Quote from: Ravenswing;759015It's not just Americans.  Most everyone has seen versions of the "Dumb Americans try to identify European countries on geography test with hilarious results" riff, right?  A couple months ago I saw a similar test from the UK of students trying to identify American states, with similarly wacky answers.

Actually it started as "dumb Americans cant identify their own states on a map". God forbid they had to identify something from outside the US.

I'd be surprised if UK students are that dense.

Quote from: Omega;759044Actually it started as "dumb Americans cant identify their own states on a map". God forbid they had to identify something from outside the US.

I'd be surprised if UK students are that dense.

I dunno. We're not taught American states in school (Because, why would we be?), so for the majority of people, anything they know will come from cultural osmosis - the ones with big international influence, fine, people will probably learn them, but the rest are just kinda "there", we don't need to learn the details.

Basically, I think calling people "stupid" for not knowing something irrelevant to their life is kinda unfair.

Juno Alaska is slightly bigger than Rhode Island in terms of area.

Published settings are generally much too small anyway. Big enough to get some detail, but for an actual world, they seem a bit titchy.

Shadow World for Rolemaster is big, but i can't think of too many others.

Quote from: Ravenswing;759015It's not just Americans.  Most everyone has seen versions of the "Dumb Americans try to identify European countries on geography test with hilarious results" riff, right?  A couple months ago I saw a similar test from the UK of students trying to identify American states, with similarly wacky answers.

Yes but American states would compare to say English counties in terms of international exposure.

You can compare British folk try to label US states - http://www.buzzfeed.com/robinedds/its-thanksgiving-so-we-asked-some-brits-to-label-the-us-stat

with US folks try to label European countries -
http://www.buzzfeed.com/summeranne/americans-try-to-place-european-countries-on-a-map

 But the winner is when an American VP candidates thinks Africa is a country

Quote from: One Horse Town;759054Published settings are generally much too small anyway. Big enough to get some detail, but for an actual world, they seem a bit titchy.

Shadow World for Rolemaster is big, but i can't think of too many others.

could we worse though could be a scifi TV show. The Enterprise arrive at BlahBlah -4 and there are what 200 people in one town and no one else on the whole planet.

Star Wars - he must be on Tattoine which apparently is about the size of the Albuquerque metropolitan area but with far fewer people.

Firefly - she controls the terraformed moon of so and so with 6 people and a couple of horses.....

Quote from: jibbajibba;759055Yes but American states would compare to say English counties in terms of international exposure.

The US also has counties within its states.

But to bring this back to gaming, it probably shouldn't be surprising to anyone that folks in the US and Canada make worlds that look different than folks in France and the UK. Not sure it is bad either. They just bring very different different assumptions and historical influences about these things to the table. I would imagine a fantasy world created by someone from China or Russia would also look very different.

When factoring the size of a setting i also think that most games over-estimate how far people can generally travel.

In 17th century Ottoman Europe it took merchant caravans 50 days to travel from Macedonia to Vienna.

Quote from: S'mon;759034That kind of implies that US states are as important as other people's countries. Would you expect US or UK students to be able to identify the states of other federal nations like Mexico or India?

(shrugs)  Seven US states would be in Europe's top fifteen nations by population.  California's economy alone would be something like seventh in the world if it were independent.  The state I live in is only 14th in US population, but has more people than a full 26 independent European nations.  (Heck, the municipal limits of my state's capital has more people than ten European nations do.)

And sure, knowing the states of (say) India is as important as knowing any country.  Uttar Pradesh alone is nearly half again as populous as any nation in Europe (and that's if you count Russia as being wholly in Europe).  If you count only those nations entirely within Europe -- leaving out Russia and Turkey, say -- only Germany is populous enough to crack India's top seven states.

Looks like at least one of the new maps is going 5 mile hexes.

Quote from: Ravenswing;759282(shrugs)  Seven US states would be in Europe's top fifteen nations by population.  California's economy alone would be something like seventh in the world if it were independent.  The state I live in is only 14th in US population, but has more people than a full 26 independent European nations.  (Heck, the municipal limits of my state's capital has more people than ten European nations do.)

And sure, knowing the states of (say) India is as important as knowing any country.  Uttar Pradesh alone is nearly half again as populous as any nation in Europe (and that's if you count Russia as being wholly in Europe).  If you count only those nations entirely within Europe -- leaving out Russia and Turkey, say -- only Germany is populous enough to crack India's top seven states.

But if they don't have political power, it doesn't matter globally. What matters is the entity they are part of.

Quote from: jibbajibba;759055Yes but American states would compare to say English counties in terms of international exposure.

You can compare British folk try to label US states - http://www.buzzfeed.com/robinedds/its-thanksgiving-so-we-asked-some-brits-to-label-the-us-stat

with US folks try to label European countries -
http://www.buzzfeed.com/summeranne/americans-try-to-place-european-countries-on-a-map

 But the winner is when an American VP candidates thinks Africa is a country

Or believes an island can capsize and flip into the ocean.

Or someone whom refers to their own nation as having 57 states.

Or the guy a few years ago, supposed a top foreign policy pol, who suggested Iraq and Pakistan share a border.

Or talking about Phoenix being in California.

Or talking about the importance of ports on the Gulf of Mexico, and only naming Atlantic ports.

Or the U.S. senator who last year claimed South Dakota bordered Canada.

Politicians seem to be as befuddled as the general public when it comes to geography. It's one of the reasons I like having things a bit vague in my games. I dislike when Joe Blacksmith from the Village of Toadsuck knows with perfect clarity where the far-off realm of Wherever is and just where the city of Portburgtownville sits. Ballpark is ok--realistically, it's the best most of the population can hope for.

Quote from: Zachary The First;759295I dislike when Joe Blacksmith from the Village of Toadsuck knows with perfect clarity where the far-off realm of Wherever is and just where the city of Portburgtownville sits. Ballpark is ok--realistically, it's the best most of the population can hope for.

Bemusingly a blacksmith might be one of the more likely people to know about far ranging cities. A blacksmith would be one of the places travellers would stop at  for repairs to wagons or re-shoeing horses. Along with the tavern could be great sources of gossip depending on how oft the town gets visited from other locales.

But yeah. Exacting data. Not so likely. But. If the blacksmith in a town in the middle of nowhere did know about that far off city, in detail. Then that raises the question of exactly how hes come by that knowledge.

Quote from: Omega;759337Bemusingly a blacksmith might be one of the more likely people to know about far ranging cities. A blacksmith would be one of the places travellers would stop at  for repairs to wagons or re-shoeing horses. Along with the tavern could be great sources of gossip depending on how oft the town gets visited from other locales.

But yeah. Exacting data. Not so likely. But. If the blacksmith in a town in the middle of nowhere did know about that far off city, in detail. Then that raises the question of exactly how hes come by that knowledge.

Actually, that's a really good point, and a good game idea, too. Let's say "Joe Fieldhand" instead, for the above example.

hah! Farm hands could be a bad example too. Farmers may range fairly far to sell wares or pick up supplies.

Better example is the relatively isolated frontier town on the edge of the wilderness. The general peasantry would likely know maybee the nearest trade down. At least what road leads to it. Merchants, Taverns and Smiths would know more, depending on the traffic. Farmers would either know very little as they are the peasantry, or about as much as a merchant if they are the sort that sells their goods on the next town or port.

Nobles are in the same boat as the farmers. Depends on if they travel abroad or are very localized. Scribes and sages will be the wildcard. They might have originally hailed from elsewhere and know alot. Or they may know something of a city with something there that pertains to their expertise.

It all depends on how isolated the town is. Even a trickle of visitors is going to get info to the town in bits and pieces.

One fun twist there is. The info the NPC gives may be very out of date.

Podunksville may now be Podunkastan City, or Podunk Crater. Logging may have totally obliterated the Elven Freehold. And now theres alot of displaced and pissed off elves in the area.