D&D 5E It's Canon - Greyhawk's Sun rises in the South and Sets in the North (or possibly the other way around)

[Demetrios1453]

Ho, and if millions of players of WoW can accept that Oegrimmar and Stormwind are the center of such vast empires with the few buildings and NPCs you can see within their walls, we can certainly accept that there are so many factions I such a small town. As JC Mellencamp said, lots happen in a small town...

Azeroth is obviously scaled down for gameplay purposes, from distances to city sizes. Goldshire, for example, is supposed to be a fairly large settlement, but in game it's just an inn and smithy, with precisely zero regular houses.

 

[Mecheon]

Azeroth is obviously scaled down for gameplay purposes, from distances to city sizes. Goldshire, for example, is supposed to be a fairly large settlement, but in game it's just an inn and smithy, with precisely zero regular houses.

Also supposed to be like, a day's travel from Stormwind and not 5 minutes down the road

 

[Sword of Spirit]

So if I had to adjust that (which I would especially now that I know of the demographic problem) I would do it like that:
-3 factions (one secret) no prob at all, they all shall have about 20 members
-Prominent fishing families (200 people)
-Prominent merchant families (100 people)
-Workers (100 people)
-Smugglers (50 people)
-A senior town council member who owns 3 large fishing boats and is looking to expand the industry (he is one of the fishing families)
-A council member whose family has a trade cartel, and fleet of fishing boats, and several trading vessels (all part of the above)
-A wealthy merchant who "garners a great deal of support with the many feasts, entertainments, and other diversions he supports". He is a foppish dandy who enjoys "fine wine, good food, and the latest fashions" as well as a "patron of the arts and spends lavishly to support festivals, plays, and concerts" (yeah he invites the fisher smuggler and trader "high society" so what is the prob
-Smuggling operations sufficiently large that a bungled operation could land "a few respected people in jail" (does not make the city more crowded)
-"Many" fishing boat crews, in fact, enough that it would take "several" going missing before the locals demand action be taken to figure out what happened (200 people most of them being at sea for extended time no one counts them all when they return)
-"the town's various organizations"
-A full time town guard of 100 warriors (That's a bit to many, a standing guard of 25 does the job perfectly)
-A council member whose family has a trade cartel, and fleet of fishing boats, and several trading vessels (n.p.)
-Several popular fishing boat owners (n.p.)
-Can muster a militia of 500 residents (Make that 200 and you are fine, every able man will defend the town no matter if fisher or smuggler)
-A small force of marines (Yeah so add another 30 soldiers if it has to be)
-A jail that can handle punishments including 2d10 years of imprisonment (no one says you cannot throw 20 people into one cell, the only thing unrealistic here is that there were no jail sentences in the middle ages, that would have been much to costly to feed prisoners all the time. You had corporal or monetary punishment, the only ones locked up were awaiting trial or someone come with the extorted money to get free)
-Docks that are "almost constantly busy" with two primary piers for large ships, and a series of smaller ones (like it should with such a large fleet)
-The capacity to build 6 new warships under a commission from the crown (Yeah being boat people they should have some wharf, that's were some of the 100 workers above make there living)

I re-read the rest of the setting material on Saltmarsh and environs. I was partially wrong about the jail (they send people to Seaton if they're going to be in jail longer than a year). For the rest of it...I'm just going to say that I'm not really going to discuss it unless everyone else goes through and re-reads it too. There are plenty of additional details about of the type of community they are presenting (some that are stronger than the ones I selected from the portions I read before) , and you can't believably do it with 500 people.

 

[dave2008]

I re-read the rest of the setting material on Saltmarsh and environs. I was partially wrong about the jail (they send people to Seaton if they're going to be in jail longer than a year). For the rest of it...I'm just going to say that I'm not really going to discuss it unless everyone else goes through and re-reads it too. There are plenty of additional details about of the type of community they are presenting (some that are stronger than the ones I selected from the portions I read before) , and you can't believably do it with 500 people.

I thought Saltmarsh was about 5000 people?

 

[Sword of Spirit]

I thought Saltmarsh was about 5000 people?

Yes. There has been discussion about how to address the discrepancy with the map (that can't support 5,000) people. Suggestions have been offered to keep the map as is, and just reduce the population to 500--which is what I was addressing.

 

[Raduin711]

On what continent of Oerth is Saltmarsh?

Oerik. More specifically, the Flanaess, which is the eastern half of Oerik.

 

[DND_Reborn]

Yes. There has been discussion about how to address the discrepancy with the map (that can't support 5,000) people. Suggestions have been offered to keep the map as is, and just reduce the population to 500--which is what I was addressing.

Most RPG city/town maps are not drawn property to support any where near the populations they are supposed to have. This map is no different, unfortunately.

 

[Hussar]

Here's a good map:

 

[DND_Reborn]

Yep, I love most of Meyer's maps. She does really good work IMO and I love the online map resource she has for people.

Too bad she didn't do one of the "city" as well.