Subject: MYSTARA-L Digest - 3 Nov 2002 to 4 Nov 2002 (#2002-287) From: Automatic digest processor Date: 05/11/2002, 19:00 To: Recipients of MYSTARA-L digests Reply-to: Mystara RPG Discussion There are 7 messages totalling 232 lines in this issue. Topics of the day: 1. 2. Essential Reading (3) 3. Cult of Balthac 4. Blackmoor monsters 5. Hey all! ******************************************************************** 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, 4 Nov 2002 09:10:37 +0100 From: Peter Balazs Subject: Hi! > What, in anyone's opinion, is "required reading" for getting a feel for > the Known World? I'd say, if you have to choose a single product to get the feeling of Mystara, take one of the PWAs. (Poor Wizard Alamanac). MSc. Peter Balazs Acoustics Research Institute Austrian Academy of Science ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 4 Nov 2002 10:49:43 +0100 From: =?iso-8859-1?q?la=20Volpe?= Subject: Re: Essential Reading I'd suggest FIVE products: 1) Gaz1, GrandDuchy of Karameikos 2) Gaz3, Principalities of Glantri 3) Dawn of the Emperors boxed set 4) Wrath of the Immortals 5) Hollow World Gaz1 has Karameikos, the starting point for all adventures set in Mystara. Most B-modules and several X modules are set there. Gaz3 is one of the best Mystara products. It has a lot of appeal, characters, magic schools etc. DotE details Alphatia, Thyatis, Norwold, Isle of Dawn, and provides a very detailed history of the two lands. This means, almost, the history of the Known World, as Ierendi, Karameikos, Glantri, Ylaruam at least were influenced by the two empires. It has also very useful maps. Hollow World is useful because it has a lot of historical details for the setting. If you own DotE and HW, you know almost all the history of the Known World (ok, you may miss some details, but nothing important). It also provides a look at the dead Mystaran cultures. However, it's the least important of these five products, at least in my opinion. Wrath of the Immortals sets the world in motion and provides info on all gods. Even if you are not interested in the campaign events, it's very useful for these Immortal-related informations. It also has useful maps. ===== Iulius Sergius Scaevola Captain of the XXth Cohort Port Lucinius, Thyatis "We poor few forged as brothers in this furnace will emerge as the steel of future generations" -- from "Legionary's Prayers", by Ionaos Nolan ______________________________________________________________________ Mio Yahoo!: personalizza Yahoo! come piace a te http://it.yahoo.com/mail_it/foot/?http://it.my.yahoo.com/ ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 4 Nov 2002 10:55:02 +0100 From: Jacob Skytte Subject: Re: Essential Reading Falconer wrote: > What, in anyone's opinion, is "required reading" for getting a feel = for > the Known World? Which products are essential and central parts of the > common culture of Mystara fans? (Assume that out-of-print is no = problem.) Since you said "the Known World", I'll try not to focus on stuff such as = the Savage Coast, Norwold, the Isle of Dawn, Alphatia and the Hollow = World, which are settings outside "the Known World." Most of those = settings are either a patchwork of adventure modules or covered in very = few products. The best overview you can get is a Poor Wizard's Almanac (which also = covers the other settings mentioned above, so it's a good place to get a = feel for all the different settings of Mystara). Alternatively you could = go for the PWA light, Joshuan's Almanac, which is much more focused on = "the Known World." The Almanacs have the problem of being set 10-13 = years later than most other existing products, and they can be pretty = heavy reading. Also, the first two use OD&D rules, the last two AD&D 2nd = Ed. Focusing on the Known World, I would get GAZs, preferably as many as I = could, but in my mind good ones to start with would be GAZ1: The Grand = Duchy of Karameikos, GAZ3: The Principalities of Glantri and GAZ11: The = Republic of Darokin. If you prefer to focus on the "later" Almanac days, = you could get the 2nd Ed. boxed sets Karameikos: Kingdom of Adventure = and Glantri: Kingdom of Magic instead, but even so I still think the = GAZs would be as good, if not better. If you know a little of the settings in the various GAZs, there might be = others that you already think sound like really cool places, and you = might want some of those instead. If you want to read more about the = GAZs, they're reviewed by fans at http://reviews.dnd.starflung.com/. If you want adventures for the Known World, that's a little harder; = there are plenty of adventure modules, but most were written before the = GAZs and many took place outside the Known World. It's a definite plus = to have a good idea of what you get before shopping adventures. Reviews = of some adventures can also be found at the review site. Of course, the greatest, but very unmanageable, treasure trove of = Mystaran knowledge is the Vaults of Pandius http://dnd.starflung.com/, = but that's all fan material and can be very, very confusing to find your = way around. Jacob Skytte scythe@wanadoo.dk ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 4 Nov 2002 12:57:08 +0100 From: =?iso-8859-1?q?Havard=20Faanes?= Subject: Re: Cult of Balthac --- Agathokles : > No, it's Corran, AFAIK. Aha, my bad. In any case, this was not a major point in any of my work so just change the name and it should work well. Ofcourse, the two could be related if you should want them to. On the other hand, the Corran family could also be related to Corun, the founder of Corunglain..? Havard ______________________________________________________ Se den nye Yahoo! Mail på http://no.yahoo.com/ Nytt design, enklere å bruke, alltid tilgang til Adressebok, Kalender og Notisbok ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 4 Nov 2002 18:46:31 +0100 From: =?iso-8859-1?q?Havard=20Faanes?= Subject: Blackmoor monsters Hi, I have tried to convert some of the Blackmoor monsters to D&D 3E. I have posted them at http://www.geocities.com/havardfaa/blackmoor.html Feedback is welcome! Håvard ______________________________________________________ Se den nye Yahoo! Mail på http://no.yahoo.com/ Nytt design, enklere å bruke, alltid tilgang til Adressebok, Kalender og Notisbok ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 4 Nov 2002 17:55:11 +0000 From: Agathokles Subject: Re: Essential Reading Falconer wrote: > > Mystara doesn't have an equivalent of that, does it? If you could name up > to four (say) products that give the essence of Mystara, what would they > be? Many responses welcome. Thanks! There's no such thing as a single creator of Mystara. The two most involved people were probably Bruce Heard and Aaron Allston: then the GAZs for Glantri and Karameikos would be those classics you're looking for. As for completeness on the world, one would probably say the first PWA, the HW boxed set and something on the Savage Coast (Champions of Mystara, perhaps? Or Red Steel, or the current campaign book). -- Giampaolo Agosta http://digilander.iol.it/agathokles ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 4 Nov 2002 12:34:58 -0800 From: Joe Kelly Subject: Hey all! Here is one of my player's website featuring my gaming group. And other = stuff. (I'm the guy in the black and blue T-shirt.) Anyone else have = personal webpages? JK Wolf http://members.shaw.ca/dartsmen/home.html ------------------------------ End of MYSTARA-L Digest - 3 Nov 2002 to 4 Nov 2002 (#2002-287) **************************************************************