D&D General Should D&D feature fearsome critters and other Americana?

[Paul Farquhar]

Yeah, I think using "Jersey devil" as a name is an issue.

It's the story (and in this case, the description), not the name, that's the significant feature. So you can refer to it as the [placename] fiend, or whatever. When I create unique monsters I often give them descriptors rather than "official" names. The PCs are the first to encounter it, so they get to name it.

Given that we can assume eye witness accounts to be a bit garbled, the Jersey Devil could easily be a wyvern, assuming the witnesses don't know what a wyvern looks like.

Which means you need to consider if monsters are common in your setting or not. It only really works if monsters are rare.

The "witch's daughter turned into a monster because of a curse" aspect of the tale would be a good fit for Ravenloft. If the PCs can learn the true backstory they may be able to unravel the curse rather than simply kill the monster. However, this idea is something the settlers brought over from Europe, so it's status as "Americana" is questionable.

 

[Wofano Wotanto]

There are a lot of stories about people seeing large blacks cats in the UK at the moment.

It’s now clear that the truth is what they are really seeing are displacer beasts.

Either that or the Yule Cat has had kittens and you've got an invasive species problem starting up. I'd advise asking for some new clothing for the holidays just to be safe.

The antlers thing weird me out too, I'm not sure who decided to add them on. Antlered beasts are cool, but why here?

Deer skulls (and just shed antlers) are regular finds in American rural areas even today. I usually have to move at least one set of antlers off my lawn every spring before mowing, it's part of the spring cleanup ritual. When we had more coyotes around skeletal remains back in the scrub were common after a hard winter as well.

Move back in time 250-300 years when both they and their predators were far more common and you'd be seeing them all over the place. No surprise that myths grew up around other creatures having antlers to help explain where they were all coming from. The antlers are also easy to use when making chimerical fakes ala the jackalope. We've also got moose in some parts of the country, and their distinctive antlers are even more impressive and show up on some distinctively North American myths - see the Pamola (especially the modernized depictions) for one example.

Europe had plenty of deer too, but higher human population density led to their populations being more controlled (and in some cases illegal for most folks to hunt outside of poaching) so tripping on their stray bones and antlers wasn't as common as in the US even after the Europeans arrived.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Either that or the Yule Cat has had kittens and you've got an invasive species problem starting up. I'd advise asking for some new clothing for the holidays just to be safe.

Deer skulls (and just shed antlers) are regular finds in American rural areas even today. I usually have to move at least one set of antlers off my lawn every spring before mowing, it's part of the spring cleanup ritual. When we had more coyotes around skeletal remains back in the scrub were common after a hard winter as well.

Move back in time 250-300 years when both they and their predators were far more common and you'd be seeing them all over the place. No surprise that myths grew up around other creatures having antlers to help explain where they were all coming from. The antlers are also easy to use when making chimerical fakes ala the jackalope. We've also got moose in some parts of the country, and their distinctive antlers are even more impressive and show up on some distinctively North American myths - see the Pamola (especially the modernized depictions) for one example.

Europe had plenty of deer too, but higher human population density led to their populations being more controlled (and in some cases illegal for most folks to hunt outside of poaching) so tripping on their stray bones and antlers wasn't as common as in the US even after the Europeans arrived.

Deer skulls aren't particularly hard to come by in the UK ether. They are adapting to living in close proximity to humans, especially the smaller breads, and benefit from the lack of predators (apart from corvids, who will kill the young).

 

[Paul Farquhar]

On the subject of Corvids, if the American jay is a bluejay, why isn’t the European jay a pinkjay?

 

[Larnievc]

Fearsome critters specifically are hard to translate into something actually gameable. So many of them are really there just to give a silly mental image or describe daily annoyances of frontiersmen and lumberjacks.

Don't get me wrong, I love hidebehinds and ax handle hounds, but... as a statted D&D monster? What do you do with them?

Kill them and take their stuff.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

On the subject of Corvids, if the American jay is a bluejay, why isn’t the European jay a pinkjay?

Call them a pinkjay and find out why.

 

[bedir than]

Something like a jackalope, which was always a joke of sorts, might not be a good fit for a very dark and serious campaign.

Peryton and hippogriffs are perfect though

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Peryton and hippogriffs are perfect though

Peryton do eat people's hearts. Jackalopes just steal them.

 

[David Howery]

Heh. Way back in the final days of TSR, not long before they went under completely, I sent in an article to Dragon on exactly this, putting stats to 'fearsome critters' (come to think of it, that was the name of the article). Needless to say, it took awhile to get an answer what with the WOTC takeover and all, but someone finally sent me a rejection letter for it....

 

[Demetrios1453]

As a European medieval fantasy simulator, D&D isn't great. The TSR settings, especially, show an American mindset about population densities and modern attitudes have peeked through -- or been completely dominant -- in the game since its inception. And the region around the City of Greyhawk looks suspiciously like the region around Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, plus or minus a dragon. Which is great, to be clear: I'm not interested in playing Dung Heaps and Dysentery, and I don't think many other people are, either.

But should D&D go all the way and embrace this idea of American fantasy? Should it feature monsters from tall tales like fearsome critters, actual North American myths and legends, cryptids like Bigfoot? Should it draw from distinctly American fantasy works like the Oz novels (the Harry Potter novels of their day)?

Would your players enjoy dealing with lake monsters while keeping watch to prevent getting attacked by a hidebehind? Or would that be an unwelcome flavor in your fantasy?

In a way, I'm surprised that early D&D didn't take more from the Oz novels - its pure American fantasy. It's also a fully-fleshed out campaign setting if you take all the books together. Then again, in another way, I'm not surprised, as it would clash pretty badly thematically with the war gaming and sword-and-sorcery roots of the early years of the game; I'd imagine that it would be considered too "childish". However, these days, it would be perfect as a Domain of Delight in the Feywild, especially as much of the novel series is now public domain. I'm really surprised that no one (at least as I'm aware of) hasn't leapt on this and published it as a campaign setting.