Talking Animals!

[SHARK]

Greetings!

In my campaigns, I have used many different talking animals throughout the campaigns and scenarios. The players love them! I think they are very fun, and increase the fun of the game as well as the *wonder* factor, as I call it, for everyone involved. It further builds in the idea that the players are truly in a different world, where things work very differently from our own understanding. I use talking animals as NPC's, as friends, as messengers, servants, and even enemies. Talking animals are of course used whenever the spell *Awaken* is used, and that is indeed a favourite.

How have you used talking animals, and how have your players reacted to them? Have you developed any interesting plots or scenes where the talking animals were featured?

What do you think about including talking animals, and using them in your campaigns?

Semper Fidelis,

SHARK

 

[Dragongirl]

Not done it myself, but I always enjoyed Goldie the talking horse in the FR novel War in Tethyr.

 

[Horacio]

I used them sometimes, but my players found them "cute", and I didn't like that...

 

[Dragongirl]

I used them sometimes, but my players found them "cute", and I didn't like that...

Just curious....how else can they be taken except as cute?

 

[Horacio]

Just curious....how else can they be taken except as cute?

Creepy? (a talking crow that prophetises great evils)
Funny? (a cat with a peg leg and a hook )
Imposant? (a mighty elephant)
Pitiful? (a beaten dog)
Scary? (a man-eater tiger)

But not cute!

 

[Jürgen Hubert]

Creepy? (a talking crow that prophetises great evils)
Funny? (a cat with a peg leg and a hook )
Imposant? (a mighty elephant)
Pitiful? (a beaten dog)
Scary? (a man-eater tiger)

But not cute!

Disgusting!

Like Quoth the Raven from the Discworld novels, who served as the Death of Rat's steed and constantly ate any small, round object in the hope that it was an eyball...

(Though admittedly, he counted as "funny" as well - but if you do have any talking ravens hanging out with the party, do reming the PCs that ravens eat carrion now and then, and don't see anything wrong with feeding on human corpses...)

 

[kibbitz]

Talking animals? Well, I guess the only one I've ever used was the Dragon and perhaps another beast or so. Barring those cases, I really don't see how most people could take talking animals seriously, since most of the talking animals that we identify with have comical roles within the entertainment industry. Put out a talking rabbit, do you think Lewis Carrol and Alice in Wonderland, or do you think Bugs Bunny?

I really cannot envision using talking animals. Intelligent animals fulfill the role that talking animals could, with body language indicating their thoughts. And when I was playing, I never had the idea of familiars, so I guess the idea of talking animals in a campaign was even more ... alien...

 

[Jürgen Hubert]

Talking animals? Well, I guess the only one I've ever used was the Dragon and perhaps another beast or so. Barring those cases, I really don't see how most people could take talking animals seriously, since most of the talking animals that we identify with have comical roles within the entertainment industry. Put out a talking rabbit, do you think Lewis Carrol and Alice in Wonderland, or do you think Bugs Bunny?

These stereotypes deserve to be shattered by the fiendish GM (and if you aren't fiendish, then what business do you have of being one?). Read some books on animal behaviour. Nature isn't all fluffy and nice - it is a bloody, desperate struggle for food and mating partners, and being able to talk should not change this for animals.

To get into the proper mood, read some Far Side cartoons by Gary Larson. I especially like the one subtitled with (approximately):

"As usual, the forest was full of happy, little animals. But something wasn't quite right..."

 

[MonkeyBoy]

cats

Back a while, when I ran Planescape, the first NPC I used was a talking cat. He was green, and recruited the PCs for their introductory adventure.

A talking green cat, on a mission from Loki, certainly had the right effect on my players; "This is not your normal FRP..."

I liked that cat...

 

[kibbitz]

These stereotypes deserve to be shattered by the fiendish GM (and if you aren't fiendish, then what business do you have of being one?). Read some books on animal behaviour. Nature isn't all fluffy and nice - it is a bloody, desperate struggle for food and mating partners, and being able to talk should not change this for animals.

To get into the proper mood, read some Far Side cartoons by Gary Larson. I especially like the one subtitled with (approximately):

"As usual, the forest was full of happy, little animals. But something wasn't quite right..."

a) I have to be fiendish to be a GM?

b) Hmm, shattering stereotypes? Well, I'm going to have to apologize for dropping my previous stand, and I'll have to ask readers to disregard my previous statements regarding the inability to take talking animals seriously.

I've been thinking. How is an talking animal different from a non-talking animal?

(i) It can communicate directly with us, without the need for magic. What would you make of it? Unless this is a common occurance (Tom the talking cat obviously from the Permaniacian breed which are naturally articulate, vs Tom the normal tabby) , this one is definitely special in some way. But how? Is it just a cat gifted with ability of humanoid speech, or is it more than just that?

(ii) It's a novelty. It's something unnatural. People might kill it because they think it's demonspawn. People might worship it, thinking that it's an avatar of a god. Some might try and make money out of it. What would you do?

With this amount of uncertainty, I don't think players will be thinking of Ed the talking horse at this juncture. Well, most. I know people who'd probably crack jokes about this. But nevermind them, they're incorrigible