Introduction

For several years now, I've been looking for the wrong book. Not deliberately, mind you: accidentally.

It was a case of "I thought I needed something, but I really needed something else." What I thought I needed was a book describing species of common plants and animals of the world, and where they lived. What I really needed was a book on biomes.

I don't know what I was thinking. Even if I'd found this book, it would have been near-useless (frantically flipping through to find an animal that happened to live where I was running a campaign. Biomes are far better.

What is a biome? Well, according to Susan L Woodward (at The Virtual Geography Department of Radford University),

Biomes are the major regional groupings of plants and animals discernible at a global scale. Their distribution patterns are strongly correlated with regional climate patterns and identified according to the climax vegetation type.

Essentially, a biome is a (usually large) area of the planet in which lives particular species of plants and animals, has a particular range of climate, certain types of soil, etc. So a desert would be a biome (or several biomes), whereas North America would not: North America contains several biomes, including temperate grasslands, temperate broadleaf forests, tundra, and many others.

What's this got to do with gaming? Well, in many campaigns, a common difficulty for game masters is deciding what sorts of (non-monstrous) local flora and fauna live in a region. With a bunch of biomes and their typical inhabitants at her fingertips, a gamemaster can easily glance at a list of local creatures, and pick one that's appropriate.

Unfortunately for most gamemasters (and me!), biome documentation is kindof scarce. I've been looking for books and web sites on biomes, but most resources I've found have one of three problems.

1. They are too information-rich. I found a 36-volume Ecosystems of the World series at the University of Waterloo's arts library. Volume 2B: dry costal ecosystems: North America and Asia. :) Too much information!
2. They are too information-poor. Most summary-type information I could find on biomes was in the form of ecology textbooks, which would give each biome a couple of paragraphs of description, usually not even listing common animals.
3. They are inconsistent in their treatment of the various biomes. Some of this is inevitable: it's hard to say the same things about the bottoms of the oceans as a temperate forest. But much of it is just wierd: like they will list dozens of individual bird species living in a tropical rainforest, but say "lots of species of fishes" when talking about freshwater rivers. Bah!

Anyway, that's where I come in. I've done some research, and I'll do more, so that you don't have to. I'll document all the relevant facts about lots of ecosystems, so you can just come here and steal information. I've listed all my sources so that you can go back to the original sources. I don't guarantee that everything's accurate, but I'd like to know if you find anything that's wrong or could be improved. I aim to please.

The Format of the Biome Descriptions

Description

Each biome writeup will begin with a description of the biome, sometimes even including a little story about somebody interacting with that biome, to give some flavor.

Notes

Miscellaneous points of interest regarding the biome will be noted here.

Climate

General Notes

Miscellaneous notes regarding the climate will be noted here.

Year

Summer

Winter

Flora (Plant life)

General Notes

Miscellaneous notes regarding the local plant life will be noted here.

Common Species

Common flora are those species of plants that are characteristic of the area. Things that you see all the time, or at least once per day.

Uncommon Species

Uncommon flora are those species that you'll see every once in a while: it's not too unusual to see them, but they are by no means common.

Rare Species

Rare flora are those species that you won't typically see. These species are ones that you might encounter once or twice a year, if you spend a lot of time in random spots in the biome.

Fauna (Animal life)

General Notes

Miscellaneous notes regarding the local animal life will be noted here.

Common Species

Common fauna are those species of creatures that are characteristic of the area. Things that you see all the time, or at least once per day. Small creatures are likely to be common, typically those creatures that eat plants and insects.

Uncommon Species

Uncommon fauna are those species that you'll see every once in a while: it's not too unusual to see them, but they are by no means common. Large herbivores typically fall into this category, as well as the less common small creatures.

Rare Species

Rare fauna are those species that you won't typically see. These species are ones that you might encounter once or twice a year, if you spend a lot of time randomly journeying through the biome. Carnivores, particularly large ones, tend to be rare species, if only because they have to eat common and uncommon creatures.

Sources

The following sources were used in my biome research

• Susan L. Woodward, Major Biomes of the World ( http://www.runet.edu/~swoodwar/CLASSES/GEOG235/biomes/main.html), Dept. of Geography, Radford University. A nice description of many biomes, includes good creature/plant lists for many of them.
• Dennis Paulson, World Biomes ( http://www.ups.edu/biology/museum/worldbiomes.html), University of Puget Sound. Fairly extensive description of each biome, fairly technical.
• The Biomes Group of the Fall 96 Biology 1B class, section 115, The World's Biomes ( http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/glossary/gloss5/biome/), University of California, Berkeley. High-level information (some questionable scholarship)