Wakshaani

I'm gonna make my life easy here. Slums get 20K people per square mile because slums. 

Everywhere else gets 10K people per square mile because it's got space taken up by lots of non-residential (Downtown shopping, Industrial Zone, uh, industry, New Construction Zones because New.)

So, the New Construction Zone north of the city, which we'll round to 105 by 90 pixels is 3.5 miles by 2 miles, so 7 square miles. With a population density of 10K per mile, we get 70,000 people in the New Construction Zone.

Easterly Slums are rounded to 195 by 90, or 6.5 miles by 3 miles, for 19.5 square miles, for 390,000 people. 

Downtown is 150 by 150, or 5 miles by 5 miles, for 25 square miles, for 250,000 people.

The Industrial Zone we call 195 by 60, or 6.5 miles by 2 miles, for 13 square miles, so 130,000 people.

Riverside NCZ is 120 by 60-ish, or 4 miles by 2 miles, for 8 square miles, giving us 80,000 people. 

The Little Kingdom is around 60 by 30, or 2 miles by 1 mile, for 6 square miles, giving us 120,000 people.

The Howling Slums are about 60 by 45, or 2 miles by 1.5 miles, for 3 square miles, giving us 30,000 people.

The Burns are around 120 by 90, or 4 miles by 3 miles, for 12 square miles, but we'll half this one section to 60,000 people.

The BIG slums have 150 by 300, or 5 miles by 10 miles, for 50 square miles, minus the Little Kingdom's 6 square miles, gives us 14 miles for 280,000 people. 
The BIG slums second half is around 90 by 90, or 3 miles by 3 miles, for 9 square miles, or 180,000 people.

The south riverside slums are 120 by 90, or 4 miles by 3 miles, for 12 square miles, or 240,000 people.
The second half of that is roughly 150 by 75, or 5 miles by 2.5, for 12.5 square miles, minus the Howling Slums 3, gives us 9.5 square miles, or 190,000 people.

The final slums we'll call 210 by 90,  or 7 miles by 3, for 21 square miles, or 420,000 people.

So, if we tally this all up, we get...

2,440,000 people living in Malifaux City.

That's about half the population of London, which is the most populous city on Earth in 1900.

And if we use the 40/60 ratio, there'd be 3.66 million people outside of the city, which seems excessive. Let's cut that ratio to 50/50 since the world's so dangerous, iving us a total population of about 4.9 million people in the world of Malifaux. Call it 5 million for an even number, and then you can figure out what kind of supply chain you're looking at.

Math! It's fun, honest!

On the map, 1" = 3 miles. Firing up the ol' IRFanView, the inch marker is 60 pixels, so, 20 pixels = 1 mile. 

Now we're in business. These sizes are rough, due to the shapes of the zones, but we can dig in all teh same.

The New Construction Zone is roughly 103 pixels by 63 pixels
The Easterly Slums are 201 x 93.
Downtown is about 150 by 150.
The Industrial Zone is about 192 by 60.
The riverside New Construction Zone is around 114 by 53.
The LIttle Kingdom is 64 by 38.
The Howling Slums are about 58 by 45.
The Burns are 113 by 86-ish.
The BIG slums that includes the Little Kingdom is around 147 by 302, plus another limb of 81 by 87-ish.
The slums across teh river from Downtown have two halves, one 124 by 97, the other 158 by 75 minus the Howling Slums inside of it.
The final slums that include the Starlight Saloon are about 223 by 69. 

These are rough numbers, obviously, but should let us work some magic. We're also counting out the population of the Quarantine Zones. There are obviously people who live in those areas but they don't get Guild support, so in terms of food and water, they're on their own. 

Now we just need to break out the old geometry and 4th grade math and we should start getting some numbers.

1 hour ago, John M said:

So this is a good question. 

Wonderful facts, thank you! I knew that the era was running around 10% farming, due to not having modern techniques like tractors, insecticides, or antibiotics, but 6% (The one farm feeds 16.3% people) is even better than that. The acreage is even more useful since we know how big Malifaux City is, and we could do some projections based on population density of the time. It's safe to say that occupied MC will have a density akin to London, while Quarantine MC will have significantly less (but not zero). 

The urban vs rural divide is trickier as  the era saw a rapid rise in urbanization.

1890 saw 35% urban vs 65% rural.  
1900 saw 40% urban vs 60% rural.
1910 saw 46% urban vs 54% rural.
1920 saw 51% urban vs 49% rural.

If we use the handy 40% number for 1900, and we can figure out the population of MC based on population density, then that will lets us figure out the rural population which, for our purposes, will be "everyone else" despite the largest mining towns and teh Falls in the Knotwoods probably counting as urban but we're spitballing here.

A quick search says London in 1900 had a population of 5 million and covered 200 square miles, which is 25,000 people per square mile. That's huge. (Today's New York City has 11,000 people per square mile, as a comparson!) and it's done in Victorian-style buildings, which are a fraction of the size of today's homes and without full verticality. Many Victorian homes were several stories tall, but five was a pretty hard limit and certainly nothing like today's skyscrapers! Sizes shot up quickly in the 1900's but I don't think anyone wants that style of building in Malifaux. Let's trim it back a bit to, say, 20K per square mile. That's a softer figure but usable.

Now we just need the square miles of MC. To the map! 

4 hours ago, Ebb said:

There's only one train that travels back and forth through the breach, it's  "The Iron Ram" and it makes six to eight trips a day. A huge proportion of travelers are Breachbound, especially if you count all the convicts that the guild imports from prisons around the world, but even without them, the tickets out of Malifaux are intentionally priced much higher by the Guild (and normal people have to save up to afford the ticket in) so for the most part, it's only rich people leaving. There aren't many goods (other than convict labor) that the guild imports from Earthside, mostly just luxury items, and the train should never be empty on the way back.

The TTB Core Rulebook has a bunch more information on the subject (page 38) only other thing that's not there that I can think to mention is that you are right about the Pullman style seating, that much is clear from a few of the stories.

Edited:

Oh also, there are way more people then that in Malifaux, even if you're just talking about the city then I'd guess a few million at least.

Agriculture, and water, are the big two for imports. It takes a TON of food to feed as many people are in Malifaux and things don't grow very well there. I mean, where the heck are *any* farms? The swamps? No. The woods? Probably not. The Badlands? Maybe some subsistance work, but it's not easy, and the usual counter for this, grazing animals, doesn't end well since malifaux's magic tends to twist critters. 

And water? The water shortage's even worse, since you can at least hunt varmints for food, but water's essential for life and the citywater's  been bedeviled for years. That means importing, and importing water's going to take a LOT of cargo space and weight. 

After that? Raw materials for all the iron needed, wood like mad since Malifaux's main sources of woods (the Bayou and the Knotwoods) are filled with hostiles, and basic fabric for clothing which is *also* in short supply. Luckily, Soulstones exist, which pay for it all, but ... man, it's expensive to keep Malifaux City afloat, let alone the more far-flung areas.  

But I was more worried about the flow of people than freight. Not that I'm obsessed with logistics or anything. *cough*

Teh Guild uses trains to cross the Breach, to bring in people and cargo, and to ship out products, people, and, most of all, SoulStones. 

But it leaves me with a few questions.

How many trains travel through the Breach each day? What percentage are Earthbound and what percentage are Breachbound? You'd imagine 50/50, but I can't see that many exports leaving, so most of the departing trains will be empty. Are most trains just cargo shipments from Earth, sent back empty, with only one or two a day having passengers? How many people fit on each car? How many people a day wind up in Malifaux?

For instance, if a hundred people a day come in, over three years and change, you get 100,000 people. Is that the population of Malifaux City? More or less? What about the outlying areas? How many convicts are moved in and has that ratio stayed the same or has it gone up or down over time? 

Weird questions I know, but I'd like to start off a game with the trip through and the arrival and I realized while doing early pokes at it that I had no idea just how busy, or quiet, Malifaux Station really was. The trip itself is super short, so there's no need for a dining car or the like, but there'll likely be a "resting station" Breachside for travellers to settle down into and relax after the harrowing trip. This gives the trains time to be decoupled, cars moved around to Westbound, Eastbound, or Southbound trips, hooking up cars as needed for teh eventual destination and also transferring cars to the Earthbound return trip.

At the moment, I'm mentally using an older model Pullman car design in my head, where two seats face 'North', then a table, then two seats face 'South', giving you a Stagecoach-like seating arrangement (which would encourage new-arrivals to talk to one another a bit, hello gaming hook!) ... three of those sets each on the 'West' and 'East' side of teh car, leaving a path in the middle. At the far 'North' of teh car, where you enter and exit, there's a lone bench on the 'West' and a guard posted on the 'East' who checks tickets and provides security. It's not mentioned, but his real job is to keep an eye on passengers that might flip out and go magic mayhem during the trip and put them down... the rest is just busywork that makes passengers *feel* safe. This gives you (12 + 12 + 2) 26 seats... which just so happens to be half a deck of cards. You can number the seats from 1-13, splitting them into Red (East) and Black (West) if you ever want to do some random element, like tossing in visions during the trip or whatever. A Joker means the effect gets the guard. Oops! 

 I know that there are patrols of Witchhandelers and Witchlings there, again to keep an eye on people expressing magic, which is a great bit of exposition to set the tone when someone on teh train starts going magic and gets taken down by the Witchlings to protect everyone ... and you can later re-introduce that magical person as either a Sanctioned Spellcaster or as a Witchling to expose some of the horror elements of the Guild. 

But if anyone has an idea about how many trains there are a day, how much they carry, and general population numbers, I'd be much obliged.

And a second try in a second post is no good.

Odd...

(edit)

Weird. Switching from rich text, with keywords in bold, prevented it form being edited in. Switching to plain text worked. How odd!

REGARDLESS! If anyone has thoughts, comments, suggestions, etc, do let me know? I'm sure that it could use some polish yet.

Just kicking a few ideas around and this was one that I wanted to start poking at. This is a first draft and obviously needs a bit of work, but, I figured I'd release it into the wild for a lookover, see what suggestions that people might have, clarifications needed, and so on.

Scrap is a general term for the parts left behind from a project's demise; the wires, gears, metal plates, and so on that can be picked through and recycled for future projects. While the world of Malifaux is fairly well-stocked with steel, copper, and so on, Guild prices are high so most learn to recycle what they can to make scrip last a bit longer.

A Scrap Counter is a way to keep track of scrap without using a lot of book keeping. When a Construct is destroyed, it leaves behind a number of Scrap Counters equal to its Height characteristic. When a living or undead target is destroyed, they leave behind one Scrap Counter if they had one pneumatic limb or a number of Scrap Counters equal to their height if they have more than one pneumatic limb.

A Scrap Counter may be sold, where it has a value of 1 Scrip. It may be instead used to generate 5 Scrip worth of funding for the creation, upgrading, or repairing of Constructs or Pneumatic Limbs when using the standard construction rules. (IE, if a construct would cost 15 Scrip, 10 of that could be paid by sacrificing two Scrap Counters leaving only 5 scrip to be paid for out of pocket.)

A character may carry as many Scrap Counters as their Might score, to a minimum of 1. (Engineers around Malifaux are famous for keeping spare parts tucked into pockets, toolboxes, straps, boots, and a myriad of other places, but larger piles of parts require a strong assistant, or Construct, to mule them around.)

A character carrying a Scrap Counter gains access to the following special action:

Scottish Engineering (2) Action: Test: Cunning + Arteficing TN: 10

Sacrifice 1 carried Scrap Counter as an additional cost to attempt this action. If successful, choose a target Construct within 2” makes a Healing Flip, restoring 1 / 2 / 4 lost health.

(rams) Trigger: Negate one Continuous Effect on the targeted construct after the healing flip is made.

They make great villains tho, for sure.

I really need to pick up the Other Side stuff to read at some stage. The storyline's moved past what I'm familiar with and there's no good lore repository to dig into.

*grump*

Heck, I *still* don't know where to start hunting for when the whole Burning Man thing started. I know what it WAS (or, well, IS) but not what book launched it.

3 hours ago, solkan said:

You were expecting it to be simply impossible instead of impractical?

Borderline, yes. Magic didn't work without Soulstones to power them after all. So I'd have thought -3, or maybe -2, flips to a magic test, or even a blanket "No magic unless using a Soulstone charge."

 

Only one [-]? I figured it would have been MUCH harder. Then again, the mages of Earth that survived the breach opening got SUPERCHARGED, so, some of that had to filter out across the rest of the planet.

Hrm.

Gadzooks! My old work referenced!

(Note to self: Update that stuff. Also, talk about Construct foo. And future Undead foo!)

Yeah, the pause button on the Nerverborn is a giant ouch.

Just means that the fandom is gonna have to step up and fill in the blanks until then. :D

For me, it was all books. The new model book, sure, but more importantly the Bayou book for TTB and the Bayou Games adventure right beside it.

Which probably means I'm the bottom of the mailpile from all the plastic addicts, but that's fine. Not like I don't have an uncountable number of minis waiting to be worked on as it is.

(Why did I order Bones II before Bones I has even been handled? And Bones III ships in the not too distant future! Oh, foolish, foolish Wak!)

Gremlins are nice, but I need, need, NEED that Bayou lore.

*drool*

Wonder if there'll be any copies of the book ready for GenCon? Not that I'll be there, but....

9 hours ago, Golden Apple said:

One million yesses. Step aside, pops.

Fingers crossed for a Storng Female Characters Alternate Viktorias Box.

Kate's awesome.

And suddenly I wonder if I should drop links to Lovelace nd Babbage, which is both different than these and amazing all the same.

On ‎7‎/‎5‎/‎2016 at 8:00 AM, Goodtest said:

The bomb girl rides a  velocipede.

Incredible!

I shared it before, and I'll share it again.

20 hours ago, Mason said:

Yup, the One Shots are PDF only. They're just short single-session adventures.

I usually haul mine down to OfficeMax, print them off, and toss them into a binder, cause I like having nice paper copies.

Lots of us do! So much so, in fact, that if you ever decided that, oh, say, ten of these One-Shots combined are about the size of a book, and then sold said book, well, I know a few of us would pick it up.

*cough cough hint cough*

He has a cap! That's hat-like.

As for me? All I can do is start singing

o/~ "Jet-pack Gremlin'

with  a lightnin' guuuuunnn..." o/~

.... Who the heck is Vasyl?

Have I missed a book?

I think I've missed a book.

Ack!

I'm still curious when we'll get our first vampires. Once they enter, everything tend sto bend that-a-way, but, eventually, you kinda hafta.

Mind you, I'm also waiting for us to get some proper werewolves up in the Arcanists. Marcus! Lead the howl!

6 hours ago, Clockwork_Fish said:

Try to remember, the Neverborn are carnivores, living in a world of carnivores.  If a bear mauls a guy in the woods, it's not evil, it's just being a bear.  Doesn't matter if that guy is 'innocent.'  Pandora feeds on suffering.  And Wicked Dolls have to reproduce somehow.  Why the heck would you bring your children to Malifaux in the first place?  Sounds like irresponsible parenting is to blame, not innocent puppets, just trying to carry out the cycle of life!

Well, the Breach has been open for 9 years now, so there are bound to be 'Native Malifaux" kids, in addition to whichever ones have been brought over.

The REAL question would be this: If the last Breach closed after ten years, how much longer is THIS one going to be open for?

I still want, and want badly, a moral Guild Guard leader-type. Probably a Henchman rather than a true spellcaster.

Like, Captain Danielle Sterling, formerly just a GUild Guard who was assigned to a mission with Lucius and who he watched act nobly and in defense of the law. So he calls her up to talk about a promotion and ask her a few questions, where he gets absolutely *delighted* to find someone giving all the highly moral answers to terrible situations. He tells her that she's not getting promoted to sergeant, she nods and leaves, then he steps out, grabs the nearest lawyer, and tells them that he's gong to personally promote this one to Captain, because he wants to see how far he can push things until that silver heart tarnishes.

Meanwhile, she's just the nicest, most law-abiding, Dudley Doorightest person ever and when she gets promoted everyone nearly dies of shock.

Because, sometimes, you gotta flip the script.

I'm completely and utterly sold on her. She's clearly not a Free Press person, due to the rather terrible phrasing of her card's abilities, but, she's still dang cool.

Doe she get a wolf for her Totem?

/img]

I really hope she gets a wolf.