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Wandering Monsters: Big Beasts
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<blockquote data-quote="Dausuul" data-source="post: 6150475" data-attributes="member: 58197"><p>Rants aside, and after some more thought, I have to come down on the side of the scientific names for one simple reason: <em>People know what they mean.</em></p><p></p><p>If you tell me I'm fighting a "swordtooth titan," I have no freakin' clue what that is. If I had to guess, I'd imagine a gigantic human (you know, a <em>titan</em>), with big long canine teeth like a saber-toothed tiger. It's kind of a silly picture really. If you describe it to me as an enormous bipedal reptile, I'm thinking, "Oh, so it's like... a miniature tarrasque, or something?" Then you tell me it's got tiny little forearms with two claws, and I say, "Oh, it's a tyrannosaur. Why didn't you just say so?"</p><p></p><p>I don't see the point of even having dinosaurs if you're not going to <em>call</em> them dinosaurs. As monsters, what have they got going for them? They're big (well, some of them are big). Some have bite attacks. Some have gore attacks or tail slaps. Whoop-de-doo. How is this different from anything else in the Monster Manual? They have animal intelligence. They don't have breath weapons or magic-disrupting eye beams or a rotting touch. They don't have an interesting society. They are, in Magic parlance, "vanilla creatures." But if you call them dinosaurs, then you're bringing in all the fascination that most of us felt for these creatures as kids, and the wonder of the "lost world" where such creatures dwell. Why not use their right names, that people recognize?</p><p></p><p>And the idea that "tyrannosaur" and "triceratops" are un-fantastic but "swordtooth titan" and "trihorn behemoth" are, just boggles my mind. The former are exotic and strange. The latter are bland and formulaic.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Dausuul, post: 6150475, member: 58197"] Rants aside, and after some more thought, I have to come down on the side of the scientific names for one simple reason: [I]People know what they mean.[/I] If you tell me I'm fighting a "swordtooth titan," I have no freakin' clue what that is. If I had to guess, I'd imagine a gigantic human (you know, a [I]titan[/I]), with big long canine teeth like a saber-toothed tiger. It's kind of a silly picture really. If you describe it to me as an enormous bipedal reptile, I'm thinking, "Oh, so it's like... a miniature tarrasque, or something?" Then you tell me it's got tiny little forearms with two claws, and I say, "Oh, it's a tyrannosaur. Why didn't you just say so?" I don't see the point of even having dinosaurs if you're not going to [I]call[/I] them dinosaurs. As monsters, what have they got going for them? They're big (well, some of them are big). Some have bite attacks. Some have gore attacks or tail slaps. Whoop-de-doo. How is this different from anything else in the Monster Manual? They have animal intelligence. They don't have breath weapons or magic-disrupting eye beams or a rotting touch. They don't have an interesting society. They are, in Magic parlance, "vanilla creatures." But if you call them dinosaurs, then you're bringing in all the fascination that most of us felt for these creatures as kids, and the wonder of the "lost world" where such creatures dwell. Why not use their right names, that people recognize? And the idea that "tyrannosaur" and "triceratops" are un-fantastic but "swordtooth titan" and "trihorn behemoth" are, just boggles my mind. The former are exotic and strange. The latter are bland and formulaic. [/QUOTE]
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