Town sizes in area (Meters/Km)

[ddude987]

So I have been trying to stat out a small town for my adventurers. The town isn't the most important thing, but because I will also be making towns in the future as well as compiling the micromanaged maps I have of the world (on graph paper) size is of importance to me. The town has about 1100 people. How big do you think the town would be in terms of width and length? Also does the population of a small town include the farmlands surrounding or just the actual enclosed town itself? Thanks ahead of time.

[Cuaqchi]

It really depends on the terrain and the tech level in question. For a good idea of what your looking at try and find some global census records with regards to population densities. It won't be perfect; but, a feudal age agrarian society or non-agrarian gatherer society will have densities in the ballpark for areas like the following: Saharan Africa (Hot Desert), Mongolian Gobi (Cold Desert), Northern Karelia or Canadian Territories (Finland and Russia excluding Murmansk and a few other cities - Cold Forest), Yucatan Mayans (Hot Forest), etc. If you are looking in a more advanced area where Magic = Technology than you want to use a slightly different set of numbers like the following: the Lavant (Isreal/Palestine/Syria/etc. - Hot Desert), American Great Plains (Moderate Desert or Moderate Grasslands), US Northeast (Moderate Forest), Southern China (Hot Plains), Central India (Hot Forest).

The list continues but it can take a lot of research if you actually want to do things properly. The other option is to give up a little verisimilitude and go with "what looks right".

[ddude987]

Thanks a bunch! I'll do that. I was looking at real life areas but it was like rural places in my hometown which is certainly more spread out than a medieval aged town.

[Newcomer]

Hey there! I bookmarked this medieval demographics site (http://www222.pair.com/sjohn/blueroom/demog.htm) a while back. I think you'll find it useful. It's geared towards fantasy world-building, and it covers population in great detail. Then there's also this tidbit:


City Size: Cities and towns of the Middle Ages cover one square mile of land per 38,850 people, on average. This is a density of about 61 per acre or 150 per hectare, so the land within the walls of a typical city of 10,000 would be 165 acres—hardly a city by modern standards, in terms of population OR size. Some very large cities may have had up to twice this density.

[JaronK]

Note that D&D magic would seriously change density, depending on how high magic you think the setting should be. A single Decanter of Endless Water could provide enough water for an entire aqueduct system (5 gallons per second), and spells like Magecraft and Lore of the Gods mean anyone with even a little magic access can know how to build such a system easily. Food needs could be met by a resetting trap of Create Food and Drink. Entire city plans could be updated by a single Bard with a Lyre of Building. So... it could be really different.

JaronK

[Zombimode]

Note that D&D magic would seriously change density, depending on how high magic you think the setting should be. A single Decanter of Endless Water could provide enough water for an entire aqueduct system (5 gallons per second), and spells like Magecraft and Lore of the Gods mean anyone with even a little magic access can know how to build such a system easily. Food needs could be met by a resetting trap of Create Food and Drink. Entire city plans could be updated by a single Bard with a Lyre of Building. So... it could be really different.

JaronK

Because Tippyverse is the Only True Way of world building.

[Laserlight]

Thanks a bunch! I'll do that. I was looking at real life areas but it was like rural places in my hometown which is certainly more spread out than a medieval aged town.

Frequently, the limiting factor for a medieval town was its walls. They were expensive to build, and hard or impossible to relocate, so you started out with the minimum circumference you could get away with, and then the population would grow and get denser...

[JaronK]

Because Tippyverse is the Only True Way of world building.

Like I said, it depends on how magical things are... but things could end up changed. Many options are very different from Tippyverse but would still have effects. For example, even if mages don't support mundanes at all (so there's no general spells available), a few magic items claimed by some mundanes (such as a single Lyre of Building) could change things dramatically.

JaronK

[avr]

Frequently, the limiting factor for a medieval town was its walls. They were expensive to build, and hard or impossible to relocate, so you started out with the minimum circumference you could get away with, and then the population would grow and get denser...
I'd read that medieval town population growth was well below replacement levels due to the diseases overcrowding brought. The towns continued due to people immigrating in from farms without enough land for all the next generation. The real difference in D&Dland would be clerics casting cure disease (or other little differences like prestigitation keeping things clean) if that's so.

[demigodus]

Because Tippyverse is the Only True Way of world building.

Both the decanter and the lyer are from the srd. And they aren't cheesy items. While the resettng traps are generally a bit much, easily supplying an entire city with fresh, clean water, and fixing up/altering areas on demand isn't unrealistic.

Basically, if you introduce magic at all, things will change