currentpattern
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Goblins & Halflings nearby

Thu 15 Apr 2021, 08:04

I just realized, as I was worldbuilding, that due to the dual nature of halflings & goblins, whenever there is any population of halflings, there should be an roughly equally sized population of goblins nearby. Likewise, if there's a community of goblins, somewhere within a day's ride should be a proportional sister-community of halflings. They go together necessarily because of their 50/50 birth chances.
 
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silverfoxdmt73
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Re: Goblins & Halflings nearby

Fri 23 Apr 2021, 10:51

Makes sense for the older, longer established settlements.

Though after the Bloodmist lifted, they can travel further afield and start new communities.
 
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Konungr
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Re: Goblins & Halflings nearby

Sun 25 Apr 2021, 19:56

Also consider that originally the bitter reach book mentioned the harsher crueler more survivalist community of goblins with no mention of halflings at all. Halfling children in that case could be left out to die as being too weak. It's not what they ended up settling on for the book but it's a thought. A goblin or halfling community could just have a lower birth rate because some children "die in child birth".
 
currentpattern
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Re: Goblins & Halflings nearby

Wed 28 Apr 2021, 20:37

Also consider that originally the bitter reach book mentioned the harsher crueler more survivalist community of goblins with no mention of halflings at all. Halfling children in that case could be left out to die as being too weak. It's not what they ended up settling on for the book but it's a thought. A goblin or halfling community could just have a lower birth rate because some children "die in child birth".
Interesting idea to think about. If we want to go full realistic, one would have to account for a high-enough birth rate to sustain population replacement rates if they killed half of their children (lore states that there's a 50% chance a goblin child will be Halfling and vis versa, so for such a brutal population, 1/2 of the children would be killed). This article https://www.thoughtco.com/total-fertility-rate-1435463 says that in developing countries today, people need roughly 2.3 children per couple in order to sustain population replacement. I'd bump that higher, to a friendly 2.5 for a Goblin community in a harsh environment. If they're killing 1/2 their children, every mother would need to be giving birth to a litter of, on average 5 children.
 
Mr Oldtimer
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Re: Goblins & Halflings nearby

Wed 28 Apr 2021, 21:32

Well, it is stated in the Bitter reaches, the halfling offspring is less common than the goblin ones. Also the halflings that are born, are considered of lower status in the pack/herd/clan.

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