Updated to 3.5, it gives stats for cyborgs and some of the weapons from the Beagle aka The City of the Gods!!!! Glad to see that Mystara(by way of Blackmoor) is not totally dead to the higher ups at Wizards.
Maybe someone will do a Return to The City of the Gods?
I don't know if anyone noticed or not but Wizards just posted a new adventure on its website!!!! Return to the Temple of the Frog!!!!!!
Updated to 3.5, it gives stats for cyborgs and some of the weapons from the Beagle aka The City of the Gods!!!! Glad to see that Mystara(by way of Blackmoor) is not totally dead to the higher ups at Wizards.
Maybe someone will do a Return to The City of the Gods?
Being a Blackmoor fan (understatement?) I enjoyed reading through this little module, but I find it a little odd that WotC gives away this module for free, just before ZGG are about to release their version of Temple of the Frog.
Ofcourse, a "Return to" module isn't exactly the same thing, so there probably won't be too much of an overlap. I was also disappointed that there was no mention of Dave Arneson's name anywhere in the article or actual module.
As for the City of the Gods, ZGG have announced that they intend to publish updated versions of DA2-4 this year so both the City of the Gods and the Duchy of Ten will be revealed.
Havard
Quick question... Is there any relation between Saint Stephen from the Temple of the Frog and Saimpt Stephen, the SC Immortal?
I can't find any info on Saimpt Stephen. Is he an alias for someone else?
Saint Stephen is an alien from the Beagle who, after rebelling against Captain Riesling went to take over the Order of the Frog. While it is possible that he achieved Immortality, I always assumed that he was eventually killed by Riesling.
Then again, I also had some theories about Riesling being Benekander and Stephen being Gareth...
Havard
Being a Blackmoor fan (understatement?) I enjoyed reading through this little module, but I find it a little odd that WotC gives away this module for free, just before ZGG are about to release their version of Temple of the Frog.
Ofcourse, a "Return to" module isn't exactly the same thing, so there probably won't be too much of an overlap. I was also disappointed that there was no mention of Dave Arneson's name anywhere in the article or actual module.
Havard
Did anyone have an inkling that this was coming? It caught me totally off guard.
I understand they are doing a Return to series, but the fact that they released this when they did makes it look more like an effort to undercut ZGG. Although releasing it for free could mean other reasons, including an attempt to promote their series.
Does anyone know how the rights to Blackmoor work between Dave Arneson and WoTC? I assume WoTC retained some rights, since they have Blackmoor in Living Greyhawk, and they did this.
Quick question... Is there any relation between Saint Stephen from the Temple of the Frog and Saimpt Stephen, the SC Immortal?
I doubt it; I haven't seen any references to a Saimpt Stephen, but the SC manual states that the only Saimpt who was not a Lupin in life is Saimpt Renard (Korotiku).
Did anyone have an inkling that this was coming? It caught me totally off guard.
It was mentioned in their previews section for some time prior to the release. It was discussed a little over at the ZGG boards, but no official comments were made.
I understand they are doing a Return to series, but the fact that they released this when they did makes it look more like an effort to undercut ZGG. Although releasing it for free could mean other reasons, including an attempt to promote their series.
It is possible I suppose. If they were trying to promote the series, wouldnt it make sense to mention them though?
Does anyone know how the rights to Blackmoor work between Dave Arneson and WoTC? I assume WoTC retained some rights, since they have Blackmoor in Living Greyhawk, and they did this.
WotC still has the rights to GH. ZGG is paying for the lisence which allows them to use them as well and also make full use of existing Blackmoor material including the never published DA5. From what I understand, WotC helped finance and publish the Core Blackmoor D20 book in return for all profits from that book. ZGG gets the profits from further supplements though.
Havard
Some Mystaraphiles might say that, in the OD&D Mystara Reality, these creatures would be replaced by the closest previously-published OD&D equivalent. However, I envision that these monsters from the 3E Mystara Reality be "back-translated", giving OD&D versions of them.
Travis
Except that there is no official (even pseudo-official) 3E Mystara reality.
Yes, in the absence of a 3E Mystara worldbook, there is no official 3E Mystara Reality. However, I'd say that there are a few semi-official glimpses of Mystara in the 3E Reality, such as:
- The 3E stats for Stefan Karameikos that WotC had a freelancer write and post at the Vaults to promote the release of 3E.
- The 3E stats for Mystaran creatures that have appeared in WotC publications.
- Certain Dragon and Dungeon articles or parts of articles, such as the Children of Ka prestige class, and the Lost City of Cynidicea (minus any references to Core deities and such, if any).
- Most of Zeitgeist's 3E Blackmoor material would conceivably be official for the 3E Mystara too.
- Some underlying principles that have been applied by WotC to all official 3E campaign settings would conceivably apply to Mystara too, such as the cosmological retconning that took place at the end of the 2E multiverse (in the last Vecna module) to make way for the 3E planar scheme where each campaign setting has its own cosmology (instead of a shared Great Wheel like in 2E). Of course, the specifics of how these 3E principles would be manifest in an official 3E Mystara are as yet unknown.
I'm not suggesting that an official Mystara relaunch shouldn't or wouldn't revise these semi-official bits and bobbles, but they do provide a few peep-hole glimpses into some sort of WotC-published 3E Mystara Reality. Anyway, D&D 4E is supposed to be announced at GenCon, so it looks like there will be no official version of Mystara in the 3E Reality (same for the AD&D1E Reality...the closest Mystara touched that Reality was in the 1E conversion guides in the back of the early Gazetteers.). Official Mystara is only detailed in the OD&D Reality and (to a lesser extent) in the AD&D2E Reality.
Travis