D&D 5E SKT - Yakfolk Village makes no sense.

[THEMNGMNT]

In my campaign I rekeyed this map. I removed any/all slaves, turned the yakfolk into hobgoblins, and added a few fire giants. Basically, it was the first line of defense for Ironslag.

 

[twofalls]

I considered rewriting it all too.

 

[Ancalagon]

So you clearly missed the fact that this realm was a magical environment that wasn't required to work "normally".

I think you're missing my point.

I am totally fine with a segment of Ravenloft being forever winter. The Dark Lords, or the curse affecting them, is very powerful.

What I am puzzled is why this curse had no impact. Forever winter/snow = no vegetation growth = famine = (eventually) death.

 

[Ancalagon]

In Ravenloft it doesn't matter, it the ultimate "a wizard [Dark Powers] did it" by design.

It's a simulation set to run on infinite repeat to torture the resident Darklord.

How can village X actually feed and maintain it's population if the countryside beyond the walls are crawling with so many Horrors?

They actually can't! The Dark Power just make everybody unable to see it.

So the miller's boy is killed and eaten by wolves. The whole village is horrified. The a few weeks later the miller's boy awakes in his bed in the morning, starts his daily chores like usual and later their family meager meal is interrupted by the terrible news that the smith's daughter has been killed and eaten by wolves. The whole village is .....

Repeat forever .....

Ok, so it's some sort of slow motion horror version of groundhog day. Despite 2-3 years in Ravenloft as a player, this was never made apparent to us. The GM certainly didn't react like I had stumbled upon a strange mystery about this land, and exactly like I had pointed out a lame plothole.

Furthermore, if this is a simulation, why are the PCs even there?

It's ok to have things not work "normally". But just saying "a wizard did it!" as an excuse to not bother with verisimilitude is... kinda lame.

 

[twofalls]

Verisimilitude.
Thank you, I was searching for this word and my cancer riddled brain just couldn't produce it.

 

[Ancalagon]

Verisimilitude.
Thank you, I was searching for this word and my cancer riddled brain just couldn't produce it.

Glad I could help! ... and best wishes for your health.

 

[EscherEnigma]

I was expecting the complaint to be about Yakfolk themselves. I was all ready with "think of them as an off-shoot of minotaurs". And here it is, complaining about the weather.

To which I have to say... eh. It's the Forgotten Realms. Their geography regularly rearranges in their scheduled apocalypses. If as a GM I had a player question it, I'd probably come up with an off-the-cuff response with "it made sense when they settled here. That was a few apocalypses ago. Now they're just stubborn."

 

[QuentinGeorge]

In Ravenloft it doesn't matter, it the ultimate "a wizard [Dark Powers] did it" by design.

It's a simulation set to run on infinite repeat to torture the resident Darklord.

How can village X actually feed and maintain it's population if the countryside beyond the walls are crawling with so many Horrors?

They actually can't! The Dark Power just make everybody unable to see it.

So the miller's boy is killed and eaten by wolves. The whole village is horrified. The a few weeks later the miller's boy awakes in his bed in the morning, starts his daily chores like usual and later their family meager meal is interrupted by the terrible news that the smith's daughter has been killed and eaten by wolves. The whole village is .....

Repeat forever .....

The domain in question, Vorostokov (I think) is most likely not even 30 years old. Most Ravenloft domains have "false history", where the long past that the inhabitants think they remember never actually happened.

(Darkon takes this up to the max - the domain literally rewrites its inhabitants family trees so that they think their family has lived there time immemorial, even if they only moved there a year ago).

 

[twofalls]

I was expecting the complaint to be about Yakfolk themselves. I was all ready with "think of them as an off-shoot of minotaurs". And here it is, complaining about the weather.

To which I have to say... eh. It's the Forgotten Realms. Their geography regularly rearranges in their scheduled apocalypses. If as a GM I had a player question it, I'd probably come up with an off-the-cuff response with "it made sense when they settled here. That was a few apocalypses ago. Now they're just stubborn."

I suppose you could claim that I'm complaining, but the manner in which you say so lacks any charity. I'm looking for a solution to a problem that I perceive, and I do not insist that anyone else consider it a problem. I received some good ideas here, which I'm grateful for.

 

[twofalls]

The domain in question, Vorostokov (I think) is most likely not even 30 years old. Most Ravenloft domains have "false history", where the long past that the inhabitants think they remember never actually happened.

(Darkon takes this up to the max - the domain literally rewrites its inhabitants family trees so that they think their family has lived there time immemorial, even if they only moved there a year ago).

I actually really like this, it adds to the horror aspect of the story considerably imho.