Subject: MYSTARA-L Digest - 20 Dec 2003 to 21 Dec 2003 (#2003-294) From: Automatic digest processor Date: 22/12/2003, 19:00 To: Recipients of MYSTARA-L digests Reply-to: Mystara RPG Discussion There are 7 messages totalling 300 lines in this issue. Topics of the day: 1. Mystara in Dragon (3) 2. Blackmoor article 3. Mystara and Spelljammer 4. Sha'irs in Ylaruam 5. Dwarves ******************************************************************** 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, 21 Dec 2003 02:51:32 -0800 From: Herve Musseau Subject: Re: Mystara in Dragon > From: Joaquin Menchaca > I think everything about this article is cool, but I > am curious about the Barbarians and especially the > drow and 1/2 drow. First, there is a lot of Mystara > material that does not support the notion of 1/2 > elves, at least as the offspring of an elf and human. > Also, the only sources for drow is the picture on the > cover of Alfheim and some elusive mentions in the > Northern Reaches gazetteer. Okay, now I have read that article; since you already gave a detailed account of what the article contains, I won't repeat that, but give a critic of the article. So, the article feature a new Azcan character type, who steal power from Ka to increase their own. A note about power levels: though I don't know much about 3E, this seems a bit unbalanced. It is somewhat similar to werecreatures, as the Azcans become sort of bestial; however unlike lychantropy there is no associated downside to it (nothing like the vulnerabilities or difficulties to control lychantropy... well, except for an intelligence drop, and oh yeah if Ka ever catches you... compared to increased strenght and constitution, armor class, attack, poisonous blood, special powers (enhanced vision, scent, ...) and feats). Fortunately, since PCs are unlikely to be evil Atzanteotl-worshipping Azcans who enjoy bathing in the sacrificial blood of animals, the Defilers of Ka are more likely to be enemies they encounter that happen to have unusual powers (but no more so than other oddities they are likely to encounter during their adventuring careers), so this shouldn't be a problem. About the integration in Mystara: Well, the article is of course intended to be used with Mystara, and I don't see why it couldn't. A few qualms though: Immortals are called deities . Since when are dinos considered "followers" of Ka? I'd expect followers of an Immortal to be sentient creatures, not animals. Or should we consider all animals to be followers of Zirchev, and plants followers of Terra, and rocks followers of Djaea? Odd. Of course their destruction would pain Immortals who watch over them, but calling them followers? Two princes of the Azcan Empire who are defilers of Ka are named, but there are no princes with those names in Sons of Azca (the name given for the emperor is correct, though), and given that major cities are ruled by the various princes and that some of them are not the gazetteer clearly implied imo that this meant there was no other prince. Now, there is of course that mention of a four letter word for elf. Well, we'll simply assumed the author meant Schattenalfen. And since there are no half-elves either, that the half-things are in fact SA too, so the defilers are 95% Azcans and 5% SA. It is a shame that the article doesn't say who those SA defilers are. Are they rogue SA who live among the Azcan defilers? Has a group of SA stolen the secret of defiling from the Azcans? Has Atz given the SA the secret of defiling? I was not worried by the mention of barbarians; we can easily assume, imo, that some Azcans can have barbarian as their class, instead of warrior. Note also that the article says that Azcan mages are mostly sorcerers and not wizards. ===== ___________________________________________________________ Herve Musseau http://www.geocities.com/hmusseau/ __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? New Yahoo! Photos - easier uploading and sharing. http://photos.yahoo.com/ ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 21 Dec 2003 05:13:41 -0800 From: Herve Musseau Subject: Re: Mystara in Dragon A review of the second Mystaran article in Dragon #315. Red Steel: Cinnabar, Red Steel, and the Red Curse, by Franck Brunner, a six-page article starting on page 68, illustrated by Cara Mitten (a picture of a wrrior tortle with trident and wooden shield). content: The article contains an introduction to the SC (and how to use it in other campaigns), the history of the Red Curse, rules for handling the Red Curse under 3E rules (acquiring, effects, the legacies, the afflicted including a sample, inheritors, cinnabryl and red steel and vermeil and crimson essence), and a description and 3E rules for tortles including a sample. my opinion: This is a no surprise translation from 2E to 3E of the rules for the Red Curse. Thus, there is no new material. I was a bit miffed by the fact that inheritors are handled as a feat that can be taken repeatedly, as I think the peculiarities of inheritors could have warranted a prestige class, but then the game mechanics of the multiple feat seem quite appropriate. The article does contain a few contradictions or differences with the Red Steel books: - the article gives the afflicted a second legacy (they normally have only one, like everyone else but inheritors). I'd be tempted to say that the original rules are best (it is one package: one legacy, one ability loss, and if you do not protect yourself one affliction), but playtest it and if it more balanced IYC to give a second legacy to offset the affliction then why not. - the article says there is known no cure from affliction. I'd say, use the one in the books, unless you give afflicted a second legacy as per the article in which case don't give a cure to preserve balance. - the article says creatures must have an intelligence of at least 3 to be affected by the Red Curse, which excludes animals. The RS books explicitely say that animals are affected as well. My advice: let the animals be affected, it's more fun to have an even more dangerous (and surprising: ooh, the nice little kitty -- ouch!) wilderness out there. - inheritors who become afflicted: the article is not totally clear how much they suffer; to keep it consistent with prior rules, the adverse effect of *each* inheritor feat should apply, like the gains (so you do not get just double penalty from a normal afflicted, but triple, quadruple, etc.). Other possible interpretations: you get double penalty no matter how many times you took the feat; you get double penalty for every time you took the feat (ie, double, then quadruple, then six times, etc.). I think those are unbalancing, though. ===== ___________________________________________________________ Herve Musseau http://www.geocities.com/hmusseau/ __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? New Yahoo! Photos - easier uploading and sharing. http://photos.yahoo.com/ ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 21 Dec 2003 14:51:34 -0800 From: Herve Musseau Subject: Re: Mystara in Dragon A review of the third Mystaran article in Dragon #315. Blackmoor: Guardians of the Docrae, by Ari Marmell, a three-page article starting on page 84, illustrated by Bob Steinman (a female halfling omatu master with fighting chains, in a fighting stance, background light wood hills). content: The article has a short summary of the history of the Blackoorm area, and of the halflings of the Northern Marches, and notably the Docrae. It introduces a form of dance, that can be pushed by the omatu masters to a very effective form of unared combat fighting style. The article contains a full description of the omatu master prestige class. my opinion: I don't know what people saw in hobbits that made them want to make halfling countries the home of powerful warriors, but that must be me. While quite different, the omatu masters are somewhat reminiscent of the hin masters, being such improbable sturdy defenders of their race. The omatu masters are a halfling version of monks with oriental fighting style and weaponry (this is reinforced by the illustration, which reminds me of an anime, like the movie Final Fantasy). To determine how well it fits within Blackmoor, I suppose we will have to wait for the new setting that should be released soon (by Goodman Games, according to the article). I can only assume (hope?) that this article was written by someone in the know. ===== ___________________________________________________________ Herve Musseau http://www.geocities.com/hmusseau/ __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? New Yahoo! Photos - easier uploading and sharing. http://photos.yahoo.com/ ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 21 Dec 2003 19:49:04 -0500 From: Dustin Clingman Subject: Blackmoor article Herve, Ari Marmell has helped us in the production of the Blackmoor sourcebook = =3D as a writer and developer. I can say that the Docrae are one of the new =3D additions to Dave Arneson's Blackmoor and that the Omatu Masters are one = of the =3D chief protectors used by this most xenophobic of races. :) = Thanks for the summary. Cheers! Dustin -- Dustin Clingman Zeitgeist Games, Inc. www.zeitgeistgames.com ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 21 Dec 2003 21:16:31 -0800 From: Joaquin Menchaca Subject: Re: Mystara and Spelljammer Yeah, me too. I always wondered how Alphatians got to Mystara, and SpellJammer seemed like the way to address that explanation of the voyager... I vaguely recall that someone even detailed flying pyramidal vessels of Nithians. Maybe there's a Nithian civilization out there in space, as well as other Alphatians. There's other flaems wandering, seeking revenge upon the Alpatians. Perhaps there's even wandering minorities of Alpatians that are aligned to water and earth elements as well. - Joaquin __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Protect your identity with Yahoo! Mail AddressGuard http://antispam.yahoo.com/whatsnewfree ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 21 Dec 2003 21:28:35 -0800 From: Joaquin Menchaca Subject: Sha'irs in Ylaruam Has anyone thought of using the Al Qadim stuff for Ylaruam? There's a lot of wondering material, and I especially like the Sha'ir. Well, in that recent issue of Dragon that introduces D&D3.5e material for Hollow World, Blackmoor, Red Steel, and the Known World, there's also a D&D3.5e presentation of the Sha'ir class. :-) - Joaquin __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? New Yahoo! Photos - easier uploading and sharing. http://photos.yahoo.com/ ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 21 Dec 2003 22:45:41 -0800 From: Joaquin Menchaca Subject: Re: Dwarves Hi, > According to Gaz8, they held the land for less than > 30 years, though dwarvish raiders continued to > plague the land for centuries. My question is why > don't halflings get a racial bonus to combat against > orcs like dwarves do, given their history... > Yeah, that makes sense. In D&D3 though, those would be racial abilities, like genetic. :-) So, dwarves ability against humanoids is "racial". In D&D3, there is no distinction rule-wise between cultureal and "racial" traits. Though, I always wished they seperated between what is "racial" and "cultural" traits. In Mystara, this would make sense than having a bazillion sub-races. Mystara has many unique cultures, and so the generic elf, generic human, generic dwarf, etc. just doesn't fit well. Some, perhaps as the rules evolved from an generic "Elf" class to an generic "Elf" race that can choose her class(es), hopefully the rules can evolve "elf" race that can not only choose her classes, but her culture with respective abilities, etc. - Joaquin __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? New Yahoo! Photos - easier uploading and sharing. http://photos.yahoo.com/ ------------------------------ End of MYSTARA-L Digest - 20 Dec 2003 to 21 Dec 2003 (#2003-294) ****************************************************************