-
The VOIDRUNNER'S CODEX is LIVE! Explore new worlds, fight oppressive empires, fend off fearsome aliens, and wield deadly psionics with this comprehensive boxed set expansion for 5E and A5E!
Why does D&D have bears?
- Thread starter jdrakeh
- Start date
Raven Crowking
First Post
Korgoth said:
If you do not, that grizzly situation may cause utter panda-monium, causing some of us to experience Kodiak arrest.
DreadPirateMurphy
Explorer
Dr. Awkward said:
What's the difference?
Marshal Lucky
First Post
Why are humans on these worlds?
+5 Keyboard!
First Post
There have been excellent posts already that have expounded that by keeping normal animals like bears, wolves, owls, monkeys, etc. in a fantasy setting it makes the rare dire and magical beast varieties and somewhat related kin of these "normal" creatures that much more fantastical. Having these normal animals in your setting just makes the aberrant ones that much more strange and wondrouns... and fearsome.
One thing I'd like to add, and having not read every page of the thread this may have already been brought up, is that even in the movie Krull that the OP keeps using as his baseline example of how he'd like to change things up had "normal" horses as well. The Firemares were exotic and wondrous kin of the normal breed of horse found in that fantasy world. They were extremely difficult (nigh impossible, actually) to tame and ride, which made gaining one as a mount that much more glorious and attractive. In the movie, one of the characters actually accomplished that wondrous feat. Thus, the coolness factor and the added mystique. Without their normal counterparts, this wouldn't really mean that much.
So, the OPs example actually provides a good example of why we use normal critters in fantasy settings to make those rarer and monstrous relatives that much more fantastic.
One thing I'd like to add, and having not read every page of the thread this may have already been brought up, is that even in the movie Krull that the OP keeps using as his baseline example of how he'd like to change things up had "normal" horses as well. The Firemares were exotic and wondrous kin of the normal breed of horse found in that fantasy world. They were extremely difficult (nigh impossible, actually) to tame and ride, which made gaining one as a mount that much more glorious and attractive. In the movie, one of the characters actually accomplished that wondrous feat. Thus, the coolness factor and the added mystique. Without their normal counterparts, this wouldn't really mean that much.
So, the OPs example actually provides a good example of why we use normal critters in fantasy settings to make those rarer and monstrous relatives that much more fantastic.
Similar Threads
