Pico is a tabletop roleplaying game where you play as tiny bugs going on small adventures in a big world.
Latest Updates from Our Project:
VERY Quick Update - Backerkit Closing Soon!
6 months ago
– Thu, Sep 18, 2025 at 09:14:41 AM
No fancy stuff this time people, just some important info - I'll be locking in for the final version of PICO (and the PICODEX) on monday, ready to be sent off to the printers on tuesday. because of this we'll be closing the backerkit on sunday, so if you haven't thrown your info in there (particularly the name you want to be credited by), then do it by sunday!
Oh... Go on then. One bit of art, from the picodex.
I'll be in touch again when the books get the okay from the printers!
Felix
Backerkit Rollout, Textual Updates Applied, and Digital Character Sheet Updates!
7 months ago
– Sun, Aug 24, 2025 at 09:20:40 AM
Morning/afternoon/evening folks, Felix here!
It's been a whirlwind of a last month, and the reception to the closed release of the version 0.999 copy of PICO has been really wonderful. So thank you, all of you!
With that said, there are a few big news items for today, so get ready for a very official(ish) update! Minimal pictures, maximum words this time around.
THE BACKERKIT ROLLOUT BEGINS!
Today marks the start of the backerkit rollout - it'll be appearing for some people as a small test, then once we know it's working correctly (likely in about two days) it should be fired off to everybody.
If you're part of the early rollout and you notice any errors or problems or missing fields etc, please do let us know in the comments of this update - getting a good, accurate backerkit release makes things a lot easier for us going forward.
Also, your answer to the very first question of the backerkit lets us know how you want to be credited. Because PICO is a little more family-friendly than the Wildsea, please do choose appropriate names - I won't hesistate to censor anything that goes off the deep end, especially if it would make a bug feel sad! We've never had problems with this in the past, as you have consistently been a lovely bunch, but it bears saying just in case. :P
EDITS HAVE BEEN APPLIED!
Your feedback for PICO crowd-editing has been excellent - some very fine-toothed combs have been released and put to good use, evidently!
So in no particular order, here's a 'thank you very much' to the following individuals, and a brief, cryptic outline of what they're being thanked for...
River Ray: A duplicate Nekopolis was removed, sewers were systemified, A new twigling bow has been added for easy Hunt and Slink damage at range, multiple appendix typos were untypoified, Shadow House page numbers pulled back from the abyss, a wild became a haunted, and Weirdnesses were re-ordered.
Jotra04: Midnight bites were capslocked, Roaming sheet language was updated, Dart and Jump references cleaned up, Picotitan March speed increased, and removed SOME of the scrape references (it's still an excellent word for a scuffle).
Lieutenant Lettuce: Clarified some aspect amount rules.
Ross Briddon: Some pixelated images have been sharpened.
Styrmir: For an augment amount clarification.
Brendant Truett: Removed an additional 'by', changed an 'and' to an 'any'.
The Crew of the Razored Front: Added 'D3s' as an acceptable name for the Ding-Dong-Ditchers, as was originally intended.
Malik: A rejuvenated art piece has been added (and definitely not because I clicked the wrong file at some point, of course I wouldn't do a thing like that).
Zach Mlynarczyk: Example aspects re-ordered, Crushing mandibles re-hearted, and Straw Hose aspect re-wettified.
Boy in Turqoise: Adding an S to effect.
Matthew Johnston: An or became a for, a wind-up key got new text, and a possible possible was added.
Matter: Excised an E where no E should be!
Indiana Sprig: For some clarification questions on Dash/Dance/Dart.
Groundhoggoth: For pointing out that mounts are your buddies (not your parts).
Andrew Sheridan: For catching some unintentional pseudoscientific duplicates.
Conbon: Fiesty? Feisty, more like!
Anonymous: Removed MOST of the references to the Specimachine and Brimstocchio (the Specimachine is on patreon, so I'm not againt leaving a tiny breadcrumb trail there).
And Celeste Tavarez Santana: For a whole host of minor but useful catches, very much appreciated!
So... what hasn't changed?
Well, most things, as you can probably imagine. But specifically...
+ Hover-over text not added yet, because I don't know how! This may change in the near future, but no promises there. + An aspect creation page has not added, because I don't have enough space! + Additional bolding is a firm maybe - Ellan the editor is queen of the bold, and decided that some paragraphs / pages would look weird with too much bold on them (which I agree with), so holding off for now (but that might well change in some instances for the final readthrough).
DIGITAL CHARACTER SHEET UPDATES!
Straight from the Cobo, the creator's, mouth...
The makers of the Wildsea digital companion site, Charsmith, have created a PICO version as well. Check it out HERE!
Charsmith is for both players and GMs to help manage everything in their games. It has digital character and picotitan sheets as well as a dedicated sheet for GMs to keep track of sessions. The Character Wizard can help guide new players to quickly create bugs so you can get to playing ASAP!
Support your PICO campaigns with this feature-rich digital character sheet!
So there you go!
THE FUTURE
Next update, timeline info I think - we're at the stage of getting things approved for printing now, so after that we should hopefully be back on track for a decent book-creation-and-delivery process!
Speak to you soon,
Felix
BACKERS ONLY: The Closed Release Is Here!
8 months ago
– Mon, Jul 21, 2025 at 04:55:23 AM
This post is for backers only. Please visit Kickstarter.com and log in to read.
The Final One Percent
10 months ago
– Sun, May 18, 2025 at 01:29:44 AM
Morning, Piconauts - Felix here!
Its time for the May update, so let's find out what's been happening in the world of tiny bugs...
LOTS OF EDITING
That's right, I've had the second monitor set up and a lot of documents and trackers running at once for the last few weeks - such is the way I edit, guided by the surprisingly saintly Ell.
Even with her aid I certainly can't say it's the most fun part of the process, but it is definitely important. The good news is that almost all of the core book is in a fully edited state now (though a couple of typos and such will always slip through, that's one of the reasons we do digital beta releases), and the picodex is on its way there. The bad news is... Well, there isn't really any bad news for anybody else in this regard, it's just not an exciting thing for me to be doing!
Editor Ell, in her bugliest form - without her, you'd likely find at least one typo in every paragraph (and if you needed further proof of that, that last word was originally spelled 'paragrpah' because I remain a terrible typist).
In fact, I'd much rather be...
PLAYTESTING
I got the chance to be a little bug myself recently, which is far more valuable to me as a designer than it is being the Weaver. Yes, forever GM syndrome affects designers too. What made it even better was that I got to play through the pre-written PICO adventure, The Soggy Dragon, written by guest writer (and past Wildsea contributor) Rob Leigh.
I'm at least 70% sure that Rob Leigh is not a scorpion in real life.
And my oh my, it was a picoton of fun! Puddles were splashed in, crushrooms arm-wrestled, and enigmatic dragons tracked down and challenged.
In fact, it was so much fun that if anybody else would like an early run-through of it, with the designer himself, Rob has agreed to run a few sessions on the Wild Words Discord for folks who are interested. The Soggy Dragon is a great starter adventure for tiny bugs, so if you're interested head for the pico channels within the discord and make your insectile intentions known!
BUILD & HEALING
So what else is new? Well, there's a new double-page spread full of aspects and augments that's been slotted into the existing character creation options, all about the Build of your bug. Ever wanted to be small? Of course you have, you backed PICO. But if you've ever wanted to be a bit bigger than small, or even a little smaller than small, now you can!
You may recognize a couple of the augments on this page too - they've been moved from other parts into the new build section, as they seemed thematically relevant.
I've kept the mechanical impact of such changes low, but you'll find certain hazards that interact with the size of your bug (and there will likely be situations where being bigger or smaller than usual might come in handy).
In a similar vein, Wild Words games have always had some players who worry about the resource cost and task time associated with healing. To address this in an optional fashion, a new Titanden upgrade has been added for the health-conscious - the hospital! This is there to be interacted with or not, depending entirely on whether you want fast healing to be something accessible to your particular band of bugs.
There aren't many more adjustments to be made before the final beta gets released, but I'm always open to balance changes and such based on playtest reports. Keep that in mind for the next update!
PICODEX ART
Zkarab is also drawing close to finishing the art for the picodex, which knocks one of the last big things off of the to-do list. Rather than blather on about it, I'll just throw you a few of the newest pieces...
Our ur-frog, for those that want to play croakier individuals using the rules in the picodex
A bugshroom, another one of the picodex character options unlocked during the campaign. I particularly love zkarab's micro-mushroom-friend there, too.
THE FINAL BETA
I'd hoped to have this out for this update, but things always take a bit longer than you expect (I think it's one of the immutable rules of kickstarter). Still, it's close - as soon as the final core book editing session is wrapped up with Ell, I'll apply whatever's left and then share it in a backers-only update on here. Will that be the next update? Hopefully. Will it be this month? Unlikely given that that's only about ten days, but possible. Will it be next month? Almost definitely, unless something goes horribly wrong (like me being eaten by a crow, or forgetting how to type, both of which seem equally unlikely).
Wish me luck, people - it's the last few paces of the final stretch, metaphorically speaking, and I'm feeling good about what's taken shape. And watch for the next update!
Felix, out :)
Take Me Out To The Mall Game
12 months ago
– Wed, Apr 09, 2025 at 08:00:24 AM
Morning piconauts, Felix here!
And welcome to your combine March-April update. Why combined? Because I managed to get a solid double whammy of time-sinks - moving countries and getting really, really ill. The two may well be connected.
But never fear, tiny bugs! Repeated sneezing hasn't stopped me working, and it certainly hasn't stopped zkarab from arting, so today's update is pretty much a slew of good news!
NEW ART
And we'll start with the showiest bit - there's a lot more art than there used to be, and we already had quite a bit!
The quetzlacroakl, one of the largest non-titan enemies a bug can face (illustration, as with all art in PICO, by zkarab).
A lot of this art has been focused on filling out the hazards section, but there's also been a decent amount of colour splashed over some of the less exciting page-spreads. Much of the editing and refining process, which is where the core book is now, is based around making pages both read and look better. It's almost like we care about having a nice-looking book! :P
A new scorpion chef for the up-until-now empty-of-art page on cooking meals
An action shot from the Nekopolis, a Ding-Dong-Ditcher in the process of luring a feline titan away from bugly trade routes
One of the things I love most about PICO is the amount of cute, cool art zkarab has put out into the world for it, and from the feedback we've had both online and at recent conventions people seem extremely happy with the visual direction the game has taken over the past year. I'm counting that as a triumph for us - perhaps even with a twist!
NEW WRITING
We've also got some new writing done - an entire Realm that's quite distinct from the usual wildness of PICO, while still hitting the core themes. Enter guest writer Mikey Hamm, of Slugblaster fame, and his own unique realm THE WESTFIELD MALL.
The Mall chapter splash page, lovingly arted by zkarab
As the last proper chunk of core book writing, the Mall is now finished (textually) but has yet to be edited.
So what is left on the writing side?
We'll be talking about the picodex in the next update, so I'll keep things to the core book for now. And, in terms of that core book, we've got to...
+ Finalize the text for the Skyglass Dome Realm
+ Add the Kickstarter backer section
+ Add the appendix
+ Touch up the writing (and add a couple of art pieces) for the new titans
+ Do the final version of the character sheet
+ Perform a small edit pass based on playtest feedback
+ Pass Ell the remaining 40% of book for general editing and apply those edits
If you want a version of that that's a bit more pictorial, have a look at this - the red is yet to be started, the yellow is in progress, the green is finished, and (in the first column) the purple is fully edited and finalized. In terms of columns, the first is writing, the second art, the third layout, and the fourth backgrounding (with the fifth, darker column an 'is everything else done' checklist).
And there's a lot of green there!
That last chunk of yellow in the 'writing' column? That's the skyglass dome. And that last bit of red? The appendix.
THE NEXT UPDATE
... Will likely be backers-only, with the final assembled cut of the core book for others to pick through, playtest, and give any feedback on. That'll be as we get the print files ready, alongside finishing off the picodex content.
