d20 Modern and Drop Bears Options

[Dax]

Odd thing. I was flipping through that new d20 Modern book (Foe Folio or something...), and I noticed that one of the new monsters they had introduced was the Drop Bear.

I found that odd, considering that I remember reading about the Drop Bear in Target: Awakened Lands. I also noticed that they had the Thunderbird listed in there as well.

So, we know that the Thunderbird is a symbol out of Native American myth (which is probably why it ended up in both books). So does anyone know if there are any myths/legendes about Drop Bears in Australia that might explain why it was in two books?

Though there was a funny comment in their description about how most of the deaths involing Drop Bears come from when a tourist tries to pose for a picture with one and the irate bear decides to maul them at that point. :D

[Tziluthi]

Drop bears are what Australians call koalas, those placid, furry, cute yet surprisingly vicious creatures. To anybody who seems gullible enough, Australians will recant a tale of how koalas will drop out of trees, and skull-f__k unwitting tourists and the like. Thus drop bears. And you'd be surprised how many people will fall for it. Truly, koalas will only do you harm if you harass or threaten it, and it will just lacerate you with its claws, which are quite sharp, as I hear it. The only mammal that you really have to worry about is the chudich, a small, cat-like marsupial. They're aggressive and very territorial, to the point that campers have been attacked, and sometimes killed, in their sleep because they encroached into the chudich's hunting range (about two square kilometres for males, one square kilometre for females).

[Dax]

Ahh so that's where it came from.

So, it begs the question. Coincidence that d20 Modern has Drop Bears all of a sudden? Or something far more sinister. You be the judge.

[Large Mike]

There's only so much myth and folklore for game designers to draw upon.

[Connor]

There's definitely a very large chance that d20 Modern designers, while probably familar with Shadowrun haven't read every single sourcebook and are probably unaware of anything in some of the more obscure one's like T:AL.

That, and what Large Mike said.

[Kagetenshi]

Impossible. Any reference, no matter how preexisting or obscure, must have been stolen.

Occam's Gluestick.

~J

[John Campbell]

D&D had dragons waaay before Shadowrun! FASA must have ripped off TSR!

[lacemaker]

I'm just upset they're out there spoiling our favorite joke... nothings cooler than watch a bunch of Amercian tourists wandering around nervously watching the trees...

[mfb]

i'll write up a Snipe and send it in, to even the score.