavers of leather armor, the hog's caretaker, and honor the god Shurvaran and his consort, Thujirasi. When a prominent Shudrarashani ratfolk dies, their body is covered in a mixture of pig fat, cinnamon, and thistle, then placed in a closed stone-hut casket, where already prepared wood is then burned with a set of ritual torches. Shurvavan is the god of poetry, and Thujirasi is the goddess of dance, so bard is the preferred adventuring class, most usually, of the Shudrarashani.

You-you's call it life, but whassabout them spark-flingers who zap-zap all the rats they don't much like-like?

>Cooks of the beef
For some reason, I can't help but imagine there's some great religious or cultural taboo that declares only rats are fit to prepare red meat, and that seems funny to me.

Beef is made from minotaur corpses, not cows. So yeah, it's kind of a weird ritual thing. There are however some Shudrarashani who practice the Diamond-Studded-Temple path Asceticism, and while they are a minority, (less than 4% of the world population of Shudrarashani), they have different rituals and roles, since they practice a different form of belief.

Everything is about rituals and roles, everyone, from high caste to low, has rituals and roles.

Diamond Studded Temple ascetics meditate 14 hours a day 3 days a week, practice martial arts 16 hours straight 3 days of each week, and take their meditation enclosures (small no mortar stone buildings) up and down once a week, taking it down that morning, building it again that afternoon. They go shirtless, but may grow their hair up to 6 feet long and keep it up to 4 feet long. It is one of the few monastic paths open to ratfolk, and is more generally practiced by slothfolk and high mountain monkeyfolk.

They know the secrets of the zap strings & want to use it to fill us with much-much life & make us explode

If by "that" you mean tilting the cup, it's part of latte art. Hitting the corner of the bottom keeps it from swirling and mixing too much. But if by "that" you actually mean looking in the completely wrong direction right when your drink is about to spill? Creative license, I suppose.

I don't know but I want to Smooch him.

So are you all imagining the Rodentfolk here being Rodent sized or closer to Human or Halfling size?

I was thinking around 3 feet tall while standing on hind legs.

What's the world of these 'Teknishin' like?
What's THEIR tech-level?

Parasite, makes rodents love the smell of cat pee and reduces their fear of cats

Oh fuck that's metal as hell.
Freaky parasite cultists are a fantastic trope, let's keep that.

(They could be dropped in any tech level I expect. Depends on what tech humans are at & how many mysteries they have solved)

We are smart-smart we have solved many Mysteries.We have many-many yet to solve but we will make it to the Big World.

Let's assume the rats were somehow uplifted by humanity before... something(?) happened to them and are all left behind.
The question to ask is: "What makes a better setting. A Super-Tiny Race like the OP pic, or A Human-Comparable Race?"

Depends on the type of campaign

Personally, I'd prefer the Small angle. Gives normal things a nice twist.

However, I don't mind some of the Rodents posted here for Questing. I would like to explore what leads a Mouseperson to such a career. At the same time, interacting with Humans has to be weird to most beast people, since we seem to be able to get so many to get along when we are near

In the context of the 'Big-Big Mystery' setting, or whatever it'd be called I would vote human-comparable size, makes the rats accessing human tech more believable.
But on the topic of questing, that offers a fantastic question that will probably be answered as the idea gets more meat on the bones, that being 'Why do the Rats quest'
Because...I mean they gotta go on quests, it's a tabletop setting.

In a Megafacility filled with man-sized and intelligent rats, what classes await those vermin who seek a life of adventure?

And what horrors await them?
Spitball classes (New ideas or just the fluff for the classics) and monster ideas.

Cyber-Soldier (Fighter Archetype)
Cyber-soldiers replace fallible flesh with precision crafted machinery. Some seek to exceed the limitations of humanoid flesh, while others become cyber-soldiers through drastic repairs necessitated by horrific injuries.

Iron Priest (Cleric Archetype)
Iron priests preach of the messengers from inside the machines. Iron priests can affect robots and other unliving constructs with channeled energy, but lack power over the undead.

Scavenger (Rogue Archetype)
A scavenger lives for the discovery of new technological wonders scraped from the depths of the strange ruins, metal caverns, and outlandish junkyards. She is well-versed in all the ways that technology can be used to protect sites, as well as the ways in which it can malfunction.

Savage Technologist (Barbarian Archetype)
The into fluff is too setting specific, but the features of the class get bonuses to dex instead of Con and bonuses while wielding a gun. Additionally they get bonus damage for the gun while raging.

Techslinger (Gunslinger Archetype)
Techslingers spurn unreliable gunpowder weapons in favor of high-tech armaments. They learn to master the quirks of timeworn technology and methods of keeping weapons charged in a primitive world. Techslingers still start play with the black powder blunderbuss, pistol, or rifle granted by the gunsmith class ability, but they gain specialized powers for use after they gain weapons of advanced technology.

Some stuff taken from the Technology Guide for Pathfinder. God I love the stuff they released during the Iron Gods AP.

So rats with cyber implants, weird twitchy rats who have heard the voices carried in the wires, the little bastards that know how to take apart the laser turrets guarding the room, the feisty bois who like shooting and being angry, and crackshots to dissuade things from stealing the shinies.

I would argue the opposite. With words like Big-Big Gods & the Big World/Small World they would be rat sized rats, looking to achieve human size

How about we settle this by making them in between. They are going to need to be much bigger than your standard rat in order to properly dismantle and tool around with tech. And bigger eyes provide better vision, as regular rat eyes are actually quite terrible and among the lowest resolutions a mammal can achieve. Bigger bodies, longer lives.

So not man sized, thats too big. Instead make them halfling sized, 3 maybe 4 feet standing tall. This gives them nicely sized hands to fiddle around with tech, along with enough precision and strength to really get into the finer stuff. Big enough eyes for clear vision, very much needed for playing with tech. Small enough to find all kinds of neat hidey holes and get access to the good stuff hidden away. This leaves them small enough to still need mechs and tech solutions for very big problems, but big enough to really explore and mess with the world in a much more significant manor.

The Big-Big Gods and such is just the way their language translates, and the rats tend to speak the way their language developed, even in english.

A question still unanswered: Magic, yes or no? maybe all that tech ignited a bit of weird causality, or a loosening of the structure of reality. Maybe people shouldn't play with alien super tech since it does weird stuff to reality and the structures of existence. Psychics are must need, with yellow glowy eyes and weird sparks.

So... kobold-sized ratlings?

Essentially. Even precision screwdrivers would be a two-hander for your regular rat.

Ya'll a bunch of fucking furries.

Standard PF ratfolk barely make 4 foot. That's shorter than Peter Dinklage. They'd probably be about the same height as Warwick Davis, aka Willow. Short, very short, pick-up-able and cuddle short. A kobold on the other hand is basically Verne Troyer. Tiny and nasty and bitey.

user, ratfolk are an age old staple of sci fi and fantasy literature, especially the books that gave rise to D&D and thus the roleplay hobby. Come, sit down and enjoy the neat stuff that a fun and weird race can bring to a game setting.

This fucking shit is just being a furry. You can't use that excuse to hide the fact that this is just a thread to be a furry on a board where you can't post porn.

user, that looks like a cartoony version of a PF ratfolk in a modern setting. Heck that art could very well be a ysoki barista on Akiton in the Starfinder setting. If youre that upset about that particular style or simply cartoony versions of animal people, you may need to leave the thread so as not to trigger your autism. Im sorry you cannot join and share the fun of posting about rat people from various TTRPG settings and what they may be like in other ones.

I may have figured out the origin of the notMars ratpeople, their name could possibly be a joke about size, wysoki is polish for tall.

That's pretty funny if that's the case.

We're getting very close to fur-covered jawas.
Some user a thread or two ago mentioned the cranium rats from Planescape. Without going down the hive mind road I like the idea of rats from the same burrow, or perhaps litter, having a psychic connection. Just enough to allow them to coordinate their work or share plans, mental pictures and ideas with clarity.

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What would be good insults for ratfolk?

What would be good insults for ratfolk to use on other races?

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>Vermin
>Fleabait
>Gutter Mouse
>Second Least Relevant Chaos Faction, Being Slightly More Relevant Than Beastmen Because They Fucked Up The World A Bit But Only Just

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Huh? They are one of the most prominent factions in Warhammer. Granted, most of the time they play the role of antagonists and get btfo without accomplishing much but this is a fairly static setting where no faction ever "wins" or "loses" decisively.

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That's kind of the problem-they exist pretty much to be thwarted by other factions (their ten minutes of glory destroying civilization notwithstanding), but it's fine because there's an effectively limitless supply of them to throw away making other people look good.

To an extent that's true of all the factions other than empire/dwarfs/elfs but yes, they are the writers' favorite punching bag because you can kill them en masse and just handwave it. As a faction they have a lot of fluff and flavour but as individuals they are never more than one-dimensional cartoon characters.

I was expecting something like a bit more derogatory, but it works. What about insults ratfolk would use for other races?

I will agree to Verne Troyer sized rat folk. But keep rat proportions, so they are sleek & narrow.

Maybe even have it where they are slowly, over generations, getting bigger. This helps reinforce thier belief in the Big World. They could be growing bigger as a species either as a result of an experiment by humans in the past, magic/psionic fuckery, or exposure to mutative elements (radiation, TNMT purple ooze etc)

I favor the human angle as it gives them a reason to look up to the Big-Big Gods & because I don't see any reason to add magic/psionics if we don't need to.

Shit I meant Warwick Davis not Verne Troyer

No-furs
The tailless
The weak-toothed

>Flat-faced
>Blunt-clawed
>Mange-ape

"Hey, small-ears! Why your ears so small-small? No hear-hear with small ear-ear!"

>Ya'll
>Not Y'all
user please.

I would say "Dangerous, oftentimes inconsistent psychic powers"
Let's do this shit like X-Com, where all the different rat-factions are they themselves very tribal, but have a *decent* understanding of technology and access to some truly wild stuff.
Different groups have focus on different technologies and "research paths" (perhaps related to where they are in the megafacility) with different Psychics (Sykiks maybe?) Having different powers based on their group assocation.

user, uhh, Jawas are a rat based lifeform. Rats and tech just goes together like jam and peanut butter.

Only reason I talked about psychic powers is this:
youtube.com/watch?v=1OV3T6GWhIg

I like-like Sykiks as a name. It's like Teknishin.
Gaptooth watereyed, leech. You fumble with twiststick & almost break!
You no know nothing! Furtailed son of a mouse! Your brain must be small-small!
So unrat you've never tasted Cheddar I say! You'll never be Big-Big acting like a preening cat!

Don't get me wrong user. I don't mind Sykiks, I just wanted to appeal to the largest audience

We need information on the world these rat-teknishins live in.

Let's start by asking some basic worldbuilding questions:
Is their whole world a megafacility?

How intact is it? Is it all overgrown? Are there large parts that are completely pristine?

How do the rats provide for themselves? How do they get the food they need? How difficult is survival?

How varied are the enviroments?

Is the facility abandoned?

Let's make it a very much upscaled Biosphere 2 with more lab sections.

They started in an abandoned lab (NYHM?), not very big, with extensive wilderness & forests surrounding it. Humans are no longer around the place but they may exist elsewhere. They used to be ordinary lab rats but have grown bigger & smarter as they continue on. (This happens over generations, not with individuals)

The Warren was built in the lower levels & has eletrik flowing through its zapstrings. Nosers are the backbone of society, sniffing out trouble, food sources, & such. Broodmothers nurse, raise & teach the little ones. Teknishins work on the Mysteries & share with the others their findings. They are psuedo-priests who work closely with the Nosers to find new Mysteries.

In the bramblethorn bushes in the New Land, the Nest has become the newest big colony. They are very successful & the forest has plentiful food, but few Mysteries. They are far from the oversight of the Warren & the Ratking (several politician type rats fight to be in charge & get tangled together. They are treated as a single person)

>Biosphere 2
Never heard about it until now. That place is wicked cool!
Massive Biospheres all over the shop. Abandoned are not tho?

There is some good ideas in here.

>Mice are an underclass when among rats
>Rats are the common class, albeit in smaller numbers compared to the mouse
>Voles live in the wild away from society, some mingle within mouse societies as farmers or merchants selling food
>Larger rodents are steeds/mounts or are sentient and live among themselves. Some say porcupines serve as the best defense against the catfolk, but are seldom seen as of late

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It would make the most sense if they were abandoned.

Not going to lie, giant sentinel porcupines seems like an angle that needs to be used.

Just curious. Do (real) rats and mice occupy different ecological niches or do one species drive the other out when they share the same environment?

The different sub-facilities vary in size greatly, with the smallest only being the size of a house, and others sprawling over the size of a continent. The entire planet was dedicated to research, experimentation, and production of dangerous and experimental equipment and compounds.

The Teknishins hold a large portion of the Primary Engineering Sections under their banner, where they have ready access to materials, research logs, and ready-access pipelines and paths to other key points of interest. Such as the long-overgrown hydroponics labs and several flooded hydroelectric plants and swamps.
With their food and water needs for the entire tribe being covered by their territory, the Teknishins wonder and research their 'metal mysteries' with all the fervor and mysticism of ancient-earth shamans. This free-time and constant research has led them to being able to produce armor and weapons that they regularly produce and sell to other tribes, and maintain a mercenary army to protect their borders and interests. They jealously guard their secrets and methods and aren't above murder in pursuit of their goals.

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Another scribe-slave

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I believe rats tend to eat mice.

Does this one count too?

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Oh I'm sure the facility is fit-to-bursting with mutants and designer lifeforms.
Giant, lethal, monsterbeasty porcupines isn't too much of a stretch.

Little bastards deserve it.
Wandering Roasted-Mice Vendor when?

>Page 10

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I dig those weapon designs.
Would they be practical in real life.

*Would they be practical in real life?
Me smart.

They don't look particularly well-made, and they show signs of damage; then again, a sharpened chunk of metal on a stick is probably going to hurt regardless.

Well it's Skaven-make so it's functional garbage, but if these designs were picked up by a competent smith with good materials on-hand, would they make good weapons? And not just "metal goes in other dude so yeah" kinda way.

The designs themselves appear to be axes, though the size and weight of the blades would probably make them awkward to handle, especially the bottom one.

I love the concept of ratfolk, but im pissed there's no race for them in DnD

user, you can make your own statblock for them and Ms. Brisby all over everything, nothing is stopping you.

There's a 3e statblock for Nezumi in the Oriental Adventures 3e, and I think the Rokugan D20 Campaign Setting book's version is a 3.5 update of that.

Pathfinder has a Ratfolk race.

Still, yeah, it sucks that there's no 5e ratfolk, and we're not likely to get one unless they do a Plane Shift: Kamigawa.

Well, you could take the Dungeon Master Guide's advice and swap an existing race (like halflings), or there's the ratling entry from the Scarred Lands 5e update.

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Why do you like ratfolk/What makes you like ratfolk Veeky Forums?

Because just like real rats they are versatile and can thrive anywhere. Also, they are funny underdogs.

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I used to have pet rats.

I've noticed that this a common reason for interest in ratfolk.
Did the little guys leave that big of an impression