It is definately possible to be too big. At a certain size the people involved will find things to associate over and things to divide over, and fairly soon you'll have the city equivalent of civil war between the various factions, where no faction will work for another, trade with another, buy from/ sell to another, take orders from another, etc. Then there's a physical restraint concerning modes of travel. If it takes a worker more than about 2 hours (or 1/12th of the local day) to get to his/her place of work, things are going to break down. If it takes the city guard too long to get to trouble or hotspots, the 'rule of law' is going to fade away. Then there's the fact that people don't really like to be crowded together all that much, and some will be more couragous than others in finding an opportunity to go live someplace else.
Karen Cravens wrote:On 31 Dec 2002 at 8:00, Merle Moss wrote:
> Size is far less important than consistency. Whatever the size, it is
> important to maintain certain ratio-s, and figure out the 'ecology'.
> What are the city's business concerns? How many people does it take to
> do that? How much does that pay? Can such workers afford a home and a
> family? How many of such workers will a marketplace supply? Is there
> order? If so, how many city guardsmen to how many workers? Are there
> Nobles? Are they land-based (ie, detest commerce), or commerce-based
> (own but never manage or own and manage?)? Etc.
Size is important *for* consistency, though. That is, if you've decided you
need N taverns and inns to give players a good variety, that determines a
minimum size of your city.
So I guess my question was really not just "how big," but "how much stuff is
essential?" Or maybe, "is it possible to be *too* big?"
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