I'm currently worldbuilding for my homebrew campaign. I'm wanting to tell a story earlier in the worlds history, when elves and dwarves were at the height of their power. I'm having humans be a relatively newly created race, having only been created roughly 400 years ago. What is the best way to represent this?
Of course they'll be less populous, and thus more prone to smaller more rural communities. Perhaps even more tribal like the ancient Germanics. However, perhaps that stepping too much on the halflings toes?
You can do some fun things with the population size to represent this. I would start by deciding how many people were made in the first group of humans created, then calculate how many people there might be after twenty generations. Be sure to take into account any conflicts that might have occurred that might have resulted in skirmishes and deaths. That would give you a general idea of how large your overall population might be, then you can decide how many settlements come from there.
As you noted, the settlements would likely be small, rural communities. I do not think this would be similar to halflings--halflings tend to live in idyllic pastoral settings, whereas humans might live in more squalid or militaristic situations. Give your towns some palisades and a few watchtowers and you should be fine.
Another thing to remember, D&D elves can live to 750 (your homebrew might have different rules, of course, but using this as a guideline). That means you can have elves that are older than humanity and remember the time when the humans arrived. You can play around with that in a number of different ways.
Another thing to remember, D&D elves can live to 750 (your homebrew might have different rules, of course, but using this as a guideline). That means you can have elves that are older than humanity and remember the time when the humans arrived. You can play around with that in a number of different ways.
That is very much the idea, with elves reaching cultural adulthood at 100ish, the elves that are old enough to remember their arrival get to be old and crotchety about it.
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I'm currently worldbuilding for my homebrew campaign. I'm wanting to tell a story earlier in the worlds history, when elves and dwarves were at the height of their power. I'm having humans be a relatively newly created race, having only been created roughly 400 years ago. What is the best way to represent this?
Of course they'll be less populous, and thus more prone to smaller more rural communities. Perhaps even more tribal like the ancient Germanics. However, perhaps that stepping too much on the halflings toes?
You can do some fun things with the population size to represent this. I would start by deciding how many people were made in the first group of humans created, then calculate how many people there might be after twenty generations. Be sure to take into account any conflicts that might have occurred that might have resulted in skirmishes and deaths. That would give you a general idea of how large your overall population might be, then you can decide how many settlements come from there.
As you noted, the settlements would likely be small, rural communities. I do not think this would be similar to halflings--halflings tend to live in idyllic pastoral settings, whereas humans might live in more squalid or militaristic situations. Give your towns some palisades and a few watchtowers and you should be fine.
Another thing to remember, D&D elves can live to 750 (your homebrew might have different rules, of course, but using this as a guideline). That means you can have elves that are older than humanity and remember the time when the humans arrived. You can play around with that in a number of different ways.
That is very much the idea, with elves reaching cultural adulthood at 100ish, the elves that are old enough to remember their arrival get to be old and crotchety about it.