Why are boars so rare in RPG?

Matthieu

I have been wondering about this, you don't see boars in Baldur's Gate, nor in Neverwinter Nights, they are extremely rare in RPGs. Pillars of Eternity has a bunch of these, so does Lands of Lore 3 and that's all I can think.

And yet, you're more likely to see boars around in life than wolves or bears. A decade ago I was driving and a wild sow crossed the road with her little ones. Tomorrow evening with my best friend we're gonna do a hunter dinner with only boar based recipes (it often involves wine).

Here, in the pyrenees, the bastards are becoming really invasive and that leads me to wonder why they are so rare in RPG. They're good game, better than deers or elks and are more of a challenge (a boar can charge you back). Nevermind trying to kick them they'll just eat the shoe and your foot with it.

DrHappyAngry

Maybe I'm thinking of fan made modules, but I know I've seen them in nwn, summons aside. I know the OC of nwn2 had some in the woods after you first pick up Elanee.

A friend of mine went boar hunting down in Texas a few months back and gave me a boar shoulder. I made a nice wild board ragu out of it. Boars are delicious.

semiticgoddess

For people who have little experience in the wild, wolves and bears seem more common than boars because dogs are common pets and teddy bears are a common toy. By contrast, you don't see boars in media or toys, and pigs tend to be more associated with filth and ugliness than cuteness and fuzziness, and are more often regarded as food than intelligent animals.

sarevok57

well first i would have to say is where you live in the world to see how common boars are, if im not mistaken places like Texas has crap ton of them everywhere but where i live in canada ( in fact maybe anywhere in canada ) wild boar is basically non existent, and although i don't think i've ever seen a wolf in real life, i've seen crap tons of bears, bears are just EVERYWHERE here

now when it comes to the piggy wiggies in RPG games, there is actually boars in both NWN games, in the forest levels of NWN 1 there are only 2 non hostile animal creatures in the forest that i can think of and that is the deers and boars

in nwn 2 there are boars in the first chapter of SoZ ( i havent played the OC or MoTB enough to know if those games have them )

so just like real life where boars only populate certain parts of the world, maybe in faerun it's the same scenario where the baldur's gate area doesnt have boars in the geographical area but when you hit more on the NW side of the world, then the wild piggies start becoming more populated

Mathsorcerer

You could encounter random boars while roaming the wilderness in Pool of Radiance (an old "gold box" game from 1987). They were a pain to deal with because once you got them down to 0 hit points they would get back up and regain 10 hit points--you had to kill them twice.

DrHappyAngry

sarevok57 said:

well first i would have to say is where you live in the world to see how common boars are, if im not mistaken places like Texas has crap ton of them everywhere but where i live in canada ( in fact maybe anywhere in canada ) wild boar is basically non existent, and although i don't think i've ever seen a wolf in real life, i've seen crap tons of bears, bears are just EVERYWHERE here

now when it comes to the piggy wiggies in RPG games, there is actually boars in both NWN games, in the forest levels of NWN 1 there are only 2 non hostile animal creatures in the forest that i can think of and that is the deers and boars

in nwn 2 there are boars in the first chapter of SoZ ( i havent played the OC or MoTB enough to know if those games have them )

so just like real life where boars only populate certain parts of the world, maybe in faerun it's the same scenario where the baldur's gate area doesnt have boars in the geographical area but when you hit more on the NW side of the world, then the wild piggies start becoming more populated

This is true, over here in the Pacific Northwest, we don't really have wild boars, but there are bears and coyotes. There's supposed to be wolves, too, but I don't really hear about encounters with them.

Matthieu

sarevok57 said:

well first i would have to say is where you live in the world to see how common boars are, if im not mistaken places like Texas has crap ton of them everywhere but where i live in canada ( in fact maybe anywhere in canada ) wild boar is basically non existent, and although i don't think i've ever seen a wolf in real life, i've seen crap tons of bears, bears are just EVERYWHERE here

Central French Pyrenees. The Savage Frontier (the real one, not the FR one).

And yes, boars are proliferating here. Becoming an invasive species. Thankfully their meat is delicious.

JoenSo

Because they were all killed for xp.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dAxZVZgpmI0

semiticgoddess

Texas does have a lot of them. We have a lot of javelina in the hill country.

Grond0

Try playing a shaman - their second tier of spirit summons include boars.

Matthieu

Ok I stand corrected, boars are everywhere in RPGs too.

Fardragon

They are boaring.

tbone1

I thought the OC in NWN had wild boars and dire boars.

But I agree about wild pigs. They are proliferating in the southern US, to the point where my cousin won’t take his hunting dogs out with him since a mama boar will attack a coonhound.

BelleSorciere

Oblivion has boars, IIRC.

jjstraka34

If you want boars, for the love of god, just make an Orc character in World of Warcraft, and do the first quest. All the boars you could ever want.

OR....you could play Bloodborne, and eventually you'll end up in the sewers of the first level, staring down a long aqueduct, wondering what that shape is in the distance. And after you find out, you'll never want to see another boar in a video game again.

Also, Titan Quest has boars in the first area.

Fardragon

A pair of Gaulish adventurers have recently passed through the region..

Squire

I think a better question is "why does all wildlife attack you?".

Seriously... you go outside, a wolf spots you, what's its first reaction? "Chaaaarge! Fight to the death! I absolutely must kill this bunch of taller two-feet having creatures that I don't know what they are, because reason! Oh crap, I appear to be dying, what's my response? Continue fighting! Self preservation? What's that now? Me aminal, me too dumb to fink about not dying!"

The Long Dark is the same, bears and wolves all attack you on sight, although at least if you wound it/scare it off with fire, flares, or a gun, it'll run... for a bit, then it'll forget about the scary fire/noise and come back. Wounding it with a knife will usually take down a wolf, as it'll run until it bleeds out (and you can follow the blood trail, find the carcass, and skin and eat it).

In Kingdom Come: Deliverance, boars don't attack you... it's a refreshing change to see wildlife not charge you without a thought for its own existence.

Nimran

*starts having Vietnam flashbacks of Drakensang and the boars in the first wilderness area*

Matthieu

Anyway, the terrines and civets are ready, got a full loaf of bread and red italian (for a change) wine. Gonna do that hunters meal with game from the mountains prepared by the wives.

I like boars, but in my stomach not in the wild.

Matthieu

Squire said:

I think a better question is "why does all wildlife attack you?".

Seriously... you go outside, a wolf spots you, what's its first reaction? "Chaaaarge! Fight to the death!

Wolves usually shy away from men. Unless they've got rabies in which case yeah, they'll attack you on sight.

Foxes are different, normal foxes will shy away and rabid ones will just go friendly, like not scared at all by you. Don't pet them though, a bite on the face will kill you in a couple of weeks.

Mantis37

I'm thinking of guys getting fed to the pigs in Deadwood now..

Fardragon

I got killed by a heard of deer in Pillars of Eternity.

Squire

Matthieu said:

Wolves usually shy away from men. Unless they've got rabies in which case yeah, they'll attack you on sight.

Maybe that's the answer... every wolf in every RPG ever made has rabies! ;D

BelgarathMTH

World of Warcraft says hello.

SharGuidesMyHand

Boars are awesome.

https://nypost.com/2017/04/26/wild-boar-stampede-crushes-isis-fighters/

Balrog99

There's also Bal-alak the Ferocious in Storm of Zehir. That's the giant boar just north of Samargal. That critter has a LOT of hit points!

jjstraka34

Seems to me the conclusion here is that boars may not be rats or spiders (who are tasked with being the canon fodder of the tutorial of every RPG since the beginning of the genre), but they are way more represented than originally meets the eye.

sarevok57

Squire said:

I think a better question is "why does all wildlife attack you?"

in BG1 at least, if you talk to the guy just south of the friendly arm inn in the area where you meet elminster for the first time, he says because of the fiasco of whats going on in the sword coast with the iron crisis, food is becoming more scarce and animals like wolves are becoming more aggresive in their nature, so at least BG1 attempted to justify all the hostile animals

SharGuidesMyHand

sarevok57 said:

Squire said:

I think a better question is "why does all wildlife attack you?"

in BG1 at least, if you talk to the guy just south of the friendly arm inn in the area where you meet elminster for the first time, he says because of the fiasco of whats going on in the sword coast with the iron crisis, food is becoming more scarce and animals like wolves are becoming more aggresive in their nature, so at least BG1 attempted to justify all the hostile animals

This, plus most bears don't attack you unless either they or you wander too close to one another.

Grond0

SharGuidesMyHand said:

sarevok57 said:

Squire said:

I think a better question is "why does all wildlife attack you?"

in BG1 at least, if you talk to the guy just south of the friendly arm inn in the area where you meet elminster for the first time, he says because of the fiasco of whats going on in the sword coast with the iron crisis, food is becoming more scarce and animals like wolves are becoming more aggresive in their nature, so at least BG1 attempted to justify all the hostile animals

This, plus most bears don't attack you unless either they or you wander too close to one another.

And even then they don't attack you if your character is something like a druid or ranger that understands nature's ways.

BelleSorciere

jjstraka34 said:

If you want boars, for the love of god, just make an Orc character in World of Warcraft, and do the first quest. All the boars you could ever want.

OR....you could play Bloodborne, and eventually you'll end up in the sewers of the first level, staring down a long aqueduct, wondering what that shape is in the distance. And after you find out, you'll never want to see another boar in a video game again.

Also, Titan Quest has boars in the first area.

Dark Souls has steel-plated boars.