D&D General Lore Questions About Spelljamming Uses of Magic, Cosmology, Metaphysics

[Bohandas]

not to debate with the rest of your post, but the population numbers for eberron should generally be considered highly suspect

ALL of D&D's official population numbers should be considered highly suspect; like how the biggest cities on the outer planes - which supposedly are fantastically large - nevertheless have populations well within the range of real cities in the ancient world.

 

[Warren Ellis]

ALL of D&D's official population numbers should be considered highly suspect; like how the biggest cities on the outer planes - which supposedly are fantastically large - nevertheless have populations well within the range of real cities in the ancient world.

Is that why so many great and powerful cities in lots of D&D settings have populations often only in the low hundred thousands?

 

[Chaosmancer]

Presumably.

 

[Bohandas]

My point is that they're all well short of the population of the city of Rome during the empire (which had 1 million people).

The population numbers aren't just lower than what you get in a big modern city , they're low even for a big ancient city too

 

[Beleriphon]

My point is that they're all well short of the population of the city of Rome during the empire (which had 1 million people).

The population numbers aren't just lower than what you get in a big modern city , they're low even for a big ancient city too

We had this discussion before, Rome had a lot going for it that allowed to have a population as high as it was. At a practical level something like the City of Brass, never mind Sigil, should probably have a population akin to Tokyo around 35 million (I feel it is reasonable given that the city is populate largely by creatures that done eat or drink normal food) . Sigil has limited ground coverage, but I'm not sure it has ever been made clear what that value actually is, regardless it is a gonzo magic donut so it can a population of whatever the GM wants with a substantial population that doesn't even need normal mortal sustenance.

 

[Aelryinth]

Just to point out: The Wealth Limit of Sharn is not the Wealth OF Sharn. It's the most money you can buy/spend at any one time, until the economy manages to recover.
So, what it means is a level 20 character can temporarily break the bank of the biggest city in Sharn if he buys/sells to full scale, and once you get into Epic, that wealth limit hits the moon.
After all, a wealth limit represents liquidity, not 'value of' the city or country, etc. Once that tax income is spent by the government, it's gone and not available to compensate a PC for his services. Wealth limits are about that kind of floating, liquid gold.

 

[Chaosmancer]

Just to point out: The Wealth Limit of Sharn is not the Wealth OF Sharn. It's the most money you can buy/spend at any one time, until the economy manages to recover.
So, what it means is a level 20 character can temporarily break the bank of the biggest city in Sharn if he buys/sells to full scale, and once you get into Epic, that wealth limit hits the moon.
After all, a wealth limit represents liquidity, not 'value of' the city or country, etc. Once that tax income is spent by the government, it's gone and not available to compensate a PC for his services. Wealth limits are about that kind of floating, liquid gold.

Which... sort of makes sense.

I mean, yeah, spending near a million gold would likely put some pressures on an economy, especially since it is part and parcel of the normal operating costs of the city.

I mean, the bank likely does millions of gold of business anyways, but an unexpected million could throw them out of immediate cash.

But, that also makes wealth limit completely useless when discussing what the city can afford to do. I mean, if they have a million gold in the "floating discretionary fund for mercenary adventurers and misc. sales" they can probably rally and gather far more than that for planned projects, and cut budgets and wages in other areas to compensate.

 

[Warren Ellis]

What D&D settings, official or 3rd party, have gotten major city population numbers correct or close to what they probably should be, in your minds?

 

[Beleriphon]

What D&D settings, official or 3rd party, have gotten major city population numbers correct or close to what they probably should be, in your minds?

Generally none. There was another thread about Waterdeep and having a population of around 2 million. Within the walls that is unlikely, but total population the city controls including surround land might be possible.

Sharn's population is abnormally low for something that the same available real estate footprint as say Houston TX (that is to say taking the square footage and multiplying it by height). In fact all of Khorvaire is weird low, even taking into account a continent spanning war just ended. Using numbers similar to the First World War in terms of population changes Khorvarie's population was abnormally low to start with if we take into account mass casualties caused by the war (this basically declaring Cyre a write off as usable land as well).

The closest I can think of is Baldur's Gate in AD&D stuff that generally had 25000 as the the permanent population.