World-Building Flavor: Ecology with no rodents

[BabbageCliolog]

Anyone have different ecologies for their fantasy games?

Like no rodents but instead bugs of differing size that fill that ecology niche. The comic Usagi Yojimbo has lizards instead of rodents.

No horses or goats? No birds but instead flying lizards. Dinos wandering around instead of elephants, tigers, camels, lions, & etc.

In D&D3.x it would change some spells and class abilities. In other games, it would be more flavor than substance.

Anyone do that? How's it work out? Players think it's cool?

/BC

[Dark]

If it means the players never have to kill rats at low levels, it's worth it ;)

[The Dirge]

I think its a cool idea.

[Sardia]

Like no rodents but instead bugs of differing size that fill that ecology niche.

Not radical enough-- you've just got rats by a different name (that work for making belts, but are lousy for making mittens).
How about low-level creatures being something like plasmodial slime molds-- aggregates of unicellular organisms which can still function on their own most of the time, but come together to reproduce...or (in a fantasy version) eat larger creatures, etc.
Or alter life cycles a bit-- perhaps ratlike nuisance things form coccoons and later turn into cowlike utility/food beasts...but not very successfullly-- say one in a hundred make the transition properly. People now put up with rats...to a degree...to get cows.
To say nothing of alternating life cycles between plant and animal forms-- cow-analogues drop seeds which make grass...such grass as the cows don't eat forms pods which hatch into immature cows...

[Tor the Fallen]

In South America, parrots fill the rodent niche.

[Thomas]

Like no rodents but instead bugs of differing size that fill that ecology niche. The comic Usagi Yojimbo has lizards instead of rodents.

Huh, so that's where Ironclaw stole it from? I never noticed. (Then again, I've only read like one UY book.)

Anyway, yeah, it sounds like Ironclaw. Except I guess your PC races aren't all anthropomorphic animals?

[Quietus]

Can't say I have "different" ecologies, not really... at least, not more than your typical fantasy setting where things are overrun with other, fantastic beasties.

Sounds like an interesting idea, though.

[TheOOB]

And you can have giant yellow flightless birds people use as mounts!

In all seriousness though, small changes in an ecology like that are pretty cool, as long as they arn't the selling point of your campaign.

In my campaign world large portions of the world are blighted and desert like, and in those sections primarly only bugs and reptiles exist. Since halflings travel through the blighted areas a lot, they tend to have strange mounts and pets when compared to the horses dogs and cats humans have.

[barawn]

The world I use most frequently has no cows. Society fell several times, and cows just went extinct. Had been too heavily domesticated on a large scale.

Of course, my players took that to an extreme, and decided there was a legend of the Death Cow told to scare children - of an animal, with huge horns, multiple stomachs, and which regurgitates food and eats it again. Just to be cruel.

Maybe I'll have some small herd of wild cows show up on an island or something to freak the heck out of them now.

[SpiderBrigade]

Just reflavor the Tarrasque as an enormous cow-beast.

[Sardia]

Just reflavor the Tarrasque as an enormous cow-beast.

Pray it's female before attempting to milk it.

[Jack Mann]

Insects and lizards fill the niches of rodents on New Zealand. The weta occupies much the same niche as the field mouse.

[crazedloon]

If it means the players never have to kill rats at low levels, it's worth it ;)

But then how will there be a rat-flail?

[Demented]

and which regurgitates food and eats it again. Just to be cruel.

That's brilliant!
It's a monster fit for Greek myth.

[The_Werebear]

I had an idea to shift animals over to various different forms once. One of my favorites: A monster, similar to a scorpion in carapace like plating, but with no claws or stinger. Instead, it has a pair of straight piercing impliments where its claws would be. To capture prey, it stabs through them, pinning them to the ground, then eating them while they are still pinned.


Can't remember any other good ones.

[BabbageCliolog]

Not radical enough-- you've just got rats by a different name (that work for making belts, but are lousy for making mittens).
How about low-level creatures being something like plasmodial slime molds-- aggregates of unicellular organisms which can still function on their own most of the time, but come together to reproduce...or (in a fantasy version) eat larger creatures, etc.
Or alter life cycles a bit-- perhaps ratlike nuisance things form coccoons and later turn into cowlike utility/food beasts...but not very successfullly-- say one in a hundred make the transition properly. People now put up with rats...to a degree...to get cows.
To say nothing of alternating life cycles between plant and animal forms-- cow-analogues drop seeds which make grass...such grass as the cows don't eat forms pods which hatch into immature cows...

Hmm, that's an interesting thought. Slimes. Good idea.

/BC

[Sardia]

Hmm, that's an interesting thought. Slimes. Good idea.

/BC

When they turn up in dungeons, it at least provides context beyond "Created by mad wizard".

And think of the fun when someone mistakes something more hazardous for a harmless herd of blobs.

[Demented]

If my backyard were to be any inspiration, the ecology revolves primarily around slugs and snails. Cephalopods and crustaceans... There's an ecology you don't see much in fantasy.

Edit: Oops, gastropods, not cephalopods. What's a cephalopod? "I yoose mah head as mah fut!" "You sure do."

[Viscount Einstrauss]

I do have a bit of a hankering to make a game where nothing in it is even remotely relateable to anything in reality. No humans, no horses, gravity and light work different, just complete zonkiness. I'm sure it won't be any fun to play, but it'd be a fun logic puzzle on my part.

[Demented]

Those are fun.

On the tame end of the scale: Animals in the ocean and sky are inverted. Whales swim above water and "jump" into the water, while birds fly through the water and "dive" to catch fish in the sky. Flying wings, rather like skates, used as riding animals. Pteradons with massive tri-symmetric beaks.

'Course, you have to be careful when your brain says "Let's not stop there! Let's imagine a universe without prime numbers!" Only pain and suffering await down that road.

[Jack Mann]

Cephalopod=Headfoot; squid, octopuses, and cuttlefish.
Gastropod=Stomachfoot; slugs and snails.

[Zincorium]

Cephalopod=Headfoot; squid, octopuses, and cuttlefish.
Gastropod=Stomachfoot; slugs and snails.

An ecology with land octopi as the basis for the food chain would be awesome. Or retarded. Guess it would depend on how much work went into it.

[Demented]

Otherwise you'll just get a bunch of cthulu copycats.

<_<

>_>

Sigh.

Actually, I've been having squid on the brain. I blame this guy.
Colossal, my foot. Its size category is huge at best.

[Leon]

Cephalopod=Headfoot; squid, octopuses, and cuttlefish.
Gastropod=Stomachfoot; slugs and snails.

Ipod = Musicfoot

[barawn]

That's brilliant!
It's a monster fit for Greek myth.

Thanks.

More on the subject of bizarre ecology, the same world does have a semibizarre ecology as well. There are absolutely no stars, and so any night when both moons are set is absolutely purely dark. Normal nocturnal creatures (low-light vision) aren't even out and about then, and so their niche is filled with the more exotic (and dangerous) darkvision creatures (stirges, shadow mastiffs, worgs, winter wolves, will o' wisps). Virtually everyone's been raised to never travel in total darkness, period, and so even attempting so requires a pretty serious Will save. Likewise, spells like Darkness can actually cause panic on low-intelligence creatures.

And I have never said "You can't keep traveling now. You are likely to be eaten by a grue", although I should. Anyone know if there is a D&D version of a grue out there (not the crappy Complete Arcane grues)?