A More Basic Design... why not bring back the Basic Setting? Mystara!

[BASHMAN]

Okay so we know that they are looking to "turn back the clock" a bit on design complexity here, where simplicity will be the core with optional add-ons to add complexity.

We also know that the "Caves of Chaos" (READ: Keep on the Borderlands) will be the introductory module.

So maybe (I hope) this means that the World of Mystara is making a comeback? That would RULE!

Anybody else hankering for some adventure in Darokin or Karameikos? Would anybody else like to play a Fighter that is a Thyatian gladiator or a Dog Soldier from the Atrughan Clans?

And if they resurrected this setting, I'd LOVE to see them bring back the Poor Wizards' Almanacs that essentially gave you a calendar of events for each year. Each event on the calendar could be a potential adventure seed where the PCs could change the course of world events. That was really cool.

If they bring back this setting, maybe they could also include Hollow World and Red Steel (since they are, after all, set on the same planet).

Anybody else want to see this? Anybody want to go to the Isle of Dread and RUUUUUUNNNN! from the T-Rex?

 

[Quickleaf]

Woot! Mystara!

I am playing in a friend's Mystara sandbox game based around the B-series modules. It's so much fun and he does a good job evoking the old school feel in 4e.

But as much as this game reminds me of what's to love about Mystara, IMO there are two sticking points to it being reintroduced as a setting: (1) cultural analgoues which could be seen as offensive stereotypes, and (2) modern era tech as part of the background story to several modules and Blackmoor. I just don't see either of those being a positive for sales these days. BUT, could a Mystara setting focused around Karameikos, the cultural analogues cut or reduced, and the ancient modern tech redone... could that kind of revival pique interest? Yes

 

[Greg K]

(1) cultural analgoues which could be seen as offensive stereotypes,

This is why I think Mystara is a bad choice. I don't see WOTC doing the cultural analogues. Yet, they are key to Mystara for me (along with Shadow Elves).

 

[BASHMAN]

This is why I think Mystara is a bad choice. I don't see WOTC doing the cultural analogues. Yet, they are key to Mystara for me (along with Shadow Elves).

There are cultural analogs in Forgotten Realms a-plenty, and they sell that setting by the pound. Kara-Tur, Matzica, and quite a few more. Why are those okay, but Mystara is not?

Honestly, I don't get why fantasy has to equal Medieval Europe. To me that is offensive. I think it's refreshing that there are non-European options in the setting. The idea that I can have a Native American or Arabian Nights character rather than a knight is cool.

 

[trancejeremy]

Cultural analogs are exactly why Mystara is the best choice - Greyhawk doesn't make sense (Ket, Bissel are what, exactly?) and FR is overdeveloped.

How could people get offended, most of the cultures in Mystara are long dead. Do people from the Scandinavia get offended by Thor in marvel comics? Or the Greeks by the various mythological movies?

 

[Frostmarrow]

Mystara is a great setting. I don't care for Red Steel at all but the rest is fine. I like the fact that you can trek from Medieval Eastern Europe to Ancient Rome in a day and then set sail for Land of the Vikings and be there in time for breakfast.

If they were to release it again I don't see why they couldn't really go to town and add Ravenloft and Nentir Vale somewhere on the map. -So sue me.

 

[AlioTheFool]

I've been discussing a lot lately how much I'd like to see the old Gazetteers reborn in D&DNext. I had the thought that they could be done for a new setting, but if you told me we could get the original Mystara ones reborn, with updated crunch, you'd sell me every single one!

 

[howandwhy99]

I'd actually go for more Known World setting, but the fleshed out Mystara would be cool too.

 

[Salamandyr]

I like everything about Mystara but the name.

 

[Alzrius]

If they were to release it again I don't see why they couldn't really go to town and add Ravenloft and Nentir Vale somewhere on the map. -So sue me.

I'm fine with the Nentir Vale actually, you know, being somewhere. But the whole point of Ravenloft is that it's apart from the rest of the multiverse. It does not belong in an actual world - it steals bits of those worlds to add to its domains (even Mystara; see Meredoth, the darklord of the Nocturnal Sea in Domains of Dread).