The material describing these areas is written in a more or less humorous or even silly manner. What other areas have been given a more humoristic treatment, and how should these areas be portrayed in a dead serious campaign?
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Orcs of Thar: The humorous sources used are actually forgeries by a clever Darokinian bard. While geographic information is "accurate" (and perhaps some of the other technical things, like the war machines, are as well), much of the social commentary is pure fiction at the expense of the humanoids. We tend to treat the residents of the Broken Lands in a manner similar to how the humanoids are portrayed in LOTR- fierce, cruel, competent, dangerous and not nearly as stupid as one would like to believe.
Serraine: De-emphasize the Top Ballista aspects, but between the gnomes and gremlins, the place is going to be chaotic.
Ierendi: Our group has cast this country to be a lot like the English colonial possessions in the Carribean- think Port Royal and Pirates of the Carribean. The government keeps things running as smoothly as possible, but it is a carefree place and can get out of hand very quickly.
Gentle Folk: If you've got the book of exalted deeds, the pacifist works well here. Hard to do much though when they won't even defend themselves. Perhaps they abandon everything and hide when trouble brews, then go about their business after it passes. Group avoidance, individual pacifism.
Blacklore: Use Blackmoor as the basis. Not quite as advanced as Blackmoor technologically, and not as lazy as portrayed.
Orcs of Thar, Serraine, Blacklore, Ierendi, Gentle Folk
The material describing these areas is written in a more or less humorous or even silly manner. What other areas have been given a more humoristic treatment, and how should these areas be portrayed in a dead serious campaign?
Håvard
Portraying humorous/absurd material in a serious campaign is easy. Make it dangerous.
The "Orkish Manual of Good Kondukt" is absolutely absurd, after all. But several hundred battle-trained humanoids advancing in good close-order drill with strong combined-arms tactics and magical support is something that absolutely no one in their right mind laughs at. It's the result of Thar's Legion taking itself darn seriously, and finding methods that work - and bringing the resulting pain down on the PCs' heads.
I don't think there's anything in the Mystara canon, anywhere, that can't be portrayed or reimagined in some way that'll scare the PCs' socks off. And if they were inclined to laugh at it beforehand, great - makes the shock that much greater.
There's a lot of stuff in Mystara that ends up being absurd, from our viewpoint - but basically nothing that's outright goofy, or written specifically for laughs. Using it in a serious tone is absolutely feasible - just look at it from a serious viewpoint, is all.
Top Ballista and Book of Wondrous Inventions stand alone as the two Classic D&D/Known World products I disregard completely. While the Orcs of Thar gaz is pretty silly, it still has some worthwhile material, IMO, the other two are pretty much worthless to me.
Edit: Ah, sorry, on rereading the thread, I see that TDA did mention it...
GW
Top Balista (Serraine)
Serraine has been dramatically changed. Not only because my campaigns are quite serious, but also because they lean towards a lower level of magic than most Mystara books suggest. Serraine is not a flying city, but floats in place somewhere above Karameikos. The gnomes know how to use hot air baloons, but not biplanes.
Blacklore
IMC, the elves of Blacklore have become a cruel race who use intelligent Golems (Automatons) as slaves. Their laziness has become a source of cruelty rather than amusement, and the concept of fashion much more like a Conan-esque decadent society would be than an 80s version of Clueless. Sympathy in general lays with the Automatons, an enslaved race who cannot normally survive outside the valley and has little hope of standing up against their supressors.
Gentle Folk
I'm making these an introvert mystical race, Druidic or possibly psionic of nature. They will seem mysterious and perhaps even annoying or scary to outsiders, but never silly.
Ierendi
Some of the Islands are kept the same, but there is no tourism. Rather it is home to pirates and brigands who arrange the King Tournaments as a way to mock established society.
Book of Wonderous Inventions
This book I have hardly found any use for. Again, my gnomes are mainly alchemists, with some knowledge of hot air devices and constructs. But making anything resembling modern technology or gigantic silly traps is not something they would do IMC.
Orcs of Thar
I agree that this one is pretty easy to make use of. Humanoids are a dangerous race, savage and brutal. The orcs will most likely expand their territory in the future, and already in reality control parts of Darokin (Borderlands, Dwarfgate mts) and Ethengar. Much of what is written in the gaz can be used if the silly bits are removed.
I enjoy reading the funny bits in all of these books, but I also like being able to remove them when playing in more serious campaigns.
Håvard
Top Balista (Serraine)
Serraine has been dramatically changed. Not only because my campaigns are quite serious, but also because they lean towards a lower level of magic than most Mystara books suggest. Serraine is not a flying city, but floats in place somewhere above Karameikos. The gnomes know how to use hot air baloons, but not biplanes.
How does it float? The same Blackmoorian lift device, minus the propulsion systems? Or Balloons?
Blacklore
IMC, the elves of Blacklore have become a cruel race who use intelligent Golems (Automatons) as slaves. Their laziness has become a source of cruelty rather than amusement, and the concept of fashion much more like a Conan-esque decadent society would be than an 80s version of Clueless. Sympathy in general lays with the Automatons, an enslaved race who cannot normally survive outside the valley and has little hope of standing up against their supressors.
It also sounds a bit Melnibonean (Elric et al), which actually sounds like a really cool way of doing things. Especially considering the nature of the Hollow World itself, which lends itself to that same sort of Moorcockian Elric fantasy.
Gentle Folk
I'm making these an introvert mystical race, Druidic or possibly psionic of nature. They will seem mysterious and perhaps even annoying or scary to outsiders, but never silly.
I never felt the Gentle Folk seemed all that silly, per se, but I do think that the way they are written, they don't have much use or interest beyond a one-off adventure (sort of like the scene in National Lampoon's Adventure- Chevy Chase to his kids- "Look kids, depressed elves." Pause as they watch for a second. "Okay. Let's go.")
Really, something needs to be done with them beyond just elves on prozac, if only just lifting the straight jacket of "uber-pacifists". Your ideas are a good start, and play well off of the elves as presented in Gaz8: The Five Shires (the ones the Hin called Masters).
Ierendi
Some of the Islands are kept the same, but there is no tourism. Rather it is home to pirates and brigands who arrange the King Tournaments as a way to mock established society.
I posted some thoughts on a different (slightly more sinister) take on how the Honor Island wizards may have taken a more direct hand in the establishment of the Ierendi Isles in this thread- Honor Empire (A New Look at Ierendi)
How does it float? The same Blackmoorian lift device, minus the propulsion systems? Or Balloons?
Although I must say that I like the baloons idea visually, it might be hard to justify as anything remotely resembling realism. I was going to go with the Blackmoorian lift device. My reason for wanting the city to be more stable is not so much that it is silly, but that it makes travel too easy. Travelling in the known world should be dangerous. Thats why adventurers are needed.
Blacklore Elves
It also sounds a bit Melnibonean (Elric et al), which actually sounds like a really cool way of doing things. Especially considering the nature of the Hollow World itself, which lends itself to that same sort of Moorcockian Elric fantasy.
I was thinking about HG Wells' Time Machine, though with the roles reversed, but I suppose the Elric analogy fits even better. As with all things in Mystara, not all Blacklore elves need to be evil ofcourse, but there is something fundamentally cruel about their lifestyle.
Gentle Folk Elves:
I never felt the Gentle Folk seemed all that silly, per se, but I do think that the way they are written, they don't have much use or interest beyond a one-off adventure (sort of like the scene in National Lampoon's Adventure- Chevy Chase to his kids- "Look kids, depressed elves." Pause as they watch for a second. "Okay. Let's go.")
Really, something needs to be done with them beyond just elves on prozac, if only just lifting the straight jacket of "uber-pacifists". Your ideas are a good start, and play well off of the elves as presented in Gaz8: The Five Shires (the ones the Hin called Masters).
The silliness mostly comes from the NPC described in Gentle Folk. (Actually a quite funny read as I remember
). But yes, the challenge here would probably be how to make them interesting.For a 3E game, I had some thoughts on how to actually make the pacifism part interesting, giving them penalties to attack bonuses if they chose to break with this way of life (as well as becoming enstranged from their culture), but basically allowing it if they wanted to. This penalty would also allow for some extra bonus IIRC.
If we assume that the Gentle Folk are the original Masters the Hin legends speak of, and we also incorporate the idea that the Hin Masters themselves are powerful druids (Probably a druidic-oriented PrC), the Gentle Folk would also be a druidic culture rather than introducing psionics at this point. Making theirs an individualized form of druidism would help set them apart from other elven druidic cultures though. Perhaps they are oriented towards Mysticism and Mind-affecting magic as much as that of nature?
Ierendi:
I posted some thoughts on a different (slightly more sinister) take on how the Honor Island wizards may have taken a more direct hand in the establishment of the Ierendi Isles in this thread- Honor Empire (A New Look at Ierendi)
I had forgotten about this idea. It is also a very suitable sollution for the "Ierendi problem". Sinister is always nice in my book
Håvard