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Message: <blockquote data-quote="mythusmage" data-source="post: 1649071" data-attributes="member: 571">First, I doubt anyone would run a settlement the way you have your hypothetical DM doing. I'm referring to the huge gaps between settlements. Gaps that occur for no good reason.Second, population density affects plots. A man alone against the wilderness is kind of hard to pull off when the protagonist is in the middle of Yonkers.And, as I will keep pointing out until it penetrates, population density affects what is possible in an area. You need a certain population density to sustain certain types of society. If San Diego County had an overall population density of 1.7 people per square mile it would not have the urban culture it does now, even if everybody was concentrated along  one mile of the San Diego River.Population density affects things. It affects culture and society. It affects settlement patterns. It affects what a people can support in the way of infrastructure and knowledge without outside assistance. In a monster filled world such as Eberron it impacts personal and societal security. When the ankhegs out number you farming becomes a useless activity.All of this changes the world in fundamental ways, ways that are not reflected in the book.The problem I think you're having is that you grew up in a crowded world. An uncrowded world is beyond your experience. My world was not a crowded one. There was ranch land between San Diego and Escondido when I was growing up, where now there are suburban tracts and strip malls. The world of my childhood was vacant compared to yours. So I have the experience with a (comparatively) low population density , and thus the knowledge thereof you don't have. I remember when the U.S. had about 150 million people, and it was a very different world back then. Even with household computers it would still have been a different world.Suggestion: Try living for a month in North Dakota. City or rural, your choice. Keep a journal of your experiences and reactions. When you return to (crowded) civilization report back to us on what it was like. Even if you move to Fargo, it will still be a vastly different world than what you grew up in.</blockquote>

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