D&D (2024) No NPC Magic in PCs Homebase

[R_J_K75]

With only 33 adults in the village, is he captain of the guard or just the guard?

Im thinking him and 4 underlings

 

[aco175]

By 2nd level the PCs could rule the village.

 

[kigmatzomat]

Agree with @Whizbang Dustyboots . 33 people isn't a village, it's just a couple of farm houses. There's no guard captain, just Big Ed who tells people to settle down.

It just doesn't make sense for 15% of the manpower to be dedicated to full time guards. In contrast, Virgil Earp was the only full time marshall in Tombstone Arizona (population 7,000) who deputized his 2 brothers and Doc Holliday before the OK Corral gunfight.

Thats not to say there can't be a guard post there (they have to be somewhere!) but those guards would be non-residents, stationed at an outpost and will be on patrol most of the time visiting the other farmsteads that have no guard posts.

 

[R_J_K75]

Agree with @Whizbang Dustyboots . 33 people isn't a village, it's just a couple of farm houses. There's no guard captain, just Big Ed who tells people to settle down.

It just doesn't make sense for 15% of the manpower to be dedicated to full time guards. In contrast, Virgil Earp was the only full time marshall in Tombstone Arizona (population 7,000) who deputized his 2 brothers and Doc Holliday before the OK Corral gunfight.

Thats not to say there can't be a guard post there (they have to be somewhere!) but those guards would be non-residents, stationed at an outpost and will be on patrol most of the time visiting the other farmsteads that have no guard posts.

Doing a google search a medieval village had 50-100 ppl. I rolled randomly and came up with 66. Another search calculated that 50% of that population would not be adults. Seems reasonable to me

 

[kigmatzomat]

Doing a google search a medieval village had 50-100 ppl. I rolled randomly and came up with 66. Another search calculated that 50% of that population would not be adults. Seems reasonable to me

If you want to call 66 people a village, go for it.

What doesn't make sense is that 1 adult in 6 is a guard. Those 5 guards should cover a territory with thousands people.

 

[R_J_K75]

Those 5 guards should cover a territory with thousands people.

Huh? 1000 or 1000s of people?

 

[kigmatzomat]

Huh? 1000 or 1000s of people?

At least a couple thousand up to many thousands. The ratio of civil guard and/or standing military to population is incredibly low. In most cases the guard are the troops of the local potentate, and spreading them around in penny-packets hinders their ability to deal with military threats or peasant uprisings.

England in the early 1700s during what amounts to a crime wave, created a whole new concept of city watchmen expressly to stop fires, murders and other crimes. They hired 38 watchmen to patrol St George Hanover in London (population of ~19,000). Keep in mind the watch patrolled every hour of the day and night, were the de facto fire department and had to travel in pairs because of the clear and present danger at the time. The territory was ~1100 acres and probably had more than a hundred miles of narrow, closely packed roads.

The same act of Parliament also gave towns (places big enough to have a market, unlike villages), 4 or 6 total watchmen depending on size.

So unless your village of 66 is experiencing a major crime wave or had something of unnatural value, allocating guards to it specifically would be strange.

Today there would be county police but not city police in that kind of low density area.

 

[R_J_K75]

The same act of Parliament also gave towns (places big enough to have a market, unlike villages), 4 or 6 total watchmen depending on size.

So unless your village of 66 is experiencing a major crime wave or had something of unnatural value, allocating guards to it specifically would be strange.

Perhaps a capt and 2 guards may be more realistic but let's consider that this is a fantasy world where PCs could walk into a village and most likely slaughter everyone. The DMG24 says that the villages of Ery (which there are 2) are mostly farmers who export their goods to the City of Greyhawk with 2 families that have a history of feuding. No mention of size. I also decided that there is a thieves guild which use the village as a base but do not operate in the village proper but use it as a staging area to plunder its environs. So the fact that the City of Greyhawk relies on this village for some food stuffs, there is a suspected thieves guild here and 2 families who have a feud this may justify a larger watch presence. I just wanted to start small, and make sure there was some watch who can attempt to keep the PCs in check. Looking through the 1E, 2E, 3.5, 5E14 and 5E24 DMGs the only guidance I found on settlement creation was this, which isn't very consistent.

DMG24
Population: Up to 500 people
Max Gp Value: 20 gp

DMG3.5
Population:401-900 people
Max Gp Value: 200 gp

 

[Sulicius]

Starting to DM a new campaign with "the Fouled Stream" in the DMG. (2) players, Ranger and a fighter. I'm fleshing out the village of Ery a bit and decided it's an agrarian settlement. 33 adults and 33 children is the population. Small building for clergy of the god to agriculture, but none that actually have spell casting abilities. My intention is to have magic introduced gradually over the first few sessions. Although, there is one guy in the village, Capt. of the village guard, who randomly cast spells under duress, but has no recollection afterwards and denies it, and can't cast or prepare any specific spell. Anyone see any problem with denying these PCs magic in the first few levels?

This has nothing to do with the story, but instead with what your players are playing the game for.

Why would someone play a wizard if they don't know they can't cast spells for 3 levels? Talk with your players if they are even interested in playing D&D 2024 this way, because it is not a system intended for no magic.

Remember: the players are the heroes. They are the ones who are supposed to be different.

 

[TwoSix]

Realistically, if two trained and armed warriors walk into a village of ~30 people, no one is going to be able to keep them in check, unless the town is blessed with someone already skilled at conflict.

I would just up the population by a factor of 5, and have the town guardsman be a 3rd level warrior with the "wild magic" curse.