[RPG] How to create a world with realistic demographics that won’t overwhelm the level 1 PCs

dnd-3.5egm-techniques

While creating the world for my sandbox campaign, I saw that the demographics in the DMG allowed for the existence of quite powerful NPCs. Their existence is logical of course, but it might pose a strong survivability problem in the event characters end up trying to 'make a difference' in their world, as adventurers so often do.

Here's an example, right out of the notes I've been writing:
the mafia in a small city is mainly composed of rogues. The highest ranking rogues are level 9 and 12, and, according to the DMG, there should be about two lvl 6 and 2 lvl 4 rogues, and so on. So if the high level rogues of the mafia (because at least some of them should be part of the mafia) take notice of my characters before they reach mid-level, they should logically be able to tear the characters apart.

The problem repeats itself whenever there is a relatively big institution present. Most organizations in the DnD world should have access to very powerful characters, that will usually be much more powerful than any low-level party. And the problem poses itself also for the PC's allies; the village has a sheriff, a fighter level 4. If he answers the call of villagers and goes hunting the beast in the woods with the PCs, as he normally should, he will probably steal the spotlight.

So how can I best create (relatively) realistic intrigues in a realistic world without almost certainly murdering my PCs, or letting their allies steal the spotlight?

Note: by realism, I mean 'that has sufficient internal consistency and logic to permit suspension of disbelief towards the setting being a real organic world'. There being Dragons and other things like that in D&D, true, literal realism is obviously impossible.

Best Answer

In a world with mixed levels, the party should follow a simple rule:

1) Low-level adventurers should avoid the attention of high-level villains.

This rule leads to a common trend:

2) High-level villains have no interest in low-level adventurers.

High-level villains participate in the high-level world. Their enemies are other high-level people: kings, rulers, leaders of rival criminal organizations, etc. Their goals are high-level goals to match. If high-level people naturally occur in this setting, then they are natural rivals for each other.

Your example is a perfect one: the local Mafia has some pretty powerful people on its payroll, people who could take out the party if they tried. To stay alive, the party is going to have to remember rule #1. What can they do to avoid the attention of these high-level Mafia villains?

  • Don't go after anyone important. If you beat up some random Mafia thug on the street, you'll get a lot less of a reaction from the organization than if you go after some high-ranking don.
  • Don't let them know who you are. If they don't know who's after them, they won't know who to retaliate against.
  • Don't make it a pattern. If you steal from someone once, the organization might not take action. But if you keep stealing from them over and over again, they have to respond.
  • Make it look like someone else did it. If the Mafia thinks it was a rival gang's men who attacked them, they won't go after the party.
  • Get someone else to do the actual dirty work. If you hire, convince, or coerce someone to be the one visible to the enemy, it adds another layer of safety between you and your powerful foe.