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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Graf" data-source="post: 4145889" data-attributes="member: 3087">The real answers flow from basic economics, game theory and monster intelligence.(And you don't need to spend a lot of time thinking about who produces which item/why/how far traveled etc. The "solution" is a lot simpler.)Honestly it boils down to a question with an obvious answer: Would the gnolls rather have a farm to raid or have to farm themselves?Is the country-side infested with monsters of animal-level intelligence that eat humans and are reasonably powerful?Then yes, POL small sized hamlets make little sense.(Unless the monsters are few in number and breed infrequently or are kept in check by other, non-human eating, monsters of greater power).If your POL monsters are evil humanoids then, as others have said, they have no incentive to wipe out settlements. Assuming that they're lazy and shiftless, as most evil humanoids are presented as, that is. If you raid a settlement and get slaves and food but leave it basically intact then you can come back next year. If you burn it to the ground it's gone, yer gonna have to move someplace where there are new productive humanoid villages to raid or take up farming yourself if you want to survive the winter (actually this applies even in tropical climes but I'll skip that discussion).Presumably after moving a few times even the stupidest of humanoids would figure it out.If you take over the village you have to police it, and control people. But if you just raid it you can leave the diligent humans/halfings/whoever to run themselves 'til you visit again.There are, of course, exceptions. Drow think torture is an art form and are intelligent and patient and so they have large, organized cities populated by slaves.If you think about the monsters as intelligent actors with their own agendas I think you'll find that in PoL for most regions and population breakdowns hamlets make the most sense. If the humans get uppity with their walls and standing military forces then the monsters smack them down. But otherwise they're left be.</blockquote>

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