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Message: <blockquote data-quote="jaer" data-source="post: 4146472" data-attributes="member: 57861">There is always something else that other things need to worry about as you move up the chain of power.Humans worry about the orcs in the hills and the gnolls in the forest.  Individually, the orcs and gnolls are nuisances at best, making travel dangerous.  If they grouped together...But they hate each other (which the humans don't know).  So the orcs and gnolls worry about each other and the humans.The orcs worry about the ogres that lair in the mountains nearby: sometimes the ogres raid for orc slaves.  The humand and gnolls are too far removed to really know about the ogres except maybe rumors of large mountain brutes.  But none of them, the humans, gnolls, or the orcs have any clue about the trolls that hunt the ogres in the mountains; the ogres raid for orcs so the captives orcs get eaten by the trolls instead of themselves.The gnolls are concerned about the small coven of hags that live in the forest.  The hags have been a thorn in their side for generations, randomly stealing gnolls for slaves and for food.  But such a superstition has been created around them, the gnolls are affraid to launch an all-out assault on the hags.The hags get what they want from the gnolls: food and slaves.  Every so often, they get a couple human strays as well.  The humans, having less knowledge and interaction with the hags, have an even greater ghost-storyesque tale about the witches in the foods in league with the gnolls.The hags do have that pesky dryad problem, though.  They would love to get rid of those cursed fey and rule the forest as they feel they should, but they haven't been able to best them yet, not with the dryads controlling the small flock of owlbear.By playing everything against each other, you can create an ecology around an area.  The humans could be destroyed by any number of creatures in the world around them, but what would such destruction gain the monsters?  in the end, if the orcs made an all out attack on the humans, the losses would weaken them, opening them up to destruction from the gnolls or ogres.  The balance is delicate and can easy be swayed in any direction, but this is how small communities can be designed to survive in a PoL setting.Weigh the pros and the cons of actions against each other.  Everything has consequences.  In the world, it is not just the human settlement vs. the roaming orc band because the orcs need to protect themselves and their own interests from the environment around them.</blockquote>

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