Why does D&D have bears?

[Klaus]

To appropriate a quote from The Incredibles:

If everything is fantastic, nothing is.

 

[Lonely Tylenol]

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. Should Carrion Crawlers not usurp Rattus Rattus in the foodchain of Waterdeep's many sewers? Should the skies over Sharn not be populated by something a bit more fantastic than pigeons?

Actually, I'd be pretty surprised if it were even possible for the rat to be dislodged from its niche. It's an amazingly well-adapted creature, and one that dominates every ecosystem it is introduced into. It's probably one of the most profitable lines of mammal evolution ever, since it's so easily able to adapt to different conditions, breeds quickly, is reasonably intelligent, and has a particular talent for leeching resources from (arguably) the single most profitable line of mammal evolution ever: humans.

While animals like bears might conceivably be outcompeted and driven to extinction by more fearsome and fantastic animals, I think you'd have to purge the earth with an incendiary cloud to get rid of rats.

Also, keep in mind that one of the secrets to the success of the rat is that they are small. Carrion crawlers are not, and so require a hell of a lot more resources than a rat. I assume they probably get a lot of those resources by eating rats, considering that offal is not particularly nutritious for anything but a fungus, and rats are very convenient packages of protein, lipids, and energy that populate the carrion crawler's environment. Where rats are predated upon in the real world by ambush predators like cats and mustelids, a carrion crawler doesn't have to be fast to catch a rat; it just has to brush it with a tentacle. If I were to pick a creature to bet on for extinction, I'd go with the large ones first: otyughs, carrion crawlers, [everything else], and finally, rats. The only possible exception is the gelatious cube, which can survive on organic sludge. Decomposers are usually pretty robust, so long as the substrate stays the same, and I assume that mucky sewers are exactly what cubes are adapted to.

 

[Lonely Tylenol]

Because bears are totally awesome.

Facts:

1. Bears are mammals.
2. Bears fight ALL the time.
3. The purpose of the bear is to flip out and kill people.

 

[gizmo33]

I would like to play a fantasy adventure game where the players are a jellyfish-like creatures trying to survive in a sea of liquid methane.

Why does DnD have swords?
Why does DnD have iron (but no aluminum? - and yet it has aluminum-based minerals?)
Why does DnD have silk?
Why does DnD have wheat?
Why do cultures in DnD have writing, wheels, or castles?

I don't know how much the animals of the 3.5 rules represent real-life animals anyway - experts in the various animals might disagree with some of the stats (for example - wolves IRL can probably jump a lot higher than they can in the rules). So who says that a "black bear" is really more than just a name and a resemblance to the creature? In fact, I think it would be easier if you just assumed that they weren't - that would excuse the discrepencies between RL and fantasy.

So use fire mares instead of horses in your game - no problem. The problem IMO is when folks act like there's one right way to approach designing an imaginary world.

 

[Kid Charlemagne]

DM: The old man comes to you and says, "Beware the owlbear in the Mickle Wood."

Player 1: Wait a second, didn't you say that this world has no bears?

DM: It doesn't. This is an owlbear.

Player 2: I didn't think it had owls either.....?

DM: No. It doesn't.

Player 3: So why do they call this creature an owl-bear anyway?

I had an elf PC in a game world where dogs had died out centuries ago, and the only known legends were of wolves. I had an idea for a canine familiar, but had to convince the DM to let me do it. So my familiar was born of an experimental breeding program by the elves designed to return the wolf to the world.

Thus was born Pepe, my chihuahua familiar.

The jury is out on if the breeding program was a success.

 

[Desdichado]

I don't think that's fair at all. Basically the point is: why change if the only point is change? If you want to remove bears from your world entirely, fine. If you want to make bears sentient and make them a more significant part of the game world (for instance), also fine. But making slight changes only to make them slightly different just makes a player's 'job' harder, and generally reduces his/her fun. If a player needs to learn a fact about the game world, it should mean something to the game. Learning "bears are slightly different in this world" doesn't add anything to the fun for most people.

I'm not sure why you quoted me there. I'm not disagreeing with anything in your post, nor is it particularly relevent to what I posted. It's like we're talking past each other about two different things.

I'm a little confused...

 

[Lonely Tylenol]

Why does DnD have iron (but no aluminum? - and yet it has aluminum-based minerals?)

Because it is ridiculously difficult to purify aluminum. It is only relatively recently that a process for catalyzing the reduction of aluminum from aluminum-containing compounds has been developed. Before that, it took a long, expensive process. Metal aluminum was so rare and valuable that Napoleon, in an ostentatious display, seated his guests at a table outfitted with aluminum cutlery, which was a massive display of wealth and power at the time.

 

[Fifth Element]

I'm not sure why you quoted me there. I'm not disagreeing with anything in your post, nor is it particularly relevent to what I posted. It's like we're talking past each other about two different things.

I'm a little confused...

See post 47, wherein you rebut a post by Celebrim, unfairly in my opinion. I then proceeded to rephrase the argument in Celebrim's post, in case the reason you rebutted is that the point wasn't clear enough, and then I proceeded to build upon the point further.

 

[Fifth Element]

Because it is ridiculously difficult to purify aluminum. It is only relatively recently that a process for catalyzing the reduction of aluminum from aluminum-containing compounds has been developed. Before that, it took a long, expensive process. Metal aluminum was so rare and valuable that Napoleon, in an ostentatious display, seated his guests at a table outfitted with aluminum cutlery, which was a massive display of wealth and power at the time.

Ah, and there's another sticky point in a fantasy world. Magic. Why wouldn't you just use magic to purify aluminum? Napoleon didn't have access to magic. Displays of wealth in a fantasy world are likely quite different that those in the real world.

 

[Vigilance]

D&D simply has to have bears.

And owls.

Or else owlbears would be kind of dumb.

And owlbears are ESSENTIAL to the campaigns of all good-hearted GMs.