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Message: <blockquote data-quote="JohnSnow" data-source="post: 4223682" data-attributes="member: 32164">Exactly. Rome, even into the Renaissance, was still probably the largest city in western Europe. However, its population was a far cry from the Imperial heights of a million or so. Partially, that was simple demographics. Centuries of medieval sanitation (or lack thereof) depleted the population of Europe a great deal. A city comparable to Rome, the crossroads of the Empire, is probably the biggest city imaginable in a D&D setting.And a city like that is probably more appropriate to the last age and the fallen Empire of Nerath than it is to the current, post-fall setting.Spend a few moments researching the medieval and renaissance population figures for some notable cities. The results are...educational, to say the least.Moving on... Thanks Plane Sailing. That's precisely what I was saying. If pressed, I would argue that the setting of D&D, by virtue of its antiquity and magic, is probably more comparable to the early modern period (i.e. the late renaissance, in Europe) than to the middle ages.I think it's actually interesting that so many people are extrapolating modern standards of living backwards to a D&D world. It's always been argued that D&D worlds tend to be a freewheeling mish-mash of medieval, renaissance, and modern concepts, and NOW I get it.It seems to me that WotC is actually attempting to craft a default setting (and game) that more closely parallels history, while still being totally different from it. It's interesting that some of their conceits which, it seems to me, should be self-evident are being met with such resistance.I guess people really do have trouble imagining living conditions other than the ones they're under. Now I know why the "Points of Light" conceit met with such resistance from some quarters.</blockquote>

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