Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 Sands666 Aug 20, 2014 16:26:17	I am trying to determing the scale for the city I am fleshing out in my new campaign.  Looking at Lost Mine of Phandelver, which has the scale of a small village I notice that the scale is in feet.  The village is not meant to be very big, and that's cool. But I am trying to get a sense of how many buildings/homes/businesses fit into villages, towns, cities and metropolises.  Does anyone out there have a solid method for determining how much space cities take up?  The one I am fleshing out now is a major city on the bank of a major river.  It is the biggest traiding point in the entire realm.
#2 Ath-kethin Aug 20, 2014 17:35:46	There was a web enhancement for the 3.5e Dungeon Master's guide that provided a great, quick method of making up any size population center, basing it around districts. It was not necessary, as I recall, to know 3e rules to use it, since it was a separate module from the main stuff. If you can find it, that might be what you are looking for. Here's the link: http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/we/20030719a
(Reply to #2) Ath-kethin	Doing this from my phone makes the stuff I wrote really hard to read. I'm sorry.
#4 Atheosis Aug 21, 2014 12:46:36	For reference, medieval cities and towns had a population density of around 30-40k per square mile.  People were pretty crammed-in such cities due to their walled-in nature.  Defensive considerations didn't allow for much much in the way of sprawl.   Here's a very useful resource: http://www222.pair.com/sjohn/blueroom/demog.htm
#5 Sands666 Aug 21, 2014 13:01:08	Thanks guys! This is very helpful stuff!   I'm using a setting I created that is Ancient Egyptian Fantasy. Same principles can be used as medieval society since royalty, religious areas and nobles got a lot more space than the averaged commoner.    The society of ancient egypt was dark. I suppose the living environments would best reflect this, though I do have to take some liberties to make this a good D&D game!
#6 Atheosis Aug 21, 2014 13:16:38	City population density probably would be more or less the same in a pseudo-Egyptian setting, but if it's a desert setting most people would live near rivers or other major bodies of fresh water.