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medieval town/city generation
- Thread starter Hautamaki
- Start date
Scott DeWar
Prof. Emeritus-Supernatural Events/Countermeasure
A town square usually just a farmer's market with lots of bartering/horsetrading going on
A temple or shrine of no specific diety probably attended by a traveling priest
A temple or shrine of no specific diety probably attended by a traveling priest
Gilladian
Adventurer
At the "sub-village" level, you have to remember that they don't exist in isolation; each of the tiny communities is within a day's walk or less from a larger community. So the only things it needs are things that it can't wait 4-12 hours for...
Probably a local farm-wife or two brew ale and take turns selling it to the rest of the farmers, and there might be a communal bake-oven to conserve fuel. A communal grinding-stone could also exist, and there might only be 2-3 wells shared among the village. There's probably only one or two pair of plow horses or oxen (whichever is more common for the region) kept in the wealthiest farmer's barn (or his house, which frequently doubled as barn, especially in colder climates where animal warmth was prized all winter long).
A really wealthy community of that size might have one or two craftsmen, who are dependent on the larger community to support their trade, but for whatever reason (access to materials or transport or nearness to family, etc...) choose to locate themselves in the small community. For example, a potter might choose to live in a tiny village where there's a very good bank of clay rather than a few miles away in the larger village, where he can actually sell most of his goods.
Probably a local farm-wife or two brew ale and take turns selling it to the rest of the farmers, and there might be a communal bake-oven to conserve fuel. A communal grinding-stone could also exist, and there might only be 2-3 wells shared among the village. There's probably only one or two pair of plow horses or oxen (whichever is more common for the region) kept in the wealthiest farmer's barn (or his house, which frequently doubled as barn, especially in colder climates where animal warmth was prized all winter long).
A really wealthy community of that size might have one or two craftsmen, who are dependent on the larger community to support their trade, but for whatever reason (access to materials or transport or nearness to family, etc...) choose to locate themselves in the small community. For example, a potter might choose to live in a tiny village where there's a very good bank of clay rather than a few miles away in the larger village, where he can actually sell most of his goods.
[MENTION=49929]Scott DeWar[/MENTION] and [MENTION=2093]Gilladian[/MENTION]: That's about what I thought -- glad to see it seconded. I think I have a pretty good ball-park estimates from various RPG and historical/scholarly sources on distances between different sizes of settlements, how many non-agricultural types are supported per agricultural household, and what to picture in a town/city. But I was just having to guess on what to find at the smallest levels.
So, would you say the # of smiths/person given in a lot of the generators for towns would be enough to cover the folks living out in the country too? (Similar for the other professions).
So, would you say the # of smiths/person given in a lot of the generators for towns would be enough to cover the folks living out in the country too? (Similar for the other professions).
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Gilladian
Adventurer
Yeah, if you judge that a city has one smith per 200 people, then a region of villages should have a maximum of 1 smith per total village population of 200. Or maybe 250. Because of course, in the city there will be specialists; in villages there will just be the more basic types, and they won't overlap much.
Scott DeWar
Prof. Emeritus-Supernatural Events/Countermeasure
I would pretty much agree with [MENTION=2093]Gilladian[/MENTION]
I've been wondering about the population in settlements -- concentrated populations -- versus the spread out population.
In Washington State, we have large areas of sparse population, in the forested mountainous areas. In these areas, I often see fairly isolated homesteads -- a half dozen buildings clustered together in a farm or logging/hunting/road services set up -- without even a "thorp" per se. That is, it's an isolated family homestead, not a collection of families living together.
I'm also thinking about Westerns, like "The Searchers", where each ranch seems to be isolated from the others, it's own little fortified homestead and outbuildings, with one farm family and maybe some ranchhands. (If you haven't seen it, the opening scenes at Luke's Uncle's moisture farm in Star Wars are an indirect ripoff of the Searchers -- the discovery of the tracks, spears in the sand, and then bodies at the burned homestead being a DIRECT homage.)
I think you'd also see stuff like that in the highlands or borderlands of medieval Scotland, etc.
Since D&D is often in the 'Borderlands', I wonder how many folks should be in a settlement -- a place with a name and several families -- versus a croft?
For my campaign, I'm thinking a ratio of about 6-7 "rural" folks to 1 in a named significant settlement. So, for example, Keep on the Borderlands has a population of 200-250 safe behind its thick and expensive walls, but I'm setting the population of the region at 1500, with only one other named settlement (a ferry crossing and walled inn with some homes clustering around it). The rest of the 1500 would be homesteads, crofts, semi-nomadic herdsmen, trappers, mountain men, etc.
On Wikipedia, I found that the current day British definition of "rural area" is a region where < 26% of the population lives in a "market town". I'm thinking D&D world should be overwhelmingly rural, so at least a 4:1 ratio of "rural" to "town" folk.
Rural area - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
In Washington State, we have large areas of sparse population, in the forested mountainous areas. In these areas, I often see fairly isolated homesteads -- a half dozen buildings clustered together in a farm or logging/hunting/road services set up -- without even a "thorp" per se. That is, it's an isolated family homestead, not a collection of families living together.
I'm also thinking about Westerns, like "The Searchers", where each ranch seems to be isolated from the others, it's own little fortified homestead and outbuildings, with one farm family and maybe some ranchhands. (If you haven't seen it, the opening scenes at Luke's Uncle's moisture farm in Star Wars are an indirect ripoff of the Searchers -- the discovery of the tracks, spears in the sand, and then bodies at the burned homestead being a DIRECT homage.)
I think you'd also see stuff like that in the highlands or borderlands of medieval Scotland, etc.
Since D&D is often in the 'Borderlands', I wonder how many folks should be in a settlement -- a place with a name and several families -- versus a croft?
For my campaign, I'm thinking a ratio of about 6-7 "rural" folks to 1 in a named significant settlement. So, for example, Keep on the Borderlands has a population of 200-250 safe behind its thick and expensive walls, but I'm setting the population of the region at 1500, with only one other named settlement (a ferry crossing and walled inn with some homes clustering around it). The rest of the 1500 would be homesteads, crofts, semi-nomadic herdsmen, trappers, mountain men, etc.
On Wikipedia, I found that the current day British definition of "rural area" is a region where < 26% of the population lives in a "market town". I'm thinking D&D world should be overwhelmingly rural, so at least a 4:1 ratio of "rural" to "town" folk.
Rural area - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Mark CMG
Creative Mountain Games
For those non-town situations it helps to examine why people would wind up settling in particular locations.
When it comes to places along roads, paths, or even well-used trails, over time places will spring up to serve the needs of those who travel them. A crossroads is ready-made for an inn or tavern and possibly some support structures like stables and gear outposts. In dangerous country, which can be most anywhere in a Medieval Fantasy setting, folks will travel during the daytime when possible, so isolated places are likely to be a day or less travel from one another. If a supply of ore or some other resource is more than a day away, it is often the case that some enterprising people will set up a way station of some sort at a distance between the resource and the next nearest safe haven to ensure regular business. Of course, a setting that is meant to be more dangerous by design will have fewer of these locations and force PCs to travel through the night or make camp but the general populace should reflect that added danger in their demeanor.
When it comes to the trackless wilderness, all bets are off. Folks who live in settled places will be self-sufficient, powerful enough to thwart local dangers, nomadic, or simply people who wish not to be found.
When it comes to places along roads, paths, or even well-used trails, over time places will spring up to serve the needs of those who travel them. A crossroads is ready-made for an inn or tavern and possibly some support structures like stables and gear outposts. In dangerous country, which can be most anywhere in a Medieval Fantasy setting, folks will travel during the daytime when possible, so isolated places are likely to be a day or less travel from one another. If a supply of ore or some other resource is more than a day away, it is often the case that some enterprising people will set up a way station of some sort at a distance between the resource and the next nearest safe haven to ensure regular business. Of course, a setting that is meant to be more dangerous by design will have fewer of these locations and force PCs to travel through the night or make camp but the general populace should reflect that added danger in their demeanor.
When it comes to the trackless wilderness, all bets are off. Folks who live in settled places will be self-sufficient, powerful enough to thwart local dangers, nomadic, or simply people who wish not to be found.
Gilladian
Adventurer
I have an area in my campaign world (Tallowsland, it is called) that is pretty much like this; everyone lives "rurally" because the largest town has only 6,000 people in it. There are a dozen towns, and the rest of the folk live in villages or isolated on their own.
Each road has a "way-station" at the limit of a day's foot-traffic. These stations are simple camp-grounds with walls. A few are more complex, and may even have permanent residents, but that's not common. When they are permanently occupied, they generally consist of a small place that serves hot supper and breakfast, sells basic supplies, and can provide simple healing. They may have a roadside shrine tended by a local priest who travels from village to village in the region and stops in occasionally to check on things.
Local semi-nomadic hunters in the woods come here to trade their furs and other gatherings for things like arrowheads, knife-blades, axe-heads and cloth, which they can/do not make for themeselves. Gradually over time a way-station can enlarge itself into a permanent community, IF it has nearby arable land or some other resource(s) that will draw people to settle.
In fact, that's how the first permanent settlement in Tallowsland came about; it was a way-station, and a party of adventurers defeated a dragon there, in an epic battle. Two of their members were injured badly, and they stayed while they healed (2nd edition days - healing was slow!). Some Woodsfolk came around and gave them healing herbs. One PC decided to build his keep there, and Tallow the Rogue became a local "name" after he aided the locals 2-3 times. They called his place Tallowstone at first, and then Tallow's Town. 150 years later it is Tallaston, the only large community within 300 miles.
Each road has a "way-station" at the limit of a day's foot-traffic. These stations are simple camp-grounds with walls. A few are more complex, and may even have permanent residents, but that's not common. When they are permanently occupied, they generally consist of a small place that serves hot supper and breakfast, sells basic supplies, and can provide simple healing. They may have a roadside shrine tended by a local priest who travels from village to village in the region and stops in occasionally to check on things.
Local semi-nomadic hunters in the woods come here to trade their furs and other gatherings for things like arrowheads, knife-blades, axe-heads and cloth, which they can/do not make for themeselves. Gradually over time a way-station can enlarge itself into a permanent community, IF it has nearby arable land or some other resource(s) that will draw people to settle.
In fact, that's how the first permanent settlement in Tallowsland came about; it was a way-station, and a party of adventurers defeated a dragon there, in an epic battle. Two of their members were injured badly, and they stayed while they healed (2nd edition days - healing was slow!). Some Woodsfolk came around and gave them healing herbs. One PC decided to build his keep there, and Tallow the Rogue became a local "name" after he aided the locals 2-3 times. They called his place Tallowstone at first, and then Tallow's Town. 150 years later it is Tallaston, the only large community within 300 miles.
Thanks Gilladian and Mark CMG, that's helpful.
Mark, does "Magical Medieval Society: Western Europe" have some tables or text on population distribution by settlement size? I'm thinking something like:
-- semi-nomadic and nomadic herders, mountainmen, and itinerant traders or tradesmen -- 6%
-- miners at mining camps -- 5%
-- isolated homesteaders -- 10%
-- folks at waystations on roads (medieval truckstops) -- 5%
-- thorp dwellers -- 20%
-- hamlet dwellers -- 20%
-- villagers and castle dwellers -- 20%
-- townsfolk -- 10%
-- city folk -- 4%
Mark, does "Magical Medieval Society: Western Europe" have some tables or text on population distribution by settlement size? I'm thinking something like:
-- semi-nomadic and nomadic herders, mountainmen, and itinerant traders or tradesmen -- 6%
-- miners at mining camps -- 5%
-- isolated homesteaders -- 10%
-- folks at waystations on roads (medieval truckstops) -- 5%
-- thorp dwellers -- 20%
-- hamlet dwellers -- 20%
-- villagers and castle dwellers -- 20%
-- townsfolk -- 10%
-- city folk -- 4%
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