Subject: MYSTARA-L Digest - 18 May 2006 to 19 May 2006 (#2006-100) From: MYSTARA-L automatic digest system Date: 20/05/2006, 17:00 To: MYSTARA-L@ORACLE.WIZARDS.COM Reply-to: Mystara RPG Discussion There are 13 messages totalling 729 lines in this issue. Topics of the day: 1. Immortals or Gods 2. Immortals? or Gods? (8) 3. Map image quality (4) ******************************************************************** 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: Fri, 19 May 2006 08:56:22 +0200 From: Giampaolo Agosta Subject: Re: Immortals or Gods Richard B. ha scritto: > But don't almost all Immortals start out as mortals? That's the only major difference between AD&D gods and OD&D Immortals -- they don't breed true. So most Immortals started out as mortals, while only a few AD&D gods are known to have been mortals (though some are: all the major Birthright powers and Vecna, for example, plus a few more obscure from Planescape). 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: Fri, 19 May 2006 12:32:31 +0200 From: Havard Faanes Subject: Re: Immortals? or Gods? I don't believe that having immortals has any (negative) impact on Mystara becoming published again. I'm sure fans of other settings would jump on this to make it an argument not to see Mystara stuff released as they would any other argument they can find. Mystara's main problem is not that it is too different. It is that it is too similar to Greyhawk, FR and Dragonlance. >> From a marketing perspective, a new release of Mystara should emphasize some elements that set Mystara apart from those other classic fantasy settings. Which features are selected doesnt matter so much, as there are many to chose between. But it would be a good idea to make these features seem more important, giving buyers the impression that This is what Mystara is about. Immortals could easily be used as an element that sets Mystara apart from other settings. Marketing Mystara in such a way that "Heroes rising to the ranks of Immortality" becomes everyone's answer to what Mystara is about would attract more buyers than the traditional answer "oh its about this and that and lots more, but basically a traditional fantasy setting". OTOH, many fans might feel alienated by this approach since very few Mystara campaigns out there actually involve question for Immortality. But that would be true for any element that is presented in this manner. OTOH, if one decided the whole immortality thing would no longer be a major feature of Mystara, one could easily make Immortals=Deities and bring Mystara into a more standardized cosmology, which is pretty much what was done in the 2E Mystara line. Håvard --- Joe Kelly skrev: > Yes, Thorf that sadly is true. I don't understand > why game designers consider them so different. With > the political correctness issue, it makes it hard > for Mystara to make any sort of comeback. Hopefully > the Dungeon issue may? or may not write the article > as Gods/Immortals in the adventure series. But don't > hold your breath. > Joe > Joe Kelly > Office Services Clerk > DAVIS & COMPANY LLP > Suite 2800, Park Place > 666 Burrard Street, > Vancouver, B.C. > V6C 2Z7 > Phone 604.643.6365 > > >>> thorf@CHOKAI.NE.JP 05/18/06 09:30am >>> > > You can, but the issue was for this topic was > this: > > > Question: Why is there not more Mystara related > material? > > Answer: Due to the "No Gods they are Immortals" > there won't > be. It's too Campaign Specific. All Campaigns and > Independent > Adventure Publishers use Gods. If Mystara doesn't, > Mystara > won't see much attention. > Joe, I think you are missing the point still: > Immortals are just gods with a > different name. Literally, because they were > originally gods and only got > changed to Immortals as an afterthought, for > political correctness reasons. > > But I do see what you mean - even if Immortals = > Gods, the mere difference > in terminology may put people off from even > considering them for inclusion > in current materials. It's a mistaken assumption > that they are > significantly different, but you are right that most > probably make that > assumption anyway. > > Thorf > > ******************************************************************** > 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. > > > This e-mail and any attachment(s) are confidential > and may be privileged. > If you are not the intended recipient please notify > me immediately by > return e-mail, delete this e-mail and do not copy, > use or disclose it. > Please advise us if you do not want to receive > unencrypted e-mails. > > ******************************************************************** > 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. > ******************************************************************** 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: Fri, 19 May 2006 12:35:15 +0200 From: Havard Faanes Subject: Re: Immortals? or Gods? --- Angelo Bertolli skrev: > That's the kind of talk that got all D&D players > labelled as Satanists. Oh, that was back in the good old days, when Mystara was still being published... :) Håvard ******************************************************************** 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: Fri, 19 May 2006 12:46:55 +0200 From: Havard Faanes Subject: Re: Immortals? or Gods? I think the idea of bringing the different settings into one cosmology has been largely abandoned since Spelljammer and Planescape were ditched. It never worked well in the first place, and IMO especially the more interesting settings (Mystara, Dragonlance, Dark Sun) suffered from this since they diverged from the standard cosmology, yet were warped to fit with the Forgotten Realms standard. Why would you want to combine them in the first place? Håvard --- Joe Kelly skrev: > The one reason Mystara can NEVER be part of the > Forgotten Realms, Dragonlance, Planescape grouping > is because, Mystara has no Gods. All the other > realms do so they can crossover. Hence Mystara is > left out of that universe entirely leaving it sadly > on it's own. If Mystara had Gods maybe other realms > would adventure to it. With no Gods, it makes its > albeit impossible. :( > > Joe > Joe Kelly > Office Services Clerk > DAVIS & COMPANY LLP > Suite 2800, Park Place > 666 Burrard Street, > Vancouver, B.C. > V6C 2Z7 > Phone 604.643.6365 > > > This e-mail and any attachment(s) are confidential > and may be privileged. > If you are not the intended recipient please notify > me immediately by > return e-mail, delete this e-mail and do not copy, > use or disclose it. > Please advise us if you do not want to receive > unencrypted e-mails. > > ******************************************************************** > 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. > ******************************************************************** 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: Fri, 19 May 2006 13:03:56 +0200 From: Francesco Defferrari Subject: Re: Immortals? or Gods? Havard Faanes wrote: > From a marketing perspective, a new release of Mystara > should emphasize some elements that set Mystara apart > from those other classic fantasy settings. Sure, I think that the oneness of Mystara has never been used effectively, probably because at the times Mystara had to be the "entry level" generic fantasy setting, but really it has many original and interesting elements that people who never played it usually don't know at all. Just to name a few, beyond the quest for Immortality: - Mystara it's the only fantasy setting with "grey" Npc, who could be likewise enemies or friends of the PCs, or clearly evil Npc (like Glantrian Princes :-) with a perfectly legitimate place in society. - Mystara had the gazeteer, who not only made possible to play most of the RW cultures in a fantasy environment, but permitted to create region-characterized PCs. - Mystara had the Wizard's Almanac, with news and events of the world, a great source for adventures and deepening of the game. - Mystara had some of the best D&D adventures ever written (the B,X,CM, M and I series) - Mystara had not one, but at least four different settings with peculiar and unique characteristics (Know World, Alphatia, the Savage Coast and the Hollow World just to mention the published ones, but now we could add at least Davania and any other place the comunity will develop in the next years!) - Mystara had flying ships and, particullary, the Princess of Ark, the coolest fantasy ship ever created, much cooler than the Haalrua ships of the Realms and the ships of Spelljammer :-) - Mystara it's the only fantasy world, Afaik, that could be played both High Magic or Low Magic. and about High Magic we speak really High here (Alphatia and its thousands wizards) Anyone of this elements (and I probably forget some other) could make a great setting by itself, with an easily identifiable mood, and a much better setting, IMO, than the golem-robot and magic lights and trains of Eberron. I think that Mystara could be (and could have been) a highly successfull setting, if only properly advertised. Anyway I trust in the online community to maintain it alive and well, so it's not a big pain for me that Mystara is not published anymore, I'm only sorry that so a beautiful setting is largely unknown to the bigger audience out there. bye Francesco ___________________________________ Yahoo! Messenger with Voice: chiama da PC a telefono a tariffe esclusive http://it.messenger.yahoo.com ******************************************************************** 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: Fri, 19 May 2006 14:21:31 +0200 From: Francesco Defferrari Subject: Re: Immortals? or Gods? Havard Faanes wrote: > From a marketing perspective, a new release of Mystara > should emphasize some elements that set Mystara apart > from those other classic fantasy settings. Sure, I think that the oneness of Mystara has never been used effectively, probably because at the times Mystara had to be the "entry level" generic fantasy setting, but really it has many original and interesting elements that people who never played it usually don't know at all. Just to name a few, beyond the quest for Immortality: - Mystara it's the only fantasy setting with "grey" Npc, who could be likewise enemies or friends of the PCs, or clearly evil Npc (like Glantrian Princes with a perfectly legitimate place in society. - Mystara had the gazeteer, who not only made possible to play most of the RW cultures in a fantasy environment, but permitted to create region-characterized PCs. - Mystara had the Wizard's Almanac, with news and events of the world, a great source for adventures and deepening of the game. - Mystara had some of the best D&D adventures ever written (the B,X,CM, M and I series) - Mystara had not one, but at least four different settings with peculiar and unique characteristics (Know World, Alphatia, the Savage Coast and the Hollow World just to mention the published ones, but now we could add at least Davania and any other place the comunity will develop in the next years!) - Mystara had flying ships and, particullary, the Princess of Ark, the coolest fantasy ship ever created, much cooler than the Haalrua ships of the Realms and the ships of Spelljammer - Mystara it's the only fantasy world, Afaik, that could be played both High Magic or Low Magic. And about High Magic we speak really High here (Alphatia and its thousands wizards) Anyone of this elements (and I probably forget some other) could make a great setting by itself, with an easily identifiable mood, and a much better setting, IMO, than the golem-robot and magic lights and trains of Eberron. I think that Mystara could be (and could have been) a highly successfull setting, if only properly advertised. Anyway I trust in the online community to maintain it alive and well, so it's not a big pain for me that Mystara is not published anymore, I'm only sorry that so a beautiful setting is largely unknown to the bigger audience out there. bye Francesco ___________________________________ Yahoo! Mail: gratis 1GB per i messaggi e allegati da 10MB http://mail.yahoo.it ******************************************************************** 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: Fri, 19 May 2006 05:34:34 -0700 From: Stone Marshall Subject: Re: Immortals? or Gods? Anyway I trust in the online community to maintain it alive and well, so it's not a big pain for me that Mystara is not published anymore, I'm only sorry that so a beautiful setting is largely unknown to the bigger audience out there. bye Francesco I agree 100%. The fact that new Mystara material is not published is of no concern to me. The fact is Mystara is "my" world and I have made changes to it as I am sure most DM's have. New material would be in 3.5 and I have never played that version anyway. The new material presented by Mystara's amazing online fans is enough to keep this old schooler happy. As for the Immortal vs. Gods thing....I read in a planescape book between 2 people talking. One said on his world they have Gods that demand worship and generally meddle in the lives of mortals. The Mystaran said they had Immortals. When asked what they were he replied...The demand worship and generally meddle in the lives of mortals...lol Multizar the Mage

Check me out! --------------------------------- Sneak preview the all-new Yahoo.com. It's not radically different. Just radically better. ******************************************************************** 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: Fri, 19 May 2006 09:32:45 -0700 From: Boonedale Subject: Re: Immortals? or Gods? --- Stone Marshall wrote: > As for the Immortal vs. Gods thing....I read in a > planescape book between 2 people talking. One said > on his world they have Gods that demand worship and > generally meddle in the lives of mortals. The > Mystaran said they had Immortals. When asked what > they were he replied...The demand worship and > generally meddle in the lives of mortals...lol > Multizar the Mage That is also in a side bar in the K:KoA book included in the boxed set. That section of the book just says that its up to the DM to decide what it meens to be a Immortal in YOUR Mystara. For me a immortal and a god are the same thing in Mystara, its just under a diffrent name. "Happy Hunting!" __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com ******************************************************************** 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: Fri, 19 May 2006 09:42:46 -0700 From: Joe Kelly Subject: Re: Immortals? or Gods? IMC we make the Immortals the Gods. As to the previous mention: "Immortals could easily be used as an element that sets Mystara apart from other settings."=20 Has hurt it in the past. Maybe with the new DRAGON article it may help it? = I would like to see an interest in our campaign world perk up. They did = that with Dragonlance and Ravenloft. We need multiple articles/adventures = in Dungeon and Dragon magazines, and maybe a NEW company to come along and = renew Mystara with NEW material in the 3.5 format. That would see it come = back. I'll keep my fingers crossed.=20 I'll always be a die hard. I'm getting another map printed off.=20 Speaking of which, Hey Thorf, is there any chance you could increase the = DPI of your maps?=20 Joe Kelly Office Services Clerk DAVIS & COMPANY LLP Suite 2800, Park Place 666 Burrard Street, Vancouver, B.C. V6C 2Z7 Phone 604.643.6365 >>> boonedale@YAHOO.COM 05/19/06 09:32am >>> --- Stone Marshall wrote: > As for the Immortal vs. Gods thing....I read in a > planescape book between 2 people talking. One said > on his world they have Gods that demand worship and > generally meddle in the lives of mortals. The > Mystaran said they had Immortals. When asked what > they were he replied...The demand worship and > generally meddle in the lives of mortals...lol > =20 > Multizar the Mage That is also in a side bar in the K:KoA book included in the boxed set. That section of the book just says that its up to the DM to decide what it meens to be a Immortal in YOUR Mystara. For me a immortal and a god are the same thing in Mystara, its just under a diffrent name. "Happy Hunting!" __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around=20 http://mail.yahoo.com=20 ******************************************************************** The Other Worlds Homepage: http://www.wizards.com/dnd/OtherWorlds.asp=20 The Mystara Homepage: http://www.pandius.com=20 To unsubscribe, send email to LISTSERV@ORACLE.WIZARDS.COM=20 with UNSUB MYSTARA-L in the body of the message. This e-mail and any attachment(s) are confidential and may be privileged. If you are not the intended recipient please notify me immediately by return e-mail, delete this e-mail and do not copy, use or disclose it. Please advise us if you do not want to receive unencrypted e-mails. ******************************************************************** 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, 20 May 2006 01:59:46 +0900 From: Thorfinn Tait Subject: Map image quality > Speaking of which, Hey Thorf, is there any chance you could increase the DPI of your maps? The short answer: no, but I already have. The long answer: Increasing the resolution of the PNG files is not really feasible. Right now, they are balanced to provide reasonably good quality without becoming so bloated that I can't handle the bandwidth to provide the files. The solution to this problem, though, is the PDF files. These files have the maps in 100% vector graphics, which means that you can zoom in as much as you like without losing any definition. That's why I have started to release PDFs as well as PNGs for my maps. The only problem, as we have discussed before, is the printing, because the PDF files tend to have strange page sizes, and there doesn't seem to be an option to split up images into multiple pages in Adobe Reader. However, what you can do is zoom in on the file in Adobe Reader and copy and paste the map into a paint program. Using this method, you can get a copy of the map in a higher resolution than I could ever hope to post online, as well as splitting up the map for easy printing at the same time. When we discussed this before, other methods were also suggested. The bottom line is that PDFs are the answer, problematic as they may be. Thorf ******************************************************************** 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: Fri, 19 May 2006 10:07:47 -0700 From: Joe Kelly Subject: Re: Map image quality Vector files? Awesome. Do you have a list of those that are vector = files?=20 Joe Kelly Office Services Clerk DAVIS & COMPANY LLP Suite 2800, Park Place 666 Burrard Street, Vancouver, B.C. V6C 2Z7 Phone 604.643.6365 >>> thorf@CHOKAI.NE.JP 05/19/06 09:59am >>> > Speaking of which, Hey Thorf, is there any chance you could=20 > increase the DPI of your maps?=20 The short answer: no, but I already have. The long answer: Increasing the resolution of the PNG files is not really feasible. Right now, they are balanced to provide reasonably good quality without becoming so bloated that I can't handle the bandwidth to provide = the files. The solution to this problem, though, is the PDF files. These files have the maps in 100% vector graphics, which means that you can zoom in as much as you like without losing any definition. That's why I have started to release PDFs as well as PNGs for my maps. The only problem, as we have discussed before, is the printing, because = the PDF files tend to have strange page sizes, and there doesn't seem to be an option to split up images into multiple pages in Adobe Reader. However, what you can do is zoom in on the file in Adobe Reader and copy and paste the map into a paint program. Using this method, you can get a copy of = the map in a higher resolution than I could ever hope to post online, as well = as splitting up the map for easy printing at the same time. When we discussed this before, other methods were also suggested. The bottom line is that PDFs are the answer, problematic as they may be. Thorf ******************************************************************** The Other Worlds Homepage: http://www.wizards.com/dnd/OtherWorlds.asp=20 The Mystara Homepage: http://www.pandius.com=20 To unsubscribe, send email to LISTSERV@ORACLE.WIZARDS.COM=20 with UNSUB MYSTARA-L in the body of the message. This e-mail and any attachment(s) are confidential and may be privileged. If you are not the intended recipient please notify me immediately by return e-mail, delete this e-mail and do not copy, use or disclose it. Please advise us if you do not want to receive unencrypted e-mails. ******************************************************************** 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: Fri, 19 May 2006 12:17:39 -0500 From: Daniel Subject: Re: Map image quality well you could always offer them as Illustrator files, would have to compare the sizes to pdf though. ******************************************************************** 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, 20 May 2006 02:46:40 +0900 From: Thorfinn Tait Subject: Re: Map image quality > Vector files? Awesome. Do you have a list of those that are vector files? As with all my maps, go to http://mystara.thorf.co.uk/. You can always find the most recent versions of my maps there. So far I have only released a small selection of PDFs, and I believe they all fit into the Updated Maps, 8 miles per hex category. I fully intend to release more, but I have to be careful about posting too much at once and exceeding my bandwidth. > well you could always offer them as Illustrator files, would have to compare the sizes to pdf though. Actually the PDF files effectively are Illustrator files - you can load them up and edit them freely in Illustrator (preferably CS or CS2). In fact the PDF files take up marginally more space than the Illustrator versions of the same files (not sure why), but the AI format would probably confuse people, so I went with PDFs. Thorf ******************************************************************** 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 - 18 May 2006 to 19 May 2006 (#2006-100) ****************************************************************