Monsters: When one thinks of the word 
in AD&D games, images of giants, 
dragons, owlbears, manticores, and chimeras 
come to mind.  These are monsters; 
they're the big names -- the famous 
supernatural beasties that send shivers down 
the spines of low-level characters.  But 
lions; tigers, leopards, bears, and wolves? 
Hey, these are just ordinary animals. Anyone 
can hand them. 

Wrong! 

The purpose of this article is to demonstrate
that ordinary animals are just as
dangerous to player characters (PCs) as
their imaginary counterparts. In fact, since
most gamers think little of ordinary
beasts, they are somewhat overconfident
in these encounters. A canny referee can
quite easily turn this overconfidence
against the group.

To find out what type of damage dangerous
animals are capable of doing, two
"must read" books are of help: Man is the
Prey, by James Clarke, and Maneaters, by
Peter Hathaway Capstick. It is amazing
how some animals are able to circumvent
even the advantage of modern firearms;
similar tactics can also nullify the advantage 
of hard-hitting spells such as fireball.  
With a little inspiration from these books 
(and this article, of course), the DM can 
keep his tough, dragon-slaying characters 
on their collective toes -- assuming they 
have any toes left. 

Although the main thrust of this article 
is directed toward the AD&D game, the 
information herein can be used with equal 
facility in any other RPG.  
Most fantasy Game monster listings include 
at least some mundane carnivores, 
as well as big herbivores like elephants 
and rhinoceri.  The PALLADIUM RPG 
as done especially well 
in this regard.  Since ordinary animals act 
the same anywhere, the information can 
be used by players of the TOP SECRET, 
MARVEL SUPER HEROES, BOOT HILL 
games, or by stranded space travelers and 
mutants from many sci-fi games.  
Some African beasts are even described in 
a recent module for the CALL OF CTHULHU 
Game.  Being devoured by a 
lion may sound tame compared to being 
transformed into an amorphous slime of 
nethermost horror by an eldritch abomination, 
but the character dies just the same.
Before getting to specifics about individual
animals, it might be wise to dispel a
few general myths about wild beasts. The
biggest myth is that fire drives away animals
or holds them at bay. This is not
always the case. A sufficiently hungry
carnivore presses home its attack, fire or
no fire, and irritable beasts such as hippos
actually charge fires because of the way
fire looks. In any event, a fire contributes
no more to nighttime protection than
enabling characters to see their attackers.
Also, clerics and fighters have to take off
their armor at night so they can sleep,
making them a nice, soft AC 8 to 10 when
attacked on short notice. A character can
have plate mail and a large shield that are
both + 5, but if he isn't using them when
attacked, they might as well be nonexistent.
There is some consolation for hackand-
slash PCs: the bright light of a fire
ought to attract plenty of monstrous and
mundane foes to fight.

Characters adventuring in forests or
jungles often get the bright idea of spending
the night in the trees, abandoning the
horses (and possibly some hirelings) to the
carnivores below. This is encouraged by
the belief that lions and tigers can?t climb
trees. As a matter of fact, various witnesses
claim to have seen both of these
species climb 30' up smooth, branchless
tree trunks. When adventuring in the
wild, it might be better to take along a few
sacks of caltrops instead of a book on how
to build a tree house. The situation can be
particularly acute in fantasy or sciencefiction
games; DMs might take their players
completely by surprise by coming up
with a wolf or grizzly bear that can climb
--as they have both been known to do.

Finally, game-specific information on
running wild beasts is often left up to the
referee. A DM can create a particular
percentage chance of a Cape buffalo
breaking off a charge or of a leopard
successfully tracking its prey, making it fit
the game circumstances and mechanics as
desired.

Herbivores

Most people think that herbivorous
animals are basically docile creatures. If
you leave them alone, they'll go placidly
about their business. Being a vegetarian or
near-vegetarian doesn't insure a benevolent
nature, however. A surprisingly large
number of herbivores are rather highstrung,
with tempers as brittle as egg
shells; both camels and zebras have been
known to bite off a man's arm. It pays not
to take them for granted.

Elephants
The largest of the herbivores, elephants
have a variety of attacks available to them.
They can spear human-sized opponents
with their tusks, stomp them, or simply
pick them up with their trunk and smash
them against a tree. There is also a variant
attack in which the elephant employs one
foot to pin a victim to the ground, then
uses its trunk to tear him to pieces. One
consolation on elephant attacks is that if a
character is alone when relieved of this
mortal coil, he may still receive a decent
burial; elephants have been known to
cover the bodies of their victims with
branches, bushes, and the like. An elephant
may do this even if in "must": a
peculiar madness that comes on the males
during the mating season.

There are often rumors and legends of
man-eating elephants. In reality, only one
elephant is known to have actually eaten a
person. In 1944, a Zurich Zoo employee
was so fond of tending to the Indian elephant
there that she had special quarters
made for her right by its cage. The elephant
later killed and ate her (the creature
was examined and found to contain the
keeper's remains). In all other cases, the
reports appear to be based on a habit
some elephants have of carrying the body
parts of victims around in their trunks or
mouths, for no apparent reason. It?s easy
to see how the "man-eating" rumors got
started. Of course, if the DM in a fantasy
game wants to add a carnivorous elephant
to his campaign, showing players ordinary
beasts acting as mentioned above helps
throw them off guard when the real thing
comes along.

African elephants are generally thought
of as more dangerous than their Indian
counterparts, although the smaller Indian
beasts can also be killers. If a DM's campaign
takes place in India (or an India-type
analog) at any time since the domestication
of elephants, the following information
might be of interest. Elephants in India are
so scarce (compared to the human population)
and are such valued workers that
domesticated elephants who kill people
are not destroyed. Instead, such an elephant
is given a chance to calm down, if
time permits in the work schedule. If not,
someone else is assigned to replace the
victim and things go on as usual. Since
there are only a few thousand elephants in
India, while the human population (and
hence the pool of potential mahouts) is in
the hundreds of millions, economic reality
allows no other alternative. Any character
who decides to hang around the party's
elephant "where it's safest" could be in for
a very rude awakening.
 

Rhinoceri
Rhinos are more feared than elephants
in many cases. They are duller-witted,
touchier in general, and more prone to
attack. In point of fact, rhinos are entirely
unpredictable. The biggest killer is the
African black rhinoceros -- a creature to
be avoided at all costs. Of course, characters
may decide they have to hunt this
creature for some reason. Just as elephants
are hunted for ivory, rhinos are
hunted for their horns, which are reputed
to have a wide variety of medical uses (in a
fantasy campaign, this might well be true). 
Environmentalists won't care if a few
rhinos are killed on paper; there are,
however, a few things that should be
discussed before risking the paper (albeit,
highly valued) lives of favorite characters.

The biggest myth about the rhino is that
one can escape its charge by standing still
--then dodging out of the way at the last
moment. Supposedly, the beast then continues
charging in a straight line for a
short distance until it decides to forfeit its
attack. This supposition is quite mistaken.
In spite of its great size, the black rhinoceros
can turn on a dime. If irritated
enough, the creature may well continue its
vendetta until it has trampled or tossed
something (men have been tossed 12' in
the air by black rhinos). Rhinos can sometimes
be distracted by tossing articles of
worn clothing at them; homing in on the
scent, the rhino quickly reduces a character
's wardrobe by a factor of one. If a
character is wearing a suit of armor,
things are a bit more complicated. However,
if a character is going to wear heavy
armor, he should be ready, willing, and
able to fight it out.

If a character decides to stand and fight,
a tale told from the days of the slave trade
gives an idea of the force generated by a
charging rhino. Once, a black rhinoceros
charged a line of 21 slaves who were
bound together by neck collars and
chains. The rhino headed directly into the
midst of them and impaled the center
man. The subsequent shock broke the
necks of all 20 other slaves.

One final note on rhinos, for the benefit
of any player whose character adventures
in India (or in a region with similar fauna).
Despite having a horn like all other rhinos,
the Indian rhinoceros prefers to attack its
foes by slashing them with its teeth.
Backed by the rhino's massive strength,
this biting attack does 2-8 hp damage in
AD&D game terms. Thus, even a hornless
rhino is not necessarily a harmless rhino.
 

Cape buffalo
Nearly all types of cattle are capable of
killing a man, but the only species with a
regular history of doing so is the infamous
Cape buffalo. Although dangerous, the
Cape buffalo is not as overwhelmingly
vicious as popular legend makes it out to
be. The main reason for this is the buffalo
's penchant for hiding in thick brush or
forest when wounded, in the hopes that
its pursuer passes by without noticing it.
After a number of hunters accidentally
blundered into wounded beasts, a legend
grew up that the Cape buffalo, when
wounded, would circle around and deliberately
stalk the man who injured it. Except
for the sake of storytelling, this is not
the case. Unfortunately, this evil reputation
has severely retarded progress in
farming the buffalo as a breed of domestic
cattle.

Like the rhinoceros, the Cape buffalo
can toss a victim high in the air, and is
unlikely to be satisfied with a single toss.
The Cape buffalo's charge is the hardest to
dodge of any horned animal, because the
creature keeps its eyes on the foe for the
entire charge, lowering its head only at
the last possible moment. Followers of the
dodge-at-the-last-moment philosophy who
haven't been killed by rhinos usually get it
from buffalo instead. Since it is impossible
to outrun a buffalo, the best course of
action to take when encountering a charging
herd is to stand perfectly still and wait
patiently for the herd to pass. It may be
that, rather than making an attack, the
buffalo herd is merely charging upwind
because it suspects something nasty is
afoot. Buffalo also tend to go around unfamiliar
objects. A lone buffalo, on the other
hand, might be frightened off by a character
who runs at it, screaming and waving
his arms. Then again, it might stomp the
character into the dust.

A major reason that a buffalo might
attack is because the beast is wounded.
This situation grew quite serious in Africa
after traders started unloading inefficient,
smoothbore muskets on the native tribes.
In any modern game where the natives
have such lousy guns, a DM should increase
the chance of meeting wounded
buffaloes (or anything else). Most large
creatures can absorb an incredible
amount of lead before falling, if they
aren't hit correctly. On one occasion, two
hunters pumped over a dozen shots into a
Cape buffalo before it fell over. After that,
one hunter placed his foot upon the beast
while posing for a picture in the timehonored
fashion. As soon as the man did
so, the beast lurched to its feet, knocked
him down, and killed him before it finally
dropped dead. Any character who wants
to go trophy hunting should use extreme
caution when recording his kills for
posterity.
 

Hippopotomi
The hippopotamus (as well as its larger
AD&D game relative, the behemoth) is an
extremely irritable creature. It is famous
for charging anything that irritates it,
from groups of people to campfires. This
creature's massive jaws can literally bite a
person in half -- something it does with
surprising regularity. As late as the 1960s,
at least 200 people in Africa were killed
every year by hippos.

Since the hippo is an aquatic beast, most
discussions of this creature center on its
interesting preoccupation with flipping
over boats and canoes. Granted, this is a
good way of making things interesting for
a waterborne expedition, but the hippo is
just as dangerous on land as it is in the
water. Hippos like to graze on the land
(especially at night) and tend to get in a rut
when traveling, using the same path over
and over again. They dislike having their
way blocked, and if the offending creature
is crunchable, it gets crunched. Characters
in full armor might be able to handle this
creature, but hippos live in water; thus,
the surrounding territory is likely to be
swampy or extremely muddy, with a good
chance of quicksand (just the thing for a
character in full plate armor).

Carnivores

Everyone's favorite animal villains are
the carnivores. Despite what is often
heard or read, a good many man-eatering
animals are not aged, injured, diseased, or
otherwise incapable of catching their
natural prey. In fact, they often look better
than ordinary members of their species,
with softer, glossier coats.

Most man-eaters get started by killing a
person in self-defense, thus finding out
how easy people are to kill. Some maneaters
kill several people before they actually
taste the flesh and decide that they
like it. Certain animals are more prone to
this than others. Professional hunter Peter
Capstick mentions a number of carnivores
he calls "natural" man-eaters; this doesn't
mean that some creatures naturally prey
only on humans, but that they are casual
man-eaters, eating humans along with
other animals -- for example, in the manner
of a lion eating zebras one day and
wildebeests the next. Capstick?s ?naturals?
are leopards, hyenas, crocodiles, and
sharks. In the case of the leopard, the
naturalness is enhanced by its hunger for
other primates (monkeys and apes).

Another good reason for taking up maneating
is the availability of easy prey, with
little or no risk involved. Whenever there
are a large number of human corpses
around, the local carnivores have a free
feast and an excellent opportunity to turn
into man-eaters. This circumstance is
especially useful in Oriental Adventures,
with its listings of events such as war,
bandit activity, earthquakes, floods, incursions
major and minor, and plagues. Every
time an event creates piles of bodies which
are scattered around, there should be at
least a 50% chance of man-eating activity
following. Some districts may suffer waves
of man-eating activity from different generations
of carnivores, if conditions are
right. In the days of the slave trade, for
example, those natives who were the
weakest were most often left behind.
Being the least able to defend themselves,
they were easy prey for carnivores who
had no fear of pursuit by able-bodied
hunters. Similarly, a much-used battlefield
or a dumping-ground of dead bodies is a
man-eater training ground.

There is no question that man-eaters can
be a serious menace. It is particularly
surprising that all carnivores are not maneaters.
After all, throughout most of history,
most people did not have weapons
capable of killing large carnivores in oneon-
one fights. This weakness of weaponry
is exacerbated by the fact that in a physical
fight with natural weapons, humans
are far outmatched by carnivores, such as
lions, tigers, and bears. This is clearly
shown in many games; in the AD&D
game, the big predators have the added
advantage of more hit points. Whereas the
average human has 6 hp or less, wolves
have 2 + 2 HD, leopards have 3 + 2, and
lions have 5 + 2. As you can see from
these examples, even if a peasant fighter
was able to inflict the same damage as he
received, the animal would win through
sheer attrition of hit points. Remember
that this article is about ordinary animals
and not mythological monsters. The average
person is easy prey for big carnivores
--in games or in real life.

Lack of natural prey is a common explanation
for man-eating. The main theory as
to why all big predators are not maneaters
is that men are scarce in the areas
where the big carnivores are most common.
The flesh-eaters would naturally
prefer to prey on the more common game
animals, which are generally a more reliable
source of food. And, from the animal
's point of view, why not eat people if
it is possible to survive on a diet of human
flesh? Instead of being surprised that an
animal would dare to eat people, we
should be surprised that more of them
don't.

Because carnivores are "professional"
hunters, they are a more serious threat to
adventuring parties. Rather than taking on
the entire party at once, they would
rather pick off one person at a time for
food, preferably when the victim is alone
or asleep. If caught in the act, the creature
chooses the better part of valor and flees,
possibly to return when things are quiet.
A pack of carnivores (or one big one)
could easily keep a party up all night in
this manner. Consequently, mundane
carnivores are ideal creatures for wandering
monster charts; they are relatively
more common than dragons, and they
don't hoard mountains of treasure, thus
reducing the risk of an imbalance in the
game. Carnivores can harm a party of
adventurers in other ways as well, such as
killing or scaring off horses, henchmen,
and guides, or stealing food supplies.

Bears
The largest-known land carnivores
today, bears can be major menaces. The
biggest and most dangerous bears, the
Kodiak and polar, don?t actually kill that
many people (of course, being restricted to
a few islands, the Kodiak doesn?t get many
opportunities). The grizzly bear has a welldeserved
reputation of being vicious in
battle, but not-so-well-deserved reputation
for unprovoked attacks. Grizzlies rarely
attack without provocation, but ? as a
hunter once remarked ? the bear is the
one who decides what provocation is.

The smaller bears do as much or more
damage than the big ones. The relatively
small American black bear can and does
kill people; there are seven recorded instances
in which people were apparently
killed for food. Oddly enough, in every
case, the region had a bad harvest of berries
that season. On one occasion, a black
bear killed a lumberjack and stayed with
the body even after being jabbed with a
hook and having a five-pound can of lard
bounced off its head. It was finally driven
off by inaccurate rifle fire after equally
inaccurate revolver fire failed to frighten
it. Surprisingly enough, the bear that kills
the most people is the even smaller sloth
bear of India and Sri Lanka. A highly
irritable beast, this creature has killed
more people than even the grizzly.
As the largest land carnivores, bears are
appropriately powerful. Grizzly bears
have often killed cattle for food, dragging
full-grown steers a mile or more. Their
capacity to absorb lead is also amazing.
The Lewis and Clark expedition used up
almost a dozen rounds of ammunition in
order to kill the first grizzly encountered;
the bear was finally slain by a shot in the
head before it killed several members of
the expedition. This information should be
greatly appreciated by BOOT HILL game
players, as grizzlies were relatively common
in the Old West. One bit of advice is
helpful: Don't waste pistol ammunition on
a bear unless you can fill its head with
relatively large-caliber revolver bullets. If
a character plans on using a derringer on
any part of the bear, the only thing that
can be said is DON'T. Fire in the air to
scare it, but don't hit it. A character would
be better off using a knife in this situation;
at least the knife won't run out of
ammunition.

Wolves
The wolf is one of the most famous and
most controversial of the large predators;
its man-eating record is quite odd. In Europe
and Asia, the wolf is a confirmed
man-killer, while in North America there
has never been a single case of a maneating
wolf, and almost no cases of killings
or attacks in general. There seems to be
no good explanation, except for the fact
that North America kept its large game
population for far longer than Europe did.
As the following shows, North Americans
are lucky to have missed killer wolves.

The largest recorded death toll by
wolves was run up by the Beast (or Beasts)
of Gevaudan, France. Accounts vary as to
whether one or two wolves were involved;
the death toll makes it seem likely that
there were two. Operating from 1764-65,
it (or they) killed 60 people, mostly women
and children. There were also a number
of failed attacks, including attacks on
herders in which the victim?s own cattle
grouped together to chase the wolf off.
These wolves were massive beasts of a
reddish-brown color. When it was all over,
a king's physician examined one and
thought it more like a hyena (unknown in
Europe since prehistoric times) than a
wolf. The wolves eluded innumerable
posses, professional hunters, and army
troops before finally being hunted down.
Depending upon the version of the final
report chosen, the death toll comes to
either 30 or 60 people killed per wolf.

Wolves are incredibly cunning on the
hunt. Cases have been cited in which
wolves have attacked farmhouses after the
men had left (often to join wolf hunts),
slaying women and children. Wolves are
quite good at dodging hunters and avoiding
traps; even in the 1950s and 1960s,
there were reports of wolves killing and
eating people in Spain, Portugal, Italy,
Turkey, Syria, Finland, and Russia, among
other places. Even soldiers were killed in
some instances: an Italian soldier in the
1950s, and two Finnish soldiers in the mid-
1940s. After the latter killings, the Finnish
army launched a massive wolf hunt involving
airplanes, machine guns, and land
mines; they killed only two wolves.

Pilovo, Siberia, December 1927: With all
the game gone, the wolves of the region
closed in on one small town. First, the
watchdogs were killed and eaten, then
almost half a dozen men who tried to
leave the village. After this, the wolves
entered Pilovo en masse; hundreds of
them roamed the streets, entering the
stables and killing all the horses. After the
horses were gone, the bigger wolves flung
themselves at the doors of homes, breaking
them down. A Soviet reconnaissance
plane finally discovered what was going
on, but by the time army troops arrived,
nearly every family in Pilovo had suffered
at least one casualty. Earlier, in 1914, a
caravan in the Urals was annihilated by
large packs of wolves. The wolf?s uncanny
intelligence seemed to be at work here, as
the wolves picked off all the gun-toting
men (who were reduced to fighting with
rifle butts at the end) before starting in on
the women, children, and livestock.

A final example of what a determined
wolf pack is capable of doing may be cited.
In France, 1447, a pack of wolves led by a
large brute (called Courtaud by the local
population) started killing livestock and
people in the suburbs of Paris that fall. In
the course of the winter, the wolves actually
managed to enter the walled city
itself, killing over 40 people before being
wiped out in front of Notre Dame Cathedral.
With this type of resourcefulness and
determination, even bigger cities are not
entirely safe from wolf attacks.
 

Hyenas
One of Capstick's "natural" man-eaters,
the hyena is possibly the worlds most
underestimated predator. Since a large
part of this creature's diet comes from
scavenging, the hyena is assumed to be a
cowardly creature. This is not the case.
Hyenas can and frequently do hunt down
and kill their own prey, banding together
in packs to attack antelopes and other
herd animals. In fact, they are often so
successful that lions often follow the hyenas
to scavenge from their leavings.

The hyena's power and size (male hyenas
sometimes get as large as 150 pounds)
is frequently underestimated. Since the
hyena is a scavenger, it naturally stands to
reason that its jaws are powerful enough
to crush bones. This assumption is correct.
Hyenas bites anything they can get their
teeth into.

The power of a hyena's jaws is best
illustrated when it engages in its favorite
pastime of raiding camps. Anything made
of leather or animal hide is in imminent
peril of being eaten, and the smell of blood
or food can endanger anything. Metal cans
have been bitten open in order to get at
the contents, and African tribesmen who
delayed cleaning their weapons after a
hunt often found their iron-bladed spears
chewed into uselessness; Even cooking
pots have been carried off. Any dressed
game or carcasses hanging out are prime
targets for hyena attacks.

Man-eating hyenas often attack when
the victims are asleep outdoors (one pack
in the 1950s is reputed to have killed 60
people). Like other man-eaters, hyenas
completely devour their victims -- bad
news for AD&D game players who are
unafraid of death due to clerical resurrection.
Both raise dead and resurrection
require an intact body; if the body is eaten
(and man-eaters always eat the body immediately
after a kill), the victim is gone
forever unless his comrades can lay their
hands on a wish.

Hyenas also have an annoying habit of
"taste-testing" sleeping victims. Instead of
eating the whole person, they simply bite
off a mouthful or so and run off into the
night. While any part of a person?s body is
at risk, the favorite target is the area of
the face just under the eyes.

If a character wants to fight it out with
one or more hyenas, here's a final anecdote
relating the creature's strength. A
band of big game hunters in Africa killed
an antelope and split the carcass in half.
While they were putting half of it in their
Land Rover, a hyena charged the remaining
carcass, picked it up in its jaws (all 40
pounds of it) without slowing down, and
ran off into the night with its head held
high. The carcass was carried entirely
above the ground. Doubtless, a similar
grab could be conducted against a lightly
armored halfling or gnome. 

Lions
The lion is one of the most famous maneaters,
though as a species it is not nearly
as enthusiastic as the hyena or the crocodile.
When a lion turns man-eater, though,
it can do an incredible amount of damage
--especially in an area where the people
are poorly equipped. It has been calculated
that a truly dedicated man-eating lion
(i.e., one that lives exclusively on human
flesh) must eat a minimum of 50 adult
humans a year to stay alive (150 a year if it
wants to stay in peak condition). Some
lions do, indeed, stay healthy on such a
diet. In the Njombe area of East Africa, a
pride of 15 to 20 lions terrorized the area
for nearly 20 years, killing 1,500 to 2,000
people -- an average of 100 kills per lion.
If a fantasy frontier region had beasts like
these for its lion population, land-owning
player characters might find their dominions
ruined -- not by wizards, orcs, or
dragons, but by ordinary animals.

Lions are capable of some extraordinary
physical feats. Their ability to climb trees
(popular legend notwithstanding) has
already been mentioned. A full-grown
male has the strength of 10 average men,
which is obviously useful when pouncing
on and killing antelopes and zebras. In one
instance, a lion was seen jumping over a
12' chasm from a standing start; some
have been known to leap as far as 36'.
Although it is true that lionesses do much
of the pride?s hunting, the big male does
his own stalking and killing whenever
necessary. With talents like these, merely
surrounding one?s camp with caltrops or
tripwire fences is grossly inadequate. One
lion is capable of dragging off anyone
from a well-guarded camp. If the pride
joins in, the campaign is over.

Like other predators, lions have more
intelligence than they are given credit for.
A common man-eater tactic, one particularly
common in the Njombe killings, is for
the pride to constantly roam the hunting
grounds, leaving a neighborhood immediately
after finishing a kill. Thus, the second
victim of the pride could be killed just
after hearing of the untimely demise of
the first victim a hundred miles away. This
obviously makes setting traps useless;
where should they be set when it isn't
known where the intended victims are
going to be? Player characters who hunt
man-eating lions (or other man-eating cats)
should be given a run for their money.

Lions are quite common in worlds or
historical periods with no high-powered
rifles. In ancient times, they lived all over
Africa and Asia (there are still a few hundred
left in India). At one time, they also
roamed over Southern Europe, until they
and their brethren in North Africa and
Mesopotamia were wiped out by the Romans,
who expended them in gladiatorial
contests. Mark Anthony even used tame
lions to draw a chariot. A version of the
cave lion, Felis atrox, even lived in Ice Age
North America until the Paleoindians
wiped it out. (As another indication of lion
intelligence, at Rancho La Brea, over thirty
Smilodon (sabre-toothed tiger) skeletons
were found in the tar pits for every single
cave lion.) To top it off, cryptozoologists
(scholars who hunt for creatures like
Bigfoot and the Loch Ness Monster) claim
that frequent lion reports in the U.S.A.
indicate that Felis atrox may still be hiding
out in the wilder portions of the country.

Treating lions like intelligent PCs or
NPCs is not necessarily a bad idea. In one
African story, the head native tracker in a
lion hunt wrangled some time off to get
married. In a strange example of patience
and cunning,. the lion being chased silently
followed the tracker home, hid during the
wedding, and hauled him off to dinner on
his honeymoon night. The act was performed
so quietly that the bride never
once woke up; only when she arose in the
morning and saw blood on her husbands
pillow did anyone realize what had happened.
Incidentally, in games in which
damage is listed for various parts of the
body, a lion can kill a sleeping man by
sinking its thumb-thick fangs through the
skull.

In one respect, lions are much more
dangerous than any other big cat: they
have the advantage of numbers. Only lions
are social cats, and a pride could have as
many as a dozen members or more. Since
the Monster Manual gives a grown lion 5
+ 2 HD, it is easy to see how a full pride
could be a reasonable challenge for mid- to
high-level PCs. Even high-level characters
may find lions to be a major threat ?
especially if they are attacked at night
when the fighters don?t have their magic
armor on, and the archmages haven?t
memorized their offensive or defensive
spells. If the other cats (especially the
larger tigers) were social, they would be
much more formidable creatures. In
science-fiction or fantasy games, the referee
can tamper with the laws of nature,
making this possibility become fact. 

As a side note to lion-related subjects, it
should be mentioned that African witch
doctors use a form of magic called Mbojo
(actually a type of drug treatment) to
create what the locals believe to be beast
people or lycanthropes. These victims, the
watu Simba, are drugged, dressed in animal
(typically lion) skins, outfitted with
weapons or steel claws, and hypnotically
ordered to murder victims at the witch
doctor's command. Since the victims are
drugged, their actions and behavior are
similar to that of zombies. In the AD&D
game, PCs may actually believe them to be
regular undead zombies, which could
cause a waste of holy water and antiundead
spells. It might be a good idea to
have watu Simba soldiers on the outer
perimeter of any location with real undead
in the main line of defense. The watu
Simba fight as zombies (i.e., poorly), but if
the PCs hurl all their holy water and otherwise
weaken themselves, it could even
the odds for the final showdown.

Tigers
The largest of all the great cats currently
alive, the tiger naturally requires the most
food. A dedicated man-eater must consume
at least 60 human adults to meet its
minimum yearly requirements, while good
condition requires 180. Some tigers
achieve even these extreme goals. The
most infamous, the Champawat tigress,
killed 436 people before being slain.
Though not all tigers are man-eaters,
enough of them have turned killer to run
up a very bloody record. It is estimated
that in the past 400 years, tigers have
eaten a minimum of 500,000 people in
India, and a million in all of Asia. To accomplish
this, 300-800 man-eaters must
have operated at any one time in this
period. For one example, in late 19th century
Singapore, 600-800 people were killed
each year by tigers, and 15 men were
killed there in 1929. In India in the late
1940s, 800 people a year were killed by
tigers; as late as the 1960s it was still at
least 50 a year.

As befits the largest cat, the tiger is also
the strongest. One killed a 1,700-pound
gaur (a type of wild cattle), moved it 15
yards, then was chased from the kill.
Afterwards, 13 men were unable to move
the carcass as much as one yard. Tigers
have easily cleared fences 8? high by jumping,
and, when hunted by mounted men,
they have adopted the unsettling habit of
leaping to the elephant?s back and mauling
the riders. Sometimes the leap is made
with such force that the howdah is
knocked off the elephant?s back. As a
result, hunters of a hundred years ago
developed large-caliber pistols, called
howdah pistols, to meet this contingency.
What a party of D&D® or AD&D game
players would do is not so easy to say, but
using fireball at such close quarters would
be problematic.

The tiger is another adaptable predator.
It was once found all over Asia, from the
snowy steppes of Siberia to the steaming
jungles of Indochina and India. Tigers
have been known to roam as far west as
Mesopotamia and the southern provinces
of the Soviet Union, and fossil finds seem
to indicate that they once lived in Africa.
Despite the name, the sabre-toothed tiger
was a separate species from tigers, so its
existence in Europe and the Americas
should not be taken as evidence of the
wide-ranging habitat of the tiger family.

Tigers are hard to stalk, despite their
bulk. Aside from the fact that their stripes
provide near-perfect camouflage, they
have a quirky habit that they share only
with jaguars in the big-cat line: they are
excellent swimmers. In fact, tigers have
often been known to swim out to fishing
boats and other shallow-water craft to get
at the people on board. Also, as said at the
beginning of this article, tigers climb trees.
Like most other big cats, tigers give
hunters plenty of trouble, but for sheer
ability at concealing themselves and living
near a human community undetected,
tigers take a back seat to leopards.
 

Leopards
A relatively small cat, the leopard is
surprisingly powerful for its size. On two
observed occasions, leopards have climbed
30' up a tree with a 90-pound antelope,
and 12' with a 200-pound baby giraffe.
Grown men have been carried 1-4 miles
before being eaten, though this is an infrequent
event. Although a "natural" maneater,
leopards prefer to concentrate on
smaller prey, such as women and children.
Aside from being all black instead of spotted,
the black panther is the same animal
as the leopard in all respects.

Veteran hunters often came to hate the
leopard for its "cowardly" behavior, meaning
that the leopard would not walk out in
the open to be shot. Besides having the
advantage of small size, the leopard is
highly intelligent. When any great cat
makes a kill, a standard tactic of human
hunters is to set up a tree blind nearby
and wait until the beast comes back for
seconds. With this tactic becoming more
and more frequent, some leopards picked
up the habit of circling around when
returning to the kill, and using their perfect
night vision to stalk the hunter lying
in wait.

As illustrated above, if a leopard decided
to become a full-time man-eater, it could
cause a great deal of trouble in the neighborhood.
The two most infamous maneaters
are the Rudraprayag leopard,
which killed 125 people, and the Panar
leopard, which killed an estimated 400
people in the course of its career (it is
suspected that many other victims were
killed, but their deaths were unreported
due to the remote areas involved). As with
all man-eaters, it behooves would-be
hunters to kill the creature quickly, ending
its career before it picks up new tactics of
evasion.

As an example of the nervous tension
that can be generated in a leopard hunt,
veteran hunter Jim Corbett (who slew the
Panar leopard and other assorted maneaters)
twice suffered nervous breakdowns
in the course of hunting man-eating
leopards. The canny leopards often managed
to come as close to the hunter as 2-4?,
always keeping an intervening object
between them and Corbett so as to deny
him a decent shot. The implications for
AD&D game players are obvious: the same
tactics also deny magic-users many opportunities
to kill the beast with long-range
magic. Any magic-user employing a spell
like fireball at a range of 2? would be more
of a threat to the party than to any leopard.
Also, if the cat springs into the midst
of the party, a great deal of pushing, shoving,
and bumping immediately occurs ?
ideal conditions for causing spell-casters to
lose concentration (and their spells). Fighters
must do all the dirty work, assuming
the leopard is willing to fight to the death
and not run away after an initial attack.
Playing hide-and-seek in the thick jungle
can wear out any party.

The leopard lives in both Africa and
Asia, and has adapted itself to all terrain
features: plains, jungle, forest, mountains,
deserts, and ice fields. It also existed in
southern Europe until Roman times (animal
collection teams supplying the coliseums
were very busy). When the DM is
creating a new world and supplying it
with wildlife, he should take this adaptability
into consideration. Leopards have
even been captured prowling the suburbs
of major cities, and are frequent scavengers
around small towns and villages,
although they are rarely (if ever) seen.

Other cats
The other members of the cat family are
usually too small to kill people. The cheetah
is large enough to do so (hence its vital
statistics in Monster Manual II) although
this creature has never been known to
attack a man. The only regular big cats
left, the jaguar and the puma, have killed
people, but only rarely as food. They do,
however, follow people. out of curiosity;
naturally, if the person realizes he is being
followed, he probably assumes it is out of
hunger rather than out of curiosity.

The puma may be nothing more than an
overgrown pussycat, as it has a reputation
of being more cowardly than any other cat
of its size. The jaguar, however, is something
else again. The third largest of the
big cats, it is so powerful that it regularly
kills cattle by biting into (and through) the
skulls. It has a nasty reputation to match.
Though there are few documented attacks
on man, many may have gone unrecorded.
From the standpoint of common sense,
there seems to be no good reason why
there are no proven cases of man-eating
jaguars. The other big cats have plenty of
big game in their habitats; Africa has the
largest selection of prey in the world,
while Asia has plenty, though with less
variety. Even North America has goodsized
deer, elk, and pronghorns. In the
jungles of Latin America, however, the
largest prey are the pig-sized tapirs and
capybaras. Jaguars rarely go into the
mountain homes of llamas, vicunas, and
alpacas, and on the pampas they have little
chance of catching the fleet guanacos and
ostrichlike rheas. So with such a paucity of
natural prey, it seems only natural that the
jaguars would prey on man. The aforementioned
theory of human scarcity
seems to be the only restriction.

In Australia, there are occasional reports
of large, unidentifiable striped cats prey
ing on cattle and sheep. So far, nothing is
proven, but a marsupial tiger is certainly
one possibility. Since the animal is so rare
(assuming there is one), no attempt is
made herein to assign statistics for play to
it. If a gamemaster wants to use such a
creature in his campaign, he may think of
it as a regular tiger with a pouch for its
young.

Wolverines
The wolverine, nicknamed ?the glutton?
by inhabitants of the northern regions, is
an animal that is a nuisance out of proportion
to its size. The giant version, of
course, rates as a fourth-level monster in
the AD&D game, but the regular wolverine
can cause trouble for a party as well.
Although this creature probably won?t
attack a grown human, no assurance of
safety is given to dwarves, gnomes, and
halflings. If attacked first, say for the sake
of its fine fur, a wolverine could inflict
potentially fatal damage on its assailant. As
evidence of this, 30-pound adult wolverines
have defeated full-grown bears and
pumas, driving them from their dens.

However, direct combat is not the only
way in which a wolverine can harm a
party.

One habit the wolverine has that makes
it an annoying neighbor is its practice of
following trappers on their rounds or
otherwise hunting out traps, then stealing
the carcasses of any animals that were
caught. Wolverines have also been known
to break into cabins to plunder stocks of
food. What wolverines don?t eat, they
ruin, and that goes for inedible items in
the cabin as well. Thus, if some PCs decide
to hole up for the winter in a cabin in the
woods, they could find themselves with
more trouble than they can handle.

Much has been made in recent years of
the challenge of characters adventuring in
the wilderness without sufficient supplies.
While this can make an intriguing adventure,
it can be hard to arrange. If characters
can afford it, they may buy adequate
stocks of supplies for outdoor adventuring.
If a DM wants to force them into the
great outdoors, he must ruin or steal
supplies after the PCs get it. How better to
do it than to have a wolverine break into
the cabin while everyone's outside --
possibly after discovering that the wolverine
has already robbed all their traps?
With no food, the characters must take to
the woods, hoping to find game -- but
they are more than likely to find starving
predators looking for the same (or perhaps
a bear who was displaced from his
cave by the very wolverine that started
this mess). If half the party freezes to
death outside while the other half is eaten
by starving wolves, it is doubtful the players
will consider the wolverine nothing
more than a nuisance.

Crocodiles
The crocodile is another of the "natural"
man-eaters, and very likely the most successful.
There is a record of one crocodile
living in the Kihange River in central Africa
which ran up a score of 400 victims.
Another on the Zambesi River killed 300.
The killers were both Nile crocodiles,
which have the best opportunity for killing
humans. In the 1930s and 1940s,
nearly 4,000 people a year were killed by
Nile crocodiles in Africa; the toll was
roughly 1,000 a year in the 1960s, and
several hundred people are still killed each
year by crocodiles in Africa today. The
"mugger" crocodile of India is no longer a
threat, though that species claimed 250
victims a year into the 1930s.

The crocodiles listed above rarely get
beyond 20' in length. The salt water, or
estuarine, crocodile of the Indian Ocean
region, however, is something else altogether.
This monster regularly grows to a
length of 30', and 40' specimens have been
recorded. As a number of books show,
this is the species that wiped out 500 Japanese
troops on Peleau Island in 1943, after
U.S. forces drove them into the swamps. A
larger toll came in 1945, on an island off
the Burmese coast. The British surrounded
a thousand Japanese troops there and
forced their retreat into the swamps. After
a night filled with screams and roars,
twenty demoralized survivors staggered
out to surrender. It is also believed that
one or more of these creatures ate David
Rockefeller in New Guinea. The estuarine
crocodile doesn't have the same opportunities
for catching human prey as its African
relatives; still, it does the best that it can.

No matter what species, the crocodile is
a clever, powerful predator. Nile crocodiles
have been known to drag down full-grown
lionesses, rhinos, and Cape buffalos, although
catches like these are rare. They
mostly live on predatory catfish, which in
turn live on the same fish people eat,
which makes the crocodile something of a
major asset. Unfortunately, the crocodile
eats anything it can catch, including livestock
coming down to the river for a drink
and native women filling their water jugs.
The crocodile elaborately stalks its landbound
prey, showing an intelligence one
would not suspect in a reptile.

A crocodile's hunting skill extends beyond
its aquatic habitat. For short distances,
crocodiles can outrun men; one is
recorded as having snatched an antelope
10 yards away from the water before it
could flee. The crocodile in question ran
from the water, raced up to attack, and
raced back with its prey in a matter of
seconds. Although it is physically impossible
for a waterbound crocodile to knock
down landbound prey with its tail, one tail
swipe can break a leg if the victim is on
the same level.

Crocodiles are a deadly menace, no
matter what game is being played. In the
TOP SECRET game, for example, the
weapons secret agents most commonly
carry are light caliber pistols or submachine
guns. These weapons have little or
no chance of penetrating a crocodile?s
thick hide. Nothing smaller than a .45
caliber weapon should be used in this
event (even at close range), and it requires
a magnum-type pistol to cause any worthwhile
damage.

Once a crocodile gets hold of its prey, it
drags the victim underwater to drown.
Crocodiles are quite patient during this
process, so feigning death is useless in
making the creature let go prematurely.
After the victim dies, the crocodile tears it
into bite-size chunks. Often, the carcass is
left to rot, making the process of tearing
easier. When a swarm of crocodiles are
around, they take turns tearing off pieces
of meat, though it might mean that none
gets a full meal if enough diners are
around.

As is fitting for such efficient killing
machines, crocodiles are widespread;
there are species all over Africa and tropical
Asia. They exist throughout the tropical
portions of Latin America and in the
mangrove swamps of the southern tip of
Florida (don?t confuse them with the more
common alligators in the rest of the state).
There are even crocodiles in Australia,
though there are few if any records of
them killing people. The salt water crocodiles
are found throughout the Indian
Ocean region, and can be found at sea in
Indonesia and the Philipines, and countless
other islands, including New Guinea. Until
the Ice Age, crocodiles even lived in the
warmer parts of Europe.

Killer whales
The killer whale is one of the deadliest
predators in the sea. Although a good deal
of folklore has been accumulated concerning
its man-eating habits, there is no documented
case of a deliberate attack on man.
This is not to say that the killer whale has
never eaten anyone; there's just no written
proof.

Although it lives mostly on fish, the
killer whale also consumes a great number
of dolphins, porpoises, whales, seals, walruses,
and penguins, making it the only
cetacean to eat warm-blooded animals. As
has been noted a number of times, killer
whales rise to the surface suddenly and
break through the surface ice to see if any
prey is available; if prey is present, smaller
ice floes are rammed and shattered to
force animals on them into the water.
Large whales are attacked by ?wolf-packs,?
which take turns lunging at their prey and
tearing off chunks of flesh and blubber.
Baleen whales are favored, as they have
no real teeth with which to fight. Killer
whales are quite voracious; although it
may take a whole herd to wipe out a highlevel
adventuring party, it takes only one
to devour it. A 30? killer whale was once
found with 13 porpoises and 14 seals in its
stomach (it choked to death on seal #15). A
grown man could be entirely swallowed in
the same manner, which is one reason not
to put faith in the "no attacks recorded"
account.
 

Other fish of prey
So much has been written about sharks,
barracudas, and piranhas that they have
been grouped together into one category
herein. There's really not too much to be
said about these fish that can?t be found in
any decent book on the subject. Everyone
knows about the ?feeding frenzy? ? that
mad wave of biting that follows the scent
of blood. However, it may not be known
that recent studies have shown that some
sharks, when initially circling their prey
before an attack, can be driven off if the
intended victim takes the offensive against
them. Apparently, sharks are so accustomed
to the role of predator that any
turning of the tables is too much for them
to take.

One shark which is not as well known as
the tiger, great white, mako, etc., is the
main man-killer. This is the bull shark, also
known in some African regions as the
Lake Nicaragua shark, the Zambesi shark,
and the Genges shark. This shark, like
only a few other fish, can survive in both
fresh and salt water. If a bull shark hunting
off the coast of Louisiana decides to
swim up the Mississippi River to sample
the cuisine of Arkansas or Missouri, there
is no reason why it cannot.

It is worthwhile to end this discussion
on sharks with a few words of warning.
Characters in games such as the TOP
SECRET game may be equipped with
shark repellent. This compound does NOT
harm sharks; at most, it makes them reluctant
to enter the area of colored water.
Tests conducted by the U.S. Navy after
World War II showed that blindfolded
sharks swim through the repellent cloud
without knowing it was there. A character
is better off following the standard warnings:
don?t spear fish or otherwise cause
blood to be shed underwater (many DMs
cause large schools of sharks to show up
shortly after an underwater battle), don?t
wear anything shiny, don?t move around a
lot when sharks are around (not only the
sight of movement, but also the water
vibrations attract them), and leave as soon
as possible when sharks do turn up. It?s
also a good idea never to dive alone; if a
shark attacks, there is always hope that it
may go after the other guy(s).

The above warnings also apply to barracudas.
Despite their ferocious appearance,
barracudas do not attack humans when
they see what they?re up against. The
swift barracuda preys on small, fast fish,
and does not like to tackle something it
can?t devour all at once. Most barracuda
attacks, however, take place at night or in
murky water. The fish sees an arm or leg
moving and bites it, not realizing that it is
part of a much larger creature. Referees
should take this into account when adventures
take place under these conditions.
Although barracudas are dangerous and
unpredictable, they are not ?natural?
man-eaters.

The piranha has also had a great deal of
literature written in its honor; it has even
been used as the model for the quipper in
the FIEND FOLIO® Tome. However, of well
over a dozen separate species of piranha,
only a few (not including the largest species,
which is a devout vegetarian) live up
to their reputation. Though piranhas can
and sometimes do kill people, most of their
attacks consist of nipping off a finger or
toe from a person washing in a piranhainfested
river. Some stories of their speed
in carcass-stripping are plainly exaggerated,
but one school is recorded as reducing
a 100-pound capybara to the skeleton
in less than one minute. Two minutes or
less is required to finish off a grown man
--assuming the whole school concentrates
on him. As with sharks, it is often the
scent of blood that sets piranhas off in a
feeding frenzy.

Some wilderness scenarios
Of course, all this information is useless
unless the DM actually get the PCs out into
the great outdoors. Since obvious manipulation
by the DM generally antagonizes
players, some originality must be shown.
Stranding players in the wilderness due to
shipwreck wears thin after the first few
times, as does getting them lost en route to
a dungeon because the guide ran out on
them or got killed.

Exploration is one major scenario that is
not often used, and it is always a good way
to introduce new monsters -- why not
new animals as well? As a related scenario,
a PC might be enticed to build a stronghold
on the frontier and attract settlers.
Given the kill record of some carnivores, it
is obvious that supernatural monsters are
not always needed to force the abandonment
of such a settlement, or to limit its
growth as a result. Hunting down livestock
killers and man-eaters is good adventuring
practice for stay-at-home landowners, and
it should be far more frequent than sally
ing forth to slay dragons.

Conversely, the PCs could be mercenaries
hired to rid the neighborhood of
predators because the local authorities
cannot or will not do the job themselves. If
a war is on the horizon or in progress, the
local ruler may not be able to spare any
troops for this purpose. Otherwise, he
may have darker motives. Since predators
have proven their ability to depopulate
regions, they could prove to be an ideal
means for running peasants off their
farms. If the local despot covets more
land, but doesn't want to seem overtly evil
by seizing it, he could simply make up
excuses for not being able to send aid,
thus letting the carnivores do his dirty
work for him. This allows for politics,
plots, intrigue, and the like to appear in
game play. For example, what happens if a
character discovers that this is how the
monarch acquired the land which was
then granted to him? One way to find out
is to play through the scenario yourself.

Another possible scenario is, of course,
the mercantile scenario ? i.e., hunting
animals for profit. Killing elephants for
their ivory is the main version of this
scenario, but there are others. As
Katherine Kerr explained in DRAGON
issue #94, a medieval-style army is hard-pressed
to find enough food, so PCs might
be able to turn a profit by hunting to
supply the troops with fresh meat. The
same goes for isolated settlements. In the
Old West, many market hunters made a
living by hunting game to supply meat to
mining camps and small towns which had
not yet been reached by the railroads.
This is an excellent occupation for BOOT
HILL game characters, since large and
small game is plentiful in almost any
pre-modern environment.

If referees follow the example of real-life
animals, they should be able to keep their
players on the ball without constant introduction
of newer and better monsters,
magic items, or technological artifacts. The
introduction of tougher, wiser mundane
monsters should spice up any campaign,
whether it takes place in modern India,
medieval Europe, colonial Africa, or Elfland.
As they say in the safari movies,
?happy hunting.?
 

DECEMBER 1986
 

Elfdart wrote:
My favorite party-killer is a medium to large pride of lions. Surprise + 40' leap + overbearing by an animal that weighs 300-500# + claw/claw/bite/rake/rake =TPK

Remember...

The unarmored Masai warriors generaly did for lions with nothing more than a spear, and one overborn would shelter under his large shield pretty effectively until his fellows killed the attacking feline.

Now a big, charging-butting/tusking-trampling critter is more likely to wreak havoc on a combat formation, while a pack of say 20 hyeans or 30 wild dogs is as effective as a prode of as many as 10 lions 

Cheers,
Gary