D&D 5E "Monster density" and wilderness settlements in D&D campaign worlds

[transtemporal]

Scouts do not help at all against roving bandits and marauders that emerge from the wilds, attack in the middle of the night and then disappear back into the wild. Maybe if a town had clear cut all plant matter for miles around it, you can have a watch tower that can give a few minutes warning. But scouts? No. You wouldn't know where to have your scouts patrol, you can't very well send half your town out as scouts to try to patrol every single acre of land for a dozen miles to come. Even if you did, the scouts aren't going to be much faster than the marauders at running back to town so they won't be able to give much warning at all.

Wow, I was just thinking run-of-the-mill banditos. I guess the raiders in your world are like seal team six huh?

 

[transtemporal]

Hang on though. Lots of history shows forts being built first and then farmers coming second. By and large, that's how the Americas were settled. Same goes for how the Romans generally worked (and yes, that's very broad brush strokes). You pacify an area sufficiently, at least to the point where you do have a few years of relative peace to get things going, and then you bring in your peasantry to start farming and whatnot.

Is there something wrong with that model?

Totally makes sense to me, but then I didn't learn about history through Yu-gi-oh and WoW so what would I know.

 

[Hussar]

What's with the snark in this thread? Wow, you'd think this was a life or death discussion, not a fairly esoteric thought experiment about creating a fantasy setting. Both sides of this need to relax, a whole lot. There's absolutely no need for anyone to be getting snarky here.

 

[Vic Ferrari]

What's with the snark in this thread? Wow, you'd think this was a life or death discussion, not a fairly esoteric thought experiment about creating a fantasy setting. Both sides of this need to relax, a whole lot. There's absolutely no need for anyone to be getting snarky here.

But that seems to be your thing (your posts read as very aggressive)?

 

[Hussar]

But that seems to be your thing (your posts read as very aggressive)?

Ok, not sure where you're getting that from at all to be honest. I asked a few questions and posited a few ideas. About the most contentious thing I've said here is that raiders should have about a 3:1 numerical advantage most of the time in order to minimise losses. Is that really aggressive?

It's not like I'm telling people that they learned history through WOW.

 

[Vic Ferrari]

Ok, not sure where you're getting that from at all to be honest. I asked a few questions and posited a few ideas. About the most contentious thing I've said here is that raiders should have about a 3:1 numerical advantage most of the time in order to minimise losses. Is that really aggressive?

It's not like I'm telling people that they learned history through WOW.

It is a bit illustrated with this response, it seems so on fire, all the time.

Let's just discuss, in a less fiery mode.

 

[Authweight]

I decided to make my campaign setting about literal points of light. The sun is dead, and the villages are built around lamps that are fed with fire from the mighty northlamp, supplied by the king and his priests. The power of the lamps drives off monsters and other evil things of the night, but stepping into the darkness is asking for trouble.

 

[Derren]

I decided to make my campaign setting about literal points of light. The sun is dead, and the villages are built around lamps that are fed with fire from the mighty northlamp, supplied by the king and his priests. The power of the lamps drives off monsters and other evil things of the night, but stepping into the darkness is asking for trouble.

How can anything grow in such a world? The whole ecosystem would collapse.

 

[Authweight]

How can anything grow in such a world? The whole ecosystem would collapse.

Well, that answer is complicated, but basically the spirits of the world use their own power to keep things growing properly. Whether or not this method is sustainable is a major question though.

 

[aramis erak]

I decided to make my campaign setting about literal points of light. The sun is dead, and the villages are built around lamps that are fed with fire from the mighty northlamp, supplied by the king and his priests. The power of the lamps drives off monsters and other evil things of the night, but stepping into the darkness is asking for trouble.

Reminds me of Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles...