The Isle of Dread Across Editions
by HåvardMystara Characters in Non-Mystara Books, AD&D Mystara Product List, 3E/4E/5E Mystara Product List, LJN Character Product List, DragonStrike Product List, Isle of Dread Across editions
With the recent announcement that the Isle of Dread is the name of the next expansion to the Dungeons & Dragons Online, I thought it was time to explore the history of this iconic Mystara location. Although the legendary island has been placed in Greyhawk, The Plane of Water, The Feywild and Eberron, I am also interested in how we as Mystara fans can best make use of these later iterations of the island with our favourite setting.
TSR ERA
The Isle of Dread first appeared in published form in X1 The Isle of Dread (1981). A revised edition appeared two years later with a new cover and some changes to update it to the BECMI version of the Classic D&D rules. In both versions, the Island is firmly placed in the Mystara. Indeed, this was the first time the world would learn of Mystara, referred to only as "The Continent" at the time and presented as a quick overview with a map showing where the Isle of Dread and the surrounding Thanegioth Archipelago were in relation to the homelands of the PCs. Although several classic adventures were brought over to AD&D through the Revisited line, the Isle of Dread was never adapted to that system even when Mystara itself became an AD&D Setting.
3RD EDITION ERA: The Isle of Dread and the birth of Mystara
Although WotC did not make use of the Isle of Dread during the lifetime of their first version of D&D, it was Paizo who brought the Isle back. Originally as an article in Dungeon Magazine #114, the Isle of Dread then became a key location of the Savage Tide Adventure Path which appeared in the pages of both Dragon Magazine and Dungeon Magazine. Sadly, the Savage Tide series were not collected into a Hardback like the two other APs Paizo produced before the release of Pathfinder. Much to the dismay of us Mystara fans, Paizo placed the Isle of Dread in Greyhawk which was the default setting of 3rd Edition. Greyhawk would not be the final destination of the Isle of Dread however.
During the 3E era, WotC also released a web enhancement document for the Stormwrack sourcebook. Although not directly tied to the Isle of Dread, it was called The Kopru Lair and featured the monsters who are closely linked to the Isle.
4th EDITION ERA: The Plane of Water
The first mention of the Isle of Dread during the 4th Edition era was the preview book for that edition called Wizards Presents: Worlds and Monsters which oddly mentioned that the Isle of Dread could be found on the Plane of Water. The island was revisited in 4E's Manual of the Planes. During this era, the Isle of Dread also appears in two organized play adventures. Monster Makeover presented a Black Dragon named Shademaw that had settled on the Island. In Lair Assault II: Attack of Tyrantclaw, the party is hired by a Druid named Hyacinth to travel to the island and have to fight off a tribe of orcs and their T-Rex.
5th EDITION ERA: Feywild, Eberron and back to Mystara
The Isle of Dread appeared again in the 5th Edition era, as early as in the D&D Next Playtest Files and later in the 5th Edition Dungeon Master's Guide. The 5E DMG places the Isle of Dread on the Plane of Feywild, even though the 5E core books make specific references to Mystara. WotC's website had another feature of the island in the form of a cartoon walkthrough map by Jason Thompson. In 2022 it was announced that the Dungeons & Dragons Online/DDO would launch an expansion called the Isle of Dread. This implicitly linked the island to Eberron which is the main setting of that game.
The Isle of Dread's history with Mystara was not over however as back in 2018, Goodman Games published the Isle of Dread. This book contained both the 1981 Blue Cover version and the 1983 Red Cover version as well as 5E adaptations and expansions. Furthermore, the book made explicit references to Mystara and added new material.
TAKING IT BACK
Clearly, the Isle of Dread is an adventure location that refuses to fade into the background. Although it is great to see fans of Greyhawk, Eberron and other D&D settings have fun with the Isle of Dread, I am interested in seeing how we can make use of these later edition versions of the island and merge them all back into a single Mystara location. Do any of you have ideas for how we can do this?
Did I forget anything? Are there more details or even books or items that I have missed?