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View Full Version : How do you determine a town's total assets? [3.5E]



Zeta Kai
2010-03-07, 03:30 PM
Well, I actually have the answer. So, if you look at the cities in the front of Cityscape, or the town of Saltmarsh from the DMG2, you might have noticed that those settlements had an odd stat: Assets. Now, these are presumably the total monetary assets available in that particular settlement. So, if you were to rob the town blind, that would be how much money you'd get away with. What you would need to know that for is a bit beyond me, frankly.

But I found the stat interesting because I had no idea where it came from. The DMG1 doesn't say anything about it. Nor does the DMG2, & nor does Cityscape. But I noticed a pattern of sorts, & was able to determine that the assets follow a very specific & rigid formula:


Assets = (GP Limit/20)*Population

To show my work, here are the settlements that were used to determine the formula, & the math behind them:


{table=head]City Name|City Size|Assets (GP)|Population|A/P Factor|GP Limit|Factor/Limit
Blackwall|Large City|42,554,000|21,277|2,000|40,000|5% (1/20th)
Four Winds|Large City|56,040,000|18,680|3,000|60,000**|5% (1/20th)
Dragonport|Large City|26,216,000|13,108|2,000|40,000|5% (1/20th)
Sutulak|Small City|13,101,250|10,481|1,250|25,000**|5% (1/20th)
Kaddastrei|Metropolis|136,670,000|27,334|5,000|100 ,000|5% (1/20th)
Cliffside|Small City|6,996,000|9,328|750|15,000|5% (1/20th)
Saltmarsh|Large Town|577,500|3,850|150|3,000|5% (1/20th)[/table]

** = NOTE: These numbers seem to be fudged by the designers, presumably to better reflect that city's fluff, as well as illustrate to DMs that they are free to fudge these numbers, also.

So, the upshot of this info-dump is that anyone can determine the total city's assets with just a little calculation. For example, let's say that I had a city that I wanted to create (I always do); we'll call it the City of God. I know that I want it to be the biggest city on the continent, so I'll make it a metropolis. According to the Random Town Generation table in the DMG1 (table 5-2, page 137), a metropolis has a population of 25,001 or more people; for the record, this is the adult population, & the number of non-adults will range from 10-40% of this figure (but I don't care). On a whim, I pick the adult population to be 31,910 people. As a metropolis, the GP Limit is 100,000gp. We now have enough information to generate the city's total assets:


Assets = (100,000/20)*31,910

Which works out to:


Assets = 5,000*31,910

Which means that the City of God's assets are 159,550,000gp. Ta-Da.

Bibliomancer
2010-03-07, 03:34 PM
This formula is given in the DMG, in the section on towns. You probably missed it, or it was excluded from the SRD, but it is definitely in there somewhere.

Technically, the formula they give you is population divided by ten times GP limit divided by 2, which is the same thing.

Good algebraic work, though.

noiadodh
2010-03-07, 03:40 PM
i dont think that he checked the SRD, as he even readed the DMG 2.. Dadinho é o caralho, meu nome agora é Zé Pequeno, porra! sorry, didn't resist..

Zeta Kai
2010-03-07, 04:03 PM
Having checked the DMG1 again, I still cannot find the formula that you are citing. Can you give a page number, Bibliomancer? Page 137 seems the mostly place to find that, but I don't see it anywhere. :smallsigh:

noiadodh
2010-03-07, 04:44 PM
page 137, 'Community Wealth and Population', second paragraph

ps: finally an reference too obscure for the playgrounders?

PhoenixRivers
2010-03-07, 04:49 PM
Well, I actually have the answer. So, if you look at the cities in the front of Cityscape, or the town of Saltmarsh from the DMG2, you might have noticed that those settlements had an odd stat: Assets. Now, these are presumably the total monetary assets available in that particular settlement. So, if you were to rob the town blind, that would be how much money you'd get away with. What you would need to know that for is a bit beyond me, frankly.

But I found the stat interesting because I had no idea where it came from. The DMG1 doesn't say anything about it. Nor does the DMG2, & nor does Cityscape. But I noticed a pattern of sorts, & was able to determine that the assets follow a very specific & rigid formula:


Assets = (GP Limit/20)*Population

To show my work, here are the settlements that were used to determine the formula, & the math behind them:


{table=head]City Name|City Size|Assets (GP)|Population|A/P Factor|GP Limit|Factor/Limit
Blackwall|Large City|42,554,000|21,277|2,000|40,000|5% (1/20th)
Four Winds|Large City|56,040,000|18,680|3,000|60,000**|5% (1/20th)
Dragonport|Large City|26,216,000|13,108|2,000|40,000|5% (1/20th)
Sutulak|Small City|13,101,250|10,481|1,250|25,000**|5% (1/20th)
Kaddastrei|Metropolis|136,670,000|27,334|5,000|100 ,000|5% (1/20th)
Cliffside|Small City|6,996,000|9,328|750|15,000|5% (1/20th)
Saltmarsh|Large Town|577,500|3,850|150|3,000|5% (1/20th)[/table]

** = NOTE: These numbers seem to be fudged by the designers, presumably to better reflect that city's fluff, as well as illustrate to DMs that they are free to fudge these numbers, also.

So, the upshot of this info-dump is that anyone can determine the total city's assets with just a little calculation. For example, let's say that I had a city that I wanted to create (I always do); we'll call it the City of God. I know that I want it to be the biggest city on the continent, so I'll make it a metropolis. According to the Random Town Generation table in the DMG1 (table 5-2, page 137), a metropolis has a population of 25,001 or more people; for the record, this is the adult population, & the number of non-adults will range from 10-40% of this figure (but I don't care). On a whim, I pick the adult population to be 31,910 people. As a metropolis, the GP Limit is 100,000gp. We now have enough information to generate the city's total assets:


Assets = (100,000/20)*31,910

Which works out to:


Assets = 5,000*31,910

Which means that the City of God's assets are 159,550,000gp. Ta-Da.

1/2 GP Limit x 1/10 population is the DMG formula.

Greg
2010-03-07, 05:25 PM
1/2 GP Limit x 1/10 population is the DMG formula.
Which is what Zeta Kai posted, if you combine the fractions:


Assets = (GP Limit/20)*Population

Zeta Kai
2010-03-07, 05:30 PM
page 137, 'Community Wealth and Population', second paragraph

ps: finally an reference too obscure for the playgrounders?

My god, you're right. Sunuva... :smallsigh:

Oh well, my formula is more elegant anyway. And it's not buried in dry crunchy text. :smallredface:

PhoenixRivers
2010-03-07, 06:52 PM
Which is what Zeta Kai posted, if you combine the fractions:

Yes, but I added the source, and the exact formula given in that source, which corroborated his research.

lesser_minion
2010-03-07, 07:38 PM
It was introduced as the maximum amount of ready cash available, or the total value of any single item on sale in the community - so, for example, while every community sells 15gp swords, equipping 100 followers with them will require a town with 1500gp in assets.