It is often important to know just how talented or powerful non-player characters are in a certain area.  This is especially true for spell users, whom the players often seek to hire for knowledge, spells, and wisdom.  For the most part, we’ve tried to include enough information, where possible, for a GM to determine the level of the greatest characters of note in an area.  However, for most of the world, this level of detail is beyond the scope of a campaign guide.

            When these kinds of demographics are needed, use the following guidelines.  The chart below shows how many people need to be in an area to produce a single character of a given level.  The difference in the columns reflects the fact that certain groups are rarer or more common than others.

            Determine the rough population of the sample area, usually the area in which the characters search.  Compare this population to the chart to determine the highest level character on the appropriate column.  If the sample area is a city, multiply the population by five to include the villages and farmlands that directly support it.  The number for each tier on the chart is the minimum population necessary to produce a character of that approximate level.

            If you reach the top of the chart, divide the population of the sample by the population of the last entry.  This is the number of ultra-high level characters living in that area.  If you need to know the number of people of lower level in the area, each tier on the table has twice the number of people as the tier below it, as a rule of thumb .

            One final note.  These numbers are merely guidelines.  If a country would have three ultra-high level characters of a certain type (say clergy), then those three people have to live somewhere.  Comparing the population of their city or village to this chart likely wouldn’t produce anyone even remotely near their level.  Because of this, a GM is encouraged to play with these numbers to suit his game.  The most powerful mage in a country might live in a remote location, especially if his profession is banned by the local church.  Just because he can make the skies weep blood doesn’t mean he can’t live in a village.

 

Example 1: Mat wishes to find a healer for a fallen party member.  His GM, Josh, determines the healer needs to be 20^th level to save his friend.  Mat heads for the city of Belm, which has a population of 38,881 people.  Because this is a city, Josh multiplies its population by 5 (194,405).  Mat’s only searching Belm, but it takes four farmers to support each citizen in the city and this is his real population sample.

Josh compares this population to the column for church spell users.  A population of 64,000 produces a church spell user of 19th-21st level.  It takes 128,000 to produce one of the next tier up, 256,000 for the tier after that.  This means that the highest level church caster in the city is probably 22nd-24th level.  There are probably two casters of the level Mat needs.

Of course, Josh determines that only about one in three church spell uses can heal with the necessary skill.  Josh rolls randomly and decides that Mat got lucky.  Now he just has to determine what the Church will want in return.

However, Belm is the capital of Ludremon.  Josh could reasonably declare that that there are many more spell users here.  In fact, the most powerful Ludremonian member of each order of the Human Church is likely here at some point during the year.  Most of them probably own a residence within the city, so if Josh wanted to fudge these numbers to allow for much more powerful characters, it would be quite logical.

 

Example 2: Later, Josh needs to determine the effects of a deadly plague on a small town.  This isn’t the Gray Death and the plague can be healed, but Josh wants an idea of what kind of magic might be brought to bear to heal or contain the plague.

The town in question has a population of approximately 2,000 people.  Since this is an urban area, Josh multiplies this by 5, resulting in 10,000 total.  The Human Church is in power here, so non-Church magic is not condoned.

Consulting the chart, Josh sees that this area probably contains one church spell user of 10-12 level and two church spell users of a level below that (1^st-9^th).  There is probably only one banned spell user in the area, likely between 1^st and 9^th level (the lowest tier on this column of the chart is 7^th-9^th, but since nothing can be below it, this includes everything up to 9^th level.)

The plague will tear through this area with little or nothing to slow it down.

 

[Author’s note: For ease or use, this section will probably contain a table that tackles the same information from the opposite direction, showing population ranges and the highest level person in the area of each type.  For determining the total number of people of a given type, however, this chart is easier to use (since you can readily see the tiers).  That’s why we started with this one.  Plus, with this one it’s easier to include the level data for multiple systems.  The second chart will need to be custom built for each system during statting, whereas with this chart, we need only delete irrelevant columns.]