Spis Castle

Just an update on the previous post.  A poke from Nigel, who more than a year ago corrected me about the right name for Zlin in Moravia, drew my attention to a feature that should have been included on my last map:

Spiš Castle has been added to the above, somewhere approximately where it is, atop a low hill not shown on the map.  It is a heritage site, one of the largest castle complexes in Central Europe, believed to have been built in the early 12th century on the site of an earlier fortification. Over the centuries, it underwent numerous expansions, modifications, and renovations. It served as the political, administrative, economic, and cultural center of the region.  There's plenty of information about it.  The castle suffered a devastating fire in the 18th century and thereafter ceased to be occupied.

So why, if the castle existed in the 17th century, at the time of my game world, is it a ruin?  This is going to sound silly, but it's because when I randomly generated the hex, it wound up being a type-7.  The 20-mile hex that it's a part of has an infrastructure (inf.) of 171, which broke down into two type-1s (Iglo and Locse), a type-2 (Zavadka), a type-4 (Svedlar) and three type-7s.  Each type-1 counts for 64 inf., the type-2 for 32 inf., the type-4 for 8 inf. and each type-7 for 1 inf. each.

The two type-1s are automatically assigned to the settlements, about which I've explained, and the other five hexes were assigned randomly.  If the type-2 or the type-4 were assigned to Spis Castle's hex, I'd be changing the town/village name to "Spis" and the castle would be functional and fully staffed.  But the hex generator selected a type-7 for that hex, which would be farmland and a little thorpe of about 15 people.  If Spis had been designated on the encyclopedia map that forms the basis for my game design, it would now be a type-1 or a type-2 for certain.  But it isn't, because the numbers rolled against it ...

I could countermand the random selection and reverse Svedlar's hex ... but once you start doing that with a generative system, it never stops, and the line just creeps all over.  I prefer to say, "This is a D&D world, there's magic, something happened to Spis castle before it had a chance to burn down in the 18th century.  This makes it an interesting ruin for the players to investigate, along with the abandoned village of Spis (which also would have been there before this became a ruin), next to some tiny collection of farmers that live in the shadow of the wrecked castle.

That works great for me, should I ever want to give reason for players to go here, and it works great for the reader, who can build a low level campaign by starting players in the town of Iglo, just 13 miles west of the ruined castle.