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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Irda Ranger" data-source="post: 3958623" data-attributes="member: 1003">City size is ultimately limited by food supply though.  While the Brazilian favelas are off limits to government authorities, their inhabitants don't go out on raids and burn up crops and butcher cattle. Orcs and dragons do.  Since the OP was asking about total population size, the amount of field you can protect from raiders is relevant.A useful unit of measurement to know is the "koku", a Japanese term that means "the amount of rice that will feed one man for one year."  That much rice is about a cubic meter in size and weighs 330 lbs, dry.  How much acreage is required to grow a koku depends on a lot of factors, and the variance in the real world is extraordinary.  Some Japanese farmers average 11,000 lbs of rice per acre (~33.3 koku), but the national average is lower.  Arkansas, as a State, averaged 6,700 lbs (~20 koku) per acre in 2005. The US average as a whole was 6,900 lbs (~21 koku) in 2004. That's using modern fertilizers and tractors though.  India in 1986 grew less than a third of what Japan grew per acre (though they may have improved since).  D&D-world doesn't have the modern advantages. But it does have Druids and Agri-Clerics with Cure Blight, Plant Growth and Control Weather.  Which works out better?  I can't say.But if you want a "back of the envelope" model for population size, figure out acreage under control of the local population and decide how many koku of rice/wheat/oats, etc. that said land grows per acre. Multiply and ta da, local population.  Example follows:Crandonford (Human town)- Crandonford controls an area of land stretching one mile from its city center in all directions. This means that once you're more than a 15-minute brisk walk from the Mayor's house, you're in The Wild.  - A one-mile-radius circle gives us 3.14 square miles, or ~2010 acres.  Between the town itself, the river, a rocky meadow or two, and some road, assume that only 40% of the land is farmed. 804 acres of farmland. - Crandonford doesn't have any John Deer powered tractors, but it does have a Cleric of Chauntea. It grows 5000 lbs (~15 koku) of "food" per acre. Multiply that by 804 and you find out that Crandonford can feed 12,185 people.But that's a max population assuming all food is consumed locally. It's probably safe to assume that half of that food or more is traded to the Dwarven mining town down-river in exchange for metal goods; and some to the elves in exchange for magicy stuff.  It's still conceivable though that Crandonford will have a population of about ~5,000 souls (most of whom are probably farmers).So if you want to know population sizes, just ask where the food comes from and how much there is. That's your answer.</blockquote>

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