D&D 5E [CoS] Ecology and Economy of Ravenloft/Barovia

Mirtek · May 1, 2018

In Ravenloft the answer truly is "a wizard did it", except that it's "the Dark Powers did it"

There is no functional ecology and there doesn't need to be one. The DP just reset certain thing from time to time.

The miller's boy is eaten by wolves, the village is in horror and mourns and one day the boy wakes up in the morning in his bed, has breakfast with his family and goes on with his daily routine as if nothing ever happened. Next week the smith's girl might get eaten by wolves and the village is in horror and mourns and .....

There's no question as to what all the predators in the woods eat and how the villagers are supposed to sustain their population with all these untimely deaths. It is a simulation and the DP keep working.

Pauper · May 1, 2018

Mirtek said:
In Ravenloft the answer truly is "a wizard did it", except that it's "the Dark Powers did it".

Note that this answer works great if you want the underlying reality to reflect the AD&D/D&D 3E Ravenloft campaign setting lore.

However, there have been persistent rumors that the Hickmans were never fond of the Ravenloft campaign setting. Chris Perkins, in designing Curse of Strahd, has changed enough of the details of the setting (for the purpose of creating a "blood-stained love letter to the Hickmans", in his words) so that the foundational lore of the Ravenloft setting doesn't really apply -- Perkins defines the Dark Powers, for example, as just as much prisoners of Barovia as Strahd himself.

There are lots of ways to use the lore of the campaign setting to justify the current state of Barovia -- you've done so yourself. I'm just not sure how much of that lore remains applicable to the version of Barovia presented in Curse of Strahd.

The Barovia of Curse of Strahd is not a world that exists outside of the story presented in the adventure. In this, Curse of Strahd is not that different from the other hardcover 5E adventures, which are far more interested in presenting their locations as suitable for a specific adventure story than they are in presenting them as functioning, vibrant worlds where many different adventures can take place.

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Pauper

Pauper · May 1, 2018

GlassJaw said:
Lately I've been looking more closely at quests hooks, NPC motivations, and the inner workings of the towns and villagers. One thing I've always been fascinated with but also rather perplexed by is how a region like Barovia "functions".

Sounds like what you want is the old 3.5-era sourcebook Ravenloft Gazetteer Volume I, published by Swords & Sorcery Studios. (I'd link to the DM's Guild, but the Ravenloft Gazetteers don't appear to be on the DMs Guild yet.)

There are specific sections on the flora and fauna of Barovia, the people, the society, etc. A lot of the stuff you seem to want to have more information on. Unfortunately, as I noted with the changes from 3.5E to 5E Barovia, not all of this information is necessarily usable 'as written', but much of the geographical, cultural, and environment info should at least be salvageable if not usable out-of-the-book. (Not to mention that it gives you a peek into the kinds of stories that are possible if you treat environments as locations where adventures can occur rather than places designed to tell a specific adventure story.)

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Pauper

Aiden_Keller_ · Oct 31, 2018

Sir_Lancian said:
Great analogy in relation to the "simulation" approach. My thinking has taken a very similar direction and indeed one of my players actually remarked during one session as they arrived at the vineyard and Davian told them the last of the gems got taken three days ago, "Of course it did, that's when we arrived". I have done nothing but bolster their thinking that somehow their arrival and presence has been fundamentally tied to the heightened level of misery being inflicted upon the inhabitants of the valley - an idea that time doesn't function logically in Barovia and that the events they're experiencing are not taking place at present in the true sense of the word.

And, to continue your thinking, my take on the Abbot is that he knows this. He also knows that these events have occurred before and will occur again after Strahd is defeated. The best the PCs can hope for is to bring some respite to the evils of the land for a generation or two before the mists roll in again. The PCs haven't met him yet but when they do, I will play him as a version of the matrix "architect".

Just finished rewatching the entire Matrix trilogy...love this idea!

epithet · Nov 1, 2018

Remember the movie Excalibur? "You and the land are one, my king." Strahd says "I am the ancient, I am the land."

Strahd and Barovia are linked, and so for Barovia, like for Strahd, blood is life. That's why adventurers are drawn in through the mists... not just because Strahd is bored, but because Barovia hungers. When Strahd lies dormant for decades, it falls upon the coven of witches and the druids of Yester Hill to make sacrifices of blood and souls to ensure the crops grow and the harvest is adequate, otherwise the land withers. When Strahd feeds, the land blossoms. Every man, woman, and child in Barovia is sustained by carnage. Only the Wizard of Wines vineyard, with the magic thingies, produced a harvest untainted by the essence of death, which is why the wine is the sole source of joy for so many Barovians--it is life (like blood) untainted by death.

Dispense with the notion that crops cannot grow. The trees grow just fine, after all. Barovia's bounty will nourish the body well enough, but leaves the soul wanting.