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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Gus L" data-source="post: 9810108" data-attributes="member: 7045072">To me the core of Gygaxian Naturalism is the essay on "the Campaign" in the 1E DMG, especially the "Climate & Ecology" section on pg. 88 - 89 or so.  It ends with this: "In any event, do not allow either the demands of "realism" or impossible makebelieve to spoil your milieu. Climate and ecology are simply reminders to use a bit of care!"To me that's the core of it - a sort of base of plausibility - they reality of myths and novels.  Yes the ogre must eat and drink, and it will leave its cave to go down to the stream once a day to water its cattle and collect a jug. We don't need to calculate the amount of water the ogre uses each day, or the number of cattle it needs to satisfy its daily caloric intake. The point is to add interesting and details that can be derived from common sense and are useful in play... You might bribe the ogre with better food variety, ambush him while he's doing his chores or steal his cattle and make him both furious and hungry.  These are the ways that RPF naturalism becomes "Gygaxian", rather then being a basis for additional rules and calculations that aim to make a clockwork fantasy world.On the other hand, as with much of old D&D there is a particular focus to Gygaxian Naturalism in the old books - information that applies directly to violent conflict.  We learn a monsters weaknesses and special powers, military organization, and maybe a little about its behavior.  Only rarely do we get any details about its material culture (if it has one), life cycle, or desires ... and when we do it's usually very simple. I think this is largely fine - natural and socio-political histories of fantasy creatures aren't especially helpful to playing a game ... but they aren't something we should entirely forget about when designing or refereeing.</blockquote>

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