Moathouses and...Megafauna?

Here's an observation about the critters that populate the world of Oerth and the Land of Greyhawk in the Advanced Dungeons and Dragons default world, created by Gary Gygax and crew during their years of playing and playtesting the game. It is richly detailed, but still leaves room for an individual game master to lend his or her hand to fine tuning local details and creating something original and new.

As is any good fantasy world, it is populated not just by people but by dangerous monsters. These can range from the familiar (evil rampaging hordes of humanoids like Goblins and Orcs), to textbook monsters (like trolls or wraiths). Then there is the everyday danger of dealing with the wildlife and animals that between and within the major cities. Straddling the line between wildlife and monsters are the various megafauna that populate Greyhawk.

There are normal beasties aplenty, such as snakes, spiders, ticks, scorpions, etc. But throughout Oerth there are giant versions of these beasts. Imagine a world where, as a shepherd, you had to guard your flock of sheep against both coyotes and spiders as big as coyotes. Imagine a tick season where you had to make sure your cattle didn't stray too close to the forest and pick up a baseball-sized or larger bloodsucker on their underside? If you head to the arctic, there are the usual polar bears to worry about, but also massive cave bears and wooly mammoths roaming the frozen tundra. Dire wolves range the deep forests along with regular wolves. Sabertooth Tigers hunt alongside cougars in the northern forests. The list goes on.

I see the presence of megafauna in the Realm of Greyhawk as a two-fold phenomenon. Animals from the megafauna era on our Earth that our now extinct just never got pressed to extinction in Oerth, for one reason or another. They survive in their own particular niche, and may not be super common, but also known quantities. The giant insects and arachnids are a different matter. Anyone who has read up on the science of science fiction and fantasy has heard the discussion of how critters with exoskeletons cannot survive in giant form, as their carapace would be so heavy as to restrict breathing and movement. In my mind, these critters appeared on Oerth after the huge magical cataclysm that highlighted the peak conflict between the ancient Oerdian and Suloise people. If it was a magical armageddon big enough to create the Sea of Dust to the south, it isn't too hard to imagine that the magical equivalent of nuclear mutations sprang forth to roam the lands.

That means that humans and demi-humans have been living side by side with giant mammals and lizards for their whole history, and giant insects and arachnids for centuries. While horrific to us, for them it would be just kinda scary. For instance, I live in the Pacific Northwest, and have my whole life. This is cougar country and black bear country. Still, even though they both exist and are not totally uncommon, I've only seen a cougar in the wild once in my lifetime, and black bears in the wild only a few times, with the bear sightings being exclusively in national or state parks. I imagine it would be the same for giant spider sightings in Greyhawk. Not unexpected, but noteworthy when it happens. Where I am, if a cougar is spotted too close to a grade school or the like, animal services is called to deal with it. In Greyhawk, I imagine that a giant spider spotted in the woods nearby or one that decided to set up shop in the hayloft of Old Man Smither's barn would be a job for the town militia, or possibly an intrepid band of low-level adventurers who just happen to be passing through town.

In the current adventure I've been talking about, the party is forging into the swamplands near the Villiage of Hommlet in search of an abandoned Moathouse. I did some calculations, and discovered that Hommlet lies on about the 33rd parallel. This is the same parallel on our Earth which crosses through Los Angeles, Arizona, Atlanta, etc. So if the land is dry, you get a desert, or swamp and subtropical forest if you have damp land. Tucked into a pocket on the southside of the Kron Hills near areas of forest and swampland, I'm thinking Hommlet (and nearby Nulb) are much more like Atlanta than Arizona. Think about the critters you'd find in a Georgia swamp. Now introduce giant snakes, insects and spiders to the mix. That, my friends, is what our band of first-level adventurers are wandering into!