Tuesday, November 23, 2010

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!

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