Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 havard Jun 15, 2004 6:11:45	I decided to make a new thread out of this! In another thread Cthulhudrewwrote: Where I get tripped up is in deciding what regions there are. Some are fairly straightforward (to me): Karameikos Ylaruam Ierendi Honor Island Canolbarth Rockhome Five Shires Minrothad Broken Lands Darokin- Heartlands Darokin- Borderlands Ethengar Most of the above have related racial regions- (ex. Alfeisle for Minrothad elves, Fortress Isle for Minrothad dwarves). Even some of these aren't so straightforward to me. Should Alfheim get regions for each clan? (Ie, Grunalf region for Grunalf elves, Erendyl, etc.?) Should Rockhome? If so, then doing the Shires will be a nightmare (100 clans!!!) Should Ylaruam have separate regions? The Makistani certainly would seem to warrant their own "sub" region. How about the Nithians? The most tricky ones for me are these: Glantri- So many different and distinct principalities. Does each get its own region? Thyatis- Hattias should probably get its own region; should Kerendas? Tel al Kabir? Northern Reaches- Should all three get their own region (Vestland, Soderfjord, Ostland)? Are they distinct enough to warrant it? Where does Heldann fit in? How do they break down into racial regions (ie, dwarves, gnomes)? Atruaghin Clans- Does each clan get its own region?
#2 spellweaver Jul 21, 2004 8:42:38	Originally posted by havard Dragon Magazine had Regional Feats for Greyhawk running over two issues. If someone more familiar with Greyhawk than me could provide a list of which Flaeness regions correspond to which Known World/Mystara countries, that could save us alot of work. The same could be done with FR so we could steal the regional feats from the Players Guide to Faerun aswell. Anyone wanna provide such lists? The Lighthouse website mentioned in another thread has a remarkable list of regional feats - all of them brand new and developed for Mystara (as far as I can see :D ) :-) Jesper
#3 zombiegleemax Jul 29, 2004 11:17:24	Mystara cannot be readily broken into large, broad "regions" like one can do with the Forgotten Realms or even Greyhawk. That's because Mystara, as opposed to those other settings, is very culture intensive. The entirety of the classic Mystaran Known World is about the size of one-ninth the entire Flanaess, or about the size of the Sheldomar Valley; the equivalent area in the Forgotten Realms would include the original 30 mile per inch map of the Dales, Cormyr, Sembia, and the Moonsea lands. In Greyhawk and FR those regions are culturally unified, to a great extent (Sof in GH, general "Dalesmen" culture in FR). Yet, in that same amount of space, the Known World has literalyl dozens of cultures. So to try to identify anything by geographical region in the Known World would be almost impossible, unless you break it down to the most minute section possible. I would abandon any such attempt and go with Cultural Feats rather than Regional Feats. Thus, a feat would be available to Thyatians, or Ethengars, or Nuari, instead of anyone in the Known World. If something calls for a specific region, then go with the domain wherein it is found, such as Aalban, or Corunglain, or Tel Akbir. Thus, Hamid al Mustafa of Tel Akbir, an adventurer of Alasiyani extraction, could take an Alasiyani Cultural Feat, or a Tel Akbir Domain Feat, or even an Imperial Thyatian Domain Feat, but not a Thyatian Cultural Feat, even though Tel Akbir is a Thyatian domain -- because he himself is Alasiyani, not Thyatian.
#4 havard Jul 31, 2004 11:57:59	Mystaros, that does indeed sound like a good sollution to the problem. Mystara, especially the Known World part of it, is incredibly complex. The system you propose is the best suggestion I have seen so far in modelling Mystara's cultures properly, yet it adds more complexity to the rules, and it might be tricky preserving the game balance. That said, I'd love to see someone do a complete cultural feats writeup for Mystara. Havard