How Dangerous is your campaign world?

[Rabelais]

How dangerous is it to be a regular joe in your campaign? Is Joe Dirt Farmer taking his life into his own hands when he clears stumps for extra tillable soil? Is a baker's assistant risking life and limb delivering scones to the Noble's villa? What kind of risks do the mundanes face just getting out of bed in your world?

For example... why would anybody WANT to be a farmer? Orc Hordes, Drow Slave-Raiders, Umber Hulks, Chimeras, Wyverns, Dire Wolverines, Stirges (!) not to mention Dragons of various primary and secondary colors.

Nobody in their right mind would want to go outside without an armed escort.

I'm curious what kind of threats to mundanes we can come up with.

 

[maddman75]

My setting is a dark ages, so humanity consists of small villages where they hope the monsters don't come for them too often. The PCs are currently fighting against a tribe of orcs that have been demanding a sacrifice once a month. The villagers really had no other choice, and wouldn't even have asked the PCs for help for fear of angering the orcs. But they killed a couple of them on the way in, so what's the harm?

 

[crazy_monkey1956]

My world isn't safe by any means, but other than the recent war, threats to life and limb are rare enough that joe farmer can feel safe driving his mule cart full of vegetables for the couple of days it takes to get to market with only a loaded crossbow and feel reasonably safe doing so.

My critters are, while not unique, either isolated (giants dwell on their own island and rarely venture from it) or so rare that only adventurers who go looking for them on purpose ever see them (PCs in my current campaign have fought a total of two dragons, one red, one white. They're level 17 at the moment).

Kind of like greek myth. Stories get told about The Minotaur and The Cyclops. Sure they're fantastic beings, but only heroes ever see them. Joe Farmer hears the story one night at the tavern and doesn't think much about it after that.

 

[Nifft]

There are no Commoners. Anyone that weak and tasty was eaten long ago.

It's that dangerous.

Cheers, -- N

 

[Doug McCrae]

Life for normal people is incredibly dangerous, just as it is in our world, with the constant threat of terrorist attack, driveby shootings, SARS, heart attacks caused by obesity, nuclear war and being eaten by genetically-modified groceries.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Border regions are dangerous. Anywhere the empire has firmly in its grasp is pretty darn safe.

Naturally, the campaign is set in a border region.

 

[Robert Ranting]

Between the relatively high level of technology (ranging from Age of Sail to the Age of Steam depending on the region) and the large number of monsters per square mile, most people in my campaign setting don't have the luxury of being low level for long. The stress of working a job in an industrial society or attempting to farm in a land of wandering monsters generally means that people gain levels as a matter of course. My rule of thumb is that for every decade a person is alive (round down), they have one level in an NPC class, (I adjust this number for races that live longer, but there are still more high level Dwarves than there are humans, for example). Therefore, most people who are 20 years old are 2nd level experts, warriors, or aristocrats, and could potentially reach 8th level in one of those classes before dying.

Adventurers and people with particularly dynamic occupations (such as doctors, soldiers, and the occassional Machiavellan politician) tend to gain levels more quickly, and it's not uncommon for someone to reach about 12th level by middle age, and then retire.

Since my world uses Arcana Evolved as a base, there are few Outsiders, D&D Giants, powerful Undead, or Dragons to fill out the upper CR ranges, and so most people do not go much higher than 12th level unless they've spent their whole lives "level grinding" and killing masses of the world's common monsters (CR 1-7). Generally once one has reached level 12, it is far more lucrative to go into politics or business simply because an adventurer has both the skills and the starting capitol to ensure their position in society as the nouveau riche.

There are of course, a few exceptions...

Robert "4th through 12th level seems to be ideal for my gaming style" Ranting

 

[kigmatzomat]

Mine's pretty safe, at least in the settled nations. The closer you are to a city, the safer you are from monsters. The risk from abusive lords, bullying tax collectors, and other tyrants goes up. There's risk everywhere in a world where flying things can migrate hundreds of miles in a month under cover of darkness but that gets into the "rabid dog" category of risk.

Borderlands are less pleasant. Tenants out there either prefer the lessened civilization, are trying to get in on the ground floor, are seeking greater freedom or have been sent there by force. Yeah, IMC nobles will send troublemakers, petty criminals, and other undesirables to the borderlands for a couple of years to make them either become competent, appreciable of the safety of civilization, or dead.

Unclaimed regions are dangerous as all get out. Predators wander around and wannabe BBEGs are building their own little empires out there.

Of course, some civilized regions are pretty heavy handed just to deal with the predators. One state used a lot of necromancy to create expendable troops to control the dangerous enemies. Naturally the government has a different view of the value of human life and the people were a bit ... odd. Not Ravenloft/Innsmouth odd but call it deep in cultural denial. Their average lifespans were a little bit higher than in other regions but there's something a little freaky when your uncle dies, is animated, dressed up in armor, and sent out to fight boggins until his freakishly mobile flesh can no longer carry on.

 

[Crothian]

There are many safe places. Countries have secured themsleves for the most part and they take care to make sure the guys growing the food stay alive. There are places with bandits and the like but civilizations has created safe pockets to live in.

 

[Mallus]

Shopping can, and almost has, led to half the party being killed.