Large variance of SMs together

[dataweaver]

Coming in late; so some of this may already be covered. Overall, I see this city operating on a “rule of three” principle, as illustrated below:

Occasionally, stairs are needed. When they are, you could essentially set up “lanes”: one side uses step sizes appropriate for SM+3, with a lane next to it that fits three steps for every SM+3 step (making it suitable for SM+0) but is also about a third of the large lane's width, and a lane next time that with a three-to-one step ratio and a third of the width of that medium lane, making it suitable for SM -3 denizens. Intermediary sizes would be somewhat inconvenienced; but no one would ever have to lengthen or shorten their stride to less than ⅔ or more than 50% more than usual.

You might also have doors-within-doors, somewhat like the doggy door concept but with an actual door instead of a flap. Again, I'd go with thirds, as a +3 SM is approximately 3× the dimensions of +0 SM. I'd set the smaller door on the hinged side of the larger door so that each can be opened and closed independently; so if the hinges are on the right side, the smaller door would take up the right third and the bottom third of the larger door. Repeat this again and you can have one doorway that services everything from SM +3 to SM -3. Repeat it twice more (once on the larger size and once on the smaller size) and the doorway will be able to accommodate titans and fairies too. Again, intermediate sizes will suffer some inconvenience; but it should remain in a tolerable range.

In terms of jobs, fairies are likely to be able to find work doing craftwork that larger creatures would find intricate, such as precision clockwork. Such precision engineering could also account for a surprisingly high TL for the larger races, as it's in part what allows for mass production: if component parts come in essentially uniform sizes, then they're interchangable and a given worker can concentrate on creating one part over and over instead of having to build each device piece by piece.

Money would require another case of three-to-one scaling, with five general sizes of coins (suitable for SM +6, +3, +0, -3, and -6 respectively) and banks that are set up to handle currency exchanges — only instead of the different currencies being based on nationalities, they're based on these five “size classes”. Since three times the length, width, and height means roughly 30 times the volume and mass, that would be the exchange rate for neighbouring sizes: roughly thirty fairy coins would be worth one “thirdling”* coin, and roughly thirty of those coins would be worth one human coin, for a net 1000-to-1 ratio between fairy coins and human coins.

Technically, the linear ratio between SM +3 and SM +0 is approximately 3.16 to 1, not 3 to 1; but where linear measurements are the most important thing, such as doors and steps, a 3-to-1 ratio is close enough and allows for iterative designs such as the aforementioned stairs. Where area is most important, SM +3 scaling means ten times the area — though I can't think of any cases off the top of my head where area is the most important factor. Where mass or volume is the most important factor, I'd go with a 32-to-1 ratio, making the exchange rate between fairies and humans (or between humans and titans) 1024 to 1.

* (or whatever the SM -3 race is called)

[kirbwarrior]

Originally Posted by Maz

But they would still be indispensable for any large construction projects. Like a church or castle or city fortifications. And also for mining/harvesting and transporting building materials.

Honestly, any modern day job that requires large machinery I could easily see Titans doing; transportation (like buses but also moving of goods), construction, landscaping (such as beating down land for roads, tearing down cliffs, creating river ways, etc), farming, etc.

Originally Posted by johndallman

They're enough of the mass of the inhabitants that having another titan arrive, or leave, may make a significant difference to the city's food supply. You'll need serious fortifications to keep toddler-age titans enclosed and thus prevent them from wrecking smaller races' dwellings. And rowdy teenager titans are a serious menace.

Titan ratios would definitely determine quite a few things. Food supplies might even be largely controlled by Titans, considering the the entire non-Titan populace would be 1/5 the food (or less).

That does make me wonder about children; I'm sure the buildings at least the Titans live in would have significant fortification, but bringing them into the city would definitely have to be done with care.

Originally Posted by dataweaver

Coming in late; so some of this may already be covered. Overall, I see this city operating on a “rule of three” principle, as illustrated below:

In terms of jobs, fairies are likely to be able to find work doing craftwork that larger creatures would find intricate, such as precision clockwork. Such precision engineering could also account for a surprisingly high TL for the larger races, as it's in part what allows for mass production: if component parts come in essentially uniform sizes, then they're interchangable and a given worker can concentrate on creating one part over and over instead of having to build each device piece by piece.

Where area is most important, SM +3 scaling means ten times the area — though I can't think of any cases off the top of my head where area is the most important factor. Where mass or volume is the most important factor, I'd go with a 32-to-1 ratio, making the exchange rate between fairies and humans (or between humans and titans) 1024 to 1.

(cutting parts out to address these)

The rule of three actually works both nicely and simply. It even takes into account of half-races well. Overall I like the ideas

This makes me think of Minsh Cap, where the tiny folk work on detail work that humans might not be able to do or even really see. Faeries can probably do incredible fine work, especially if they had equivalent tools to help them out on their scale.

Area i'm not certain, but mass would matter with transportation, public baths, rest stops, anything where size but not necessarily height would come up.

How much of an impact on money does size affect? Would rent (or buying homes) be exponentially bigger for each SM up? Would food become an increasingly bigger amount of income? B265 talks about Cost of Living, B 516 talks about Monthly Pay, would it be possible to start there or would i have to completely approach things for different sizes anew?

[Dustin]

Apologies if some of these were already covered...

For money, letters of credit would help reduce the problem of very large or small races needing to handle coins. A magical version could be worn as a piece of jewelry, and display the amount currently available in the bank/treasury. Transfers could be done by touching two "bank rings" together and willing an amount of money from your ring to the other person's.

The food problem for titans could be ameliorated by having them eat something other races don't, perhaps something fast-growing like bamboo, duckweed, or seaweed.

[kirbwarrior]

Originally Posted by Dustin

The food problem for titans could be ameliorated by having them eat something other races don't, perhaps something fast-growing like bamboo, duckweed, or seaweed.

Hmm, that's true, food that comes in great quantities that no one really wants could cheaply feed giants. Especially if it's on a scale like bamboo where it can grow vertically well.