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Resting and the frikkin' Elephant in the Room
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<blockquote data-quote="Ilbranteloth" data-source="post: 7209381" data-attributes="member: 6778044"><p>Well, yes, actually. I never really know what type or how many NPCs I'll need at a given point, so I have a whole lot that I've made and never used, and never will. But as [MENTION=23751]Maxperson[/MENTION] points out, there are a lot of people that are dead too. And sometimes those dead NPCs are ones that I rolled up and created backgrounds and equipped, etc. So when they find a wizard killed by goblins in a dungeon, I know what spells are in the spellbook. Because that was an NPC that didn't survive. And many NPCs that they meet, they'll find or learn have died after their prior meeting.</p><p></p><p>Who decides whether the PCs encounter a monster, and what the CR will be? The DM. Maybe with a random table, maybe not. Who decides how frequent those same exact types of encounters affects the other people of the world in the same situation? The DM.</p><p></p><p>So there's a 60% chance of a CR 5 encounter when the PCs travel between point A and point B. Of the hundred other people that have travelled the same route, 60% of them meet similar encounters, in which 40% on average die. Those are all numbers that can be easily calculated to give a rough idea of what the rumors say, potential remains, or captives, or whatever in the world. You don't need to worry about mechanics, or anything other than the probabilities when designing the world and the events within it. You simply need to know the probabilities, and maintain the same ones for the PCs and everybody else.</p><p></p><p>It doesn't matter if I have one mechanic to determine which 40% of the NPCs don't survive vs. the game mechanics to determine whether the PCs do or not. The PCs could have heard that their families are among the next group of travelers coming their direction, due to a war breaking out, and have to be concerned about the dangers that their family will face. As I pointed out in an earlier post, the dangers might also be mitigated to some degree, if they are traveling in larger groups than the PCs do. </p><p></p><p>But the bottom line is, for some of us who try to create a consistent world, the risk to people in a particular region is consistent. In my case I've run public campaigns that occur in the same place as my home campaign, with the public one being a shifting group of players. The risks are the same for each group that enters the same area or dungeon, although if one group eliminates a challenge, that challenge is gone for the others as well. In addition, the world has ongoing activities as well. So if there are rumors of hill giants that have been spotted in a region where they aren't usually seen, but none of the PC groups decide to investigate, then other NPCs groups will. And I'll determine the results of that which will alter the population, the situation with the giants, etc. appropriately. Sometimes I'll just decide what the likely result will be (because the PCs might have been the tipping point, for example), but other times I'll determine randomly to provide a bit of uncertainty and inspiration for the part of the story that I'm authoring. The PCs, of course, author their story by their decisions and actions, with my input limited to what's there and playing the parts of anything/anybody they meet.</p><p></p><p>Throwing away NPCs doesn't enter the equation. It doesn't have to. It has nothing to do with whether the world is as dangerous for the NPCs of the world as the PCs. Even simply deciding that the 40% of the 60% died is sufficient. Mathematically it serves the same purpose and maintains a reasonable consistent and believable world.</p><p></p><p>My mechanics also take into account these factors. For example, there are a lot of abilities in 5e that I remove simply because they would have too much of an impact on the world as a whole with the frequency that they would reasonably occur. First and foremost is how easy it is to get to 20th level in 5e. If you're using the 6-8 encounters per adventuring day, and the recommended XP per adventuring day, it takes roughly 33 adventuring days to reach 20th level.</p><p></p><p>In my case, ability scores limit your maximum level, and the maximum spell level you can achieve. Why? Because it explains why higher level PCs aren't as common. Even with ASIs, the average person can't grow beyond those limitations. And the 3d6 in order system that we use for generation also means that most PCs won't either. Not without finding some other method of raising an ability score. It also takes far more XP to gain levels in my campaign so it takes much longer both in the real world and the game world.</p><p></p><p>So the mechanics in my campaign are specifically altered to support the creation and maintenance of a consistent world.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Ilbranteloth, post: 7209381, member: 6778044"] Well, yes, actually. I never really know what type or how many NPCs I'll need at a given point, so I have a whole lot that I've made and never used, and never will. But as [MENTION=23751]Maxperson[/MENTION] points out, there are a lot of people that are dead too. And sometimes those dead NPCs are ones that I rolled up and created backgrounds and equipped, etc. So when they find a wizard killed by goblins in a dungeon, I know what spells are in the spellbook. Because that was an NPC that didn't survive. And many NPCs that they meet, they'll find or learn have died after their prior meeting. Who decides whether the PCs encounter a monster, and what the CR will be? The DM. Maybe with a random table, maybe not. Who decides how frequent those same exact types of encounters affects the other people of the world in the same situation? The DM. So there's a 60% chance of a CR 5 encounter when the PCs travel between point A and point B. Of the hundred other people that have travelled the same route, 60% of them meet similar encounters, in which 40% on average die. Those are all numbers that can be easily calculated to give a rough idea of what the rumors say, potential remains, or captives, or whatever in the world. You don't need to worry about mechanics, or anything other than the probabilities when designing the world and the events within it. You simply need to know the probabilities, and maintain the same ones for the PCs and everybody else. It doesn't matter if I have one mechanic to determine which 40% of the NPCs don't survive vs. the game mechanics to determine whether the PCs do or not. The PCs could have heard that their families are among the next group of travelers coming their direction, due to a war breaking out, and have to be concerned about the dangers that their family will face. As I pointed out in an earlier post, the dangers might also be mitigated to some degree, if they are traveling in larger groups than the PCs do. But the bottom line is, for some of us who try to create a consistent world, the risk to people in a particular region is consistent. In my case I've run public campaigns that occur in the same place as my home campaign, with the public one being a shifting group of players. The risks are the same for each group that enters the same area or dungeon, although if one group eliminates a challenge, that challenge is gone for the others as well. In addition, the world has ongoing activities as well. So if there are rumors of hill giants that have been spotted in a region where they aren't usually seen, but none of the PC groups decide to investigate, then other NPCs groups will. And I'll determine the results of that which will alter the population, the situation with the giants, etc. appropriately. Sometimes I'll just decide what the likely result will be (because the PCs might have been the tipping point, for example), but other times I'll determine randomly to provide a bit of uncertainty and inspiration for the part of the story that I'm authoring. The PCs, of course, author their story by their decisions and actions, with my input limited to what's there and playing the parts of anything/anybody they meet. Throwing away NPCs doesn't enter the equation. It doesn't have to. It has nothing to do with whether the world is as dangerous for the NPCs of the world as the PCs. Even simply deciding that the 40% of the 60% died is sufficient. Mathematically it serves the same purpose and maintains a reasonable consistent and believable world. My mechanics also take into account these factors. For example, there are a lot of abilities in 5e that I remove simply because they would have too much of an impact on the world as a whole with the frequency that they would reasonably occur. First and foremost is how easy it is to get to 20th level in 5e. If you're using the 6-8 encounters per adventuring day, and the recommended XP per adventuring day, it takes roughly 33 adventuring days to reach 20th level. In my case, ability scores limit your maximum level, and the maximum spell level you can achieve. Why? Because it explains why higher level PCs aren't as common. Even with ASIs, the average person can't grow beyond those limitations. And the 3d6 in order system that we use for generation also means that most PCs won't either. Not without finding some other method of raising an ability score. It also takes far more XP to gain levels in my campaign so it takes much longer both in the real world and the game world. So the mechanics in my campaign are specifically altered to support the creation and maintenance of a consistent world. [/QUOTE]
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