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Editorial

by Francesco Defferrari from Threshold Magazine issue 30

The thirtieth issue of Mystara’s premier magazine focuses on the lands and people of the Alphatian Sea region!


Index



Tales from the Alphatian Sea

I am very happy to present to you a new issue of THRESHOLD Magazine which in my humble opinion contains wonderful material thanks to the great work of many authors and illustrators! We appropriately open with Monsters of the Alphatian Sea, a wonderful creature catalog by Cab, lavishly illustrated by Jeffrey Kosh. Then there is my article on Bellissaria, the first detailed description of the island continent ever attempted, thanks also to the great 8 miles per hex maps by Ramelin, more incredible illustrations by Jeffrey, and some beautiful portraits and landscapes obtained by Sebastien (Senarch) with Midjourney.

I want to especially point out Jeffrey’s work because for the first time in a Mystaran production we get to see some iconic creatures, such as pardasta, cloud pardasta, reptilian races and lupins, in colorful magnificence, and this time he really surpassed himself producing an incredible number of illustrations for this issue!
The results obtained by Senarch with AI art are also quite impressive, as you will be able to see in the portraits and landscapes of the next article by Cab, Metinsulae, Island of the Metamorphs, and in other articles too.
The adventure by King Everast, Islands of Death, is the first part of a series of adventures set in the Alphatian Sea, and also contains two different illustrations of a nagpa, another iconic Mystaran creature, by Jeffrey and Senarch.
Alphatia in Dracopolis is an alternate view of the namesake empire by Lance (Wangalade), with a floating city as capital.

In the rest of the issue, our Master Cartographer Thorfinn Tait continues his series on Mystara Mappers with the works of Adamantyr! In the next article Not a Decepticon adapts the adventure The Grey Wanderer to the Northern Reaches. And behold a scary Nithian draugr, again by Jeffrey! Then Doc Necrotic continues to guide us through the Mists of Ravenloft, describing some domains which were created by Mystaran natives. Last one is the fourth and last part of my Mystara Generator of People, Stories and Everything which started in issue #26, this time about spells and item creation, horoscopes and predictions, art and entertainment, and much more of the everyday life of adventurers.

The next issue of THRESHOLD, to be published mid 2023, will focus on Undersea, which has been upvoted in our last poll at The Piazza forum https://www.thepiazza.org.uk/bb/viewforum.php?f=3. A new poll will soon be created to choose the next two themes of 2024 that will come after the 2023 issues, Undersea and Dungeons, so go voting! 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 Call for Contributors thread for issue #31 which will soon appear in The Piazza forum after publication of this issue.
Even if we usually have no shortage of articles, we always need help for proofreading and editing the submissions. 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)

Editor, THRESHOLD Issue #30



Editorial Credits



THRESHOLD Editorial Team:

Allan Palmer (AllanP)

Francesco Defferrari (Sturm)


Editors Emeriti

Agathokles (Giampaolo Agosta)
Andrew Theisen (Cthulhudrew)

Ashtagon

Jesper Andersen (Spellweaver)

John Calvin (Chimpman)
Joseph Setorius (Julius Cleaver)

Leland (Argentmantle)
Shawn Stanley (stanles)

Thorfinn Tait (Thorf)


THRESHOLD logo designed by Thorf


Editors, Issue #30:

Francesco Defferrari (Sturm)
Allan Palmer (AllanP)

Layout:

Allan Palmer (AllanP)

Art:

Jeffrey Kosh
Sebastien (Senarch)

V Shane
William McAusland

Cartography:

Adamantyr
Francesco Defferrari (Sturm)

Ignacio Ramos (Ramelin)
Thorfinn Tait

Additional Reviewers & Proofreaders:

Allan Palmer (AllanP)

Francesco Defferrari (Sturm)

Glenn Tanner

Harri Maki
Hervé Musseau

Joseph Setorius (Julius Cleaver)

Shawn Stanley
Shelby Michlin
Simon Barns


Author Blurbs


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 Mystara campaign since the 1980s, and while he has years of experience handling dangerous microorganisms has not knowingly created a new form of vampirism.

Doctor Necrotic (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.


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.

(https://jeffreykosh.wixsite.com/jeffreykoshgraphics/home)


King Everast hails from his dwarven kingdom of South Africa. A fanatical fan of everything

dwarven, he is mainly based in Mystara viewing all that happens from beneath his mountain. His

many other interests include reading every Dragonlance novel he can lay his hands on, playing all

the Fighting Fantasy gamebooks existing, and thinking up new and devious ways to destroy the

players of his next D&D adventure.


Lance Duncan (aka Wangalade) started playing D&D with his father using the BECMI boxed sets. With his sisters and brother, he explored the caverns of Quasqeton and the Caves of Chaos and the Isle of the Hideous One, eventually discovering the lost valley and journeying to the faraway land of Hule to defeat the Master. Though he has explored many different games (Alternity being a favorite), he has always come back to Mystara and D&D. His current D&D campaign is set some 30-odd years after the events of that original campaign; the known world of Dracopolis reflects how Mystara was presented by his father with the limited resources of the box sets and a few adventure modules.


Linus Andersson - NPL illustration. You can find him on Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/nplillustration or on Artstation: https://www.artstation.com/nplillustration

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.


Sebastien Martineau (Senarch) is a half-French, half-English resident of Prague, working as a business psychologist. He started playing D&D again last year, dusted off his prize GAZ1, and promptly fell down the Mystaran rabbit hole. After a childhood spent drawing, he was sadly forced into doing Latin instead of Art in his teens, and slowly lost the taste for drawing. However a few years ago he started using Daz for 3d-rendered illustrations for gaming and comics, painting miniatures for Blood Bowl, and generally getting arty again. He now experiments with combining AI, Daz and drawing into art, mainly for D&D. He is slowly talking himself into writing and illustrating modules. His free time is mostly spent on his baby daughter. His work is closely, and often disapprovingly, supervised by his cat Pablo Escobar. Some of his work can be found here: https://www.deviantart.com/mrmusashi/gallery


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 #31—Undersea

The first issue of 2023 will focus on the dominions and peoples below the waves!

Proposal Deadline: February 15th, 2023

Manuscript Deadline: May 1st, 2023

Issue Published: June 2023

Issue #32—Dungeons!

The second issue of 2023 will focus on a big part of the D&D game!

Proposal Deadline: August 15th, 2023

Manuscript Deadline: November 1st, 2023

Issue Published: December 2023

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.


Next Issue

Issue #31—Undersea

The first issue of 2023 will focus on the realms under the waves


Anticipated contents include:

● Realms of the Mystaran Oceans

● Islands of Death, part II

● Kopru Hidden Empires

● Pirates and Artifacts of Alphatia
● Kingmaker in the Isle of Dawn

● One more Specularum’s District

● Mappers of Mystara

… and much, much more!



Back Cover

Alphatian Sea

In this new issue of THRESHOLD Magazine we explore the Alphatia Sea in never before seen details, also thanks to the lavish illustrations of so many creatures by Jeffrey and the amazing AI art by Sebastien! We start with Monsters of the Alphatian Sea by Cab, then we go exploring Bellissaria with Sturm and Ramelin’s maps, then a stop in the Island of Metamorphs by Cab again and the first Island of Death by King Everast, finally to an alternate Alphatia in the world of Dracopolis by Wangalade. Thorfinn Tait takes us to review the maps of Adamantyr while Not a Deception adapts The Grey Wanderer adventure to the Northern Reaches. Finally one more visit to the Mists of Ravenloft with the ‘Mystaran’ Domains by Doc Necrotic and the last part of the Mystara Generator of People, Stories and Everything by Sturm with some ideas for the free time of adventurers!

All this can be found only in this latest issue of our favorite magazine!