So what's so great about this world?? - Downloaded from the Wizards Community, all coding removed by Solauren

So what's so great about this world??

Post/Author/DateTime Post
#1
zombiegleemax
May 17, 2004 23:40:56 I come to you to seek the highlights of your favorite world. I have a campeign currently running in the world of Athas. I plan of having the PCs run across a wizard (possibly Elminster.) He will tell them that he will help them out if they come with him to an undecided world to solve some undecided conflict. I plan on using a spelljammer-like setting for their interplanetary travel. Of course, Athas and the desired world are far apart, so the party will need to land on several other planets for supplies and R&R.

Now here's where you guys come in...
I don't know about any specific setting aside from dark sun. I would like to show the great contrasts that exist between Oerth, Toril, Krynn, and the other world of D&D. So I would like to know from you what the big differences are on this world(in comparison to the mundane, no-name D&D campeigns that are ever too frequent.)
#2
kheldren
May 18, 2004 2:40:06 hmm,

IMO there are two answers...

1) Is the Hollow World, if they approach from space they may notice that the two poles of the planet are permanently fog/cloud covered. Whould they decide to approach a pole they will enter a totally magic-suppressed area (at which point their trajectory becomes critical) and, if they are on the right line, they will fall through the expected surface of the world to arrive inside. This world will then be totally wierd to Athas characters. No night, and the sun is a small red spot, but it's always noon, also not everything is trying to kill them! Further the wealth of everyone (to them) will be astounding - metals weapons get discarded when broken for goodness' sake!

2) The other answer is of less use to you. This campaign world is great because of how it is developed. In one sense it is the original mundane world. When TSR published the Basic/Expert/Companion/Master adventures they set them on a world, gradually explring (in a small way) bits of it. Then came the Gazetteers - in-depth supplements looking at individual kingdoms. Most published game-worlds (Krynn, Oerth, Toril etc.) began with a big overview of a sizeable chunk of the world, and then published supplements detailsing chunks of the broad sweep. Mystara never did the first step! - the closest is the overview of the known world in the old Expert Boxed set. This meant they had a lot more freedom when they started filling in the details, there was no "grand plan" that they had to follow.
Personally I woudl not argue that Mystara is any "better" than the other worlds, but having played in it a lot, I like it, and feel it to be a setting worthy of presering expanding.

So, back to the question of what to show your players, I woudl pretty much ignore the outer surface - it will be similar to most other worlds, dump them inside and let them deal with:
Permanent Day
Transportation spells generally not working
People who they can show a better way to do things to, but won't change their habits.
Spell-casters with a very different way of using their spells - with most of the standard big damage spells being unknown, people will be a lot more subtle in their casting.
No Psionics!
+ The general one about metal etc, depending on where they land.
Oh - the transportation restrictions will block psionics just as effectively as they block magical methods, teleportation and planar travel is pretty much impossible - I can't remember the rest of the details, but I am sure someone can give to a link to a 3rd Ed conversion of the spell restrictions.

Have fun
#3
havard
May 18, 2004 6:16:52 Hmmm..
I agree, in such a campaign, you probably want to emphasize on the things that make Mystara exceptional to all of the other settings. In that case, the Hollow World is probably the most obvious example.

The fact that there are immortals, rather than gods is probably hard to get into play.

I'd throw in having Lupin and Rakasta as some of the most common non-standard races a good way to show Mystaras uniqueness.

I agree that arguing that Mystara is better than any other world would be hard, but this is the world that we love. Perhaps more due to its classic fantasy feel than to the things that set it apart from that...

Btw, you are going to have to tweak things IYC since Dark Sun is a locked Crystal Sphere. This due to the fact that if it was possible to escape that world noone would stay. It doesn't have to be that way in your campaign ofcourse....

Havard
#4
kheldren
May 18, 2004 7:47:52 Speaking of tweaking, technically Mystara is not in a crystal sphere at all! The planar set-up is also radically different to the old AD&D one too.
The above said, who cares? - if you are just passing through to give a flavour then tweak away.

OK Here is a (silly) idea:
The planar portal to Athas that Elminster (or whoever) uses is actually in the Hollow World (add in the wierd Mystaran outer planes set-up and the lack of planar links in there it could be an interesting conundrum, not to mention the only place capable of linking to there). The party then has to corss the Hollow World to an opening, get through the no-magic area, and then they can go Spelljamming off to see the other worlds...

One last difference - if you choose not to use the Hollow World (I don't think the hollow megalith idea works) the fact that it is an intelligent planet could be brought out in play, I'm not sure how though.
#5
zombiegleemax
May 18, 2004 14:11:03 ok, so send the PCs to hollow world , right. well it looks like theres is some kind of rare mercury-like element that the spelljammer ship needs as fuel. Of course it can only be found deep within hollow world. cool. now are there any specifics that can be given or links to helpful webcites?
#6
havard
May 18, 2004 14:20:48 Go to a the Vaults of Pandius and do a search for the Hollow World. That should get you started.

Good luck!

Havard
#7
zombiegleemax
May 19, 2004 4:58:31 Is Red Steel only on Mystara? That's another resource metal that could be quite interesting to get your hands on. There's probably something on the Vaults about that as well.
#8
havard
May 19, 2004 6:40:54 AFAIK, Red Steel is found only on Mystara, as is Cinnabryl, the original material that eventually becomes Red Steel. Ofcourse, in a world-travelling campaign, I wouldnt recommend getting your players hooked on Cinnabryl, but Red Steel could be a quite interesting addition to the campaign.

Ofcourse, the Red Steel Campaign was published independently of Mystara, but it is quite obvious that that is where it belongs. OTOH, you might want to make it a separate world if you need more stops on the way for the campaign...

Havard
#9
byron-s_ghost
May 19, 2004 13:35:38 Well, cinnabryl is only used to avert the worse effects of the Red Curse, it isn't really habit-forming (at least it wasn't officially, because of TSR corp concerns with bringing drugs into an RPG). So they'd only need the cinnabryl while they're on the Red Coast; once they leave the area, the curse will eventually wear off and they won't need it any more.

Sending them to the Savage Coast for cinnabryl could have it's out-of-game advantages over the Hollow World. The Savage Coast setting is available freely online, and there was also an article in Dragon #315 that updated the curse and cinnabryl rules to 3rd ed, which would save you some work.

Savage Coast online supplement (look for through the first few links): http://dnd.starflung.com/svgecst.html

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 zombiegleemax May 17, 2004 23:40:56	I come to you to seek the highlights of your favorite world. I have a campeign currently running in the world of Athas. I plan of having the PCs run across a wizard (possibly Elminster.) He will tell them that he will help them out if they come with him to an undecided world to solve some undecided conflict. I plan on using a spelljammer-like setting for their interplanetary travel. Of course, Athas and the desired world are far apart, so the party will need to land on several other planets for supplies and R&R. Now here's where you guys come in... I don't know about any specific setting aside from dark sun. I would like to show the great contrasts that exist between Oerth, Toril, Krynn, and the other world of D&D. So I would like to know from you what the big differences are on this world(in comparison to the mundane, no-name D&D campeigns that are ever too frequent.)
#2 kheldren May 18, 2004 2:40:06	hmm, IMO there are two answers... 1) Is the Hollow World, if they approach from space they may notice that the two poles of the planet are permanently fog/cloud covered. Whould they decide to approach a pole they will enter a totally magic-suppressed area (at which point their trajectory becomes critical) and, if they are on the right line, they will fall through the expected surface of the world to arrive inside. This world will then be totally wierd to Athas characters. No night, and the sun is a small red spot, but it's always noon, also not everything is trying to kill them! Further the wealth of everyone (to them) will be astounding - metals weapons get discarded when broken for goodness' sake! 2) The other answer is of less use to you. This campaign world is great because of how it is developed. In one sense it is the original mundane world. When TSR published the Basic/Expert/Companion/Master adventures they set them on a world, gradually explring (in a small way) bits of it. Then came the Gazetteers - in-depth supplements looking at individual kingdoms. Most published game-worlds (Krynn, Oerth, Toril etc.) began with a big overview of a sizeable chunk of the world, and then published supplements detailsing chunks of the broad sweep. Mystara never did the first step! - the closest is the overview of the known world in the old Expert Boxed set. This meant they had a lot more freedom when they started filling in the details, there was no "grand plan" that they had to follow. Personally I woudl not argue that Mystara is any "better" than the other worlds, but having played in it a lot, I like it, and feel it to be a setting worthy of presering expanding. So, back to the question of what to show your players, I woudl pretty much ignore the outer surface - it will be similar to most other worlds, dump them inside and let them deal with: Permanent Day Transportation spells generally not working People who they can show a better way to do things to, but won't change their habits. Spell-casters with a very different way of using their spells - with most of the standard big damage spells being unknown, people will be a lot more subtle in their casting. No Psionics! + The general one about metal etc, depending on where they land. Oh - the transportation restrictions will block psionics just as effectively as they block magical methods, teleportation and planar travel is pretty much impossible - I can't remember the rest of the details, but I am sure someone can give to a link to a 3rd Ed conversion of the spell restrictions. Have fun
#3 havard May 18, 2004 6:16:52	Hmmm.. I agree, in such a campaign, you probably want to emphasize on the things that make Mystara exceptional to all of the other settings. In that case, the Hollow World is probably the most obvious example. The fact that there are immortals, rather than gods is probably hard to get into play. I'd throw in having Lupin and Rakasta as some of the most common non-standard races a good way to show Mystaras uniqueness. I agree that arguing that Mystara is better than any other world would be hard, but this is the world that we love. Perhaps more due to its classic fantasy feel than to the things that set it apart from that... Btw, you are going to have to tweak things IYC since Dark Sun is a locked Crystal Sphere. This due to the fact that if it was possible to escape that world noone would stay. It doesn't have to be that way in your campaign ofcourse.... Havard
#4 kheldren May 18, 2004 7:47:52	Speaking of tweaking, technically Mystara is not in a crystal sphere at all! The planar set-up is also radically different to the old AD&D one too. The above said, who cares? - if you are just passing through to give a flavour then tweak away. OK Here is a (silly) idea: The planar portal to Athas that Elminster (or whoever) uses is actually in the Hollow World (add in the wierd Mystaran outer planes set-up and the lack of planar links in there it could be an interesting conundrum, not to mention the only place capable of linking to there). The party then has to corss the Hollow World to an opening, get through the no-magic area, and then they can go Spelljamming off to see the other worlds... One last difference - if you choose not to use the Hollow World (I don't think the hollow megalith idea works) the fact that it is an intelligent planet could be brought out in play, I'm not sure how though.
#5 zombiegleemax May 18, 2004 14:11:03	ok, so send the PCs to hollow world , right. well it looks like theres is some kind of rare mercury-like element that the spelljammer ship needs as fuel. Of course it can only be found deep within hollow world. cool. now are there any specifics that can be given or links to helpful webcites?
#6 havard May 18, 2004 14:20:48	Go to a the Vaults of Pandius and do a search for the Hollow World. That should get you started. Good luck! Havard
#7 zombiegleemax May 19, 2004 4:58:31	Is Red Steel only on Mystara? That's another resource metal that could be quite interesting to get your hands on. There's probably something on the Vaults about that as well.
#8 havard May 19, 2004 6:40:54	AFAIK, Red Steel is found only on Mystara, as is Cinnabryl, the original material that eventually becomes Red Steel. Ofcourse, in a world-travelling campaign, I wouldnt recommend getting your players hooked on Cinnabryl, but Red Steel could be a quite interesting addition to the campaign. Ofcourse, the Red Steel Campaign was published independently of Mystara, but it is quite obvious that that is where it belongs. OTOH, you might want to make it a separate world if you need more stops on the way for the campaign... Havard
#9 byron-s_ghost May 19, 2004 13:35:38	Well, cinnabryl is only used to avert the worse effects of the Red Curse, it isn't really habit-forming (at least it wasn't officially, because of TSR corp concerns with bringing drugs into an RPG). So they'd only need the cinnabryl while they're on the Red Coast; once they leave the area, the curse will eventually wear off and they won't need it any more. Sending them to the Savage Coast for cinnabryl could have it's out-of-game advantages over the Hollow World. The Savage Coast setting is available freely online, and there was also an article in Dragon #315 that updated the curse and cinnabryl rules to 3rd ed, which would save you some work. Savage Coast online supplement (look for through the first few links): http://dnd.starflung.com/svgecst.html