So I'm just reading through my copy of Suns of Fortune today and I noticed something odd that managed to completely jar my understanding and immersion.

Drall has a population of 8 million, 96% Drall. Lets just say 8 million Drall. Selonia has 16 million Selonians. Numbers seem low, but lets go with it.

Corellia. 3 billion population, 60% human, 20% Drall, 20% Selonian. That means Corellia has 600 million Drall and 600 million Selonians. 75 times the population of the Drall homeworld, a rather shy and unadventurous species live on Corellia. 33 times the number of insular Selonians live on Corellia than on their homeworld.

Please tell me I'm not the only one who is going to have to adjust these numbers dramatically to make them make even close sense.

Definitely, when my players start doing my big Corellian Sector Census adventure next week, things are gonna get CA-RAZAY!

All of the population numbers are weird, IMO. Corellia only having 3 billion people (less than half of earth's population) seems way too low to me as well--especially considering their influence on the galaxy at large. But yes, those numbers are jarring. If anything, those numbers should be flipped with 600 million Drall on Drall and 600 million Selonians on Selonia.

And I'd love to see a retcon that put the population of Coronet at 3 billion and really expanded the total number of people on Corellia. It seems rather ridiculous that Corellia was even really much of a threat to the Galactic Alliance in Legacy of the Force when they have a population that is only .3% of the total population of Coruscant.

Possibly the massive numbers of Drall and Selonians on Corellia help explain all the vast numbers of PCs of those races that fail to adhere to their cultural and social mores of the homeworld populations for those species.

Did FFG come up with those numbers or did they pull them from somewhere?

I ask because I seem to recall Karen Travis contributing to that Legacy of the Force thing, and her track records with numbers...

Well, if you think of it, it might be that the Drall, in attempts to preserve their planet, began to ship off their residents to live on Corellia (and it just so happened they sent the rowdy bunch!). As for Selonians, you could say that they sent off their more radical members to Corellia, and as time wore on and more people were sent away then came in, the population on Corellia for Drall and Selonians overtook the homeworlds.

However, considering the large amount of mistakes in the book, I'm guessing they just screwed up. Not only does it seem Corellia should be a larger population, but so should the other two. I admit, I only read the population for Corellia, but it's still shockingly low.

Forget Jedi. If there is one thing that defines Star Wars, it's accurate demographic statistics.

Here's the issue with some of the numbers - you can't compare them to modern earth numbers because we have nowhere to go. The entirety of everything humanity ever was or will be is currently confined to one planet (excluding a a small tin can floating precariously in orbit.

For the drall and selonian, how big are the planets? That can explain the size of the populations. Perhaps despite being space hamsters and otter/weasels they may lack the fecundity that humans possess.

So I didn't work on those parts, so I'm not sure where they got the numbers. However, WEG's Cracken's Threat Dossier lists Corellia as having 16.5 billion, Drall as 14 million, and Selonia as 16 million (estimated). Talus and Tralus have 3.2 and 2.4 million each. So these numbers seem to at least have a root in older canon.

Explaining this numbers might have been a missed opportunity, or a future one. Some things i would consider, though, are the lifestyles. Corellia is more modern, there are more opportunities for work there. Most Corellians don't even stay in the Corellian system, if they ever visited. I agree it seems strange, but consider the planets are artificial and perhaps only in their current location for 1 million to 100,000 years or so. These populations might have started very small, and just not had the time to grow. Or if they did grow, they spread out. Corellians occupy the entire Corellian Run, all those worlds. There are trillions upon trillions of Corellians in the galaxy. Corellia itself, though? Not a lot of people live there. Its not a ecumenopolis like Coruscant. Its more of a rancher planet with some great big cities ilke Coronet, but Corellia is essentially space Texas.

Population numbers are part of the "Pulling it out of my ***" department. Take them with a grain of salt the size of a nerf

Sci-Fi writers never really get into numbers.

Its just one of those "things" that none of them ever seem to make any sense of through their entire careers.

English A+ "Bobby will go far in literature"

Maths F "Bobby tried to tell me dividing by 0 was intended as an ironic statement about social preconceptions"

I don't have the book, but this looks like an opportunity. Describe these worlds like they were Old West ghost towns - all the young 'uns go off-world, looking for work, adventure and the "bright lights" of the more cosmopolitan worlds.

Corellia is supposed to be a nice place, too, with plenty of open countryside and beaches and so on.

They saved their planet's ecology by moving their industry into orbit. This could help explain the relatively low population.

Corellia's population is listed as 3 billion (60% humans, 20%/20% Selonians/Drall) in Star Wars the Essential Atlas.

Well, if we had free rein of our galaxy, I imagine the population of earth would be much, much smaller.

To use a nation-level analogy, I recall hearing somewhere that a few Caribbean countries have a near-equal or greater number of citizens outside their borders than in them. Perhaps this is the same phenomenon at work. What starts as the immigration of a few opportunity-seekers turns into burgeoning off-world communities that start to surpass the size and richness of their homeworld cousins.

In that regard, the numbers seem like fairly consistent speculative sci-fi.

It's not the concept I would dispute. I think what you're saying about immigration makes a lot of sense. It's the numbers. I get that there are billions of Corellians who don't live on Corellia and populate other worlds--regardless the 3 billion number seems supremely small. And the number of Drall and Selonians are their respective home worlds requires a willing suspension of disbelief.

Daven, I don't think that is the case for everyone, but if that is how you feel, then simply alter the numbers to best suit your game. The most important thing is to have fun, if these numbers take away from that fun, add some zeros.

It's not the concept I would dispute. I think what you're saying about immigration makes a lot of sense. It's the numbers. I get that there are billions of Corellians who don't live on Corellia and populate other worlds--regardless the 3 billion number seems supremely small. And the number of Drall and Selonians are their respective home worlds requires a willing suspension of disbelief.

Like KRKappel said, if you have a different idea, it's your prerogative to make it so in your campaign.

Just curious, what specific consequences do you see happening in your campaign as a result of these population figures?

It's not the concept I would dispute. I think what you're saying about immigration makes a lot of sense. It's the numbers. I get that there are billions of Corellians who don't live on Corellia and populate other worlds--regardless the 3 billion number seems supremely small. And the number of Drall and Selonians are their respective home worlds requires a willing suspension of disbelief.

Like KRKappel said, if you have a different idea, it's your prerogative to make it so in your campaign.

Just curious, what specific consequences do you see happening in your campaign as a result of these population figures?

The ability to avoid having my players ask how Corellia can be so ascribed such importance in galactic affairs when they have fewer people than China.

It's not the concept I would dispute. I think what you're saying about immigration makes a lot of sense. It's the numbers. I get that there are billions of Corellians who don't live on Corellia and populate other worlds--regardless the 3 billion number seems supremely small. And the number of Drall and Selonians are their respective home worlds requires a willing suspension of disbelief.

Like KRKappel said, if you have a different idea, it's your prerogative to make it so in your campaign.

Just curious, what specific consequences do you see happening in your campaign as a result of these population figures?

The ability to avoid having my players ask how Corellia can be so ascribed such importance in galactic affairs when they have fewer people than China.

It's possible that only a small percentage of Corellians actually reside on Corellia, but they still are influenced by the politics of their homeworld.

Population doesn't always equal power though, it actually a liability in some cases. Lots of things can lead to power to say nothing of conscious decisions by governments. Look at China as your example and compare it to Saudi Arabia. China is 50x as populated but only spends 3x as much militarily. The Saudi could snap their fingers and be a nuclear power with their wealth. They have the oil and could easily have a military to match China at 50x less people, who has the significance?

So I'm just reading through my copy of Suns of Fortune today and I noticed something odd that managed to completely jar my understanding and immersion.

Drall has a population of 8 million, 96% Drall. Lets just say 8 million Drall. Selonia has 16 million Selonians. Numbers seem low, but lets go with it.

Corellia. 3 billion population, 60% human, 20% Drall, 20% Selonian. That means Corellia has 600 million Drall and 600 million Selonians. 75 times the population of the Drall homeworld, a rather shy and unadventurous species live on Corellia. 33 times the number of insular Selonians live on Corellia than on their homeworld.

Please tell me I'm not the only one who is going to have to adjust these numbers dramatically to make them make even close sense.

Just swap the population numbers. 600 million on Drall and Selonia, 8 million Drall and 16 million Selonians on Corellia.