Why are there so many giant critters in deserts?

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Blame it on "Dune." Sandworms are a powerful image, even for people who've never seen them (but have encountered them in "Beetlejuice" or as purple worms in D&D), and big kewl stuff in the desert keeps being reintroduced every time someone does anything in the sand -- I'm expecting a bunch of giant stuff in "Sandstorm," myself.

 

[Crothian]

Blue, yellow, brown, copper, brass dragons (and more in the Draconomicon).
Sun, death and sand giants.
Braxats, cloud rays, megapedes, and so-uts (oops- rampagers).

And all those are from the MMs and FF (except the brown and yellow dragons). How do deserts support such large creatures?

And another odd thing I noticed are the absence of fey (except the Spirit of the Land) for deserts.

Well, many of these creatures especially the dragons will hunt within a thousand or so miles of their lair. Also, many can also survive on non organic foods.

The fey are not in the desert because traditionally few live in lands filled with animals and plants like the forests.

 

[DMH]

The ecology netbook here has ideas on creatures who have photosynthesis:

http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Vault/2549/toc.htm

What about the giants? What do they eat? Heck what did desert nomads eat before mechanization (and not just in sandy deserts)? How would the giants be even able to walk on sand without sinking? Or are they resticted to soil and rocky based deserts?

 

[Kae'Yoss]

Well, the desert is just one giant beach, so the critters who live here are giant, too.

No, really: The one thing you have plenty in a desert is space. Well, and warmth. Things tend to be bigger in warmer regions. So these two factors contribute to it, I think.

 

[Kae'Yoss]

Well, many of these creatures especially the dragons will hunt within a thousand or so miles of their lair. Also, many can also survive on non organic foods.

Oh yea! True dragons can eat stones and get nutricion out of it. They also need surprisingly little food for their size (unfortunately, the difference between what they need and what they can eat is vast)

 

[Sejs]

What about the giants? What do they eat?

Heh, what do any giants eat? That's actually one of the standard fantasy problems; giants being as big as they are, would consume a staggering ammount of food compared to a human. Put them in a social group like most giants tend to be, and it just gets rediculous. For some giant types, particularly the more settled, advanced ones there are reasonable workarounds... giants raising yaks like humans herd goats, things like that. But it tends to take out the "Aha, and there's GIANTS here! And you never knew! Nyar!" factor

 

[Tonguez]

Heh, what do any giants eat? That's actually one of the standard fantasy problems; giants being as big as they are, would consume a staggering ammount of food compared to a human. Put them in a social group like most giants tend to be, and it just gets rediculous. For some giant types, particularly the more settled, advanced ones there are reasonable workarounds... giants raising yaks like humans herd goats, things like that. But it tends to take out the "Aha, and there's GIANTS here! And you never knew! Nyar!" factor

I solved that problem by declaring that giants have incredibly slow metabolisms and like Anaconda can eat one big meal (of yak for instance) and then spend weeks digesting it. During this digestion phase they sleep alot which allows little tailors, boys named Jack and adventuring PCs to sneak pass/up on them while they sleep and do stuff (including stealing magic harps or attempting to kill them).

How would the giants be even able to walk on sand without sinking? Or are they resticted to soil and rocky based deserts?

Only a few deserts are 'all sand' most are rock and so giants would have no problems walking on them. Besides that giants have wide feet - perhaps desert giants have extra wide feet that allow them to glide across the sand dunes - hey surf giants!

How do deserts support such large creatures?

If desert creatures are coldblooded then the large size would allow them to collect maximum heat and be highly active, which then encourages large predators to move in and hunt the large prey. Of course what happens at night is a problem

 

[David Howery]

nah, you're all wrong... they all eat flumphs. Flumphs are everywhere, and they serve as the foodsource for all overly large monsters in low resource areas.

Well, what else are they good for?