Quote Originally Posted by Khairn View Post
I'm working on my first city, and have been unhappy with the scale that I have used for the size of the city, and was looking for some guidelines or tips.

The actual city is Corbhen, The City of Mists that is situated in the kingdom of Ord, for those of you who are familiar with the Iron Kingdoms setting. Its a fantasy / steampunk city of originally 100,000 people, but is now down to approx 50,000. The city is described as being walled with a few sizable buildings that are used as landmarks (Castle, Cathedral and Coliseum). Its an old city that has been built, conquered, almost destroyed and rebuilt more than once. Technology level is set at about the early Renaissance.

So my questions are something along the lines of the following ...
What would be an "appropriate" size for a city of 100,000? 5 Square km? 10 Square km's? Is there a "rule of thumb" that you use?

Thanks in advance for the help.
Thats not so easy a question to answer. A lot of it depends on social, political, and technological levels. For example, is there a caste system where merchants, nobles, and commoners are separated? Do large extended families live together? Are buildings compact, largish, or span multiple levels? Is there city planning done or was the city built haphazardly? What type of natural resources are around? Is timber or stone plentiful? Is man made masonry available and fairly inexpensive?

Generally, lower income merchants would probably live either above or in a back room in their shop, while higher income merchants may have a seperate house or compound and perhaps rent out a room over/behind their shops to a store "manager". The number of levels of buildings would also drastically change the landscape. For example, image having a shop with a back room for one employee(and perhaps a wife and child), 2nd level for the owner and his family, perhaps including his parents and wifes parents, and a 3rd level for additional employees or perhaps rented out dwellings.