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<blockquote data-quote="shurai" data-source="post: 519882">Re: Re: Extrapolating from the rules...Only if you do it wrong.&nbsp; I'll grant that the DMG isn't worded too well in the paragraph this example comes from, and also that the 7.5 billion figure is definitely over the top.&nbsp; It's worth remembering however that 'the total value of any item' means the maximum number of that item the town can generate, not has on hand. Look at the longswords example on that page for proof.To make this seem a little more plausible, I quote (with a barely straight face):<a href="http://www.ers.usda.gov/publications/aer787/" target="_blank">http://www.ers.usda.gov/publications/aer787/</a>by saying that that the US produces 20 billion pounds of poultry annually.&nbsp; Also given that<a href="http://animalscience.ucdavis.edu/Avian/pfs20.htm" target="_blank">http://animalscience.ucdavis.edu/Avian/pfs20.htm</a>states that the average weight of a chicken is about 4 to 5 pounds, that means the US is producing 4 billion chickens each year.How many people work in the chicken farming industry?&nbsp; Less than 30,000, garaunteed.Admittedly these numbers reflect the modern situation, so therefore medeival chicken production per person could not be so high.&nbsp; But given that a population of less than 30,000 in the US produces more chickens than the DMG assumes possible, with the help of magic and good organization I think several hundred million chickens is not outside the realm of plausibility for a city of 30K, if they are willing to turn most of their effort into chicken farming.-S</blockquote>

[QUOTE="shurai, post: 519882"] [b]Re: Re: Extrapolating from the rules...[/b] Only if you do it wrong. I'll grant that the DMG isn't worded too well in the paragraph this example comes from, and also that the 7.5 billion figure is definitely over the top. It's worth remembering however that 'the total value of any item' means the maximum number of that item the town can [i]generate[/i], not [i]has on hand[/i]. Look at the longswords example on that page for proof. To make this seem a little more plausible, I quote (with a barely straight face): [url]http://www.ers.usda.gov/publications/aer787/[/url] by saying that that the US produces 20 billion pounds of poultry annually. Also given that [url]http://animalscience.ucdavis.edu/Avian/pfs20.htm[/url] states that the average weight of a chicken is about 4 to 5 pounds, that means the US is producing 4 billion chickens each year. How many people work in the chicken farming industry? Less than 30,000, garaunteed. Admittedly these numbers reflect the modern situation, so therefore medeival chicken production per person could not be so high. But given that a population of less than 30,000 in the US produces more chickens than the DMG assumes possible, with the help of magic and good organization I think several hundred million chickens is not outside the realm of plausibility for a city of 30K, if they are willing to turn most of their effort into chicken farming. -S [/QUOTE]

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