Database of Published NPC's / Adventures for Mystara? - Downloaded from the Wizards Community, all coding removed by Solauren

Database of Published NPC's / Adventures for Mystara?

Post/Author/DateTime Post
#1
zombiegleemax
Feb 15, 2006 10:50:12 Hey there, has anyone ever tried to put together a comprehensive "who's who" of all the different important NPC's that show up in various adventure modules and Gazetteers?

Has anyone done anything similar for the adventures themselves?

Let me give you some examples of what I'm thinking - for instance, there is a character named Alak Dool that shows up as an evil Thyatian Wizard in CM 1, Test of the Warlords (lvl 15-20). Early in a campaign, it would be cool to introduce this character in Thyatis proper, or perhaps in Glantri as a Thyatian studying at the School, or even as a wanderer. It creates verisimilitude when he re-appears later (and perhaps he is already a built-in rival to the PC's at that point).

Likewise, my campaign has used the Radu Family quite a bit, and it was invaluable knowing that the rest of the family was described in B6 The Veiled Society.

So I plan on building a database of known personages; my campaign is AC 1000 so it will be a while before I work through the Almanacs, but I realize they will be invaluable.

Similarly, the adventures: my players are just starting B10 Night's Dark Terror, and they're in the part of the adventure where they look for the Wolfskull Goblins in Eastern Karameikos. I found myself scrounging for details on the Vyalia Elves, Witches of the Dymrak Forest, the Great Green Dragon Argos (from an old Dragon Mag), fleshing out Rugalov and Rugalov Keep. It would have been much easier finding all the references with a comprehensive database of adventures and NPC's...

Actually, I seem to remember an adventure about a Sky Ship or something with gnomes that crashes in Eastern Karameikos; it may be right in Top Ballista, I don't recall, or maybe an old Dungeon Mag. It might be fun to integrate that into the player's eastern travels.

I know Vaults of Pandius has pretty good lists of adventures that have shown up in Dragon and Dungeon Magazines for Mystara. Just curious if anyone has done the work already of collating EVERYTHING.

(If not I'll be getting right on those projects...) :D
#2
havard
Feb 15, 2006 13:09:26
I know Vaults of Pandius has pretty good lists of adventures that have shown up in Dragon and Dungeon Magazines for Mystara. Just curious if anyone has done the work already of collating EVERYTHING.

Hi Crash Beedo, what have you been up to?
AFAIK noone has done what you are asking, but it sure sounds like something that would be useful to have around....

Håvard
#3
Cthulhudrew
Feb 15, 2006 14:15:39
Hey there, has anyone ever tried to put together a comprehensive "who's who" of all the different important NPC's that show up in various adventure modules and Gazetteers?

See here.

I've been working on this for a while now, and am hoping (now that Thorf's made his own database project evident) to combine what I have with him into a more comprehensive database.

At the moment, I've got all the Basic and most of the Expert books/adventures/supplements done. Still have a few Expert adventures to work through (DDA2 and the Thunder Rift modules, which aren't strictly Expert, I know), then on to the C/M/I modules, and then the Gazetteers and Accessory lines. It's taking quite a bit more time than I'd originally anticipated- there are a lot of NPCs out there.

Actually, I seem to remember an adventure about a Sky Ship or something with gnomes that crashes in Eastern Karameikos; it may be right in Top Ballista, I don't recall, or maybe an old Dungeon Mag. It might be fun to integrate that into the player's eastern travels.

It is in Top Ballista.
#4
zombiegleemax
Feb 15, 2006 19:25:26 Hey Drew, thanks for the redirect to that post. Actually, though, unless there is a specific reason, I don't think there is a need to put this in an actual "database". I mean, a spreadsheet is a database; those guys are thinking multi-table relational database to the third normal form, and that's perhaps overkill for a thousand records. You don't need normalization for something like this unless you're backing up an application that will do a lot of transaction processing or will have millions of rows and storage space is a concern. A single table is indexable and queries very quickly, and there are shortcuts to reduce redundant data entry. So I was going to go with good old Excel and import it into mySQL or (koff koff) Access, as necessary.

Do you mind sharing your format? I would gladly volunteer to start with the Gazetteers or the M and CM series of modules and work back towards where you're at, compiling NPC's into a single repository.

---------------------
Hey Havard, I must say, it was quite nice to return to viewing these boards (and also over at Dragonsfoot) and see so many Mystara or Classic D&D supporters still going strong. Classic D&D is like pulling on your comfy slippers and sitting in the comfy chair and having a nostalgic time with some hot cocoa and watching the snow. (And its snowing here in Boulder, too).

We've played some superhero RPG games, and the new White Wolf stuff (yawn, Zzzzzzz....) but my players voted almost unanimously to pick up our old Mystara game, and I couldn't be happier. And Night's Dark Terror, ta boot!

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 zombiegleemax Feb 15, 2006 10:50:12	Hey there, has anyone ever tried to put together a comprehensive "who's who" of all the different important NPC's that show up in various adventure modules and Gazetteers? Has anyone done anything similar for the adventures themselves? Let me give you some examples of what I'm thinking - for instance, there is a character named Alak Dool that shows up as an evil Thyatian Wizard in CM 1, Test of the Warlords (lvl 15-20). Early in a campaign, it would be cool to introduce this character in Thyatis proper, or perhaps in Glantri as a Thyatian studying at the School, or even as a wanderer. It creates verisimilitude when he re-appears later (and perhaps he is already a built-in rival to the PC's at that point). Likewise, my campaign has used the Radu Family quite a bit, and it was invaluable knowing that the rest of the family was described in B6 The Veiled Society. So I plan on building a database of known personages; my campaign is AC 1000 so it will be a while before I work through the Almanacs, but I realize they will be invaluable. Similarly, the adventures: my players are just starting B10 Night's Dark Terror, and they're in the part of the adventure where they look for the Wolfskull Goblins in Eastern Karameikos. I found myself scrounging for details on the Vyalia Elves, Witches of the Dymrak Forest, the Great Green Dragon Argos (from an old Dragon Mag), fleshing out Rugalov and Rugalov Keep. It would have been much easier finding all the references with a comprehensive database of adventures and NPC's... Actually, I seem to remember an adventure about a Sky Ship or something with gnomes that crashes in Eastern Karameikos; it may be right in Top Ballista, I don't recall, or maybe an old Dungeon Mag. It might be fun to integrate that into the player's eastern travels. I know Vaults of Pandius has pretty good lists of adventures that have shown up in Dragon and Dungeon Magazines for Mystara. Just curious if anyone has done the work already of collating EVERYTHING. (If not I'll be getting right on those projects...) :D
#2 havard Feb 15, 2006 13:09:26	I know Vaults of Pandius has pretty good lists of adventures that have shown up in Dragon and Dungeon Magazines for Mystara. Just curious if anyone has done the work already of collating EVERYTHING. Hi Crash Beedo, what have you been up to? AFAIK noone has done what you are asking, but it sure sounds like something that would be useful to have around.... Håvard
#3 Cthulhudrew Feb 15, 2006 14:15:39	Hey there, has anyone ever tried to put together a comprehensive "who's who" of all the different important NPC's that show up in various adventure modules and Gazetteers? See here. I've been working on this for a while now, and am hoping (now that Thorf's made his own database project evident) to combine what I have with him into a more comprehensive database. At the moment, I've got all the Basic and most of the Expert books/adventures/supplements done. Still have a few Expert adventures to work through (DDA2 and the Thunder Rift modules, which aren't strictly Expert, I know), then on to the C/M/I modules, and then the Gazetteers and Accessory lines. It's taking quite a bit more time than I'd originally anticipated- there are a lot of NPCs out there. Actually, I seem to remember an adventure about a Sky Ship or something with gnomes that crashes in Eastern Karameikos; it may be right in Top Ballista, I don't recall, or maybe an old Dungeon Mag. It might be fun to integrate that into the player's eastern travels. It is in Top Ballista.
#4 zombiegleemax Feb 15, 2006 19:25:26	Hey Drew, thanks for the redirect to that post. Actually, though, unless there is a specific reason, I don't think there is a need to put this in an actual "database". I mean, a spreadsheet is a database; those guys are thinking multi-table relational database to the third normal form, and that's perhaps overkill for a thousand records. You don't need normalization for something like this unless you're backing up an application that will do a lot of transaction processing or will have millions of rows and storage space is a concern. A single table is indexable and queries very quickly, and there are shortcuts to reduce redundant data entry. So I was going to go with good old Excel and import it into mySQL or (koff koff) Access, as necessary. Do you mind sharing your format? I would gladly volunteer to start with the Gazetteers or the M and CM series of modules and work back towards where you're at, compiling NPC's into a single repository. --------------------- Hey Havard, I must say, it was quite nice to return to viewing these boards (and also over at Dragonsfoot) and see so many Mystara or Classic D&D supporters still going strong. Classic D&D is like pulling on your comfy slippers and sitting in the comfy chair and having a nostalgic time with some hot cocoa and watching the snow. (And its snowing here in Boulder, too). We've played some superhero RPG games, and the new White Wolf stuff (yawn, Zzzzzzz....) but my players voted almost unanimously to pick up our old Mystara game, and I couldn't be happier. And Night's Dark Terror, ta boot!