"Monster manuals" should keep this in mind.

Net biomass has little bearing on rate of threat, and most rulesets tend to rely on threats being motile instead of the mudcore disease, poison, and venom everywhere that most IRL threat stems from.

I can't wait for the Flora Identification Manual for Gulleys and Greenhouses.

>>96076136
Is OPs image biomass? I thought it was something to do with number of species

>>96076575
A long time ago I had a dream about a greenhouse that was a trap for adventurers. I think it was a demi plane or something.

>>96076642
The unit is Gt C which is Gigatons of carbon. That's biomass.

>a game focused on including impossible and highly improbable aspects should keep this shitty realism aspect in mind
I'm compelled to ask why, but I doubt I'll get a straight (or any) answer.

>>96076090 (OP)
Ah yes, how could I be so silly! What we really need is a monster manual that's 90% plants

>>96076796
>monster manual that's 90% plants
Based?

>>96076756
How is the total biomass of all viruses a "shitty aspect of realism"? This is fertile ground for the vivid imagination!

>>96076859
>>96076756
i mean it kind of is, the key is to see how small animals are compared to everything else, then do something with that

you probably aren't going to manage anything in slop like dnd or 40k, but there's room for that kind of factoid in other stuff, one of my owod biological mages could have done a lot with that discrepancy

>>96076090 (OP)
Is there a reason why these graphs are rendered this way or did this person drop out of art school

>>96076090 (OP)
>there are more plants than animals
Yeah, that's why animals live in the woods and not the other way around.

>>96076090 (OP)
That's like saying a guide book for IRL hunters should include information on random plants, bugs completely irrelevant to hunting game or even fucking fish.
Books contain information relevant to the topic, in case of Monster Manuals the topic is your interactions with Monsters and creatures, do you seriously expect to have information about a blue beetle that has 0 in every single fucking stat, then a red beetle that has 0 in every single fucking stat, just because they're the most common realistically?

>>96076090 (OP)
Oh sweet Jesus is this peak “overthinking it”.

You know what every monster manual should have? Hell it should be the first chapter of the first MM:

First off full NPC stats for the following 4 NPC profiles: “Random pedestrian”, “merchant/Innkeeper”, “security”, and “local leader” followed by an easy and quick 1,2 guide for how to modify and customize each template as needed while still keeping them balanced, and maybe some guides as to what “levels”, or “difficulty” different positions/titles should be at, etc…

Because these ARE, hands down, the NPC character archetypes the players will be interacting with more than any other. They are also, typically, the most frequently improvised characters the GM is going to end up creating, So might as well make it easy on the GM and have it be front and center in the Monster Manual, and the most organized. Also, skip the “how to make narratively interesting” diatribe for these four. The PCs are already unexpectedly fascinated with the NPCs and the GM is ad libbing the characters as we speak, so just cover the stats and how to best customize them as needed and move on.

Then you can fill the rest with whatever “cool” monsters you can come up with that might spark the GM’s imagination; or vindictiveness, I don’t know.

>>96076090 (OP)
It's not even relevant, though. There's ~500,000 species of plant, but there's ~2,000,000 species of animal.

Agreed, more plant races and jungle themed campaigns

>>96076859
>>96077352
>didn't give a straight answer
Cool.

>>96077352
>i mean it kind of is, the key is to see how small animals are compared to everything else, then do something with that
And yet variation is much, much greater among the animals than plants, i.e. you'll end up having more entries for beasts than for flowers inherently, regardless of biomass.

>>96076090 (OP)
I just make it up as I go. My players love it.

I made like 50 plant monsters for Dnd but I was told that was overkill.


>>96076756
Nothing about OP is straight so no.

>>96076090 (OP)
I'm not going to put ocean algae into my monster manual

>>96079169
okay, and?

>>96079730
Why does /tg/ hate algae so much? Are you guys still mad about the algal flour thing? That was over 10 years ago!

>>96080004
"Algae" is close to "Al Gae" which sounds like "Al Gay" which is "Gay Al" reversed and I don't need any Gay Als in my game.

>>96080551
Gay Al reversed would be La Yag, which sounds like a La Llorona / Baba Yaga crossover which would be great for a horror gaem.

>>96079730
what about freshwater algae

>>96076090 (OP)
As a biogeografist I must say. Have you ever played a traditional game?

>>96078058
It amazes me that 5e was seemingly the first D&D derivative that had a "common humanoid enemies" section, specifically intended to be modified for different races. It's something sorely lacking from 3.x derivative books and systems for sure, e.g. space pirates in Starfinder (are they expecting me to scratch build every random pirate captain or are all pirate captains the four armed race kind?).