EN World City Project: Government Affairs Submissions

[Tonguez]

On Lady Kelvin

It was I who suggested the scorcerous blood and mysterious 'not quite normal' nature of Lady Kelvin but left that gap unfilled so as to let DMs reimagine her as they saw fit (imc she'll probably be Fey of some sort, possibly even a Hag)

On the Size of the City

City Population and Geographic Size is not the same thing for instance the biggest (geographic size) city in NZ is about the fourth or fifth largest in terms of population as it has a lot of 'rural areas' in its jurisdiction. The Largest city in NZ has just over 1 million people and the Population of the Country is approx. 4 million. My Point I think is that we should think BEYOND the walls in terms of just how much space this city has

On the University

I like suggested Schema of Why the University was established as different people came in and started researching various aspects of the surrounding environment be it Sapphires or Silk Fish. That also ties right in to the concept of Colleges covering each specialty area. Also it should be remembered that using a system of Colleges the University does not need to be single continuos collection of buildings for instance the College of Druids might be based in a Grove 30 miles from the city on the other side of the Lake. The College of Engineers might be based near the Dwarf Mines and the College of Bards might occupy a large Opera House. This makes the Colleges similar in nature to guilds but with a Academic rather than Commercial focus. I suggest to that the Chancellors committee works as a kind of Education Licencing Board issuing Licences to Tutors and Researchers (eg setting Quotas on how many Silk Fish may be harvested for Research purposes)...

 

[Conaill]

The local military is based off of the original military unit that was brought here during the town’s infancy. Known as “The 1000”, based on the size of the original force, the present size of the standing army actually varies, normally numbering between 800 and 1000 trained soldiers and 2000 or so member’s of the civil militia which can be called up from the general population when there is great need.

Whoah there! I think your numbers are seriously off for a city of 10,200! Here's some more numbers from MMS:

Guards (private): 200
Guards (city, governmental): 100
Mercenaries: 100

And numbers of classed NPCs based on the DMG:

Paladin, Ranger:
1x 9th level, 1x7, 2x5, 2x4, 8x2, 16x1

Fighter, Warrior:
1x12, 1x9, 2x6, 2x5, 4x3, 12x2, 24x1

 

[Tallow]

Military Strength

Whoah there! I think your numbers are seriously off for a city of 10,200! Here's some more numbers from MMS:

Guards (private): 200
Guards (city, governmental): 100
Mercenaries: 100

And numbers of classed NPCs based on the DMG:

Paladin, Ranger:
1x 9th level, 1x7, 2x5, 2x4, 8x2, 16x1

Fighter, Warrior:
1x12, 1x9, 2x6, 2x5, 4x3, 12x2, 24x1

Hm... those numbers seem VERY small. I understand the intent to try and be historically correct on population census, but remember, this is a city in more often than not, a fantasy setting.

Population censuses can be altered based on numbers of things. If there was a particularly large military unit that founded the town, the military may still be quite large. If it is considered a frontier town and must protect itself daily or hourly against hordes of evil humanoids, the army may be triple what was previously stated as too large a number.

The fact that the town has to protect three unique and vital resources (silk, sapphires, trademark glazing), this might indicate that the militia is quite large. Not to mention that it is not a vassal city that depends feudally on protection from its lord. It is an independent city-state and is required to provide for all its own protection.

Just a few things to ponder over.

Andy Christian

 

[Wippit Guud]

On top of that, high-level PC classes, especially those with leadership, probably have their own set of guards and the like.

Wonder if we can have a high level neutral necromancer who uses skeletal guards. They wouldn't be considered in the demographic, he could have a bunch!

 

[jdavis]

That does seem awful low for a young frontier town with raiding problems. with those numbers I could mount say 10 elite guards who would have to work three shifts with 3 guards a piece for 8 hours and a single commander. Your city watch would be reduced to 30 or a group of 10 to patrol the whole city on 8 hour shifts. That would leave 60 guards total to patrol the lakes and the caravan routes and guard all city gates and the harbor, that would be three shifts of 20. The 100 mercenaries would have to protect the city walls, with 33 men per shift to watch the whole perimeter of the city (assumming you hired the 100 mercenaries permamently). Under siege conditons you would only be able to mount a force of 100 trained soldiers, 100 mercenaries and around 500 untrained militia, 700 troops total (around 7% of your population would man the wall under full siege).

Reasons I assumed much larger force
1. This is a frontier town.
2. This town is on a major trade route.
3. This is a relatively prosperous town.
4. The town has problems with raids, smugglers and silk fish poachers.
4. This is a independent city state that cannot call on outside forces for protection.
5. Lady Kelvin seems to be a person who wishes to have firm control over what happens in her city.

The numbers can easily be edited to any numbers but calling the entire military might of the city state "the 100" sounds sort of uninspiring, the title would need changed. It would be hard to guard Lady Kelvin, patrol the city streets, guard all gates, patrol the caravan routes and the lake and man the city walls with 100 men (or 200 even, if you hired the 100 mercenaries permamently). You would either need to add many more men or drastically reduce the threats to the city. Gee I feel like I'm in a meeting trying to bargan for hiring more workers for a project.

 

[Wippit Guud]

Well hell, we have a minister of guilds now... wouldn't some of the more prosperous guilds supply their own guards? They probably woulnd't trust anyone else.

That can bring in 10 times the number of people who 'guard', who aren't necessarily city guards.

 

[Krug]

Well 100 and 1000 sounds cool, but the number probably is somewhere in between. Even with the 2 sp a day rule, I don't see how a town of 10k would support a thousand guards.

The MMS' numbers seem most likely to me, with an additional 20% because of the nature of the town. But 1,000 sounds too way off.

 

[jdavis]

That's why I reduced it to 800, "the 1000" was just a title refering to the size of the original military group.

How about a real quick counter offer.

40 troops for Lady Kelvin's elite guard, 4 squads of 10 working 8 hour shifts with one squad getting a day off for every three days of work.

A 10 troop elite cavalry unit to respond to emergencies, guard Lady Kelvin when she leaves the town and to run random suprise patrols.

City Watch 50 troops broken up into 10 groups of 5 working 12 hour shifts, 4 groups of 5 troops for day patrol and 4 groups of 5 troops for night patrol with the troop rotation giving one day off for every 4 days worked. Detective work and secret police work becomes somebody else's problem.

City Guard 100 troops working 12 hour shifts similar to the city watch. The harbor becomes somebody else's problem and the Rangers patrol the caravan routes. Keep the Ranger unit the same but add more rangers in order to keep the caravan routes open too.

Change the name to Mor's Legion.

That would be 200 full time soldiers and a as yet undetermined number of Rangers and scouts. Solving crimes and patrolling the harbor become somebody else's problem. Keep the 2000 man militia but break them into a 500 man citizen's militia and a 1500 man emergency militia.

That would be pushing it to cover everything (I weep for my 600 now unemployed soldiers.)

 

[Buttercup]

I don't know about you all, but I like it. Imagine if the very word "university" had a bad connotation in Mor's End. "He just got out of university" would have a meaning akin to "He just got out of jail".
/B]

Yeah, I like that too. I agree that craft masters probably wouldn't be interested in the "university" students, but the guards would be. Also brothels, performers, maybe silk harvesters, pig farmers, inns who needed a stable boy, and even the secret police, if we have any of those.

 

[Conaill]

Guilds and Organizations thread is open for business!

Hi all!

Please come check out the Guilds and Organizations thread! It's now open for business.

So far I've populated it with the groups listed by Knightfall in his summary, and a bunch of quotes from "A Magical Medieval Society" (thanks, Suzi Yee and Joseph Browning!) Actual content is still to come . I also have 4 placeholder posts for additional groups that can be assigned.

There is quite a bit of overlap between the Government thread and the Guilds and Organizations thread, so do drop on by...