Subject: MYSTARA-L Digest - 1 Sep 2006 to 3 Sep 2006 (#2006-145) From: MYSTARA-L automatic digest system Date: 04/09/2006, 17:00 To: MYSTARA-L@ORACLE.WIZARDS.COM Reply-to: Mystara RPG Discussion There are 4 messages totalling 215 lines in this issue. Topics of the day: 1. Gaming in Old Alphatia 2. Aaron Allston hates dwarves! (2) 3. Tome of Mystara ******************************************************************** 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: Sun, 3 Sep 2006 09:54:38 -0700 From: The Stalker Subject: Re: Gaming in Old Alphatia On Thu, 31 Aug 2006 12:00:37 -0700, Chris Cherrington wrote: > I can see one very important magical item: Phase Oars. These magical oars are enchanted to "dig in" to the ethereal, thus allowing users the ability to "row" between land masses without the use of sails or other propulsions. Each oar has a small chance of creating an "eddy". These eddies have a chance of allowing creatures from the ethereal plane access to this world. Treat each oar in use as a 1% chance per hour of continuous use. Thus a galley of 50 rowers will cause a 50% chance of creating an eddy that allows a wandering monster from the ethereal loose. > While this is a good idea, you should probably keep in mind that Old Alphatia is in the outer planes, which would cut any connection to the ethereal rather severely. One reason why the prime plane is a crossroad is because it is the only place where the astral and the ethereal can meet. "Astral oars" would make more sense, I think. > For more Fauna ideas, winged creatures would have had the advantage of survival in this world. Creatures like Harpies or "Lesser Archons" might have powerful nations on some of the fringe planetoids. Keeping the Moby track in mind, there may be new creatures like Winged Sirens or Wingmaids. > The real question is where these creatures came from, but I suppose millennia of (Old) Alphatian "laboratory" experiments followed by a couple of millennia of neglegt (after the planet's destruction) can be used to account for anything the GM might want... Alphatian magics can be very convenient in that regard ;) - The Stalker ******************************************************************** 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: Sun, 3 Sep 2006 10:08:02 -0700 From: The Stalker Subject: Re: Aaron Allston hates dwarves! On Fri, 1 Sep 2006 10:46:03 +0200, Havard Faanes wrote: > Okay, I dont know if that is a fact... > > But consider: > > DotE: a whole boxed set and Denwarf Hurgon gets how > little coverage? > Yes, but as Giampaolo Agosta has already pointed out, Allston also wrote the Rockhome gaz. Being the only one to ever write an extensive sourcebook on dwarves for Mystara, it seems odd to assume he dislikes dwarves. In this instance, for example, it can be assumed that given that Stoutfellow was founded by dwarves from Rockhome a mere 50 years before DotE's contemporary time (AC 1000), it is far easier to simply refer to the Rockhome gaz than to repeat a lot of other material. Besides, you'd have to make the same argument for the halflings in Stoutfellow as well. No, the ones who are really treated badly are the gnomes - no sourcebooks and no description here either. But given how much of Alphatia received very little coverage in DotE, I don't think we can complain. Just the same is true for nations like Frisland, Shiye-Lawr, Foresthome and a host of others. Sadly. > HW: One dwarven culture (of misfits nonetheless) and > how many elven cultures? > And did the elves receive better coverage? Besides, dwarves are sturdy, so do not need to be "saved" nearly as often as elves. Kagyar only ever made one "change" to the race, when he formed the Rockhome dwarves. The elves are spread out all over Mystara in societies that are constantly failing next to other races. That's why the HW is littered with them. > WotI: What happens to Rockhome? > They get a free pass, the lucky little blighters! Some nations were not so lucky. The elves (again) lost their homeland. Alphatia was destroyed. Thyatis was in ruins. Darokin was depleted of resources. Glantri was struck by meteors and Alphatian archmages... But the dwarves just go underground and claim neutral ground. They even get away with it and kick out anyone who might have taken up residence in their lands as a matter of course so insignificant and obvious that Allston doesn't even bother to go into details about it in PWA1. IMC I actually made a note of the dwarves kicking out some Heldannic Knights and orcs in Rockhome. But it seems nobody wanted was going to question the claim on the land made by thousands of dwarves suddenly emerging from the ground. > Dwarves can have interesting cultures too cant they? > Sure. Whatever gave you the opposite idea? - The Stalker ******************************************************************** 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: Sun, 3 Sep 2006 21:18:30 +0200 From: Giampaolo Agosta Subject: Re: Aaron Allston hates dwarves! On 03/09/06, The Stalker wrote: > In this > instance, for example, it can be assumed that given that Stoutfellow was > founded by dwarves from Rockhome a mere 50 years before DotE's contemporary > time (AC 1000), it is far easier to simply refer to the Rockhome gaz than to > repeat a lot of other material. Yes, and it's the same for Buhrohur in Thyatis and Highforge in Karameikos: these dwarven communities are just colonies of Rockhome, trying to keep the same traditions of their motherland. OTOH, that's not to say that there is a single Dwarven culture in Mystara: you've got the hooligan/outcast dwarves of the Northern Reaches, the Augrist dwarves of clan Hammer in Minrothad, as well as the dwarves of the Savage Coast, who have adopted human cultures -- the clans that live in Montoya, Harstal and Avernos, plus of course the Smithy clan of Smokestone City (of the Smithy & Westron fame). Not as much variety as the elves, but it's not that bad either. > No, the ones who are > really treated badly are the gnomes - no sourcebooks and no description here > either. Well, there's Top Ballista, though. > And did the elves receive better coverage? Besides, dwarves are sturdy, so > do not need to be "saved" nearly as often as elves. The ultimate proof of the superiority of dwarven culture :) > But the dwarves just go underground and claim neutral ground. They even get > away with it and kick out anyone who might have taken up residence in their > lands as a matter of course so insignificant and obvious that Allston > doesn't even bother to go into details about it in PWA1. That wasn't a bright choice, though. The dwarves are not surrounded by nations interested in attacking them, with the exception of the goblinoids. The "go underground" thing was not needed, nor especially effective. 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: Mon, 4 Sep 2006 01:33:51 +0200 From: la Volpe Subject: Re: Tome of Mystara Feel free to use and publish on the Vaults every thing you want! I'm just happy to give you my permission!!! Giulio --- Geoff Gander ha scritto: > Hi all, > > This message is a call to all of those who submitted > articles to the now- > defunct Tome of Mystara e-zine, requesting their > permission to make their submissions available online through the Vaults of > Pandius. p2.vert.ukl.yahoo.com uncompressed/chunked Sun Sep 3 23:13:32 GMT 2006 ___________________________________ 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. ------------------------------ End of MYSTARA-L Digest - 1 Sep 2006 to 3 Sep 2006 (#2006-145) **************************************************************