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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Dr. Strangemonkey" data-source="post: 398215" data-attributes="member: 6533">DemographicsOne more thing, though I hate myself for having one more thing:Long lifespans generally equall large populations.I mean a human generation is 20 years, give or take four years.  Then when the first generation reaches middle age there is one other generation in the community, old age two, venerable three, and dead-maybe-four.Now let's assume that an Dwarfen communities generation is 60 years, this assumes a very late parental age, and that each generation produces at least two viable off spring, otherwise they would have died out long ago regardless.  Given these generations the Dwarfs have an demographic advantage that humans don't.  Dwarf middle aged he has granchildern, dwarf old he has great grand children, dwarf venerable great great grand children, and dwarf dead-possibly-great great great great great grand children.While this is not the population explosion that we see in human communities when lifetimes become longer in relation to generations, and Elves are screwed by the decreased lifetimes in 3E, long lives do allow demi-humans to produce a lot more people than they need to replace themselves through natural attrition.  And these are really simple demographics that do not allow for the population surplusses created by generally superior demi-human organization and life styles or the real re-population rates of kids per couple.Mind you, I cannot think of a way to simulate the dangers of a fantasy environment without a much more coherent cosensus on what those dangers entail.  Except to say that traditional societies-that is non-industrial and non-developing- tend to grow very very slowly, to suffer a great deal at the hands of large scale disasters and collapses, and to stabilize quickly after the short periods of rapid growth caused by the advent of new technologies or superior organization.But, I do think this an effective argument against the idea that humans have a massive reproduction advantage.  It is, sort of, a traditional attribute of humans, but it has never been one that makes sense to me.  Particularly given what we know of our own species' demographics.The only human society I can think that grows on the level most fantasists assume are developing nations, and almost no fantasy system includes the sustained periods of technological growth, drastic social reorganization, and lengthy periods of relative peace and stability that is required for such nations to exist.</blockquote>

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