A town in the cold desert, on the coast
Farmed the way this climate allows (barley and dredge, millet), this land keeps a city of about 7,500 people within a day's cart of its walls. Larger cities need grain from further away, or by water.
How large a city?
| People | Grain from | By cart | Villages | Scholars | By ship to fit in a day |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3,000 | 16 km around | 1 day (comfortable) | 310 | 12 | – |
| 10,000 | 29 km around | 1.5 days (strained) | 1,000 | 40 | 30% |
| 40,000 | 58 km around | 2.5 days (fragile) | 4,200 | 160 | 85% |
| 150,000 | 110 km around | 4.5 days (not by land alone) | 16,000 | 600 | more than ships can bring |
| 1,000,000 | 290 km around | 12 days (not by land alone) | 100,000 | 4,000 | more than ships can bring |
Build your own city from this place
What it can make
Grain (at a cost), Flax (at a cost), Orchards (at a cost), Herbs, Wool, Horses, Cattle and hides (at a cost), Cheese, Pigs and bacon (at a cost), Goats, Camels, Honey and wax (at a cost), Furs, Fish, Salt fish (at a cost), Whale oil, Shipyards (at a cost)
What it lives on
Underground
What a city digs depends on the rock under it: Granite, Volcanic rock, Ultramafic rock (peridotite, serpentinite), Schist and gneiss, Marble, Limestone and chalk, Sandstone, shale and clay, Salt beds, River gravels and sands
Found here
Gathered (Rerum): Beetle Wing, Camel Fat, Datura Leaf, Garlic Clove, Giant Hyena Blood, Lion Mane, Mycelium, Scorpion Venom
Fished: Cod, Glacier Krill Swarm, Herring Shoal, Kelp Bundle, Oyster Clutch, Rock Crab, Coral Branch, Reef Octopus
Hear it
- The town: Fantasy Medieval City (album RPG Ambiences Vol. 6)
- The market: Bazaar (album RPG Ambiences Vol. 3)
- The quays: Medieval Harbor District (on Patreon, Guardian tier)
- The countryside: Walking in a Desert (on Patreon, Guardian tier)
The same climate
A town in the cold desert, A town in the cold desert, on a river
By city size
1,000, 3,000, 10,000, 30,000, 100,000, 300,000, 1,000,000
Orders of magnitude for play: sourced figures and Hearth estimates together. Every source, and every figure still waiting for one, is listed in the builder under Sources.
Open the city builder — MGS Toolbox