Questions about the Great City

[RickAucoin]

The Great City blueprint book doesn't have a scale that I can find, but the Great City Campaign setting book shows one that seems accurate to the blueprint book.

The entire city east to west is about what, one mile, if that. 2/3rd a mile north to south. Generously estimated the entire place is one square mile, is that correct?

And there is a population of 50,000 people, yes?

My question is where are all of those people living? Hong Kong, one of the densest populations on earth, has a population density of 15,000/sq mile and that's with high rise buildings to hold them. The housing in the Residential Ward would have to hold about 500 people per building since there's only about 30 buildings total in that Ward... 500 people in buildings that are maybe 60 foot by 90 foot? What are they, 10 stories tall?

I'm having a hell of a time because the maps of the city are appropriate to a population of about 5000, not 50,000, and 5000 people isn't a "Great City", it's a medium sized town.

[Master01]

Hey Rick,

You are correct, thanks for your accurate feedback. It was the lacking of a scale, as you pointed out, in the Great City Blueprint that led me and the designers in this mistake. We are revising the book for Pathfinder usage and we will address this problem.

[Master01]

Update: Here's the quote from our lead designer.

There should have been two numbers in the book, one for the walled central area of the city featured in the product and the other for outlying boroughs (which were not in development at the time of the setting). As the outer regions were not on development, the greater number was reserved to make room for future expansion. Admittedly, the single number makes things confusing. Even so, the original numbers do seem a little heavy, and, thanks to the feedback, we've decided to scale them back.

The Errata we will post is

Great City Errata as of 12/20/09

Great City Population
Azindralea 8,000
Outer Boroughs 16,000

Total Population = 24,000

[RickAucoin]

Thanks. 8000 is a more likely population for the city as drawn in the various maps, though that's really more of a large town than even a small city, much less a Great City. But I guess as a product line name "The Pretty Big Town" just doesn't have a ring to it, eh?

Remember, Rome was a Great City at its height. It had a population of about 1 million.

Draw us some more maps, don't scale the population down. 50,000 is already pretty small for a Great City (remember: Rome), and 8000 is even worse. More map, not less people!

[Master01]

But I guess as a product line name "The Pretty Big Town" just doesn't have a ring to it, eh?

Exactly

Will draw definitely more maps

[bobrunnicles]

You could even call it....a Mega City!

Wait, what? That name is already taken? Judge who?

Maybe 'The Greater City'?

[RickAucoin]

Has there been an updated map set done of the Great City to make it a city instead of a small town in map size?

As stated above, the population density in this map is grossly unrealistic, making the product pretty much unusable as a city in a campaign. Unless everyone lives in super high rises or something, I guess.

[Master01]

We are planning an updated mapset for the great city including the outskirts. It will be published after the first season of "The Sinking", since this campaign is changing the face of the city. Thanks for your patience.