Completed Ytarria Hex map with terrain added

darebear · 12-05-2024, 03:17 PM

I have been thinking a lot about population levels and settlement patterns. There are innumerable sources for this material. However, I decided to go back to my roots and perused the D&D BECMI Companion Set. It has some good basic rules for running Dominions and it does go into hex map demographics at a macro level. I posted a new map to visually depict what I will try to describe below.

The Companion Set divides 24 mile hexes into Civilized, Borderland and Wilderness. The population levels vary according to the classification. Population is listed in "Families" (a family consists of 5 people). When raising armies I assume 1 able bodied man is available per family.

Wilderness: 10-100 families (avg: 275 people, 0.5 people/square mile)
Borderlands: 200-1200 families (avg: 3500 people, 7 people/square mile)
Civilized: 500-5000 families (avg: 13,750 people, 27 people/square mile)
The following is a breakdown of what I used to determine what hexes fall into what category. They are smaller in range than the Companion set. This was by design since I wanted a more wild and unexplored Ytarria (In BECMI any hex within 6 hexes of a city is Civilized and any hex within 3 hexes are a Civilized hex is Borderlands...this is a bit too much IMO).

Metropolis (Megalos and Tredroy): all surrounding hexes within 4 of the city are Civilized. All hexes within 4 hexes of a civilized hex are Borderlands. The zone consists of 37 civilized hexes and 132 borderland hexes. Roughly 1 million per hex zone.

Large City: all surrounding hexes within 3 of the city are Civilized. All hexes within 3 hexes of a civilized hex are Borderlands. The zone consists of 37 civilized hexes and 90 borderland hexes. Roughly 825,000 per zone.

City: all surrounding hexes within 2 of the city are Civilized. All hexes within 2 hexes of a civilized hex are Borderlands. The zone consists of 19 civilized hexes and 42 borderland hexes. Roughly 400,000 per zone.

Large Town: all hexes surrounding the city are Civilized. All hexes within 1 hex of a civilized hex are Borderlands. The zone consists of 7 civilized hexes and 12 borderland hexes. Roughly 140,000 per zone.

All other hexes: Wilderness. Exception; large areas of al-Haz and al-Wazif are populated by nomadic tribes. These areas should be considered civilized and or borderlands depending on their location despite containing no urban settlements.

Note: Swamps, mountains, desert, forest and hills can never exceed a Borderlands rating, no matter how close they are to an urban center.

Civilized hexes do not necessarily indicate the presence of urban areas. Well populated nomadic lands with no urban settlements could be considered "Civilized" for population purposes.

To test this approach I looked at Megalos and Caithness. Megalos contains 1 Metropolis, 8 large cities, 11 cities and 48 towns. Rough math for all those areas worked out 18.2 million souls living in the empire. I did not remove water hexes or account for hexes which would automatically count as borderlands due to their terrain type from the equation. I also did not reduce population where zones overlap across a border into other realms (typically the zones for cities in foreign realms overlap so it all comes out in the wash at a macro level). These reductions would have reduced the Meglan population numbers by several million easily and would bring the population figures well within the canon 16 million. Any remainders would be considered to be living in the wilderness in isolated settlements. The zones also match canon description, with eastern and western Megalos being largely civilized while northern and central Megalos are more sparsely populated. However, rather than reducing the population size for these unusable hexes I would likely make the assumption that the population in those areas are instead concentrated on coasts and other hexes in the zone.

Caithness consists of 2 cities and 15 towns. That works out to 800,000 for the cities and 2,100,000 for the towns. Canon population is 3 million. The country contains areas of tight civilization surrounded by borderlands and wilds.

Cardiel is interesting in that large portions of the interior are wilderness, with civilization concentrated along the major rivers and coasts. This allows many options for traditional adventures in the interior regions. The population for the zones is roughly 5.5 million, with the population of Tredroy split between the three adjacent nations.

Of course all of this is very generalized and done at a macro level. It is by no means meant to be a completely accurate depiction of population levels.

A new map is posted with "Zones of Civilization" to indicate how this all works in practice, with the inner band around an urban center being Civilized and the outer band being Borderlands. Using this methodology should provide a much better image of the levels of civilization throughout Ytarria.

It is not perfect, but it does provide a basis to determine where the "wilderness" areas could be found. To be sure, there will still be uninhabited areas even in civilized zones and bandits are always a problem in well travelled lands.

The opportunities for adventure still abound even in the heart of Megalos.

12-05-2024, 03:17 PM	#22
darebear Join Date: Nov 2010	Re: Completed Ytarria Hex map with terrain added I have been thinking a lot about population levels and settlement patterns. There are innumerable sources for this material. However, I decided to go back to my roots and perused the D&D BECMI Companion Set. It has some good basic rules for running Dominions and it does go into hex map demographics at a macro level. I posted a new map to visually depict what I will try to describe below. The Companion Set divides 24 mile hexes into Civilized, Borderland and Wilderness. The population levels vary according to the classification. Population is listed in "Families" (a family consists of 5 people). When raising armies I assume 1 able bodied man is available per family. Wilderness: 10-100 families (avg: 275 people, 0.5 people/square mile) Borderlands: 200-1200 families (avg: 3500 people, 7 people/square mile) Civilized: 500-5000 families (avg: 13,750 people, 27 people/square mile) The following is a breakdown of what I used to determine what hexes fall into what category. They are smaller in range than the Companion set. This was by design since I wanted a more wild and unexplored Ytarria (In BECMI any hex within 6 hexes of a city is Civilized and any hex within 3 hexes are a Civilized hex is Borderlands...this is a bit too much IMO). Metropolis (Megalos and Tredroy): all surrounding hexes within 4 of the city are Civilized. All hexes within 4 hexes of a civilized hex are Borderlands. The zone consists of 37 civilized hexes and 132 borderland hexes. Roughly 1 million per hex zone. Large City: all surrounding hexes within 3 of the city are Civilized. All hexes within 3 hexes of a civilized hex are Borderlands. The zone consists of 37 civilized hexes and 90 borderland hexes. Roughly 825,000 per zone. City: all surrounding hexes within 2 of the city are Civilized. All hexes within 2 hexes of a civilized hex are Borderlands. The zone consists of 19 civilized hexes and 42 borderland hexes. Roughly 400,000 per zone. Large Town: all hexes surrounding the city are Civilized. All hexes within 1 hex of a civilized hex are Borderlands. The zone consists of 7 civilized hexes and 12 borderland hexes. Roughly 140,000 per zone. All other hexes: Wilderness. Exception; large areas of al-Haz and al-Wazif are populated by nomadic tribes. These areas should be considered civilized and or borderlands depending on their location despite containing no urban settlements. Note: Swamps, mountains, desert, forest and hills can never exceed a Borderlands rating, no matter how close they are to an urban center. Civilized hexes do not necessarily indicate the presence of urban areas. Well populated nomadic lands with no urban settlements could be considered "Civilized" for population purposes. To test this approach I looked at Megalos and Caithness. Megalos contains 1 Metropolis, 8 large cities, 11 cities and 48 towns. Rough math for all those areas worked out 18.2 million souls living in the empire. I did not remove water hexes or account for hexes which would automatically count as borderlands due to their terrain type from the equation. I also did not reduce population where zones overlap across a border into other realms (typically the zones for cities in foreign realms overlap so it all comes out in the wash at a macro level). These reductions would have reduced the Meglan population numbers by several million easily and would bring the population figures well within the canon 16 million. Any remainders would be considered to be living in the wilderness in isolated settlements. The zones also match canon description, with eastern and western Megalos being largely civilized while northern and central Megalos are more sparsely populated. However, rather than reducing the population size for these unusable hexes I would likely make the assumption that the population in those areas are instead concentrated on coasts and other hexes in the zone. Caithness consists of 2 cities and 15 towns. That works out to 800,000 for the cities and 2,100,000 for the towns. Canon population is 3 million. The country contains areas of tight civilization surrounded by borderlands and wilds. Cardiel is interesting in that large portions of the interior are wilderness, with civilization concentrated along the major rivers and coasts. This allows many options for traditional adventures in the interior regions. The population for the zones is roughly 5.5 million, with the population of Tredroy split between the three adjacent nations. Of course all of this is very generalized and done at a macro level. It is by no means meant to be a completely accurate depiction of population levels. A new map is posted with "Zones of Civilization" to indicate how this all works in practice, with the inner band around an urban center being Civilized and the outer band being Borderlands. Using this methodology should provide a much better image of the levels of civilization throughout Ytarria. It is not perfect, but it does provide a basis to determine where the "wilderness" areas could be found. To be sure, there will still be uninhabited areas even in civilized zones and bandits are always a problem in well travelled lands. The opportunities for adventure still abound even in the heart of Megalos.