That's fine, I'm actually pickier about this stuff than my players but I also know this stuff can be over thought. I'm not going to try and compete with game of thrones, I just want to make a world that's a little more fleshed out and flavorful than a dnd world that's just like any other.
And that's fine, just remember that for all the world building work you're putting in, it won't matter a bit to your players unless they get to see it. That means they either need to interact with it in a meaningful way in game or you're going to need to outright tell them about it. The first is interesting and cool, the latter tends to be very boring for players. As long as you realize that much of this work you're doing is for yourself, you're fine. Just don't fall into the trap of trying to dump all of it on your players. The focus of the game should be on their characters and how they affect the world, not on your story with your players as spectators.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Canto alla vita alla sua bellezza ad ogni sua ferita ogni sua carezza!
I sing to life and to its tragic beauty To pain and to strife, but all that dances through me The rise and the fall, I've lived through it all!
I think the inevitable outcome when you try to make things realistic is that small towns just wouldn't exist at all in a dangerous world. And the larger ones would be situated in very defensible places, like a cavern with one entrance. So you either need to hand-wave the economics/manpower/armory aspect or introduce some kind of complicated excuse for how things are the way they are.
Yes.
In my setting the interior of a country has to be very tame by D&D standards and real adventure occurs on the frontier or the unknown (Here be Dragons).
Inside the country you might face evil-ish NPCs or some bandits or wildlife. Once you get to the frontier, things ramp up quickly. So low level PCs can hang around near the frontier, but would need to come back. Higher level characters could go on an expedition. Maybe they'll get lucky and not find something out of their league while still finding something lucrative to smite.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Cum catapultae proscriptae erunt tum soli proscript catapultas habebunt
In this case I suppose that means... mercenary/consultant work is going to be readily available, any skills and experience the group has will be a commodity, but people could be dangerously paranoid of the party since they have a tiefling, a drow, and two shifters, one of which is a lycan bloodhunter... whose beast aspect is a chromatic dragon... Actually their class composition is basically perfect for getting work in this world, with an artificer (tech, support magic) a bloodhunter (supernatural lore + investigating) a paladin (killing evil and divine support) and fey ranger (fills gaps, tracking, navigation, lore of Fey/monstrosities etc). Everyone's either going to want their help, want them to leave, want to kill them, or want to enslave or manipulate them. Artificers in particular are targets for recruitment or slavery for their versatility and knowledge. And if the party slips up and causes any havoc the people are going to be pretty quick to try to take them down, they'll start gauging their capabilities and weaknesses as soon as they meet them, preparing countermeasures.
Starting region is city-states mostly because of a history of ineffective kingdoms and empires. Decentralized cooperation was given more favor than supposedly invincible empires. The glue is that the world went through a period where any nation that tried to seize power by force or refused to aid their neighbours found themselves without real allies. Great empires were shattered in succession wars, and evil forces took advantage of the chaos. Civilization was on the brink of falling too far to survive. Every region needed to be both independent enough to defend itself, and cooperative enough to not watch their neighbours die. Being a strong piece of a stronger whole.
The nation state alliances have equal or better communication than most of the great nations, because none of them can call on vast imperial armies or spy networks on a whim. They share information basically freely. Each state is technically independent but bound by the threat of being cut off. Most "city states" are like mini nations that control nearby towns, which are generally somewhat fortified and have well practiced evacuation protocols. Just think of their alliances as loose, streamlined, talkative republics and that should sum up their capabilities. They don't function too differently from actual nations, minus having no capital or high monarch. There are still some regular kingdoms and empires though, the most stable, defensible, and magically equipped ones managed to hold on.
If you use the spells in the books a nation state would have to have some form of fast reaction squad to protect it towns. Realistically the town mayor or council will be given access to sending. In the event of an extra-extraordinary assault on the town (dragons, monsters, space pirates, adventure party of murder hobos), a message would be sent to the nearest fort for defense of the town. Pretty good chance for towns the State can't afford to lose would have a permanent teleportation circle. So if the town is being attacked a quick reaction force of knights and casters would teleport to the town to defend the citizens.
For tactics, the town would most likely have access to clerical capabilities from the town temple. There would most likely be a cache of basic magic items for the best knights of the town. There might be some arcane casters either in the militia or pressed into service.
In a really high magic town, who knows they might even put up an illusion of a mountain and redirect the attackers to an ambush or the town might be patrons of a large gold dragon and its family. Attacking the town would lead to dragon breath.
These issues aren’t that different from Medieval history, except that the monsters were all human. Villages might not be fortified, but a town would probably have a stockade and might have a motte and bailey. Bigger towns would have small castles. Cities would potentially have a wall and a castle. Strategic points like a rover crossing might have a fort.
in general, feudal systems used the local lord and his retinue as the skilled fighters and often law enforcement, with local peasants raised as an army when needed. The former would have swords, pole arms, etc. The latter would mostly have spears or pikes, unless they knew archery. Cities would have town guards. By the Renaissance, town guards and walls would be more common, as would the use of mercenaries.
People would likely develop tactics to fight the monsters endemic to their region. Troll infested areas store alchemical fire, oil, and acid, areas scourged by wyverns train lots of bowmen, places with lots of kobolds or wolves train to fight in shield formations, etc. Magic might be cheap enough that cities and large towns would have a few weak items, probably owned and wielded by the local lord. But most of the responses should be non-magical unless the town has a moderately strong wizard or cleric by happenstance.
Okay, so if a motte is a defensive area that makes use of high ground advantage, then in a DnD setting they'll probably have overhead cover for defense from flying creatures, and either stone walls or water supply/water wizards to protect against FIREBALLS.
It occurred to me that we have learned that if enough CR 1/4 "monsters" come at your party, you will succumb to their power. So in spite of the threat of magic and other things, a town would know this too. I think the towns would learn this from adventurers, that no matter how powerful they were, if they were cornered by a large force they couldn't last forever. So, the town would need a way to restrain them and then a method of engaging them with the least risk possible while other forces were brought in.
It seems part of the formula would be to have crossbows and bolts. If you are concerned about flying attackers then you might need thousands of crossbow bolts. You would want cross timber barriers (abatis) and pavise. And you would need a sending spell to contact other forces to reinforce you if the situation was very dire.
Some sensibility needs to be exercised here. A handful of Lvl 15 PCs are not going to lay waste to a town for no reason. So what Level of Party should a town be able to manage without outside help? In my worldbuilding I have counter-measures that would prevent a Lvl 5 Party from taking over. The typical Baron that runs an area about one-third to one-fifth of a County is a Lvl 7 Paladin. He has a Captain of the Guard that is a Lvl 5 Paladin, Fighter of Ranger. The local temple/church is led by a Lvl 5 Cleric devoted to the "State" religion. And there are other "leveled" characters in the area. In addition to going up against the horde of towns guard, a troublemaking party would need to face them also.
An equal measure of thought should be applied to how a village would deal with an outbreak of fire.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Cum catapultae proscriptae erunt tum soli proscript catapultas habebunt
They run to a room filled with spears and crossbows. They grab one or the other, then run out to die in a heroic but tragically inept manner with several Wilhelm screams as they fall from the battlements.
And that's fine, just remember that for all the world building work you're putting in, it won't matter a bit to your players unless they get to see it. That means they either need to interact with it in a meaningful way in game or you're going to need to outright tell them about it. The first is interesting and cool, the latter tends to be very boring for players. As long as you realize that much of this work you're doing is for yourself, you're fine. Just don't fall into the trap of trying to dump all of it on your players. The focus of the game should be on their characters and how they affect the world, not on your story with your players as spectators.
Canto alla vita
alla sua bellezza
ad ogni sua ferita
ogni sua carezza!
I sing to life and to its tragic beauty
To pain and to strife, but all that dances through me
The rise and the fall, I've lived through it all!
Yes.
In my setting the interior of a country has to be very tame by D&D standards and real adventure occurs on the frontier or the unknown (Here be Dragons).
Inside the country you might face evil-ish NPCs or some bandits or wildlife. Once you get to the frontier, things ramp up quickly. So low level PCs can hang around near the frontier, but would need to come back. Higher level characters could go on an expedition. Maybe they'll get lucky and not find something out of their league while still finding something lucrative to smite.
Cum catapultae proscriptae erunt tum soli proscript catapultas habebunt
In this case I suppose that means... mercenary/consultant work is going to be readily available, any skills and experience the group has will be a commodity, but people could be dangerously paranoid of the party since they have a tiefling, a drow, and two shifters, one of which is a lycan bloodhunter... whose beast aspect is a chromatic dragon... Actually their class composition is basically perfect for getting work in this world, with an artificer (tech, support magic) a bloodhunter (supernatural lore + investigating) a paladin (killing evil and divine support) and fey ranger (fills gaps, tracking, navigation, lore of Fey/monstrosities etc). Everyone's either going to want their help, want them to leave, want to kill them, or want to enslave or manipulate them. Artificers in particular are targets for recruitment or slavery for their versatility and knowledge. And if the party slips up and causes any havoc the people are going to be pretty quick to try to take them down, they'll start gauging their capabilities and weaknesses as soon as they meet them, preparing countermeasures.
Life is the game.
How big and interconnected are your governments? Do you have city-states or do you have actual countries?
Canto alla vita
alla sua bellezza
ad ogni sua ferita
ogni sua carezza!
I sing to life and to its tragic beauty
To pain and to strife, but all that dances through me
The rise and the fall, I've lived through it all!
Starting region is city-states mostly because of a history of ineffective kingdoms and empires. Decentralized cooperation was given more favor than supposedly invincible empires. The glue is that the world went through a period where any nation that tried to seize power by force or refused to aid their neighbours found themselves without real allies. Great empires were shattered in succession wars, and evil forces took advantage of the chaos. Civilization was on the brink of falling too far to survive. Every region needed to be both independent enough to defend itself, and cooperative enough to not watch their neighbours die. Being a strong piece of a stronger whole.
The nation state alliances have equal or better communication than most of the great nations, because none of them can call on vast imperial armies or spy networks on a whim. They share information basically freely. Each state is technically independent but bound by the threat of being cut off. Most "city states" are like mini nations that control nearby towns, which are generally somewhat fortified and have well practiced evacuation protocols. Just think of their alliances as loose, streamlined, talkative republics and that should sum up their capabilities. They don't function too differently from actual nations, minus having no capital or high monarch.
There are still some regular kingdoms and empires though, the most stable, defensible, and magically equipped ones managed to hold on.
Life is the game.
If you use the spells in the books a nation state would have to have some form of fast reaction squad to protect it towns. Realistically the town mayor or council will be given access to sending. In the event of an extra-extraordinary assault on the town (dragons, monsters, space pirates, adventure party of murder hobos), a message would be sent to the nearest fort for defense of the town. Pretty good chance for towns the State can't afford to lose would have a permanent teleportation circle. So if the town is being attacked a quick reaction force of knights and casters would teleport to the town to defend the citizens.
For tactics, the town would most likely have access to clerical capabilities from the town temple. There would most likely be a cache of basic magic items for the best knights of the town. There might be some arcane casters either in the militia or pressed into service.
In a really high magic town, who knows they might even put up an illusion of a mountain and redirect the attackers to an ambush or the town might be patrons of a large gold dragon and its family. Attacking the town would lead to dragon breath.
These issues aren’t that different from Medieval history, except that the monsters were all human. Villages might not be fortified, but a town would probably have a stockade and might have a motte and bailey. Bigger towns would have small castles. Cities would potentially have a wall and a castle. Strategic points like a rover crossing might have a fort.
in general, feudal systems used the local lord and his retinue as the skilled fighters and often law enforcement, with local peasants raised as an army when needed. The former would have swords, pole arms, etc. The latter would mostly have spears or pikes, unless they knew archery. Cities would have town guards. By the Renaissance, town guards and walls would be more common, as would the use of mercenaries.
People would likely develop tactics to fight the monsters endemic to their region. Troll infested areas store alchemical fire, oil, and acid, areas scourged by wyverns train lots of bowmen, places with lots of kobolds or wolves train to fight in shield formations, etc. Magic might be cheap enough that cities and large towns would have a few weak items, probably owned and wielded by the local lord. But most of the responses should be non-magical unless the town has a moderately strong wizard or cleric by happenstance.
Okay, so if a motte is a defensive area that makes use of high ground advantage, then in a DnD setting they'll probably have overhead cover for defense from flying creatures, and either stone walls or water supply/water wizards to protect against FIREBALLS.
Life is the game.
It occurred to me that we have learned that if enough CR 1/4 "monsters" come at your party, you will succumb to their power. So in spite of the threat of magic and other things, a town would know this too. I think the towns would learn this from adventurers, that no matter how powerful they were, if they were cornered by a large force they couldn't last forever. So, the town would need a way to restrain them and then a method of engaging them with the least risk possible while other forces were brought in.
It seems part of the formula would be to have crossbows and bolts. If you are concerned about flying attackers then you might need thousands of crossbow bolts. You would want cross timber barriers (abatis) and pavise. And you would need a sending spell to contact other forces to reinforce you if the situation was very dire.
Some sensibility needs to be exercised here. A handful of Lvl 15 PCs are not going to lay waste to a town for no reason. So what Level of Party should a town be able to manage without outside help? In my worldbuilding I have counter-measures that would prevent a Lvl 5 Party from taking over. The typical Baron that runs an area about one-third to one-fifth of a County is a Lvl 7 Paladin. He has a Captain of the Guard that is a Lvl 5 Paladin, Fighter of Ranger. The local temple/church is led by a Lvl 5 Cleric devoted to the "State" religion. And there are other "leveled" characters in the area. In addition to going up against the horde of towns guard, a troublemaking party would need to face them also.
An equal measure of thought should be applied to how a village would deal with an outbreak of fire.
Cum catapultae proscriptae erunt tum soli proscript catapultas habebunt
They run to a room filled with spears and crossbows. They grab one or the other, then run out to die in a heroic but tragically inept manner with several Wilhelm screams as they fall from the battlements.