Subject: MYSTARA-L Digest - 8 May 2004 to 9 May 2004 (#2004-99) From: Automatic digest processor Date: 10/05/2004, 17:00 To: Recipients of MYSTARA-L digests Reply-to: Mystara RPG Discussion There are 3 messages totalling 426 lines in this issue. Topics of the day: 1. Castle Amber and Amber Chronicles (was: Re: [MYSTARA] Tsathoggua) 2. Races (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, 9 May 2004 21:50:45 +0200 From: =?iso-8859-1?q?Havard=20Faanes?= Subject: Re: Castle Amber and Amber Chronicles (was: Re: [MYSTARA] Tsathoggua) Hey, nice overview! I like your ideas for using amber characters as inspiration for ambreville characters! And you are right, the whole insane Ambreville family is very much like our favorite Amberites. Leaving Benedict behind on LaTerre doesnt seem quite fair though. Also, I think he could have avoided being killed by Etienne. What if he simply left Nouvelle Averoigne and is wandering somewhere else in the Known World, fighting wars and having a good time? Norwold sounds like a good home for him. I am interested in seeing your short stories on these guys too... Tsatshoggua: This idea is possible. I am not sure I'd want to include the entire Cthulhu mythos in my Mystara campaign, but obviously LaTerre is not the world of CAS, simply one that is _very much_ like it. This allows us to change a few things. Perhaps LaTerre is still under the dominion of the Outer Beings and Tsatshoggua is one of them? This means we can use your entire scenario, but that means that there is an OB on the lose somewhere on Mystara! Btw, I thought Nodens was the Cthulhu god associated with travel.... Furthermore, I am no expert on Glantri history, but is there any way this could be connected with the evils of Boldavia? Boldavians are ofcourse related to Traladarans, but what if something dark was there long before their arrival...something that drew a man like Morphail to it? With Morphail involved, that might mean that Alphaks knows what is going on.... The McGregor connection is good. I have always wondered exactly what brought all of these LaTerrans over. Whatabout the Hillsburys (or whatever the name of those English people are)? Btw, Im glad you included the lady from Focus on Freeport. I always thought that was proof that Freeport is set on Mystara. Ne'er do well sounds like a suitable location for FP aswell. I originally thought of placing it on Ierendi, then changed to somewhere near the Serpent Peninsula (serpents teeth, serpent peninsula...connection anyone?), but maybe ill change it again? The campaign is already going on right now, but my players dont really know where on Mystara the town is located, so they will have no idea that it is actually moving around alot... ;) Havard --- Andrew Theisen skrev: > Havard Faanes wrote: > > >In what ways have you used Zelazny's ideas IYC? I > am also a big fan of the Amber >series so Id like to > hear more about this part. > > Great! Didn't realize there were other Amberphiles > here! > > Basically, I always assumed Moldvay's Amberites were > inspired by the Amber Chronicles as much as the rest > of the module was inspired by the CAS stories. Don't > know what the story is behind this or not, but given > that, I decided to try and match the characters as > best I could with the characters from the Amber > Chronicles. > > I go back and forth on this one (still), primarily > due to there being more d'Ambrevilles than there are > (major) Amber characters. There isn't an exact > one-to-one correspondence, therefore, but I use them > as general guidelines, instead. The idea is further > complicated by the relationships given to the > d'Ambrevilles in Gaz3 (X2 only said that Magdalene > and Charles were brother and sister, Henri was > Etienne's brother, and Catherine his wife.) > > Here's the correspondence I use, for what it's > worth: > > Etienne= Corwin > Henri= Brand > Catherine= Dara > Jean-Louis= Gerard > Andre-David= Julian (my personal favorite) > > That's as straightforward as I could get. Even here, > Etienne and Henri could be like Corwin and Eric. So > there's room for interpretation. > > After this, I tended to stay as close to the > relationships in Gaz3 as possible. Thus: > > Richard= Eric (brothers, antagonistic and > competitive) > Isidore= Fiona (most powerful sorceress, actively > plotting) > Magdalene= Deirdre (believed dead, dark haired) > Janette= Llewella (the one character from the books > to have the least impact on things) > > After that, it gets even tougher. > > Claude= Random. I could also go with Merlin (both > characters who don't think/get along well with the > rest of the family, and with close ties to > Corwin/Etienne) > Isabelle= Flora (the only daughter left unconnected, > plus she's described as being somewhat of a > debutante in the Mystara products) > Gaston= Delwin (I'm stretching now.) I could also go > with Dworkin the madman here (as I have him, he's > the master Trump artist in the family anyway), but I > backed away from that due to the age thing. > Although, since I'm just doing personality matches, > mostly... > Guillaume= Dalt (see- stretching). He's big, blond, > and likes to beat people up. He's also > anti-religionist (as Dalt was- his mother hated the > Amberite cult of the Unicorn). > Camille= Dworkin (she's mad, she's older than the > rest). > Marie-Helen= ? I don't really know. I guess, given > her martial and antagonistic nature, as well as > being an "elder" of the bunch, she could be a match > for Oberon. > Simon= Bleys (again, a stretch, but my Simon is > different from the one in Gaz3 and later. Mine is > evil from the beginning, not just when he goes to > Averoigne. He also plotted with Henri and Catherine > to oust Etienne. He's somewhat changed after the > Grey Mists, though.) > Charles= Caine (another of my favorite characters. > He's different, too. In the beginning, more cunning > and conniving. The Land of Grey Mists really does a > number on him.) > > If you notice that I left out Benedict- you're > right. I thought Richard might be a good match for > B, but that would change the whole dynamic. So my > "Benedict" character is actually an illegitimate > child of Michel d'Ambrevilles who didn't quite make > it to Mystara. Exactly why is a story known only to > a few, but most of the family think Etienne had > something to do with his death. > > Anyway, as I said, I mainly use these characters as > "blueprints". The actual characters as I have them > are somewhat different. Plus, I have added > characters to the history (past and current). The > original temple plans from X2 have all the statues > in the front being historical members of the family, > so I'm still filling in the family tree, plus I have > at least one illegitimate currently alive > (Petit-Singe, as I mentioned) and the "Countess" who > is living in Ne'er-do-Well (which is my Freeport for > Mystara, to bring this thread to another area... > someone mentioned Freeport recently, IIRC.) > > I make use of the Trumps- the family has them, and > uses them. I actually started to write a story (only > have the first chapter done) set during the Forty > Years' War in Glantri, with Andre-David as the > narrator, wherein the family is beset by plotting- > all of it directly related to Halzunthram and the > rest of the backdrop of that era. Hope to get back > to it soon- been writing a lot more recently. I even > had a sequel planned (too ambitious, I know) set > during the Land of Grey Mists, with Claude as > narrator. > > Anyway, I'm still trying to figure out how to do > Trumps 3E style- the magic item rules are... > difficult. It comes out way too expensive, even when > I tone it down, power wise (using only Greater > Teleport rather than Gate for the transport effect). > Yet some of the items WotC has made don't add up the > way they say they should... so I'm still working on > that. > > >Actually, that gave me an idea. What if Etienne's > >spell allowing the Amber Family to escape to > Mystara > >also brought with it other things... Including the > >dark god Tsathoggua, who is now sleeping below > >Nouvelle Averoigne? > > As I recall (from my Cthulhu books), Tsathoggua is > an entity often appealed to for transportation type > spells in particular (one of the reasons I used him > aside from the CAS ties). It was always my intention > that it was through lore gleaned via Tsathoggua that > Etienne was able to transport the family- that, and > the gates used to travel to other lands from > Averoigne, such as the fey homeland of Sephora > (whose daughter, IMC, Genevieve de Sephora, was > formerly his lover). So taking the big T over could > very well have occurred- perhaps the "price" of > transportation? > > As for why? I don't know. The big T and the other > Great Old Ones (Cthulhu, etc.) are all very similar > to the Burrowers- the B's descriptions have always > reminded me of the GOOs (entities on a par with the > gods/immortals, slumbering/dead underneath the > earth, awaiting being awakened/revived, reaching out > to the dreams of mortals, etc.). Maybe that could be > a tie- maybe there's a tie with the Outer Beings? > All possibilities. > > Or how about- one thing that always bugged me about > the Klantyre/Sylaire relationship was the antagonism > between them didn't seem too clear. The McGregors > lost one of the d'Ambreville's portals or something? > Didn't seem all that compelling to me. So how about > this- > > Part of Tsath's bargain with Etienne was that he > would be transported along with the d'Ambreville > clan, but Etienne reneged and tricked the GOO. > Seething, the GOO managed to make contact with a > group of people- similarly magically inclined- with > whom the d'Ambrevilles had recent history with- the > McGregors of Scotland. (IMC, the McGregors and > d'Ambrevilles first came into contact during the > Hundred Years' War, when Scotland had allied itself > with France against England. A few of the > d'Ambrevilles had gone overseas to aid the Scots in > their battles, and met the McGregors... I can't > recall the specifics offhand- most of this is on a > disk I can't seem to find, but I based it on the RW > McGregors who actually weren't well liked at the > time... anyway). > > The McGregors, persecuted for heresies similar to > their allies the d'Ambrevilles, were given the same > deal by Tsathoggua- take me with you, and I will > teach you how to leave this world and enter another. > The McGregors, not knowing (or caring) any better, > agreed, and brought the elder evil with them, > earning them the eternal enmity of the d'Ambrevilles > (whom they likewise grew to despise, for not > bringing them in the first place). > > ******************************************************************** > 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: Sun, 9 May 2004 21:58:49 +0200 From: =?iso-8859-1?q?Havard=20Faanes?= Subject: Re: Races I've read others say the same thing. I sort of agree, that subraces is a silly thing and that cultures should be separated from race. But I think it is a bit too much work to change it for it to be worth our while... Havard --- Joaquin Menchaca skrev: > Hello, I love D&D3e. However, there is one > shortcoming that does affect Mystara. D&D3e, as it > is > written fails to recognize cultural attributes. > They > bundle both cultural and racial traits to > oversimplify > things. > > For Mystara, a world with many diverse cultures, and > many traits, languages, etc. this doesn't work well. > So, IMC, I have a new mechanism called a "cultural > adjustment" rather than a purely "racial > adjustment". > Thus I could have one racial write up, and then > cultural writeups. > > -- Joaquin > > > > Havard Faanes wrote: > > > > > Which races should be included? I will only > > include a > > > limited number of races and subraces, but would > > like > > > to include a few more beyond the standard 3e > races > > to > > > add some setting specific flavor. > > I'd consider the following: > > > > Human (if you want subraces, you can use theses: > > Mystaran, Laterran, > > Alphatian; but I'd use other mechanisms than > > subraces, since there are > > few, if any, differences between those "subraces") > > > > > > __________________________________ > Do you Yahoo!? > Win a $20,000 Career Makeover at Yahoo! HotJobs > http://hotjobs.sweepstakes.yahoo.com/careermakeover > > ******************************************************************** > 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: Sun, 9 May 2004 22:03:12 +0200 From: =?iso-8859-1?q?Havard=20Faanes?= Subject: Re: Races Yep, the Half-elf issue has always been problematic. Recently I have adopted the philosophy that the more we can include for Mystara the better. Hence the idea of the standard half-elf corresponding to what Alfheim and Darokin describes as a result of most sexual relations between elves and humans, but included a separate more powerful True Half-elf race to correspond to the mythical half-elf also hinted at in the Alfheim gaz. Havard --- Joaquin Menchaca skrev: > For half-elves, there's some problems with the books > saying different things. > > Some say, no half-elf (or half-sylvan race) period. > Other sources say they exist. Then there's the GAZ5 > true half-elf. Then there's a magical race, that > has > the same stats as half-elves, and their creation is > a > mystery. > > -- Joaquin > > > > > __________________________________ > Do you Yahoo!? > Win a $20,000 Career Makeover at Yahoo! HotJobs > http://hotjobs.sweepstakes.yahoo.com/careermakeover > > ******************************************************************** > 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 ------------------------------ End of MYSTARA-L Digest - 8 May 2004 to 9 May 2004 (#2004-99) *************************************************************