Yeah making most of the Ravenloft population hollow shades derived from Strahds curse was probably a sound idea to go withWell, this is CoS, which came out a long time before they decided Ravenloft relied on nightmare logic.
One addition that I really liked in Ghosts of Saltmarsh is that the main bridge in Saltmarsh causes Fey to become physically ill when crossing it. Doesn't really do any damage or anything, but, it's very visible. One way to get around shape changers I suppose.Use manpower to build physical barriers ( put them dwarves to work on special commission from the king!)
Use magical power to build physical barriers ( wall of stone, plant walls, force fields)
Use magical power to build magical barriers ( zones of anti monster types such that they feel shocked when crossing the boundary)
An entire troop type dedicated to agriculture guarding ( not just city wall guards but field guards) to protect, possibly in conjunction with one of the other above ideas
or maybe the fields are grown elsewhere ( a regular place on the mountain tops where monsters don’t easily reach, and the transport to civilized lands is magical), or maybe the fields are in a pocket dimension inside a globe thus easily portal and safe on someone’s mantle in their city home …
Well, this is CoS, which came out a long time before they decided Ravenloft relied on nightmare logic.
Yes, but that was because the difference between a village and a town was not the size but if it had a wall or not.
They did decide most of the populace were just empty shells without souls, so this was already starting to become a thing.Well, this is CoS, which came out a long time before they decided Ravenloft relied on nightmare logic.
They made more of an effort in Domains of Dread and the 3rd ed White Wolf products.Snort, yeah, because Ravenloft was always designed to make sense and this is just an issue with current D&D products.
Mostly we were talking about a lack of farmland to feed its population. Of course, since much of the population is fake now, maybe they dont need to eat.So gimme a second. Someone is saying that NuRaveloft makes no sense because we have language issues? Seriously? OK.
They did decide most of the populace were just empty shells without souls, so this was already starting to become a thing.
I get this complaint with a setting like HARN, but never understood it with ravenloft. Also the map has plenty of space for implied farmland. If you look at the maps of settlements many of them have farmland and homesteads and farms while not keyed on the map, are I think presumed to exist. But fundamentally it is a gothic world of dreams and nightmares. Counting grain to make sure the world building achieved some kind of realism just isn’t the genre it belongs to. People can prefer that, they can like it. Some later books veered into (though not by a lot, when you consider that the WW books for example stated that Ravenlift doesn’t have fixed distance (a journey that takes 1 day on Thursday may take 5 on Sunday because the labs is always changing). Even DoD seemed more about creating consistency in terms of tech levels and language—-and bringing in more dark fantasy (but you could still have a domain in the Stone Age next to one in the Renaissance period)Mostly we were talking about a lack of farmland to feed its population. Of course, since much of the population is fake now, maybe they dont need to eat.