Biology for Fantasy Settings is a generic role playing game supplement published by Skirmisher Publishing.
The supplement is available as a 16-page PDF from DriveThruRPG for $2.99 but was purchased at a reduced price as part of a special bundle. Two pages are the front and rear covers, three the front matter and one the back matter.
The introductory paragraph explains that, while there are articles on the ecology of fantasy settings, they mostly use real world ecology as their base and neglect the fantasy aspect of it, and that this article is intended to cover that.
Biological Needs starts by saying that these are food, water, air, shelter and a need to reproduce. It then covers each of these and looks at how fantastical worlds could handle these.
Habitats are where creatures live, and in a fantasy setting, there are a lot of habitats that there wouldn’t be in a normal world; creatures could even be tiny enough to take up much less space. Creatures might also be able to pass through each other, and thereby live in the same physical space.
Biological Concepts is the main part of the supplement. This is a collection of descriptions of various concepts, some real world, others fantastical, that can be used to define creatures.
Final Words explains that the only reasonable way a world can survive with anything resembling a normal biosphere with these concepts is divine intervention. It also explains that world builders should pick and choose what they want.
Biology for Fantasy Settings in Review
The PDF is bookmarked with the major sections linked. Navigation is okay. The text maintains a two-column format and appeared to be free of errors. There are a number of tweaked colour photos as illustrations. Presentation is okay.
By the looks of it, this was originally published in d-Infinity, so it’s possible that some may already own this. The supplement itself is a discussion of concepts related to creating fantasy ecologies, using the fantastical options that are available. It’s more suited to high-magic settings than low. Biology for Fantasy Settings is an interesting resource that looks at fantasy ecologies and it can be found by clicking here.
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