Uploaded August 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
A fantasy kingdom with one capital and three towns can’t feed itself — a real medieval economy needs a ring of villages, and the 1981 D&D Expert Set already priced out how many a 24-mile hex can support.
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Most worldbuilding advice treats village placement as an aesthetic choice. Real medieval towns don’t get that choice — every one sits inside a day’s cart-trip of the farms that supply it, and that radius decides how many villages a piece of land actually needs. The 1981 D&D Expert Set (Cook & Marsh) and the 1991 Rules Cyclopedia (Allston) both ran this math for a completely different reason — pricing out what it costs to rule a piece of land — and the numbers still hold up. This is the direct follow-up to the fantasy-map-scale video: same 24-mile hex, now filled in with real population and trade-radius math instead of guesswork.
One inference in this video is not a direct quotation from either book: the market-day travel radius is calculated from the game’s own cart-speed rule, not copied from a sentence that already exists.
The Tavern Rules: We’re here for B/X and OSR gaming. I use AI as a tool to help organize and format my notes, but every ruling and opinion is 100% Tenkar. Keep it civil, keep it old-school, or the bouncer will show you the door.
Basic Rules (Moldvay) PDF & Print - drivethrurpg.com/en/product/110274/d-d-basic-set-rulebook-b-x-ed-basic?src=newest_print&affiliate_id=1446
Expert Rules (Marsh/Cook) PDF & Print - drivethrurpg.com/en/product/110792/d-d-expert-set-rulebook-b-x-ed-basic?affiliate_id=1446
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00:00 Intro / The problem with empty fantasy maps
01:36 The agricultural reality of medieval cities
02:18 Basic D&D and the Rules Cyclopedia domain math
03:36 Hex populations (Civilized, Borderlands, Wilderness)
04:30 Domain economics and taxation (The Baron example)
06:17 Cart speeds and the 6-mile market radius
08:25 How to draw your hex map using the 6-mile rule
09:50 The one-page hex and town worksheet
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Companion Minions: Andrey Zharinov, Brett C, Spode Racing, Tacoloco787, Adam Lovell, Plush Cthulhu, DM_Sahrenyth, Gabe Guerrero, Chris Charlton, Chris Blatnick, Nicodemus ShadowCaster, Christopher Beattie, No one, Stephen Klow, Mark the Shark, Eupolemos, Jay, Martin Penny, tim cafferty, Rubens Barrichello, Curt Gould, Estaban Vasquez, Glen K. Amo
youtube.com/channel/UCIdpAASpAI7vu-bZx6pP_mQ
#Worldbuilding #FantasyMaps #MedievalHistory #TenkarsTavern
A fantasy kingdom with one capital and three towns can’t feed itself — a real medieval economy needs a ring of villages, and the 1981 D&D Expert Set already priced out how many a 24-mile hex can support.
🔥 JOIN THE MINIONS: youtube.com/@TenkarsTavern/join
Most worldbuilding advice treats village placement as an aesthetic choice. Real medieval towns don’t get that choice — every one sits inside a day’s cart-trip of the farms that supply it, and that radius decides how many villages a piece of land actually needs. The 1981 D&D Expert Set (Cook & Marsh) and the 1991 Rules Cyclopedia (Allston) both ran this math for a completely different reason — pricing out what it costs to rule a piece of land — and the numbers still hold up. This is the direct follow-up to the fantasy-map-scale video: same 24-mile hex, now filled in with real population and trade-radius math instead of guesswork.
One inference in this video is not a direct quotation from either book: the market-day travel radius is calculated from the game’s own cart-speed rule, not copied from a sentence that already exists.
The Tavern Rules: We’re here for B/X and OSR gaming. I use AI as a tool to help organize and format my notes, but every ruling and opinion is 100% Tenkar. Keep it civil, keep it old-school, or the bouncer will show you the door.
Basic Rules (Moldvay) PDF & Print - drivethrurpg.com/en/product/110274/d-d-basic-set-rulebook-b-x-ed-basic?src=newest_print&affiliate_id=1446
Expert Rules (Marsh/Cook) PDF & Print - drivethrurpg.com/en/product/110792/d-d-expert-set-rulebook-b-x-ed-basic?affiliate_id=1446
Join The Tavern’s Discord Server (It's Free):
discord.gg/fReGmuD
Buy me a Beer!
ko-fi.com/tenkar
00:00 Intro / The problem with empty fantasy maps
01:36 The agricultural reality of medieval cities
02:18 Basic D&D and the Rules Cyclopedia domain math
03:36 Hex populations (Civilized, Borderlands, Wilderness)
04:30 Domain economics and taxation (The Baron example)
06:17 Cart speeds and the 6-mile market radius
08:25 How to draw your hex map using the 6-mile rule
09:50 The one-page hex and town worksheet
The Tavern uses affiliate links - using our affiliate links supports the channel without costing you anything extra.
Humble Bundle: humblebundleinc.sjv.io/da4WJ2
The Tavern’s Amazon Storefront: amzn.to/41Jm0oG
DriveThruRPG: drivethrurpg.com/en/?affiliate_id=1446
Fantasy Grounds VTT: affiliates.fantasygrounds.com/388855/15958
The Tavern uses Restream for its livestreams and its long-form videos. You can too! restream.io/join/g5Qpgr
The Tavern also uses VidIQ: vidiq.com/TenkarsTavern
Master Minion: mortgagemike77, Randt Chrockett, Eric Fox, The Veteran DM, Cathulhu17, Don Bakke, DoubleDeuce, skink, Kore44, Louis Feurino, Craig Aylward, Anthon Kron, Ijimisan, Terry Taylor, blahlbinoa, Arbiter's Archive, Dean Salsberry, DM Angelo, Douglas Pearson, James Spahn, Mathew Sherman, Agile Monk
Companion Minions: Andrey Zharinov, Brett C, Spode Racing, Tacoloco787, Adam Lovell, Plush Cthulhu, DM_Sahrenyth, Gabe Guerrero, Chris Charlton, Chris Blatnick, Nicodemus ShadowCaster, Christopher Beattie, No one, Stephen Klow, Mark the Shark, Eupolemos, Jay, Martin Penny, tim cafferty, Rubens Barrichello, Curt Gould, Estaban Vasquez, Glen K. Amo
youtube.com/channel/UCIdpAASpAI7vu-bZx6pP_mQ
#Worldbuilding #FantasyMaps #MedievalHistory #TenkarsTavern
