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The setting and atmosphere of the Guide to Korvosa are great, you really get a good feeling for the flavor of the city. However, I am having some problems accepting the numbers behind the scenes - and that makes it difficult for me to work with some of the content.
The city is only supposed to have about 18500 current inhabitants, which is not a huge amount, although it is good-sized for a city in medieval times. However, somehow, this population supports 700 full-time Korvosan Guard, and over 200 Sable Company, on top of the bureaucratic structure of the Magistrates, the King, the Arbiters, as well as having cash for expenditures for fantastic structures such as the Tower, the Ampitheater, etc.
Which community of 18500 people could afford all this? Assuming normal proportions, we are talking 10% of the active adult population is in the military, not to mention any of the other overhead. That's huge!
The problem also shows in the map. The number of buildings is hard to estimate, but I would guess 10000 is not unreasonable. Even with the underpopulation due to the Magnimar exodus, that's still only a few people per house - which is very low for a city. 10% of the city, i.e. let's say 2000, live in Bridgefront, 3 blocks of buildings averaging at least 3 stories high with the Shingles. If you look at the map, you're seeing at least several hundred buildings. So the poor are living in 3-story buildings at only 10 persons per building?
I'm wondering what reality checks and considerations were made to provide a basis for the economic structure of the city as it is described. Otherwise I feel the population should be increased by about a factor of 3 at least, and that's assuming the outlying holdings of Korvosa double that population number.
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Maybe this city is less medieval than most. It could have a large number of commercial only buildings much like modern U.S. Another idea is that a whole bunch of houses were gutted and are no longer viable dwellings after the exodus due to looting, environmental damage, unchecked fire, etc.
I agree that the population seems a bit low if you think about people living above their own shops, living 8 to a house in the shingles, etc. and most of the buildings represented have viable living space.
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Maybe this city is less medieval than most. It could have a large number of commercial only buildings much like modern U.S. Another idea is that a whole bunch of houses were gutted and are no longer viable dwellings after the exodus due to looting, environmental damage, unchecked fire, etc.
How many houses are condemned by plague? are the military stabled in the barracks, or in individual houses? Do the infestations of imps/pysudodragons swarm out of abandoned houses when crews start knocking them down and scare everyone off? How many are sitting there because the last owner was a widow and died in their sleep, and either no one has noticed the stench yet, or they havn't found an heir? How many houses are the criminal underground paying off to use as bases, or backup bases (we see one of these in the pathfinder journal)? How many are damaged beyond repair, but no one want to pay for crews to clear them (especially with the poor squatters using them as homes)?
Creative Director
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The guidelines for designing cities in the DMG do not mesh well with reality, first of all. It's one of my own pet peeves, in fact, that you have to juggle this disconnect between what are real-world numbers (Paris in medieval times had millions living in it, for example, but that kind of number isn't supported by the game really). The more you dig into pretty much ALL fantasy cities, the more you'll find disconnects like what you're finding. It's unfortunate, but it's hopefully not something suspension of disbelief (the same you use to accept giant insects, flying dragons, an underdark that doesn't become superheated from air pressure, and the Multishot feat, for example) can't take care of.
Another thing to keep in mind is that the population figure for Korvosa pretty much counts only those folk who live in the city. There's a LOT more visitors and long-term guests, merchants who stay in town for days or weeks at a time, fisherman and hunters and tradesmen who come and go, tourists, sightseeers, and pilgrims. This probably increases the city's "population" by as much as 25% or more, I would suspect, depending on the time of day, week, and year.
As for the military, keep in mind as well that Korvosa's a really pretty uptight place, with a strong sense of tradition and something of an obsession with military. Think of the size of the Sable Company and the Guard as indications of how overly obsessed the city is with military, I guess. In any case, by the time Curse of the Crimson Throne is done... those numbers will be QUITE a bit smaller...
Contributor
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James already touched on some of this, but I'll throw out some other answers as well.
Military: Korvosa is a military town. It was founded on and built around a military base, and several other military bases stand in it. The city exists to support the military, which is why there is such a high percentage of military folk within it. Of course, I wanted to make the military an even bigger part of Korvosa (nearly half the population, frex), but James talked me down from that ledge. ;)
Moneys: It's mentioned in the book that Korvosa has chronic money issues. King Eodred II did an okay job at keeping the city in the black up until the day he married Ileosa. The noble houses (especially House Jeggare and House Arkona) pay for a lot of the construction of new big projects (and House Ornelos owns the Acadamae), especially when the city's coffers run low (which happens a lot).
Buildings: After I started writing the book I think we realized we wanted Korvosa to be bigger than it is. Unfortunately, we had already published its population size. C'est la vie. To be honest, Korvosa is a very anachronistic city. It is not medieval at all (including its pre-medieval lack of guilds), so you can assume that each of the smallest of buildings houses one small family. Yes, there are lots of buildings that are mixed-use, but even they have just one shop and one family in them. Except for Old Korvosa and a few bits of Midland, the city is not cramped at all. (And also, city maps are cooler looking when they're full of buildings than when they're not.)
After I started writing the book I think we realized we wanted Korvosa to be bigger than it is. Unfortunately, we had already published its population size.
Thanks for all the feedback and insights. With that information in mind, I will assume that the official census includes only people of certain means. In particular, it excludes all transients and emptys, as well as anyone who hasn't paid an annual 1 gp census tax. It is common to ignore the census tax, unless you are someone who owns property, or who needs to deal with the magistrates in other matters such as licenses, permits and fees. The actual population is at least twice or thrice the official number, with those uncounted numbers made up by the common workers and the poor. The exact number is of course not really that important to any adventurer, and few would ever ask. However, knowing a ballpark figure will help me in GMing the game.
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Contributor
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After I started writing the book I think we realized we wanted Korvosa to be bigger than it is. Unfortunately, we had already published its population size.Thanks for all the feedback and insights. With that information in mind, I will assume that the official census includes only people of certain means. In particular, it excludes all transients and emptys, as well as anyone who hasn't paid an annual 1 gp census tax. It is common to ignore the census tax, unless you are someone who owns property, or who needs to deal with the magistrates in other matters such as licenses, permits and fees. The actual population is at least twice or thrice the official number, with those uncounted numbers made up by the common workers and the poor. The exact number is of course not really that important to any adventurer, and few would ever ask. However, knowing a ballpark figure will help me in GMing the game.
That sounds perfectly reasonable to me. ^_^
Also keep in mind that I _think_ (and I could be wrong here) that the number listed only includes able-bodied adults, and excludes children and those unable to contribute to society. Which is basically the same thing you just said, really. :D
Also keep in mind that I _think_ (and I could be wrong here) that the number listed only includes able-bodied adults, and excludes children and those unable to contribute to society.
That would be important to know - is that how the stat block for locations is defined?
Hey, Mike! I posted a couple of questions last night on the product thread for the Guide to Korvosa. Mainly trying to clarify the ward boundaries and also which 5 noble houses are the Great Houses that sit on the Peerage Review. When you get a chance, can you let me know what you think, either here or in that thread? Thanks!
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Contributor
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Also keep in mind that I _think_ (and I could be wrong here) that the number listed only includes able-bodied adults, and excludes children and those unable to contribute to society.That would be important to know - is that how the stat block for locations is defined?
I think so.
Hey, Mike! I posted a couple of questions last night on the product thread for the Guide to Korvosa. Mainly trying to clarify the ward boundaries and also which 5 noble houses are the Great Houses that sit on the Peerage Review. When you get a chance, can you let me know what you think, either here or in that thread? Thanks!
Answered! :D
That would be important to know - is that how the stat block for locations is defined?
According to the DMG (p 137) which was the original basis for our calculations (although it's been updated a few times since then) the population figure refers to the "Adult population. Depending on the dominant race of the community, the number of nonadults will range from 10% to 40% of this figure."