Café de Nuit

Jester of the FoS wrote:I noticed that. It was a complaint of Curse of Strahd that they didn't bother to expand the village.
(I think I pushed for doing more with the village of Barovia that year in QtR but was voted down.)

I for one would have loved to see what others came up for that town.

IDEAS


The Village of Barovia was founded by refugees from the old City of Barovia, which was sacked and razed by the Tergs.

Strahd used much of the salvageable masonry from the city ruins to rebuild and greatly expand Castle Ravenloft, and for other projects related to defense and governance.


The Count placed several large chests and sealed wine vats in the cisterns, waste pits, and cellars of the ruined city, filled in the entrances, and then sent out his spies to spread rumors of buried treasure among the Tergs.
Tergs went in. They never came out again.


Barovians avoid the city ruins. Four centuries of utter neglect has covered the remaining building stones of the fallen city in a jungle of scrub, pines, and brambles.
Gypsies say a man who enters the site can hear noises from under the earth, sounds of digging and whispering voices.


----------------

This one gives some village history and local lore, and sets up a dungeon somewhere close to the far side of the ring of choking fog.

EDITED for clarity

Sounds like something Strahd would do, alright.

Jester of the FoS wrote:I noticed that. It was a complaint of Curse of Strahd that they didn't bother to expand the village.
(I think I pushed for doing more with the village of Barovia that year in QtR but was voted down.)

Well, to be fair, when you consider the domain of Barovia from Curse, it already has one 'big' town, Vallaki, so why make a second one? You can roleplay in Vallaki and have the horror in Barovia, letting you 'feel' what Strahd's presence does. I would have liked to have that with more people in the village though, where you can feel the xenophobia and paranoia of the inhabitants.. Much like in the old Vampire movies.
And, they did expand it a litte bit, with Death house. Although I do like the house (I think all maps are really good in the book, many structures are a bit reminiscent of Castle Ravenloft itself, with stairs going up and down and confusing you.), I don't think it belongs in Barovia. Village, or Domain. The look is more like something out of Port-a-Lucine. I imagine Barovia having more 'farmer-like' structures, not these big-city ones..