Who runs a fantasy setting where PC/NPC are really scarce?

[Li Shenron]

I am currently mid-way into reading "The Hobbit" as a bedtime tale to our little children, and it's nice to encounter to this feeling that true classed characters are actually very few. We've seen 3 wizards/sorcerers mentioned so far: Gandalf, Radagast and the Necromancer, each time another is mentioned, the children always go "...there is another sorcerer?" It's kind of implied that there are more Thieves than just Bilbo, but he's the only one encountered. Gandalf mentions he chose a Thief to help the dwarves because Fighters exist but are all busy fighting wars somewhere far away, and Heroes (Paladins?) almost don't exist anymore these days. Beorn sounds like he is the werebear, and Smaug is perhaps not the only dragon left in the world but anyway the others aren't relevant if any.

By contrast, at least since 3ed D&D has a strong tendency to presenting fantasy worlds with a very high density of both monsters and PC/NPC. On one hand I think it's because there is a sort of underlying idea that we're all playing together, so my Wizard, your Wizard, everyone's Wizard are kind of co-existing, even if we know that each gaming group technically has its own separate universe, so they are never going to meet. But the idea spills over to book descriptions, so that even for a smaller-scale character choice (e.g. prestige class, archetype etc) you read stuff like "Most 'Paladins of the Ancient Flame' are humans, but elves and dwarves sometimes pick the path up, and halflings are not unheard of", which immediately sets the feeling that between 'most', 'some' and 'rare' there must be at least quite a good number of them anyway, even for the most specialized concept, and for nearly all concepts published. Not to mention population tables sometimes showing up to 20% people with class levels!

On the other hand, there is nothing in the rules of the game that requires this to be the case. No strict requirements about having others teaching what you character learns. The closest thing might be e.g. Wizard's spell scrolls found in adventures, that carry the implication that someone must have scribed them, but even this can be left unexplained (relics from the past? gifts from above?).

I wonder if someone goes against the "high density" default/tradition of D&D and is running a campaign in a fantasy world where a classed character is a rare thing (or at least, not as common as to treat it as a common profession in society). Anyone?

 

[Zhaleskra]

While I don't delve too much into Hobbit/LotR lore, Beorn has a whole people of werebears the Beornings. Just because monster manuals are full of a variety of monsters doesn't mean that all of them are on every single world.

Because of the OtherWorlds Creations metasetting Forbidden Kingdoms, I think paladins should be a prestige class, and I've read that the sort of were in OD&D. In 2nd edition, different classes had different XP progressions, 1st and 2nd level wizards were pretty much useless magically (one spell a day after graduation? Something is wrong with that academy's program) and almost as useless in combat, I've had a friend say that a 2E starting party should be 1st level for everyone except the wizard, who should be 3rd level.

I was once very vehemently on the "magic and psionics are different" side. This began to change when Alternity called all powers "FX" (maybe they excluded psionics, I don't feel like checking right now), and when the magic system of World Tree showed that magic is arcane, divine, and psionic all at once I began to think of something similar to "power sources" but nothing as silly as "martial power source". No, more "you're all doing the same thing, where the power comes from is the only difference: arcane (wizard) - study, divine (gods, concepts), psionics (mind), and arcane (sorcerer) - 'living magic' for lack of a better word".

There are some conveniences I can accept: all worlds use the same Copper, Silver, Gold, Platinum coins. Some I cannot: They all have exactly the same exchange rate.

Anyway, yes, most characters your party meets will either be non-classed, have an NPC class, some will have a few levels PC classes, and a select few will be near the party's level, and 1-2 20th level characters . . . maybe.

 

[gamerprinter]

In all my worlds since 1e, there has never been a high concentration of PC/NPCs, 90% of everyone are commoners, experts and adepts - the NPC classes. I'd go as far as saying there are only 100 wizards in any world of mine at any time, and that is out of millions of people. However, its also true the PCs will run into more classed people than the average person ever does. However, in my experience Middle Earth is not similar to most RPG settings, not really, being more empty of classed beings than most D&D settings. Now published primary settings like Golarian or Forgotten Realms, those number of classed beings tend to be much higher, but that shouldn't draw a conclusion that all or most settings should be that way. Again, mine never are.
[MENTION=20544]Zhaleskra[/MENTION] - all of my worlds, including my published Kaidan setting of Japanese horror (PFRPG) has different exchange rates, every single one does my worlds exchange rates vary. Working on my next published setting, an alternate US western territories called Gothic Western, and its exchange rate is different than anything else I've created, and like the Old West, no such thing as platinum coins. So exchange rates change every time to whatever is appropriate for a given world. Other differences, Gothic Western, for example, is humanocentric - there are no non-human races anywhere in that world.

 

[DM Howard]

I have always GM'd worlds where there are other people that have the same amount of power, or greater, than the PCs, but the main thing that separates them from the NPCs is that they tend to truly be heroes and all that implies. Most other people that have power use it for their own ends/agendas and even the best of them have their own goals and might let something evil happen for the "greater good".

 

[Legatus Legionis]

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