painandgreed
First Post
I typically imagine such creatures as living on the edge of human civilization. They come in and hit frontier settlements and then fade back into the wilderness. Even on larger forays into civilization, humanoids can enter the king's lands, raid than then retreat back before any but the local forces on hand can respond. Gathering an army can take months and marching then can take a long time as the average distance for such an army is about 10 miles/day unless the king has enough money and is capable of the logistics of supplying such armies. Then, if they want to head off into the wilderness, it gets even more costly. Simply put, it costs more to try and wipe out the humanoids than to soak up the losses they cause. Thus the need for adventuring parties. Either the locals end up hiring them to take out the humanoids or the king might just post a bounty on them and let anybody who wants to try and collect the money. In desparate times, the king might have his own pet adventuring party he'd call upon or perhaps get the old guys together and hit the road to do it himself.
Something else wrote on a similar topic for my campaign:
Orcs, goblins, and bugbears, oh my!
So, just how did that tribe of orcs your party killed last week survive?
Humanoids are typically hunter gather types of an evil persuation. However, they may be omnivores, but I don't image that they'd be happy eating fruit and grains. Outside of Eddie Izzard concerts, you just don't see that many evil herbavores. I think it's safe to assume that most evil humanoids such as orcs, gnolls, goblins, hobgoblins, bugbears, etc. prefer meat. Lots of fresh, red meat.
The small poor tribe isn't going to be able to make much for themselves and will survive mostly by hunting and raiding. Their weapons are limited to clubs, crude spears, and maybe bows that they can make out of sticks and rocks. Everythign else they get will come from what they can take from others. First they'll attack some farmers and take their farm tools. Then they'll try and attack lone guards and such for their weapons. In the wilderness, they'll stick mostly to hunting large game, but that's lots of work. Better to move into civilized territory and raid poor farmers. Take their livestock and whatever else they have that's of value. Unless they put up a fight or if the raiders are still hungry, they'll probalby leave the peasants alive so they can come back next year and raid them again.
Trouble is, although the humanoids might get soem treasure, who is going to trade with humanoids so they can buy some decent armor and weapons? Certainly not anywhere in the kingdom they raided. Orcs can't just wander into any town and deal with the general store. They're limited to trading with larger humanoid tribes, settlements, or evil kingdoms. This is going to be a pattern of raid, return to the home base with loot, and then go out raiding agian with better equipment. Even evil kingdoms will hesitate to support much of such activity simply because they're not making enough off the orc raiders to risk war with the kingdoms the orcs are raiding. This means that the humanoid raiders will mostly deal with larger humanoid tribes who might have settlements.
Larger humanoid tribes that are better off can either continue such raiding on a larger scale, or get a little more ambitious. one scenario would be for a large group of orcs to attack an isolated village right before winter. Kill (and eat) the noble and guards and leave the peasants alone so long as they don'ty try to leave. Snow falls and blocks off the village from the rest of the world. The orcs butcher and eat all the livestock in the village for the winter and pretty much take it easy. Force the local blacksmith and crafts men to make them armor, weapons and other itmes they need. Other than that, it will seem to the peasants to possbily even be better than under the lord. The orcs are even letting the peasants eat the food the lord had stored up and not abusing them more than is needed to keep them in line. Everything seems fine till the snow starts to melt. Then comes the slaughter. Kill the young and the old for more fresh meat. once the snow is gone, make all the rest carry everything of value with the orcs across the wilderness back to the larger settlement to sell off as slaves or as food on the hoof.
Such tribes will often have some human or demi-humans that are part of the tribe. Either they'll be slaves and used as managers over the peasants or, if able fighters, big enoough to hodl their own, and evil enough to fit in, they might actually be made members of the tribe.
The large humanoid settlements are what allow the smaller groups to range out as far and as effective as they do. It will most likely be centered around the one industry besides war that humanoids will perform, mining and smelting. It is very similar to the average village, but the main goal is to grow more meat for the orc nobles. There will be feilds but all the grain will go to fodder for livestock and to feed humans (not that the humanoids will see much difference). Here, with a steady supply of food, the humanoids will spend their time mining ore, smelting it, and making armor and weapons. Most of the work might be done by slaves, with the weak tribe members managing the slaves and the stronger ones managing the weaker ones. Such mines usually involve iron, although they might also include gold, silver, and gems, especially if the mine was rich enough to convince evil kingdoms to trade with them.
Most humanoids aren't ones to rest on their laurels or take orders from some cheif just because he's cheif. The tribe in charge of such a settlement is always having to keep itself strong or be forced out by a stronger tribe. Since such strength does not really indicate the ability to run such a settlement, many have been taken over by a new tribe only to be driven into the ground as they are unable to maintain their food supply or lack the skills to run the mines.
Sometimes, such settlements grow large enough and begin to collect enough evil merchants and such to become cities. Usually, these cities trade hands to the control of more capable races such as humans, duergar, or drow. Sometiems, much more powerful intelligent monsters such as a lich or dragon take command of such settlements.
Opportunities for PCs
Hey, killing sub-humanoid pig-men and looting their corpses is what D&D is all about. Besides the benefit of getting whatever the humanoids have, many good kingdoms have bounties on such creatures, usually requiring the head, nose, or ears as proof of their death. These bounties can run anywhere from 1sp per creature on up depending on how much trouble the creatures have been causein the kingdom lately and how powerful the creature was. An orc may bring in 1 gp per head, a bugbear, 3, and an ogre 5. If a major settlement can be disrupted, it can buy lots of breathing space for the surrounding kingdoms. If it can be destroyed or taken control of, it is usually decent farm land with attached mines and humanoid activity can be brought to a halt for years.
Something else wrote on a similar topic for my campaign:
Orcs, goblins, and bugbears, oh my!
So, just how did that tribe of orcs your party killed last week survive?
Humanoids are typically hunter gather types of an evil persuation. However, they may be omnivores, but I don't image that they'd be happy eating fruit and grains. Outside of Eddie Izzard concerts, you just don't see that many evil herbavores. I think it's safe to assume that most evil humanoids such as orcs, gnolls, goblins, hobgoblins, bugbears, etc. prefer meat. Lots of fresh, red meat.
The small poor tribe isn't going to be able to make much for themselves and will survive mostly by hunting and raiding. Their weapons are limited to clubs, crude spears, and maybe bows that they can make out of sticks and rocks. Everythign else they get will come from what they can take from others. First they'll attack some farmers and take their farm tools. Then they'll try and attack lone guards and such for their weapons. In the wilderness, they'll stick mostly to hunting large game, but that's lots of work. Better to move into civilized territory and raid poor farmers. Take their livestock and whatever else they have that's of value. Unless they put up a fight or if the raiders are still hungry, they'll probalby leave the peasants alive so they can come back next year and raid them again.
Trouble is, although the humanoids might get soem treasure, who is going to trade with humanoids so they can buy some decent armor and weapons? Certainly not anywhere in the kingdom they raided. Orcs can't just wander into any town and deal with the general store. They're limited to trading with larger humanoid tribes, settlements, or evil kingdoms. This is going to be a pattern of raid, return to the home base with loot, and then go out raiding agian with better equipment. Even evil kingdoms will hesitate to support much of such activity simply because they're not making enough off the orc raiders to risk war with the kingdoms the orcs are raiding. This means that the humanoid raiders will mostly deal with larger humanoid tribes who might have settlements.
Larger humanoid tribes that are better off can either continue such raiding on a larger scale, or get a little more ambitious. one scenario would be for a large group of orcs to attack an isolated village right before winter. Kill (and eat) the noble and guards and leave the peasants alone so long as they don'ty try to leave. Snow falls and blocks off the village from the rest of the world. The orcs butcher and eat all the livestock in the village for the winter and pretty much take it easy. Force the local blacksmith and crafts men to make them armor, weapons and other itmes they need. Other than that, it will seem to the peasants to possbily even be better than under the lord. The orcs are even letting the peasants eat the food the lord had stored up and not abusing them more than is needed to keep them in line. Everything seems fine till the snow starts to melt. Then comes the slaughter. Kill the young and the old for more fresh meat. once the snow is gone, make all the rest carry everything of value with the orcs across the wilderness back to the larger settlement to sell off as slaves or as food on the hoof.
Such tribes will often have some human or demi-humans that are part of the tribe. Either they'll be slaves and used as managers over the peasants or, if able fighters, big enoough to hodl their own, and evil enough to fit in, they might actually be made members of the tribe.
The large humanoid settlements are what allow the smaller groups to range out as far and as effective as they do. It will most likely be centered around the one industry besides war that humanoids will perform, mining and smelting. It is very similar to the average village, but the main goal is to grow more meat for the orc nobles. There will be feilds but all the grain will go to fodder for livestock and to feed humans (not that the humanoids will see much difference). Here, with a steady supply of food, the humanoids will spend their time mining ore, smelting it, and making armor and weapons. Most of the work might be done by slaves, with the weak tribe members managing the slaves and the stronger ones managing the weaker ones. Such mines usually involve iron, although they might also include gold, silver, and gems, especially if the mine was rich enough to convince evil kingdoms to trade with them.
Most humanoids aren't ones to rest on their laurels or take orders from some cheif just because he's cheif. The tribe in charge of such a settlement is always having to keep itself strong or be forced out by a stronger tribe. Since such strength does not really indicate the ability to run such a settlement, many have been taken over by a new tribe only to be driven into the ground as they are unable to maintain their food supply or lack the skills to run the mines.
Sometimes, such settlements grow large enough and begin to collect enough evil merchants and such to become cities. Usually, these cities trade hands to the control of more capable races such as humans, duergar, or drow. Sometiems, much more powerful intelligent monsters such as a lich or dragon take command of such settlements.
Opportunities for PCs
Hey, killing sub-humanoid pig-men and looting their corpses is what D&D is all about. Besides the benefit of getting whatever the humanoids have, many good kingdoms have bounties on such creatures, usually requiring the head, nose, or ears as proof of their death. These bounties can run anywhere from 1sp per creature on up depending on how much trouble the creatures have been causein the kingdom lately and how powerful the creature was. An orc may bring in 1 gp per head, a bugbear, 3, and an ogre 5. If a major settlement can be disrupted, it can buy lots of breathing space for the surrounding kingdoms. If it can be destroyed or taken control of, it is usually decent farm land with attached mines and humanoid activity can be brought to a halt for years.
