I was writing a history timeline for my campaign world the other day and it got me to thinking, how do all the various creatures of D&D actually come to exist in the first place within each world, i mean what circumstances might come about to create them, i know that the easiest way out would be to just say that the various gods created them, some could be genetic experiments like griffins or hippogriffs, and in a mighly magical world they could be genetic mutations, but other than that ive got no clue, i havent found a single entry in the Monster Manual that explains how or why a creature exists. How do you handle this in your campaign worlds? do you make up how each creature was created or do you just gloss over that part?
One thing I've always missed since 2nd edition is the monster ecology section. Though it's not exactly what you're asking about, it always helped me figure out a monster's place in the world.
Hey, the explanation in my setting is pretty straightforward - dragons and giants subjected the world to a series of hellish wars for over three thousand years, using arcane hybridization to turn other life-forms into weapons. The result was a kind of rolling ecology of battlefields. Lots of spectacular predators, but you don't dare let them distract you from the *scavenger*...
One explanation I haven't seen in a while has to do with 'universal templates', living patterns based perhaps on certain spiritual realities that impose themselves on the natural world, causing themselves to emerge into reality from the natural ecology - which itself might have been produced as a tool with which such creatures could make themselvs real. The consistent implication that there are creatures in the outer planes that seem to be idealized versions of creatures on the material plane would seem to support this view.
QuoteHow do you handle this in your campaign worlds? do you make up how each creature was created or do you just gloss over that part?
If it is a player race, or pivotal(giants, dragons, undead, etc.), then yes, much detail. Lesser creature types some glossiness, usually some catch-all options cover huge varieties of shit.
Quote from: IshmaylOne thing I've always missed since 2nd edition is the monster ecology section. Though it's not exactly what you're asking about, it always helped me figure out a monster's place in the world.
Whats the ecology section? Ive never played or seen a 2nd edition book.
http://www.bookofratings.com/dndmonsters.html
Gelatinous Cube:
"Gygax clearly had some sort of ooze fixation. He populated his little world with a goobery panapoly of spores, molds, and fungi, at least one variety of which has psychic powers. Huh. At any rate, closely edging out green slime for 'Best Performance by a Nickelodeon Game Show Prop' is the gelatinous cube, a transparent, hallway-shaped, flesh-dissolving, uh. Cube. The sheer ridiculousness of it is impressive. Here we have yet another monster with no reason to exist in a dungeon-free ecosystem. It's genetically adapted to graph paper, for God's sake! Plus it conveniently fails to either digest or excrete metal, giving an adventurers a reason to kill it and scoop coins from its corpse. It's like some sort of living, deadly, mall fountain."
gods created pcs, magical/magic users lust, magic expairaments
Quote from: Umber HulkIt has the power to confuse onlookers, which is a power more D&D monsters should have. "So this is, what? A perfectly round bird with five legs? I don't get it. What kind of monster is OW MY HIT POINTS!"
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH! that's the funniest thing i've seen in ages.
"Ow my hit points!"
Hell yes. I fell out of my chair the first time I saw that one.
Quote from: PONTIFEX BRASSICUS CYMRO XIIIQuoteHow do you handle this in your campaign worlds? do you make up how each creature was created or do you just gloss over that part?
If it is a player race, or pivotal(giants, dragons, undead, etc.), then yes, much detail. Lesser creature types some glossiness, usually some catch-all options cover huge varieties of shit.
This method seems the best way of handling all the creatures in the world, so glossiness it is :)
Quote from: Umber HulkIt has the power to confuse onlookers, which is a power more D&D monsters should have. "So this is, what? A perfectly round bird with five legs? I don't get it. What kind of monster is OW MY HIT POINTS!"
Nice, where's that from?
Quote from: IshmaylNice, where's that from?
http://www.bookofratings.com/dndmonsters2.html
QuoteThe biggest disappointment in the D&D movie (a phrase equivalent to "the dustiest end table in Pompeii") was the five seconds of CGI beholder action in which this eleven hit-die aberration is fooled by the old "throw a pebble" trick.
Anyway, This would be a good thread for you guys to explain the origins of some of the "standard" beasties in your campaigns. How do orcs, kobolds, goblins, and demons relate in your campaign that's different from standard D&D. Oh, and other monsters too...
QuoteThis would be a good thread for you guys to explain the origins of some of the "standard" beasties in your campaigns. How do orcs, kobolds, goblins, and demons relate in your campaign that's different from standard D&D. Oh, and other monsters too...
For Altvogge, goblinoids(with cooler names), orcs, and kobolds are all player races, so they get full creation story props, just like elves and dwarves and halflings(again, with a cooler name).
For demons/devils/angels/etc., the more powerful get deity status and their whole ideological struggle is meshed properly with the other struggles/difficulties of the world.
Aberrations and suchlike are glossed as being the result of these divine conflicts. That allows me to toss the odd ab at them without having create an ecology for something that may never see use in the campaign/setting again.
I don't have time to go into it now, but in my Age of Kings setting, i have created a huge flowchart of the past and present races, including what they evolved from or what they were created from and who they were created by as well as other stuff. I'll transcribe it to tex and post it later.
for my setting so far i have Humans, Dwarves, Elves created by the Gods, some of the elves over time became corrupted and became what is known as the standard goblin, and from those the goblins, Hobgoblins evolved from the smarter goblins, and halflings as an early evolutionary change in humans.
I admit its not that original by it justifies how and why they exist.
Edit: In reading limetom's thread about vampires, i was curious as to how vampires first come to exist in your campaign worlds, or do you just gloss it over?
In my campaign, vampires first came into existence as a result of giantish research into undead bioweapons (well, that would be *necroweapons*.) The first vampire was a fire giant named Chargore. I haven't detailed much beyond that, but we can safely assume things went straight downhill from there.
Quote from: DeeLThe first vampire was a fire giant named Chargore.
Okay, that's just too funny. That and the idea of "necroweapons."
"Hi guys, I'm Chargore!"
"uh, dude, why did your parents name you that?"
"What do you mean? I'm a fire giant! We can't all be Surturs, you know..."
As cute as that concept is, I have to say that I thought it was rather obvious that that wasn't the name of his birth. That said, why wouldn't it be? What exactly do fire giants name their kids, anyway? Well, besides Surtur...
Edit: So I mispelled Surtur. Shut up.
In my campaign, the PC Races have all got a Creation Myth that their belief systems account for.
You can find them here...
http://www.thecbg.org/e107_plugins/forum/forum_viewtopic.php?19107
In my campaign setting, Vilydunn, the origin of outsiders (such as demons and angels) is completely unknown, even by them (or so their superiors say). Some mortals believe that they were born of the fears and hopes of people, some believe that they were once mortals who were warped by an ancient power that all have forgotten, and some believe that they just were there since before The Nightmare began.
Most nasties (as in, the evil, sadistic creatures that populate The Nightmare) have an ecology based on the fears and nightmares of the people. Many of them, such as Vilydunnian goblins, dwarves, elves, gnomes, and various fey, are as evil and sadistic as they are because they are creatures born of a nightmare; The Nightmare.
Mortals (humans, ghostwhisper trolls, the abel, the mountain men) are believed to have evolved, as people believe in the real world. Why they evolved differently from each other is just as much a mystery as the true origins of angels and demons
In Nordgard the creation of the PC races and in fact most creature Types is explained (and will be visible soon) to some degree, avoiding "the gods did it" motif.
On a side note: I'm still laughing at "Hey! I just had my clavicle shattered by an aluminum tool shed!"