shadowthorn
First Post
I'm developing a home-grown campaign world, and I was interested in the new realm management system in the new Dragon Magazine. It's supposed to allow you to determine the population, resources, military strength and income of a given area. But the crazy system doesn't make any sense! Has anybody else tried using this system, and did you have problems?
This system has you first divide the land mass into "squares" that are 10 miles x 10 miles, or 100 square miles in area. Each square is then determined to be plains, forest, hill, mountain, etc. To determine the population of a given area, you use a population multiplier depending on the type of terrain. Each population unit represent 1,000 people.
For example, I have a continent in my campaign that's roughly 1000 miles wide by 800 miles long, and is about 600,000 sq. miles in overall size (roughly the size of Alaska). This continent would thus have 6,000 "squares".
Now, let's say that one-fourth of this continent is plains. That makes 1,500 squares of 100 sq. miles each. To calculate the population of an area, you multiply the # of squares by the population multiplier, which is 12 for plains. Each unit of population represents 1,000 people. Thus, a plains area of 150,000 miles would have 1,500 squares x 12 (population multiplier) x 1,000 = 18,000,000. Eighteen million people?!? WTF??? And that's only one-fourth of the total land mass of the continent!
Let's expand the scope of the test area to see how it really adds up. The multipliers for each area are: plains x12, forest x7, hill x6, mountain x3, swamp x1, jungle x3, desert x1. That's an average population multiplier of 4.7. If my campaign world has only 8,400,000 square miles total, that's 84,000 "squares" x 4.7 (multiplier) x 1,000 people = 394,800,000. Three hundred ninety four million people?!?
I must be doing something wrong - or else Wizards of the Coast is. Has anyone else played with this realms system? Does it match up with the campaign worlds of Forgotten Realms and Greyhawk? Does it match up against land area/population figures from the middle ages? Has anyone compared the resources calculation to the amount of wealth the DMG recommends depending on an area's population?
Perhaps I simply miscalculated or don't understand this new system, but it seems that WOTC doesn't make much effort to balance one system against another. Shouldn't the realms managment tools/info of the DMG and Dragon Magazine reinforce each other?
This system has you first divide the land mass into "squares" that are 10 miles x 10 miles, or 100 square miles in area. Each square is then determined to be plains, forest, hill, mountain, etc. To determine the population of a given area, you use a population multiplier depending on the type of terrain. Each population unit represent 1,000 people.
For example, I have a continent in my campaign that's roughly 1000 miles wide by 800 miles long, and is about 600,000 sq. miles in overall size (roughly the size of Alaska). This continent would thus have 6,000 "squares".
Now, let's say that one-fourth of this continent is plains. That makes 1,500 squares of 100 sq. miles each. To calculate the population of an area, you multiply the # of squares by the population multiplier, which is 12 for plains. Each unit of population represents 1,000 people. Thus, a plains area of 150,000 miles would have 1,500 squares x 12 (population multiplier) x 1,000 = 18,000,000. Eighteen million people?!? WTF??? And that's only one-fourth of the total land mass of the continent!
Let's expand the scope of the test area to see how it really adds up. The multipliers for each area are: plains x12, forest x7, hill x6, mountain x3, swamp x1, jungle x3, desert x1. That's an average population multiplier of 4.7. If my campaign world has only 8,400,000 square miles total, that's 84,000 "squares" x 4.7 (multiplier) x 1,000 people = 394,800,000. Three hundred ninety four million people?!?
I must be doing something wrong - or else Wizards of the Coast is. Has anyone else played with this realms system? Does it match up with the campaign worlds of Forgotten Realms and Greyhawk? Does it match up against land area/population figures from the middle ages? Has anyone compared the resources calculation to the amount of wealth the DMG recommends depending on an area's population?
Perhaps I simply miscalculated or don't understand this new system, but it seems that WOTC doesn't make much effort to balance one system against another. Shouldn't the realms managment tools/info of the DMG and Dragon Magazine reinforce each other?