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Darkenshire - Help me with my town?

How far does it take to walk 229 feet? Im trying to figure out the cartography on my map.

Its 40 squares up and 28 squares across. 4 squares to the inch. A mile is 5280ft and a 1/4 mile is 1320 ft. What's a reasonable way to say 1 inch equals .... how many feet?

There is a place called Lovers Lookout. Right now going with 229 ft from Darkenshire, i dont know. I want it to take about 3 hours riding to get there and back from the city.
 

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Thanks Hand.

Nightfall - Slime Reavers? Where are they? Also i dont want a heros tomb b/c thats so cliche. I do like the ideas but i think i can figure out a way. Im thinking some holes covered by reinforced Iron that are Arcane Locked and only certain city officials have the 'key'
 


Is a town of 720 really big enough to support an orphanage? Unless a lot of parents have been dying recently, thre won't be too many orphans. They'd likely get absorbed by relatives, friends, or the local churches.

Likewise - three churches? That's less than 250 people per church. And a separate meeting hall? Most rural communities would use a local church for the purpose. Remember that if you get the entire population together, and give them one square yard each, they'll easily fit in a 90 foot square.

Remember, a town built upon agriculture and logging isnt going to be terribly rich. Manual labor doesn't pay that well. They won't have lots of money for buildings or items they don't really use. Would this community actually call for an armorer, for example? Wood-chopping axes can be made by a blacksmith.

A small community might well have cooperative buildings - a granary or icehouse, for example.

A lumber town will have lots of people who work with wood - there will be a lumberyard, wheelwrights, coopers, cabinet and furniture makers, and the like. If you're going to ship the wood, it pays to work it first.

By and large, this is probably going to be a largish area - lots of space for wagons to pass carrying wood and such. Workshops would probably be spread out. Unless there's a reason to put a wall about the town, expect it to be at least half a mile across, if not more.

Edit - to answer a couple of questions you asked...
A perosn can walk 230 feet in 4 rounds. A brisk walker can cover a quarter mile in a couple of minutes.

The stone wall you mention would probably only be protecting the most important buildings, mostly because the town won't have enough people to really man a wall anyway.
 
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Hrm. Well there is a larger town called Arrington about 10 miles to the west. The three churches were built for three distinct reasons. One being the church to the shadow goddess is more of a cult and not really a main church place.

And the DMG said that they will sell anything under 200 gp. So between farming, fishing and logging (plus machinations behind the scene with some hags), the deputy mayor is giving the villiage some money.

The orphanage is actually run by a local church (people do dissappear into the mist and are known never to come back).

So there is a trade with Arrington going on. I havent fleshed out Arrington (Dungeoncraft Rule #1 - Never create more than you need).

I just need to know how big to make the town (map wise). So you are saying spread it around?? Ok i can do that. So what should i make the squares? 10 feet each?
 

Ok this is what i have decided on ...

3 Taverns
2 Inns
Houses
Church 1 (serves as an orphanage)
Church 2 (serves as a meeting hall)
Church 3 (underground cult)
A mailpost
A dumping ground
Mayors House
Apothacary
Blacksmith
Tanner
3 General Stores
Jail
Lumberyard
Chandler
Cartographer
Furnature Makers
Wheelwright
Grainery
Stables/Animal Handler
Leather Worker
Sewer System
 


Angelsboi: A pet peeve of mine--Unless total cremation is a universal practice in your world, you need a cemetery.

[rant] Most game designers seem to forget about cemeteries when they're chartin' up a village/town/city. People die. The people who are left need something to _do_ with the earthly remains of the people who die. Over time, the numbers of those earthly remains begin to add up. A plot of land or three needs to be set up for the proper disposal of dead folks. It's also worth remembering that many cultures saw cemeteries as places of comfort, solace, and/or meditation for the living--not just as a place to stow a corpse. [/rant]

WRT mapping the village, I've usually found it best to make a detailed map of the 'center of town' area, and a rougher map of the whole village.

Umbran: Three churches for a village of 720 isn't a bad number--in fact, it may be too _few._ Keep in mind that, especially in rural areas, many churches (including the one I attend, BTW) have memberships of less than 200 people--and that number may only be accounting for different groups of people worshipping the same deity in different ways, let alone a pantheon of 20-30 or more deities. Depending on the number of gods actively worshipped, possible permutations of worship among followers of those individual gods, full-pantheon churches, and the possibility of small, isolated cults, a community of 720 could easily contain 10 churches of varying types and sizes--not just one big one.

Regards,
Darrell King
 

*pulls out the fire extinguisher and hoses Darrel off*

First of all you never asked me about a graveyyard. There is one 1 mile outside of the small town. This is a supersticious town and they dont want the bodies inside the city. So a mile outside of town there is a cute little country graveyard ;)

Now i have about 15 to 20 gods (i can list them if you want) and i have 2 main churches, 2 minor churches (dedicated to forests and flora as they are near a forrest) and a underground cult.
 

:-)

Didn't mean to sound accusatory, Angelsboi.

The lack of graveyards/cemeteries in RPG towns and cities is just one 'o' those things that sets me off. :-)

Especially when it's concerning a supposed "metropolis" of 50,000+ people, and there's only a couple of half-assed 'crypt' buildings and some ubiquitous 'catacombs.' (*cough* *cough* 'City of Greyhawk' *cough* *cough*) That stuff'd be filled to bursting within a coupla hundred years.

Waterdeep's 'City of the Dead' is a good go at the matter, but I just don't like the 'extradimensional crypts' aspect.

In areas where the fear of possible undead critters is rife (and even likely), having the gravesites geographically removed from the population center is a very good idea.

Regards,
Darrell

(who used and re-used the village map from the Ravenloft 'Night of the Walking Dead' module over and over again for _years_--just 'cuz it had a graveyard in it)
 
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