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Message: <blockquote data-quote="steeldragons" data-source="post: 6292373" data-attributes="member: 92511">Having been to a number of medieval cities throughout southern France and Germany, I would say the vast majority of buildings will have occupants.The buildings in the city that would not, automatically, have people living there would include the church (in a D&D world "large city" I expect there would be multiple temples to multiple deities, but whatever suits your world's religion/s), a jail, chancery/courthouse, granaries (for the lord's/keep's food reserves, if not the city as a whole) and that about does it. Assuming a "large city" as you said, you would take into account things like theatres and arenas for public games/spectacles, warehouses, fortifications (toweers, a gatehouse, etc...), a library (depending on the size/culture level of this city)...places like that, that might have a few folks stationed there/caretakers/watchmen, but no one "living" there per se.Just as a completely average/on the whole/guess, I would say make 1 building per 10 a non-residence building. Certainly no more (barring in-story reasons, see below). Maybe even 1 in 20.The normal streets and shops and inns and taverns, assuming streets lined with 2 or 3 story buildings, are all dwellings for someone. Either in some back rooms attached to the shop or in the upper story(-ies). The smithies/forges probably abut the smith's family's dwelling, etc... The number of actual persons, that's a matter of you to decide in your campaign world. Is this city affluent enough that average families/households are 10 or 12 members? Is there a culture of promiscuity? Worship/revere a fertility god? Does the city house refugees from the neighboring warring kingdoms and so population density has doubled in the last 2 years...tensions are constantly at a breaking point these days? Or simply overpopulated?Is everyone crammed in with foodstuffs in constant short supply, so families over [say] 4 are considered odd and/or reserved for/considered a sign of the wealthy? Is there a law forbidding [or demanding?!] families over X? Did a plague move through the region a decade ago, so you have whole streets of buildings that house no one (believed to still be cursed or some such) or a block of ten homes with only a few members of 5 (of the original 20) families remaining there?And, of course, the style and construction of the architecture of your medieval city will also play into the possible numbers you can support.The city may be constructed with 1 shop at street level, 1 room for the family on top...maybe a loft/attic third floor. Maybe buildings are crammed in narrow but deep (3 or 4 rooms along but no more than 10' wide) with alleyways behind/between them and the buildings from the next street over. Maybe, in a D&Desque medieval/magical world, maybe there were dwarf engineers helping in the city's construction and/or mages involved, so you have bent/unique/twisting/soaring/"impossibly tall" 6-10 story buildings housing dozens of families each - and the casting of Dispel Magic within the city walls is completely against the law/may cause collapses <img src="http://www.enworld.org/forum/images/smilies/devil.png"  class="smilie" loading="lazy" alt=":devil:" title="Devil    :devil:" data-shortname=":devil:" /> - (as in real world cities, where you have limited/run out of horizontal space, you build "up").There's no real formula for this. Soooo...yeah. This probably didn't help at all. lol. Sorry. More "stuff/variables to consider/think about" than "an answer."[/say]</blockquote>

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