Alternatives to Farming

[maximara]

Originally Posted by Anthony

Dungeons have the fundamental problems of being small (generally more like urban population density than farmland population density) and underground (so no sunlight); it's unlikely you can come up with a plausible dungeon ecology that doesn't involve importing food or lots of magic.

Maybe Dungeon Plants -- some sort of tree that lives on the surface but produces underground edible bits on its roots -- though that doesn't solve the population density issue.

Good point. IIRC one of the point regarding Keep on the Borderlands was the monsters in the "dungeon" would occasionally do snatch and grab raids.

[Sorenant]

What about making them fast-breeding, fast-growing, and short-lived? This would reduce the resources spent on "useless" infants, explain how they have so many able-bodied soldiers and why they're so uncivilized.
You could throw in some cannibalism of elderly or disabled.

[Anthony]

Originally Posted by maximara

Good point. IIRC one of the point regarding Keep on the Borderlands was the monsters in the "dungeon" would occasionally do snatch and grab raids.

The monsters in Keep on the Borderlands appeared to just be using the Caves of Chaos as a dwelling place (similar to cliff dwellings, you could totally use Montezuma Castle as a dungeon), with some mention of hunting, though probably too densely populated to support a permanent hunter-gatherer community of that size.

[Rupert]

Originally Posted by Anthony

• Goblins: plains goblins are mostly herders (and use 'wolves' to aid with herding), though often with gardens, including extensive use of nightsoil. Forest goblins are similar to elves though less careful. Both types are highly prone to raiding human farms, breaking down fences to let their rothe graze, etc.
  
• Orcs: orcs are generally nomadic plains herders; they are capable of surviving on a human diet but generally want a bit more meat in their diet.

How do the plains goblins and the orcs interact? They seem to be filling the same niche, which would presumably lead to fairly intense competition for land, etc.

[Anthony]

Originally Posted by Rupert

How do the plains goblins and the orcs interact? They seem to be filling the same niche, which would presumably lead to fairly intense competition for land, etc.

They're not quite the same, the goblins are more sedentary, but they conflict when they come in contact?

[thrash]

Originally Posted by Anthony

They're not quite the same, the goblins are more sedentary, but they conflict when they come in contact?

You could go for some "sheep vs. cattle" Western-flavored enmity. Or have the goblins invent barbed wire.