How Long & Wide is Waterdeep?

[EricNoah]

So from that a close match is:

Paris Arrondissement #XIV 2.17 sq.mi. and population of 132,844.

Hmm... I'd like to see how crowded that is. *activates Teleport*

 

[Mystery Man]

What I want to know is how deep it is.

A couple miles or so if you include Skullport.

 

[haiiro]

From the FR interactive atlas...

10,000 feet from north to south (so about 2 miles, a smidge under?), and about 4300 feet east to west (so not quite a mile).

That seems kinda small.

I agree -- that does seem small. Certainly not big enough to get lost in, which is one of the things I've always envisioned about fantasy metropolises.

I know it's not anything like a perfect analog, but I always picture things in terms of Manhattan, where I grew up. I lived a mile from school most of the time I was there, and even squaring off that mile there wasn't all that much in there. Manhattan is around 13 miles long and 2 wide, pop. about 9 million.

Thanks for the figure, Eric. What does everyone think about how big Waterdeep seems, or should be -- or are there folks who think 1x2 mi. seems about right?

 

[Argus Decimus Mokira]

IDHTBIFOM, but the City o' Splendors boxed set made mention of population figures. Taken into account was the fect that Waterdeep is a trade city, and it's population rockets up in the summer. Perhaps someone with the box set closer at hand can cross-reference to see if the FRCS figure is this summer "high"?

Thanks
-Matt

 

[kuje31]

You can't use the old figures because in 3e they redesigned all the nations, cities, towns, villages, etc, to fit in with the figures that are in 3/3.5's DMG.

 

[haiiro]

The system in FFG's Cityworks determines city size as follows: 1 500' x 500' "block" for every 100 residents. For Waterdeep's pop. 132,000, that'd be 1,320 blocks. A square about 36 blocks long/wide would do it, at 18,000' per side (about 3.4 miles).

Watderdeep as listed in the atlas would be 20 blocks wide by about 9 blocks long -- or 180 square blocks. Per Cityworks, this'd only handle a pop. of 18,000 -- a far cry from Waterdeep's 132,000!

Hmmm.

 

[haiiro]

One more source's opinion: based on the city generation system outlined in MMS:WE, Waterdeep's 10,000' x 4,300' size is actually a bit big for its population of 132,000.

Two square miles is about 1,280 acres, and according to MMS, 132k people only need about 750 acres, assuming pop. density of 175/acre (metropolis range is 150-200/acre). That leaves 530 acres for who knows what -- perhaps the summer swell?

Just exploring other resources.

 

[Avarice]

Does the 10,000 by 4,300 foot figure include the City of the Dead? There'd be a pretty low population density there, I'd think. The MMS:WE estimate could be just about right.