Ovinomancer
No flips for you!
But you completely changed the entire nature of orcs to do so -- you changed how orcs interact with the world in your different examples. You changed the world to fit your encounters, which is the exact opposite of what you've been claiming -- that the encounters can and must change to fit the world. And you not only changed the physical might and ability of the orcs, you changed their culture and organization. Those are both changes to how orcs exist in the world, not just amping up a few orcs to represent a tougher group of the normal orcs.The point was we came up with different explanations for the same XP amounts... and it wouldn't be difficult to do even more. This is what I mean when I said you seem to be missing the point. If we can both take the same encounters and come up with fiction that is for all intents and purposes the opposite of each other and it fits... well IMO that speaks to it not being that hard to adjust what the encounter is to your particular world.
EDIT: changed multiple to different as there were multiple encounters which we came up with different fiction for.
Or have you been lumping what orcs are into the encounter building and not worldbuilding? That would explain a lot, although it would open up a new avenue of argument.
Just so you know I too use and even advocated earlier in the thread for various methods... I just disagree with the idea that encounter design must affect world building as opposed to vice versa, even if the encounters are a set amount and set deadliness. I think many people are inventive and creative enough that using the 3 deadlies has little to no ramifications on their worldbuilding... not everyone but at the very least some and thus I don't believe it's a given.
So, then, you haven't actually used a fixed encounter system? No wonder you were so hesitant to offer examples from your home game -- there are none.
But, then, you alter your encounter pacing to fit with what your world demands and cannot see that fixing your encounter pacing would no longer work with the same world you've been presenting? At least, without altering what you've established orcs (as an example) to be in your world. If you make the argument that you can willy-nilly redefine monsters as tougher or weaker in general to meet encounter needs and this has no impact on the world, I guess we're at an impasse.