Throughout human evolution, animals have played a huge roll. Initially they were predator and prey. Over time they became more: providers and companions. They have staring rolls in our stories and history, from Aesop's Fables to Alexander the Great's Bucephalus to Lassie. Yet in RPGs they’re often relegated to either the background or slotted into adversarial positions.
Let’s take August and bring animals to the front! How have you used animals in your games? Do your adventurers bring Dogs in the Dungeon? Have your space cowboys ever had to transport a herd of goats? Have your adventurers ever bought chickens or cows? Do Cardassian voles or mynocks ever muck-up the ship's engines? Does anyone keep a rat in their hood or an exotic fish in their office? Are the local crabs sacred and not for eating? Do you allow animal PC classes? Or do you even run entire games with nothing but animals?
What rolls have animals played in your games?
Post on your own blog and link back to this post, or drop me a comment with the link. At the end of the month I’ll gather up and link back to all the participating blogs. If you don't have a blog, getting one is easy, or you can just leave a comment here!
Conveniently enough, I had an animal-related post ready to go! Goblins are often at the bottom of the evolutionary ladder among humanoids. But, what if they bonded with animals? Goblin worg riders! Goblin/bat air forces! Goblins with trained spiders!
ReplyDeleteThis evening or maybe next week there will be slaughterfest on may the 1st in my campaign. All not for breeding suited, one year old stallions will be made into sausage. The kids in town are all excited and the group's druid is horrified. ;)
ReplyDeleteYou inspired me to make my first RPG Blog Carnival post http://roleplay-geek.blogspot.com/2011/08/animals-in-rpgs.html
ReplyDeleteNevermet Press's entry for this month's carnival.
ReplyDeletehttp://nevermetpress.com/those-bastard-ravens
Cool. I'll have to see if an idea presents itself. I do have this older post about the anthropomorphic animals of the Wild Wood.
ReplyDeleteHooray! New Blog Carnival! See my first post here
ReplyDeleteI wasn't quite sure what I was going to do for this month's carnival, but after some brainstorming I ended up with four different post ideas... here's the first one about familiars.
ReplyDeleteI have a couple post ideas on the topic myself, and I've written two so far:
ReplyDeleteAnimal Stats (kind of ranty)
Animals For Sale (plus training and obedience)
I may do some specific animal ability examples (tied in with the Animal Stats post,) and I plan on doing one about animal characters.
Here's a post on the sacred and magical animals that can be found in the jungles of Hari Ragat.
ReplyDeletehttp://hariragat.blogspot.com/2011/08/hari-ragat-sacred-animals.html
Just a short post on domesticated animals in my campaign world:
ReplyDeletehttp://seaofstarsrpg.wordpress.com/2011/08/12/domestic-animals-in-the-sea-of-stars/
Hope to have more later in the month.
Here's a post on superstitions concerning dogs in my Enigmundia setting.
ReplyDeleteAdded a post on Animal PCs that includes rules for animals that speak or use tools.
ReplyDeletehttp://9and30kingdoms.blogspot.com/2011/08/rpg-blog-carnival-animal-characters.html
At the insistence of my dog, I added a post on Animal Companions
ReplyDeleteHad a flash of inspiration and a post followed:
ReplyDeletehttp://wp.me/p1flGZ-8w
Another post, this time on animal-themed superheroes.
ReplyDeleteso far nothing too special: ratmen and ratogre as monsters (because why are humans the only species to get modifiers?)
ReplyDeletehttp://gmkeros.wordpress.com/2011/08/22/labyrinth-lord-ratmen/
http://gmkeros.wordpress.com/2011/08/22/labyrinth-lord-ratogre/
Here are a couple more posts, with one more to come next Wednesday:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.gameknightreviews.com/2011/08/the-gassy-gnoll-animals-in-rpgs-rpg-blog-carnival-part-2-omens/
http://www.gameknightreviews.com/2011/08/the-gassy-gnoll-animals-in-rpgs-rpg-blog-carnival-part-3-who-hunts-the-hunters/
Last post: http://www.gameknightreviews.com/2011/08/the-gassy-gnoll-animals-in-rpgs-rpg-blog-carnival-part-4-heroes-and-monsters
ReplyDeleteHere's what I posted in the bySwarm blog:
ReplyDeletehttp://posterous.byswarm.com/rpg-blog-carnival-beastfolk-in-the-dark-golde