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

[Coroc]

Coroc, I agree with your views as it's the one I started this thread on, but I have to disagree that it isn't a play style issue. It's not really important what you call it in the end, different groups take different approaches to gaming. When I was a child (no offence intended by this comparison) I hardly cared about stuff like this, however I found as I grew older that incongruencies caused a disruption in the way the world was supposed to make sense to me, and I found it damaged my experience when other DMs failed to make their worlds sensible when I played under them, so my style changed to reflect that. If another group isn't bothered by it, hey, good for them I say.

i understand you and the other posters with similar opinion. Of course a game can work just fine, if you take the environment like the background of some simple scrolling computer game, one of these were you cannot interact with the "environment", even if you wanted to.
But for me a ttop always beats computer games because there are no godsends , i got unlimited freedom on what i can interact with, and therefore i am always interested also in details that would not bother me in a computer game, especially when something is odd.

 

[Coroc]

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 .....

i do not know if this is official lore or taken from some discussion about if it is ok to slaughter innocent civilians in ravenloft, since they are no real people anyway.
it might be like that in some domains to explain inconsistencies, but it is imho no general principle of the setting.

 

[Ancalagon]

But for me a ttop always beats computer games because there are no godsends , i got unlimited freedom on what i can interact with, and therefore i am always interested also in details that would not bother me in a computer game, especially when something is odd.

Exactly. A lot of games have an element of mystery to them. Not necessarily like "who committed this murder?!?!", but more like limited information. The orcs have been acting strange, are they planning an attack? If so, where. These brigands are really well equipped, why? Why is the local priest uttering blasphemy?

When faced with such a situation, players who are engaged try to find more. And then they start piecing clues together. Sometimes they get it wrong - and that's ok. We are all human, we make mistakes, and so do heroes! But it's a lot of fun to uncover the mystery, to make connection, to move closer to the truth. Or heck, get it wrong and mount an assault on what turned out to be an abandoned ruins that... no one is using

But it really really sucks when next to no effort was put into verisimilitude, because then nothing is certain. Anything weird could be part of the plot OR lazy writing. And you can't rely on logic to find weaknesses in the enemy because ... well the writer never bothered with things like "the brigands need supplies".

 

[Zardnaar]

Perma winter is really just the arctic and antarctica.

Even the far north in Siberia gets a brief summer and that's enough for the flora and fauna.

 

[Flamestrike]

My players aren't children, no one would storm out, or even question it most likely, however we are all educated professionals and it would be noticed even if not commented upon. Making believable environments the norm helps with accepting those things that aren't the norm (fighting inside a volcano, or an ice cavern) when the time comes and makes them feel extraordinary because the world that they are in usually makes sense. This is the expectation I have created in my game, and I've found that it works very well.

The Yakfolk's God does it. Magic.

Done.

 

[Coroc]

The Yakfolk's God does it. Magic.

Done.

Nah i thought we cleared that up already, the fire giants below do it. But that's not the point of the discussion atm.

 

[twofalls]

Anyone can write a simple explanation Flamestrike. If that works for you, bully. However it doesn't for me and I have what I need from this conversation. Thanks.

 

[Scott Christian]

There is - a huge fire giant settlement directly below.

But beyond that, neither my players nor I are going to stop play to dig around to find pertinent weather data to ensure that the setting is 100% climatically valid. What purpose does it serve? How does that increase fun at the table? The assumption will be that they have enough heat and food through some relatively normal means, or else the settlement wouldn't be there. The hows and whys are, for the most part, immaterial, and, bluntly, would bring play to a screeching halt for no purpose. Should there be something abnormal going on, then the DM will drop hints that something is off, which will clue in the players that something odd is going on. Beyond that, normal means is assumed to be the default, and, thus, unnecessary to be investigated.

I find the needed rationale interesting.

I think DM's, who are world builders in need of logical reasons much more often than players. There are some players that will question this, but I think their motivation is different. It seems to come more from (at least for me) a need to "look for clues." And when something is unnatural, then that might be a clue.

 

[Scott Christian]

Anyone can write a simple explanation Flamestrike. If that works for you, bully. However it doesn't for me and I have what I need from this conversation. Thanks.

I would add that the slaves could be hauled up there. Maybe taken from the Sea of Moving Ice? In Rise of Tiamat, there are many villages that float around. Perhaps a year ago or several years ago there was an organized raid on one of those villages? That would give them fifty to a hundred slaves.

Just throwing some ideas out there.

 

[wingsandsword]

I, for one, would be bothered by this. I remember, many many years ago, we did a 2nd ed Ravenloft module in a domain where it was "always winter" - for the last 30 years. I immediately challenged it (I was a bit of a hothead back then) pointing out that if it had been winter for 30 years, everyone would have died of starvation. The GM was not amused.

The answer to that is: it's Ravenloft.

It's the Demiplane of Dread, it's a planar realm where a group of beings, that are collectively of Overpower strength, create individual domains specifically to torment the Dark Lord of the domain, and everything else is a tool to that end.

Nobody really complains that the sun NEVER shines in Barovia, but that would be the same way. Just somehow, some way, the crops there keep producing at least enough to keep the people alive, but suffering, because it prolongs Strahd's torment.

I would be bothered if that happened on a normal material plane world, but in Ravenloft it's just emphasizing the weird and supernatural nature of the place.