Reproduction rate of Dwarves?

[Derren]

For all those who have Races of Stone, is there any info in this book about how long the gestation time for dwarves is and when they start beeing able to reproduce?
(And if possibly the same info for gnomes)

I want to compare the offically known reproduction rates to see how rare the races are compared to each other (mainly to see how much WotC screwed it up, but also for future campaigns which shouldn't be purely based on old predjudices about how the races should be)

 

[Agamemnon]

I understand the Forgotten Realm setting has an assumption that dwarven birthrate has fairly recently surged up from fairly dismal numbers, largely eradicating the Tolkienesque dying-world feel.

 

[kirinke]

Humans: Obviously, can can breed like bunnies when they want to and mature at a relatively fast pace verses the other races.

For the most part, the more or less long lived races tend to take a bit longer to mature and their gestation rates are also a bit longer by about 2 months or so. Complications can arise if they reproduce before maturity, usually resulting in the death of both the mother and child. But, once they reach maturity, they so do enjoy reproducing.

The notable exceptions are the orc, half orc and halfling. These races have either shorter life-spans or life-spans resembling humans. Therefore, they have shorter gestations/maturity rates than the other races. And therefore have more members.

The only way I can think of for the dwarven/elf/gnomish populations to remain constant is that they have a greater number of twins/multiple births than humans/halflings/orcs. Also, at least with elves and gnomes I'd wager that polygamus relationships are very common and maybe even incouraged. Otherwise, drop the conventions and have them do the bunny thing like the rest of us. ^)^

 

[Derren]

I don't really look for something setting dependant like the FR Thunder Twin blessing but fo rmore general information. I hoped Races of Stone had something in it.

If not, anything about this topic from old 2nd edition books? If there really is nothing general on this setting specific things have to be enough.

 

[Dr. Strangemonkey]

If you're calculating population growth rates keep in mind that the rate of birth and maturation is only one possible positive.

Dwarves have a distinct advantage in that, according to the age chart in the PHB, they have the longest life span in terms of generational cycles.

A human being might live through three or four generations.

Elves live through, if memory serves, two or three.

Dwarves live through something between four and six. I also recall that they have phenomenally long periods of fertility.

Essentially, dwarves can pull off the sucessful businessman thing and raise two or three sets of kids to maturity before they loose all ability to have kids.

Combine that with a high constitution that enables them to age particularly well.

And even though an individual family of dwarves, in the nuclear sense, might take forever to grow as opposed to say a good human family, particularly one that belonged to a good patriarchal culture with Old Testament style family values, the dwarven nation as a whole is going to increase in population at a very good clip and have an extremely robust population of talented individuals.

Essentially, dwarves would have a late developing nation demographic with a huge population of elders, young adults, and mature individuals. One that would be all out of proportion to the number of kids.

Unlike, say, the US, however, that huge population of elders would still be a very productive force within the economy.

So, the only way you'd come up with the dying breed hypothesis from Tolkien is if Dwarves had a really poor gender ratio or young dwarves kept going off on adventures to die since all the great jobs at home were held by elder dwarves who refused to retire.

 

[The Grumpy Celt]

Don't let anyone fool you. Dwarves reproduce like Catholics in Monty Python's "Meaning of Life," complete with eloborate song and dance numbers.

 

[Dark Jezter]

Don't let anyone fool you. Dwarves reproduce like Catholics in Monty Python's "Meaning of Life," complete with eloborate song and dance numbers.

Would that make the elves like the protestants?

 

[Archon]

So.....this is not from Races of Stone but,

Dwarves have a 10% chance of conception with a 12 month gestation period.

Gnomes have a 15% chance of conception with a 13 month gestation period.

 

[Tetsubo]

I dealt with this in part by having Dwarves use polygamy as a regular component of their culture. Each adult femal Dwarf has at least two husbands. A Hearth husband that lives at home and helps rear the family. She also has a World husband that goes out and earns things adventuring or by being a mercenary. Rich and powerful females can have two or even three World husbands. This keeps up the population, genetic diversity and all the male Dwarves happy.

I have the ratio of female to male Dwarves at about 1:2.5.