More Predators Than Prey: Difference between revisions

 

== [[Tabletop Games]] ==

{{quote|So many of the monsters are large predators that it is difficult to justify their existence in proximity to one another. [snip] Here are some suggestions. Certain vegetation grows very rapidly in the world - roots or tubers, a grass-like plant, or grain. [[Multipurpose Monocultured Crop|One or more of such crops support many]] rabbits or herd animals or wild pigs or people or whatever you like! The vegetation springs up due to a nutrient in the soil (possibly some element unknown in the mundane world) and possibly due to the radiation of the sun as well. A species or two of herbivores which grow rapidly, breed prolifically, and need but scant nutriment is also suggested.}}

** Early D&D also had climate-appropriate herbivores on its random encounter tables. If they were removed it was presumably trimming, there not being much one can do with camels aside from staring at them. On the other hand, getting in the way of a herd of bison is all sorts of exciting.

* ''[[GURPS]]: Dungeon Fantasy'' averts this trope, advising GMs to give some consideration to the balance between predators and prey in an ecosystem.

* In ''[[Magic: The Gathering]]'' the green faction of New Phyrexia, the Vicious Swarm, is attempting to be entirely predators that prey upon each other. This works better than other examples because they don't actually need sustenance, cutting out the primary producers and herbivores as necessary components to the ecosystem.

* The computer game ''[[Metro 2033]]'' has a very strange ecology at work: The surface world has been in the grip of nuclear winter for twenty years, nothing grows there and the air is toxic. The remnants of humanity hide out in old metro stations where the only food sources are domesticated pigs and cultivated mushrooms. The tunnels between the stations are typically infested with hideous mutants that 1) are mostly larger than humans and also faster and stronger, 2) constantly attack humans in order to eat them, 3) never seem to attack each other, despite the fact that there is more meat on their fellows than on humans. A particulary silly example is how the winged beasts called demons will swoop down on human prey that is capable of shooting at it, but leave the far more numerous nosalises (who only have their claws and teeth) alone, even ignoring the bodies of the ones you have already killed.

* In ''[[Knights of the Old Republic]] II'', on Telos, there are Cannocks (and Bounty Hunters), which are at the very least hostile and onmivorous, but no "peaceful" or herbivorous creatures. If you point this out to Bao-Dur he reminds you that the planet's being terraformed and the cannocks were introduced to control herbivore numbers. Then[[Mega Corp|Czerka Corp]] hijacked the project, released too many cannocks and sent the ecosystem down the tubes. [[Death World|Dxun]] has no such excuse, though.

* ''[[World of Warcraft]]'' has some serious cases of this; a good example is the Hillsbrad Foothills. There's bears, yeti and giant spiders all over the place, but no major herbivorous beasts to feed them. There's a lot of areas like this in WoW.

** Most zones in [[WoW]] have "critters" which are small creatures (usually herbivores) that players cannot gain [[Random Drop|loot]] or [[Experience Points|experience]] from. One may think that critters are an intentional aversion of this trope, but they are never present in anywhere near large enough numbers to feed the [[Respawning Enemies|vast hordes]] of predators which populate many zones.

[[Category:Speculative Fiction Tropes]]

[[Category:Artistic License Biology]]