DnD Ecology

[Andor]

Out of curiosity I'm wondering if anyone ever moves the default ecology of their game away from the normal mash of northen europe and north america? So instead of squirrels, bears and wolves you might shift to India with tigers, monkeys, cobras and elephants.

Or Australia with Halfling Paladins mounted on Kangaroos and Mages with wallaby familiars.

South America with monkeys, jaguars, llamas and guinea pigs.

Or something even more exotic like North America of 55,000 years ago withh all the now extinct mega-fauna. After all, if we can have dinosaurs why not giant sloths?

 

[greywulf]

Half a lifetime ago, yes. My group went into alternative ecologies bigtime while playing Original D&D in the Hollow World. We had wizards riding tiny (pony-sized) elephants into battle, barbatian ostrich riders and lots of snakes, incliding the flying variety. I still have the nightmares.....

 

[diaglo]

isle of dread style campaign.

no metal weapons
no metal armor


weather, volcano, and sea gods more important.

sacrificing virgins and eating your slain foes.

 

[Tonguez]

Yep I play in Mythic Polynesia and what this means is

1. No large land mammals normal or monstrous except for dog, pig and bat (ie Shadow mastiff are possible but not griffons or manticores). Thus no ride skill
2. Reptiles and Birds dominate (including feathered Velociraptors and giant crocodiles). Giant scorpions and other vermin are fun too
3. Lots of sea creatures to play with (including sea lions, whales and sentient dolphins, giant squid, giant eels, Tojanada and ixxichalxxxkt (sp?))
4. Lots of abberations with tentacles (ie aquatic otyugh)

* as to mega-fauna I let an Andrewsarchus loose once describing it as a mutant dire boar

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I also played a few sessions in a world of bugs (ie every niche was taken up by some form of vermin - insect, worm or spider). So dragonfly mounts and fields grazed by woolly aphids, wolf spiders hunting through the trees and purple worms bursting through the ground (that was icky)....

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also on Mega-fauna doesn't Nyambe have the chalicothere? (sp) - the gorilla-like horse. I'd love to use that in a setting, I wonder if the Grey Render fits the bill...

 

[Snapdragyn]

I've thought about it, but since I most wanted to do Australia, I realized it would probably involve creating a lot of monsters from scratch if I wished to stay somewhat true to the 'flavor' of the ecology. While Africa, India, or North America are probably quite possible with what's available in the various MM's, South America would be a bit harder (though I would suppose that Maztica conversions could fill in there), & Australia would be pretty much all from scratch.

I still plan to do it someday, but as just a level or 2 adventuring in a strange land, not the campaign base of operations.

 

[Tonguez]

Australia is all about snakes, spiders, crocodiles, sharks and flies - all of which come in the MM (well except flies maybe)

wombat = badger, koala = um, possum - dire squirrel and Tasmanian devil = dire wolverine (Tasmanian Tiger = Wolf)

the only thing you need to create yourself is the Kangaroo and the Platypus

the Mega-fauna can be anything you like (so Giant Wombat = Rhinoceros), Killer Kangaroo = Grey Render and Australian Fly = Stirge

 

[I'm A Banana]

All the time. I love going to exotic lands, and my campaigns represent that. I did a South American campaign about dragons that was very reptilian-focused, fer'instance.

 

[Shades of Green]

Renya, my campaign area, is mideterrenian (sp?) in climate and ecology to it's south (goats and sheep instead of cows and pigs, alot of donkeys as draft animals, olive trees and dry grass, alot of reptilian and snake-like critters); warm and swampy in its middle (again, lizards predominate, including crocodiles); and tropical to it's north (it's in the southern hemisphere of a world; snakes, monkeys, a few medium-sized dinosaur-style reptiles, spiders and parrots). Squirrels would be replaced by rats and mice in southern Renya, water-rats in middle Renya, and small monkeys in northern Renya.

 

[Li Shenron]

I think our typical campaigns are always mixed in fauna. For examples, we usually have northern european bears, raindeers & al, but also crocodyles and great cats which don't live in Europe at all (except the lynx).

 

[Agback]

Out of curiosity I'm wondering if anyone ever moves the default ecology of their game away from the normal mash of northen europe and north america? So instead of squirrels, bears and wolves you might shift to India with tigers, monkeys, cobras and elephants.

My campaign (not that I run it under D&D) is set in a tropical archipelago that is in many ways similar to the East Indies (except lacking a monsoon). Tigers, leopards, saltwater crocodiles, elephants, water buffalo, nilbuck etc. That also means rice paddies instead of wheat and barley fields.