How many people does a thorp really hold?

[Scalenex]

Does the size of a thorp, hamlet, village, or whatever that is listed in the 3.5 DMG include the farms that feed them? Or are their x number of farmers/fisherman/hunter-gatherers for every citizen of said thorp, hamlet, village or whatever?

Follow up, does 4.0 have something similar and does it differ in numbers significantly?

[DigoDragon]

I'm under the assumption that the population figures include farmers/fisherman/hunter-gatherers as they would be considered residents of that thorp or town. I don't know if 4e has such a chart, but I don't see why you couldn't borrow the same numbers.

[Eorran]

4e only uses three categories: village (<1000), town (1000-10,000), and city (>10,000). They note that this number does include the farmers, so the number of people in the "village proper" would likely be very small, and basically exist to supply the local farmers/fishermen/etc.

[bosssmiley]

Thorps, hamlets and villages usually are farming communities. The cluster of cottages, burrows or w/e will usually be surrounded by fields, orchards, grazing land or hunting grounds and most of the inhabitants will be all but self-sufficient in their needs.

Think Hobbiton in the first LOTR movie; that's life in a D&D hamlet.

Advanced Gaming Theory (http://advancedgaming-theory.blogspot.com/2008/04/trade-in-game-world.html) has an excellent article on the subject.