Subject: MYSTARA-L Digest - 4 Jun 2010 to 7 Jun 2010 (#2010-6) From: MYSTARA-L automatic digest system Date: 08/06/2010, 17:00 To: MYSTARA-L@ORACLE.WIZARDS.COM Reply-to: Mystara RPG Discussion There are 10 messages totalling 529 lines in this issue. Topics of the day: 1. Alternatives to sinking Alphatia (9) 2. Test ******************************************************************** 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, 7 Jun 2010 11:59:19 -0500 From: Gman Subject: Alternatives to sinking Alphatia Drives me nuts that all the landmass, all those people and everything else gets sunk to the bottom of the sea and also transported into Hollow World. I'm contemplating, in this next run of Mystara I'm starting up, not ever letting Alphatia go away....or alternatively, maybe, disappearing it's people, leaving the land. Anyone else ever do this? How'd it go? If not, then what do ya'll think of the idea? ***Posted in Piazza as well, :)*** -- Gman ******************************************************************** 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, 7 Jun 2010 10:06:41 -0700 From: "Kelly, Joe" Subject: Re: Alternatives to sinking Alphatia I like the idea of a vanished people. And Alphatians to boot? Leaving all t= heir technology behind could create tons of questions for adventurers to co= ntemplate what happened. JOE -----Original Message----- From: Mystara RPG Discussion [mailto:MYSTARA-L@ORACLE.WIZARDS.COM] On Behal= f Of Gman Sent: Monday, June 07, 2010 9:59 AM To: MYSTARA-L@ORACLE.WIZARDS.COM Subject: [MYSTARA] Alternatives to sinking Alphatia Drives me nuts that all the landmass, all those people and everything else = gets sunk to the bottom of the sea and also transported into Hollow World. I'm contemplating, in this next run of Mystara I'm starting up, not ever le= tting Alphatia go away....or alternatively, maybe, disappearing it's people= , leaving the land. Anyone else ever do this? How'd it go? If not, then what do ya'll think of the idea? ***Posted in Piazza as well, :)*** -- Gman ******************************************************************** 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. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 7 Jun 2010 19:12:12 +0200 From: Giampaolo Agosta Subject: Re: Alternatives to sinking Alphatia On 7 June 2010 19:06, Kelly, Joe wrote: > I like the idea of a vanished people. And Alphatians to boot? Leaving all their technology behind could create tons of questions for adventurers to contemplate what happened. Tons of wands of lightning bolts, airships and tomes of magic abandoned? That would make wizards from the whole world relocate as fast as possible, or at least send recovery teams to retrieve as many artifacts as possible. 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, 7 Jun 2010 10:15:09 -0700 From: "Kelly, Joe" Subject: Re: Alternatives to sinking Alphatia True, if you just made it happen. But what if it happened a hundred years a= go? What would be left? Could something valuable been left behind? Maybe, l= ike many tv shows something that was left behind because it was known (back= then) that it was a cursed item. JOE -----Original Message----- From: Mystara RPG Discussion [mailto:MYSTARA-L@ORACLE.WIZARDS.COM] On Behal= f Of Giampaolo Agosta Sent: Monday, June 07, 2010 10:12 AM To: MYSTARA-L@ORACLE.WIZARDS.COM Subject: Re: [MYSTARA] Alternatives to sinking Alphatia On 7 June 2010 19:06, Kelly, Joe wrote: > I like the idea of a vanished people. And Alphatians to boot? Leaving all= their technology behind could create tons of questions for adventurers to = contemplate what happened. Tons of wands of lightning bolts, airships and tomes of magic abandoned? Th= at would make wizards from the whole world relocate as fast as possible, or= at least send recovery teams to retrieve as many artifacts as possible. 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= . 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: Mon, 7 Jun 2010 10:18:18 -0700 From: Andrew Theisen Subject: Re: Alternatives to sinking Alphatia I, too, was never a big fan of sinking Alphatia; such a waste, it seems to me. Instead, I imagined a post-WotI world where Alphatia was struggling to maintain itself as an empire, with many of its individual nations declaring their independence and/or dominance in the Imperial Alliance (prompted, among other things, by Alphatia's involvement in yet another pointless war with the mainland "over there"). I had a lot of ideas, many of which are now forgotten or otherwise don't come easily to mind, but I know that at least some of them are very similar to some of the ideas that Geoff Gander came up wit in his alternative Alphatian post-Wrath histories; you should check them out at the Vaults of Pandius: Alphatian History. Another idea that I had that I do recall involved turning the post-Apocalyptic ruins of Sundsvall and surrounding regions into a sort of Gamma World-esque wasteland, complete with mutants and fantastic creatures, and radioactive zombies (which may or may not be Lightning Zombies, though those would be appropriate, given the Radiance's involvement). ******************************************************************** 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, 7 Jun 2010 11:03:07 -0700 From: Dave Keyser Subject: Re: Alternatives to sinking Alphatia I say go for it! Why get hung up over the canon materials? True, stuff becomes more unusable the more you diverge from the written material, but there is still plenty to use. There isn't even a reason to start a campaign in 1000AC in Alphatia, an Alphatian campaign could easily be started hundreds or thousands of years earlier than that. Dave On Mon, Jun 7, 2010 at 9:59 AM, Gman wrote: > Drives me nuts that all the landmass, all those people and everything else > gets sunk to the bottom of the sea and also transported into Hollow World. > > I'm contemplating, in this next run of Mystara I'm starting up, not ever > letting Alphatia go away....or alternatively, maybe, disappearing it's > people, leaving the land. > > Anyone else ever do this? How'd it go? > > If not, then what do ya'll think of the idea? > > ***Posted in Piazza as well, :)*** > > -- > Gman > > ******************************************************************** > 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: Mon, 7 Jun 2010 15:58:52 -0700 From: "Harvey, Michael" Subject: Re: Alternatives to sinking Alphatia I hate to throw away a perfectly good gazetteer with many interesting lands= . On the other hand I find the "magic empire" far too powerful (with respec= t to everyone else) and over the top. I'd prefer for Alphatia to be like th= e known world, with independent kingdoms of roughly a similar power level. So, here is an alternate scenario: The Glantrians "merely" destroyed the capital city of Sundsvall -- includin= g the imperial family and the entire council of 36th level spellcasters -- = and created a huge swath of blasted desert which is also a magic-dead zone.= With the destruction of the imperial government and capitol, the empire co= llapses instantly, leaving the Alphatian kingdoms leaderless and stunned. Besides the magical storm over Sundsvall, energies swirled outwards like ed= dies over the continent. In many places these drained or overloaded magic i= tems, mutated monsters, even created small magic-dead zones or wild magic p= oints. With nearly all the high level wizards and clerics in Alphatia gone, their = spells failed and their homes were left vacant. Monstrous and undead thrall= s were free to run amok over the countryside. Vacant towers are brimming wi= th knowledge, magic, booby-traps, and uncontrolled guardians. Many of the c= astles of Ar crashed to the ground, others floated away as their magical te= thers failed. Naturally, social chaos ensued. Monsters and humanoids began to ravage the = land. In many places commoners, freed of tyranny by the spellcasting elite,= rose up in revolution and overthrew the remaining spellcasters. In other p= laces, the remaining mid to low level wizards struggled to hold local gover= nment together and protect the populace. As kingdoms stabilized, war broke = out across Alphatia, commoners vs. spellcasters, men vs. monsters, warlord = vs. warlord, imperialists who want to restore the empire vs. independents w= ho want to chart their own course. Some kingdoms were virtually destroyed l= eaving behind ruins and wilderness, others emerged largely intact. The varied kingdoms and territories of Alphatia are now independent. Each r= etains aspects of its former existence, but each has been altered. And whil= e thousands of wizards have been killed, thousands of items destroyed, much= magic still remains... in short, the kingdoms in Alphatia are now "normal"= and roughly on par magically with the rest of the world. Except for Glantr= i. It is likely that a few of them will unite to create a new empire, but s= uch would be starting from scratch and surrounded by very hostile neighbors= who have no wish to repeat history. ******************************************************************** 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, 7 Jun 2010 23:15:51 -0400 From: Alex Benson Subject: Re: Test I actually thought the Mystara Mailing List had gone away and been replace= d by the Piazza. I rarely use this email account for anything anymore. I= was pretty surprised to see the MML mails. =20 ********************************************************************=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.=20 =20 ******************************************************************** 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, 7 Jun 2010 23:39:18 -0400 From: Alex Benson Subject: Re: Alternatives to sinking Alphatia Some of the old hands know my feelings on sinking Alphatia. In short, I= think that it was a stupid plot hole filled move that only served to help= promote Allston's vision of Mystara with Karameikos leading the way. And= it's not just the loss of Alphatia. I'd include the changes with Thyatis= as well.=20 Anyway, the aftermath of the WotI pretty much killed the setting for me.= =20 I quit actively playing in Mystara but tried to remain active with the onl= ine Mystara community. For a variety of reasons I have since become a lurk= er with the occasional appearance over at the Piazza. As I said in another= mail, I had thought that the MML had basically died. Recently, I had hope= d to try to return to the Mystara Net Almanac mainly to finish up some of= the plotlines that I had created. The interest just is not there anymore.= My last couple of adventures attest to that. Anyway, I'm getting off topic a bit. An alternative to sinking...Alphatia= is sapped by the Great War (like Thyatis). The Empire turns inward into= a state of isolationism. =20 =20 -----Original Message----- From: Gman To: MYSTARA-L@ORACLE.WIZARDS.COM Sent: Mon, Jun 7, 2010 12:59 pm Subject: [MYSTARA] Alternatives to sinking Alphatia Drives me nuts that all the landmass, all those people and everything else gets sunk to the bottom of the sea and also transported into Hollow World. I'm contemplating, in this next run of Mystara I'm starting up, not ever letting Alphatia go away....or alternatively, maybe, disappearing it's people, leaving the land. Anyone else ever do this? How'd it go? If not, then what do ya'll think of the idea? ***Posted in Piazza as well, :)*** --=20 Gman ******************************************************************** 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. =20 ******************************************************************** 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, 7 Jun 2010 22:48:03 -0500 From: Gman Subject: Re: Alternatives to sinking Alphatia I assure you sir, you can reinvigorate the wonderful world of Mystara just by starting again with it in your mind that you'll not see Alphatia & Thyatis "washed up" and ruined, :). I fully intend to pursue that as I teach my children to roleplay. I will be using some of the ideas from this very conversation as well as those from the Piazza, and of course from the epically awesome vault! On Mon, Jun 7, 2010 at 10:39 PM, Alex Benson wrote: > Some of the old hands know my feelings on sinking Alphatia. In short, I > think that it was a stupid plot hole filled move that only served to help > promote Allston's vision of Mystara with Karameikos leading the way. And > it's not just the loss of Alphatia. I'd include the changes with Thyatis as > well. > > Anyway, the aftermath of the WotI pretty much killed the setting for me. > > I quit actively playing in Mystara but tried to remain active with the > online Mystara community. For a variety of reasons I have since become a > lurker with the occasional appearance over at the Piazza. As I said in > another mail, I had thought that the MML had basically died. Recently, I had > hoped to try to return to the Mystara Net Almanac mainly to finish up some > of the plotlines that I had created. The interest just is not there anymore. > My last couple of adventures attest to that. > > Anyway, I'm getting off topic a bit. An alternative to sinking...Alphatia > is sapped by the Great War (like Thyatis). The Empire turns inward into a > state of isolationism. > > > > > > > > -----Original Message----- > From: Gman > To: MYSTARA-L@ORACLE.WIZARDS.COM > Sent: Mon, Jun 7, 2010 12:59 pm > Subject: [MYSTARA] Alternatives to sinking Alphatia > > > Drives me nuts that all the landmass, all those people and everything else > > gets sunk to the bottom of the sea and also transported into Hollow World. > > > > I'm contemplating, in this next run of Mystara I'm starting up, not ever > > letting Alphatia go away....or alternatively, maybe, disappearing it's > > people, leaving the land. > > > > Anyone else ever do this? How'd it go? > > > > If not, then what do ya'll think of the idea? > > > > ***Posted in Piazza as well, :)*** > > > > -- > > Gman > > > > ******************************************************************** > > 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. > -- Gman ******************************************************************** 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 - 4 Jun 2010 to 7 Jun 2010 (#2010-6) ************************************************************