Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Dausuul" data-source="post: 4830957" data-attributes="member: 58197">One of the challenges a fantasy gamemaster or writer faces is the problem of logistics. Traditionally, the bad guys have endless hordes at their disposal, but keeping those hordes fed can be quite a challenge. It's especially a problem when the bad guys are a nomadic barbarian race (e.g., orcs); the nomadic lifestyle does not support huge populations.Some possible solutions:#1: The bad guys have a slave empire supplying them with food and cannon fodder, and a sophisticated logistical apparatus to keep the supplies flowing. (This is the "Lord of the Rings" setup; the Mordor that Frodo and Sam saw, with zillions of orcs swarming around a barren wasteland, was supported by a massive offscreen network of slave laborers and tributary countries.) This works very well for a siege scenario.#2: The bad guys belong to a race that can breed at a phenomenal rate compared to humans; multiple births are the norm and generations may be as little as 5 years. In this case, the race may tend to go through population booms and busts, and the invasion takes place at the peak of a boom. The invaders will be desperate for food and cannot sustain a long siege; they must quickly overrun their foes or starve.#3: The bad guys simply don't need to eat. An army of undead is the usual example. Such an army is an unholy terror from a strategic point of view; it has no supply lines to worry about and it does not have to stop and forage. Wherever it needs to be, it can just up and go there and not worry about how it's going to stay fed. You might want to consider giving such troops some other limitations, like not being able to move in sunlight.#4: Being a bad guy is infectious. This is often coupled with #3 for a zombie apocalypse. In this case, the bad guys can quickly amass an army of new "recruits" and throw them into the meat grinder, secure in the knowledge that they can make more.</blockquote>

Verification