Re: (TFT) Crossing a Continent

[Jay Carlisle <maou.tsaou@gmail.com>]

With its ~1 sq ft per quarter-inch graph-square It would take about 132
Battle-maps n/s by 165 e/w to represent a square mile in 8 by 10 pages.

I heard mention today of the fact that Mineral, VA is a square mile in area.

As of the census[1] of 2000, there were 424 people, 172 households, and 115
families residing in the town. The population density was 474.7 per square
mile (183.9/km2) . There were 196 housing units at an average density of
219.5/sq mi (85.0/km2). The racial makeup of the town was 96.7% White, 2.1%
African American, 0.2% Native American, and 0.9% from two or more races.

This is loosely an order of magnitude less than the biggest community near
my current residence, Warrenton, OR.

At the 2000 census[1], there were 4,096 people, 1,621 households and 1,087
families residing in the city. The population density was 332.2 per square
mile (128.3/km2). There were 1,799 housing units at an average density of
145.9 per square mile (56.3/km2). The racial makeup of the city was 92.53%
White, 0.22% African American, 1.32% Native American, 1.76% Asian, 0.07%
Pacific Islander, 1.27% from other races, and 2.83% from two or more races.
Hispanic or Latino of any race were 2.91% of the population. 15.4% were of
American, 12.1% German, 9.2% English, 8.9% Irish and 8.1% Norwegian ancestry
according to Census 2000.

Lots more Elves and Dwarf types up here on the north-left coast.

Anyway, 165 x 132, 8 x 10 pages is a map 110 feet by 110 feet or about
12,000 square feet in area, a schoosh to big for my kitchen table.
However, crank the scale up an order of magnitude and some interesting stuff
kicks in.
At 17,424 sq ft per quarter inch square (132 feet per side) 1 acre is 2.5
squares on the nosey.
Average home and lot sizes are MUCH more generalized but in North America
1300 square feet for an average home on a 100 by 130 average lot (13,000
square feet) is in the ballpark.
This suggests that its not TOO unreasonable to view each square at this
scale as a somewhat larger than average home and lot in general suburbia.
That gives me 1280 lots on a page covering 512 acres, and I need 2 more 10
inch columns (+320 lots and 128 acres) to complete the square mile.
So at the density of Mineral, VA about 1 of every 7 lots would be devoted to
housing.
That leaves quite some room for public and commercial structures, roads and
streams, and even a bit o Ma Nature scattered about here and there in the
form of light woods, ridgelines, and what have you.
Quite useful in a Mini-map sortta way but even a gianormous structure like
the White House (~55,000 sq ft) is only about 3 squares, or less than a
fifth of a hex at this scale.
Thats a touch too big for some of the SimCity/Master of Olympus etc. type
building games stuff like building footprints and radius of effect stuff Im
messing with.
Of course focusing in on a particular hex at the above scale with a
Scale-hex enlarges each square fourfold, or 33 feet across per quarter-inch
square which is practically 10m and about 10 yards in the same way that 13
inches is about a foot.
Scientific accuracy isnt the point here, rather the idea is for all game
players to have roughly the same mental picture of the area being
represented.
Often players looking at the same map see different mental pictures.
Flip to Bendwyn in the back of ITL.
Take a look at it and build a little picture of the place in your mind, a
very unremarkable little farming village.
The problem here as I see it is the scale.
A 20m Square-hex is over 4300 square feet in area.
The Broken Blade is almost 40,000 square feet, Skargs is about 132 feet per
side (see 132 feet above) and most homes off the roughly 33 foot wide main
road (no more than a wagon trail which barely shows up on a map) are in
the 4000ish square foot range, or about 3 times the average North American
home in area.
I know theyve got rooms in the taverns but the original Louvre was only
about 60,000 square feet and it's not hard to find listings for 12,000 sq ft
homes with stats like 7 bedrooms 8 baths, indoor pool, etc.
Is that what you were picturing when looking at the Bendwyn map?
I'd find a 12,000 square foot mill something to remark upon... even today.
Heck, Tillamook Rock is just a tad over 3000 square feet in footprint...
http://www.lighthousefriends.com/light.asp?ID=135
(see Sunset Beach State rec site on the map a few drags north of the
lighthouse and I'm on Lewis roughly 150 feet from Sea Ridge)
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