Editorial
by John Calvin and I. Calvin from Threshold Magazine issue 18[Image: Cover Title]
“The nineteenth issue of the Mystara Magazine, featuring the Immortals and the Planes of the Multiverse that serve as their playgrounds.”
[Image: Cover Art]
This illustration by I. Calvin depicts Ixion and Nyx standing off over Mystara while Terra looks on from the void.
[Image: Gold Box]
From the Gold Box Immortal’s Rules to the Wrath of the Immortals, the life of a Player Character who has “graduated” from the mortal coil, so to speak, has always fascinated me. It is honestly not a playstyle that I have participated in very often, and I think that experience is common among Mystaraphiles. The life of an Immortal seems suited to a more collaborative style of storytelling, one where both Player and DM might actually wield a more balanced power.
Despite the fact that most of us probably do not spend much time in Immortal level campaigns, there is still a plethora of “Immortal” material that we can take from those sources and use in more traditional game play. Immortals are the undisputed movers and shakers of a Mystara campaign, and can be used as sources of information, as party patrons, and even as the ultimate antagonists.
Understanding the Immortals, and their powers and goals, can go a long way in helping DMs understand the multiverse that surrounds Mystara, and to prepare this multiverse for adventure. High level characters need not be restricted to the confines of Mystara, in fact for them, the multiverse is the limit!
I hope that you will enjoy this issue of Threshold, and all of the secrets that it holds. Whether you play in an Immortal campaign, or explore the world through the eyes of less sturdy beings, the articles within should offer plenty of insights and opportunities for adventure.
[Image: WotI]
Editorial Credits
Threshold Editorial Team:
Allan Palmer (AllanP)
Giampaolo Agosta (Agathokles)
John Calvin (Chimpman)
Francesco Defferrari (Sturm)
Editors Emeriti
Andrew Theisen (Cthulhudrew)
Ashtagon
Angel Tarragon (The Angelic Dragon)
Geoff Gander (Seer of Y’hog)
Håvard
Jesper Andersen (Spellweaver)
Joseph Setorius (Julius Cleaver)
Leland (Argentmantle)
LoZompatore
Micky
Robert Nuttman (RobJN)
Simone Neri (Zendrolion)
Thorfinn Tait (Thorf)
Troy Terrell (CmdrCorsiken)
THRESHOLD logo designed by Thorf
Editor-in-Chief, Issue 19:
John Calvin (Chimpman)
Layout:
Allan Palmer (AllanP)
Art:
I. Calvin
Cartography:
John Calvin (Chimpman)
Francesco Defferrari (Sturm)
Håvard
Additional Reviewers & Proofreaders:
Caroline Regina
Cmdr Corsiken
Harri Mäki
Nicola Valpiani
Robin
Shawn Stanley
David Keyser has run four long-term campaigns set in Mystara since the 1980s, using published adventure and support materials as much as possible. He denies having any creative talent himself. It's just that if you put him with a group of friends who are willing to work with him to provide an evening of entertainment, there's a momentary spark like the scratch of flint on steel...and then something magical happens.
Giampaolo Agosta (a.k.a. Agathokles) agrees with Schiller that “man is only completely a man when he plays". Therefore, he makes a point of taking gaming seriously, and real life casually. Besides Mystara, his gaming interests include (among others) Dark Sun, Planescape, Ravenloft, Birthright, Call of Cthulhu, Star Wars and Witchcraft RPG.
Hausman Santos is an art educator and drawing professor. An enthusiast in Mystara since 1995 when he met in Brazil the AD&D boxed set of Karameikos.
He has narrated campaigns for game groups in Thyatis, Alphatia, Rockhome and Glantri and keeps some of these groups since 2002. He manages a page for Mystara Brazilian fans on the internet. Currently he has gathered much of the material that he developed into game sessions with his group from projects like the Mystaran Almanac and discussed with the members of the Old Almanac Team about the old and unfinished plotlines (around AC 1016-1017) in order to resume them.
Håvard (aka Håvard Blackmoor) does not, contrary to popular theory, have six arms. When he is not writing about Mystara at The Piazza or is working on his Blackmoor Blog, he goes out raiding neighbouring villages like any true Norwegian. He also runs The Comeback Inn, a forum dedicated to Dave Arneson's Blackmoor.
I. "Meandrathel" Calvin enjoys drawing fantasy, and animals that can kill. Namely wolves, dragons, horses, and most large felines. Human animal hybrids are not excluded either; she often draws human versions of her favorite animals. She does, however, despise drawing things that are unbearingly cute. It's a pretty awful thing to do.
John Calvin is fascinated by the depth of Mystaran history, and has always wanted to share that more fully with players. To that end he has been developing sub-settings like The Hollow Moon and Mystara 2300 BC.
Michele “LoZompatore” C. played BECMI for most of his life, starting way back in 1987. He, most of all, likes mixing and matching canon and fanon material about Mystara to see how many new adventure hooks can be churned out. In the little spare time he has away from Mystara he helps other guys in designing oil and gas pipelines around the (real) world.
Even though Sturm (a.k.a. Francesco Defferrari) loves any alternate world, he believes Mystara is incomparably the best for its vibrant community endlessly delving into ethnography, linguistics and history just to make a little sense of it. Something like the real world, but with dragons.
The Threshold editorial team invites all fans of the Mystara setting to submit contributions to the magazine’s next issue.
We are especially looking for contributions fitting the following themes:
Issue 20 - Skothar
Where ancient Blackmoor once laid, the most unknown and mysterious continent of Mystara!
Proposal Deadline: April 21st, 2018
Manuscript Deadline: May 15th, 2018
Issue Published: By July 21st, 2018
Call for proposals for main themes of forthcoming issues (2018):
Issue 21 - Specularum
Discover the
history, personalities, organizations and locales of Specularum, the
city on the mirror bay, capital of the Grand Duchy of Karameikos.
This issue aims at giving a new life to the vaporware "Fantasy
Cities #1: Specularum" supplement.
Proposal Deadline:
July 15th, 2018
Manuscript Deadline: August 10th, 2018
Issue Published: By October 21st, 2018
Issue 22 - Adventures and Campaigns
This issue will focus on adventures, campaigns, and other materials directly useful for your Mystaran games.
Proposal Deadline: October 21st 2018
Manuscript Deadline: November 21st, 2018
Issue Published: By January 21st, 2019
Articles about other topics are still welcome and the editorial team will evaluate their publication for any upcoming issue, taking into account available space and the issue's theme.
Threshold accepts and invites submissions of extended or revised versions of works having appeared on The Piazza or Vaults of Pandius.
Contributions may include, but are not limited to: Articles-- short stories, short adventure modules, NPCs, historical treatises and timelines, geographical entries, new monsters and monster ecologies, etc.; and Illustrations-- portraits, maps, heraldry, illustrations, etc.
The Threshold editorial team strives for edition neutrality, but edition specific articles (e.g., conversions) are also accepted. Statistics for new monsters and NPCs may be included in articles (e.g., adventure modules, new monsters or NPCs) in any version of Dungeons & Dragons. The editorial team also offers help in providing conversions to some specific rules set. Including BECMI/RC, 2nd Edition, 3rd edition/Pathfinder. However, they should be limited to a minimum -- for most NPCs, it is sufficient to mention class, level, and alignment. For important NPCs, a one or two line stat block may be included.
[Image: Issue #20 Mock Cover]
Where ancient Blackmoor once laid, the most unknown and mysterious continent of Mystara!
Anticipated contents include:
An Atlas of the Continent of Skothar
Beholders of Kargash
Duchy of the Peaks
A Treatise on Skotharian Rakasta
The history and people of Skothar
...and much, much more!
[Image: Back Cover]
What Lies Beyond?
Entire realms lurk just beyond the perceptibility of mortal senses, their energies seeping into our world, enhancing it, altering it, though they are very rarely ever noticed. These are the Planes of the Multiverse, playground of the Immortals. Traversing them is not for the faint of heart. Empires rise and fall, colossal beasts do battle, and the Immortals themselves reshape the landscape around them.
For those willing to risk life and limb, the rewards can be immeasurable… riches, glory, power… even immortality may be achieved. Do you have what it takes?
To be used by Layout
|
|
[Image: Cover Title]Immortals over Mystara by I. Calvin, 2018 [used by permission of the artist] |
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1qGAQkdg8giSDOn6zWSdS6xXerbBxOWxj/view?usp=sharing |
|
|
[Image: Cover Art]Immortals over Mystara by I. Calvin, 2018 [used by permission of the artist] |
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1yCd31ocoO23Yegi-jvYNVF1QK5MuAgNH/view?usp=sharing |
|
|
[Image: Gold Box]TSR1017 Dungeons & Dragons - Set 5 Immortal [fair use] via Wikimedia Commons |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:TSR1017_Dungeons_%26_Dragons_-_Set_5_Immortal.jpg |
|
|
[Image: WotI]Wrath of the Immortals, boxed set cover [fair use] via Wikimedia Commons |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Wrath_of_the_Immortals,_boxed_set_cover.jpg |
|
|
[Image: Issue #20 Mock Cover] Cover of issue 20 by Sturm, using a photo of Beijing by user shizhao via Wikimedia Commons
|
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1zyQgCkABe-KL5pc6-WgmHXrNPEes4J1z |
|
|
[Image: Back Cover]Universe Planet Space Cosmos Galaxy Tree [CC0 Public Domain] via Max Pixel |
http://maxpixel.freegreatpicture.com/Universe-Planet-Space-Cosmos-Galaxy-Tree-1721679 |
