Fantasy ecologies rethought

[BiggusGeekus@Work]

I'm one of those people who likes a little reality in my fantasy. The explanation, "It's magic", doesn't strike a chord within me. I know some people might think that this position restricts creativity, but I like to think that it enhances it, that wondering how things might work in a fantasy world generates more ideas than it represses.

Anyway...

Fantasy ecologies have always been a beef with me. How many calories must a giant consume? How do insects get that large without dying? How do Colossal creatures exist with the inverse sine rule appling to their spinal column? And most of all how do so many deadly things live so close to each other?

It struck me as completely impossible. "Surely", I've said to myself, "the entire ecology would colapse. Nothing could live in such an environment where everything could kill.

Then I read a book about Australia.

How in the bloodly blue heavens do people live there? Dear merciful Lord, the freaking herbivores can rip you shreds! Cripes! The taipan snake can kill you by the time you can say, "I've been bitten by a sn--". There's a jellyfish that a guy brushed against in the 90's and left him screaming in agony, they got him to the hospital, doped him up with morphine, and he still kept screaming!!!! The flipping PLATYPUS has a venom! The dingos and crocidiles are the least of any sane person's worries.

Gawd.

In any case, the book is In a Sunburnt Land by Bill Bryson. It's an easy and fun read. And the sections on the INCREDIBLY DANGEROUS animal life are a good inspiration for D&D.

 

[the Jester]

Well, if you just insert low-end fantasy as well- superprolific moss and big herd animals, for instance...

 

[Desdichado]

Is there a specific question in there somewhere? I'm a fan of these types of discussions for much the same reasons...

 

[Buttercup]

Fantasy ecologies have always been a beef with me. How many calories must a giant consume? How do insects get that large without dying? How do Colossal creatures exist with the inverse sine rule appling to their spinal column? And most of all how do so many deadly things live so close to each other?

It struck me as completely impossible. "Surely", I've said to myself, "the entire ecology would colapse. Nothing could live in such an environment where everything could kill.

Consider the dinosaurs. Of course, it's worth noting that their ecology collapsed, but still.

 

[cool hand luke]

yeah, there ecology collapsed, after a few MILLION years, which SHOULD be enough time to run a campaign or 2.

 

[Numion]

yeah, there ecology collapsed, after a few MILLION years, which SHOULD be enough time to run a campaign or 2.

Also, their reign lasted longer than ours has thus far. And I'd be amazed (and dead) if mans rule lasted millions of years.

 

[the Jester]

Think about the ecological impact of a species of "Thor's goats" prey beasts that regenerate each night as long as there's anything left... make them the size of a cow and you have a solution to all your predatory food source needs. Of course, this only works in a highly-magical ecology.

 

[Dr. Harry]

As far as human reality in my fantasy games goes, I have made much use of the "Medieval Demographics Made Easy" webite below.

http://www.io.com/~sjohn/demog.htm

 

[Tonguez]

Then I read a book about Australia.

Yep The Big Country where anything that isn't venoumous or Toxic just wants to eat you!

Oh and the reason people survive in Oz is because 90% of the place is a Desert where noone goes (actually since the drought and fires thats probably more 99% now). Nonetheless having snakes crawl up the toilet cistern and spiders as big as your hand spin a web across your porchway isn't fun (yes seriously the whole porchway!)

But back to DnD I've always planned my ecologies with a single Major fantastic predator (say a nesting pair of Griffons) a few minor predators (Lion, Jackals) and lots of prey species who eat the abundant greenery whose productivity is supported by Druids and plant growth.

Things like Giants and Dragons are anomalies that only rarely appear (and otherwise spend their time hibernating) - although I might put a few Bronze dragons (for instance) as the major predator

Giant insects don't have exoskeletons - they have an internal skeletal structure and external shell. Collosal creatures don't naturally exist imc - they are usually Outsiders and so spirit rather than flesh

Also imc Giants have incredibly slow metabolisms and thus on average don't eat much more than mediumsized humanoids .For instance in a single session a 10ft giant will eat twice as much as a human does in a week, however they will then spend the next 5 days digesting that food during which they sleep up to 16 hours a day. A Giant at 20 ft will sleep 2 days in every three having eaten 5 times as much as a human. Any giants over 25 feet end up sleeping for months or even years (basically I asked myself the question of how they sustained themselves and then look at all the literature that talked about Giants being killed in their sleep)

 

[Hand of Evil]

I am with you! Man is one of the weakess animals on the planet, only thing going for him is wit and numbers. People talk about mass murders but there was a tiger in India that killed close to 400 people, sometimes going into their house and pulling them out without a sound!