Proposed mechanic:
1. Provinces are rated as either Wilderness or Civilization.
2. A province guarded for three months becomes Civilized.
A province pillaged for two months becomes Wilderness.
4. Wilderness provinces without any NPC nasties will have 1-2
generated each turn.
Nasties may attack travelers according to the type of Nasty
and the strength of the traveling party (as each kind of NPC
now has its own agenda:)
Savages Ignore people, but attack any buildings
Ruffians Attack weak characters
various monsters Attack anything
...
5. Civilized provinces neighboring unguarded Wilderness provinces
will be periodically raided by pillaging NPC's.
6. Wilderness locations do not support a tax base, i.e. inns
and castles receive no income.
Markets should probably shut down in the wilderness, too.
Perhaps a city downgrades to a town in the wilderness,
and automatically becomes a city again once civilization is
restored.
-- Rich Skrenta <skrenta@shadow.com>