Why does D&D have bears?

[Raven Crowking]

That's not data, that's scientific ignorance.

In terms of the people writing the show, assuming that they meant the program to follow the same rules as the real universe, yes.

In terms of what the program demonstrates about the rules of the universe it takes place in, no.

Retconning stories and speculation about the universe in which they take place, IMHO, requires that you first accept what happens in the story as data, and then use that data to determine what it implies about that story's universe. For example, in LotR there are elves and orcs. While you can simply say that this is scientific ignorance, because there are no elves or orcs in the real world, saying so tells you nothing about the world in which LotR takes place.

Likewise, you can simply say that Spock cannot exist in the ST universe, but as Spock does exist in the ST universe, saying so tells you nothing about the universe in which ST takes place. (It might tell you something about the writers, though, if the basic assumption of attempted scientific accuract is a correct assumption....omnipotent aliens, the Civil War planet, and a host of other issues suggest that ST is, in fact, a fantasy universe using sf trappings, and thus has its own rules.)

It may be that you are having difficulty seperating the ST universe from the RW universe. Just as whatever happens in the RW universe is data that aids one in creating a model of the RW universe, whatever happens in the ST universe is data that aids one in creating a model of the ST universe.

The ST universe is clearly not the RW universe. Claiming that what happens in the ST universe is not data in regards to the ST universe is, IMHO, nonsensical.

RC

 

[glass]

Except, of course, then when the theory meets the data, data trumps theory. In the Star Trek universe, it is clearly true that humans can mate with Klingons, Betazoids, and Vulcans, and probably others as well. Moreover, it is clear that a human/Klingon hybred is fertile, and able to mate with a human.

Do we have any canon evidence as to whether humans in ST can mate with radishes?


glass.

 

[Raven Crowking]

Do we have any canon evidence as to whether humans in ST can mate with radishes?

Captain Kirk can mate with anything.

 

[pawsplay]

In terms of the people writing the show, assuming that they meant the program to follow the same rules as the real universe, yes.

In terms of what the program demonstrates about the rules of the universe it takes place in, no.

I won't disagree there. But given the conceptual problem we were discussing, it's apparent Star Trek has very strange rules.... some DNA, apparently, rewrites itself to recreate the progenitor race, while other DNA doesn't and just makes radishes. I wonder how different kinds of DNA know what they are supposed to be. The problem is not merely scientific,but logical, unless you introduce some force or mechanism which invalidates the problems caused by life on Earth having a common origin with each other.

I wonder if Klingons grow Klingon radishes that can hybridize with the regular kind.

 

[pawsplay]

Captain Kirk can mate with anything.

Now I want a Star Trek d20 game with a Half-Kirk template.

 

[Raven Crowking]

I won't disagree there. But given the conceptual problem we were discussing, it's apparent Star Trek has very strange rules.... some DNA, apparently, rewrites itself to recreate the progenitor race, while other DNA doesn't and just makes radishes.

It can also cause beings to evolve backwards and forwards, as has happened on both TNG and Voyager.

The strange properties of the ST universe force me to speculate that the ST universe is, in fact, a gigantic holodeck simulation run by beings such as Q. It would explain many strange inconsistencies.

RC

 

[DreadPirateMurphy]

I suppose it's because, to some extent, when everything is weird, nothing is weird.

A fully exotic ecosystem is both a huge burden on the world builder to create, and a huge burden on the players to understand.

You guys are both right, but I would put it another way. If you're roleplaying natives of another world, then there are undoubtedly going to be mundane animals. Most people in the real world aren't going to be excited at the sight of a dog or a robin. If every common animal in your fantasy world has an odd name or behavior, then it is going to be darned hard to act as if you see them every day.

As other posters have mentioned, you can also assume that the animals aren't really so mundane to Earth humans. However, anything that isn't innately hazardous or bizarre is likely to fill a niche similar to some Earth species. You don't really speak the Common trade language of your fantasy world at the gaming table...you assume that your characters do. Why not assume that when they are eating a "chicken," they're really eating the local equivalent and be done with it?

No discernable difference? My god, man - have you never seen the D&D stats for the housecat?

Housecats are the only creature in the Monster Manual that has a different CR when wet.

Thank you for not titling this thread "Why does D&D have crabs?" All for the best, really.

This was never a problem before OGL opened the door to "anything goes."

Because it is ridiculously difficult to purify aluminum.

I'm not trying to be a pain, here, but it is also ridiculously difficult in the real world to teleport 100 kg of matter to a location 200 km away, or to make a horse invisible, or to animate dead bodies so they go off hungering for brains. The real reason is the same reason we have mundane animals -- plausibility. Just like it would be hard to be blasé if every mundane animal was bizarre, it would be hard to maintain the perception of a quasi-medeival setting if armor was made of aluminum or titanium alloy. That's why we have "magical" materials like mithril and adamantium.

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.

Does anybody else think of Jack Chalker's Wellworld when they read this? That setting would have been a perfect GURPS supplement (to go with Demiurge's comment).

The strange properties of the ST universe force me to speculate that the ST universe is, in fact, a gigantic holodeck simulation run by beings such as Q. It would explain many strange inconsistencies.

Um...replace "Q" with "Paramount," and you have exactly described the Star Trek universe in real life.

 

[Lonely Tylenol]

I'm not trying to be a pain, here, but it is also ridiculously difficult in the real world to teleport 100 kg of matter to a location 200 km away, or to make a horse invisible, or to animate dead bodies so they go off hungering for brains.

However, in the D&D world, it is expensive to do so. Often, it is prohibitively so, and at the very least requires a specialist. It's relatively cheap and easy to set fire to some coal until you can heat an oven to the point at which you can smelt iron. This requires labour that can be performed by first-level commoners.

That's why we have "magical" materials like mithril and adamantium.

They're not magical. They're fictional. They exist because real-world materials have never had the properties of mithril and adamantine, but it is convenient to have materials in the game that do.

 

[Baby Samurai]

Who else is gonna poop in the woods?

The Pope?

 

[Kae'Yoss]

Captain Kirk can mate with anything.

Wasn't it green-skinned alien babes only?