Subject: MYSTARA-L Digest - 16 Dec 2002 to 17 Dec 2002 (#2002-326) From: Automatic digest processor Date: 18/12/2002, 19:00 To: Recipients of MYSTARA-L digests Reply-to: Mystara RPG Discussion There are 8 messages totalling 370 lines in this issue. Topics of the day: 1. Karameikan Humanoid Biases 2. Addakia and Izonda 3. Pool: The Old Rules & Immortals (2) 4. Drums of Panic? 5. Drums of Panic? and magic item charges 6. Need advice (2) ******************************************************************** 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: Thu, 5 Dec 2002 08:40:02 +0800 From: "Francisco V. Navarro V" Subject: Re: Karameikan Humanoid Biases Hail Mystarans, humans and otherwise! In my Paparazzi Glantri site (shameless plug: www.geocities.com/paparazzi_glantri), I was imagining a scenario were a Karameikan traveler meets Prince Kol XIV of New Kolland in Glantri. The Karameikan would have been totally outraged that not only would be huamnoids allowed within the Principalities, but that they could actually be considered nobility! Of course, in Glantri, religion and religious fervor is taboo, so all the Karameikan could do was grit his teeth and probably curtsy to the kobold Prince--very lowly. Kit > Hi, > I was wondering what the rural population of Karameikos might think > concerning the beastmen mentioned in "The song of Halav". Who were they? In > the eyes of the traladaran believer, I mean. Would the common Traladaran > kill every furcovered humanoid on sight in religious fervor? Gnolls only? > What about bugbears or, travelling to other countries rakasta, lupins, etc.? > Any comments? > > Felix > > ******************************************************************** > 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: Thu, 5 Dec 2002 08:23:42 +0800 From: "Francisco V. Navarro V" Subject: Re: Addakia and Izonda Hail Mystaran specualtors and archeologists! Along the lines of what Andres said, I would like to point that that there are two major names/regions in the northwest area of Davania: Addakia and Izonda. The Addakian region includes the Addakian Sound and its eastern bank, with the Addakian Mountain. The larger Izonda region lies to the west, with the Izondian Wall (mountain range), Desert of Izonda, Strait of Izonda and the Izondian Deep (ocean). Addakia and Izonda could correspond to two major peoples or cultures that formed the ancient Addakian Empire, somewhat like RW Tigris-Euphrates, Sumerian-Babylonian, etc. There is also the matter of the Aryptian desert to the east of Addakia. Aryptia sounds like Egyptia or Assyria (or both), so the territory could belong to the Nithians or the M-Assyrian tribes. Kit ----- Original Message ----- From: "Andres Piquer Otero" To: Sent: Thursday, December 05, 2002 5:52 AM Subject: Re: [MYSTARA] Addakia > That doesn't have to be a problem. An old nation name can be retained for a > very very long time after the original nation has vanished. In RW, we still > use the term Iberia to refer to the peninsular area of Spain and Portugal... > and the Iberian civilization itself vanished more than 2000 years ago!!! > Also, it's possible that a new people which settles in an area assumes the > trappings, name and devices of a bygone civilization (like some populace > from N Iraq and S Turkey, who style themselves as "Modern Assyrians", as a > cultural contrast with the prevalent Islamic culture of the area). So, > Addakia could have been retained, both by learned scholars in the times of > Thyatis and by some people who occupies the "Ancient Addakian" territory, > regardless of them having a genealogical connection with the original > Addakian empire. IIRC, the Drachenfels lineage in Glantri styles itself as > descendants from the Old Blackmoorians, so, no matter how much knowledge > about the pre-cataclysmic nations was lost and forgotten, there's some > consciousness of those old lands and empires around... > > > Andres > > ******************************************************************** > 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: Sun, 15 Dec 2002 18:37:01 +0100 From: DM Subject: Re: Pool: The Old Rules & Immortals Hi there!

Well, I've been playing OD&D Mystara ever since 1990 so it must be nearly 12 years now. I've slowly mutated the rules so that I refer to them as MD&D (MyD&D or Marco's D&D), but it's basically old Rules Cyclopedia (first it was the red, blue, green and black sets) with the rules for Weapons Mastery, General Skills and critical hits revised to be sound and not overly unbalancing.
I've also added many other classes and martial arts, but just to have the players more variable to pick to create their characters. And to me this is just where OD&D shines: its framework is so thin and easily adaptable to any house rule you want to create, something which can't be said for 3E (despite the fact I play it now). And also if u want u can add rules to make things more realistic, or u can forget about them, so u don't have to remember every minute a rule about this or that as it happens with AD&D or 3E. It leaves u so much more free to use your imagination (all IMO, of course) ;)

Never played Immortal characters though my older players have made it the long way from 5th level to 36th in 11 years of gaming and they're still playing and we're still enjoying it. Now the end of the campaign draws nearer but we already have some new low level campaigns in the dockyard (some of which we already play, for example Ravenloft or Spelljammer with OD&D rules).

Cheers and happy gaming to everybody!

DM
Senior Editor of the Mystaran Almanac
Lt. Cmdr. of U.S.S. Unicorn

"You don't stop playing because you grow old:
you grow old because you stop playing!"

Visit Marco's Mystara Homepage at:
http://www.geocities.com/TimesSquare/Dungeon/2967
And Mystara Italian Homepage at:
http://www.geocities.com/TimesSquare/Dungeon/9940

Join the Mystara Webring at:
http://www.geocities.com/TimesSquare/Dungeon/2967/mystring.html
Join the Starfleet Academy at:
http://gioco.net/startrek (Italian RPG PBEM)

------------------------------ Date: Sun, 15 Dec 2002 18:40:22 +0100 From: DM Subject: Re: Drums of Panic? Ville.V.Lahde@UTA.FI asked:

<< The Cyclopedia makes no mention how often the Drums of Panic can be used.
Has anyone given the iten to their players, and have you made any house rules on that? 1/day? 3/day?
One of my PCs just assassinated Bargle the Infamous and gained his Drums.
If I remember correctly, there is a similar omission in the case of Amulet of ESP.>>

It can be either a timeframe of 1-6 per turn, hour, day, week or year, as you like.
OR They could be permanently enchanted that's to say producing the effect every round at will.
I'd suggest once per hour.

As for the amulet, normally it's three times per day, but the same applies as above said.
You make the rule when there's none written down, don't worry Ville ;)

DM
Senior Editor of the Mystaran Almanac
Lt. Cmdr. of U.S.S. Unicorn

"You don't stop playing because you grow old:
you grow old because you stop playing!"

Visit Marco's Mystara Homepage at:
http://www.geocities.com/TimesSquare/Dungeon/2967
And Mystara Italian Homepage at:
http://www.geocities.com/TimesSquare/Dungeon/9940

Join the Mystara Webring at:
http://www.geocities.com/TimesSquare/Dungeon/2967/mystring.html
Join the Starfleet Academy at:
http://gioco.net/startrek (Italian RPG PBEM)

------------------------------ Date: Wed, 18 Dec 2002 08:21:31 +1300 From: Chris Furneaux Subject: Re: Drums of Panic? and magic item charges On the Drums of panic, I would go with they can be used at any time but people only need to be test for panic once and if sucessful it will not effect them at any time. > It could be possible, but it would amount to something of legendary > status, which would lead to opposition from other powerful forces who would > want to control or destroy the item. Probably, I would make it so difficult to > make, that the PC would opt for a toned down version, such as > 1.) mass teleportation (maybe 100 people or so?), but with only a few charges, or > 2.) only usable afew times/day, or > 3.) useable every round for 8 hours, then it runs out for good, or > 4.) usable every round, but with a chance of shutting down with each use I was thinking along almost exactly those lines but with a (5) Increasing chance of greater error for very frequent use. However this can only be discovered through experimentation. (non-appearing people, dead people etc.) which slightly defeats the purpose of having it in the first place. I was interested to see if other people had addressed this issue because as far as I can tell the rules specify that it would not be anywhere near as restrictive to build such an item without those major limitations. (if you can get the right components that is). Although you would be crazy to let a player do so. > Is this the guy that's trying to get people to populate a dominion > somewhere? Yep. Buying slaves in Jabul with dragons for the Black Rajah to relocate to norwold. Silly really, cause they won't know how to work the terrain, won't be acclimatised, and probally won't like him much at first. That and if Stefan gets word of this there will be hell to pay (no slaves remember) cause he is a Baron in Karameikos. Technically the Norwold 'colony' belongs to the cleric. But they are all in league. He is trying to work out how to get them from sind to norwold without loseing them, and recons that shipping sounds a tad expensive with all the food that would be required for a journey of that length and the ships required. He is aware that the black eagle is 'not nice' but he doesn't know that he trades slaves from all over karameikos to the sind and such, and I'm not sure what his reaction would be. He is relitively oblivious to the Iron Ring still and now has made a non- agression pact with the baron because he was sick of the black eagle's forces interfereing in his affairs. He made a convincing attempt at threatening ludwig with military force when he really would not have been able to acomplish much with his army, and could not sustain them away from home for long enough to have a reasonable shot of success. It's the classic problem of how do you forge a new dominion in the wilderness and make it a formidable power. Chris. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 17 Dec 2002 19:50:14 -0000 From: jason o'brien Subject: Re: Pool: The Old Rules & Immortals Hi. I have been playing OD&D since I first started gaming in 1985. In the various campaigns I have run only one player has so far reached Immortallity, I started to play an Immortals campaign with his character and two other players joined it, we got about 1/2 way through IM1 when the campaign ended. Real Life got in the way. another player from the old campaign recently returned to the fold and asked if we could take up where we left of. He resumed running his 29th level nosferatu thief and began questing for Immortallity in the sphere of Entropy. This is now a one on one campaign. This campaign has run on and off in various forms for over ten years. I personnally have played AD&D but my players have mostly only played OD&D. None of us have tried 3E, and are not likely to unless I go out and buy it. which I won't since I am quite happy with OD&D. All my campaigns have been in Mystara, although I did have a spot of spelljamming in one. Mortus. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 17 Dec 2002 12:05:27 -0800 From: Joe Kelly Subject: Need advice IMC I have bought the Magica Encyclopedias. A 4 volume set. Each of these = ran me $35.00 cdn. Anyway, since I bought I am going to get my money's = worth! So I have told my group anytime they want to buy an item they just = have to be able to afford it. My problem is, how do I make them accessible?= Right now, those who have played or read extensively D&D or Dragonlance = or FR they know what kick ass items to buy. I am thinking making them say = they want the item and on a 18-20 d20 die the item is accessible. = Otherwise, it's not. One of them is determined that they are going to get = the three bladed sword that shoots the hilts which act like daggers of = accuracy. Of course the price (we use XP for cost) is 53,000 gold.=20 So how do you guys handle selling magical items? Any special table.=20 As I said, I spend over 140 bucks for this set, they're going to get used = but I don't want it abused. Any suggestions? Thanks! JK Wolf ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 18 Dec 2002 03:41:33 +0000 From: kevin wyton Subject: Re: Need advice > From: Joe Kelly > Reply-To: Mystara RPG Discussion > To: MYSTARA-L@ORACLE.WIZARDS.COM > Subject: [MYSTARA] Need advice > Date: Tue, 17 Dec 2002 12:05:27 -0800 > > IMC I have bought the Magica Encyclopedias. A 4 volume set. Each of these > ran me $35.00 cdn. Anyway, since I bought I am going to get my money's > worth! So I have told my group anytime they want to buy an item they just > have to be able to afford it. My problem is, how do I make them accessible? > Right now, those who have played or read extensively D&D or Dragonlance or > FR they know what kick ass items to buy. I am thinking making them say they > want the item and on a 18-20 d20 die the item is accessible. Otherwise, > it's not. One of them is determined that they are going to get the three > bladed sword that shoots the hilts which act like daggers of accuracy. Of > course the price (we use XP for cost) is 53,000 gold. > > So how do you guys handle selling magical items? Any special table. > As I said, I spend over 140 bucks for this set, they're going to get used > but I don't want it abused. Any suggestions? Thanks! > > JK Wolf > > Here's a thought, All items are one time creations. to buy something one must find a craftsman capable of creating the mundane item of suitable quality , then find a spellcaster capable of casting the appropriate spells. Making a quest of each aspect of the items creation should tone down your players enthusiasm to the point where they will think about whether they are willing to invest the time required to have everthing they want created. One scenario might be a rare herb is needed but only grows at a certain season. If you go now you can get the herb but the craftsman required for another item is leaving right away, which do you want more? I've done this myself. It seemed to work for my players Kev _________________________________________________________________ MSN 8 with e-mail virus protection service: 2 months FREE* http://join.msn.com/?page=features/virus ------------------------------ End of MYSTARA-L Digest - 16 Dec 2002 to 17 Dec 2002 (#2002-326) ****************************************************************