Subject: MYSTARA-L Digest - 25 Nov 2005 to 26 Nov 2005 (#2005-221) From: MYSTARA-L automatic digest system Date: 27/11/2005, 19:00 To: MYSTARA-L@ORACLE.WIZARDS.COM Reply-to: Mystara RPG Discussion There are 4 messages totalling 246 lines in this issue. Topics of the day: 1. Adapting materials from other settings (3) 2. 'Honest' Life on Ne'er-Do-Well? ******************************************************************** The Other Worlds Homepage: http://www.wizards.com/dnd/OtherWorlds.asp The Mystara Homepage: http://www.pandius.com To unsubscribe, send email to LISTSERV@ORACLE.WIZARDS.COM with UNSUB MYSTARA-L in the body of the message. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 26 Nov 2005 21:53:39 +0100 From: Giampaolo Agosta Subject: Adapting materials from other settings Hi all, I've been following some discussions on the MMB on the adaptation of materials from other settings (Maztica and Planescape, specifically) to Mystara. In the past, we've also discussed the port of Al Qadim. So, here is the question: what other settings did you find have significant material adaptable to Mystara? Myself, I find Dark Sun provides a good deal of useful material, even though the campaign themes are widely different from those of Mystara. For one, several adventure modules fit quite well, if you replace psionics with magic: - Road to Urik can be used as a nice variant on the War of the Desert Nomads theme; it would work best for one of the City-States, Zagora or Nova Svoga. - Merchant House of Amketch can be easily set in Darokin, Ylaruam or the Great Waste, using Darokinian merchant houses instead of the Dark Sun houses. - Black Flames can be set in any desert, or even in steppes or badlands, where the clash of a powerful magic user and a dragon (or another magic user) can happen -- myself, I'd go for Pyre and Death Flame on the Savage Coast, or Barimoor and a rival magic user or one of the dragon kings of Alasiya. - Black Spine is a good campaign dealing with an extraplanar invasion. It works with minimal modifications if psionics are allowed (to the Giths), or if they're dropped entirely and the adventure is run for lower level PCs. It can be set in any mountain region where the underground is not already occupied by dwarves, goblinoids or shadow elves -- e.g., the mountains north of Sind or the Black Mountains west of the Great Waste. Beyond adventures, there are also other elements that might fit: - The ancient halfling biotechnology from Windriders of the Jagged Cliffs can be used in Emerond. - The elemental magic, both clerical and wizardly, fits well with Mystara, a setting with many links to elemental magic and the inner planes (the many gates to elemental planes, Glantrian elemental magic, followers of fire and air, Immortals who were elementals themselves); also, DS and Mystara share the idea that magic can be drained from the planet -- defilers could appear in Mystara when the Radiance draining will reduce the effectiveness of magic. - Advanced beings: while the dragons and avangions are unique to Dark Sun, other Advanced Beings could fit in Mystara -- e.g., I've always considered Gargantua something more than a top-level wizard, yet something less than an Immortal. So, what have you found useful for your Mystaran campaign? Bye, GP ******************************************************************** The Other Worlds Homepage: http://www.wizards.com/dnd/OtherWorlds.asp The Mystara Homepage: http://www.pandius.com To unsubscribe, send email to LISTSERV@ORACLE.WIZARDS.COM with UNSUB MYSTARA-L in the body of the message. ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 26 Nov 2005 17:13:35 -0500 From: Joe Mason Subject: Re: Adapting materials from other settings Giampaolo Agosta wrote: > Hi all, > > I've been following some discussions on the MMB on the adaptation of > materials from other settings (Maztica and Planescape, specifically) to > Mystara. In the past, we've also discussed the port of Al Qadim. > So, here is the question: what other settings did you find have > significant material adaptable to Mystara? The 7th Sea books and world are structured pretty similarly to Mystara - a bunch of analogues of real-world countries (each of which has an in-depth "nation book", much like the Gazeteers), with a lot of secret societies and characters with shades of grey that aren't true "villians". More accurately, I think a real similarity is that they're both set up for heroic adventure with good guys and bad guys, but which side is the good guys changes depending on whose point of view you take. The setting is tied pretty strongly to the magic system, which would be hard to adapt, but there are a lot of great characters and setting ideas that could be added, and since a lot of the nations are based on similar sources there's a place for all of it. Things like El Vago (a Zorro figure) would work great in the Spanish-derived areas of the Spanish Coast, the Vodacci merchant princes would make excellent alternate wizards for Glantri if you want to mix things up, and a lot of the pirate crews would be easy to drop in anywhere. One of the better products for it is the boxed set, Freiburg, which is a very detailed look at an anarchist city in a war-torn Germanic state. In 7th Sea, it's in Eisen, which is just recovering from the 30-year War of the Cross (between the world's analogues of Catholicism and Protestantism). In Mystara, I think it'd work nicely in Heldann after the Heldannic Knights takeover - I believe there's even a convenient city with the same name! On the whole, though, it's not so much a setting that's easy to adapt to Mystara as a setting which has enough similarities that blending the two might be a nice change of pace. Joe ******************************************************************** The Other Worlds Homepage: http://www.wizards.com/dnd/OtherWorlds.asp The Mystara Homepage: http://www.pandius.com To unsubscribe, send email to LISTSERV@ORACLE.WIZARDS.COM with UNSUB MYSTARA-L in the body of the message. ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 26 Nov 2005 17:09:25 EST From: Alex Benson Subject: Re: 'Honest' Life on Ne'er-Do-Well? Okay, let's look at some factors that may or may not have some bearing on this. Several Alphatian Kingdoms have specified or implied hostile intentions towards another. For example, look at the DoTE Map and see the number of kingdoms with walled, fortified borders. Ne'er-Do-Well (NDW) would have to tick off someone of importance to draw any official rammifications. In fact, I would have the pirates more worried about rammifications from the shipowners. This is especially so post Wrath where there is little "imperial" presence. NDW is what can best be called an oversea territoy, as opposed to the Alphatian Mainland. Though overlooked and ignored pre-Wrath, it should technically becoem more of an interest to Nayce post Wrath. But then again, the Thyatian barons on Gaity (post Wrath) are still present as well. Blackheart is dark and sinister, basically lawless unless you are an aristocrat and heavily armed (either in reality or percieved). The latter taking priority over the former in this case. Anything goes mentaility prevails. Even post wrath, there is the canon Surshield and the MA kingdom of Turmoil to maintain kingdoms that even the Alphatians see as chaotic in nature. Minrothad Guilds has a pirate "kingdom" and they go on without interferecne from te merchant princes. Incidentally, the MG were once under the control of Alphatia. Technically, one could surmise that NDW may have some connection with Fire Island. Alphatia went to war with Thyatis the first time because of Thyatian pirate activity against Alphatian shipping. I always took that to be, "Thyatian pirates ticked off too many high borne alphatian merchants' vessels" as the motive to go to war. If my memory is correct, Haldemar made a name for himself by underwriting some risky shipping accounts. Alphatian Law, centers upon restitution and/or makign things right. That Law siding with aristocrats the majority of the time. The owners or protectors of the pirates may remove the power of that law from pursuing the pirates. Alphatian rivalries are paramount, almost setting the stage for small paramilitary based wars. An attack could be handled in court and resolved with payment and compensation. In preWrath terms, perhaps the NDW pirates avoided imperial grain shipments from Bellissaria. Likewise, NDW makes its tax payments on time. Therefore, the rulers of NDW are seen as keeping their kingdom under control. NDW could be seen as a large thieves guild. More likely, it is composed of several guidls, each competing against one another. As far as the local NDW front goes, like real life, all criminal organization need legal arms to sell items and buy supplies. Likewise, there are bound to be "good folks" caught up in the NDW culture. ******************************************************************** The Other Worlds Homepage: http://www.wizards.com/dnd/OtherWorlds.asp The Mystara Homepage: http://www.pandius.com To unsubscribe, send email to LISTSERV@ORACLE.WIZARDS.COM with UNSUB MYSTARA-L in the body of the message. ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 26 Nov 2005 16:48:34 -0600 From: Aaron Nowack Subject: Re: Adapting materials from other settings *delurks* Giampaolo Agosta wrote: > For one, several adventure modules fit quite well, if you replace psionics with magic: > - Road to Urik can be used as a nice variant on the War of the Desert Nomads theme; it would work best for one of the City-States, Zagora or Nova Svoga. At one point, I was planning to run a heavily modified version of this as "Road to Sayr Ulan," with the PCs as DDC agents trying to help a rebellion against Hulean rule in Sind. > - Black Spine is a good campaign dealing with an extraplanar invasion. It works with minimal modifications if psionics are allowed (to the Giths), or if they're dropped entirely and the adventure is run for lower level PCs. It can be set in any mountain region where the underground is not already occupied by dwarves, goblinoids or shadow elves -- e.g., the mountains north of Sind or the Black Mountains west of the Great Waste. I was planning to adopt this one for use late during the Great War, in the Black Mountains. The githyanki were going to be servants of the Carnifex trying to return their masters to Mystara (the Immortals being too distracted by the war to notice), and it was going to involve the PCs possibly having to make an alliance of convenience with the Master of Hule to close portal in time. I did some very preliminary work on this, which I believe is preserved on the Vaults as "Gith of Mystara". > - Advanced beings: while the dragons and avangions are unique to Dark Sun, other Advanced Beings could fit in Mystara -- e.g., I've always considered Gargantua something more than a top-level wizard, yet something less than an Immortal. Particularly with the Entropy-linked Radiance, the idea of a "Radiance Dragon" comes to mind. Maybe I'll use that if I ever get around to finishing.expanding that "Mystara 1600 AC" stuff I started a while back. -- Aaron Nowack "Never let reality get in the way of a good hypothesis." http://www.mimiru.net/ ******************************************************************** The Other Worlds Homepage: http://www.wizards.com/dnd/OtherWorlds.asp The Mystara Homepage: http://www.pandius.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 - 25 Nov 2005 to 26 Nov 2005 (#2005-221) ****************************************************************