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<blockquote data-quote="Primal" data-source="post: 4057665" data-attributes="member: 30678">On the contrary -- I was actually thinking that females should be *more valuable* than males in the 'Points of Light' setting that James writes about. Why? Because without young and fertile women there won't be a new generation of villagers (and no, I'm not implying that it's their primary 'role' in the society). Yes, you could say the same for men, too, but the fact is that even a handful of males is enough for a generation or two -- especially as D&amp;D treats mechanically both males and females as equals (and hence there is no 'role division' as such in the game). This means that females can take care of all &quot;traditional&quot; male activities (e.g. hunting and combat) as well as males could, so only a handful of males is actually required for guaranteeing that there will be the next generation of villagers. The fact is that you can't really compare it to any historical RW era, since the existence of voracious monsters and magic makes any such comparison pretty invalid. My point is that IMO an isolated 'PoL' village would not risk wasting any workers/defenders/hunters just for a 'Coming of Age' ritual, unless it has some sort of *very* important religious or cultural significance. After all, their very existence at the brink of the Darkness hangs in the balance, and every man and woman is needed for their survival. Therefore, why would they &quot;winnow out the weak&quot;, if even they would have a role in the setting? And it's not as if this ritual has any mechanical relevance (=XP) to these &quot;non-heroic&quot; NPCs.I agree, and I wouldn't be using it. As for why my players (or I) would not believe in this scenario -- I hope my posts have clarified my views on this matter. All in all, I just don't feel Greenbrier is a very believable setting -- as it is described in the articles feels to me as a bunch of quickly written ideas without any internal consistency or deeper insight behind it. I could post a bunch of other reasons beyond those I've mentioned on this thread.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Primal, post: 4057665, member: 30678"] On the contrary -- I was actually thinking that females should be *more valuable* than males in the 'Points of Light' setting that James writes about. Why? Because without young and fertile women there won't be a new generation of villagers (and no, I'm not implying that it's their primary 'role' in the society). Yes, you could say the same for men, too, but the fact is that even a handful of males is enough for a generation or two -- especially as D&D treats mechanically both males and females as equals (and hence there is no 'role division' as such in the game). This means that females can take care of all "traditional" male activities (e.g. hunting and combat) as well as males could, so only a handful of males is actually required for guaranteeing that there will be the next generation of villagers. The fact is that you can't really compare it to any historical RW era, since the existence of voracious monsters and magic makes any such comparison pretty invalid. My point is that IMO an isolated 'PoL' village would not risk wasting any workers/defenders/hunters just for a 'Coming of Age' ritual, unless it has some sort of *very* important religious or cultural significance. After all, their very existence at the brink of the Darkness hangs in the balance, and every man and woman is needed for their survival. Therefore, why would they "winnow out the weak", if even they would have a role in the setting? And it's not as if this ritual has any mechanical relevance (=XP) to these "non-heroic" NPCs. I agree, and I wouldn't be using it. As for why my players (or I) would not believe in this scenario -- I hope my posts have clarified my views on this matter. All in all, I just don't feel Greenbrier is a very believable setting -- as it is described in the articles feels to me as a bunch of quickly written ideas without any internal consistency or deeper insight behind it. I could post a bunch of other reasons beyond those I've mentioned on this thread. [/QUOTE]

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