What Creatures "Break" A Fantasy Game World For You?

[werk]

Not to stray into politics or religion territory...but is it possible that the player doesn't 'believe' in dinosaurs or the use of dinosaurs somehow offended him?

 

[Brother MacLaren]

To me, if you can stomach tinker gnomes,

Only with a lot of mustard.

then you should be able to hack giant space hamsters

Yes. With an axe.

 

[Herzog]

In short, creatures that don't fit the gameworld.....

And that depends largely on
1. The actual gameworld in question
2. How much I personally know about the gameworld in question
3. The DM.

More detailed:
1. When I play in a setting modelled after historic earth, I don't expect magical creatures. If the setting includes magic, mythical creatures and celestial variants etc. can be expected. I don't expect to see dragons, let alone beholders. If the time-frame is middle-ages, I don't expect dinosaurs, unless someone has a VERY good explanation.
2. When I play Eberron, I don't expect to encounter dragons, because to my understanding dragons are 'special' in Eberron. However, I do know they exist, so if I do encounter one I am expecting a 'special' encounter. I don't know whether creatures such as mindflayers, beholders, and the like can be encountered, so if I should encounter one of those, I have to retro-fit them in my worldview. I expect dinosaurs, since I know they are part of the setting.
3. When playing a sci-fi setting, and on some remote planet I encounter a enormous, highly intelligent alien with a saurian ancestry, who seems to be able to defy the laws of physics, causing spontaneous eruptions of flame, becoming invisible, etc. and who can spit out a stream of flames, I am happy. Should the DM introduce it as 'a dragon in a spaceship', that's breaking the game...

 

[Dragonbait]

2. When I play Eberron, I don't expect to encounter dragons, because to my understanding dragons are 'special' in Eberron. However, I do know they exist, so if I do encounter one I am expecting a 'special' encounter. I don't know whether creatures such as mindflayers, beholders, and the like can be encountered, so if I should encounter one of those, I have to retro-fit them in my worldview. I expect dinosaurs, since I know they are part of the setting.

There are 'rogue' dragons out and about. This was done to conform to the more classic dragon image of Eberron so not all are obsessed with the Draconic prophecy, and to give them a reason to to other draongy things. Mindflayers, beholders, and other aberrations definitely do exist. They are "creations" of Khyber (I think that's the right name). The cults of the dragon below often worship/follow/count them amongst their members.

 

[Lord Zardoz]

IMO, creatures or cultures are only problematic in D&D games if they're bringing specific baggage from a specific literary or historic (or game) context with them, AND said literary/historic/game context is at odds with the overall game world, at which point any pretensions to having a consistent game world go out the window. Otherwise, it's all fair game.

I concur, but feel the need to elaborate. I think a food metaphor is more appropriate here.

The things I generally do not like showing up in my D&D games are Psionics, Space Aliens, and any form of technology that does not fit the setting (usually guns). There are reasons for each. In most cases those elements just do not fit very well in a world that has standard D&D magic / tropes. It is like making a sandwich that has both peanut butter and mustard. Both have their place, but usually not together. Not that games with those elements cannot be fun, but it is just not what I go looking for.

Pseudo tech and Dinosaurs to me are somewhat borderline. In most cases, mechanical men and train systems do not sound like the sort of thing I want in a D&D game. But I actually did not mind playing in the Eberron setting. The elements that normally would not fit had a very specific explanation for their presence. In this case, it is more like convincing my mother to eat sushi. I like it. It tastes great. But there is no way I would get my mother to eat of her own choice. She just cannot get past the idea that she would be eating raw fish.

My point?

There are all kinds of tastes in food. Some people are vegans. Some do not like exotic food. Some like absurdly spicy food. Those are matters of taste and preference. But there are some things that while edible, almost no one would ever actually eat, like beef and butterscotch flavoured ice cream. There are some things that just do not belong together. I might like both, but not at the same time.

Cooking a decent meal takes a bit more effort than taking your 5 favorite foods, sticking it into a blender, and then attempting to cook and eat it.

Likewise, running an awesome game together takes more than taking things that are cool on their own (Dinosaurs, wizards, psionics, robots, conan, and space aliens) and throwing them together.

END COMMUNICATION

 

[DungeonMaester]

4th edition.

---Rusty

 

[Rel]

This...

4th edition.

---Rusty

...is a threadcrap.

Don't post in this thread again, DM. And don't make any more posts like it in any other similar threads here either.

 

[Angel Tarragon]

Almost none. I can deal with silly monsters, but ludicrous ones such as giant burning cigarettes would draw a blank stare from me.

 

[Stoat]

De gustibus non est dispudandum . . .

I'm all for firearms, robots, airships, gelatinous cubes, owlbears, giant space hamsters, trappers, lurkers, froghemoths, wolfs-in-sheep's clothing, cyborg-orcs, steampunk mecha, beholders, mind flayers, displacer beasts, modrons and half-fiend-ice-element-mimics with levels of rogue.

But for whatever damn reason, I don't care much for dinosaurs.

 

[Voadam]

Judges Guild's old Field Guide to Encounters includes as monsters:

giant over-easy eggs
giant strips of bacon
giant cups of coffee
giant burning cigarettes
etc.

And you thought that killing the giant with surprise attacks as he was sitting down to eat was easy? Ha! Just wait until you're attacked by his breakfast!

I've never heard of that one. I hope they put it out in pdf.