Fluff-building: Mundane flora and fauna

[AtlasSniperman]

This is something I've been thinking about for a while, and I know other people have as well. Most D&D campaigns and settings use all these fantastic races, magical items, spells and psionics... What's the farmer farming? Cows...

Basically, there is a severe lack of the mundane things: Food, drink, pets, livestock, plants and insects in fantasy worlds. So how about we just have a thread to create and dump some of these. I apologise if a thread like this exists, and none of these are meant for a specific setting. Here are a couple to start.


The Dorgany Pig: A blind species of pig bred by a group of Dwarves to live on mushrooms and be quite suitable to live underground. A resultant crossbreed of typical wild pigs and pigs with the "Shadow" template. Grows to just a little smaller than the average cow, yielding a large amount of somewhat tough pork-esc meat.

Toopu: A small amphibian creature with 6 ratlike legs and 4 eyes. With the exceptions of these it looks something like a cross between a mole and a spider. Considered a pest in some areas as they have a large appetite for plant roots that are grown in large farms

Savii Dile: A domesticated and specialty bred species of Crocodile, can simply be described as to a Crocodil as a Jack Russel is to a wolf.

Ioup: A high fibre, bread-esc food made using a species of Corn instead of Wheat.

Lorm: A plant that grows on the bark of trees down into the soil at the base of the tree, slowly eats the tree while giving off a sort of bioluminescence from its fruit. This light attracts herbivores to eat the fruit and spread the seed.

Malpsiori: A herbivorous, treedwelling creature with psionic power points but little if any serious thoughts.

[Sam113097]

In one of my settings, I have spider-crabs, giant, clawless, 8-legged crabs that are used for labor and food by seaside settlements.

Fantasy settings are usually based on medieval Europe, so I like to throw in livestock from other continents. So the farmer doesn't have cows, he has bison, emus, tapirs, gazelles, or pandas.

[Belac93]

Well, I DM'd a world once where the most common beast of burden were flying manta rays, and babies were often carried around on their stingray counterparts. However, that world was mostly flying islands, so there is that.

As a replacement for chickens, I like giant ants. The same size, they lay eggs, have tasty meat, and are bred to remove the hive mind.

[inuyasha]

I've always wanted to have trees with an edible and nutritious bark that can be scratched off, and eaten almost like beef jerky but with a much more bland flavor. I've also thought of it being mildly addictive, so there would be large areas with these trees covered in scratch marks, and groups of rangers/goblins/(insert wilderness encounter here) addicted to it.

[avr]

Can't find the writeup, but I once wrote up Eberron manifest zones as they affected the local minor wildlife. Aggressive frogs with sharp teeth in Shavarath manifest zones, gliding frogs in zones linked to Syrania, etc.

[Balyano]

I had a kingdom where people figured out how to mutate slimes/oozes/jellies and the like and using them for all sorts of purposes became common.

There were strains of ooze that are edible. They come in dozens of flavors. Strawberry flavored, peanut flavor, chocolate, beef, asparagus, bubblegum, grass, vomit, espresso, etc. People are always mutating them on the one in a hundred chance that a new flavor is produced. To make more you take a sample and feed it some organic waste.

You go into a persons house and you will find jars and jars of them.

One jar might contain an ooze than you let loose onto your naked body. It eats the grime from your flesh, eats your lice, moisturizes your skin, makes you hair shiny, deodorized your arm pits, and makes you smell like lilacs or tropical breeze or mountain pines. When you are finished you scrap them off and put them in their jar.

Another jar might contain a mint flavored ooze that likes to clean your teeth for you. Spit them back into the jar when your done.

And of course why do the dishes when that lemon scented ooze can get them squeaky clean in no time.

Let's not mention why these people don't use toilet paper.

[LordotTrinkets]

Let's not mention why these people don't use toilet paper.

Hey! Don't passively dismiss the Bidet Buddy like that! :small wink:

I made this sort of subterranean wooly caterpillar that is a popular food source for dwarves, dark elves, and other underdark creatures. The little critters live around natural vents and feed off of the little bacteria that live there, just like a yeti crab.

[KoyukiTei13]

Balyano
Re: Fluff-building: Mundane flora and fauna

I had a kingdom where people figured out how to mutate slimes/oozes/jellies and the like and using them for all sorts of purposes became common.
There were strains of ooze that are edible. They come in dozens of flavors. Strawberry flavored, peanut flavor, chocolate, beef, asparagus, bubblegum, grass, vomit, espresso, etc. People are always mutating them on the one in a hundred chance that a new flavor is produced. To make more you take a sample and feed it some organic waste.
You go into a persons house and you will find jars and jars of them.
One jar might contain an ooze than you let loose onto your naked body. It eats the grime from your flesh, eats your lice, moisturizes your skin, makes you hair shiny, deodorized your arm pits, and makes you smell like lilacs or tropical breeze or mountain pines. When you are finished you scrap them off and put them in their jar.
Another jar might contain a mint flavored ooze that likes to clean your teeth for you. Spit them back into the jar when your done.
And of course why do the dishes when that lemon scented ooze can get them squeaky clean in no time.
Let's not mention why these people don't use toilet paper

Oh, goodness, I absolutely adore that idea. Cute little slime lumps in little jars just bein' cute and colorful and useful!

I'd love to have an index of ideas like this to just pull from when I need something to distract PCs with for a moment. The homebrew index on the site seems to be severely lacking in these things. :biggrin:

How about flowers that glow during new moons? You could call it a 'Lanternbloom' or something. Specially bred fireflies could fill a lantern need, too. Different colors and such.
Or ivy that is as strong as iron and weaves through itself to be solid - you could use it as a building material or reinforce-r for natural disasters. Ironivy?

What else could be bred/domesticated to be useful? Big cats for those big rats that keep eating your crops? Mammoths? Alpacas?
I mean, what do people eat now that could be eaten in a fantasy setting?

Also, would dire creatures be eaten? What would they taste like? Would they differ from the normal variation?

How do you guys feel about magical farm creatures, like phoenixes or unicorns, or fruit-tree dryads?

[Belac93]

I had a kingdom where people figured out how to mutate slimes/oozes/jellies and the like and using them for all sorts of purposes became common.

There were strains of ooze that are edible. They come in dozens of flavors. Strawberry flavored, peanut flavor, chocolate, beef, asparagus, bubblegum, grass, vomit, espresso, etc. People are always mutating them on the one in a hundred chance that a new flavor is produced. To make more you take a sample and feed it some organic waste.

You go into a persons house and you will find jars and jars of them.

One jar might contain an ooze than you let loose onto your naked body. It eats the grime from your flesh, eats your lice, moisturizes your skin, makes you hair shiny, deodorized your arm pits, and makes you smell like lilacs or tropical breeze or mountain pines. When you are finished you scrap them off and put them in their jar.

Another jar might contain a mint flavored ooze that likes to clean your teeth for you. Spit them back into the jar when your done.

And of course why do the dishes when that lemon scented ooze can get them squeaky clean in no time.

Let's not mention why these people don't use toilet paper.

This is profoundly disturbing. But awesome.

I like psionic moles.

[Medival Wombat]

My players always asked me for details if they entered a new tavern, so I came up with a few drinks:

Elven Wine: Despite being called wine, this drink does not contain alcohol. It is a sweet liquid of a blue-ish colour, harvested from tropical flowers and fruits. Some of them are psychoactive, and create the feeling of being drunk, without the actual poisioning (and likewise without any kind of hangover). It is slightly addictive though...

Dwarven Ale: Mostly brewed out of fermented roots, mushrooms and rats, dwarven ale is if fact more of a soup than a beer. It was invented as a emergency ration, but due to his strong, smokey flavour, the cheap cost and the possibility to store it over 25 years, it became a common drink in the human realms.

Gaias Tears: A fancy and expensive green drink that smells like summer, made out of morning dew, herbs and the honey of emerald bees. They are served in very small glasses with a glaced emerald bee inside. Normally they remove the sting, but the thrill that they might not makes the drink so intresting (If you get stung by an emerald bee, you enter a dreamfilled coma- and sometimes you´ll never wake up again).

[Yora]

I just posted a few animals I've made (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?483894-The-Old-World-A-setting-inspired-by-Morrowind-Planescape-and-Hellboy&p=20650343#post20650343) two days ago.

[quinron]

Though I've never thought to use them in games, there are a lot of wild and wacky creatures in American tall tales (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fearsome_critters). Pretty mundane, for the most part, and while most of them are presented as one-of-a-kind or at least incredibly rare, there's no reason they couldn't be everyday creatures in a fantasy world - small benign creatures like cactus cats and teakettlers can add a lot of flavor.

[Balyano]

Though I've never thought to use them in games, there are a lot of wild and wacky creatures in American tall tales (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fearsome_critters). Pretty mundane, for the most part, and while most of them are presented as one-of-a-kind or at least incredibly rare, there's no reason they couldn't be everyday creatures in a fantasy world - small benign creatures like cactus cats and teakettlers can add a lot of flavor.

Don't forget the Hoopsnakes and Jackelopes.

[quinron]

I did create one interesting creature for the world of a novel I'm trying to write.

Razorcats are bog-dwelling felines, about the size of bobcats, with exceptionally long, back-curved claws (which is where they get their name). While they're definitely intimidating, they're overspecialized for swimming and snagging fish or lizards from the water - even sheathed, their claws are too ungainly to allow them to climb trees or even walk very quickly on land. They're smart enough, though, to break into the locals' storehouses and raid them for fish and meat, which makes them some of the most troublesome pests in the bogs.

[kraftcheese]

I always thought the way Morrowind handled mundane flora/fauna was great: the kwama egg mines, netch ranches, and general use of big invertebrate critters and reptiles as domesticated animals was loads of fun, and gave you a real sense that you were in a strange alien land.

(For those who don't know, kwama (http://www.imperial-library.info/sites/default/files/beast_morrowind_kwama.png) are gross eusocial...things that live in big burrow/hives and have their eggs harvested for food and netches (http://elder-scrolls.com/uploads/posts/2013-11/1384940775_m14.jpg) are big gas-filled jellyfish kept for their leather.)

[Balyano]

Sometimes when I'm bored I like to pick animals and imagine if a mass extinction were to occur what they would evolve into to fill the niches. I tend not to name the animals though.

One animal after going through several stages involving both an aquatic and arboreal stage ended up looking like if a bear had a frogs proportions, canines the length of your hand and a beak. Had a highly developed larynx, keen ears, good memory, and a knack for imitating sounds like a mocking bird. Sometimes when you are in the forest you will hear a woman scream or a baby crying, or even someone yelling ''HELP!!!'' You rush to the rescue and then POUNCE! a quarter ton of muscle leaps onto you from the bushes a dozen paces away and bites your throat out.

[lsfreak]

I mostly like mixing up real-world counterparts when it comes to flora and fauna. Pick some crops from the Mediterranean, some from East Asia, and some from Mesoamerica, and forbid others from each: wheat and rice but no or oats or corn; peas, tomatoes, peppers, and spinach but no soy, potatoes, squash/melons/cucumbers, or Brassica cultivars; grapes, walnuts, and apples but no stone fruits (cherries, almonds, or peaches); and so on. Maybe throw in something that was never really domesticated or isn't widespread in our world, like lily, passionfruit, or camas. Or base foods off different ancestors, like a chicken based off a Himalayan monal rather than a red junglefowl.

[Yora]

I always thought the way Morrowind handled mundane flora/fauna was great: the kwama egg mines, netch ranches, and general use of big invertebrate critters and reptiles as domesticated animals was loads of fun, and gave you a real sense that you were in a strange alien land.

(For those who don't know, kwama (http://www.imperial-library.info/sites/default/files/beast_morrowind_kwama.png) are gross eusocial...things that live in big burrow/hives and have their eggs harvested for food and netches (http://elder-scrolls.com/uploads/posts/2013-11/1384940775_m14.jpg) are big gas-filled jellyfish kept for their leather.)

Morrowind has had a huge impact on my worldbuilding. The whole agriculture and economy element is quite well done.

[Balyano]

I mostly like mixing up real-world counterparts when it comes to flora and fauna. Pick some crops from the Mediterranean, some from East Asia, and some from Mesoamerica, and forbid others from each: wheat and rice but no or oats or corn; peas, tomatoes, peppers, and spinach but no soy, potatoes, squash/melons/cucumbers, or Brassica cultivars; grapes, walnuts, and apples but no stone fruits (cherries, almonds, or peaches); and so on. Maybe throw in something that was never really domesticated or isn't widespread in our world, like lily, passionfruit, or camas. Or base foods off different ancestors, like a chicken based off a Himalayan monal rather than a red junglefowl.


Yes, this. Makes me think of a goblin culture I came up with that domesticated dandelions. They had varieties that had extra large seeds, like sunflowers. They had varieties where the flower stalk was as thick as celery and as tall as a grown goblin. The had some where the leaves grew in extra full and was used for salad. And some with extra thick roots for eating. Some with extra large flower buds that you eat like brussel sprouts. And some with extra sweet tasting flowers for desert. And for non-food purposes varieties that produced far greater quantities of latex for use as a type of rubber. They had other domesticated plants, but the dandelion filled a central role in their culture and was an important symbol of their civilization. Their art was full of them and in their heraldry those in the highest office (whether king, emperor, dictator, ect) took the dandelion as their crest. And dandelion leaves where popular in the heraldic symbols for lower nobles.

[Landis963]

This isn't mine, but the world of The Stormlight Archive series has been stated by the author to be based on tide pools and coral reefs - biomes which are normally inimitable to human life. So you have giant crustaceans (ranging from dog-sized "axehounds" on up), plants that are closer to coral structures than anything else (e.g. a "dendrolith" that looks cosmetically like the Joshua Tree of the Mojave Desert but is hard as rock except for the flowers and leaves on the very ends of its branches), and of course, waves (in the form of hurricane-strength "highstorms" that barrel through everything every few days).

[GorinichSerpant]

If I ever run a D&D campaign I'd have chameleons carry the dragon type. They wouldn't be more powerful or important, just a little detail. Mainly because they look somewhat dragon-like especially when they are of the horned variety and nifty biological features like telescopic eyes, color changing skin and special feet.

[Bohandas]

Sometimes when I'm bored I like to pick animals and imagine if a mass extinction were to occur what they would evolve into to fill the niches. I tend not to name the animals though.

That sounds pretty interesting.

[quinron]

After Man by Dougal Dixon (http://www.sivatherium.narod.ru/library/Dixon/main_en.htm) is a great source for fantastical creatures to fill every ecological niche. As far as real-world evolutionary sciences are concerned, they're complete nonsense for the most part, but for a fantasy world, they're brilliant.

[kraftcheese]

After Man by Dougal Dixon (http://www.sivatherium.narod.ru/library/Dixon/main_en.htm) is a great source for fantastical creatures to fill every ecological niche. As far as real-world evolutionary sciences are concerned, they're complete nonsense for the most part, but for a fantasy world, they're brilliant.

Ah, good 'ol Dougal; he's responsible for what is probably my favorite image in the world of speculative fiction (http://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/speculativeevolution/images/b/b6/Temperate_tundra.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20150730144536).

Also, here's another goofy one (http://vignette3.wikia.nocookie.net/speculativeevolution/images/3/3e/5223075636_a2f6e828ac_b.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20120816170338) and this one (http://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/speculativeevolution/images/b/b4/Tics.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20160113153747) (as a warning, don't look at this one if you're squeamish/can't deal with body horror because it makes me feel a little bit ill...gross fleshy patterns) might be a cool monster idea...the upright one anyway.

[Balyano]

After Man by Dougal Dixon (http://www.sivatherium.narod.ru/library/Dixon/main_en.htm) is a great source for fantastical creatures to fill every ecological niche. As far as real-world evolutionary sciences are concerned, they're complete nonsense for the most part, but for a fantasy world, they're brilliant.

Always one of my favorites. Another good one to remember is the Epona Project. Was introduced to it by a tv special ''anatomy of an alien'' (also known as ''natural history of an alien'')when i was a kid, there was also Greenworld, but I dont think I was ever able to find the stuff for it outside of the special. Planet Furaha is another great one.

[Bohandas]

Some ideas

-Desert dwelling versions of Non-desert animals that have evolved or been engineered to be able to use Create Water once per week

-Centimeter wide dire paramecium

-Carnivore-like beavers that feed on treants and similar creatures

-Carnivore-like bunnies that eat various animate plants

-mobile plants of animal intelligence (instead of the typical case of them either being non-intelligent or having human-like intelligence)

-Any of the crazy fruits and vegetables from the cartoon Chowder

-Animal and magical beast-only strains of spawn forming undead

-local fauna near magical academy pick up spell like abilities from magical radiation

-fire retaining underwater cacti

-sand/soil retaining(?) floating (ie. flying) cacti

-balloon-like underground cacti

-animal equivalents of tieflings

-dragon descended animals with sorcerer spellcasting ability despite retaining animal intelligence (and highest castable spell level at a given sorcerer level is effectively one lower as all spells require silent spell)

-Fluffy Ponies (look it up)

-There was a modding utility for dwarf fortress that generated plants with random names and properties. That might be useful. I'd go on their modding board and poke around for it but I got kicked off of their forum on trumped up charges.

[Knaight]

I tend not to use these for conventional fantasy, but I run a fair amount of space opera, which means alien ecosystems. Highlights have included massively overgrown eels used as draft animals to pull boats, rock burrowing beetles that used gold as a micronutrient and accumulated a lot of it in their shells (which had niche mining applications that would be a lot less niche if moved to a setting which didn't have asteroid mining), forests of leafy plants that were somewhere between trees and root vegetables, and low density floating grazing animals adapted to gas giants. All of these could be moved to a fantasy game, though some make the move more easily than others.

[Bohandas]

-Monotreme and marsupial lookalikes/analogs of all mammal species

-Placental playpi

-Snakelike mammals

-Elflike versions of standard forest animals (lower con, higher dex, no sleep)

-Dwarflike (stability and/or poison resist and/or darkvision) and gnomelike (prestidigitation dancing lights or ghost sound SLAs) versions of burrowing and cavedwelling animals

-Animal equivalents of merfolk, like a lion with a shark tail or a mouse or hamster with a goldfish tail

EDIT:
-Cabbage-based analogs of every fruit, vegetable, and spice in the world (Did you know that IRL cabbage, broccoli, brussels sprouts, and cauliflower are all either different parts and/or different breeds of the same plant, and they're all closely related to both mustard, turnips, and canola)

EDIT:

-D&D has a lot of motile plants, so how about something in the opposite direction, a "forest" whose vegetation is more closely related to sponges and corals than to any plant

[Bohandas]

Going with fantasy logic, any creature steongly associated with one of the classical elements could have relatives or equivalents associated with a different classical element

-Birds, for example, are kind of associated with air, and so for water you could have a fully aquatic kind of penguin that never comes up on land, for fire you could have pheonixes or maybe some kind of bird that lives in the sun, and for earth you could something similar to Diggles (the emblematic burrowing bird creatures from the computer game Dungeons of Dredmor)

[Deepbluediver]

As a replacement for chickens, I like giant ants. The same size, they lay eggs, have tasty meat, and are bred to remove the hive mind.
That's...interesting.

I'd say that it would seem difficult to confine something with the mobility of an ant, but then I started thinking about all the other animals (and plants) we've drastically altered to domesticate them and it seemed more reasonable.

[AtlasSniperman]

That's...interesting.

I'd say that it would seem difficult to confine something with the mobility of an ant, but then I started thinking about all the other animals (and plants) we've drastically altered to domesticate them and it seemed more reasonable.

This is a really fun exercise I feel every worldbuilder should try at least once; pick a creature(be it real, monstrous or entirely fictional) and imagine the results if it was bred the same way we humans have done to dogs.

Crocs are good fun for it too :) So are entirely fictional creatures like Rust Monsters(they make great guard dogs and can even be ridden by children )

[Aedilred]

My principal kingdom for Empire (a world-building game, link in sig) has an animal ecology built around reptiles, which occupy almost every niche. Although I have avoided referring to them as dinosaurs or employing any recognisable dinosaur species, it's essentially the same principle. Most of these creatures are pretty mundane; it's just that where you would normally have mammalian livestock/game/vermin, here they're generally reptiles. The one obviously fantasy element I couldn't resist including is the principal combat mount, which resembles a large dromaeosaurid. I handwaved it a little, saying that their limitations (relative to horses) in the thermic and energy-requirement departments are compensated by their increased combat capabilities, improved stamina and adaptation to the climate - but in most situations that wouldn't be challenged anyway, I suspect.

[Bohandas]

That's...interesting.

I'd say that it would seem difficult to confine something with the mobility of an ant, but then I started thinking about all the other animals (and plants) we've drastically altered to domesticate them and it seemed more reasonable.

Well, realistically an ant that size would have the mobility of one of those fat factory-farm chickens.

[kraftcheese]

Well, realistically an ant that size would have the mobility of one of those fat factory-farm chickens.
And they'd be dead due to lack of oxygen; let's magic up some crab-like-air-gills, a proper circulatory system and some internal bones for those suffocating, immobile chicken-ants and we're cooking with bug eggs, baby!

[Deepbluediver]

And they'd be dead due to lack of oxygen; let's magic up some crab-like-air-gills, a proper circulatory system and some internal bones for those suffocating, immobile chicken-ants and we're cooking with bug eggs, baby!
We know from the fossil-record that prehistoric insects grew to a much large size. From what I've read there are several theories as to why and how- some or all of them might be in play in a particular fantasy setting.

[ThePurple]

We know from the fossil-record that prehistoric insects grew to a much large size. From what I've read there are several theories as to why and how- some or all of them might be in play in a particular fantasy setting.

The reason that I've heard (and has been told to me as the consensus amongst the scientific community) is that insects were able to grow to such large proportions because the oxygen content in the air was higher.

Insects have vastly different biology than higher order animals insofar as they have completely different circulatory (open circulatory system in which their blood analogue freely flows within body cavities rather than being transported through veins/arteries/capillaries) and respiratory systems (insects don't have lungs and instead have pores/tubes spread throughout that perform the same function without having oxygen spread through lungs). Because of how those systems operate, the proportion of oxygen in the air that can reach further inside their bodies decreases as you get deeper into the insect (e.g. there's less oxygen in the air that penetrates to deeper tissues because it has been absorbed by the outer tissues).

In short, the size of an insect is limited by the oxygen content of the air rather than by gross physical attributes (afaik, the structural elements of insects are actually quite strong and would be able to be scaled up to much greater sizes without the need for greater complexity).

If you get rid of the circulatory and respiratory systems that insects have and replace them with systems that higher order animals use, you're talking about reptiles with carapaces and a different number of limbs instead of big insects.

[Deepbluediver]

The reason that I've heard (and has been told to me as the consensus amongst the scientific community) is that insects were able to grow to such large proportions because the oxygen content in the air was higher.
That's one theory, sure. Here's another: http://www.livescience.com/20735-giant-insects-shrunk.html


Insects have vastly different biology than higher order animals insofar as they have completely different circulatory (open circulatory system in which their blood analogue freely flows within body cavities rather than being transported through veins/arteries/capillaries) and respiratory systems (insects don't have lungs and instead have pores/tubes spread throughout that perform the same function without having oxygen spread through lungs). Because of how those systems operate, the proportion of oxygen in the air that can reach further inside their bodies decreases as you get deeper into the insect (e.g. there's less oxygen in the air that penetrates to deeper tissues because it has been absorbed by the outer tissues).
There are all kinds of D&D monsters that seem like they shouldn't exist or shouldn't be able to do what they do- I don't know why insects have to obey the laws of biology as we understand them to operate in the real world.

[ThePurple]

That's one theory, sure. Here's another: http://www.livescience.com/20735-giant-insects-shrunk.html

That article outright states, "The more oxygen in the environment, the more muscle mass the insect can provide oxygen for and the larger the insect can be." The only thing it adds is that birds and bats provided evolutionary selection pressure that made them smaller than their maximum possible size (from a biological standpoint). It doesn't change the fact that their size is governed by atmospheric oxygen content.


There are all kinds of D&D monsters that seem like they shouldn't exist or shouldn't be able to do what they do- I don't know why insects have to obey the laws of biology as we understand them to operate in the real world.

Well, in general, games at least attempt to separate natural creatures (e.g. those that, for all biological purposes, follow the rules as we know them) from magical/aberrant/unnatural creatures (e.g. those that just wouldn't work in our reality). The ludicrous creatures that just don't make sense (owlbears come to mind) are labelled as magical beasts rather than natural ones.

While it's not absolutely required because it doesn't really matter from a game perspective, this just means that, if you want to have giant insects as replacements for agricultural animals, they make more sense as magical beasts (e.g. a wizard or some other magical animal husbandry expert did something to them in the past that made it so that they could more efficiently distribute oxygen) than as natural ones. Otherwise, if you try to fix them in a "natural" way, they're not really going to be natural beasts any more.

[Yora]

To make my world feel less like medieval Europe, I removed several kinds of natural animals that we usually associate with such settings: Dogs, bears, horses, cows.
But now I realized a problem: Dogs are actually really cool and unique animals as worldbuilding goes because of their symbiotic relationship with humans. A pack organized endurance hunter just goes so well together with humans in a way that no other animal does. And while I love not having the most common big European animals in this setting, I would really like to have something that can take a similar role in society as dogs do in Europe (and other parts of the world).

Any idea what kind of creature I could make that isn't obviously a dog in a rubber suit?

I think it would have to be a predator and live in packs, that clearly seem to be the two most important traits. Since my setting is not a plains or desert world but a forest world, the ability to run all day with very little rest while not overheating might not be as important, though.
I think the size of dogs is also very convenient. Big enough to be able to kill big animals and be a real threat to people, but not that big that you have to fear for your life around a single one. (A lion or tiger is not really something you'd want inside your home all the time.)

[ThePurple]

Any idea what kind of creature I could make that isn't obviously a dog in a rubber suit?

Deinonychus.

[Knaight]

But now I realized a problem: Dogs are actually really cool and unique animals as worldbuilding goes because of their symbiotic relationship with humans. A pack organized endurance hunter just goes so well together with humans in a way that no other animal does. And while I love not having the most common big European animals in this setting, I would really like to have something that can take a similar role in society as dogs do in Europe (and other parts of the world).

If the issue is Europe in particular, I wouldn't worry about dogs. They've been prevalent throughout Europe, Asia, and Africa for a good long time now. The same thing applies to cows, horses, chickens, pigs, etc to varying degrees. The presence of cows, chickens, and pigs could mean Europe, or could mean Papa New Guinea, and it's the other setting elements around that that really get it across. So, I'd recommend a different focus to what gets dropped and what gets added. A few major animals can do a lot here.


Wolves - Wolves don't necessarily represent Europe, but it is worth noting that there are other species that can fit a similar niche, but communicate something else. The presence of hyenas, coyotes, or dingos give a distinctly African, North American, or Australian feel, even if wolves exist right alongside them. Coyotes are a bit on the small end, but oversized fantasy animals are a thing, so whatever.
Oxen - Oxen are a big pack animal, and while again not hugely specific to Europe did see heavy use there. Replacement with Yak or Water Buffalo gives a different feel. In the context of wild animals, Bison can also fit here.
Marsupials - Adding these to any real extent gives an Australia feel, particularly the more distinctive ones. Koalas and kangaroos stand out.
Elephants - The occasional elephant can fit in Europe, but if there are herds, that communicates either Africa or SE Asia pretty effectively.
Bears - Polar bears give more of an arctic feel, but otherwise this is a species you might want to cut. However, paired with the right other species they also don't give a European feel. If you see a bear, a coyote, and a bison in the course of a travel, it's not Europe you'll get the feel of.
Snakes - While Europe has snakes, they tend to be small and not highly prevalent. Something like a big python, a cobra, or even a rattlesnake can shift the feel away a bit, particularly if paired with the right other animals.
Moose - Elk work here too, as both are fairly distinctive big creatures that aren't European.


I'd keep the dogs, while adding other things that give the different feel. With that said, if they absolutely have to go there are options. One would be to split their roles between multiple other animals. The small ratters and similar could be replaced by an oversized lizard, the really big guard dogs could be replaced by the genuinely individually dangerous big cats, though I'd be inclined to go more for the puma-leopard range than the lion-tiger range. The middle ones are harder to replace, so it might take a whole new animal.

[Yora]

The design goal isn't not-Europe, but not-Earth. Wolves and bears are the standard fantasy-Earth dangerous animals because they were common in Europe. Horses and cattle are the standard fantasy-Earth farm animals. I am just taking out the most common fantasy-Earth animals to make the setting feel less familiar.
Chicken, goats, and deers are also common throughout Europe and Asia, but they are not nearly as prominent, so I let them stay.

[Mechalich]

You could use hyenas as a dog replacement. The Spotted Hyena (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spotted_hyena) is a pack hunter with complex social behavior that has been regularly tamed by humans, so fantasy domestication is quite reasonable. They are a bit large, comparable to large wolves, but domestication could have made them smaller, just as with dogs. The Striped Hyena (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Striped_hyena), a related species, is well within the large dog size zone you'd look for when it comes to a working domestic.

[kraftcheese]

To make my world feel less like medieval Europe, I removed several kinds of natural animals that we usually associate with such settings: Dogs, bears, horses, cows.
But now I realized a problem: Dogs are actually really cool and unique animals as worldbuilding goes because of their symbiotic relationship with humans. A pack organized endurance hunter just goes so well together with humans in a way that no other animal does. And while I love not having the most common big European animals in this setting, I would really like to have something that can take a similar role in society as dogs do in Europe (and other parts of the world).

Any idea what kind of creature I could make that isn't obviously a dog in a rubber suit?

I think it would have to be a predator and live in packs, that clearly seem to be the two most important traits. Since my setting is not a plains or desert world but a forest world, the ability to run all day with very little rest while not overheating might not be as important, though.
I think the size of dogs is also very convenient. Big enough to be able to kill big animals and be a real threat to people, but not that big that you have to fear for your life around a single one. (A lion or tiger is not really something you'd want inside your home all the time.)

Cassowary are sort of dangerous to humans because of their powerful kick and aggressiveness, but they're adapted to the jungle; if they were domesticated and bred to be less agressive they might be useful for catching small game (they eat small vertebrates in the wild).

Maybe smallish wildcats, like lynxes, or large mustelids would serve better? Oversized weasels or wolverines?

[Knaight]

The design goal isn't not-Europe, but not-Earth. Wolves and bears are the standard fantasy-Earth dangerous animals because they were common in Europe. Horses and cattle are the standard fantasy-Earth farm animals. I am just taking out the most common fantasy-Earth animals to make the setting feel less familiar.
Chicken, goats, and deers are also common throughout Europe and Asia, but they are not nearly as prominent, so I let them stay.

An eclectic mix of earth animals could do this to some extent. If just going for not earth though, I'd be inclined to emphasize a different group of animals entirely. On earth, there's a pretty mamallian slant towards megafauna. There are some exceptions - big sharks, big squid, crocodillians, big snakes, komodo dragons - but the list has a distinct mamallian skew. Pushing it way more heavily towards reptiles, amphibians, or birds could give it a less familiar feel. Insects could also work, although that stretches the mundane side a little bit (though not much by fantasy standards).

[Yora]

Reptiles are the majority of big natural beasts. Giant arthropods is my theme for supernatural primordial beings.

Hyenas are a great idea. I am probably not going to use straight up hyenas (look too much like dogs), but it's a great base creature to build on.

[Bohandas]

An eclectic mix of earth animals could do this to some extent. If just going for not earth though, I'd be inclined to emphasize a different group of animals entirely. On earth, there's a pretty mamallian slant towards megafauna. There are some exceptions - big sharks, big squid, crocodillians, big snakes, komodo dragons - but the list has a distinct mamallian skew. Pushing it way more heavily towards reptiles, amphibians, or birds could give it a less familiar feel.

Especially amphibians. Reptiles and birds just say "ancient Earth". Deinonychus and such.

[DuctTapeKatar]

I once thought about jumping spiders with both the size and the personality of dogs. Four legged, with a smaller abdomen and more defined thorax. They were very expressive, flaring their mandibles if they were being hostile, or just jumping onto the people they liked and giving them nuzzles. Drow would find them somewhat tolerable, since you could harvest their meat (think the texture of chicken combined with the juiciness of beef) and also collect any silk they leave behind. Other elves would find them likeable as pets. Humans would be somewhat unsettled by dog-sized spiders who love to nuzzle people.

[Bohandas]

How about a rabbit elongated into a snake-like shape (I got the idea from an ATHF episode where Master Shake buys Meatwad a poisonous snake and tries to convince hin that it's actually just "a long bunny")

[Aedilred]

For a dog substitute, you could try bear-dogs (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bear_dog), although they are sufficiently similar to dogs they might not be to your taste.

In general though I'm not all that fond of "smeerps" that are inserted just to make a setting obviously different while otherwise filling an identical niche and behaving in an identical way.

[Sam113097]

I've found that taking out certain common animals can have a huge effect on the overall "feel" of a setting. In one of my settings, I removed horses early on in creation, and as a result, the setting developed as a few isolated cities in a vast wilderness, with little travel between them. Battles were smaller, and cavalry was no longer a factor.

[Blake Hannon]

A few that I've used:


Golden Loom: a species of unusually placid giant spider that's had its venom vastly weakened by selective breeding. These spiders aren't that territorial, so many of them can be bred in a relatively small grove of web-covered trees or scaffolding. The silk of these giant spiders is an incredible material that can be used to make ropes, sails, and nets of incredible strength and lightness. Suits of spidersilk armor are superior to leather and cloth suits in most respects, and even metal armor can benefit from spidersilk connections and reenforcement.

Mackerel Hound: sea lions that have been bred to be smaller, smarter, and more obedient than their wild kin. A typical fishing village will share communal ownership of a small pack of mackerel hounds, which are trained from pups to chase fish and squid into their masters' fishing nets. In some cases, they have also been trained to help with pearl and shelfish diving, shipwreck recovery, and even underwater construction, especially when their handlers have water breathing magic (or are merfolk) and can supervise them underwater.

Bolladon: strange, turtle-like creature with an elemental nature. Bolladons are feisty, short tempered creatures, but they have the useful ability to ingest sand and gravel and sort the minerals inside their bodies. When a female bolladon lays eggs, the shells are made entirely of precious metals strained from her rocky diet; trace levels of gold, silver, and platinum are accumulated until she has enough. The adult bolladon's carapace is composed mostly of iron, nickel, and other heavy metals.

Gozelle: a small gazelle species that's been bred as a food and pack animal on a continent that lacks similar-sized sheep. Their name comes from "goblin-gazelle;" its not clear if goblins originally bred them, but they're definitely the race that makes the most use of them in modern times. Being extremely fleet of foot, a gozelle stag can also make a decent mount for common goblin warriors who can't afford riding-worgs; they're too skittish to bring into melee, but a goblin mounted archer has little need to get that close.

[Bohandas]

Bolladon: strange, turtle-like creature with an elemental nature. Bolladons are feisty, short tempered creatures, but they have the useful ability to ingest sand and gravel and sort the minerals inside their bodies. When a female bolladon lays eggs, the shells are made entirely of precious metals strained from her rocky diet; trace levels of gold, silver, and platinum are accumulated until she has enough. The adult bolladon's carapace is composed mostly of iron, nickel, and other heavy metals.


Creation of a wizard or a god of wealth? Or does it gain some advantage from attracting sentient creatures similar to the advantage a fruit-bearing plant gets from attracting animals?

[Eldan]

I once spent a lot of time considering what elves could do for food, other than hunting, given that in the setting, they were sort of brone-age-ish forest dwellers with no agriculture.

Cue the Honeyball. Inspired by certain ants, the Honeyball is an aphid about twice the size of a fist. On their migrations, elves will scatter their eggs, then return later in the year, pluck them from trees and suck the very sugar-rich sap from their abdomen.

As for the dogs, well, I couldn't think of a good endurance hunter, so about something else that's pretty omnivorous, is intelligent and lives in groups: crows.

Not crows, specifically, of course. But take a crow and a terror bird (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phorusrhacidae) and mix them. Their living survivors are the Seriemas (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seriema). They are about the right size, 70-90cm tall. Make them a bit heavier, give them bigger beaks, and give them a crow's mind and I think you have a pretty good dog replacement. A social, aggressive, highly intelligent scavenger that also happens to be a flightless bird.

Edit:
Sandsailers are coastal and desert-dwelling spiders that live in communities. They use driftwood and dead trees as frames to hang large nets on, which they use to catch the wind and sail around, ensnaring large prey, up to the size of gazelles.

[DuctTapeKatar]

Cumulative Mass (Zombie-Fungus)

Basically, you grind a zombie into little pieces, let it sit for a while, and viola, you have a giant green mass of goo. This accumulation of undead cells and microorganisms hunts for something it can easily eat: Dead cells and such. It is unable to actually do anything on its own. In fact, if you leave it sitting for a while under the sun, it will easily dry up and die. But, if used as a salve, it will eat through rotten or infected material. Its uses vary from medicine, eating away infection and dead meat, to agriculture, killing any plants which carry disease and eradicating weeds. The only downside is that it can be very toxic, making handling it a job for professionals (or exterminators).

Sewn Doll

A macabre little creature created by a particularly weak magic, making this construct really easy to make. They are made from scrap meat and bone, sewn together and animated. It is quite literally a doll made from meat. They are nothing more than very, very cheap homunculuses, practically child's play to make. They lack emotion, sentience, and anything to stop them from rotting away. Sewn Dolls are controlled by the person who made it, and it takes very little skill to make them do what their creator wants (although, this also makes them easy to hijack from someone else). They can be useful for apprentices who don't really understand how to animate the dead, or those who need a quick assistant.

One Sewn Doll costs around 50 gp, and a spellcaster only needs to have a small understanding of necromancy to cast cantrips to animate it.

Bloody Buddy

Some friendships last forever, no matter how many pickaxes to the head they take. The Bloody Buddy is basically a really-friendly zombie, clinging to life where it should obviously be dead. The Bloody Buddy is unnaturally well-mannered, to the point of considering any hostility an inconvenience. They often don't even mind being killed again, although they do wish that they pass on a message or object which they might have on their corpse. Their lifespan normally lasts a few days before its soul slips away. Bloody Buddies of adventurers often try to get their bodies to clerics who are able to resurrect them, but won't mind if they are unable to be brought back.

[Bohandas]

- - - Updated - - -

Only semi-mundane but I imagine plants on the abyss with huge thorns that can be snapped off and used as daggers with minimal modification, and tobacco and cannabis plants on Asgard with leaves that grow rolled in such a way that people can smoke them right off the plant

[falcon1]

I have several animals in my setting which are things like wolves, but described as reptilian creatures with beaks and a vestigial pair of legs. Re-skinning is fun.

A lot of the ideas in this thread are cool. Consider it yoinked.

[Clockwork333]

The Ohrmarg dominion in my setting has swampy regions that are home to a variety of beetle called the Glunbr that grow between the size of a rat, dog, pig or ox depending on breed, they're domesticated for use as mounts, draft animals, pets, warbeasts, etc... Some of the smaller races, like goblins and gremlins, even build small homes atop the larger varieties, forming mobile communities.


There's also a large variety of plants that are effectively a mix between volcanic tubeworms and potatoes, Murump, that are the staple food of the orcs, dragonborn, and ogres of the region because they grow well in the hot, sulfur rich, soil near the magma flows, they keep nearly forever, never spoiling unless they're allowed to get wet or damp, making them easy to stockpile.

[Frozen_Feet]

I find real life animals to be sufficient for most purposes. The islands in my current campaign have reindeer, sheep, rabbits, wolves, foxes, black bear and the occasional polar bear. Seals and whales populate the seas. Islanders farm potatoes and turnips. The forests are mainly low-growing firs or pines.

There are freakier ecosystems on the fringes of the empire. I love subterranean areas where glowing lichen and mushrooms are farmed for eating, where scavenging giant beetles are common and where the top of the food chain consists of giant lizards. Said lizards are used as beasts of burden by some cave dwellers.

[Rebecca-47]

In one of the early sessions of my brother's D&D campaign, Elemental Insurrection, we came across a farmer who grew Bonkberries.

We were all EXTREMELY suspicious of bonkberries. Why were they called bonkberries? Did they knock people out upon ingestion? Were they hard as rocks? Were they poisonous or alcoholic? And why was this farmer, a mister Rongle Clonk Bonkberry, making masterwork leather vests for his sheep? why did harpies attack his flock? What on earth is going on at Bonkberry ranch???


Turns out that Bonkberries were basically just regular berries. Our party still jokes that Rongle is secretly gonna be the BBEG...

[Bohandas]

The wildlife on Mechanus are all shaped like space filling polyhedra - such as cubes and rhombic dodecahedrons - for easier stacking and storage.
edit:
They may, for example, stack all the bears in storage warehouses over the winter.

[falcon1]

I have a flower in my setting which changes color with the seasons. This may be more magical however, as it takes the form of rocks underground and an ice pillar in cold regions.