Castles & Crusades NPC distribution in non-adventurer society

[Mythmere1]

Sure, but a city isn't likely to have more than about 2% of its population in the City Guard, maybe 10%-20% are available for militia duty. Per Gygax 1e DMG, about 10% of entire population are 'males in prime condition' while 20% are 'males capable of lifting a weapon'. In 3e terms that means at most 10% of the population are Warrior (or Aristocrat), with maybe 1 Fighter per 10 Warriors that means at most 1% of population are Fighters, maybe the same again for other PC-class, so 2% of total population PC-class.

Good point. But then, in order to get a decent number of decently high level NPCs (the town wizard of 5th level), you'd have to use a distribution that slopes up even more radically than the "two levels higher" that you proposed. Maybe half the number three levels up. Hmm.

 

[S'mon]

If you factor in the town's rural catchment area you can get a decent number of higher level NPCs - eg a city of 10,000 may have farms & villages with another 90,000 supporting it, the high level NPCs generated in the area will tend to congregate in the city. So if 2% are PC-class that's 2,000 PC-class, a village of 500 will only have 10 PC class (eg 5 1st 3 2nd 2 3rd) but 10 villages each of 500 will generate higher level NPCs who are likely to be concentrated in the city...