Prehistoric animals in a fantasy setting?

[XecutionerRex]

More specifically, dinosaurs.

I think it isn't hard to notice that in most fantasy worlds, you have your typical fantasy creatures (Gryphons, dragons, wyverns and wyrms. Trolls and unicorns, phoenixes, etc.), the typical animals we think of today (Goats, horses, wolves, bears, foxes), and creatures made up by the creator of the world itself. Occasionally, you may also find Ice Age animals such as mammoths and saber tooth cats, but anything predating those is practically non existent in the fantasy genre.

As a result, it's outlandish to think of something like a tyrannosaurus rex rampaging through a medieval country side (Despite how cool that actually sounds), and people don't even bother with it.

Personally, I'm a big fan of prehistoric life, which is evident in my username, so it's not uncommon for me to mix dinosaurs into fantasy settings. I find it entertaining, and while it sounds awkward at first, it can create for a much more diverse world.

There are other things I've put into fantasy worlds that most people probably don't, such as nuclear warfare and radioactive monsters (Yes, nuclear warfare and radioactive monsters). And believe it or not when you look at the reasoning behind it it makes a lot of sense. I'm not the type to just throw in some bull crap because 'Lol yes' and 'It sounds cool'.

So my question to the audience is this: What is your opinion on dinosaurs in a fantasy setting?

[XecutionerRex]

--bump--

[Dipper]

I actually like this idea, and I wish it would be done more often.

However, I have to say that you have to be -very- careful about doing this, since you want to make sue the Dinosaurs are in the right areas they'd be in, (A Desert Dino Being found in the Jungle is a pet-peeve of mine), and you either want to have it be like this: Dinosaurs are VERY well known and are used like livestock, (Obviously you'd need small ones for that...) Or they are in areas untouched by the rest of the world. Ancient valleys, craters, plateaus, islands, mesas... Things that are hard, if not impossible, for people to get to.

[Jannah]

I think dinosaurs could fit into a fantasy setting quite well actually. Like if dragons are present then why not dinosaurs? In a way, T-rexes, for example, are just flightless dragons lol.

[gorgenmast]

Things like saber-tooth tigers and wooly mammoths seem to fit into fantasy settings so well because humans have actually lived alongside these animals in the distant past. To have a world where humans and Ice-Age critters compete for survival hearkens back to more primitive, chaotic times. This lends support to a less sophisticated medieval world, where the animals that eat people still haven't been killed off.

Dinosaurs and humans, regardless of what Ken Ham may have told you, have never coexisted. Unless you have some kind of Dinotopia setting where the dinosaurs have been explained to have never gone extinct, to simply have dinosaurs roaming about a fantasy countryside is jarring. Dinosaurs can live in a medieval world, but they are better suited to jungles, deserts, and other hostile places to civilized life where humans cannot easily survive.

[Protagonist]

Dinos in a fantasy setting are welcome in my book, though dinos are welcome in nearly every setting in my book. HOWEVER, whenever you use dinos, you should do your research. Not just what you saw in Jurrassic Park.

[Dipper]

Protagonist said
Dinos in a fantasy setting are welcome in my book, though dinos are welcome in nearly every setting in my book. HOWEVER, whenever you use dinos, you should do your research. Not just what you saw in Jurrassic Park.

Indeed. If you can stand the formatting, I have a MASSIVE list of Dinosaurs for a mod of Dwarf Fortress that could be added to flavor things. It wasn't made by me, but I did help test it in the game it was used in. ^^

[XecutionerRex]

Dipper said
I actually like this idea, and I wish it would be done more often.However, I have to say that you have to be -very- careful about doing this, since you want to make sue the Dinosaurs are in the right areas they'd be in, (A Desert Dino Being found in the Jungle is a pet-peeve of mine), and you either want to have it be like this: Dinosaurs are VERY well known and are used like livestock, (Obviously you'd need small ones for that...) Or they are in areas untouched by the rest of the world. Ancient valleys, craters, plateaus, islands, mesas... Things that are hard, if not impossible, for people to get to.

In a world of mine (Well, actually my brother and I both collaborate on it), there are dinosaurs in areas where there are next to no humans, if any at all. The reason being because most of them have gone extinct for other reasons. One of which being nuclear warheads (Yes, in a fantasy setting. But that's a different story), and many of the ones left behind were hunted down as they were seen as a threat.

Protagonist said
Dinos in a fantasy setting are welcome in my book, though dinos are welcome in nearly every setting in my book. HOWEVER, whenever you use dinos, you should do your research. Not just what you saw in Jurrassic Park.

Of course. Media tends to portray prehistoric creatures as much more ferocious than they probably were (Although, who knows? They were still probably pretty kick ass). Also, there are still a ton of shadowy areas on dinosaur behavior, appearance, etc. As a result, it's easy to free lance on a lot of things when they're in a fantasy world, which can be fun. For example, it's been supposed that dinosaurs never stop growing, only slow at age. If that's the case, you could allow the dinosaurs in whatever-land to live for hundreds of years, thus becoming utterly gargantuan.

An interesting picture of a dinosaur in a fantasy setting:

[StarWight]

That picture makes me want to have this in an RP. I love dinosaurs too, even if I know very little about them. I've NEVER seen them in a fantasy setting before in any RP...yet, like some have said, (including you Jannah :P) fantasy has a lot of dragons so why tf not? Dragons are common yet not so much with our Saurian friends. I'd love to see this more often in RPs, it could lead to some very interesting things.

On a note about being very careful with them, why? Since when does RPing have to exactly duplicate stuff IRL? If someone *wants* a desert dino in a jungle environment for their RP, what's the problem with it? It's RP, it's fiction, and I don't think one should limit themselves to something just because it's not "realistic." Neither are elves shooting fireballs from their hands or dragons swooping down from the sky enveloping an entire city in a rain of fire, but it's done. I say cut the RPs some slack, it's supposed to be fun :)

[XecutionerRex]

I agree with the point that not everything has to be realistic to the pitch perfect degree, unless the roleplay is meant to simulate real life in all it's aspects (Inb4 'Hardcore Slice of Life' becomes an official genre). But at the same time, I myself notice that sometimes I get a bit agitated when certain things are made out to seem what they really aren't. To each their own, eh? People will do what they want.

Funny enough, LoneSilverWolf (Should I call you Silver, Wolf, Lone Wolf?) there is a fantasy world I co-own with my sibling that follows an Asian theme and has dinosaurs, so a scene like that could very well happen. In fact I was thinking about making some sort of Warlord who has his own personal dinosaur mount.

Yet another pic.

[StarWight]

Any of those is fine! A lot of people at IRC call me Silver or LSW. Whatever you prefer I'm fine with!

[XecutionerRex]

Alright, cool.

[Ellri]

big lizards can be fun in fantasy settings. But the setting still has to make sense. If you've got lots of big predators there, you need similarly large numbers of large prey. or even more small prey. And people won't worry all that much about smaller predators. They'll primarily worry about the bigger ones. Behavior of smaller predators will also be different from earth norm, as they'll have to have adapted to not being the biggest threat.

[The Imagination]

First thing that came to mind? Horror-survival setting, primarily with velociraptors and other hunters to worry about. Sure there'd be a mixup of other dinosaurs, but velociraptors terrify me as much as they are incredibly awesome.

I'd not like to be trapped in any location/setting/area with arguably what is earth's history's greatest pack hunter. I would not feel safe with anyone or anything. You got a grenade launcher, flamethrower, automatic machine gun, ten-fifteen trained US Marines, a squad of French Foreign Legion guys, a fucking tank? Their pack(s) probably already took that into consideration. Show me enough velociraptors and were all screwed man.

Fuck. Don't even get me started on deinonychus or achillobators.

Hell, forget everything i've said. Dromaeosaurids in general are terrifying.

Edit: On second thought, i'm pretty sure velociraptors were more solitary hunters than pack hunters. I believe the deinonychus was a pack hunter, which is all the more terrifying. Hahah, velociraptors would be easier to deal with. The bigger dromaeosaurids, not so much.

[XecutionerRex]

I highly, highly doubt a realistic pack of raptors could destroy tanks and heavily armed, trained soldiers.

Unless of course it's a very fictional setting. Then you're screwed.

[The Imagination]

Yeah, on second thought, velociraptors would be a lot easier to deal with.

In a dense forest though, with several packs of deinonychus around, they might have the upper hand.

[XecutionerRex]

In a dense forest, maybe. But even then, the moment the soldiers see one, they are going to spray bullets. At the same time, however, the humans' visibility will be limited. If they can't even see five feet ahead of them, guns might prove worthless unless the raptors make a lot of noise crashing through the jungles.

[The Imagination]

And than you got thermal vision and what not.

Flamethrowers would be good and bad in a situation like that, as well.

[XecutionerRex]

Flamethrowers.

Because guns are for pussies.

[The Imagination]

Hm. I'm not interested in very many roleplays right now, and the ones I am interested in are full. The two i'm in are pretty inactive cause a lot of people are caught up in their jobs. Someone should make a survival-type roleplay with dinosaurs, I wouldn't really care which setting. It just sounds like a nice idea.