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Lord Karsus wrote:

[Haughtiness]-If you think 250,000 residents is a lot, that's...well, it's not.[/Haughtiness]

It's not, if you compare it to a large city such as current-day NYC or LA. Of course, towns in real-world medieval times were NOT that large, as there would be little way to support such an immense population. That's the reasons there were large baronies that stretched over hundreds of miles to allow for farmlands and such. The residents could spread out so as to tend their own animals and crops. The security of a walled city came at a heavy cost for the residents, as others had to supply their food and supplies. The typical taxation for those residents was quite high when compared to open-land residents who could tend to themselves without relying on the city's government for living essentials.

By the way, Sigil was not the best example to use for this analogy. Sigil has literally multi-thousands of temporary residents who are simply passing through on their way elsewhere. The vast majority of PoL towns are small...almost village-like. Even when compared to Forgotten Realm cities like Baldur's Gate or Waterdeep, most modern large (real-world) cities surpass them hundreds of times over.

Guys the populations are a bit light, but not by much. 12th century London was one of the biggest cities in Europe at 20'000 citizens. It had half that in the 10th century, or around 10'000 citizens. Around that same time line the truly massive cities (top one or two) had around a million people, but the vast majority had far fewer.

So a relatively small town like Fellcrest, the center of Nentir Vale, having a population of 1350 isn't that far off the mark.

It really depends on what time you would place your campaign world relative to our own. In my campaign the time line is completely separate and and earth exists as it does today (though my campaign is set on an Astral Dominion.. so it really doesn't matter what the date of earth is.)

I would say an average population for a large city (DMG p153,) of 20'000 is probably spot on for a late-medieval timeline. A city of 20'000 would be one of the largest in the 12th century.

And you cant compare the size of cities in D&D to the size of a modern city or even a modern town. Just with going by real history our population is 100 times the size it was in the 12th century. I mean just form the 18th century to today the population has increased more then 6 fold, from under 1 billion worldwide in 1750 to over 6 billion, with some estimates putting it at 6.4 or so, today. So figure in the middle ages there were likely less then 200 million people world wide. So naturally cities would have been MUCH smaller.

In the end if your a DM and you think cities are to small, increase their size. Remember Rule Zero (see today's Confessions of a Full Time Wizard as an example hehe. Love those articles.) And your time line might be dramatically different, your populations dramatically different because your campaign is likely set in a wholly fantastic world.

So if you think the DMG pages on population sizes is to small, by all means increase it!

Lord Karsus wrote:

-Of course, Sigil is not a real-world medieval city.

It's not? Oh no...you mean I've been lied to all these years? There's no great donut-city in space? I'll get those lying bast---s...just you wait and see...no one makes a fool out of me more than six or seven times without paying for it...

Lord Karsus wrote:

We are/were discussing hometowns, however.

We are? Oh my god...where am I? For that matter, who am I?:D :P

Lord Karsus wrote:

-Have you ever wanted to own your own bridge?

Know a few good ones for sale? I'm kinda strapped for cash right now, though...we might have to barter a bit for it.