Why does D&D have bears?

[gizmo33]

The Dark Crystal is an excellent example of a story stepping outside of the norm and heading out into new territory.

Well, in a movie then interactions with the audience is limited to them sitting there and watching it. I can't stand up in the theater and say "Hey! What is that thing on the right hand side of the screen?" and expect to get an answer. In other words I think it's a whole lot harder to maintain the level of detail you might need for an interactive game if you don't use the real world to help out. Without real-world species, my descriptions would start to sound like a Dr. Seuss story: "you seen thembles, and grembles, and three-headed lembles."

 

[pawsplay]

I for one am waiting for someone to finally produce a fantasy RPG where you play sentient clouds of ammonia on your quest to zneru your jnaibnqa.

 

[gizmo33]

They have it, it's called Snorfnords and Znefras, but they had to recall it because the rules of the Oogamarite language dictate that the plural of Znefra is really Znefrine.

 

[Merkuri]

I for one am waiting for someone to finally produce a fantasy RPG where you play sentient clouds of ammonia on your quest to zneru your jnaibnqa.

Hey, tone it down! This is a family site!

 

[Mark Chance]

There simply isn't (so far as I can tell) any good reason for why mundane animals in Faerun or Eberron should be mirror images of those that my neighbor keeps cooped up in his apartment all day.

Limitations in your vision do not preclude there actually being a good reason. Several good reasons have been given throughout this thread. Here's my good reason: I like bears and want them included in my game.

I think that the "must be identical to those in real life" argument when applied to creatures in the context of aiding immersion is, well, crap. Similar, sure, but identical? I don't buy that at all.

No one advanced that argument before you brought it up. I use detect strawman.

Here're the basic, undeniable facts:

1. Good fantasy must provoke a reaction to the fantastic. It must make the experiencer sit up and say, "Oh my!"

2. Getting this reaction requires, at a minimum, lions, tigers, and bears.

 

[Thurbane]

Why is a Star Trek crew populated by critters with 5-fingered hands, with bodies that all fit into Star Fleet regulation boots and pants? And can interbreed? A human is genetically closer to a radish than a Romulan...

Well, to go O/T and geek out for a minute, that was actually explained in an episode of Next Gen - apparently some ancient race seeded planets all over the universe with DNA that eventually evolved into the various human-like races (Humans, Vulcans, Bajorans etc.).

Of course the real answer is that costumes for 3 headed bugs with 8 legs were too difficult to make back in the 60s...

 

[Lonely Tylenol]

Yea, I guess things are expensive in a world without an Elemental Plane of Fire.

It's not exactly cheap to plane shift thousands of tons of ore and then pay salamanders to smelt the stuff in 2000-degree (Celsius) ovens, either.

 

[Dragon-Slayer]

Well, in a movie then interactions with the audience is limited to them sitting there and watching it. I can't stand up in the theater and say "Hey! What is that thing on the right hand side of the screen?" and expect to get an answer. In other words I think it's a whole lot harder to maintain the level of detail you might need for an interactive game if you don't use the real world to help out. Without real-world species, my descriptions would start to sound like a Dr. Seuss story: "you seen thembles, and grembles, and three-headed lembles."

There was a novel to go along with the movie when it was released that I read before I saw the movie. There were a few stills in the centre of the novel to give you an idea of what they were talking about, but a handful of pictures didn't illuminate everything and everyone.

 

[AFGNCAAP]

I think the relatability issue mentioned before is key. However...

Fritz Leiber's Lankhmar had its own unique feel by including common animal variants. The marsh leopard, the water cobra, the snow cat, etc. All of these were normal animals, but they weren't really direct analogues of actual species.

You can have horses, but they could have cosmetic differences which make them stand out & be memorable. Maybe horses are normally striped, rather than spotted, painted, or solid colors. Maybe there are grey bears found in a wilderness or grey-stoned hills, bluffs, and mountains, and grey-barked trees (and I'm not referring to the Caucasian bear). Maybe there are no rattlesnakes in that world, but some variety of saw-scaled vipers take there place as snakes that provide audible warnings. These creatueres wouldn't need new stat blocks, but they would be different enough from Earth species to add a sense of wonder to the world.

For a homebrew, there was going to be a large island called Blueland. It got this name due to the native species found on the island: bluebirds & bluejays, fields of bluebonnets, native indigo and blue maize grown as crops, wild blueberries in the northern parts of the island, rich veins of sapphire, lapiz lazuli, &/or turquoise for mining, etc.

 

[Asmor]

Because bears are godless, killing machines?

I was going to say "because D&D hates America," but that works too.