Subject: MYSTARA-L Digest - 29 Mar 2003 to 30 Mar 2003 (#2003-89) From: Automatic digest processor Date: 31/03/2003, 19:00 To: Recipients of MYSTARA-L digests Reply-to: Mystara RPG Discussion There are 8 messages totalling 324 lines in this issue. Topics of the day: 1. High or Low magic ? (2) 2. Sylvan Realm as M-Palestine? (3) 3. MYSTARA-L Digest - 28 Mar 2003 to 29 Mar 2003 (#2003-88) 4. Ierendi Jones And The Temple Of Doom (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: Sun, 30 Mar 2003 12:23:43 +0200 From: Daniel Mayer Subject: Re: High or Low magic ? Hi, all! My campaigns were all typical mid-level magic: Many spellcasters and magic items around, but only few really powerful ones. Spellcasters above 10th level are uncommon, above 15th lvl rare. IMHO, being a wizard at 9th level and able to cast the *powerful* fifth level spells is a thing normal folk is fascinated by... everything above are things of legend and a farmer never will forget if he saw someone casting a forcecage or something like that! Weapons of +3 and above have legendary status and are rare, too, and need most likely a campaign to get them. Laren ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 30 Mar 2003 04:27:10 -0800 From: "Ohad Shaham (Morphail)" Subject: Re: Sylvan Realm as M-Palestine? > And the Sylvan realm... I read CM7 quite a long time ago, but I remember something kinda funny, many of the place names to be found in the land are shamelessly taken out of Hebrew Qabbalah names! Really? Which ones? Now I have to go pick up a Qabbalah book just to round up my Mystaranology... But being a vampire, I will have to take some measures before actually touching the book, or you will be scraping my undead remains from the walls... :-) > well, that was a big rant, and probably a crazy theory... maybe the CM7 designer just ran out of inspiration and checked a dictionary of the occult for namegiving :-) I figured you will start ranting Andres, as this is your field of expertiese isn't it? Actually I was looking forward for it... Morphail --------------------------------- Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Platinum - Watch CBS' NCAA March Madness, live on your desktop! ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 30 Mar 2003 15:35:21 +0200 From: =?iso-8859-1?Q?Matteo_Barnab=E8?= Subject: Re: High or Low magic ? > Hello, > I believe it's possible to play in a low magic-medieval Mystara (as in the > adventures or in the Karameikos first gazeteer) or in a high magic > rinascimental Mystara (as in Glantri, Alphatia or the Almanacs) and both > ways just follow canon sources.... > My campaign is very High Magic (every nation has at least a little aerial > fleet, and there is a 36 level person every 10.000 inhabitants, like in > Alphatia, and even little merchants' houses are protected from magic) > Now i would like to launch a little pool... How is your Mystara ? High > magic ? Low Magic ? a middle way ? My Mystara could be defined mid-magic, even if areas like Alphatia or Glantri are clearly more imbued with magic (skyships, trade of magical stuff, spellcasters for hire and so on), while civilized countries like Darokin or Thyatis are always a step behind the leading magical Powers. However, I've always neglected unreasonable things like the 1000 36-th level magic-users of the Great Council of Alphatia or the Thyatian protectorate of Sclaras; IMC every spellcaster who can cast spells of the highest level allowed for his class (i.e. a 21-th level wizard or a 17-th level cleric) matches the basic requirements to be admitted in the Great Council. And, moreover, there very few 36-th level characters all over the Known World! My campaign focuses on Karameikos (now, in 1007 DI, de facto assimilated by Thyatian Empire as "protectorate" ;-)), with a very low profile of arcane magic, while divine magic has a greater impact on the events (this is tied to the presence in Karameikos of a bunch of quite expert clerics). The PCs, now 18-th level characters or so, can boast a respectable parade of little power magical stuff, collected in several years of adventures, but very few powerful items (armor or weapons +3, equipment enchanted with 5-th or 6-th level spells), often enchanted by themselves with unspeakable effort ;-) Btw, I use the rules described in the 3rd chapter of the "Tomo della Magia di Mystara" (by Marco Dalmonte and me) to keep the enchantment of overwhelming powerful magical items _extremely_ challenging (without those rules a sword +5 could be too easily forged by a 15-th level spellcaster provided with 15000 gp). In (my) Karameikos, also, the few and modest wizards are very secretive about their spellbooks, so the magic-user of the party has worked hard to build a respectable spellbook, investing a great amount of money and time to research both common and new arcane spells; consequently, now she became equally prudent with her beloved book, and is quite distrustful towards Glantrian or Alphatian colleages more open-minded in the field of spell research. bye Matteo ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 30 Mar 2003 15:50:57 +0200 From: =?us-ascii?Q?Andres_Piquer_Otero?= Subject: Re: Sylvan Realm as M-Palestine? Subject: Re: MYSTARA-L Digest - 28 Mar 2003 to 29 Mar 2003 (#2003-88) That never occured to me, probably since my understanding of any of this stuff pretty much starts and/or ends with the Bible. But that's probably worth looking into... Much more impressive, certainly, than the simplistic similarities like SE observing fast and feast days based on the history of the Nation (i.e. as opposed to the history of the Savior, the general premise of standard Catholic or Eastern Orthodox or various Mystaran Immortal religions). Kevin > Subject: Re: Sylvan Realm as M-Palestine? > > Ohad Shaham wrote: > > Cna'an is better. > jew myself I find it a bit strange but very exciting.But IMC the M-Jew > position is already taken (by gnomes...). > > Cool email, the problem with M-Canaan is that such name and the "Canaanite > culture" does not confine itself to the Israel+Judah lands taken by Hebrews > in the Bible. It includes the Phoenician city-states, other non-Hebrew > kingdoms (such as Moab, Ammon) and even, in a really inclusive meaning, the > coastal culture of Ancient Syria... that's why I saw M-Canaan (West Semitic) > in the SC area around Herath and Nimmur, based on onomastics and the > Asyirian / East Syrian manscorpion culture. > Anyway, that's just my ranting, but if I were to give it a name, I would > call it "M-Holy Land" (no matter for what religion or other, that strip of > land seems to be holy). > What's cool about Mystara is that you can have different cultures > representing various historical segments of a same RW country / culture: > Thyatis is Roman / Byzantine Empire, but Darokin is also a M-Italy, only > that in the Mercantilist Renaissance period (and mixed up with some blatant > M-USA like street names in Darokin City), and Glantri City is a M-Venice, > also mixed up with a M-NY. New Averoigne / Malinbois are Middle Ages France > / Provence a la Clark Ashton Smith, Renardie looks like Louis XIV > swashbuckling France... so it's possible to have several M-Hebrew / Jewish > people, like gnomes having some similarities to diaspora jews ans Shadow > Elves looking like the Biblical Exodus people. > And the Sylvan realm... I read CM7 quite a long time ago, but I remember > something kinda funny, many of the place names to be found in the land are > shamelessly taken out of Hebrew Qabbalah names! I guess that the connection > (even if only in names) between the Elvish Tree of Life and the Qabbalah > Tree of Life was too tempting for the designer... But reading it I got the > possible feeling of the Sylvan realm not being "completely in this world" > (Mystara), as the 4 Qabbalah names used refer to worlds over the material > world... This otherworldly nature of elves (at least in their remote > origins), similar to qabbalistic "aeons" (sorry, that's Christian Qabbalah > Sprach, but it's a fitting word)would fit their conception as a "magical > race" and would make the initial "Exodus" of the Elvish race a dimensional, > not exactly geographical one... > > well, that was a big rant, and probably a crazy theory... maybe the CM7 > designer just ran out of inspiration and checked a dictionary of the occult > for namegiving :-) > > Andres > ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 30 Mar 2003 11:05:47 -0500 From: Kevin Powers Subject: Re: Sylvan Realm as M-Palestine? whoops- first time I posted this it was under the Digest subject header: That never occured to me, probably since my understanding of any of this stuff pretty much starts and/or ends with the Bible. But that's probably worth looking into... Much more impressive, certainly, than the simplistic similarities like SE observing fast and feast days based on the history of the Nation (i.e. as opposed to the history of the Savior, the general premise of standard Catholic or Eastern Orthodox or various Mystaran Immortal religions). Kevin > Subject: Re: Sylvan Realm as M-Palestine? > > Ohad Shaham wrote: > > Cna'an is better. > jew myself I find it a bit strange but very exciting.But IMC the M-Jew > position is already taken (by gnomes...). > > Cool email, the problem with M-Canaan is that such name and the "Canaanite > culture" does not confine itself to the Israel+Judah lands taken by Hebrews > in the Bible. It includes the Phoenician city-states, other non-Hebrew > kingdoms (such as Moab, Ammon) and even, in a really inclusive meaning, the > coastal culture of Ancient Syria... that's why I saw M-Canaan (West Semitic) > in the SC area around Herath and Nimmur, based on onomastics and the > Asyirian / East Syrian manscorpion culture. > Anyway, that's just my ranting, but if I were to give it a name, I would > call it "M-Holy Land" (no matter for what religion or other, that strip of > land seems to be holy). > What's cool about Mystara is that you can have different cultures > representing various historical segments of a same RW country / culture: > Thyatis is Roman / Byzantine Empire, but Darokin is also a M-Italy, only > that in the Mercantilist Renaissance period (and mixed up with some blatant > M-USA like street names in Darokin City), and Glantri City is a M-Venice, > also mixed up with a M-NY. New Averoigne / Malinbois are Middle Ages France > / Provence a la Clark Ashton Smith, Renardie looks like Louis XIV > swashbuckling France... so it's possible to have several M-Hebrew / Jewish > people, like gnomes having some similarities to diaspora jews ans Shadow > Elves looking like the Biblical Exodus people. > And the Sylvan realm... I read CM7 quite a long time ago, but I remember > something kinda funny, many of the place names to be found in the land are > shamelessly taken out of Hebrew Qabbalah names! I guess that the connection > (even if only in names) between the Elvish Tree of Life and the Qabbalah > Tree of Life was too tempting for the designer... But reading it I got the > possible feeling of the Sylvan realm not being "completely in this world" > (Mystara), as the 4 Qabbalah names used refer to worlds over the material > world... This otherworldly nature of elves (at least in their remote > origins), similar to qabbalistic "aeons" (sorry, that's Christian Qabbalah > Sprach, but it's a fitting word)would fit their conception as a "magical > race" and would make the initial "Exodus" of the Elvish race a dimensional, > not exactly geographical one... > > well, that was a big rant, and probably a crazy theory... maybe the CM7 > designer just ran out of inspiration and checked a dictionary of the occult > for namegiving :-) > > Andres > ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 30 Mar 2003 11:46:24 -0500 From: Kevin Powers Subject: Ierendi Jones And The Temple Of Doom I seem to recall that someone offered up an idea on the MML to the effect of a "Kali"-worshipping village either on the Serpent Peninsula or in Sindh itself. So how about this? "Ierendi Jones And The Temple Of Doom" Name: Henry "Ierendi" Jones, Jr. Place Of Birth: Corunglain, Republic Of Darokin Occupation: Archaeologist with the Glantrian School Of Magic Race: Darokinian Human OD&D Class: Thief (or Forester, see Dawn Of The Emperors) 3E Class: Ranger Enemies: The Heldannic Knights Allies: Small Fat, Native Of Warping Piao On Ochalea -Lassah, Rotund Native Of Sindh -Rinny, Blonde Elven Bombshell/Nightclub Singer From Alfheim Just a start... Kevin ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 31 Mar 2003 08:04:06 +0200 From: Daniel Mayer Subject: Re: Ierendi Jones And The Temple Of Doom Very nice :) I would add in 3E some levels in O. Temple-Raiders prestige class (Song&Silence) or perhaps Hunter of the Dead.. Both somehow fitting... :) Should be at high level, I suppose? Perhaps total of 15-18? greetings, Daniel aka Laren Nightmaster ------------------------------ End of MYSTARA-L Digest - 29 Mar 2003 to 30 Mar 2003 (#2003-89) ***************************************************************