How often do you use Natural Animals as encounters?

[El Borak]

This topic came up over at the Pundit's forum and I thought it would be a good one to explore.

A poster by the name of tenbones at the Pundits forum posted this collection of links:

Big Cats *are* scary and far more creative/dangerous with behaviors most people have no idea about...

Jaguar eating underwater!

twitter.com/NatureisScary/st...77671764287490

Leopard pulling warthog out of burrow

twitter.com/NatureisScary/st...03341269766146

Tiger stalking human (this one is amazing and scary)

twitter.com/NatureisScary/st...94991517593600

And there's tons of just "regular" stuff that any PC might encounter that could prove memorable. I think anything with water is always scary. Mainly because most players feel uneasy with their gear while traversing water.

You see stuff like this - and it's instant inspiration..

Shark bump

twitter.com/NatureisScary/st...27867559436288

Speed Hippo

twitter.com/NatureisScary/st...04860024328192

Turtle kills Pigeon

twitter.com/NatureisScary/st...31432120508417

Killer Whale launches seal (I will try to do this to my PC's someday)

twitter.com/NatureisScary/st...51996646821888

[El Borak]

A poster by the name of Conanist posted this link

www.prehistoric-wildlife.com/species/c/castoroides.html

The main link for the site is

www.prehistoric-wildlife.com/index.html

[mao]

I like wolves, lions and cave bears(I assume you are not talking about dinos?)

[The Perilous Dreamer]

Nov 8, 2019 8:09:36 GMT -5 mao said:

I like wolves, lions and cave bears(I assume you are not talking about dinos?)

I would include dinosaurs. And have.

[ripx187]

Natural animals are prominently featured in my random encounters lists. I tend to just annoy and be pesky with them. Snakes getting into bags, rats chewing holes into things, birds giving away your location, bears tearing up your camp, bats putting out torches, etc.

[The Perilous Dreamer]

In the wilderness animals make up about 75-80% of the encounters, some of them being sought out by the PCs.