What is 'Subgrubs and Snazzards' and why are there 6 of them?
Art by Ambrosia, Volunteer SnS Artist
The Short Version: Subgrubs and Snazzards (SnS) 6th edition is an independent Tabletop Roleplaying Game (TTRPG) set in the universe of the webcomic Homestuck and videogame Hiveswap. Specifically, SnS is designed to focus on Hiveswap's main setting: the planet Alternia and the Alternian Empire. In Subgrubs and Snazzards you play as a Troll, a grey skinned alien with candy corn horns living in a Sci-Fi fascist empire with a biological caste structure based on their different blood colours. SnS was made for @serverstuck, an Alternian Slice-Of-Life roleplay server that also serves as the home base for SnS development and its uses both for the server's west marches-style play and campaigns at home.
Want to check it out just based off that description already? By all means! >>Click Here<< for the 6th edition game manual in the form of a live document.
The Long Version: You're... going to want to sit down for this.
A PROJECT 8+ YEARS IN THE MAKING
Serverstuck was made in 2018, and the desire for a TTRPG followed close behind. The earliest "editions" of this TTRPG were rough drafts of basic systems and hacks of popular existing games, but it was snowballing rapidly into a thing entirely its own. In 2020, the combined hacks and innovations of Serverstuck were coalesced into Subgrubs and Snazzards, 4th Edition, a game that set itself apart from others by focusing exclusively on Alternia with a no-sburb aproach more similar to Hiveswap. SnS has only continued to grow since then, with two complete editions released and countless overhauls and updates between them.
Currently, overhauls on SnS6e are on pause for a very special reason: the development team is worrking on Subgrubs and Snazzards, 7th Edition, which will act as the culmination of several years' work. Some details are available on Serverstuck, and others will be released her over time (but more on that another day).
A CUSTOM TTRPG SYSTEM
Taking inspiration from everything on a scale of Pathfinder to Monster of The Week, Subgrubs and Snazzards has developed a unique TTRPG system. Use 8 stats and a set of 8-Sided dice (thanks, Vriska!) to engage with the world, use your moves, and explore all the canon, fanon, and SnS-original options that the game has to offer. Try out the VALUE POINTS inventory system to fill your SYLLADEX with junk that might be useful. Use UNIVERSAL MOVES to do things like SWASHBUCKLE in your foes' faces, get creative with a bit of PROBLEM SLEUTHING, and channel your destiny in a cosmic FRAYMOTIF. Battle against monsters while using ABSTRATA UPGRADES that let you trade raw damage for using abilities like EMOTIONS or STATUS EFFECTS. Build out your character with COUNTLESS MOVES custom fitted to you!
But wait, what moves can you even take?
DOZENS OF CHARACTER OPTIONS
Over a THOUSAND moves spread out across all sorts of options that let you build a completely unique alien experience, including:
CHARACTER ARCHETYPES designed to reflect the lives and experiences of the planet Alternia, coming from a mix of Homestuck/Hiveswap canon and unique SnS worldbuilding, including mandatory caste-focused playbooks called TREES (with canon classics like LEGISLACERATOR teals and MASTERMIND ceruleans as well as homemade favorites like NETWORK golds and PALADIN indigos, alongside a playable setting-specific lime and fankid castes) and optional add-ons called TEMPLATES that cover everything from seafaring RAPSCALLIONEERS and unlicensed DOCTERRORS to shambling-corpse SHADOWDROPPERS and star-channeling ASTROSORCERERS.
A massive selection of moves representing the key components of your CLASSPECT, with mechanics to represent what your Class, Aspect, and Lunar Sway say about you and how your destiny shapes the way you interact with the world.
Countless extra options options to represent special cases, such as common MUTATIONS in the troll species like wings or mutant eyes, the vast selection of ADULT JOBS that graduation has to offer from corpse-shoveling rusts to planet-ruling violets, and even mechanical boons you get from being with your QUADRANT mates and growing your relationship over time.
A ever-growing list of PERFECTLY GENERIC MOVES to cover edge cases from being an empire stan to having a secret identity.
COUNTLESS OPTIONS TO FLESH OUT ALTERNIA
While the character options are robust and extremely fleshed out, they'd be nothing without something to use them against. In Subgrubs and Snazzards you can fight against the countless MONSTERS that Alternia has to offer, from LUSII like the lvl 2 PARASOCIAPUS that steals your custodian to the mighty lvl 4 SNAZZARD that enacts divine justice as it sees fit. If the fauna of Alternia isn't your cup of tea, try boiling a few leaves off its native PLANTS like the lvl 1 SPEARSLAUGHTER PLANT that snare unsuspecting adventurers in their vines, or struggle against your own mind as the lvl 3 MEMORIVORA PETALS slowly saps away all your experiences and abilities. Struggle against the united Imperial forces as NPCS like the lvl 2 BUSTIN' LAUGHSASSIN and ORPHANER LUSUS-RUNNER team up with ROBOTS from the prowling lvl 1 H3M0H0UND to the titanic lvl 4 IMPERIAL SHOCKDRONE. When the natural and unnatural isnt enough, ENTITIES together make up the supernatural- like the lvl 2 AMBIENT GRIMDARKS that wander the world after making a bad deal with the horrorterrors, or like the lvl 4 CELESTIAL GRUB that are insectoid angels summonable to those of cloistered jade faith.
If monster battles by themselves aren't your thing, a whole host of systems describe the nature of the world around you, like HABITATS that describe anything from mountains and oceans to jungles and wastelands. HAZARDS describe what happen when the world around you fights back, and those can be something as small as a RAINSTORM or TOXIC GAS leak to as major as DIMMING STARS in the wake of the supernatural to DAYLIGHT breaking out and burning indiscriminately. Rounding out the mechanics of Alternia are AFFLICTIONS that can cause issues for your characters over time, be it less intense like with DROWNING and THE SNIFFLES, or more severe like with a case of HAUNTING or CARCINIZATION.
INTEGRATED SERVER MECHANICS AND FEATURES
While Subgrubs and Snazzards is developed as a TTRPG that can be used stand-alone with little modification (which has been done before, including on podcast Dice Will Roll), it has been uniquely integrated into Serverstuck and vis versa. Because of this, there's dozens of Serverstuck-Exclusive TTRPG features, including:
A thriving Player-Vs-Player economy
Server support for single encounters against monsters as well as one-shot length Adventures In Alternia (or AiAs) that equate to server levels
Semi-Regular server events with unique event mechanics ranging from minigames and prize items to raidbosses.
Dedicated channels for planning, developing, and creating new builds and ideas for both players and game masters.
On-Site access to the development team for SnS support, both on server and off.
An ever-growing list of mechanics that are introduced first to the server before making their way to the game proper.
THE BOTTOM LINE
Subgrubs and Snazzards is a unique ttrpg experience set in the planet of Alternia that blends longstanding canon, community fanon, and dev team original concepts together to a unique and in-depth roleplay experience. There are countless options for both players and game-masters to use, all designed with love of the original canon and the new stories being told every day. Whether its in Serverstuck's westmarches style play or a campaign all of your own, SnS hopes to provide an enjoyable and replayable game that lets YOU tell the stories you want to about a relatively small part of an old webcomic.
Want to play Subgrubs and Snazzards, 6th Edition? Click >>HERE<< to access the live document game manual.
Also make sure to check out @serverstuck, an Alternian Slice-Of-Life roleplay server that serves as the game's main hub and an ever-changing open world campaign!
In 2023, the Requiem Café in Anaheim hosted a Homestuck collaboration event. The Serverstuck mod team chose to take advantage of this opportunity to do some in person advertising at the event. They pasted physical posters nearby the Café.
The poster included no information about the fact that Serverstuck is unfriendly to proshippers. There was also no information in the server's rules at the time that prohibited proshippers from participating in the community, just a Blacklist channel that contained a list of topics that weren't allowed to be roleplayed or talked about in the server. The only way anyone could have known that Serverstuck wasn't friendly to proshippers was if they visited their Tumblr, where this banner was present under some posts:
Conveniently, the Tumblr isn't mentioned in the poster, or anywhere in the Serverstuck rules at the time of writing. You have to go out of your way to look for it.
Several members joined the server as a result of seeing this poster, including the subjects of this post. One of the subjects posted a commission ad that briefly mentioned they were willing to draw Dead Dove content. (This ad has since been deleted, so no receipts here.) This prompted the Serverstuck mod team to go through the social media of both subjects, and upon discovering "disturbing content" (that is, proship content), they banned both users.
Here is the ban message they posted:
Owner of Serverstuck confirming that the subject's ad is what caused them to look into their social media history:
The Serverstuck mod team then reported the subjects to the Homestuck Anniversary discord server, as well as a handful of local cosplay group discords. This resulted in the subjects being banned from all of the mentioned servers, labeled dangerous predators, and excluded from their real life friend groups.
Here is one of the subject's thoughts on the matter: (Thanks @sals-geno for the screenshots)
"I posted my commission sheet (with permission from the mods) because I needed money, and on my commission sheet it briefly mentions I am OK doing Dead Dove and NSFW commissions. it was only mentioned, didn't show anything explicit. I only accept commissions from adults regardless of rating. They pulled me aside and said it was "unacceptable" that I am ok taking dead dove commissions and that they were banning me (and by extension my partner) from the server. They then went around and to all the cosplay groups we were also in since there was a lot of overlap due to an IRL event, and we got banned from all of those servers as well. I will note at this time I accepted a single commission from a minor, but it was due to an IRL circumstance. We were at an event and I was short on cash, and he was the only person around who had any. He offered to help me pay for something if I drew him something in return, and I agreed."
TL;DR: Serverstuck's false advertising and subsequent cyberstalking and defaming of a "dangerous" pair of users led to real life consequences for the users. All this, because the mod team did not like that they were posting Dead Dove content on social media accounts unassociated with their activity in Serverstuck.
Additional: Less than a month later, they formally added "proship content" to the blacklist. Yes, that's really what it says, and yes, this is really how they chose to announce it.
A bit odd that they would insult the reading comprehension of proshippers, given the fact that putting "proship content not allowed" on the Blacklist still isn't an actual statement explicitly barring proshippers from participating in the community.
People who don't know about Serverstuck VS people who do know about Serverstuck
Hey you. Yes, YOU! Want some roleplay in a niche alternian setting based around the Homestuck series staple trolls? Looking to put your fantrolls in Situations tm outside of imaging them in your thinkpan? Looking for community and new experiences as well as chances to make friendships that last? Look no further than...
SERVERSTUCK, a 16+ slice-of-life Alternian Fantroll Discord Based RP Server! We have features like...
200+ Emojis
800+ Members
LGBTQ+ Friendly
Monthly Events and Yearly Story Arcs
OUR OWN HOMEGROWN TTRPG, UPDATED VERY OFTEN, SUBGRUBS & SNAZZARDS 6e
Extremely Active and Friendly Community -Unique Canon-Divergent Lore
Custom Bot: for all your Serverstuck needs!
We're soon starting our next year long arc based around TRAVEL. Hop on a train and have your troll explore user made settlements that flesh out the world of Alternia!
>>CLICK HERE TO JOIN<<
PS, if you have art pertaining to Serverstuck (like your fantrolls/fankids!), feel free to post and tag them as #serverstuck and share them with us! We may even reblog it!
Okay insane thing I want to get off my chest but the lore for limes and purples in the server is so... Weird. From birth all limes are sent to the server's version of The Grand Highblood and she mind controls them to do her bidding and perform little plays and all that. What baffles me is the server owner who plays the Grand Highblood character swears up and down that the limes aren't slaves and it's not slavery but then when he describes it, it sounds a lot like mind control slavery. I think he's trying to not be racist because the Grand Highblood is black coded? But at that point he should have just made her not have a bunch of slaves or be an evil petulant black woman who gets mad at any mild inconvenience.
