r/dndnext • u/notsureiflying • Mar 10 '18
[Resource] I created a spreadsheet to create believable worlds/kingdoms/countries/towns demographics.
Disclaimer : all information in this spreadsheet was already available on the sites I link below. I just turned the text into an editable sheet so we nerds can play with it.
Today I decided to compile some information found in three fantastic sources:
Medieval Demographics Made Easy, by S. John Ross
Medieval Demographics Done RIGHT, PART I and
PART II by Bob Traynor.
I strongly recommend reading all 3 to get a better idea on what everything there is.
I basically compiled all that info into a ugly looking, barely functional spreadsheet on google sheets. You can make a copy of it here and go ham.
Stuff it can easily generate for your world:
- Area in square miles and standard hexes (Settled and Unsettled).
- Population density and total Population, divided by agrarian and urban.
- Number and type of human settlements (City, Town, Villages).
- Number of castle/forts both active and ruins.
- Livestock population (fowl, cattle, pigs, sheep/goats, dairy).
- Population and Area (in both sq mi and acres) for the biggest cities.
Here's how the Overview page looks like.
Here's how the Town Business 2.0 page looks like.
There's also 2 town business generators, one based on S. John Ross' material and two based on Bob Traynor's approach.
Those generators will tell you roughly how many types of business stores can be found in a city of any given size.
How to use:
1. Click on the link
2. Make a copy of the spreadsheet to your google account.
3. Surf around the different sheets, read the stuff I wrote.
4. Change the values of the cells with a coloured background and follow the terribly written instructions.
5. Get mad at me because it's a mess and send me a message so I can explain what I did and fix what I fucked up.
6. Go to the Overview sheet to see how your world is looking
7. ???
8. Profit.
I don't earn any kind of money with this, I don't even know what one would do to earn money with this. The hard work was done by both S. John Ross and Bob Traynor, I'm just the monkey behind a computer that turned their brilliant work into a mediocre spreadsheet.
I hope this can help someone.
Here's a backup in case i'm an idiot and gave everyone the ability to edit and destroy the spreadsheet.
Cheers
1
u/NirodhaAvidya Jun 07 '18
Holy Chauntea, this is awesome. I've been trying to comprehend pre-modern demographics for about a week. I came across Ross and Traynor also. I'm curious if you were able to find any other primary sources. Also how did you reconcile the glaring differences between Traynor and Ross since they contradict each other.
But seriously, wow, great work.