Subject: MYSTARA-L Digest - 5 Aug 2004 to 6 Aug 2004 (#2004-159) From: Automatic digest processor Date: 07/08/2004, 17:00 To: Recipients of MYSTARA-L digests Reply-to: Mystara RPG Discussion There are 21 messages totalling 853 lines in this issue. Topics of the day: 1. A New Campaign (3) 2. Heldann Gazetteer (2) 3. A surprise for all mystara fans (4) 4. Kingdom of.... (6) 5. En World Mystara Conversions 6. CDs (was: Re: [MYSTARA] Kingdom of....) (2) 7. Mystaras Legendary Wizards (2) 8. zoomed worldmap example ... ******************************************************************** 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: Fri, 6 Aug 2004 11:49:05 +0300 From: =?ISO-8859-1?Q?Ville_V_L=E4hde?= Subject: Re: A New Campaign I think I've settled on the main notions of my campaign. The main plot will centre on competition and intrigue between Darokinian Trading Houses. So: the caravan trips to distant locales will afford possibilities for separate themes, tied to the cultures and politics of the countries visited. But the PCs will always return to the hub, thus return to the main plot. And of course they will meet their economic rivals during their caravan trips. Behind this main plot is the lower layer of the campaign: good old shadowelves. I settled on them for two reasons: 1) I don't have them in my primary campaign, so I want to try them out and 2) they are a well-crafted truly "alien" culture which doesn't follow the expectations the players have of "the dark elves". I think I'll develop the connection between the two main plot layers through historical events: the first war between the two elven cultures in 560 AC and its aftermath. Since the Darokin kings helped the Alfheimians against the shadowelves, some knowledge more specific than legends of the Shadowelves must have survived. And since the Elfwar had taken place jut a few decades before, some bitterness must have remained. This gives a good foundation for an alliance between a Darokinian noble house (later the foundament for a Trading House) and a Shadowelf faction. I'm still unsure whether it will be the PCs own house that has tied to the Shadowelves. But that might spawn interesting situations, where the PCs must make big choices. In any case, the historical background might open venues for interesting revelations about the relationships between different actors a few centuries before. This would give me the opportunity to employ one of the most important things in having long-lived races around: long memory and specific historical documentation. Digging out the "truth" about the history might take the PCs to interesting places. Ville ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 6 Aug 2004 12:43:44 +0300 From: =?ISO-8859-1?Q?Ville_V_L=E4hde?= Subject: Re: A New Campaign Regarding my last post: This connection between the Darokinian traders and Shadowelves was actually hinted at in the Alfheim Gazetteer, if I remember correctly. General Gilfrondel is secretly smuggling elven artefacts to distant places and gaining funds for his infiltration work. The Darokinians would be the logical venue for such activity, since it is after all quite hard for the Shadowelves to infiltrate the sunlit lands. Precious agents would not be wasted in trading missions, I think. Minrothadian traders might be linked (as a small subplot perhaps) to this, since it is the one country where it is easy for the Shadowelves to infiltrate - due to the similar features with the local sea elves. A shadowelf as a Minrothad trading agent, who has suspiciously close connections with a Darokinian treaders - breaking the merchantilist practices of the country. Ville ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 6 Aug 2004 03:11:21 -0700 From: Thibault Sarlat Subject: Heldann Gazetteer There is still much work to be done. editing for one thing could be tricky since i depend on people to whom English is the mother tongue (Geoff Gander for exemple). Hervé is also concerned but he's very busy right now. Then the illustrations are to be made by a friend of mine from Andorra. I just got married, and so he's not available right now, being in China for his honeymoon!!. so i think that it could possibly be released sometime around Christmas (maybe before, and i'll do my best for it to happen). thib ===== Thibault SARLAT a.k.a Clenarius www.mystara.fr.st ICQ 16622177 MSN Messenger: clenarius@hotmail.com __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? New and Improved Yahoo! Mail - 100MB free storage! http://promotions.yahoo.com/new_mail ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 6 Aug 2004 12:35:34 +0200 From: =?iso-8859-1?q?Havard=20Faanes?= Subject: Re: A New Campaign --- Thibault Sarlat skrev: > then maybe you could use my "soon to be published" > Heldann gazetteer (more than 100 pages). > I am not sure it would be of any help to you, but > maybe. > I am not sure when i'll be able to release it for it > still lack the illustrations (maybe 10); > the maps are almost done. Wow! When do we get to see this? :) Håvard ===== *** Håvard R. Faanes www.stud.ntnu.no/~havardfa ______________________________________________________ Få den nye Yahoo! Messenger på http://no.messenger.yahoo.com/ Nye ikoner og bakgrunner, webkamera med superkvalitet og dobbelt så morsom ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 6 Aug 2004 12:36:48 +0200 From: =?iso-8859-1?q?Havard=20Faanes?= Subject: Re: Heldann Gazetteer --- Thibault Sarlat wrote: > so i think that it could possibly be released > sometime > around Christmas (maybe before, and i'll do my best > for it to happen). Well, that will be a nice christmas present indeed! :) Håvard ===== *** Håvard R. Faanes www.stud.ntnu.no/~havardfa ______________________________________________________ Få den nye Yahoo! Messenger på http://no.messenger.yahoo.com/ Nye ikoner og bakgrunner, webkamera med superkvalitet og dobbelt så morsom ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 6 Aug 2004 11:59:22 +0100 From: Colin Davidson Subject: Re: A surprise for all mystara fans ----- Original Message ----- From: "Bertrand Lhoyez" To: Sent: Thursday, August 05, 2004 8:35 PM Subject: [MYSTARA] A surprise for all mystara fans > well, well, well. > > i've been working since the last eight months on a special worldmap of > Mystara. This project is roughly half part from the end (of the first part), > so i think it's a good time to show it to you. (cut) Not bad at all! Nice work. I'll watch with great interest to see how this develops. Is Ierendi missing? ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 6 Aug 2004 14:43:09 +0200 From: =?iso-8859-1?q?Havard=20Faanes?= Subject: Kingdom of.... When Mystara was converted to AD&D, it looked like they were planning to launch a boxed set for each country, with the title , Kindom of . The published ones in the series were Karameikos, Kingdom of Adventure and Glantri, Kingdom of Magic. Since the products werent' all that good, it might not be so bad that no more than the two were every published. Still, I would have liked to know what they were planning on calling the other ones. Five Shires, Kingdom of Halflings Rockhome, Kingdom of Dwarves Ethengar, Kingdom of the Steppes Ylaruam, Kingdom of the Desert More ideas anyone? Håvard ===== *** Håvard R. Faanes www.stud.ntnu.no/~havardfa ______________________________________________________ Få den nye Yahoo! Messenger på http://no.messenger.yahoo.com/ Nye ikoner og bakgrunner, webkamera med superkvalitet og dobbelt så morsom ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 6 Aug 2004 09:41:00 -0400 From: Chris Cherrington Subject: Re: Kingdom of.... I was kind of fond of the the Orc Wars names myself: Glantri = Godless wizards, liars and spies. Northern Reaches = Horned humans, don't go there! I will have to dig that one back up. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 6 Aug 2004 16:19:41 +0200 From: =?iso-8859-1?q?Havard=20Faanes?= Subject: Re: Kingdom of.... Hehe, yeah those were pretty funny. Imagine if Orcs had been in charge of TSR back in those days (who else could have come up with those CD ideas btw?). Håvard :-) --- Chris Cherrington skrev: > I was kind of fond of the the Orc Wars names myself: > > Glantri = Godless wizards, liars and spies. > Northern Reaches = Horned humans, don't go there! > > I will have to dig that one back up. > > ******************************************************************** > 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. > > ===== *** Håvard R. Faanes www.stud.ntnu.no/~havardfa ______________________________________________________ Få den nye Yahoo! Messenger på http://no.messenger.yahoo.com/ Nye ikoner og bakgrunner, webkamera med superkvalitet og dobbelt så morsom ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 6 Aug 2004 16:59:10 +0200 From: =?iso-8859-1?q?Havard=20Faanes?= Subject: En World Mystara Conversions http://66.34.111.89/Eric/3econversionsdocs.htm#Mystara Worth checking out. Also have a look at the Creature Catalog over at En World, it has loads of Mystara monsters converted to 3.0 and 3.5 at: http://www.enworld.org/cc/index.php Sorry if this is old news folks :) Håvard ===== *** Håvard R. Faanes www.stud.ntnu.no/~havardfa ______________________________________________________ Få den nye Yahoo! Messenger på http://no.messenger.yahoo.com/ Nye ikoner og bakgrunner, webkamera med superkvalitet og dobbelt så morsom ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 6 Aug 2004 11:08:36 -0400 From: Chris Cherrington Subject: Re: Kingdom of.... ============================================================ From: Havard Faanes Hehe, yeah those were pretty funny. Imagine if Orcs had been in charge of TSR back in those days (who else could have come up with those CD ideas btw?). Håvard :-) ============================================================ I think you can blame my younger brother on that one. Whenever he DM'd, he always used countless tracks from different movies for "mood" music. He knew exactly which tracks to play and how long to loop or end them with combat as well. Some good titles he used were... Last of the Mohicans Conan the Barbarian Excalibur ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 6 Aug 2004 11:11:03 -0400 From: Chris Cherrington Subject: Re: Kingdom of.... ============================================================ From: Havard Faanes Hehe, yeah those were pretty funny. Imagine if Orcs had been in charge of TSR back in those days (who else could have come up with those CD ideas btw?). Håvard :-) ============================================================ We will have to up the ante on this one, can we produce Power Point presentations for gaming at the next GENCON? ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 6 Aug 2004 17:28:36 +0200 From: =?iso-8859-1?q?Havard=20Faanes?= Subject: CDs (was: Re: [MYSTARA] Kingdom of....) --- Chris Cherrington wrote: > I think you can blame my younger brother on that > one. Whenever he DM'd, he always used countless > tracks from different movies for "mood" music. He > knew exactly which tracks to play and how long to > loop or end them with combat as well. Some good > titles he used were... > Last of the Mohicans > Conan the Barbarian > Excalibur Well, those kinds of CDs are okay. The Red Steel ones were decent too, but the ones where instead of just music, they had actors read the part of the DM with funky sound FX were just terrible. Especially since they were the reason we got so little bang for the buck in terms of sourcebook material. Imagine if instead of including the CD with Karameikos, Kingdom of Adventure, they had actually updated the booklet, including info about the Alfheim elves in Karameikos, the School of Magecraft and actually had taken time to increase the age of various NPCs by 10 years? I also like using sound track CDs when I'm playing. I never cared much for the Conan soundtrack, but Last of the Mohicans is great. Braveheart is another classic, though I have used it a bit too much. I also like Joan of Arc (Miracle of Orleans), The Rock, Last Samurai, Black Hawk Down, Broken Arrow, Ronin and a bunch of others that I have used. I have stopped trying to fit actual tracks to specific scenes, but rather just keep the CDs going as we play and skip a track if it is really inapropriate. Havard ===== *** Håvard R. Faanes www.stud.ntnu.no/~havardfa ______________________________________________________ Få den nye Yahoo! Messenger på http://no.messenger.yahoo.com/ Nye ikoner og bakgrunner, webkamera med superkvalitet og dobbelt så morsom ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 6 Aug 2004 17:48:26 +0200 From: =?iso-8859-1?q?Havard=20Faanes?= Subject: Mystaras Legendary Wizards This topic, I belive has been discussed in the past, but I couldnt find anything on starflung on it. What I'm thinking about is making up a list of which Wizards correspond to the Official D&D ones, like Bigby, Nystul, Tenser and the like. Good candidates I suppose are the wizards of modern day Glantri, but who would correspond to whom? And what does it really make sense that all famous mages are still alive? Granted, some of these wizards are pretty old... Thoughts, anyone? Håvard ===== *** Håvard R. Faanes www.stud.ntnu.no/~havardfa ______________________________________________________ Få den nye Yahoo! Messenger på http://no.messenger.yahoo.com/ Nye ikoner og bakgrunner, webkamera med superkvalitet og dobbelt så morsom ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 6 Aug 2004 18:21:56 +0200 From: Bertrand Lhoyez Subject: Re: A surprise for all mystara fans hi yes the map will be available for download. in fact it is part of a mod i'm working on with another guy (tjedje1 on civfanatics). Civ2 maps, i can't use them as i've no more civ2. sorry. -----Original Message----- From: Mystara RPG Discussion [mailto:MYSTARA-L@ORACLE.WIZARDS.COM]On Behalf Of Alex Sent: vendredi 6 août 2004 07:22 To: MYSTARA-L@ORACLE.WIZARDS.COM Subject: Re: [MYSTARA] A surprise for all mystara fans --- Bertrand Lhoyez wrote: > yes it is > > :-) > Do you mind posting the original Civ3 format map for download? Some of us might want to use it in our Civ games. :) Btw, James Ruhland (as well as I myself) did maps for Civ2, not Civ3. I think I still have them around somewhere if anyone wants them. ___________________________________________________________ALL-NEW Yahoo! Messenger - all new features - even more fun! http://uk.messenger.yahoo.com ******************************************************************** 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: Fri, 6 Aug 2004 18:21:56 +0200 From: Bertrand Lhoyez Subject: Re: A surprise for all mystara fans Printing this map is a feature i hope i'll acn include. later, i will ask to some printer how much it cost to print this file on one piece of sheet (a bit like a trail map - my DM will be very happy). that said, later, i can also provided anyone with better file, so that you can print the map piece by piece on A4, before assembling the puzzle :-) -----Original Message----- From: Mystara RPG Discussion [mailto:MYSTARA-L@ORACLE.WIZARDS.COM]On Behalf Of Dan Eustace Sent: vendredi 6 août 2004 05:50 To: MYSTARA-L@ORACLE.WIZARDS.COM Subject: Re: [MYSTARA] A surprise for all mystara fans Magnificent!! What is the best way to print it out (all or specific regions)? ----- Original Message ----- From: "Bertrand Lhoyez" To: Sent: Thursday, August 05, 2004 3:35 PM Subject: [MYSTARA] A surprise for all mystara fans > well, well, well. > > i've been working since the last eight months on a special worldmap of > Mystara. This project is roughly half part from the end (of the first part), > so i think it's a good time to show it to you. > > i've wanted this map to be the most esthetic i can. that being considered, > the goal of this map is to be the basis for some kind of web updatable > hypertext poor wizard atlas, pinpointing town, ressources, armies, ... the > 2nd part of the project. > > Take into account that most of the graphics are "under construction". i've > been obliged to create some myself (like steppes for yazak area or icebergs > for frozen sea). > Also, many areas in this map are not finished; either i lack enough info, > either i still haven't found the time :-) > The editor i use work with a square grid, so there is often from one terrain > to another an angular effect; i'll polish this later as it is rather a > lenghty process. And adapating an hexagonal grid map to a square grid map > has obliged me to tweak some areas. also, from one tsr supplement to > another, there are some geographic differences. so all in all, the map is as > accurate as i can > > i'm preparing many details which will allow to represent rather faithfully > the diversity of the various civilisations that we know. > For instance, you can look at the dark wood area in Hule where you'll see a > temple & symbol of the master power (a dragon and a relic); or the 5 shires > represented by hobbit holes (instead of common town) or the ethengar area, > with generic huts. > > n.b. : later i'll upload a zoom level 2 version of this map, where all those > little pretty details are more eye catching > > > the following url will take you to a basic webpage where you'll see the > complete worldmap. the map is composed of 72 images. the total image size is > around 5 Mo. so be a little patient. > i'm sorry for all those who have not dsl / cable, but that's all i can do > for now. > > http://blhoyez.free.fr/d&d/mystara-worldmap.htm > > n.b : for the hule area i've been using the map which we talk about here > sometimes ago; for the areas not covered in mystara canonic supplement, i've > been using maps from the Vault of Pandius, especially those from geoff > gander. for anything else, we'll see. > > that's all for now. i hope that this project will please you, and i would be > happy to have some feedback (and why not some help if someone feel it). > > waiting to read you > > ******************************************************************** > 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. > ******************************************************************** 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: Fri, 6 Aug 2004 09:42:41 -0700 From: Boonedale Subject: Re: CDs (was: Re: [MYSTARA] Kingdom of....) Have you tryed using Anime soundtracks for any of your games? Like from Record of Lodass War, Escaflone and others? ===== "Happy Hunting!" __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? New and Improved Yahoo! Mail - 100MB free storage! http://promotions.yahoo.com/new_mail ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 6 Aug 2004 15:00:46 -0700 From: Andrew Theisen Subject: Re: Mystaras Legendary Wizards --- Havard Faanes wrote: > What I'm thinking about is making up a list of which > Wizards correspond to the Official D&D ones, like > Bigby, Nystul, Tenser and the like. > > Good candidates I suppose are the wizards of modern > day Glantri, but who would correspond to whom? And > what does it really make sense that all famous mages > are still alive? Granted, some of these wizards are > pretty old... Well, the Circle of Eight is still (mostly) alive themselves- Bigby, Mordenkainen and all those folk. If you want to come up with some correspondences, let's see... Mordenkainen - Either Etienne d'Ambreville or perhaps Jaggar von Drachenfels Bigby - Possibly Innocenti di Malapietra? (Bigby leans towards defensive magics, as I'd imagine the paranoid Malapietra would.) Tenser - His attitude and description (at least in WGA4: Vecna Lives!) seem somewhat similar to Carlotina Erewan- very devoted to Law and Good, always decrying the threat of evil. She might be a good correspondence. Nystul - Urmahid Krinagar. (Many of Nystul's spells are geared towards misdirection, which would be useful for a spy, and Nystul is sometimes described as a master of disguise.) Otto - Innocenti di Malapietra would work here, too. (Otto is fat, indulges in the pleasures of life- food, culture, music). Otiluke - Kol XIV? (Otiluke is described as puny and short, and overcompensates for it. However, Kol is probably not as powerful a spellcaster as you might like.) Rary - Etienne d'Ambreville or perhaps Harald of Haaskinz. Drawmij - Maybe Volospin Aendyr? (Drawmij uses water magics, while Volospin is an air wizard, but both are described as handsome and charming, but very secretive.) If you're looking for just some "famous" Mystaran wizards and things, it seems to me that there are several that could be culled from the pages of various modules and things. CM8, in particular (IIRC) has several wizardly tomes and things that list specific former wizards (and their spells). Some of the other modules do, too- such as that guy from the solo module "The Ghost of Lion Castle" and some of the M-level modules (specifically M5: Talons of Night and M4: Twilight Calling) also have some "famous" wizards. I'll check later and see what I can come up with. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 6 Aug 2004 15:06:55 -0700 From: Andrew Theisen Subject: Re: Kingdom of.... --- Havard Faanes wrote: > Five Shires, Kingdom of Halflings Kingdom of Sheriffs? :) > Ethengar, Kingdom of the Steppes Kingdom of the Horsemen? > Ylaruam, Kingdom of the Desert Kingdom of Al-Kalim? Kingdom of the Desert Nomads? I always thought trying to label the things "Kingdom of..." was kind of dumb, since there weren't very many actual kingdoms. Still, here are some more? Darokin, Kingdom of Merchants Alfheim, Kingdom of Elves The Northern Reaches, Kingdoms of Vikings? Minrothad, The Other Kingdom of Merchants (Or maybe Kingdom of the Sea?) The Broken Lands, Kingdom of the Orcs The Shadow Elves, Kingdom of the Depths The Atruaghin Clans, Kingdom of the Shamans Thyatis, Empire of Warriors Alphatia, Empire of Wizards ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 7 Aug 2004 01:13:54 +0200 From: Bertrand Lhoyez Subject: Re: A surprise for all mystara fans Ierendi is not missing. you'll see it west of minrothad. i have not many choices to depict a so small area. So you don't see an archipelago, but just a basic rough island. This is an example where, with a map at this level and the tool i have, i'm rather embarrassed. either i use plains tile (and not a volcano / forest), either i find a way to design an image of an archipelago. but remember, i've already found a very nice looking ierendi fireship, so there is hope :-) -----Original Message----- From: Mystara RPG Discussion [mailto:MYSTARA-L@ORACLE.WIZARDS.COM]On Behalf Of Colin Davidson Sent: vendredi 6 août 2004 12:59 To: MYSTARA-L@ORACLE.WIZARDS.COM Subject: Re: [MYSTARA] A surprise for all mystara fans ----- Original Message ----- From: "Bertrand Lhoyez" To: Sent: Thursday, August 05, 2004 8:35 PM Subject: [MYSTARA] A surprise for all mystara fans > well, well, well. > > i've been working since the last eight months on a special worldmap of > Mystara. This project is roughly half part from the end (of the first part), > so i think it's a good time to show it to you. (cut) Not bad at all! Nice work. I'll watch with great interest to see how this develops. Is Ierendi missing? ******************************************************************** 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: Sat, 7 Aug 2004 03:38:06 +0200 From: Bertrand Lhoyez Subject: zoomed worldmap example ... with fireship, seyraine and sea giant; and scale too well, here is an example of what you'll see at (what i call) zoom level 2 : http://blhoyez.free.fr/d&d/example.htm (img size 200 ko) (after this you can't zoom in anymore ; next zoom level will be in fact small special maps made to better depict specific areas) On this shot, you'll also better see (everything yes :-) but particularly) special terrain type like Chasm, Steppes, Ancient forest and Forested hills, or features like Hobbit holes and Ethengar huts for instance. For Ierendi and Minrothad Island, i've used vocalno with plains (and forest). It seems to me like the dominant terrain feature of a good part of those places. It's from what i've read, and with the choice i have ... Oh, we'll have all the time to discuss with those who wants, what is the better way to represent x or y area when it will be finished. ah, a last detail. i've not show the grid, but to give you an idea, a square is grosso modo the size of a big town (or a hill, or a moutain, ...). i've bben working mainly, at the beginning, with the map "Sea of Dread region - AC 1011" from a poor wizard almanach. So the scale of the map is roughly one square => 72 miles ------------------------------ End of MYSTARA-L Digest - 5 Aug 2004 to 6 Aug 2004 (#2004-159) **************************************************************