I still do not fully understand Ravenloft..

[Nox]

Hi all,
I was curious and I just took a look at the "expedition to Castle ravenloft" module.

Untill now I was playing ravenloft much like a normal dark-fantasy game/sandbox (even if I was following a plot), in which the true identity of darklords were hidden and hard to find out, and the player character don't know much about the true nature of the land even if they are all native.

In this adventure is quite clear that Strahd is evil, every villagers is afraid of him, burgomaster build town defenses, try to protect his people from the evil vampire, and so on.. They don't have knowledge about dark lord and so on, but they do definitely know that he is a vampire and he is evil. The rest of the land of Barovia knows it as well? Do the Count have limited influence on his domain (in the adventure there is a plot to bring kolyanna to Vallaki), or is it just a misunderstanding?

So questions come spontaneous: do the villagers of other land know the truth about their lords? Do they figure out what their ruler (not necessarily dark lords) are?

In the strahd's castle there are no normal folks? Only monsters and strahd himself?

Final question:
All the darklords act like this? For example: the region I know the best is Invidia. Malocchio lives in Castle loupet, and his mother in Castle hunadora , right? Their castles are defended by human, or Am I wrong? Those humans are aware of what malocchio does and what it is? Because if they are, all the population should be aware of it (since people talks..).

I know malocchio has access to ogres and other monstrosities, but his castle is much like the strahd one or is totally divergent?

Thanks in advance, and sorry for the bunch load of questions!

[thekristhomas]

My understanding is that EtCR is stand alone, and not really tied to the setting overall.

That being said the people of the village of Barovia are generally portrayed as having awareness of at least part of Strahd's nature, I would suggest that as they are also generally trapped within Strahd's choking fog, that this general awareness isn't passed on much outside that isolated village.

How you approach the situation of how much every body knows is very much up to you, the approach you describe seems spot on to me

[Gonzoron of the FoS]

Yeah, what you're seeing is the difference between Ravenloft the setting and Ravenloft the adventure. EtCR (like House of Strahd before it, and Curse of Strahd after it) is a remake of the original I6: Ravenloft adventure, which, while groundbreaking in many ways, is still a somewhat old-fashioned dungeon crawl. Storm the castle, fight your way to the Big Bad Evil Guy and kill him.

The Ravenloft setting tempered that, as it made the setting into a live-able place. But every time they remake the original adventure, they make it reflect the original feel and not the setting feel. Sounds like your view of Invidia is pretty spot on, as far as the setting goes. Though, in deference to the original module, even in the setting materials Barovia remains one of the places where most people know Strahd as a figurative "devil", even if they don't know he's a darklord, or even a vampire. But even there, he doesn't keep many, if any, normal human servants in his castle.

Ultimately, it's up to you how you want to run things, but for a long-term campaign in the setting, it's probably best to keep most of the populace in the dark. Malocchio is known as a cruel ruler, surely, and one who uses ogres and other unsavory things in his employ, but most probably don't know about his supernatural powers, and certainly don't know what he is on a creature-type level, nor his detailed backstory.

[Skyrock]

Others have already mentioned it, but I think it deserves repeating: EtCR is a very different beast from the Ravenloft campaign settings, and contradicts it in several points (like with the halfling vistani).

I tend not to beat around the bush about the type of the darklords if they are public figures. What does it change if the mud-smeared peasants of the village of Barovia know that Strahd is a vampire? They are not going to be able to do much about him. They are mud-smeared peasants, after all, who have no effective means to deal with Strahd and could be crushed with a wave of his hands if they got into his way. Further away within Barovia, knowledge of Strahd’s nature may be sketchier and less reliable.
Darklords that exist in obscurity without also having the temporal rule (like Adam in Lamordia) or for whom it is central to move among their prey unsuspected (like Harkon Lucas in Kartakass) of course aren’t public knowledge.
What absolutely isn’t public knowledge is the concept of darklords.

[Hamiclar]

I would use the module as early Borovia, its not really fitting to the setting. I plan on using this with house on Gryphon Hill afterwards and further down the line house of Strahd. I really did not like the vistani in the book but look at it that they were cursed with the heroes lifting with the slaying of the green and sea hag. Later to return as they are today with other tribes soon following as other lands joined the mists. The book does have its perks, i'm running the GC campaign currently and going to run after feast of Goblyns with the heroes sent back in time.

Regarding the public appearance Strahd has shown what he is but the public doesn't want to believe this. If you have the Feast of Goblyns check out the wolf in Kartakass a man could turn into a beast and people would turn away or would not acknowledge the beast.

[Nox]

Thanks all for the clarifications!

[The Lesser Evil]

I think there's no question the majority of the population believe Strahd is evil. He's known as "the Devil Strahd". He allies with and protects the Vistani, an ethnic group that the Barovians largely feel antipathy towards. IIRC, they think the current Strahd may be a user of black magic of some kind and maybe extended his life, but they don't know he is the original Strahd nor that he is a vampire by the setting lore. Strahd has never been shy about using fear to keep his subjects in line, though he is mostly hands off and rules through his boyars. (The "original" Strahd is remembered in something of a good light- to which the later Strahds were a pale comparison to.)

If other darklords behave similarly will depend upon their nature. Vlad Drakov is the most glaring example- he rules through fear (though he also does evoke fear of foreigners.) Drakov openly impales people in the town squares, and his army, particularly the Talons, are usually depicted as making no special efforts to hide their brutality. Lord Soth, Vecna, Kas, Urik von Kharkov, Gundar, Bakholis, and Arijani are all examples of other examples of tyrant type figures whom have led similarly openly cruel regimes. Malocchio is slightly more nuanced. His men are given the right to judge and execute supposed criminals on the spot. And he openly courts an alliance with Falkovnia, bringing in Falkovnia's troops to accompany his own personal minions. However, Malocchio has also made efforts to go a step beyond ruling through fear. He created a group of counselors and advisors among the nobility mostly to generate the appearance of populist rule. In addition, he keeps his stranger minions like ogres and other monsters away from town centers.