Subject: MYSTARA-L Digest - 27 Aug 2003 to 28 Aug 2003 (#2003-212) From: Automatic digest processor Date: 29/08/2003, 17:00 To: Recipients of MYSTARA-L digests Reply-to: Mystara RPG Discussion There are 3 messages totalling 142 lines in this issue. Topics of the day: 1. Fantasy Elements (2) 2. Looking for a game to join ******************************************************************** 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, 28 Aug 2003 21:31:33 -0700 From: Joaquin Menchaca Subject: Re: Fantasy Elements > Reviewing gazetteers such as Athruagin and Ethengar, > one of the things I feel that these Gazetteers lack > is classical fantasy elements. Athruagin even states What do you mean by classical fantasy elements? There's enough RW cool stuff to make stuff like the spirit world very interesting, but this is under exploited by these GAZs. The Mongolians in the RW touched just about every civilization on some way, from Japan to Europe, to the Ottomon Empire, to Persia, Russia, India, etc. The various native tribes are so bizarre and unique, and there is so much source material that can be used, but there is not a lot incorporated into the GAZ. > clearly that there "are no indian elves". Why not? > True, its cool to get the feel of an authentic > native american or mongolian campaign, but OTOH, > these are countries in Known World. Why isn't there a > Children of the Manticore? I think for me the appeal of Mystara is to have isolated and unique cultures, but to mix-match would dilute from that one uniqueness and make them Generic-Brand-X. > On this matter, I really liked Bruce Heards idea > from > his War in Flames campaign of the Ethengar Pegasus > Riders. IMC the Ethengars are experts with training > and breeding Pegasi, which helps explain how they > dealt so efficiently with the Heldannic Knights > during > WotI. I think there if there are creatures native to one realm, they can migrate to other realms provided that the pickings are good. One has to observe the ecology of the creatures in question. Would pegasus prefer the grassland areas as opposed to other regions? Here's an idea for Athruaghin. The cliffs could be some to wyverns, and over time the Athruagins learned to tame the wyverns, and the wyvern raiders became infamous within the region. Wyverns fit in well, because the Master's forces used them (X4 module), and so this could be a natural spot where they habitat. The wyverns are good as they don't affect other tribes by attacking horses, unlike griffens. __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! SiteBuilder - Free, easy-to-use web site design software http://sitebuilder.yahoo.com ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 28 Aug 2003 21:44:54 -0700 From: Joaquin Menchaca Subject: Fantasy Elements Hi, Nice idea on the spirits disrupting the meating. There are some good fantasy books from White Wolf on spirits and how they interact with the material world. I thought it would be interesting to some how tie in the Black Mountain to the Athruaghin spirits. Maybe there can be cross adventures. Also, many cultures have this deep belief in spirits, both nature spirits and also ancesteral spirits. In Japan, this is especially strong. There are some good anime movies on this like "Princess Mananoke" and "Spirited Away". For those unfamilar, "Princess Mananoke" starts off with some unstoppable creature ravaging a tribal village. Somehow, nature was being perversed and corrupted, and the animal spirits would metamorph into these horrific unstoppable creatures. I am sure there could be great ideas from this story line in Mystara, such as dwarven mines polluting nature, causing the spirits to go mad. "Spirited Away" is about a family that wanders through a remote tunnel and comes across an area that touches the spirit world. The little girl becomes apart of this bizarre spirit world and tries to survive and save her parents. In the end, everything seems like a dream, as if they just woke up from a nap. I think spirits, spirit magic, is just really underused, but they can add loads of excitement to a fantasy campaign. It can especially make the role of druids more interesting. __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! SiteBuilder - Free, easy-to-use web site design software http://sitebuilder.yahoo.com ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 28 Aug 2003 22:14:38 -0700 From: Larry Subject: Looking for a game to join Hello, Im interested in joining a Mystara AD&D secong edition game. First edition is OK as well. I will play just about any class thats needed to flesh out the group. ===== "Happy Hunting!" My web site: http://www.geocities.com/boonedale/ My Robotech game on Yahoo! groups: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/RobotechGame/ My Online AD&D Game: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/World_of_Zarcaddia/ __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! SiteBuilder - Free, easy-to-use web site design software http://sitebuilder.yahoo.com ------------------------------ End of MYSTARA-L Digest - 27 Aug 2003 to 28 Aug 2003 (#2003-212) ****************************************************************