Editorial
by Francesco Defferrari from Threshold Magazine issue 22The twenty-second issue of the Mystara Magazine brings you straight into adventure, from Karameikos to Corunglain, from the Great Waste to Returned Blackmoor!
Index
Threshold: The Mystara Magazine is a non-commercial, fan-produced magazine. There is no intent to infringe upon anyone's rights, in particular those of Wizards of the Coast, which holds all rights to the original material on which the magazine is based.
This issue is fully dedicated to the life blood of role playing, adventures and campaigns! We start with an article by Giampaolo Agosta (Agathokles) which will guide Mystara and 13th Age fans in adapting the 13th Age Icon Relationships to a Mystara campaigns. Then we move to the first and foremost place for adventures in Mystara, the nation of Karameikos, with an article by Robert Nuttman (RobJN) on how to use rumors in your campaign. Then there is my own article, Campaigning in Karameikos, a guide to connect and use all the published canon adventures and several fan ones in several Campaign Paths or in one unique massive Path against the machinations of Orcus! Hausman Santos and Giampaolo then give us some Thoughts About the Karameikos Civil War, a possible development for the planned Mystara Fan Almanac for the year 1,020 AC. Irving Galvez instead leads us to discover the most secret place in Threshold, the Thieves Guild Black Market.
After that we leave our beloved Karameikos to other adventures. Demos Sachlas guides us in adapting several very famous AD&D modules to Mystara: Against the Giants in the Northern Reaches, against the Slave Lords of the Gulf of Hule, then inside the Forbidden City of the Yuan-Ti in the Serpent Peninsula or the Hidden Shrine of Risilvar in the lands of the Wallara.
Dave Keyser creates in his article, Escape from Hule, a detailed sequel to X5 and ideal third act of the Master of the Desert Nomads series, presenting several possible routes for the PCs who have to return back home to the Known World. In this issue Dave leads us through the Escape by Air and by Land, while the next issue of Threshold will contain the Escape by Sea.
In the Egg be Damned adventure, Brian Rubinfeld brings us back to Returned Blackmoor, previously detailed in issue #20 of Threshold magazine, to explore an abandoned dam full of dangers and mutated horrors.
Finally in his Deep Cover adventure, set in Corunglain, Darokin, Geoff Gander presents a cloak and dagger scenario with zhochal PCs, the Lovecraftian alien race he developed and detailed in Threshold issue #20.
The Threshold
Editorial Team and the authors hope you will enjoy this new issue as
much as we enjoyed putting it together, and stay tuned for the next
issue, again dedicated to Adventures and Campaigns and featuring a
voyage to the Land of the Red Sun!
Francesco Defferrari (Sturm)
Editor-in-Chief, Threshold Issue 20
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 20:
Francesco Defferrari (Sturm)
Layout:
Allan Palmer (AllanP)
Art:
Giampaolo Agosta
Justin Pfeil
Hausman Santos
Mario
Ciuffini
Toni Roads
Robin
V Shane
William
McAusland
Cartography:
Allan Palmer (AllanP)
Brian Rubinfeld
David Keyser
Demos Sachlas
Irving Galvez
Omnibius
Thorfinn Tait
Sean Robert Meaney
Additional Reviewers & Proofreaders:
Allan Palmer (AllanP)
Giampaolo Agosta
Harri Maki (hihama)
Rob Koper
Robin
Shawn
Stanley
Author Blurbs
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.
Demos Sachlas is back to running campaigns in Mystara for the next generation. His group is presently toiling across Merle Rasmussen's Wild Lands and their foray into David Cook's Forbidden City won't soon be forgotten. He's eager to try out some of his ideas involving the Slave Lords in the Gulf of Hule on the survivors.
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.
Geoff Gander has been heavily involved in the Mystaran
community for longer than he cares to remember. He has since been
published by Solstice Publishing, Metahuman Press, AE SciFi, and
Expeditious Retreat Press. He primarily writes horror and dark
fantasy, but is willing to give anything a whirl. When he isn't
writing or toiling on a cube farm, Geoff spends his time reading,
entertaining his two boys, watching British comedies, playing
roleplaying games, and travelling. Not at the same time.
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.
Irving Galvez (a.k.a. Oleck) Mexican player since
the early 80s, amateur Mystara writer since 1996. The time passes and
when the days of fantasy flew away with the age and you reach the
stage of responsibilities, work, family and everyday problems, you
look back and take those dusty books of D&D, and escape a moment
to your childhood. Keep on playing!!!
Justin Pfeil draws
comics, is a historical fencer in the Italian tradition, makes armor
for his friends, and has played D&D since the Red Box was first
published. His current project is a webcomic about characters
attempting to survive The Keep on the Borderlands module from the
players perspective.
Brian Rubinfeld: despite never being as intense of a fan as much of the fandom, Brian has had a fondness for Mystara stretching back as many eons as the stars! Whether coming up with zany ideas or diving into the earthiness of the setting's lore, he always finds something to love about the Known World and beyond. When not writing for Threshold, Brian is an amateur writer and game creator looking into freelance options, as well as currently working in a pharmacy.
I'm Toni Roads. I'm a concept artist and illustrator based in
Barcelona, Spain. I always liked fantasy as a way to get away from
reality so I can learn to face problems with a new perspective. I'm a
big fan of RPGs, and fantasy universes like Harry Potter and the Lord
of the Rings. Currently, I'm a Half-Elf Ranger raised by
Halflings.
You can follow me on
instagram:@toniroadsart
Artstation:
www.artstation/toniroadsart.com
Facebook: Toni Roads Art
Robert Nuttman (aka RobJN) has been a Mystaraphile since before that world even had a name. When he is not busy untangling the skeins of a certain Traladaran druid or making sense of the cribbed handwriting in the diary of a teenaged wererat, he tries to write honest-to-goodness adventures. This has only met with limited success. He also co-admins at The Comeback Inn, where he hosts a science-fantasy magi-tech play by postset in Blackmoor just before the Great Rain of Fire.
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.
Thorfinn Tait hails from the Orkney Islands in northern Scotland, though he has lived in Japan for many years now. Growing up with BECMI and the Known World, he learnt to type by compiling a database of Mystara’s timeline. He joined the Mystara online community in 1997, but his true contributions began with the Atlas of Mystara project starting in 2005. Recently he has made the jump to become a published fantasy cartographer, working on Bruce Heard’s Calidar series. You can follow his work on his cartography site (www.thorfmaps.com) and the Atlas site (mystara.thorfmaps.com).
Call for Contributors
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 23 - Adventures and Campaigns II
A second issue focused on adventures, campaigns, and other materials directly useful for your Mystaran games.
Proposal Deadline: March 15th, 2019
Manuscript Deadline: April 21st, 2019
Issue Published: By June 21st, 2019
Call for proposals for main themes of forthcoming issues (2019):
Issue 24 - Strongholds
This issue will delve into the myriad of strongholds that dot the Mystaran landscape. Cities, castles, towers, and secret lairs. These strongholds may serve as anything from bastions of refuge, to adventure obstacles waiting to be overcome by Mystaran PCs.
Proposal Deadline: July 15th, 2019
Manuscript Deadline: August 21st, 2019
Issue Published: By October 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.
Next Issue
Issue 23 - Adventures and Campaigns II
A second issue focused on adventures, campaigns, and other materials directly useful for your Mystaran games.
Anticipated contents include:
● Warriors of the Eternal Sun, the old video game becomes an adventure
● Escape from Hule, by Sea
● The many Mystaran sub-settings
● Oeraphon’s War, an expansion of Wrath of the Immortals
● The Barrel, a location
… and much, much more!
BackCover
Infinite adventures!
Mystara is a world of adventure, and this new issue of Threshold
magazine presents a treasure trove of adventures and campaign ideas
for your favourite role playing game!
Here you will find how to
use 13th Age icons in Mystara, you will discover the deepest secrets
of Karameikos up to a possible Karameikan Civil War or you will bring
your party to the most dangerous places in the Northern Reaches, the
Gulf of Hule, the Serpent Peninsula and Wallara.
You will learn
how to Escape from Hule through the Great Waste, by land or by air,
and you will explore an horrific location in the heart of the
corrupted Returned Blackmoor.
And finally you will go Deep Cover
in Corunglain as a zhochal infiltrator, or maybe you will try to stop
them. Adventure calls you, just answer its call!