In crafting a setting, how much detail is required when filling wild spaces? Should you detail every species of squirrel or should you invent a creature that fills the role of a squirrel?
For Andrus, I will presume 97% of the world is full of creatures, large and small, much like our planet. The burden in reviewing, revising and reinventing all those creatures would require God-like patience and knowledge. While we’re reinventing the core mechanic system, I’d rather not reinvent all the common creatures that fill their role all around this world. I leave it to each game master to determine suitable stats because I wouldn’t appreciate buying a book full of stats for common creatures as a player or game master.
I will then focus on filling the remaining 3% with Unusual and Chimerical creatures where they provide the most effective sense of adventure and wonder.
The Unusual will include things like dinosaurs and other ancient creatures from our world because they provide some interesting story opportunities. They will be limited, found only in specific regions favorable to their existence and unique needs. Dinosaurs will be found in heavy, tropical jungles and swamps. Woolly Mammoths will be beyond the northern mountain range in taiga, tundra and frigid mountain valleys. This makes other prehistoric creatures reasonable possibilities if I discover a niche that could be properly filled. The Unusual will also include ‘dire’ versions of normal creatures. Marginally intelligent, larger and more powerful than normal animals, maybe empowered by nature as champions. These would be apex versions of an otherwise normal species and include things like fabled stags, bison and great eagles.
The Chimerical will be blatantly magic-touched creatures found in myth and fairy tales. The Chimerical will essentially be normal animals touched by magic in some fashion or creatures of 100% magical origins. Add horns, wings or some magical ability, a sly intelligence and you’ll have a chimerical creature. Unicorns, pegasi, flying house cats, teleporting hounds, imps, sprites and about anything else you can think of would fall into this category. The niche these creatures fill would be a narrow one. They would be rare, exist in seclusion and be wary of others seeking to take advantage of their magical abilities or use them as some sort of magical catalyst in a brewing cauldron.
Chimerical, while appropriate, completely excludes Dragons in this world. They have their own story and origins.
Finally, you have some of the standard fantasy tropes thanks to years of D&D. Rust monsters, carrion crawlers, oozes, jellies, screaming mushrooms, killer stalactites or stalagmites. As these are inevitably mired in various layers of ownership and OGL coverage, I’ll lump them into ‘game master’s discretion’. Do at your table what you will.
I hope, with Andrus, to break away from many of the more common fantasy tropes and provide a setting that allows game masters to explore and expand based on their group and story instead of shoehorning everyone into my vision of adventure.