Are Animals in D&D Too " Eurocentric " ?

I say " Eurocentric " , but I also mean " Anglo-North Ameri-centric " .

That is too say, does Dungeons & Dragons not draw heavily enough from the menagerie of animals that live in other parts of the world outside Europe, Canada and the United States?

I understand why this might be the case if it is from a origins point of view: Dungeons & Dragons is the product of a certain cultural awareness of animals in why certain animals dominate, as well as being dominantly set it quasi-European and North American landscapes.

But the fact is that D&D is also characterized by a menagerie of both fantastic and real but extinct creatures, so it does not necessarily make sense that good living animals are ignored just because they are traditionally part of our consciousness. Especially when you consider that plenty of campaigns take place in areas that are decidely influenced by Mesoamerican, African, and Asian settings.

As well, we often hear these days that a lot of the mystery has gone out of D&D for older players. You could maybe make a dent in that sentiment if we relied more heavily on what Nature gave us for inspiration. While it might be the case that mundane versions of less well known animals might not be significantly different in action than the well known ones, spiced up with a little magic it could really work.

This is somewhat related I think to what Aeolius does with his underwater campaigns, which get a lot of inspiration from the real world. The topic idea came to me when I was looking at this: Capybara - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia ; the World's largest rodent (record weight: 232 lbs.; a rodent!) .

All of D&D, not just the animal list, is largely eurocentric - from player races, classes, equipment and even monsters.

A good part of that is that people enjoy a certain level of familiarity with the subject matter. Now, that's not to say it has to be cliche, but most people want subject matter that they can somehow relate back to something they already know. Most of us are already familiar with european fairy tales and myths, so even monsters like vampires and elves are things we can relate to. Then, look at how people relate to stuff like shardminds - we have nothing in our previous experience to relate this too, and the common reaction is that it's "silly".

I like adding megafauna in my games, and not really too far to the fringes. Although some of that sort of thing haunted the same climes as typical D&D creatures, some of it goes far enough back and ranged in other parts of the world, too, as far as my research suggests. A lot of it has to do with getting the creatures to the adventurers which means putting (at least) somewhat believeable restrictions on what gets used based on the environments the adventurers are frequenting. It also means not overcrowding the biomes with so many big predators that it overly strains the senses of some gamers at the table (some won't care). Of course, there are fairly big cats you can place from all around the world. I like bears, which often means your question comes into play. The occasional (crazy) giant ground sloth is a nice alternative to that, especially if the terrain puts the PCs in a situation where they are cornered and almost have to poke the sloth, so to speak.

Kaodi said:

I say " Eurocentric " , but I also mean " Anglo-North Ameri-centric " .

That is too say, does Dungeons & Dragons not draw heavily enough from the menagerie of animals that live in other parts of the world outside Europe, Canada and the United States?
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No.

Much/most of the player base is in North America and Europe, and it is those animals that the players know best.

One of the real roles of animals in D&D is as a monster that the players know what it is in real life, to provide a bridge from the fantasy world to the real world.

If you say you are fighting a black bear or a wolf, the players know what they look like, about how big they are, have probably seen them in a zoo (or even IRL if they live out in the country) and know what they can do. They know it's a real danger to an average person, and a hazard to a low-level character, but no danger at all to a mid or high level character.

If you have players face some exotic animal from elsewhere, or some prehistoric animal, then for the players it's functionally another monster: something with unknown abilities outside the players field of reference, even if it's game-mechanically just another animal.

The standard model of D&D settings is drawn from European & North American culture. Elves are drawn from Norse and Celtic myths, Dwarves are a stylized version of Norse creatures, Giants and Ogres are from Celtic and Norse lore, and so on. Very little of the core mythos of D&D is from outside the Euro-centric mold (the Monk class, and a handful of monsters like Rakshasa).

wingsandsword said:

Much/most of the player base is in North America and Europe, and it is those animals that the players know best.

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You're saying that based on evidence or just assuming that?

Mark CMG said:

I like adding megafauna in my games, and not really too far to the fringes...Of course, there are fairly big cats you can place from all around the world. I like bears, which often means your question comes into play. The occasional (crazy) giant ground sloth is a nice alternative to that...

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Why is it I now envision a band of orcs worshipping Hogzilla? Oh, yeah, now I remember... I was once chased onto a tree stump in the dead of night by a peccary , a known man-killer.

During my college years, I spent a month in Belize, two weeks on an island and two weeks in a rainforest, for Tropical Marine & Field Biology. One night, we were lying on the ground of a milpa owned by our guide Silvanos, just enjoying the stars when a noise came from the rainforest nearby. The grass was almost waist-high and in true Jurassic Park velociraptor style, we see the grass rustle and then part as the peccary advanced towards us.


(Never mind that in the following weeks I collected a cone shell while skindiving. It could have killed me in seconds, had I not recognized it first.)

Aeolius said:

Why is it I now envision a band of orcs worshipping Hogzilla? Oh, yeah, now I remember... I was once chased onto a tree stump in the dead of night by a peccary , a known man-killer.

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Just one?

wiki said:

Peccaries are social animals, and often form herds. Over 100 individuals have been recorded for a single herd of white-lipped peccaries (. . .)

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You got lucky, I think.

As many have said, we North Americans do have a certain familiarity with local animals, but I think adding exotic animals to the right regions of the campaign world can be a lot of fun.

My next campaign may well be a slog across a continent as the PCs scout for a band of explorers; lots of room for odd monsters there...

Mark CMG said:

Just one? You got lucky, I think.

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We only saw one.
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DXggfzdJkZ0"]Muldoon[/ame]

"Clever girl."

avin said:

You're saying that based on evidence or just assuming that?

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No disrepect, but it's a reasonable assumption to make, especially since we are posting on an English-language board.

However, I think we all recognise that the game has gone global...we just don't have any meanngful data that would allow us to challenge this. Do you have any information that you can share?

OP: I default to NA animals. This means dropping the wild boar and the aurochs, but I get wolverines and bison instead!