Last year I went into the rabbit hole of reading about the history of hunting and dog breeding (fascinating topics, alongside a personal favorite being the domestication and integration of the horse in human life)
TLDR: 1. Medieval dogs breeds were radically different from today's and 2. There is no reason to think that in a made up world with monsters and magic there would be the exact dog breeds we have today.
Frequently I ponder on what would happen if I gave all good sighthounds in my world the ability to blink, as their species were breed out of blink dogs. The impact on the gameplay is minimum, but the impact on the world and its implications is sublime. It's got weight. It tells you straight away that this is not earth, this is something else.
At first I thought I would write some deep-thought dog breeds for trow fortress. Not today: I'd rather have you do it.
Roll 1d6 to find the dogs HD. 1 HD is a purse dog, 6 HD is a scary dog.
If you want, roll another 1d6 to see how well adapted is the dog to the current area or climate. If you don't have a game, use your real life location. On a one, is not suited to the place at all. On a six, it will struggle living anywhere else.
Interpret results alongside this table: roll 1 to 4 times and tell me what kind of dog you got. Do you think is it very popular in your world? rather unique or useless? you can roll separately for the breed traits and for those which are specific to a given animal.
1. Sighthound: this dog is all speed and will pursue prey by visual tracking.
2. Scenthound: this dog has a specially gifted smell sense, and can be trained to detect a specific one.
3. Pointer: this dog will subtly point towards his target without alerting it
4. Retriever: this dog is trained to retrieve and bring game or other objects
5. Water dog: this dog performs quite well on an aquatic medium.
6. Shepard: this dog is trained to drive and control cattle.
7. Terrier: this dog is trained to find and storm burrows, of a size adequate to the dog.
8. Spaniel: this dog knows how to flush game out of his hideouts, towards the hunter at least.
9. Tough: This dog has increased attack rate for any reason, and +1 HD
10. Kawaii: This dog is considered cute by most, and/or has a unique beauty.
11. Strange: This dog is good at detecting the unseen, ghosts and other paranormal things, great empathy also.
12. Nervous: This dogs are very playful and seldom quiet; will bark for anything.
13. Guarding: This dog is naturally loyal and brave.
14. Obedient: It is very easy to teach tricks to this dogs.
15. Emo: this dog likes to be alone and is very hard to grab his attention.
16. Crazy: this dogs are very possessive with their master or their territory, normally very annoying otherwise.
17. Sickly: this dogs need specific care or diets in order to remain healthy, not suited to adventure. -2 HD, to a minimum of 1.
18. Clumsy: either short legged, too long, too heavy or any other thing that lowers their DEX.
19. Magical. they have one magical power proper of a spell, a monster, etc. This propierty is very patent.
20. Subtly magical: as the previous one, but the power is not obvious at first sight, or maybe ever.
Lets do the first one to test it: This is the dog you see it's being sold at the equipment shop, 1d12 of them.
3 HD (as big and strong as a fox)
Adaptation to temperate spanish levant: 4. Probably a versatile race.
10, 11 and 5: These are some Kawaii and empathic friends who also love to play on the multiple irrigation ditchs in the area. Their hair changes significantly from black to sky blue when wet. They lack an obvious utility but the seller says they can wake you up if they detect you are being target of a magical attack in your sleep.
