Alberic Strein
2014-06-23, 11:30 AM
Hello playgrounders! I was brainstorming ideas for a session (so as to avoid coming up with no plan like I once did) so as always when I'm looking for inspiration, I turned to my books and stumbled upon the Witcher, particularly the bit about the dryads. So let's think about it.
Let's say the Dryad forest exists in the border region of a human kingdom. Humans being humans, they constantly chip away at the forest for profit, which the dryads dislike (duh) and tensions between the two are on the rise.
A deadlock forms : Dryads have the terrain advantage and are specifically good at defending forests. Humans are many and growing.
Now, adventurers come in. You can't expect anything out of players as a rule of thumb, but between the eco-friendly female population defending their homeland and greedy humans looking for profit, odds are the players will join the dryads' side.
The issue : Offensive action against humans will spark a number of violent riots which will result, in short or long term, in the torching of the forest and the culling of the dryads, and with all the evils the humans can be associated with.
Let's presume (no matter how foolish it is) that the players get the hint and try to go at it the Ghandi way. They will find that humans, like always, are not united. However the key human leader is the lord of the actual place by human law. No human, trader or the like, will dare go against him. Said human leader is actually open to negotiations, even polite and all. His willingness to chip away at the dryads' territory, and doing so indirectly killing them all, stems from pragmatic interests for his community.
Easy mode > The community does not need the revenue that can come from exploiting the dryads' territory per se, but it does ease things up for the human population, and as a leader, is he not to ensure the best for his subjects?
Normal mode > The forest blocks an important trade route, resulting in very steep loss of income. If allowed to go through the forest and open a trade route the humans will slowly but surely chip away at the forest even with no malign intention, since his big -and growing- population will need the land and its resources and logically expand.
Hard mode > On top of the above, the forest complicates traveling an army enormously, putting the community at risk of an invasion by their agressively expanding neighbor. Not only does the lord need the revenue from exploiting the land, as well as more space for his population and the trade route, the dryads' forest is a glaring hole in his defences, made worse by the terrain. Not only is he going to need that land long-term wise, he needs it on extremely short notice because of his neighbor, at a personal risk for himself, his family, and his subjects. He actually NEEDS that forest gone and he needs it NOW for political and survival reasons.
Considering all that, as well as continental climate, a feudal system, a strong monotheistic religion which does not look that favorably on "demi-humans", and a dark age level tech (sewers being a long lost technology barely being rediscovered),
how could adventurers give a long-term solution which would not end in dryads being slaughtered, their forest razed, and/or the community under the lord invaded by their neighbors?
Let's say the Dryad forest exists in the border region of a human kingdom. Humans being humans, they constantly chip away at the forest for profit, which the dryads dislike (duh) and tensions between the two are on the rise.
A deadlock forms : Dryads have the terrain advantage and are specifically good at defending forests. Humans are many and growing.
Now, adventurers come in. You can't expect anything out of players as a rule of thumb, but between the eco-friendly female population defending their homeland and greedy humans looking for profit, odds are the players will join the dryads' side.
The issue : Offensive action against humans will spark a number of violent riots which will result, in short or long term, in the torching of the forest and the culling of the dryads, and with all the evils the humans can be associated with.
Let's presume (no matter how foolish it is) that the players get the hint and try to go at it the Ghandi way. They will find that humans, like always, are not united. However the key human leader is the lord of the actual place by human law. No human, trader or the like, will dare go against him. Said human leader is actually open to negotiations, even polite and all. His willingness to chip away at the dryads' territory, and doing so indirectly killing them all, stems from pragmatic interests for his community.
Easy mode > The community does not need the revenue that can come from exploiting the dryads' territory per se, but it does ease things up for the human population, and as a leader, is he not to ensure the best for his subjects?
Normal mode > The forest blocks an important trade route, resulting in very steep loss of income. If allowed to go through the forest and open a trade route the humans will slowly but surely chip away at the forest even with no malign intention, since his big -and growing- population will need the land and its resources and logically expand.
Hard mode > On top of the above, the forest complicates traveling an army enormously, putting the community at risk of an invasion by their agressively expanding neighbor. Not only does the lord need the revenue from exploiting the land, as well as more space for his population and the trade route, the dryads' forest is a glaring hole in his defences, made worse by the terrain. Not only is he going to need that land long-term wise, he needs it on extremely short notice because of his neighbor, at a personal risk for himself, his family, and his subjects. He actually NEEDS that forest gone and he needs it NOW for political and survival reasons.
Considering all that, as well as continental climate, a feudal system, a strong monotheistic religion which does not look that favorably on "demi-humans", and a dark age level tech (sewers being a long lost technology barely being rediscovered),
how could adventurers give a long-term solution which would not end in dryads being slaughtered, their forest razed, and/or the community under the lord invaded by their neighbors?