Would the presence of dangerous 'wandering' monsters impact the trend of building smaller habitations radiating from central hubs? If creatures can pop out and wipe out farms/logging camps/etc. quickly, then I would think that those types of small settlements would be rare. I think that it would cause fewer but larger and more defensible settlements to become the norm outside the heart of long-tamed, peaceful nations.

For me when running a fantasy RPG. If I have a Frontier town that in my mind definitely has dangers to be considered, such as potential Monster/Bandit raids, then unless there's some compelling reason why, there'll be a Palisade or something to offer some sort of protection to a Frontier town at least.  

There have been exceptions such as a natural feature or anomaly or perhaps some magical effect that might be protecting the town directly or indirectly.  
I once designed a Cliff-face, facing the sea small town that was only accessible by a cave network which itself was guarded, trapped etc.
   
But I suppose yeah. Some old scenarios detailing frontier type towns have been poorly designed. Particularly when the scenario even details monster encounter lists, bandits etc.

Quote from: Dimitrios;1112980I think part of the "low density" trend can be attributed to the influence of Tolkien and LotR on D&D (I know that Gygax wasn't a huge Tolkien fan, I'm talking about everyone else). Especially in the early days of gaming, most people's main example and go-to reference for fantasy world building was Middle Earth. And Middle Earth during the late 3rd Age period of the LotR trilogy is portrayed as a howling wilderness.

Yes, Middle Earth is a prime example of a largely underpopulated fantasy world. The movies are even worse than the books - Minas Tirith rises out of an empty plain, as if a city of tens of thousands wouldn't need thousands of square miles of cultivated land to support it and dozens of towns and villages to support it.

Quote from: HappyDaze;1112981Would the presence of dangerous 'wandering' monsters impact the trend of building smaller habitations radiating from central hubs? If creatures can pop out and wipe out farms/logging camps/etc. quickly, then I would think that those types of small settlements would be rare. I think that it would cause fewer but larger and more defensible settlements to become the norm outside the heart of long-tamed, peaceful nations.

If you're going for what would suspend your disbelief, think like a monster.  You don't need to eat the town to get a meal, so you're probably not going to risk it except in some few circumstances.  Yes, you're the bigger and badder.  That doesn't mean you kick a hornet nest just because you can.  Hornets can hurt even when they don't kill.

This what the local settlement pattern would look like in an area dominated by manoralism (my own work).

[ATTACH=CONFIG]3959[/ATTACH]

With individual manors looking somewhat like this (from Harn)

[ATTACH=CONFIG]3960[/ATTACH]

As a rule the central authority i.e. the king keeps tight control over what is called crenellation licenses. A license to build walls or a castle. Most major settlements look like the below. (from Harn)

[ATTACH=CONFIG]3962[/ATTACH]

This is another settlement I created myself
[ATTACH=CONFIG]3963[/ATTACH]

And yet another (from Scourge of the Demon Wolf)

[ATTACH=CONFIG]3964[/ATTACH]

In general the layout of settlements depends on culture, time period, and geography. Russia had their way, Germany had another, England has another still. In general the high density population area of Western Europe during the Medieval Era (early or late) are not typical D&D milieu. In contrast Medieval Russia was pretty much exactly what you expect from a D&D milieu with wilderness running nearly up to the edge of the town wall. In general russian cities were on rivers and town and  their food production was strung out along the main river and its tributaries. While population density was low for the country as whole.

While in Western Europe settlements tended to be at the center of a settled blob and the countryside a patchwork of blogs with gaps of wild land where the land wasn't a suited for agriculture.

Related are the differences between pastoralism, farming, and manoralism. A blog post on the topic. In short there are several dials one can turn to get different plausible results.

A farming region
[ATTACH=CONFIG]3965[/ATTACH]

the same region under manoralism
[ATTACH=CONFIG]3966[/ATTACH]

Probably because the only real frontier towns were, as mentioned earlier, in the old West, not anything in Europe

But beyond that, I imagine defense is much more proactive than waiting for bands of random people/monsters to attack the town.  One of the things I really dislike about hex crawls/sandboxes is that all too often monsters and such just appear magically from a roll of dice on a table.  But everything should come from something. Scouts and rangers and the like should be aware of any threat entering the region, and be able to alert the townsfolk/miltia/etc

This thread has more detail from Rob on how he breaks settlement patterns down as well as links from other peeps.

Quote from: JeremyR;1112998Probably because the only real frontier towns were, as mentioned earlier, in the old West, not anything in Europe

Russia along the forest steppe boundary and towards the Urals.

The line retreats westward the further back towards the fall of Rome. During the era of Charlemagne the frontier lay just beyond the Elbe and Viking explorers i.e. the Rus were pushing beyond the Baltic into the Russian river systems. The Huns, Avars, Magyars, and Mongols all swept across the steppes into Europe pushing back the boundaries of settlement until they assimilated or were conquered.

Europe very much had frontier towns.

Quote from: CRKrueger;1112999This thread has more detail from Rob on how he breaks settlement patterns down as well as links from other peeps.

Thanks for mentioning that.

D&D settlements are always on the small side. You'll see a map of a town that's small even for a village and a city that's little more than a town. I think this has to do with how Americans use the term "town" as the name for a small settlement when, in medieval terms, it would be a village. So, while a town near a medieval frontier would be walled, most "towns" in D&D aren't actually towns at all. So, no, I have no problem with "frontier towns" in D&D not being defensible as they aren't towns anyway.

For example, the Keep in KotB is pathetically small. You should see plenty of buildings down the road and near the river. But instead it exists completely cut off from any source of food.

One factor that people haven't mentioned yet is:

Is the world full of danger around every corner which is why the PCs keep on getting tangled up in it everywhere they go?

Or is the bulk of the world pleasant and peace and it's just that the PCs actively seek out the most dangerous bits in order to loot them.

If it's the first then you need lots of fortifications all over. The second... not so much. Kind of like in action movies the heroes always end up neck deep in violence but the overall world is peaceful enough to not need fortifications around the vast majority of towns.

Quote from: estar;1112940Medieval Russian Village

Village Structures

Thank you estar!!! These are awesome!

Quote from: Spinachcat;1113015Thank you estar!!! These are awesome!

Yeah they are.  D&D based on the Old West style of the frontier means vast amounts of land and things are spread out.  There's one problem with spreading things out...you can't defend it or even stop simple animals from moving around (before the invention of barbed wire), it took too much wood.  So you build up, not out, with two, three, even four story buildings, narrow streets, etc. so that the outer palisade's circumference is less.  A large amount of medieval Europe is forest with good access to water, especially Eastern Europe, which allows for these kinds of structures.

One thing you see a lot of in medieval walled towns is that there really aren't separate buildings as such.  Structures, especially against a wall, are basically built right onto the ones next to them.  My friend had some really cool pictures of some small walled cities in Eastern Europe from when he went there as a kid, I'll ask him if he still has any.

Quote from: Spinachcat;1113015Thank you estar!!! These are awesome!

From that same blog, check this out.

Lots of pictures of Abalak in travel guides and such.