How big are the biggest cities in your campaign world?

[Yora]

I would guess that the largest city states in my setting might have some 100,000 people within the city itself. But that's really the exception.

 

[Lanefan]

Troll meat. Every family keeps a troll, and just carves off what they need.

And every 50 years or so thousands of Dwarves die in the latest Troll Uprising...

 

[Hand of Evil]

Can I raise a practical question at this point?

What do those 7.8 million Dwarves do for food?

Hydroponic and light spells, Guinea pigs and cave spiders (taste like crab when boiled), mushrooms and the race that looks like mushrooms (it is not cannibalism when it is a plant.)

 

[Alzrius]

Underdark civilization food chains can require a bit of fantasy solutions.

I went with vast fungal vats and giant blind cave fish farms for an undermountain/underdark mountain dwarf kingdom in my game.

Looking back over the last few responses about how particularly large cities are able to feed themselves in fantasy settings, I'm surprised that no one seems to mention magically-created food as an option.

To use 3.X as an example (since that's what the OP is based on), creating a magic item that continually casts create food and water wouldn't be expensive at all; only 15,000 gp. Presuming that it would be continuous-use (i.e. activated once per round) at caster level 5, that would be 14,400 castings per day, each one turning out enough food and water for 15 humans (which would presumably be enough for an equal number of elves or dwarves, and maybe two or three halflings), which means that a single such item could feed a population of 216,000. Build twenty or thirty of them, and you can sustain even the largest city no problem.

While this does avail itself of the "background stuff is taken care of by magic" idea, which in my experience a lot of people seem to dislike (even though they quite often don't care about those background elements to begin with), this still helps to flesh out aspects of the city. For instance, the "bland" food that create food and water makes is unappetizing, so now you can characterize one of the major differences between socioeconomic brackets; who relies on the free food from those magic items, versus those who can afford to pay for tastier fare that's actually grown/slaughtered/prepared instead of magicked into existence.

 

[TwoSix]

While this does avail itself of the "background stuff is taken care of by magic" idea, which in my experience a lot of people seem to dislike (even though they quite often don't care about those background elements to begin with), this still helps to flesh out aspects of the city. For instance, the "bland" food that create food and water makes is unappetizing, so now you can characterize one of the major differences between socioeconomic brackets; who relies on the free food from those magic items, versus those who can afford to pay for tastier fare that's actually grown/slaughtered/prepared instead of magicked into existence.

In my experience, if you're going to have high-fantasy conceits (such as giant medieval cities) that require a lot of magitech to function, your best bet is to show it off in the game and demonstrate that you've been thoughtful about its inclusion.

For example, when I ran Ravnica (which is intensely urban and driven by magitech), at least half of the adventures were based around stopping rogue elements from destroying key pieces of infrastructure that kept the city running. Undead trash collectors, massive underground mushroom farms, magical "cell towers" that broadcast ambient mana fields that powered most magitech machinery, rooftop gardens on every residential building to allow for more fresh produce, etc, all got used and described as part of the main adventures.

 

[J.Quondam]

Looking back over the last few responses about how particularly large cities are able to feed themselves in fantasy settings, I'm surprised that no one seems to mention magically-created food as an option.

To use 3.X as an example (since that's what the OP is based on), creating a magic item that continually casts create food and water wouldn't be expensive at all; only 15,000 gp. Presuming that it would be continuous-use (i.e. activated once per round) at caster level 5, that would be 14,400 castings per day, each one turning out enough food and water for 15 humans (which would presumably be enough for an equal number of elves or dwarves, and maybe two or three halflings), which means that a single such item could feed a population of 216,000. Build twenty or thirty of them, and you can sustain even the largest city no problem.

While this does avail itself of the "background stuff is taken care of by magic" idea, which in my experience a lot of people seem to dislike (even though they quite often don't care about those background elements to begin with), this still helps to flesh out aspects of the city. For instance, the "bland" food that create food and water makes is unappetizing, so now you can characterize one of the major differences between socioeconomic brackets; who relies on the free food from those magic items, versus those who can afford to pay for tastier fare that's actually grown/slaughtered/prepared instead of magicked into existence.

I'm envisioning unadorned magical vending machines that (for 2 cp) squeeze out a tasteless grey soft-serve sludge (your choice of bowl or waffle cone), with cantrip buttons to add extra flavor (for 1cp), with options like "mutton", "potato", "cabbage", "salt", and "Goodberry Blast", which is very popular with the kids.

 

[Voadam]

For 3.x I never allowed mass custom wondrous item designs for PCs or world background, so no 1/round create food and water dispenser. Or equal level and cost 1/round fireball throwers either. Such items blow away every existing item and spellcaster for efficacy and balance.

The guidelines in the srd are directed at pricing a DM's new item concept, not a system for characters to craft anything by simple application of the formula the way wands and scrolls and potions are set up to generally do any spell within their limits.

The closest for efficiency would be a clerical wand of create food and water which would be 50 charges per creation.

Or the sustaining spoon which feeds 4 humans with gruel per day for 5,400 gp.

A 3.5 cleric can spend 10 minutes and a third level create food and water spell to create daily bland food for three people, enough for a small party or for higher levels really dedicating themself exclusively to it enough for a small group, but not really enough to support even a small village on their own.

So blind cave fish farms and fungal factories for my dwarven undermountain kingdom.

 

[Umbran]

In my experience, if you're going to have high-fantasy conceits (such as giant medieval cities) that require a lot of magitech to function, your best bet is to show it off in the game and demonstrate that you've been thoughtful about its inclusion.

Eh...

Most of us are not actually urban planners, logistics experts, or economists. And players are apt to take it that things we show off are intended to be paid attention to as plot points.

Which means that if we show off our (talking through our hats) magitech infrastructure, that infrastructure may become a target of scrutiny or attack that'll show how hand-wavey it all really is.

 

[TwoSix]

Eh...

Most of us are not actually urban planners, logistics experts, or economists. And players are apt to take it that things we show off are intended to be paid attention to as plot points.

Which means that if we show off our (talking through our hats) magitech infrastructure, that infrastructure may become a target of scrutiny or attack that'll show how hand-wavey it all really is.

True, but generally neither are our players any of those things. It just has to be thoughtful enough to withstand casual scrutiny, not any sort of audit.

 

[Umbran]

True, but generally neither are our players any of those things. It just has to be thoughtful enough to withstand casual scrutiny, not any sort of audit.

If the players are going to act on it, it becomes more than casual scrutiny.