Subject: MYSTARA-L Digest - 21 Jul 2002 to 22 Jul 2002 (#2002-189) From: Automatic digest processor Date: 23/07/2002, 17:00 To: Recipients of MYSTARA-L digests Reply-to: Mystara RPG Discussion There are 6 messages totalling 253 lines in this issue. Topics of the day: 1. 2nd Mystaran Meeting held in Milano, Italy 2. Vault of Pandius website (3) 3. Mystaran Almanac: AC1018 Events (Nayce Unity) 4. Mystaran Almanac: AC1018 Events (a short review) ******************************************************************** The Other Worlds Homepage: http://www.wizards.com/dnd/OtherWorlds.asp The Mystara Homepage: http://www.dnd.starflung.com/ To unsubscribe, send email to LISTSERV@ORACLE.WIZARDS.COM with UNSUB MYSTARA-L in the body of the message. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 22 Jul 2002 09:26:33 +0200 From: Giampaolo Agosta Subject: Re: 2nd Mystaran Meeting held in Milano, Italy Geoff Gander wrote: > > I would be *very* interested in knowing the gist of what you guys said > about all those topics. Would it be possible for you to paraphrase what > was said or decided? Other people on the list might be interested, and it > could be fodder for an adventure idea or two. :) I think we weren't that creative :) > The Second Week Without Magic We discussed the various incoherences among the sources, regarding both weeks without magic, like Immortal Magic going down for a while, but without any visible effect on several pieces of immortal magic, etc. One proposed solution is to have just the first week, with the loss of mortal magic (and perhaps some hampering of certain types of immortal powers), while the second week would be blocked by the absorption of Rad's life energy in the NoS. > Balancing the Mystic The OD&D Mystic is quite weak at low levels, then it is overpowered around its maximum level, and stops progressing at 16th level, so that at higher levels it is still too weak. Basically, it is playable just at expert levels. DM has a variant Mystic class worked out in the standard 36 level which can solve the problem. > Eriadna's Death The reason given for Eriadna's death doesn't seem to work: the author ignores the fact that certain permanent effects of spells and magic items are non-magical, and non-dispellable. Longevity potions, e.g., are not dispellable, so it is not clear why Eriadna should die of old age. Note that there are plenty of ways to get rid of a powerless magic user trapped in a sinking city, from "crushed under a collapsing wall" to "drowned". Second point of our discussion was the succession line to Eriadna. Apart from Zandor, there seem to be no other magic-using heir in the Outer World. > The Resurrection Spell Why do PCs get resurrected while important NPCs stay dead? There is no true solution: one can only restrict access to resurrection spells to the PCs. > Mystarans in Ravenloft Two of us (myself and DM) have Ravenloft campaigns as well as Mystaran campaigns. Topics discussed include Mystaran darklords in Ravenloft, nature of the demiplane of Dread in the OD&D cosmology, relative power level of the setting, feasibility of high level characters from Mystara in a Ravenloft campaign. > Hasbro's and TSR's marketing policies A discussion of the "cruch vs fluff" topic, and its impact on TSR's demise and current WotC policies. The only Mystara-related topic was about bringing Mystara beck in print--which ended with the recognition of the unfeasibility of the idea. > Pronouncing "Nithia" & "Thothia" (that was the weakest thread, I admit) Some of us pronouce those names as they would read in Italian ('toh-tee-ah, 'nee-tee-ah, more or less), others use the pronounciation suggested in the module, Talons of Night. > Outer Beings and Nithia What did the Nithian do to anger the Immortals that much? Got some secret about opening the gates to the OB's prison dimension? Got some knowledge of Blackmoorian tech (unlikely)? > Almanacs and other ongoing projects Our projects, basically complaning about the lack of spare time to bring them on... So, that's what we discussed this saturday, more or less. Bye, -- Giampaolo Agosta agathokles@libero.it agosta@elet.polimi.it http://digilander.iol.it/agathokles ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 22 Jul 2002 00:58:31 -0700 From: Herve Musseau Subject: Re: Vault of Pandius website Yep, and thus neither does almanac.starflung.com (sorry for those who hadn't downloaded the Events yet). I hope this is only temporary, I didn't receive any word from the server/domain's owner. Maybe it is just a server problem, or maybe the server was shut down for summer break. I hope it isn't a dot-com closing business (does anybody know what starflung originally is? I tried www.starflung.com once, and got no response IIRC). > From: Dan Wallace > I also noticed mystara3e.starflung.com isn't working either so it seems to > be a problem with the domain server and not the website in particular. > From: "Chris Furneaux" > > --- Bleakcabal wrote: > > > Yeah it doesn't seem to work, what's worst I have > > > had 2 emails to shawn stanley bounced ! > > > --- Dan Wallace wrote: > > > >Has anybody been able to get on the Vault of > > > Pandius website? I haven't all= > > > > weekend. Anybody know what's wrong? > > I havn't been able to connect either. And the news > > server is down too I noticed. ===== ___________________________________________________________ Herve Musseau http://www.geocities.com/hmusseau/ __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Health - Feel better, live better http://health.yahoo.com ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 22 Jul 2002 06:42:51 EDT From: Alex Benson Subject: Re: Mystaran Almanac: AC1018 Events (Nayce Unity) > As for the concept of NACE itself, if I ever run a Mystaran campaign, I > know I won't have it nearly as united as it seems to be in the Almanacs. > I personally would make it structured more like the real-world CIS > (Commonwealth of Independent States, i.e. the former USSR republics). I just want to add to Stalker's follow up response...which I did not include with the above for brevity sake. I want to remind everyone that Nayce is a confederacy composed of multiple kingdoms. The chaotic and fragmented council has little direct bearing upon the individual kingdoms. To paraphrase a RL term into Mystara terms..."the Council may be in disarray, but they are still growing grain in Notrion". This means, that life goes on in each of the individual kingdoms. And that can have its strengths and weaknesses. See, Nayce is a governing body with rather weak powers over the collective kingdoms. It's purpose is to oversee the collective member kingdoms and give them a common voice and banner to stand behind. At the same time, the kingdoms run themselves with very little input from the Nayce Council. Council involvement involves overall defense beyond the capabilities of single kingdoms, financial aid, and trade agreements (foriegn and domestic). It's very different from say Thyatis and its centralized government. That said, while the council may be embroilled in arguments over what to argue about, the individual kingdoms go on with their everyday lives. The kingdoms just lack the overall weight of all the Nayce member kingdoms. However, given that the Council cannot agree on anything, they really aren't losing much weight. In fact, I would think the troubles within Council would promote the kingdoms setting up agreements without the guidance of the Council. For example, the trade agreement between Notrion and Veroth or the Treaty of Bellisarius. The situation is bad in Nayce Lands and the Council is not helping. In fact, I would not put it past the kingdoms to demand some order or threaten to leave the Confederacy. Afterall membership is costing them in taxes and troops. What are they getting in return. I offer Notrion as an example, who is having trouble making its tribute to the Nayce coffers. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 22 Jul 2002 18:20:23 +0300 From: Solmyr Subject: Re: Mystaran Almanac: AC1018 Events (a short review) The Stalker wrote: > > It looks that united to you? That's a problem because I don't think that > was the intention. On the surface, yes, but beneath that Nayce is > threatening to break apart all the time... Favian vs. Karszamon vs. > Verothrics and all the squabbling rulers with Underocean causing further > havoc on top of that... Nayce has not lived long, and one intention this > year was to show that this 'united confederation' is threatening to tear > itself apart as everybody struggle for power... Or as Star Wars' Senator > Palpatine would say, "There is no interest in the common good!" That seemed > very true to me. > Yes, well, admittedly I haven't followed the latest Alphatian events very closely, but sure, the Nayce is always "threatening to break apart", but never does. Meanwhile, Thyatis, a far more centralized and efficiently governed nation, breaks apart all the time. -- ********** Aleksei Andrievski solmyr@kolumbus.fi World of Enothril website - http://enothril.topcities.com/ The Archmage's Tower - http://www.geocities.com/solmyr.geo/ "War does not determine who is right. War determine who is left." ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 22 Jul 2002 13:03:29 -0700 From: Chris Furneaux Subject: Re: Vault of Pandius website > > I havn't been able to connect either. And the news > > server is down too I noticed. The vaults appear to be working again, at least from where I am. > What are the details of that news server (location, > etc.)? > I lost that information a while back when I gave up > on the > newsgroups there for lack of activity. If it has > now become > active, I would very much like to rejoin it if it > has become > active The news server isn't very active, but occationally someone posts something so I check it once in a while. The address is news.dnd.starflung.com and The newsgroups are starflung.dnd and starflung.dnd.trade If you are after the address in future it is on the links page at starflung (which you obviously couldn't get to at the time) Chris. __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Health - Feel better, live better http://health.yahoo.com ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 23 Jul 2002 07:12:15 +1000 From: shawn stanley Subject: Re: Vault of Pandius website At 16:46 21/07/02 -0700, Bleakcabal wrote: > Yeah it doesn't seem to work, what's worst I have had 2 emails to shawn stanley bounced ! it seems to work from here, and I'm still here shawn stanley what have you done for me lately ... more to the point what have i done for me - mightyfew, "i can't wait" ------------------------------ End of MYSTARA-L Digest - 21 Jul 2002 to 22 Jul 2002 (#2002-189) ****************************************************************