Exotics
Exotics, or animals from other countries are highly debated in Redwall RPGs. Players are so eager to have their character be unique that not only do they give them pink fur and "ice blue eyes", but they also like to bring in creatures such as tigers and lions and bears...(cliché!). As I have already addressed the fur and eye color issue in "RPing Tips", this page is devoted to exotics. I shall address the points that these sort of players have brought up in addition to other facts and observations of my own.
First off, ships do exist in Redwall and they do sail the seas, but Jacques never brings foreign animals into his stories, implying, perhaps, that they have never sailed that far or that if they have, foreign animals do not come to Mossflower. It is possible, however, in my book, that some ships could actually sail so far, and, although unlikely, return with foreigners. As for tigers and cheetahs, I disagree that they would be of those sorts. They are simply too large. Jacques never brings ungulates (hooved animals) or large carnivores into his stories, although they existed in Europe (with the exception of Redwall's single horse, but that was before BJ decided to write more books and make a world out of it. If you havn't noticed, he never mentions horses after that). One exotics player did bring up the theory of downsizing, but even with my microevolution theory (see Anatomy link) there is a difference in size still. I admit, Jacques did say in an interview that,
"The creatures in my stories are as big or small as your imagination wants them to be."
But in his books, he seems to paint them in actual size - both in the illustrations and in words. And Jacques himself approves the illustrations as he says in this excerpt from another interview:
Q: Do you work in close collaboration with the artists that do the covers for your books so the characters look like you imagined them? (Amanda Brown, Brooklyn Park, Minnesota)
BJ: Yes, I design my covers and the artists send rough sketches for my approval.
In the illustrations (not the cover art) the badgers and otters loom over the mice and moles and the foxes are much larger than their fellow weasels and rats. Furthermore, in the writing itself the large animals do not appear to be affected by any sort of "downsizing". For example in Martin the warrior, the Warden (gray heron) slays and eats quite a few lizards. If he was the size of the lizards, of even just a little bit bigger he would not be feared as much and he certainly wouldn't be able to swallow them in gulps as he did. Also the owl, Boldred, pins six squirrels with one talon and lifts them easily into the air. And even if Jacques is not always consistent with size, we role players must be, or we cannot play right. If one person thinks his wolf is actual size, and another thinks he is downsized to be just larger than a fox, there will be problems when the wolf bites an otter or something. In one version the otter would be mortally wounded, whereas in the other version, the injury would be minor one.
So if beasts are actual size, as the books seem to imply, a tiger should not be able to fit in a building built for small animals. He would also have a problem with food supply (assuming he is a scone/pasty eater), being as large as he is. The environment is wrong for most exotics as well. Desert animals and rainforest animals would not function well in a European setting. The foods they have grown to eat would not be available in Mossflower (bananas, cactus fruit, etc...).
In conclusion, exotics should be rare if at all, and they should at least be of similar size to the average Redwallian, and should be used to eating similar foods. I would suggest that most foreigners come from Asia, Russia, or Northern Africa/Egypt because it is more likely that they would make it by land than across the oceans (which would be even more daunting to mice than they are to humans).