D&D 5E Suggestions for a Saltmarsh map?

briggart · Dec 1, 2019

Hi all,

I'm about to start DM'ing GoS, and the town map there really bugs me out. There's no way that village can accomodate ~ 5000 people, unless they bunk 50+ in each of the buildings shown on the map. I know there was a 3.5 version of Saltmarsh in DMGII, but I wasn't able to find the corresponding map online either for sale or on WotC website.

So I was wondering if anyone has a suggestion for a map of a small coastal city that could be used as a reasonable standin for Saltmarsh?

Thanks!

Paul Farquhar · Dec 1, 2019

I would change the population to around 200-300 and use the existing map.

5000 is a ridiculous population for a fishing village.

Hussar · Dec 1, 2019

Saltmarsh is considerably more than "just a fishing village". Between the mine, and it's location, this is a fairly major port. It's on the major trade routes. I just assume that there's a fair chunk of the town not on the map.

DEFCON 1 · Dec 1, 2019

If you google 'Saltmarsh 3.5 map' in Image Search, the DMGII map is the very first one that appears in the list.

Paul Farquhar · Dec 1, 2019

5000 would make it rather more than a major port, by pseudo-medieval standards. London only had a population of around 8000.

And smuggling, in the age of sail, tended to take place well away from major ports.

As originally written, Saltmarsh is a large village/small town. This makes sense of both the plot and the map. The confusion may arise from applying a population for a modern small town.

Hussar · Dec 1, 2019

Umm, according to Wikipedia, London had a population of about 25-50000 by 1300, which is about the right era for Saltmarsh. Not sure where this 8000 number is coming from.

5000 might be a big town, but, it's not that big. And, Greyhawk is a heavily settled land. There have been people settled in this area for several centuries by this point. A population of 5000 isn't unreasonable at all.

JeffB · Dec 1, 2019

"be guided by any small south coast English fishing town of the 14th Century and with population about 2000"

I have run it many times, but always improv-ed the council and town. I generally used a figure of about 300 in town, and roughly twice that on the outlying farms bringing goods to the market in Saltmarsh. Burle And Seaton were the larger towns outside of Saltmarsh-

I've never used the entire series plot as described in U2/3 though, instead usually involving "The Smugglers" of U1 with "The Slave Lords"

Gilladian · Dec 1, 2019

From my campaign wiki Vishteer Campaign / Saltmarsh

briggart · Dec 1, 2019

Thanks for all the replies, I think I had some good suggestions for what I needed.

I feel that some of the interactions and hooks presented in the book works better for a 5000 people town, than a 300 people village (e.g. some prominent figures also being the local head of the smuggling cartel ).

I'm ok with assuming a 50/50 population split between main town and surrounding countryside, but the map in the book still looks too small for 2500 people. For reference, large ports in Italy around 11th-12th century had around 50000-100000 inhabitants, so 5000 people looks right to me for a growing town which the crown would feel worth expanding and investing into.