Town Types 03

Towns Transplanted, Part 3.

1. The city – small 20,000, medium 100,000, large 500,000 pop.

What can be said for towns mostly applies for cities too. Old ones are often walled newer ones not. There will be a standing guard force of a few hundred and a militia of around a thousand. If the city is a capital it will have a royal guard type force that acts independently of the regular military. It may also have an army fort(s) with a standing garrison of a few hundred, able to handle 1-2 thousand.

A noticeable difference between a town and a city is the number of distinctly different districts. A town tends to have one market area, with all the shops near it and everything else is mixed residential. There may be a fancy street for the wealthy and a beggars ally for the poor, but they are not entire neighborhoods. In a city the social classes segregate more clearly, sometimes even using walls. In many cities there are multiple market squares or rows, each specializing in a field of crafts or services.

The size of ancient cities.

Memphis in lower Egypt, 1000bc was about 100,000 pop.

In Greece 400bc, Athens was 150,000. Corinth was 90,000.

Jerusalem in 400bc had 40,000 pop.

Babylon in 600bc was 125,000

Syracuse on the island of Sicily in 400bc had 300,000

Alexandria in Egypt, 100ad had some 250,000 by 600ad it was at 94,000

Arles in south of France, 400ad had 75,000

Xi’an was capital of China in 100bc, it had 400,000. In 800ad it had 800,000.

Nanjing, China in 100ad had 78,000

Byzantium in 300ad had some 300,000, its high was 500ad with 1,000,000 pop

Paris in 1100ad had 50,000 by 1300ad it had 225,000

Angkor, the Khmer capital in 900ad had some 90,000

Nara the old capital of Japan in 800ad had 100,000

Seville in Spain, 500ad had 20,000 by 900ad had 40,000

Venice in Italy in 1000ad had 60,000 by 1300ad it had 100,000

London in 200ad had 45,000 by 1000ad it was down to 10,000. 

By 1300ad it was 70,000.

Rome; 600bc 80,000. 400bc 150,000. 100bc 400,000. 100ad 1,000,000. 400ad 800,000. By 600ad it fell to 90,000 and would drop to 50,000 in 800ad then to 15,000 in 1300ad.

City Selfcenteredness.

A city is kind of a world unto itself. The surrounding countryside is often treated as if it did not even exist. Although the reality is that a city needs to import lots of resources. It draws from a sizable area by domination. The perception is that the city is all and can do all. Why, because so much money and power is concentrated in the city, especially if it is the capital of a kingdom.

As a game setting the city is very complicated. There are numerous factions with in it, providing for an endless amount of intrigue. Generally the factions do not fight each other but have infighting as individuals seek to dominate their own group, then exert influence on the leadership of the town. For players not involved in politics, the city is a wide open setting for adventure. There is very little practical way to enforce the law, so long as you don’t draw too much attention to yourself.

A transplanted city will sooner of later realize the basic problem, that there is not enough agricultural land to support the population. New farms must be built, quickly. Which brings about the second issue, skilled labor. There is likely a shortage of experienced farmers. The likely result of these factors is; 1. a grab for grain and other food supplies by the wealthy and 2. a program of land development with the wealthy somehow owning the new farms.

More so than the smaller communities, a city is likely to establish colony villages outside the transplant zone, sooner than later. These will be fortified and may act as a front line vs the unknown world. There are three ways settlement may happen; privately owned, according to the feudal style, publicly owned with a group of share holders, or state owned with an emphasis on the villages as military outposts.

Town Types 02

Towns Transplanted, Part 2.

1. The town – small 2000, medium 4000, large 8000 pop.

The amount of defenses depends on the time period, with towns taken from more recent years being less likely to have walls, because cannons made them almost useless. Most towns have a small full time guard force around 100 men, and a militia (citizen soldiers) that can be called up in emergencies. There is not usually a separate police force. Craft specialists not found in villages make their living here. Towns are almost always located next to rivers.

Here we have a fortified large village or small town.

2. Castle Towns – these are the well fortified settlements that include a castle, which often serves as regional capital in addition to private residence. The lord of the castle commands all the guards, there is usually no division between castle and town forces.

            Here we have a very well fortified medium size castle town.

3. Fort Towns – these are heavily fortified military settlements, built as state projects rather than private ones. Usually they are on the border, very far from home, so a lot of self sufficiency is planned into them. Most of the population are soldiers, with a small number of civilian craftsmen also in residence.

Here we have a Renaissance age fort town built to control the river and its valley. 

Reasons for the existence of towns.

This is an important consideration because the transplant event may destroy the reason the town had for existing. Many towns started life as castle-villages, located at a strategic geographic place, that allowed them to function as trade center and to exert military power over an area. Other towns often grew up from villages dedicated to resource exploitation, which had secondary benefits going for them. In most cases the nearby area provides a lot, but not all, the food a town needs. More than villages, towns depend on trade. This will be a serious issue in the game.

The size of some ancient towns.

The typical Greek city state was about 6000 pop. 10,000 was considered the ideal number.

Thebes in Greace had some 8000 in 1300bc, while Thebes in Egypt at the same time had 80,000.

Eridu in Mesopotamia, 3700bc, had some 7000.

Athems in 700bc had about 7000 but by 400bc it was up to 15,000

In England of 1066ad, London had 10,000 pop, Winchester 6000pop, York 5000, Lincoln had 4000.

In 1166ad when the University was founded at Oxford, the town had about 3500 pop.

Most medieval towns were less than a square mile in size.

A Square Mile is 5280 ft x 5280 ft. or 640 acres ( 1609 m x 1609 m )

As a game setting, the town offers some advantages in terms of work force and available goods. There simply is a lot more stuff in a town than in a village. From the characters point of view there is likely to be a lot more freedom, unless they are already involved in town politics. A lot will depend on the personality of the town’s leader, how tyrannical he is. The state of emergency could easily result in tight martial law, with the confiscation of all essential goods and conscription of useful people. Alternately the town may try to function as normal, with the leader wanting to avoid panic.

In terms of disadvantages to a town, we are dealing with resource supply. It is harder to feed a town than a village and much harder to feed a city. The more modern a town is the more interconnected it is, at lest with the surrounding villages. 

Side Note:

Which brings up a point of geography.  If the town takes up the central square mile of a 10 mile across area, there may well be villages / suburbs with in the zone, say 3 miles down the road. For the game we may say the powers that transplanted towns did some editing of the surrounding land so that only the one town was taken. Or we may allow towns with satellite villages. Or we may consider two villages in the same zone. 

Town Types 01

Towns Transplanted, Part 1.

1. The village – small 200, medium 400, large 800 pop.

Often with no defenses and no standing guard force. Some were fortifies with walls, but most used location as protection, with only a few easy ways in / out. Most had extensive agricultural land around them. Depending on the culture and time period, some or all the men will have basic fighting skills. Only villages seriously worried about attacks will support a standing force, usually 10-30 men.
 

2A. The castle – usually with less than 50 pop living in it.

Most are guards and servants of the owner’s family. Some times a few skilled craftsmen or priests will also be in residence. Of course the castle can house a lot more people for short periods. A lot depends on the culture and time period.

Here we have a well fortified medieval castle - village.
Below is a Celtic hill-fort village with a castle at its center.

2B. The manor house – is a variant on the castle, with more people and comfort, but less defenses. We usually find them in the Renaissance. But a Roman villa is basically one too.
Here we have a linear undefended village and a manor house with basic defenses, not able to stand up to an army but good to protect from small raids.

2C. The fort – unlike the above, this represents a state military installation. It will usually be built to house 500-1000 troops, but will only have a garrison of 100 men, unless a war is going on. It will usually have workshops and storehouses.

Here we have a Roman fort, a big one this size may be considered a town more than a village. 

In Play.

As a game setting this small scale starting location, has some advantages and disadvantages, in terms of game play. It will not have a lot of industry or man power, however it will be very self sufficient. Most villages could supply all the essentials from the nearby area and needed trade only for luxury goods. However resource access may be a problem, assuming food, water and wood are at hand, what about iron and other minerals?

The GM should detail the village and castle, with basic info on who is who. The characters will know just about everything if it is their home. Nothing says they must be from the location, some or all of them could have been visiting when the transplant event happened. In terms of character activity, in a small place they will quickly be the big fish. If they prove capable of accomplishing tasks, they will likely be given more authority to set goals. However the established leader(s) will not usually surrender their power easily.

At extreme ends of organization / militarization we have; 1. A small peaceful village, never troubled by war in generations, that is run by an unofficial council of elders, who are basically democratic. Here the characters have a lot of freedom to do what they like. 2. A fort on the edge of the Empire, fully garrisoned and recently involved in war, ruled by a lord-commander who also holds absolute power over the local village that supplies food for the fort. Here the characters are confined by the military system, but also supported by it.

You can guess that the paths taken by these two communities will be very different. So would the play style of the game centered on one or the other. The village may simply struggle to survive and keep on with life as it has been. Maybe hiding or seeking aid from whom ever they can if the dangers and difficulties seem too great. The fort on the other hand, will likely behave as if still part of the empire, seeing any neighbor as an ally- to be controlled or enemy – to be eliminated. Its actions will depend a lot on the commander's personality, but will likely be planned tactical maneuvers. 

About the world 01

What is the new world like?

A lot like Earth, most of the plants and animals people know will be found there. The oceans are salty, the rivers are drinkable. The weather patterns are basically the same. The days are 24 hours long. The sun is yellow, there is one moon. The stars however are different. Anyone paying attention to the night sky will soon realize that the constellations are not there, new ones must be mapped. 

It will not be until some exploring of the new world that people encounter some different plants and animals, as well as monsters. Yes there will be nasty creatures that want to kill you. Maybe dragons too. In the old days “man vs nature” was a serious issue because nature seemed so powerful and man’s ability to control it so limited. Fear was often the result. Don’t go out at night, there may be wolves. A serious concern for average people, not so for heroes. The aim of introducing monsters in the game is to give a higher level of challenge to the players. They will also make the NPCs more cautious about travel and maybe even strengthen town defenses.

The continents are very different, but this will not be clear until a lot of exploring is done.

For example; The transported town, once it realizes that something very odd is going on, may send a party to the capital to gain some help. This assumes that the capital is where it should be, say 3 days walk to the East. After searching for many days and not finding the capital, the party will return ( if it is not killed by monsters ) to report that land marks are not where they should be. 

Are there any intelligent natives?

Yes, there are the Krig-Krig a race of insect people. They live in hive cities of around 1000 adults. They have a tight cast system; farmers, workers, warriors, the queen’s attendants. They are a primitive people in terms of most technology. They have a language, which will be next to impossible for humans to understand. Put in game terms they are intended to be the “bad guys” with no easy way to make peace. If you encroach on their territory, they will defend it.

While most Krig-Krig are sedentary farmers, a few groups are nomadic herders. They may stumble upon a human town not having any idea what it is. Conflict is most likely to result.

A more detailed report on the Krig-Krig will be offered later.

First Steps

A few guide lines.

Why and how the towns are being transplanted does not really matter, aliens or gods, that aspect is outside the focus of the game. Although they are powerful, with science or magic, there will be very little of either in the world. As an RPG the aim is to be low magic and pre-industrial in tech. Modern towns are not transplanted. It would be an alternative game style to allow typical fantasy magic into the world, one that we will set aside for now. However there may be a great deal of superstition, the belief in gods and magic has always been strong in human history, so most of the transported people will take the supernatural seriously.

The areas transplanted will be between 5 to 10 km across with the town at the center. We use the term town by default, but not every place will be one, some may be villages, castles or cities. Populations will range from 500 to 50,000 with most towns being close to 5000. In case it matters the area transported is actually a shear, so it extends far underground.

The areas are not all from the same time. We may have an Egyptian town from 2000bc, a Roman town from 100ad, a Japanese town from 800ad, and a European town from 1500ad. Of course we are not limited to one town per region, per time period. What is a limitation is the tech level, there should be no towns with steam power or electricity, basically anything pre-1700 is fine. For an alternative or later addition to the setting, we could add Victorian age towns, but we will set that aside for now.

The transplanted areas are scattered in the new world with a sizable gap between them, about 100 km. There is no pattern of cultural association. Say we have 3 English towns transported, they may be far from each other, with different nationalities between them. Like wise there is no pattern of historic association. A Celtic village from 100ad may find its closest neighbor is a Chines town from 1300ad.

There will be some serious imbalances of power created by these placements. The potential exists for a city state, which is what every town basically has become, to form an empire is hardly even. Some are much better suited to the task.  For example; Palmanova is a Renaissance fortress town with a population of about 4000, assuming it has a small army / militia with muskets and cannon...

Palmanova - northern Italy, built in 1590s

As we are hijacking historical places, we may also consider historical people. It may be an interesting idea to have some famous NPCs in the transplanted towns. So long as you dont stretch the dates too far, it should be no problem. You want to include Alexander the great, fine if you have a Greek city from around 330bc, or any town in Asia Minor he did travel a lot. With this in mind we could turn the game into a “lets meet all of history’s famous people” but that is not really the intend, so on the shelf the idea goes for now.

Introduction

Project Displacement

RPG world setting concept - draft summer 2018.

Introduction

Many times it is a struggle to create a setting that is fresh. We tend to see remodeled examples of historic real world civilizations. The “Empire” is Rome in slightly altered clothing. The more you know about history and culture the harder it is to get away from this tendency. This project intends to embrace cultural appropriation. We will be transplanting bits of real historic civilizations to a fictional world. The game will be about their interaction.

As a light RPG we may use stereotypes of various cultures; Roman, Greek, Egyptian, Arabian, Celtic, Chines, Japanese, Medieval European, Viking, Aztec, etc. or we may make a more serious game of it by having well researched bits of historic nations transplanted. We may use a fictional town with a random map, or a real one with as good a period map as we can find. Nothing prevents us from pursuing both paths.