JohnnFour
Game Master
Staff member
Adamantium WoA
Wizard of Story
Wizard of Combat
Gamer Lifestyle
Demonplague Author
Borderland Explorer
Got this tip from RPT GM Adam B in response to a Musing "Add Lost Civilizations To Your World":
One idea you sparked was to consider why civilizations last the length they do.
If we go with real world Human civilizations lasting an average of 350 years and consider that in previous historical periods, Human lifespans were between 40 and 80 years, then you could use an alternate measurement for the "lifespan" of past civilizations: measure it in generations instead.
So take an average of 60 years for a Human lifespan, divide it into 350 years and you get 5.83 lifespans. Round this up to 6, then double it as actual generations overlap and you're looking at a (very) rough metric of Human civilizations lasting an average of 10 to 12 generations.
If you apply this formula to fantasy races, then Dwarven and Elven civilizations should last much longer, while Orc or Goblin civilizations should be shorter in length.
Yyou can increase the complexity of this by bringing in additional factors like how warlike the civilization was, how much governmental infrastructure they employed, amount of farming, educational levels, external factors like concurrent neighbouring empires, disease, weather, climate, etc. but for a quick and dirty method you can just say civilization lifespan = racial lifespan x 6 and move on.
So if the Dwarves in your setting live for an average of 400 years while Humans only live 80 years on average, then Human civilizations will rise and fall about every 480 years while Dwarven ones last around 2400 years!
Your average Dwarven civilization could see the rise and fall of five successive Human civilizations in the time it takes theirs to collapse.
A long lived Dwarf might even get to see an entire Human civilization rise and fall within their lifespan!
Then there are the Elves...
Perhaps most fantasy settings should only have one or two layers of previous Elven civilizations as their civilization lifespans will usually work out to be ridiculously long.
Either way, such differing civilization lengths would go a long way towards affecting how the different fantasy races view each other as well.
One idea you sparked was to consider why civilizations last the length they do.
If we go with real world Human civilizations lasting an average of 350 years and consider that in previous historical periods, Human lifespans were between 40 and 80 years, then you could use an alternate measurement for the "lifespan" of past civilizations: measure it in generations instead.
So take an average of 60 years for a Human lifespan, divide it into 350 years and you get 5.83 lifespans. Round this up to 6, then double it as actual generations overlap and you're looking at a (very) rough metric of Human civilizations lasting an average of 10 to 12 generations.
If you apply this formula to fantasy races, then Dwarven and Elven civilizations should last much longer, while Orc or Goblin civilizations should be shorter in length.
Yyou can increase the complexity of this by bringing in additional factors like how warlike the civilization was, how much governmental infrastructure they employed, amount of farming, educational levels, external factors like concurrent neighbouring empires, disease, weather, climate, etc. but for a quick and dirty method you can just say civilization lifespan = racial lifespan x 6 and move on.
So if the Dwarves in your setting live for an average of 400 years while Humans only live 80 years on average, then Human civilizations will rise and fall about every 480 years while Dwarven ones last around 2400 years!
Your average Dwarven civilization could see the rise and fall of five successive Human civilizations in the time it takes theirs to collapse.
A long lived Dwarf might even get to see an entire Human civilization rise and fall within their lifespan!
Then there are the Elves...
Perhaps most fantasy settings should only have one or two layers of previous Elven civilizations as their civilization lifespans will usually work out to be ridiculously long.
Either way, such differing civilization lengths would go a long way towards affecting how the different fantasy races view each other as well.
