Wouldnt it kinda destroy the whole idea of "being in middle of nowhere"?
You're absolutely right about it being the middle of nowhere. That's the whole point.
There are ruins about in the middle of nowhere, and monsters, like the hag and the band of goblins that's currently being kept together by three powerful leaders.
Other than that, there's an old grove of druids. They're unsocial. Many of them long to retreat from the world entirely, to be encased inside a wall of vines and thorns.
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Regarding the roads... roads often go through the middle of nowhere to get from somewhere to somewhere else. That's how roads work. And these roads are pretty rough. Bridge destroyed, toll house overrun.
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There's a small oasis where community tried to establish itself. A place of rest for weary travelers in the middle of nowhere. It got burned down.
Out here, things are wild.
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The map is obviously condensed.
Yes, if you timed the walk from the grove to the goblin camp--without stopping along the way--it might be a couple minutes. And yes, it's vaguely funny to point out that the goblin camp is closer to the druid grove than the gas station is from your house.
But we all know better. There's an implied distance here, and getting from point A to point B so fast is really a matter of our convenience. If it weren't the case, then there'd be even more complaints about that.
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The problem some people are really having is that they never got the chance to feel grounded.
It's not that the middle of nowhere *should* have farmland and taverns behind walls. It's that they want farmland and taverns, to feel grounded and connected to humanity.
Out here, there be goblins and hags. There are tiefling refugees, which hint of humanity, but ultimately aren't human. Not with their horns and tails, and besides, let's face it, the tieflings are anything but grounded. They only serve to reinforce our feeling that nothing's stable.
The druids are antisocial, wild and magical, and not at all suitable for grounding purposes.
So. It's natural that someone might want a farm. That someone might want a small plot about established neighbors feuding with each other. Some sense of normalcy amidst the chaos, because maybe it's that normalcy that the PC is truly fighting for, underneath all the flavor and fluff and background notes.
