Café de Nuit

DocBeard wrote:You could run a whole campaign on Strahd's reawakened ambition and its consequences; the militarization of the crossroads of the core, clashes with Mallochio, the Borcians, and searches for the lost families running Markovia and G'henna could take Barovian agents across the Core and beyond.

That sounds really cool. It also really brings back the focus to the man who started it all, making him a larger inter-domain player.

One tricky thing with conquest in Ravenloft is domain borders. Anyone who can close the borders has a significant defensive tactic that can more or less halt an invasion. However, there are certainly limitations in some cases. For instance, Hazlik has to focus on a ritual to keep the borders closed, so he can't repulse an army or cut off its supply chain for long enough to do much good. Also, if anyone is smart enough to shape tactics in anticipation of border closures, it would be Strahd.

As an aside, things could get pretty interesting if there were more domains whose borders didn't line up with political boundaries. An overlap between a darklord's influence and a separate sovereign realm could have fascinating consequences.

Wolfglide wrote:As an aside, things could get pretty interesting if there were more domains whose borders didn't line up with political boundaries. An overlap between a darklord's influence and a separate sovereign realm could have fascinating consequences.

This is an idea that has always intrigued me. I'm surprised I've never seen any attempt to explore it. There are darklords that don't give a hoot about political power and wouldn't even mind. Whether through conquest or otherwise, I'd love to see a place where the domain borders and the political borders don't line up (apart from pocket domains).

Gonzoron of the FoS wrote:This is an idea that has always intrigued me. I'm surprised I've never seen any attempt to explore it. There are darklords that don't give a hoot about political power and wouldn't even mind. Whether through conquest or otherwise, I'd love to see a place where the domain borders and the political borders don't line up (apart from pocket domains).

This was a (very minor) feature of my last campaign on the site. At one point Strahd commissioned a PC with a letter signed "Count Regnant and Prince without Peer of Barovia, Gundarak and Environs, Master of the Wolfwood and High Thane of the Forfarian Marches"--in other words, he claims Barovia (including the former Gundarak), Verbrek, Forlorn and everything in Invidia and Kartakass that isn't nailed down. Similarly, at the other end of the Core, Azalin claims Lamordia, Sanguinia and Vorostokov (situated north of Darkon proper for campaign purposes).

I like the idea that Azalin started snatching territories the second Strahd did out of sheer pettiness.