THANKS!
I know that it is the world of the old D&D setting(not Advanced), but was wondering if the stories behind the world is good enough. I got only one novel, the Dragon King of Mystara(I think), it was thick but never really read it. Is it good too?
Mystara was originally developed for Classic D&D, but was in fact converted to AD&D 2E.
It is a good setting which can IMHO be played successfully with any system.
The novels are wary alot in quality. The Dragonlord Trilogy which you own the second book of is decent. The best novel is probably the Black Vessel, Dark Knight of Karameikos is also not too bad. The Penhaligon Trilogy is probably the weakest of the novels.
The best fiction for Mystara IMO is the Voyage of the Princess Ark series which ran as a regular feature in Dragon Magazine. If you can track down the Dragon Magazine CD Archive that is the best way of getting hold of all the episodes of that series.
Havard
Mystara is the best setting for D&D and for role play.
It is very "historical", it is playable under any ruleset.
You can find very different campaign inside Mystara: imperial Rome, Vikings, Arabian flying carpets in a sand desert, dark-ages knights with eavy field armors, Egiptians & pyramids, Greeks and marble statues, African like savage kingdoms, Native American Indians and spirits, great Mongolian grasslands, precolombian Indios from various South American countries, Transilvania and vampires, middle age Genoa and Venice republics... oh...it is full of stuff, and you can play in one country to feel all his flavour.
Very very nice.
The novels are wary alot in quality. The Dragonlord Trilogy which you own the second book of is decent. The best novel is probably the Black Vessel, Dark Knight of Karameikos is also not too bad. The Penhaligon Trilogy is probably the weakest of the novels.
Yeah, I mostly agree. I haven't read Black Vessel, so I can't comment on that. The Dragonlord trilogy was pretty disappoitning IMHO and is very average fantasy, and not in a good way. But I agree that the Penhaligon is even worse. The first novel (the Tainted Sword) is pretty good, but goes downhill fast after that.
Dark Knight of Karameikos is frequently criticized by Mystara fans, because it is firmly rooted in some AD&D terminology that the OD&D crowd really dislikes. If you look apart from that, though (or actually doesn't dislike AD&D as I do), then it really is a fairly decent story.
I'd say the same about the "Son of Dawn" novel. It was released under the "First Quest" label, but it's very clearly Mystara, beginning of the Isle of Dawn and is about stopping a war between Darokin and Aengmor shortly after WOTI (no, that's not a spoiler). It's average fantasy, but probably one of the better written for Mystara, even though it doesn't quite deliver on its own secrets.
Haven't read "Rogues to Riches", though, which is also "First Quest"...
The best fiction for Mystara IMO is the Voyage of the Princess Ark series which ran as a regular feature in Dragon Magazine. If you can track down the Dragon Magazine CD Archive that is the best way of getting hold of all the episodes of that series.
Amen to that.
Anyway, a complete list of Mystara novels can be found here: http://pandius.com/prodlist.html#MnRef
Thanks guys! I remember having that Creature Crucible for D&D. About lycanthropes and the backdrop there are for Mystara.
That would be PC4 - Night Howlers quite a good supplement.
Havard