30 Day D&D Challenge - What about Giants? (Part One) - Day Eleven

Today's Topic is "What about Giants?" as we continue our celebration of International Original Dungeons and Dragons Month!

OK, so here we go, hang on the ride might get bumpy. ;) OK, so I wrote about Giants about 5 years ago in this post OD&D - Giants (Titans, Ogres, Trolls) and the Strength Table (I upped the strength and the damage that Giants do, but really they are still underpowered even with the boost I gave them.) And I also wrote about Giants in this post around the same time:  How Heavy is my Giant? Reality & OD&D! Justifying Large Monsters? How about we just have fun!

I learned something very funny writing the second one linked. A boulder is defined as a rock 1 foot in diameter or larger; when I looked it up I was amazed that something that small is a boulder.

OK, so if you want you can go and read those and then come and we will continue on...................OK, good you made it back. ;)


Alright let us talk about dinosaurs for a moment, specifically a Tyrannosaurus Rex. How big were they, one site says up to 49 feet long and up to 15.5 tons or 31,000  lbs. When standing they were up to 15 or more feet tall (height measured at the hips, the head could have reared up much higher up to 25 feet or higher).

Skeletal restoration by William D. Matthew from 1905, published alongside Osborn's description paper

They were bipedal, walking and running on two legs. The maximum speed was about 25 miles per hour. Some believe they could have matched a fast horse at up to 43 miles per hour.

Skulls have been found up to 5 feet long, a massive skull and jaws full of large sharp teeth. Calculations and looking at crocodiles says they had a very powerful bite capable of crushing the bones of other dinosaurs. The bite force is estimated at up to 23 metric tons. Individual teeth were up to 12 inches in length. And that bite, it would have been full of nasty bacteria and would have become septic quickly just like a bite from a Komodo Dragon.

Those "little tiny arms" are conservatively estimated to have been able to curl 430 lbs. as the force each one could generate. 

They are believed to have had excellent eyesight and excellent depth perception.


Now back to giants:

This table below is based on the article in Dragon #13 writing about how heavy are giants and those details are in the post linked above.

So over the years, I have encountered quite a few people who can accept all the creatures in D&D including dragons that fly and breathe fire, elemental and all manner of other creatures, but they cannot accept giants because they are not realistic.

I think that is a silly sticking point on what you can buy into, considering all of the other things you have swallowed whole up to this point.

So for the sake of argument a T-Rex is as big or bigger than even a Storm Giant, in fact quite a bit heavier. How about we drop the requirement that most people assume, that giants look just like humans only bigger. Maybe they are like a T-Rex with massive legs only in a more upright stance.Maybe the upper body is not quite as large as an enlarged body builder like they are often drawn. Maybe they have a much less human head with a very large mouth with long sharp teeth. Maybe they have really long arms and when they run those arms take on a much bigger role than with humans, think the Incredible Hulk crossed with a gorilla and a T-Rex at least partially for the design. Maybe something else, they could look a lot of different ways.

Here is a kicker, T-Rex was not the biggest, there were some other predatory dinosaurs that were even larger, but that is a post for another day. 

So IMO a giant of up to 24 feet in height and heavier than in the table above is not only believable in D&D, it is I submit believable in the real world we live in. If you can believe in a T-Rex you can believe in a giant. Historical 9 feet plus tall giants could have existed, maybe they just did not look exactly how you think they looked. The tallest man on record was 8' 11 1/4" tall, he was extremely skinny and still weighed over 400 lbs. He was never involved in athletics and nothing of record indicates that anything was ever done at any point to strengthen his body and keep it at top condition.

On the other hand we have numerous 7+foot tall athletes some close to 8 feet tall who are very strong and some both strong and fast. The idea that a race of people that were 9-12 feet tall and adapted to living life at that height no longer seems so far-fetched. Maybe the stories from numerous cultures about giants are entirely true. I have always believed those stories, because to me it just rings true. That is why giants are part of my D&D and I have no trouble believing that they are one of the most believable aspects of the game.

Tomorrow What about Giants? Part Two.