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<blockquote data-quote="Abraxas" data-source="post: 1653343" data-attributes="member: 1266">Actually, I think everyone who uses the setting will look at the numbers.&nbsp; The difference is in how people decide what those numbers mean.&nbsp;jgbrowning wrote &quot;In other words, assume Eberron is a quasi-medievalesque society with magic and then determine what is needed for such a thing to exist.&quot;&nbsp;What if that idea is not the premise on which the population numbers were selected? (From what KB has said in other threads I don't think that is the premise).&nbsp; If that is not the basis for the population numbers saying they messed up, didn't do their research, and got the numbers wrong isn't really valid.&nbsp; (This is not to say those that don't agree with the numbers don't have valid ideas - I just seems to me that some may be creating a problem that only exists if you want the setting to be something it wasn't intended to be - IMO of course)&nbsp;When I read through the Eberron CS I didn't get the idea that the developers were trying to create a quasi-medievalesque society that approximated what has happened in our real world societies.&nbsp; Instead it looked to me that they've created a world with population centers that act as the bases of operation for adventurers who explore/adventure in the vast tracks of unexplored/abandoned land between them.&nbsp; In this case all the population numbers do is give players an idea of how big a city/village/thorp/hamlet is and an idea of what resources might be available in it.&nbsp; Take Sharn for example - it has a population of 200,000 - that tells me the player and me the DM its got about the same population as Grand Rapids, Michigan (Shop Smart, Shop S-Mart <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f600.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":D" title="Big grin&nbsp; &nbsp; :D"&nbsp; data-smilie="8"data-shortname=":D" /> ) which gives me a feel for how &quot;big&quot; the city is.&nbsp;If the goal of the numbers is as I believe, is it necessary to research numbers that fit the real world when there isn't a real world model that fits the desired result?&nbsp; I guess I still don't understand, Why must the population be increased (for example, bumping the population of Sharn from 200,000 to 2 million) in order for the societies on Eberron to develop?&nbsp; Why does it have to follow the way things went in the real world?&nbsp; Why can't a city of 200,000 be self sufficient?</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Abraxas, post: 1653343, member: 1266"] Actually, I think everyone who uses the setting will look at the numbers. The difference is in how people decide what those numbers mean. jgbrowning wrote "In other words, assume Eberron is a quasi-medievalesque society with magic and then determine what is needed for such a thing to exist." What if that idea is not the premise on which the population numbers were selected? (From what KB has said in other threads I don't think that is the premise). If that is not the basis for the population numbers saying they messed up, didn't do their research, and got the numbers wrong isn't really valid. (This is not to say those that don't agree with the numbers don't have valid ideas - I just seems to me that some may be creating a problem that only exists if you want the setting to be something it wasn't intended to be - IMO of course) When I read through the Eberron CS I didn't get the idea that the developers were trying to create a quasi-medievalesque society that approximated what has happened in our real world societies. Instead it looked to me that they've created a world with population centers that act as the bases of operation for adventurers who explore/adventure in the vast tracks of unexplored/abandoned land between them. In this case all the population numbers do is give players an idea of how big a city/village/thorp/hamlet is and an idea of what resources might be available in it. Take Sharn for example - it has a population of 200,000 - that tells me the player and me the DM its got about the same population as Grand Rapids, Michigan (Shop Smart, Shop S-Mart :D ) which gives me a feel for how "big" the city is. If the goal of the numbers is as I believe, is it necessary to research numbers that fit the real world when there isn't a real world model that fits the desired result? I guess I still don't understand, Why [b]must[/b] the population be increased (for example, bumping the population of Sharn from 200,000 to 2 million) in order for the societies on Eberron to develop? Why does it have to follow the way things went in the real world? Why can't a city of 200,000 be self sufficient? [/QUOTE]

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