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<blockquote data-quote="James Gasik" data-source="post: 8605432" data-attributes="member: 6877472">Something that comes up a lot in discussions on this forum is exactly how common some things are in D&amp;D worlds.&nbsp; In one thread, I'll postulate that trade, as we know it on Earth, would be impossible due to the presence of monsters constantly sacking caravans, or sea travel being insanely difficult due to the large number of intelligent creatures that lurk in the world's oceans (especially since D&amp;D ships are designed just like real-world ships, and aren't particularly well suited to fending off, say, a Kraken or Dragon Turtle trying to capsize them).In another thread, I see someone saying that the reason technology doesn't advance in D&amp;D worlds is because the world is lousy with 3rd-5th level characters.One person will claim that characters like the PC's are rare.&nbsp; Another will say adventurers are all over the place and make civilization possible.A typical army is made up of 1-2 HD NPC's, yet town guards can take out 7th level PC's.High-level magic is rare, but somehow a Dragon doesn't just roll up on a kingdom and destroy it utterly, Lonely Mountain style.I know a lot of this depends on the campaign- Eberron has prevalent low level magic, but few high-level magic users, and the Forgotten Realms, despite a large population of adventurers, seems to be the reverse- there's no low level casters making huge advances in society, but the setting is lousy with powerful archmages and liches.But it makes discussing the game difficult since everyone has a different idea of how common or uncommon these things are.&nbsp; Is it possible to reach some kind of consensus here?</blockquote>

[QUOTE="James Gasik, post: 8605432, member: 6877472"] Something that comes up a lot in discussions on this forum is exactly how common some things are in D&D worlds. In one thread, I'll postulate that trade, as we know it on Earth, would be impossible due to the presence of monsters constantly sacking caravans, or sea travel being insanely difficult due to the large number of intelligent creatures that lurk in the world's oceans (especially since D&D ships are designed just like real-world ships, and aren't particularly well suited to fending off, say, a Kraken or Dragon Turtle trying to capsize them). In another thread, I see someone saying that the reason technology doesn't advance in D&D worlds is because the world is lousy with 3rd-5th level characters. One person will claim that characters like the PC's are rare. Another will say adventurers are all over the place and make civilization possible. A typical army is made up of 1-2 HD NPC's, yet town guards can take out 7th level PC's. High-level magic is rare, but somehow a Dragon doesn't just roll up on a kingdom and destroy it utterly, Lonely Mountain style. I know a lot of this depends on the campaign- Eberron has prevalent low level magic, but few high-level magic users, and the Forgotten Realms, despite a large population of adventurers, seems to be the reverse- there's no low level casters making huge advances in society, but the setting is lousy with powerful archmages and liches. But it makes discussing the game difficult since everyone has a different idea of how common or uncommon these things are. Is it possible to reach some kind of consensus here? [/QUOTE]

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