Just getting into planning a GoSM campaign, and I'm reading through the background of Saltmarsh itself. I love it, but I can't get my head around it having a population of 5000 people. Looking at the map, there appears to be fewer than 100 buildings. Even if there was an average of 10 people per building, that's still only around 1000. Am I missing something? Is the 5000 the total population for all around, including Seaton and other towns and villages?
At the moment, I'm considering just cutting the numbers by a factor of 10; population 500, 10 permanent town guards, 50 town militia, etc. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.
Okay...looking at some medieval demographics information, it would seem that about 95% of a typical medieval population was rural (and about 84% of rural people lived in settlements of fewer than 100 people). Dropping that to 90% (since Oerth is a high-magic world and not a direct representation of Earth's Middle Ages), I can assume that the 5,000 is Saltmarsh and surrounds, which would mean the town of Saltmarsh itself has a population of around 500, with the other 4,500 spread around villages and steadings (3,780 in settlements of fewer than 100 souls, and the remaining 720 in a handful of villages with a population of 100 - 200 people).
Does this sound about right? I'm not looking to turn Saltmarsh into a medieval replica, just explain how such a visually small settlement could be responsible for 5000 people!
One of the most useful, and most surprising, guides to medieval world building I ever ran across.
Ultimately though, the number is probably not ever going to be relevant to your game, unless the Players are going to try and raise an army locally. They'll just interact with "the town folk" and maybe a few notable farmers, so the book could just as well say 500.
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Vedexent - that's an excellent resource. I was actually using the calculator here: https://donjon.bin.sh/fantasy/demographics/ , but I like the one you've linked to as well.
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Great article Vedexent. I am building my own D&D world beginning with fleshing out the first nation. This should help me develop a coherent social, political and economic framework.
Stonington, Maine is about the size of Saltmarsh as depicted on the map. Use google earth to check it out. The population of the village of Stonington and the smaller satellite communities that go into the town population was 1043 in the 2010 census. The town includes 5 villages or hamlets. Village is a pretty optimistic word for a cluster of houses and a general store around a working harbor. Stonington,_Maine Wikipedia. This is what I picture in my head for Saltmarsh and I don't see how you get close to 5,000 people. Deer Isle the other large township on the island contributes another 1975 people.
A village of 5,000 people is going to be substantially larger than what is depicted on the Saltmarsh map. I would guess about 500 people, maybe as many as 700 could be living in what we are shown on the map.
As pointed out above, it is probably not relevant to game play. Most of that population will never be encountered by the PCs Any mass combats etc will be resolved more by relative than absolute numbers as well.
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Just getting into planning a GoSM campaign, and I'm reading through the background of Saltmarsh itself. I love it, but I can't get my head around it having a population of 5000 people. Looking at the map, there appears to be fewer than 100 buildings. Even if there was an average of 10 people per building, that's still only around 1000. Am I missing something? Is the 5000 the total population for all around, including Seaton and other towns and villages?
At the moment, I'm considering just cutting the numbers by a factor of 10; population 500, 10 permanent town guards, 50 town militia, etc. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.
Okay...looking at some medieval demographics information, it would seem that about 95% of a typical medieval population was rural (and about 84% of rural people lived in settlements of fewer than 100 people). Dropping that to 90% (since Oerth is a high-magic world and not a direct representation of Earth's Middle Ages), I can assume that the 5,000 is Saltmarsh and surrounds, which would mean the town of Saltmarsh itself has a population of around 500, with the other 4,500 spread around villages and steadings (3,780 in settlements of fewer than 100 souls, and the remaining 720 in a handful of villages with a population of 100 - 200 people).
Does this sound about right? I'm not looking to turn Saltmarsh into a medieval replica, just explain how such a visually small settlement could be responsible for 5000 people!
Yup, that sounds about right - I expect that there will be many farmsteads in the surrounding area.
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Is this what you were looking at?
https://takeonrules.com/assets/downloads/medieval-demographics-made-easy.pdf
One of the most useful, and most surprising, guides to medieval world building I ever ran across.
Ultimately though, the number is probably not ever going to be relevant to your game, unless the Players are going to try and raise an army locally. They'll just interact with "the town folk" and maybe a few notable farmers, so the book could just as well say 500.
My DM Philosophy, as summed up by other people: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1rN5w4-azTq3Kbn0Yvk9nfqQhwQ1R5by1/view
Disclaimer: This signature is a badge of membership in the Forum Loudmouth Club. We are all friends. We are not attacking each other. We are engaging in spirited, friendly debate with one another. We may get snarky, but these are not attacks. Thank you for not reporting us.
Vedexent - that's an excellent resource. I was actually using the calculator here: https://donjon.bin.sh/fantasy/demographics/ , but I like the one you've linked to as well.
if you look at the bottom of the Donjon calculator, there's a link to the document I referenced :D
My DM Philosophy, as summed up by other people: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1rN5w4-azTq3Kbn0Yvk9nfqQhwQ1R5by1/view
Disclaimer: This signature is a badge of membership in the Forum Loudmouth Club. We are all friends. We are not attacking each other. We are engaging in spirited, friendly debate with one another. We may get snarky, but these are not attacks. Thank you for not reporting us.
LOL...didn't even notice that. :)
Great article Vedexent. I am building my own D&D world beginning with fleshing out the first nation. This should help me develop a coherent social, political and economic framework.
Stonington, Maine is about the size of Saltmarsh as depicted on the map. Use google earth to check it out. The population of the village of Stonington and the smaller satellite communities that go into the town population was 1043 in the 2010 census. The town includes 5 villages or hamlets. Village is a pretty optimistic word for a cluster of houses and a general store around a working harbor. Stonington,_Maine Wikipedia. This is what I picture in my head for Saltmarsh and I don't see how you get close to 5,000 people. Deer Isle the other large township on the island contributes another 1975 people.
A village of 5,000 people is going to be substantially larger than what is depicted on the Saltmarsh map. I would guess about 500 people, maybe as many as 700 could be living in what we are shown on the map.
As pointed out above, it is probably not relevant to game play. Most of that population will never be encountered by the PCs Any mass combats etc will be resolved more by relative than absolute numbers as well.