Prophet2b
First Post
I'm curious if someone here will know the answer to a question I've had for quite some time now.
I'm preparing a campaign set in Eberron at the moment, and I've been noticing that even "metropolis" cities rarely reach the 100,000 mark, with the largest I've found being Sharn at 200,000 people.
My question is this: why are cities for roleplaying games so small? Especially the major metropolises. Rome, at its height, was over 1 million people and other major cities of the past were similarly sized, yet I've never seen a city (not just for Eberron, but in other worlds, too) with a population over 300,000.
This really has no bearing at all on gameplay or the impact of the game, and I realize that. I'm just wondering if anyone has any comments or insight on this? Is there something about REALLY BIG cities that makes them hard to roleplay in or something?
I have to admit that I was especially surprised to find this to be the case in Eberron! In a land where magic practically recreates the luxuries and niceties that we enjoy with our own technology, I would have thought there would have been a huge, massive, sprawling metropolis nearing the size of ancient Rome, London, Paris, or any of those cities (possibly even a city today). Alas, I was disappointed yet again... (Though overall, I am REALLY looking forward to this campaign.)
I'm preparing a campaign set in Eberron at the moment, and I've been noticing that even "metropolis" cities rarely reach the 100,000 mark, with the largest I've found being Sharn at 200,000 people.
My question is this: why are cities for roleplaying games so small? Especially the major metropolises. Rome, at its height, was over 1 million people and other major cities of the past were similarly sized, yet I've never seen a city (not just for Eberron, but in other worlds, too) with a population over 300,000.
This really has no bearing at all on gameplay or the impact of the game, and I realize that. I'm just wondering if anyone has any comments or insight on this? Is there something about REALLY BIG cities that makes them hard to roleplay in or something?
I have to admit that I was especially surprised to find this to be the case in Eberron! In a land where magic practically recreates the luxuries and niceties that we enjoy with our own technology, I would have thought there would have been a huge, massive, sprawling metropolis nearing the size of ancient Rome, London, Paris, or any of those cities (possibly even a city today). Alas, I was disappointed yet again... (Though overall, I am REALLY looking forward to this campaign.)