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Message: <blockquote data-quote="CruelSummerLord" data-source="post: 3617845" data-attributes="member: 48692">My version is similar to that of the AuldGrunp: 'depends where you are, and when you're there'.  Most people live near the major roads and settled routes, where armed patrols are common and they are close to the major markets they travel to to sell their crops and produce.  Orc and goblin raiders are a fairly common occurrence even in the most civilzed of areas (the creatures breed like flies, and are remarkably skilled at being able to dwell right under the nose of man), but as their tactics are very poor and their fighting skills not much better, patrols and even village militias win just as often as they lose.  Giants aren't as much of a problem either, as they have the 1E hit dice and statistics, thus making them significantly weaker.  Even so, bandits and drow can kidnap you and use you as their slave, or sell you on the slave market...if you're a man.  If you're a woman, they can do all that and...well, more.  Monsters like giant beetles and ankhegs are a danger, but just as farmers and other sedentary peoples have developed ways to deal with creatures like bears and wolves, farmers often pass down the knowledge of how to deal with these creatures.  Out in the wilder areas, you're taking a risk settling down, especially if you live alone.  Still, some people do it anyway, since the rewards-being totally independent, making a great deal of money by panning or mining for mineral wealth, attracting your own followers, etc.-are too great for some people to resist.  Just consider how settlers would often move in the American West, even under the threat of attacks from First Nations raiders.  The cities aren't necessarily any better.  Street gangs and assassins, bar fights, and everything like that are a constant threat, to say nothing of harassment by city guards and the lord's soldiers.  So, I think that it's much the same as any typical medieval city-just substitute some of the human and animal threats for orcs and monsters, and there you go.  Some parts of the world are still extremely dangerous, but I'd be very much surprised if they aren't better today in many parts of the world than they ever were in human history.  Besides, even if your part of the world is still very dangerous, chances are you're still going to try to live your life.  If you live in Zimbabwe, Sudan, Iraq, Afghanistan or any other place where violence is rampant, does that mean that every single person stops trying to make a living in some way, and every single person is part of the militia or the army?  It would be no different in the medieval world.</blockquote>

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