D&D General Need wheat. Too dangerous. (worldbuilding)

[nevin]

Rome had 1 million people who were kept fed by Egypt and the entire north African coast, thanks to the Roman Empire having complete control over them.

And Waterdeep has 2 million inhabitants.

So interesting thing about population of Rome is that one group of archeologists says it was around 450000. And another thnks it was between 750,000 and a million.
The penninsula that is now italy easily fed Rome and provided exports.

Now at its height the Roman empire I s estimated to have between 45 million to 120 million. (Again experts dont agree) thats who all those other farming regions fed.

Farming has so many variables. the Aztechs fed 5 million people in a much smaller area with much poorer soil and water access.

The population of japan in 1300 10 million
1600. 22 million. And they were able to feed themselves and export rice.

 

[nevin]

It's Ravenloft. I'm pretty sure there's some cannibalism mixed in with the rabbits.

But, chestnuts, potatoes, greens, lotz of tubers and plants that we dont even recognize as food today was and is just there waiting to carb up your diet.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

in my experience - and maybe that's because my GMs were teens at the time and not very experienced ha - was that each domain/adventure was sort of a giant "puzzle" that we had to solve. It's hard to solve a puzzle when so many things don't make sense.

Fair enough.

 

[Bedrockgames]

in my experience - and maybe that's because my GMs were teens at the time and not very experienced ha - was that each domain/adventure was sort of a giant "puzzle" that we had to solve. It's hard to solve a puzzle when so many things don't make sense.

It depends on what they focus on. Things in Ravenloft do tend to be a puzzle (you are often not just facing a standard vampire, but a vampire with special immunities, and weakness tied to its history....so investigating its past, trial and error, etc are important to solving the puzzle). That can be done at the domain level but its very heavy handed to have campaigns that are all about confronting domain lords (you can take the logic that makes a domain lord and make any number of villains from it). You do need some kind of logic to the puzzle, but it just doesn't have to revolve around things like how the rabbits are surviving in winter (and can't remember the details on that domain so not sure if that particular case has an answer or is more in the surreal realm: a lot of Ravenloft is sparse and bare bones with the GM needing to fill in the blanks). It is more of the logic of poetic justice. It is more literary thinking than literal thinking: i.e. what in the past might shed light on what weapon would serve as a symbol strong enough to destroy them. Or given the way this ghost died, what might we do to lay it to rest. That kind of thing

 

[Ancalagon]

Rome had 1 million people who were kept fed by Egypt and the entire north African coast, thanks to the Roman Empire having complete control over them.

And Waterdeep has 2 million inhabitants.

ok, I quoted your numbers for waterdeep. But you want to feed the entire region. Fine

so it's a 4000 square mile area. That is one third the area of Belgium. Seems quite doable to me.

 

[Ixal]

So interesting thing about population of Rome is that one group of archeologists says it was around 450000. And another thnks it was between 750,000 and a million.
The penninsula that is now italy easily fed Rome and provided exports.

Now at its height the Roman empire I s estimated to have between 45 million to 120 million. (Again experts dont agree) thats who all those other farming regions fed.

Farming has so many variables. the Aztechs fed 5 million people in a much smaller area with much poorer soil and water access.

The population of japan in 1300 10 million
1600. 22 million. And they were able to feed themselves and export rice.

No. Rome received and depended on grain shipments from Egypt.

ok, I quoted your numbers for waterdeep. But you want to feed the entire region. Fine

so it's a 4000 square mile area. That is one third the area of Belgium. Seems quite doable to me.

Even with 4000 square miles and your fantastic 500 person per square mile number (even for FR having so many spellcasters to keep this area enchanted is unlikely) you would barely make the 2.000.000 figure.
And Waterdeep does not command 4000 square miles. It commands an area 40 miles around the city which would be more than 4000 square miles if Waterdeep would be inland. But because it is on the coast which is shaped rather straight you have to half that number.

And you also assume that absolutely 100% of the land is used for farming. No infertil or unsuitable terrain, no forests, no rivers, no road network and people sleep in the corn fields.

 

[Faolyn]

But, chestnuts, potatoes, greens, lotz of tubers and plants that we dont even recognize as food today was and is just there waiting to carb up your diet.

This particular domain (which I'm pretty sure is Vorostokov) is all winter, all the time. So maybe potatoes would grow there.

The climate and terrain of the domains were not always well thought out in earlier editions.

 

[LordEntrails]

My point is saying "he was 16 when he made it" is completely beside the point, because these maps and designs HAVE changed. He wasn't 16 when the Spellplague changed the map and Realms entirely. He wasn't 16 when 5e reversed that. He could have made the decision to change during any of these periods of alteration.

Um, you think Ed actually agreed with the Spellplague? You think he had creative control over the Realms during this these times? You think he is the one that mapped Phandalin?

Now, I'm no expert on Ed or the Realms, but I'm pretty sure his influence was at least minimal during much of the life of the Realms, especially the 4E period. When on places like Candlekeep you would pretty much be ostracized for asking about anything not in the "canon" 2E timeline.

But, doesn't matter des it? I go back to the point I made earlier, why change a success? Because a handful of people complain about it on a forum and don't want to adapt any one of a number of magical reasons it could be so? As evidenced by the success of 5E and the growth of the Realms, they don't need to change to accommodate those folks. Most people like it just fine and are willing to spend their money accordingly. Its often a poor business decision to change a successful product away from it's core customers to satisfy a niche clientele.

 

[UngainlyTitan]

ok, I quoted your numbers for waterdeep. But you want to feed the entire region. Fine

so it's a 4000 square mile area. That is one third the area of Belgium. Seems quite doable to me.

Oh there is more than enough geography to make the cities work but it is not settled enough. In the real world a city state the size and wealth of Waterdeep would command the Dessarin valley at least as far as Yartar and the Delimbiyr valley to Secomber. This would be settled patrolled land. It would have to be as it is vital to the cities survival. Nothing causes a change of government faster than starving citizenry.

 

[Bedrockgames]

This particular domain (which I'm pretty sure is Vorostokov) is all winter, all the time. So maybe potatoes would grow there.

The climate and terrain of the domains were not always well thought out in earlier editions.

I am pretty sure rabbits eat tree bark, twigs, and acorns in winter. Not sure if they could survive on that all year, but we see them around here in the winter months. In the north east US though