Subject: MYSTARA-L Digest - 16 Aug 2007 to 17 Aug 2007 (#2007-73) From: MYSTARA-L automatic digest system Date: 18/08/2007, 17:00 To: MYSTARA-L@ORACLE.WIZARDS.COM Reply-to: Mystara RPG Discussion There are 5 messages totalling 185 lines in this issue. Topics of the day: 1. D&D 4e and Mystara (5) ******************************************************************** 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, 17 Aug 2007 10:16:19 -0400 From: Joe Mason Subject: Re: D&D 4e and Mystara On 8/17/07, Andrew Theisen wrote: > My own suggestion would be that any conversion attempt to 4E should probably be more focused on descriptive elements, and avoid the mechanics (completely, if possible). Uh, why? That seems pretty backwards to me - isn't the idea to keep the descriptive elements from Mystara, and explain how to work these with 4E mechanics? 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: Fri, 17 Aug 2007 07:47:09 -0700 From: Boonedale Subject: Re: D&D 4e and Mystara I think what hes geting at is that if you keep it descriptive the cointent becomes easer to work into the game system the DM/Players are playing it. Let the playing group decide how it all fits in there gaming world insted of seting rules they may feal they "have to" follow to make it fit in there setting. --- Joe Mason wrote: > On 8/17/07, Andrew Theisen wrote: > > My own suggestion would be that any conversion > attempt to 4E should probably be more focused on > descriptive elements, and avoid the mechanics > (completely, if possible). > > Uh, why? That seems pretty backwards to me - isn't > the idea to keep > the descriptive elements from Mystara, and explain > how to work these > with 4E mechanics? > > 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. > "Happy Hunting!" ____________________________________________________________________________________ Take the Internet to Go: Yahoo!Go puts the Internet in your pocket: mail, news, photos & more. http://mobile.yahoo.com/go?refer=1GNXIC ******************************************************************** 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, 17 Aug 2007 18:20:09 -0700 From: Andrew Theisen Subject: Re: D&D 4e and Mystara > Boonedale wrote: I think what hes geting at is that >if you keep it descriptive the cointent becomes easer to work into > the game system the DM/Players are playing it. Let the > playing group decide how it all fits in there gaming > world insted of seting rules they may feal they "have > to" follow to make it fit in there setting. That's exactly my point. By the time 4E comes out, Mystara will have been out of print for almost a decade and a half. There are pdfs available that are not entirely complete in some cases, not of great quality in others, and not available at all in a few. There has been no 3E product support for the line, and only very few mentions. The Vaults of Pandius, and the Mystara community, are the only things still propping up the campaign setting, and that community is not in lockstep on what edition (or even ruleset) to use for the mechanics of the setting. If we want to appeal to a broader base and generate interest in the setting (1), then I think it would behoove us more to let people know what the setting is about, organize what we have collectively come up with in some fashion, and provide- inasmuch as we can- information about what was done in the print products, in order to make it a newcomer friendly campaign world. By no means should we slow down any expansions, additions, etc. that we collectively create, but I think some attention should be given to the vast majority of people out there who don't know what Mystara is. (1) Now, of course, maybe the point isn't to generate new interest, but to support ourselves as gamers who want to continue with the setting but under the new rules, in which case I think we'll find just as much fractured pursuit of that goal as happened under 3E, though that isn't to say it may not be worthwhile. It's just a matter of intent. As an example, look at Greenronin's approach to Freeport. They put out the Pirate's Guide to Freeport- entirely mechanics free- so that it could be used with 3E, True20, whatever. Meanwhile, they are also putting out support for Freeport under their (now preferred) True20 rules. ******************************************************************** 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, 17 Aug 2007 22:16:19 -0400 From: Joe Mason Subject: Re: D&D 4e and Mystara >> From what I've heard, it sounds like the 4E rules will be much more compatible with the BD&D rules. The big problems I had trying to do my own conversion were: - it was really hard to map level 1-36 characters on to level 1-20: not enough range. Do we try to make level 36 equal level 20, or make the top levels of BD&D into Epic Level characters in 3E? - low-level 3E characters are much more powerful than in BD&D - Elves are really hard to deal with due to the settings assumption that all elves are inherantly magical. Well, in 4E, they're expanding the level range to 1-30, and according to http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?t=204332 "Classes can be improved by racial feats, in a similar way to how current racial substitution levels work." That seems like a good way to integrate the Mystaran elven spellcasting abilities. They're speculating that paladin may become a prestige class, which is exactly how it worked in BD&D. ******************************************************************** 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, 17 Aug 2007 22:26:48 -0700 From: Beau Yarbrough Subject: Re: D&D 4e and Mystara Joe Mason wrote: > >From what I've heard, it sounds like the 4E rules will be much more > compatible with the BD&D rules. And here it is again, the very thing that led to the bickering and from there to the apathy as tons of people gave up in disgust on the Mystara 3E project: Mystara is distinct from BD&D. If someone wants to play BD&D, they should go grab Castles & Crusades and modify that. Converting Mystara needs to be about converting the setting, not the rules. If someone wants the full-on experience of playing BD&D, they can download the PDFs of that, and off they go. No one -- at all -- is served by trying to turn 3E (and now 4E) into BD&D and pretend that it's a meaningful end result. Assuming there's a genuine interest in actually making the setting available before 5E rolls around, the focus should be on describing Mystara in system-neutral or in 4E terms, not in trying to reverse engineer 4E back to BD&D. ******************************************************************** 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 - 16 Aug 2007 to 17 Aug 2007 (#2007-73) ***************************************************************