Does a settlement ever occupy more than one hex?

[Torger Miltenberger]

Question as the thread title.

Does a settlement ever occupy more than one hex?

as per the kingdom building rules presented first in the Kingmaker Adventure Path and later in Ultimate Campaign.

Thanks

- Torger

[Weirdo]

Don't think so - nothing in Ultimate Campaign mentions adding hexes when you get enough districts.

Which makes sense if we assume a roughly medieval setting. A hex is about 95 square miles. If this source's estimate of 38,850 people per square mile in a medieval city is accurate, the 95 square miles in a hex are enough to fit 3.6 million people, way more than any city in that period (According to wikipedia, large city populations did't break 1 million until the early modern era, and most were much smaller). Your settlement simply won't realistically get big enough to occupy more than one hex.

[Torger Miltenberger]

Weirdo wrote:

Don't think so - nothing in Ultimate Campaign mentions adding hexes when you get enough districts.

Which makes sense if we assume a roughly medieval setting. A hex is about 95 square miles. If this source's estimate of 38,850 people per square mile in a medieval city is accurate, the 95 square miles in a hex are enough to fit 3.6 million people, way more than any city in that period (According to wikipedia, large city populations did't break 1 million until the early modern era, and most were much smaller). Your settlement simply won't realistically get big enough to occupy more than one hex.

Coolness. Thanks for the response.

- Torger

[Isil-zha]

Well if your setting is not medieval or the city is more spread out, I don't think there is anything preventing a settlement to take more than one hex. The Eternal City most certainly occupies more than one hex. (This becomes more of an issue, though, when you customise hex size for some reason)

[Vod Canockers]

There are currently over 100 cities in the US as big or larger than one hex. They range in population from the 1500 or so of Babbitt Minnesota (Babbitt is surrounded by the Superior National Forest and often has wild animals like deer and wolves within the city limits. In the summer black bears are often sighted.) to the 8+ million of NYC. And in size from just over 95 sq miles, to the 885 sq miles of Jacksonville Florida. (I've discounted the Alaskan cities that have incorporated entire islands as a city.) Source of info is Wikipedia, so your results may vary.

[Lincoln Hills]

I suppose the question is likeliest to arise when the settlement is already near the edge of a "hex" - usually as the result of natural features such as creeks or cliffs. It's probably best to assume in that case that whichever hex contains 51% or more of the settlement is the "settlement" hex and allow the hex(es) with the spill-over suburb to still count as "unsettled."

In a related vein, although you could count any hex with a roadside inn or a two-horse trading post as a "settlement" it's probably not worthwhile to do so if your realm is of any substantial size - you'd be doing more bookkeeping than your fun demands.

[Gauss]

Lincoln, there are many settlements in a kingdom that are not marked. All are very very small.

In the Kingmaker rules the population was 250 per claimed hex + settlement size. This appears to have been done away with in Ultimate Campaign but it should still hold true. Otherwise, who is doing the farming/fishing/etc?

You should be able to go to any claimed hex and find Thorps, Hamlets, and maybe Villages (depending on if the GM is using the optional version of Ultimate Campaign rules on p232).

- Gauss