Editorial

The twenty-eighth issue of Mystara’s premier magazine focuses on trade, the lifeblood of nations and the fortune of the Merchant Houses of Darokin!

This issue of Threshold magazine is dedicated to trade, quite an important topic in any real or fantasy world. Indeed the world of Mystara was one of the first RPG settings to highlight the importance of trade and make it ‘playable’, with specific rules which appeared first in Gazetteer 9, The Guilds of Minrothad, and then in Gazetteer 11, The Republic of Darokin. To celebrate this we have in this issue a fair number of articles dedicated to trade and to Darokin. Still Minrothad has not been neglected by Threshold magazine, as there have been several interesting articles dedicated to the Guilds already in issues #3 and #4. For a complete list of all past Threshold magazine articles, check the dedicated page at the Vaults http://pandius.com/thrs_mag.html or the list I made at The Piazza https://www.thepiazza.org.uk/bb/viewtopic.php?t=17521.

This issue starts with the revised BECMI Merchant character class by Cab, with new spells and a beautiful illustration by Jeffrey Kosh, and continues with an article by me about trade in the Known World. Treating in this first part all kinds of food, I’ve described the origins and sources of trade commodities and tried to compile in an unique table all the information I could find in canon and fan material about imports and exports. Introduced by another beautiful illustration by Jeffrey, in the following article ‘Not a Decepticon’ presents his view of ‘Dark Darokin’, insinuating the doubt that maybe the Republic is not the civilization paradise of the Known World it claims to be. The second Darokinian article of this issue is Korro Zal’s Personalities of Selenica, which includes a ‘crossover’ with the Planescape Campaign Setting. The final Darokinian article of the issue, by Geoff Gander and Luc Greenwood, focuses instead on a very marginal but much interesting region, the Tortles’ Tears, i.e. the small islands just south of the Malpheggi Swamp, including also a beautiful tortle illustration by the Mystaran comic celebrity Justin Pfeil (if you don’t know it yet, go check right now his ongoing Keep on the Borderlands comic http://thekeepontheborderlands.justinpfeil.com)!

The next article is still on the economics theme, but focused on Vestland, as Fabrizio Nuzzaci (fabriziohockey) has created a detailed economic, military and demographic picture of the Northern Reaches nation with maps and tables (based on Thorfinn Tait’s ‘updated’ map). A treatment to make your dominion management easier, which hopefully will continue in future issues of Threshold magazine with other Known World nations. And there is another one of Jeffrey Kosh’s nice illustrations too!

In the rest of the issue, our Master Cartographer Thorfinn Tait continues his series on Mystara Mappers with the fine works of Paul Holroyd. Then the third part of my Mystara’s generator of (almost) everything, this time focusing on all the ‘scenery’ which can be added to adventures and campaigns, including time, holidays, weather, travel, trade as per the current issue’s theme, currencies, prices, dominions and disasters, wars and battles, random villages and random adventuring groups. And last but certainly not least another article by Cab on the Myconids of Mystara, introducing this fascinating AD&D creature to our favorite game world with several interesting subraces, some also wonderfully illustrated by Jeffrey Kosh!

The next issue of Threshold, to be published mid 2022, will focus on ‘Vampires and Undead’, the third most voted theme in our recent poll (see https://www.thepiazza.org.uk/bb/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=25176^¹). To join the next issue as authors or illustrators please send your proposal to the Threshold mail (check Submission guidelines and mail on the last page of the issue) or write in the proposals thread of The Piazza forum: http://www.thepiazza.org.uk/bb/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=22287, soon to be updated with the call for issue #29.
Even if we usually have no shortage of articles, we always need help for proofreading and editing the submissions. We currently have two active editors, therefore the issues schedule has been scaled down to two issues a year. So anyone willing to help the Threshold Editorial Team please come forward and let us know through the mail or in the above thread at The Piazza. Helping Threshold magazine certainly needs some time commitment, but is creative and rewarding work!

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!

Francesco Defferrari (Sturm)

Threshold Editorial Team:

Editors Emeriti

Editors, Issue 28:

Layout:

Art:

Cartography:

Additional Reviewers & Proofreaders:

Allan Palmer (a.k.a. AllanP) was first introduced to D&D a long time ago (but not quite in a galaxy far away) by a work colleague who set up a gaming group using the last version of the “blue book” rules. While dabbling with RuneQuest and Traveller along the way, he developed a liking for what would become the world of Mystara as the BECMI box sets were released. He has always been fascinated by maps. He is an IT professional and when not indulging in hobbies of panelology, retro tv watching and family history research, uses his various PC skills to consolidate the writings of others into the issues of Threshold.

Cab Davidson has been running his D&D campaign set primarily in Norwold since the 1980s, and is an entrepreneur and microbiologist living and working in Cambridge, UK. He frequently risks the wrath of the myconids by picking and consuming many varieties of their brethren.

Fabrizio Nuzzaci (fabriziohockey) met BECMI D&D no later than 1988, which fascinated him until 2007 and, then, from 2018 to today. He lives in Italy and grew up wishing to read all the original information on Mystara, which has remained unpublished in his country. He likes the game setting and has dedicated much of his time to managing the domains of players and NPC; first with pencil and paper, then with spreadsheets and digital maps. After more than 30 years, he is happy to have been able to meet (virtually) Bruce Heard, Thorfinn Tait and know their works on fiefdoms and maps; and, today, to write here.

Geoff Gander first picked up the polyhedrals in 1984 with Keep on the Borderlands, and has been heavily involved in the Mystaran community since the dying days of the last century. His works of fiction have been published by AE SciFi, EDGE Publishing, Lycan Valley Press, and others, but gaming is his first (and darkest) love. He writes D&D and TinyD6 weirdness for Fat Goblin Games, and Call of Cthulhu goodness for Sentinel Hill Press and Stygian Fox Publishing. When he isn’t writing or working a day job, Geoff likes to read, explore abandoned buildings, play roleplaying games, and travel. He lives south of Ottawa, Canada with a lovely stone-carving, bagpipe-playing witch and her many cats.

Jeffrey Kosh is the pen name of a writer and graphic artist specialized in book covers and movie posters. He collaborates with various publishing companies and authors. His covers range from dark horror to space opera, from thrillers to fantasy. Inspired by great fantasy artists, such as Clyde Caldwell, Larry Elmore, Keith Parkinson, and more, Kosh likes vibrant colors and heavy use of light and a dark contrast. His graphic tends to be moody and evocative. He also likes to work on ‘era-specific’ movie posters and book covers, trying to re-create the style used in those years, from the 1920s to the 1990s. As a writer he has been published various times.

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.
(https://justinpfeil.com/)

Korro Zal lives in Hyogo, Japan, where in addition to teaching and writing textbooks he designs reams of material for Mystara campaigns (which, once in a rare while, he actually gets to use in a campaign!) and answers his twelve-year old’s incessant questions about why evil wizards live in dungeons with monsters. Having decided that since he can’t actually make use of all the content he’s created for Mystara over the last 30 years or so, why not publish it in Threshold in case someone else can?

Luc Greenwood hails from the sleepy farmland and lakes of Ontario’s cottage country. In a childhood of secluded deprivation, he and his high school friends were inventing and playtesting fantasy/sci-fi tabletop systems and settings for years before any of them realized that they could just buy books that had already done all the hard work for them. He is emphatically not a writer, but a player and a DM with a decade’s worth of experience working with the expansive world of Mystara who is pleased to humbly contribute a few small brushstrokes to its grand canvas. As the world blindly gropes its way towards economic, political, and ecological collapse, this seems like the best use of his time. He can currently be found in Ottawa, Canada, usually with at least one chihuahua or cat on him.

Not a Decepticon has been in love with RPGs since seeing a commercial for D&D in a comic book at the age of six. But an opportunity to DM and play regularly only revealed itself recently, with exception of a brief attempt in college. Now he combines a love for classic campaign settings and the latest edition of the game.

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 (https://mystara.thorfmaps.com ).

The Threshold editorial team invites all fans of the Mystara setting to submit contributions to the magazine’s next issue.

Issue 29 - Vampires and Undead

Issue 30 - Isle of Dawn and the Alphatian Sea

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 stats block may be included.

Issue 29 - Vampires and Undead

The first issue of 2022 will focus on vampires, undead and terrible creatures of the dark!

● Blessed Salt, Holy Water, and The Many Different Ways to Kill Undead
● Beyond Nebligtod: Mystara in The Mists

In this new issue of Threshold magazine we explore the economy of Mystara and the center of Known World’s trade, the Republic of Darokin!

We start with an updated Merchant class by Cab, then a bird’s view of the vast network of Known World’s trade and the sources of the most traded foods by Sturm, and a Dark view cast on Darokin by Not a Decepticon. Personalities of Selenica by Korro Zal leads us from Darokin to Planescape, while the Tortles’ Tears by Geoff Gander and Luc Greenwood highlight an isolated tortle population at the footsteps of Darokin. Fabrizio Nuzzaci delves deep into the economics of Vestland, and Thorfinn Tait guides us to review the maps of Paul Holroyd. Finally a third part of the Mystara Generator of (Almost) Everything by Sturm, and the many Myconids of Mystara by Cab!

1Actually ‘Isle of Dawn and the Alphatian Sea’ later reached the same number of votes, but Vampires and Undead still arrived there first and so we’ll move to Alphatia later in 2022.