The primary masquerade problem of a high-society vampire

[Five]

Generally-speaking, I agree with you both.

Yet at the same time it would be cool to throw a villain at players that has, by all appearances, overcome the inhibitions of their kiss/curse/whatever, and really rock it like an evolutionary step(or two)-up on their former kin.

The absolutely shattered ego, worse than any stake to the heart or sunlight eruption of flesh and bone, should the PCs successfully penetrate and navigate the smoke and mirrors, would or could be one of those awesome campaign moments that gets embedded in the highlight reel.

Or it could be one of those that lands epically-flat, and has you going back to the drawing board with a vengeance...

Failing all that, and at the cost of side-trekking this thread a bit, what if there was an evolutionary superbeast of a vampire? What would it look like? What would be its Achilles' Heel?

I know, I know, you can't place any other vampire higher than Strahd (tch!), but, what if?

Some sort of vampire god; dark lord-culling, world-as-we-know-it-ending threat (screw Azalin!) to Ravenloft?

Sakkoth the Devourer...

Just some food for thought.

[alhoon]

Then I would suggest a domain that has a large city, of 50,000 people, supported by ships of unexplained nature that arrive from the mists with gear, food and slaves etc. with like a population in the rest of the domain of another 50,000 people, spread in a few towns of 2000-3000 people and 100+ villages, spread in 700-1000 square miles.
That way you could have rural aristocracy, small town aristocracy and urban aristocracy

[Mistmaster]

Vampires in original gothic books were not burned by sunlight, only enfeebled.

Hmm... you are right in that. But I was talking more about the setting, where curses are supposed to be strong and crippling.
It is clear many disagree with my views on the feasibility of a socialite vampire in Ravenloft's tiny domains, and that is OK. But that said, even thematically, a vampire in my opinion should face severe issues because of his or her curse, not minor issues.

I strongly agree; the effects of the curse of undeath should not be easily circumvented.

Undeath is not a curse, is a condition.

[alhoon]

Ah, and there we completely disagree.

[Mistmaster]

Then I would suggest a domain that has a large city, of 50,000 people, supported by ships of unexplained nature that arrive from the mists with gear, food and slaves etc. with like a population in the rest of the domain of another 50,000 people, spread in a few towns of 2000-3000 people and 100+ villages, spread in 700-1000 square miles.
That way you could have rural aristocracy, small town aristocracy and urban aristocracy

Yes that is a good suggestion. It is one of the reason the Mistworld is considerably larger and more populated then canon Ravenloft

[alhoon]

Keep in mind that my suggestion has a bunch of people for the rich and the nobles to feel important, and a lot of the production part taken over by those "strange ships" Thus, while you would expect 80% or so of the population to work in food production, Now you have about 40,000 people in that. Thus while you would expect like 4000-6000 rich/noble people in a medieval domain of 100,000 people, with much of the food production "magically outsourced", you can easily go for 10,000-12,000 rich and nobles, 700-1000 of which are in the "very rich" tier and the rest rich enough to be included in activities like a night at the opera here and there or able to afford the clothes required for Lady something's ball etc.
A socialite monster can more easily hide in such a population.