How Can Spiders Get More Love?

In the years since its release, Spiders of Eightstar has easily cemented itself as my least-popular game. And although I have some ideas, I'm not entirely sure why that is. I'd really like to come back to Spiders this year, and see if I can revise it to get it more love.

My current theories as to why it's less successful than my other games are:

Theory 1: People don't like spiders.

This might be the most obvious one and the one I have the least confidence in addressing. Spiders are a hard sell for a lot of people, and I get why. I was afraid of spiders for most of my life and still get the heeby-jeebies when I'm surprised by one. The problem with this issue is that... well, playing as spiders is baked pretty deeply into the theme of the game. I might have to leave it as-is and hope that the game finds a spider-loving audience, or at least one that can set aside their fear of spiders for a while. Two wonderings I have, though:

• If I keep spiders, would friendly spider art make it more appealing and accessible? This is maybe misguided—visual spiders might make it worse for the arachno-fearful. But I've seen lots of spider art that I love—Spiders has always been partially influenced by the art of the Anadi in Pathfinder 2e, whose art I find very friendly (Jumping spiders in particular seem to be an easier sell). Would investing in art make the spiders more accessible?
• I could lean in to a Hollow Knight/Silksong style setting and anthropomorphize all of the insects. The alien nature of the characters has always been something I really liked, but I also wonder if that's an extra cognitive hurdle that's hurting the game. It may not be that players are fearful of spiders, but that asking a full table of players to storytell as things so inhuman is too difficult a sell. Anthropomorphizing the denizens of the Eightstar Swamp into more accessible folk could help. When I first started Spiders I had planned to include a humanoid hack, but abandoned it because I didn't think the two settings would be easily interchangeable. Going this route would probably require a larger overhaul of the game, but it might be worth it.
• This is less to do with Spiders specifically, but the overall concepts might be too inaccessible and could perhaps use a revision to make them simpler and more player friendly. There is a lot of weird setting stuff going on—darkstars, insect witches, spidernests, magic sequoia... I've never been a huge fan of the term "hoplite" for the spiders' role, to be frank. It's possible that the setting overall needs reworked for accessibility, rather than the spiders themselves.

Theory 2: It requires a mechanical and/or instructional overhaul.

Spiders is currently written for the Rooted in Trophy system, which I love. In playtests, the game has run well, and I've been happy with the games I've been involved in. However, I wouldn't say I'm an expert at the Rooted in Trophy system, and it may be that my hack of the rules, or my explanation in the text, is wanting. It's possible that the game needs a ground-up audit and revision of the rules and the language I use to explain them. Some wonderings I have:

• I like the Rooted in Trophy rules for Spiders—its skills system leaves a lot of space for improvisation, the backgrounds act as sort of simplified classes, and the balanced currencies of Gold and Ruin create a solid balance that I found useful for balancing the spiders' Warmth and Hunger. However, two of the mechanics that work well for Trophy may not be translating well to Spiders. The Hunt Roll is great for Trophy's exploration, but maybe not for the journeying and investigating that the spider's are doing. And while Trophy's combat is quick, simple, and brutal, it's group-based combat may not be right for the kind of fighting the spiders are getting into.
  • It may also be that Rooted in Trophy remains the best system for spiders, but that the text needs more to support running the game. Example quests, with Trophy-style flowchart, denizens, and descriptions, might go a long way in making the game feel more accessible. 
• If I wanted to move away from Trophy, I'm not certain what direction I'd go in. Forged in the Dark is a strong option, with its playbooks, Stress mechanics, and overall similar mechanics to Trophy, but I'm not sure it's right for what I want Spiders to be. There's typically a much stronger focus on group dynamics in FitD, and I sometimes feel a bit bogged down in clocks. 

Other thoughts?

Those are my major thoughts right now, though I have more theories and ideas brewing. I'd be interested in hearing what anyone who has read or played the game thinks about it, to get a little more insight. A revision of Spiders is overall low on my priorities list of projects, but I've always been happy with this game and would really like to find ways to get people to check it out. Spiders are so maligned, it'd be nice to see them get the hero role every once in a while.