I was getting caught up on what had been said in this thread when I came across something that Being wrote that triggered a thought;
Being wrote:
Valandur wrote:
I guess that means no random animals wandering the land? Unless they are part of an escalation cycle it doesn't sound like there will be?
Lisa did say she liked that proposal to link escalation to the ecology... start with rabbits and other furry creatures and if they overpopulate it spawns wolves and goblins and voilà! escalatory activity.
That could be very interesting if a hex were to start with a balanced ecology. i.e. a bunch of rabbits and other herbivores plus a few wolfs and other carnivores. Then when the various PC's come exploring and encounter said carnivores they begin reacting the way they've been conditioned in so many other MMO's to react, they kill the carnivores for the XP. Of course now those carnivores are gone and the herbivore population is no longer being kept in check.
Initially the PC's might not see much difference other than a few more rabbits running around but a little more time and that farm in the next hex over suddenly has a problem with their crops. There are a lot of rabbits needing more food and here is this great crop of their favorite food gathered in one place. ***rabbit thought: YUM*** Of course the PC farmer is not going to be too fond of this when he suddenly finds that his crop has been reduced to nothing.
A very interesting prospect for the commoner PC's. Are you going to build walls all the way around trying to keep the rabbits out? Try to bring back carnivores to the area? Hire PC's to kill rabbits? And how many PC's are going to want to just kill rabbits? Unless you can find a place to sell their fur?
Just something that occurred to me when I read that comment. :)
