Help on a very important decision.

[Skybreaker Sin K'al]

OK, straight to the point. I need advice: should I create my own creatures for my fantasy world, use ones in our world, or make small tweaks on our animals based on the environments of my world.

So basically, I just need you to pick between:
- creating new stuff
- using our stuff
- tweaking our stuff

 

[Yora]

It depends on what atmosphere you want for your world. Do you want it to feel familiar or exotic? Do you want it to feel realistic or fantastic?

With my own setting I am aiming for exotic but naturalistic, so I am populating it with thinly disguised extinct animals that most people might not be familiar with. What I am hoping to accomplish is to make the world feel like an alien planet with Bronze Age societies, but one that feels like the environments and animals could really exist if evolution had gone differently. And they actually could, because they are more or less creatures that actually did exist.

 

[Miles Lacey]

OK, straight to the point. I need advice: should I create my own creatures for my fantasy world, use ones in our world, or make small tweaks on our animals based on the environments of my world.

So basically, I just need you to pick between:
- creating new stuff
- using our stuff
- tweaking our stuff

Why choose? Sort out the climate, geography and vegetation of the part of the world your protagonist will be operating in then introduce some animals of your own that you think would be suited for this environment, add a few animals from our world that would be best suited for this environment then toss in a few others from our world that have been tweaked to take into account the environment and creatures that you've created and/or brought in from our world..

 

[Darkfantasy]

You could do a mix of all three. That way you won't have to do as much planning and you a nice blend of familiar and strange. Everyone knows what a horse looks like; if it's not important you don't need to describe it at all you use words like nag and steed they give a fairly concrete picture. But if your means of transport is a dipladonkyoohoola people wont know what one of them looks like so you have to describe it. Sometimes it's good to have familiar things readers can relate and show your creativity in a few new created species.

 

[Laurence]

Most examples I can think of use all three.

Personally I create around a third of named creatures with half of those being pretty similar to real animals.

 

[skip.knox]

What is your preference? Why do you prefer that option over the other two? And, most importantly, why do you doubt your choice?

 

[Yora]

Why choose? Sort out the climate, geography and vegetation of the part of the world your protagonist will be operating in then introduce some animals of your own that you think would be suited for this environment, add a few animals from our world that would be best suited for this environment then toss in a few others from our world that have been tweaked to take into account the environment and creatures that you've created and/or brought in from our world..

That also would be a choice with distinctive effects on the overall style.

 

[ImaginationGoneWild]

All of the above!
But whatever floats your boat, you are the creator of the story so you can choose whatever makes you more comfortable ^^

 

[FifthView]

I think the question depends entirely on what you want for the world and the story.

That said, creating entirely new species can become a time sink, not only in the time required to contemplate all their features but also in the writing of the tale, since you'd need to include enough description and info for readers to "see" and understand those creatures.

If you think the story would benefit from the creation of entirely new creatures, then that time sink might be worth the effort.

If this seems unnecessary to the tale you are telling, then perhaps you'd be better off choosing "b" and "c."

As others have said, you can mix all of the above, so the time sink is limited by the introduction of only a small number of entirely new creatures.