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Old 12-20-2020, 06:30 AM   #1
hcobb
 
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Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Pacheco, California
Default Bendwyn is defenseless

There's nothing to keep the hippos from waddling into town and munching on the kids like it's Christmas dinner.

How do small human communities survive in a world of monsters?
  • They don't. Everybody was eaten last week so let's move in and take over the shops.
  • Bendwyn is protected by the Duke's patrols.
  • The average resident is better armed than the bears.
  • The monsters aren't real, but just illusions.
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Old 12-20-2020, 08:07 AM   #2
thrash
 
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Default Re: Bendwyn is defenseless

  • Human and para-human societies are organized for defense, with investment and durability proportional to population.
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Old 12-20-2020, 10:44 AM   #3
phiwum
 
Join Date: Jun 2008
Location: Boston area
Default Re: Bendwyn is defenseless

The threat to small towns in not monsters. A small town that has survived for some time has done so primarily because either it is in a relatively monster-free zone or it has exceptional resources in a local militia or both.

The threat is, of course, adventurers. As soon as a party of PCs shows up (or sometimes shortly before), all hell breaks loose. Monsters tend to smell out adventurers and are drawn to them like moths to a flame. Sometimes, of course, the attacks occur right before the party arrives, but it's pretty clear that had the party not shown up, the town would have been fine, living in its happy and peaceful stasis.

I've never once seen a party show up right after a threat has been vanquished, unless the threat was merely a precursor to a more dangerous event. Frankly, these guys roaming about seeking out danger are a menace and should be barred from entering a peaceful village, if it weren't for the fact that they spend money like drunken sailors.
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Old 12-28-2020, 01:21 AM   #4
David Bofinger
 
Join Date: Jan 2018
Location: Sydney, Australia
Default Re: Bendwyn is defenseless

Quote:
Originally Posted by hcobb View Post
How do small human communities survive in a world of monsters?
My thoughts:
  • Despite the rules claiming Bendwyn is a village, it really seems more like a town. I'm sure there are lots of smaller places.
  • For a large bandit gang who wants to raid a place for wealth, Bendwyn might be a good place to hit. But there probably aren't any large gangs nearby.
  • For a monster who wants to eat humans and their livestock, Bendwyn might be a bit large to make a good victim. There are quite a few humans there and they will fight.
  • Even so, Bendwyn does look very soft and squishy. Which probably means it's in a safe area.
  • We might guess smaller settlements would have fortifications, optimised for defence against whatever monsters were the greatest threat.
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Old 12-28-2020, 03:41 PM   #5
Senturian
 
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Location: Mount Bethel, Pennsylvania
Default Re: Bendwyn is defenseless

Unless the region on a whole is threatened by an army, Bendwyn is relatively safe. Maybe a Villager and/or his family has become a target, certainly not the whole village.
What sense does it make to destroy it?, Villages like Bendwyn are more useful for raiding. To come back again when it's profitable.
Hey, let's have a drink while we're waiting for the authorities to show up.
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Old 12-28-2020, 06:55 PM   #6
David Bofinger
 
Join Date: Jan 2018
Location: Sydney, Australia
Default Re: Bendwyn is defenseless

Quote:
Originally Posted by Senturian View Post
Unless the region on a whole is threatened by an army, Bendwyn is relatively safe.
But Bendwyn not only has no defences (ditches, palisades, walls, gates, etc.) that it's actively maintaining but doesn't even have any any observable remnants of such things. (I'm excepting the wall around Old Marius' home.) From this we can conclude not just that Bendwyn isn't threatened by an army, which we already knew, and that it feels it won't be threatened in the near term, but that it hasn't felt threatened for a long time.

On the other hand the town is still mostly compact. You can sort of imagine there was some kind of wall or whatever around the town, and that's gone but the village still hasn't spread beyond that limit.

Which is hard to believe, really.

Quote:
Maybe a Villager and/or his family has become a target, certainly not the whole village.
I don't know what this means. Are you talking about criminals who live in Bendwyn, targeting individual families?

Quote:
What sense does it make to destroy it?, Villages like Bendwyn are more useful for raiding. To come back again when it's profitable.
But if the village gets raided, it's going to build defences. And it hasn't.
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Old 12-28-2020, 08:59 PM   #7
warhorse11h
 
Join Date: Aug 2018
Default Re: Bendwyn is defenseless

Bridgefort is about 6 miles from Bendwyn. The fact that it is named tends to support the idea that it is an active fortification, as does its location along the southern boundary of Dran. Its location is on a trail route into Dran from Tanander also increases its value for defense of Dran. It blocks intruders into Dran from that direction and the size of the Bright River further limits intruders into Dran from the south. I think it would also be likely that patrols from the fort would routinely pass through the area surrounding Bendwyn and along the great road running alongside the Bright River, maintaining order and giving monsters and bandits a reason to move on. In the event of an emergency, the residents of Bendwyn would likely flee to the safety of Bridgefort.
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Old 12-29-2020, 04:06 AM   #8
David Bofinger
 
Join Date: Jan 2018
Location: Sydney, Australia
Default Re: Bendwyn is defenseless

During the Great War Bendwyn would have been close behind the Tanander front. Bet it had defences then.
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Old 12-29-2020, 04:24 AM   #9
warhorse11h
 
Join Date: Aug 2018
Default Re: Bendwyn is defenseless

The text on Bendwyn indicates that the oldest buildings were placed close together for protection. It wouldn't be the first time that fortifications or other construction were dismantled when no longer needed to provide building material for new construction.
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Old 12-29-2020, 04:55 PM   #10
Skarg
 
Join Date: May 2015
Default Re: Bendwyn is defenseless

Bendwyn has a guard sergeant with four other men, and several experienced fighters in the population, two wizards and the other common folk, many of which probably have at least a weapon talent, even if they're just ST 10 DX 10 or so. There are many houses and people and their dogs and so on there. Strength lies in numbers. A monster could be a danger, but a monster would probably tend to avoid directly attacking a community, just like real-world large predators do.
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