Just Use Bear Country
Berenstain Bears in the OSR
Its been nearly ten full years since the Just Use Bears blog post came out. I feel like a decade is quite enough that this classic piece of OSR advice should be taken to its natural conclusion where everyone is bears. Though the Bear Country of the Berenstain Bears books appears to be of a technology level akin to something like the 1970~ America, we will be adjusting certain things to fit a more more easily into typical fantasy/ weird-fantasy games. For stats, just use bears. Subtract half the HD and associated bonuses for child bears. And the occasional magical bear should be given some spells, per the GM’s discretion.
Bear Country
Culture: Bear County has a culture similar to a somewhat idealized version of the American Midwest, circa 1970. It appears to have materialized in the world, as it does not appear on older maps. However, the citizens of Bear Country believe that things have always been this way, and are confused if outsiders question this assumed fact.
Holidays: The inhabitants of Bear Country celebrate traditional American holidays, even if the rest of your fantasy world does not. However, they have a not able to explain the precise origins of these holidays, especially ones like July 4th. It’s just how things have always been!
Landscape: Farmlands surround Bearville, and unusually varied geographies surround the farmlands. Swamps, forests, mountains, and oceans are to the north, south, east, and west. Rivers and dirt roads allow trade within, and occasionally outside Bear Country. A few cave systems can be found within the mountains and underneath the forests.
Weather: A rather ideal version of all four seasons in Bear Country, providing wonderful opportunities for vacation and outdoor sports at all times of the year. However, it is also prone to experiencing terrific lightning storms, floods, and earthquakes.
Technology: Bear Country has a technology level approximately the same as the regions that surround it. However, there are always inconsistencies apparent to those willing to investigate, many of which are literally on display at the Bearsonian Institute.
Notable Locations
Bear Country Town Hall: Mayor Honeypot is the official leader of Bear Country, with regular elections held every 4 years. He and Judge Gavel officially decide laws and civic projects, but Squire Grizzly (the richest bear in town) has an unearned though considerable say in government plans.
Jail: Chief Bruno and Officer Margeurite do most of the policing in bear Country. They tend to be ineffective in their duties, which often results in unsolved crimes or nearly inevitable jail breaks. Fortunately, there is little crime in Bear Country.
Bear Country School: Miss Honeybear, Teacher Bob, and Coach Grizzmeyer run the school and various group sports for children. They perform a decent job preparing children for the kind of opportunities that Bear Country offers. Most children end up following in their parents’ footsteps when they join the workforce.
Bear Town Library: Ms. Dewey runs the library. New books are hard to come by in Bear Country, so many freely trade them via the library. Many unofficial community meetings also take place at this quiet little spot.
Doctor’s Office: Every bear has reason to give thanks to the good Dr. Gert Grizzly. His office is attached to his house, where he can be found unless he is making a house call, which he often makes to Widder Jones’s place.
Dentist’s Office: Sore and chipped teeth are Dr. Bearson’s trade. He is a unrepentant gossip, constantly blabbing to patients while cleaning their teeth.
General Store: Rufe Grizzly runs a small store where most goods can be found. He does a brisk trade with the many farmer bears who need tools, implements, and various non-perishable goods to work the land.
Sooper Dooper Market: Ed Hooper is a businessman who takes every advantage that he can. He teeters on the edge of criminality, occasionally falling off. But his store serves a valuable purpose in the community, and is the largest business not owned by Squire Grizzly.
The Bearjou Theater: Fred Furry runs this small community theater where concerts and plays are put on. Though he prefers the classics, he puts on short, serialized plays of “Space Grizzlies” for the local children.
Grizzly Mansion: Squire and Lady Grizzly’s numerous businesses make them the richest bears in Bear Country. They use their wealth to engage in expensive hobbies such as racing and antiques collecting, though they do largely fund the local school and theater. Oddly, Lady Grizzly requires everyone to enter through the rear entrance, even Squire Grizzly.
Chapel in the Wood: The single church within Bear Country is located outside of town. Preacher Brown says this is to force the townsfolk to give themselves time to mentally and spiritually remove their worldly concerns before reaching church.
Bearsonian Institute: A bear named Actual Factual runs the museum. Though a good caretaker, he too is affected by whatever causes those of Bear Country to investigate their origins. He is fascinated by the curiosities within the museum but fails to study them in any meaningful manner. The Institute contains the Hall of Jewels, the Hall of Wax Famous Bears, an Aviation Display, an Observatory, and various exhibits that depict various historical periods.
Spook Hill: Missus Grizzus lives in a deteriorating mansion atop Spook Hill. Though kindly, she hides a secret past. Her mansion is full of secret passages, odd traps, and sits atop an underground cave system which feeds into a nearby river.
Farmer’s Ben Farm: A successful farmer but a poor businessman. As a successful farmer, Ben grows crops and raises cattle. But his poor business acumen means that he will keep farming forever while others take the profit.
Repair Shop: Lem, Clem, and Shem use their Uncle Zeke’s shop as a front for some of their criminal activities.
Panda Family Treehouse: One of the few bear families of “foreign” origin. The five panda bears are a kind and good folk but are occasionally subject to prejudice. They are member of the Church of the New Bear, but still follow some spiritual beliefs that are unique to them within Bear Country.
Witch House: Found at the edge of the forest, at a space not quite “civilization” but not quite “uncivilized”. Widder Jones is a practitioner of magic and the old ways, though she is not as wicked as the rumors say.
Old Bearsville: Found up in the mountains, the abandoned town is being retaken by nature. Explorers can find primitive paintings in nearby mountain caves.
Campgrounds: Found within the forest, it is used year round by weekend campers but Grizzly Bob runs a day camp in the summertime. Many tales are told about the ghost of the woods.
Junkyard: Two-Ton Grizzly, father of Too-Tall, runs the junkyard where the rest of Bear Country bring their excess trash. Two-Ton is a mean man and his son has become a bully. Within the junkyard, one could find tarnished relics that are incongruous with the technology level of Bear Country, such as broken cars and televisions.
Factions
Bear Scouts: An organization that tasks young cubs with outdoor activities intended to teach them valuable skills. Often lead by parents who either have some allegiance to the Druidic or the Church and subsequently push their chosen philosophy onto the children.
Bear Detectives: A small group of cubs who investigate mysteries around Bear Country. Dr. Wise Old Owl, who is oddly the only owl of high sentience, is the defacto leader, though he tends to delegate authority as often as possible.
The Church of the New Bear: A monotheistic religious organization whose members generally misinterpret its messages to some extent. Preacher Brown lacks the deep theological study in the material but still communicates a general message of kindness, forgiveness, and respect for life.
The Druids: Some bear folk believe in the old ways of the world from before the Church of the New Bear came to be. They speak with spirits, cast spells, and know answers to questions that other bear folk would not even think to ask.
Adventure Hooks
Ghost Versus Ghost: The ghosts of two dead robbers haunt Great Grizzly Forest, each trying to find the stolen gold that they hide from the other.
Magic Crystal Caper: The Bogg Brothers steal Grizzly Gran’s magic crystal ball so that they can plan aseries of crimes
The Ice Monster: While at the Winter Carnival, an Ice Monster attacks!
Run-Amuck Robot: Actual Factual digs up a robot, which he names Robow, and accidentally activates the malfunctioning machine.
The Evil Eye: Wesel McGreed hypnotizes a swarm of termites and threatens to have them eat the homes of anyone who doesn’t pay protection money.
The Ripoff Queen: Weasel McGreed opens a casino steamboat that falls outside of “bear law” because it is not on the land.
Meet Bigpaw: A giant bear awakens from a very long hibernation. Emerging from the mountains, he is ravenous with hunger!
Scream Their Heads Off: One of the PCs receive a letter stating that they’ve inherited Spook Hill Manor but must spend that very night in the manor or they forgo their inheritance.
The Giant Bat Cave: Archeologists disturb a bat colony that now antagonizes the entirey of bear country.
Sinister Smoke Ring: Too Tall and his father Two-Ton are bringing in tobacco, previously unavailable in bear country, but the smoke is slowly turning bear folk into natural bears.
Random Threats
Giant mosquitoes: Live in the swamp; often attack in swarms.
Crocodiles: Live in the swamp and some river branches.
Natural bears: Lack “human” level intelligence.
Bats: Fill spooky houses and caves.
Aquatic creatures: Turtles, crabs, whales, and other creatures of the sea. Not aggressive but can be territorial.
Living armor: Woodland animals (e.g., squirrels, crows, etc) fill the armor, making it move to defend their homes.
Weasels: They inhabit an unmapped system of tunnels beneath bear country.
Ghosts: Like a bear, but spooky. Always around becuase of unfinished business.
Robuts: Like from 1960s sci-fi movie. All ancient and forgotten. Inevitably malfunction.
Non-bear humanoid: Traveling form beyond the mountains, they are likely terrified of talking bears.
Themes to Explore
Origins: How did Bear Country come into existence? Can archeological findings offer answers? Why was old Bearsville abandoned up in the mountains?
Commerce: What natural resources does Bear Country have to offer the outside? Will commerce lead to gentrification in one direction or the other? How will the peoples of the surrounding lands react to talking bears?
Sentience: Why do the bears of Bear Country possess this level of intelligence? Why are there still some “natural bears” in Bear Country? Will other creatures gain this higher sentience? Could the bear folk lose their sentience?
Spirituality: Who is the Creator that the bear folk worship? What do the witches and druids of Bear Country know?
Anyone dig Bear Country as a OSR style adventure setting? If folks dig it then say so and how it speaks to you!
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