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Fan Productions Overview

by Håvard from Threshold Magazine issue 27

This overview of the major Mystara fan creations compiled by Havard comes from this thread on The Piazza https://www.thepiazza.org.uk/bb/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=513 and is basically a list of links to relevant resources in the Vaults of Pandius. On the occasion of this issue of Threshold magazine celebrating the 25th anniversary of the Mystara official webpage, Thorfinn had the idea to publish in the magazine this fantastic list highlighting the huge work done on Mystara by the fan community through all these years. And me, the editor of the current issue, also added below some comments to better illustrate to readers the treasure trove of Mystara material which can be found in the Vaults!

Sturm aka Francesco
Editor in chief of Threshold magazine issue #27

When I started to compile this list, it was important to me that it was not to be seen as a suggestion that some fan contributions were better than others. All fan contributions have value and I think this attitude in the community is something that encourages everyone to post their ideas. The reason I wanted to make this list was to highlight work that had been turned into a PDF or constituted more than a single article about a certain topic.

Havard

Mystara Fanzines

This category obviously includes Threshold magazine and its ancestors, done when the availability of images and publishing software was obviously much smaller than today, but the passion and interest of fans was the same.

Threshold Magazine issues with publication dates


OD&DITIES

OD&Dities started out as a free fanzine created by Richard Tongue to promote the Classic D&D Rules. The first 12 issues are still available for free.

Mystara Cartography



Mapping has been a great interest from the Mystara community since the start, as the series of articles about Mystara mappers by Thorf, starting with this issue, clearly shows. Thorf’s Atlas is obviously a primary resource, but Mystara has many other mappers, some of them with a huge ongoing collection, as Robin’s. Thorf’s Atlas doesn’t host anymore ‘just’ the Mystara updated and replica maps by Thorfinn, but also eventually intends to list all the work done over the years by fans, as you can see in the link below (and the first Mappers of Mystara article in this issue dedicated to Geoff Gander).

Mystara Net Almanacs

The Fan Almanacs continued the stories which began with the official 1010 AC Poor Wizard’s Almanac and ended with the 1013 AC Joshuan’s Almanac. Even if there has been a long hiatus, the story of the Fan Almanacs has not ended, as Hausman and many others are working on the 1020 AC Almanac at The Piazza:
https://www.thepiazza.org.uk/bb/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=17075
The Mystara Almanacs were originally published between 1997 and 2006 (see Thorf’s research on the actual dates in the post linked in note 1 above) and Morfie later made updated pdf versions between 2016 and 2019, originally published in this thread on The Piazza (https://www.thepiazza.org.uk/bb/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=15072#p170082) and later in the Vaults here http://pandius.com/alm.html.


Mystara Rulebooks

The Piazza also has rules conversions subforums2 and obviously the Vaults of Pandius have a whole section dedicated to Rules: http://pandius.com/rules.html

The GAZ F series - Fan Gazetteers

OldDawg/JTR made the first fantastic Fan Gazetteers which are listed here. Some other fans did the same in other regions of Mystara, see the other categories below.

Alphatian Mini-Gazetteers

Quite some time ago some fans made this great expansion of Alphatia pre-WotI. Obviously years later former Mystara designer Bruce Heard did the same too on his blog https://bruce-heard.blogspot.com/, posts also listed here: http://pandius.com/bheard.html

Other Gazetteers

A lot of other Gazetteers were produced by fans over the years. Omnibus/Roberto Roma also compiled pdf Gazetteers in Italian using the materials present in the Atlas section http://pandius.com/atlas.html of the Vaults and adding some of his own. Some of his Gazetteers, which cover the whole Brun and some other regions, were also translated in English and are listed below, while the complete list in Italian is at the bottom of the article.
Each one listed below would deserve a specific mention and also check past issues of Threshold magazine http://pandius.com/thrs_mag.html, as several ones, being dedicated to specific regions or continents, are de-facto a sort of Gazetteers of the theme region.

Fan Adventures

Some of the best Mystaran adventures created by fans are listed here but obviously check the Adventure section at the Vaults of Pandius, which has many more: http://pandius.com/adv_camp.html and the adventures published so far in Threshold magazine: https://www.thepiazza.org.uk/bb/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=17521&p=222019#p222024

The Hollow World Fan Material

Also relevant for the Hollow World is issue #9 of Threshold magazine: http://pandius.com/thrs_mag.html#9 and the Warriors of Eternal Sun conversion later published from issue #23 to #25.

Dragonsfoot Productions

Other works

The articles listed below are indeed important resources on Mystara but many more can obviously be found at the Vaults in the Resources section http://pandius.com/resource.html, including monsters, history and much more!

Works in Italian

One of many ways that the Mystara fan community stands out is that it has always had a large and vocal international component. Likely this is due to the fact that back in the 1980s, BECMI was translated into more than 50 languages. An illustration of this international environment is the large amount of material available in Italian. The Gazetteers by Omnibius http://pandius.com/omnibius.html are beautiful pdf compilations of existing and new material, covering the whole of Brun and other regions.



1Published between 1995 and 1997, see Thorf’s research on the original publication dates in this post on The Piazza: https://www.thepiazza.org.uk/bb/viewtopic.php?p=281443#p281443

2Mystara 3E Conversion Project https://www.thepiazza.org.uk/bb/viewforum.php?f=41 and Mystara 4E Conversion Project https://www.thepiazza.org.uk/bb/viewforum.php?f=51