ACKS Blackmarsh (2)

So, continuing from before, from what was unexpectedly a popular post:


I ended up utilizing 896 of an available 500 hexes on the Blackmarsh map just tossing the "default" ACKS demographics at it, so let's adjust.

First off, when many folk imagine a D&D world, it's much more a medieval world than ACKS initially assumes; and populations are a lot denser as a result. Let's shoot high, for Medieval France,  and go with an average 650 families per hex:

Realm	Settlement	Hex	Population (Families)	Type	Whole Realm Size	Subrealm Size	Remaining Population	Realm Hexes @650/hex
Blackmarsh	Castle Blackmarsh	913	1294	Small City	64700		33150	100
	Jorvik	1316	481	Small Town		24050
	Blackmarsh Isle	912	100	Village		5000
	Inuacus Keep	1113	50	Hamlet		2500
Ostrobards	Muncaester	1305	895	Large Town	44750		11550	69
	Wedmor	1002	255	Large Village		12750
	Camden	1302	214	Village 2		10700
	Ethanfeld	1506	145	Village		7250
	Wessex Keep	1602	50	Hamlet		2500
Blackmarsh Rangers	Blackoak Castle	407	170	Village	8500		2450	14
	Ashdown	608	121	Village		6050
Vasan	Castle Taldene	2505	200	Village	10000		-35000	85
	Daretop	2704	415	Large Village		20750
	Gamla	2508	405	Large Village		20250
	Ysby	2411	80	Small Village		4000
Grand Kingdom	Norbury Castle	1518	120	Village	6000			10
Bolzak (D)	Oldan Hold	217	342	Large Village	17100			27
Greywood (E)	Stardell Falls	804	503	Small Town	25150			39
Newcombe (H)	Greenton	610	642	Large Town	32100			50
Strangeholms (H)	Strangeholms	409	292	Large Village	14600			23
							Total Hexes	417

So that's a bit better, but still a lot of people living on floats in the Smoking Bay.

Rob Conley himself posted on the humble blog here in the last installment, noting that dividing those populations by 4 would get one "family" numbers for ACKS purposes, which is more-or-less (less) the same as what ACKS does with 5 folks per family.

That multiplier drops Castle Blackmarsh down to a Large Village, Class V; in a realm of 12.5K-22.5K families, which certainly gets me some breathing room. I'd like to see what I can do to get there in a way that preserves Blackmarsh, at least, as a Class IV proper.

First, I'll divide populations by 2 (or 2.5 in the case of the non-seat settlements), dropping my hex size @650/hex to 202 hexes. Blackmarsh settles in as a Large Town, with Muncaester two families away from becoming a Small Town - it, Stardell Falls and Greenton are Large Villages.

That's better still, but almost half the map still.

Another great way to reduce populations is to modify settlement patterns. ACKS, pg 231 lists various column shifts one can do on the Villages, Towns, and Cities Placement table.

The one I want is "Centralized Settlement Pattern". Take your realm, and go down two lines to find a (larger) Largest Settlement. We're going to reverse that - we're taking our Largest Settlements, above, and going up two lines on the table to get our resultant realm size.

After running the settlement populations through Koewn's Frambunchious Population Remogrifier, I get realms that look like so:

Realm	Settlement	Hex	Population (Families)	Type	Whole Realm Size	Subrealm Size	Remaining Population	Realm Hexes @650/hex
Blackmarsh	Castle Blackmarsh	913	647	Large Town	11700		6003	17
	Jorvik	1316	193	Village 2		4107
	Blackmarsh Isle	912	40	Hamlet		460
	Inuacus Keep	1113	20	Hamlet		230
Ostrobards	Muncaester	1305	448	Large Village	7226		2092	11
	Wedmor	1002	102	Village		2448
	Camden	1302	86	Small Village		1714
	Ethanfeld	1506	58	Hamlet		742
	Wessex Keep	1602	20	Hamlet		230
Blackmarsh Rangers	Blackoak Castle	407	85	Small Village	1588		1037	3
	Ashdown	608	49	Hamlet		551
Vasan	Castle Taldene	2505	80	Small Village	1060		-5991	12
	Daretop	2704	166	Village 2		3684
	Gamla	2508	162	Village 2		3638
	Ysby	2411	32	Hamlet		318
Grand Kingdom	Norbury Castle	1518	60	Hamlet	771			2
Bolzak (D)	Oldan Hold	217	171	Village 2	3527			6
Greywood (E)	Stardell Falls	804	252	Large Village	4570			7
Newcombe (H)	Greenton	610	321	Large Village	5522			9
Strangeholms (H)	Strangeholms	409	146	Village	3119			5
							Total Hexes	72

72 hexes seems manageable at a glance.

Note I got Blackmarsh down to a realm of 11.7K - very close to the range I wanted from dividing the initial population by 4.

Here's the "artsy" map I've been puttering with. I'm still trying to figure out hills, so there's 4+ styles there...and ...well, everything else, really. I like some of the mountains more than others. I need to differentiate the swamps a bit more, and the texture on the water is too large, and any number of other things...

Still deciding how to present the markup for the settled lands, next installment. Got to pace yourself when you don't have a lot of time to work on this stuff.