Subject: MYSTARA-L Digest - 3 Mar 2003 to 4 Mar 2003 (#2003-64) From: Automatic digest processor Date: 05/03/2003, 19:00 To: Recipients of MYSTARA-L digests Reply-to: Mystara RPG Discussion There are 10 messages totalling 416 lines in this issue. Topics of the day: 1. weather (7) 2. Different Mystaras (2) 3. Cultures ******************************************************************** 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: Tue, 4 Mar 2003 09:31:23 +0100 From: Giampaolo Agosta Subject: Re: weather Tech Support FaenWorks wrote: > Hey there~ > I'm new to the list... Welcome! > I'm wondering whether any of you use weather in your games? Like if it's really cold do you take points off if they don't pass a saving throw etc.? Yes and no. I do use some kind of effect for extreme weather, but this is not very common in the Known World. I give penalties for heavy armor in hot climates, mostly--think Ylaruam, or certain parts of the Savage Coast or Davania or Thothia. Bye, -- Giampaolo Agosta http://digilander.iol.it/agathokles ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 4 Mar 2003 09:41:00 +0100 From: Giampaolo Agosta Subject: Re: Different Mystaras Joe Kelly wrote: > All this talk about hackmastar brought me to think about the way "my Mystara" is different from the canon one (did I just say the C word?). > > I would want to hear about how all of you people altered the face of your gameworld. > > So here is mine: [..] > So now, how is your Mystara different? Right now, I've only a few modifications: Ylaruam: I use Al Qadim stuff, including some of the variant wizard classes and most character kits; some setting material is used for the cities of Cubis, Tameronikas and Ylaruam; Thyatis: slightly more Roman-like than the original, otherwise unchanged; Ierendi: economy is not based mainly on tourism, but rather on plantations and gold mines; Hule: I use Christian Constantin's material on Hule; The rest is mostly unchanged, at least at the current time (end of AC 1000). The future is going to unveil heavier modifications--those in my "Dark Mystara" article. To sum it up, it will include: 1) Alphatia returns in the Hollow World, but much smaller, and limited in magical power; 2) No NACE, Zandor will remain in control of most surviving Alphatian territories, except Thotia and its neighbours; 3) Darokin will break up in three parts under the attack of Hule and the Shadow Elves crisis; 4) Canolbarth becomes a larger version of the petrified forest in Dymrak Woods; 5) The "Night of Hell in the Shire" takes place; 6) The Wrath War will have longer consequences, and more nations will take part. -- Giampaolo Agosta http://digilander.iol.it/agathokles ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 4 Mar 2003 01:53:27 -0800 From: Joaquin Menchaca Subject: Re: Cultures > Well, if Hattian is an Thyatian dialect, i think that > Daro could be as well! hehehe In RW, Germanic and the Roman are very different and are not related except that they have the genetic relation stemming to ancient Indo-Euro languages in India. I think the creators were trying to simulate different aspects of the Roman Empire: Hattian being "The Holy Roman Empire", which was led by Otto the Great after the fall of Byzantine by the Turks, and Thyatis represents the Byzantine or Eastern Roman Empire, after Constantine moved the capitol from Rome to what is today Istanbul, and later split it up into east and west amongst his sons. One language is Germanic and the other is Roman, which are completely different... - Joaquin PS - One a side note, the Hattian reflect a lot of Germanic aspects. The Heldannic Knighthood seems similar to the Teutonic Knights during the crusades. There are other aspects in how Otto conquered the Magyars (Horsemen of Apocalypse) and Hungarian-Austrian Empire, reflects how the Hattian was a military success and a world power. The differences are that, there doesn't seem to be one single strong leader binding everyone together, and also that the Teutonic knights eventually dissolved as later crusades were a failure (though the Heldannic Knights could fail, let's say if the Heldanners discovered Al-Kalim, united and pushed out the invaders, kind of like Islam vs Christianity). __________________________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Tax Center - forms, calculators, tips, more http://taxes.yahoo.com/ ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 4 Mar 2003 11:26:15 +0100 From: Daniel Mayer Subject: Re: weather Hi to the newcomer from me, too! I always used weather in giving penalties in rain to ranged weapons, fire magics and giving bonuses on lightning. Metal armor was forbidden in desert climates, except one owned an elfen cloak. My players told me once I would use weather only at random to make life harder :) But it enhanced roleplaying considerably IMC. They *always* wanted to stay in an inn at night when the wather was rainy... or in a ruin, if suitable :) bye, Daniel ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 4 Mar 2003 10:36:34 -0800 From: Tech Support FaenWorks Subject: Re: weather Since some of you doooo use weather, would you mind taking a look at a weather program that creates weather for different D&D worlds. I'm sorry, but we haven't made a Mystara template yet, but if there is enough demand for one, I'm sure it can be done. So let us know "weather" this would be a usefull tool for you. head to www.faenworks.com or you can email me at tech@faenworks.com Patrick J D Newnan ps... I like Daniel Mayer's style. As soon as they get comfortable... oops.. looks like a sandstorm (try walking without chaffing now.) Too much gold on your hands huh? seems like a huge rainstorm is coming and this in happens to cost 600 gp per night per person... Hilarious!!! ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 4 Mar 2003 11:12:04 -0800 From: Larry Subject: Re: weather I use the PWA or the first edition Wilderness survival guide for weather. Its easy to use unles you try to find out what the temp is of the PC...hehehe "Happy Hunting!" My web site: http://www.geocities.com/boonedale/ My Robotech game on Yahoo! groups: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/RobotechGame/ --------------------------------- Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Tax Center - forms, calculators, tips, and more ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 4 Mar 2003 21:26:46 +0100 From: Daniel Mayer Subject: Re: weather > > ps... I like Daniel Mayer's style. As soon as they get comfortable... > oops.. looks like a sandstorm (try walking without chaffing now.) Too much > gold on your hands huh? seems like a huge rainstorm is coming and this in > happens to cost 600 gp per night per person... Hilarious!!! > :) Yeah, you're a bad, bad DM... :))))) In fact we once had an adventure, when I wanted the PCs to be caught and sold into slavery (hard mining labor...). They got caught, alright, transported via cage-wagon through a desert with the mine as destination. Throught pure luck, and really, really good ideas, they excaped..... I told them about weather (hot, dry, no clouds) and distance to friendlier areas, so they took the wagon (all armor & weapons on the wagon, -2 Con/THACO/Dex during day, no battle longer than 7 rounds without more penalties) and drove off. Unfortunately, the civalrous fighter didn't kill his opponents and -for protection against the sun- laid them under the wagon..... and drove off later with the wagon. Damn, it was quit difficult to think about an atonement for killing three men through starving, drying, whatever... :) Greetings Daniel ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 4 Mar 2003 23:34:35 -0500 From: Dan Eustace Subject: Re: Different Mystaras > 1) Alphatia returns in the Hollow World, but much smaller, and limited > in magical power; I've toyed with this idea myself, but MC hasn't reached the point "to sink or swim" so to speak. After working on the MA FC of Alphatia team, I don't really like the idea of the entire thing being rebuilt as a FC in the HW. I'd probably put the continent in the water (replacing one of the other HW continents), or just put HW Alphatia on one of the other continents. > 2) No NACE, Zandor will remain in control of most surviving Alphatian > territories, except Thotia and its neighbours; Sounds reasonable. > 3) Darokin will break up in three parts under the attack of Hule and the > Shadow Elves crisis; > 4) Canolbarth becomes a larger version of the petrified forest in Dymrak > Woods; > 5) The "Night of Hell in the Shire" takes place; > 6) The Wrath War will have longer consequences, and more nations will > take part. All of this underscores the severity of WotI, which could well send the KW into a dark age. I'll probably have some similar stuff take place, as IMC WotI is but a prelude to a larger and darker conflict which will essentially be the final climax of a very long running campaign. More on this in another post, when I have the time to explain it in full. Later ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 5 Mar 2003 01:52:38 -0500 From: Dan Eustace Subject: Re: weather Yo, I checked out your weather program and it looks pretty good. I noticed that some stuff is diasbled in this (trial) version. I'm wondering about a few things: 1. Do you plan on including a conversion from C to F? Should be a piece of cake for "The Sick & Twisted Guy". 2. What about wind? I couldn't find this anywhere, but it was mentioned in part of the website. 3. Exactly what is entailed in building the templates (both Weather and Rules) in XML? I'd be interested in setting these up for Mystara/OD&D, but I still have no idea what is involved after looking thru the web site. I couldn't find the readme file. Is it not in the trial version? 4. Is there a way to have weather in one part of the world impact another? For example, if PCs are in seperate locales, and a major storm comes thru the region (i.e. continent), the forecast should be consistant across several terrain types. Like say in Mystara, a storm blows off the Sea of Dread and hits a cold air mass coming down from Norwold. The whole south should get lots of rain, with snow in the mts of Karameikos & Darokin, snow in Ethengar, and the N. Reaches, and maybe some rain in Ylaruam. Not sure what effects the Ylaruam microclimate and the Alfheim weather magic would have. But anyways, this is the kind of thing I was wondering about - nation-spanning weather patterns and such. Thanks in advance, Dan ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 4 Mar 2003 23:25:48 -0800 From: Tech Support FaenWorks Subject: Re: weather Dan~~ I would normally reply directly to you, but you didn't include an email... sorry to all who are on the list and receiving this reply to Dan. Anyway, to answer a few of your questions. We've had quite a demand for the F to C conversion so that might be coming up in the next version. Wind is included only in the major sense. If for some reason, there is a strong gale that would change things like sand or dust in the area. Perhaps if your PC's are in the arctic snow and wind is making it unclear, then it will be brought to your attention with special events icons and rules in the table. As far as the disabled items, I regret to inform you that the coolest stuff is with the disabled items. :-( These allow you to not only make custom printable pages showing only the information you want your PCs to know, but also the use of those slider bars. They allow you to "contort" the weather in small ways to be hot and cold, wet and dry, chaotic, etc. It's really cool when you get to try it, and the full version is dropping in price really soon to 9.95.... YAY!!! As far as the readme file goes... Go ahead and email me directly for it. tech@faenworks.com I can also send you some sample templates for other worlds such as Harn and Dragonlance, if you want to check them out as examples. You should have one good example already that is the GENERIC WORLD example. Before I let this become too long, macro/cross locational weather systems are allowed providing you add an extra area to the template to cover the two areas. I think I should add a section to the read me for that. Thank you for bringing this to our attention Take care Patrick J D Newnan ----- Original Message ----- From: "Dan Eustace" To: Sent: Tuesday, March 04, 2003 10:52 PM Subject: Re: [MYSTARA] weather > Yo, > I checked out your weather program and it looks pretty good. I noticed that > some stuff is diasbled in this (trial) version. I'm wondering about a few > things: > > 1. Do you plan on including a conversion from C to F? Should be a piece of > cake for "The Sick & Twisted Guy". > > 2. What about wind? I couldn't find this anywhere, but it was mentioned in > part of the website. > > 3. Exactly what is entailed in building the templates (both Weather and > Rules) in XML? I'd be interested in setting these up for Mystara/OD&D, but > I still have no idea what is involved after looking thru the web site. I > couldn't find the readme file. Is it not in the trial version? > > 4. Is there a way to have weather in one part of the world impact another? > For example, if PCs are in seperate locales, and a major storm comes thru > the region (i.e. continent), the forecast should be consistant across > several terrain types. Like say in Mystara, a storm blows off the Sea of > Dread and hits a cold air mass coming down from Norwold. The whole south > should get lots of rain, with snow in the mts of Karameikos & Darokin, snow > in Ethengar, and the N. Reaches, and maybe some rain in Ylaruam. Not sure > what effects the Ylaruam microclimate and the Alfheim weather magic would > have. But anyways, this is the kind of thing I was wondering about - > nation-spanning weather patterns and such. > > Thanks in advance, > Dan > > ******************************************************************** > 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. > > ------------------------------ End of MYSTARA-L Digest - 3 Mar 2003 to 4 Mar 2003 (#2003-64) *************************************************************