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Vanilla Essence: 1E Demographics and the Implied Setting
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<blockquote data-quote="Kid Charlemagne" data-source="post: 3691649" data-attributes="member: 93"><p>I'm a bit of demographics stickler - I like having the details like you present them. 3E doesn't have an easily discernable demographics system - it varies based on settlement size, so its tough to tease out the precise details.</p><p></p><p>Myself, I like having NPC's of equal level to the PC's around so that they can provide a challenge later in the game - I don't want my PC's to utterly outclass all other humans after 9th level or so.</p><p></p><p>You bring up the populations densities in the World of Greyhawk setting - I'd love to think they were highlly thought out, but I'm afraid after 30 years of gaming, I'm pretty sure they were totally a shot in the dark. The densities in the most highly populated kingdoms are less than the most sparsely populated areas of Earth. You can come up with explanations, but Occam's Razor tells me that the reason is the same as why Eberron is too big - they just didn't give it any thought whatsoever.</p><p></p><p>I currently use an assumption of around 10% PC classes, and I use the following as the basis for my NPC levels - I've used the same assumptions since 1988 or so:</p><p></p><p>Roll 1d3</p><p>1: 1st level</p><p>2: 2nd level</p><p>3: roll 1d6 on next table</p><p></p><p>Roll 1d6</p><p>1-3: 3rd level</p><p>4: 4th</p><p>5: 5th</p><p>6: roll 2d6 on next table</p><p></p><p>Roll 2d6</p><p>1-6: 6th level</p><p>7: 7</p><p>etc, etc - going up to rolling 3d6, then 4d6.</p><p></p><p>This creates more of a gradual curve that slowly gets steeper as levels go up. So you have a lot of 6th level and below NPC's, and they get rarer and rarer as levels get higher. For NPC classes, I roughly slow the progression down by half.</p><p></p><p>Its a simple system, and I'm happy with it.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Kid Charlemagne, post: 3691649, member: 93"] I'm a bit of demographics stickler - I like having the details like you present them. 3E doesn't have an easily discernable demographics system - it varies based on settlement size, so its tough to tease out the precise details. Myself, I like having NPC's of equal level to the PC's around so that they can provide a challenge later in the game - I don't want my PC's to utterly outclass all other humans after 9th level or so. You bring up the populations densities in the World of Greyhawk setting - I'd love to think they were highlly thought out, but I'm afraid after 30 years of gaming, I'm pretty sure they were totally a shot in the dark. The densities in the most highly populated kingdoms are less than the most sparsely populated areas of Earth. You can come up with explanations, but Occam's Razor tells me that the reason is the same as why Eberron is too big - they just didn't give it any thought whatsoever. I currently use an assumption of around 10% PC classes, and I use the following as the basis for my NPC levels - I've used the same assumptions since 1988 or so: Roll 1d3 1: 1st level 2: 2nd level 3: roll 1d6 on next table Roll 1d6 1-3: 3rd level 4: 4th 5: 5th 6: roll 2d6 on next table Roll 2d6 1-6: 6th level 7: 7 etc, etc - going up to rolling 3d6, then 4d6. This creates more of a gradual curve that slowly gets steeper as levels go up. So you have a lot of 6th level and below NPC's, and they get rarer and rarer as levels get higher. For NPC classes, I roughly slow the progression down by half. Its a simple system, and I'm happy with it. [/QUOTE]
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