Bottom Up World Creation, Part 2

The Size of Villages
This generates the size of the political division of the village's lands which includes the fields, woodlands, and other less-than-arable-lands that the village may claim for itself. While this was initially used to develop manorial villages, it will function for most types of agrarian settlements. Larger settlements may be generated, but they would likely be quite rare.

Table 1.a: The Size of the Village

1d000	Size of Village
001 - 071	Roll on Table 1.b Small Villages
072 - 214	1,200 + 1d00 acres
215 - 357	1,300 + 1d00 acres
358 - 500	1,400 + 1d00 acres
501 - 643	1,500 + 1d00 acres
644 - 786	1,600 + 1d00 acres
787 - 929	1,700 + 1d00 acres
930 - 000	Roll on Table 1.c Large Villages

Table 1.b: Small Villages

1d000	Size of Village
001 – 015	116 + 4d20 acres
016 – 045	200 + 1d00 acres
046 – 090	300 + 1d00 acres
091 – 150	400 + 1d00 acres
151 – 225	500 + 1d00 acres
226 – 315	600 + 1d00 acres
316 – 421	700 + 1d00 acres
422 – 542	800 + 1d00 acres
543 – 678	900 + 1d00 acres
679 – 829	1,000 + 1d00 acres
830 – 000	1,100 + 1d00 acres

Table 1.c: Large Villages

1d000	Size of Village
001 – 145	1,798 + 2d00 acres
146 – 235	1,998 + 2d00 acres
236 – 320	2,198 + 2d00 acres
321 – 400	2,398 + 2d00 acres
401 – 475	2,598 + 2d00 acres
476 – 545	2,798 + 2d00 acres
546 – 610	2,998 + 2d00 acres
611 – 670	3,198 + 2d00 acres
671 – 725	3,398 + 2d00 acres
726 – 775	3,598 + 2d00 acres
776 – 820	3,798 + 2d00 acres
821 – 860	3,998 + 2d00 acres
861 – 895	4,198 + 2d00 acres
896 – 925	4,398 + 2d00 acres
926 – 950	4,598 + 2d00 acres
951 – 970	4,798 + 2d00 acres
971 – 985	4,998 + 2d00 acres
986 – 995	5,198 + 2d00 acres
996 – 000	5,398 + 2d00 acres

The Size of Steadings
Steadings tend to be small. While larger Steadings could exist, such places tend to be the starts of villages. Anything smaller than this though and you're more into hunter/gatherer territory than any sort of true settlement. Unlike the village generation method, these acres are entirely those that are built upon, planted, or used as pasture.

Table 2. The Size of Steadings

1d00	Size of Steading
01-40	1d6 x5 acres
41-70	2d6 x5 acres
71-90	3d6 x5 acres
91-00	4d6 x5 acres

Hides and Households
Now that you've determined the Physical size of your settlement, you'll want to know how many households and how many hides of land are present. To do this, the first thing you must do is figure out how much land is actually used and how much is allowed to remain "wild". This is already done for steadings, but villages require an additional process.

The first thing you'll need to determine is what the basic terrain and climate band types are. You should know based on your map, but there are also random generators presented in the 1st edition DMG, World Builder's Guidebook, as well as the spiffy random map generator Hexographer. To determine how much of the land is used you first find the least favorable % based on the terrain:

Grassland, Coastal: 75%
Light Forest: 65%
Medium Forest, Hills: 55%
Heavy Forest: 45%
Swamp, Desert: 35%
Mountain: 25%
High Mountain: 15%

You then modify percentage as follows:

Super-Arctic: -30%
Arctic: -20%
Subarctic: -10%
Temperate: +0%
Subtropical: +10%
Tropical: -10%
Super-Tropical: -20%

You then multiply the result by the Land Quality and Population Density Index. If you haven't decided on how dense the local population should be or how good the soil is, then the following table is presented. Please note, the descriptors in the Population Density Index Column do not mean the same thing as normal. an Urban village is one that is in a relatively well settled area within a close proximity to a town or city. A rural density is one where the area is less developed, with no nearby towns or cities, and wilderness means it tends to be on the border somewhat.

Table 3: Land Quality and Population Density

2d6	Land Quality Index	Population Density Index(Factor)
2	0.75 Barren	0.5 Wilderness (45)
3	0.80 Poor	0.6 Wilderness (44)
4	0.85 Poor	0.7 Wilderness (43)
5	0.90 Poor	0.8 Rural (42)
6	0.95 Average	0.9 Rural (41)
7	1.00 Average	1.0 Rural (40)
8	1.05 Average	1.1 Rural (39)
9	1.10 Good	1.2 Rural (38)
10	1.15 Good	1.3 Urban (37)
11	1.20 Good	1.4 Urban (36)
12	1.25 Fertile	1.5 Urban (35)

The resulting % should be lowered or raised to be within the 5% to 85% range. Roll a 1d10 for additional variation, and the result is how many acres are used for agriculture or dwellings by the local populace.

Using the numbers generated above, you may then determine number of households. Use the following formula For BOTH Steadings and Villages:
(Total Used Acres / Population Factor) x Land Quality Index = Total number of households(round down)

To determine the number of Hides, remove total used acres, and replace with the total acres rolled for the village.

More parts to come!