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

[Glade Riven]

Can't say I'm pining for a setting I've never experianced and know nothing about.

 

[TheAuldGrump]

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?

maybe, just a little:

From Scandanavia & The World - a Danish webcomic.

The Auld Grump, be warned if going through the archives, not all the strips are safe for work.

 

[kitsune9]

I could play in Mystara. I liked that world too.

 

[OpsKT]

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.

For that matter, the same in Eberron, though it did so by usually adding X + Y = Z to do it. Karrnath is Tzarist Russia with Undead, Breland is Great Britannia Light, Aundair is smelly pastoral french or city based smelly royal French (no offense to the actual non-smelly modern French, as your culture has been as much helped by indoor pluming as every other) with Wizards, Valenar is Arabian Nights + Dothraki Elves, the Lhazaar Principalities are Pirates of the Caribbean + Vikings, the Talenta Planes are Native American Halflings on Dinosaurs. The Shadow Marches is old Korea with Orcs. Thrane equals Vatican Rome, complete with the martyr figure god and crusaders. I'm not sure what Zilargo is, and the Gnomes there like it that way.

Almost all Fantasy settings start with something from our history and warping it. Even Savage Worlds (which love their twists) main Fantasy setting (Sundered Skies) is essentially Pirates of Dark Water in the Air all wrapped up in Dante's Inferno.

Out of all the D&D settings, the one for 'Points of Light' is the least like historical nations, if only because we're in the ruins of whatever the were once like. But still, that makes it like Mad Max with elves and wizards.

So, if we're going to the dustbins of gaming history to inspire this edition, we might as well go back to Mystara.

 

[BASHMAN]

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

The Known World is Mystara. Mystara is the planet it is on. "The Known World" is just a small section of the continent of Brun and some islands from that same planet.

Are you saying that you'd want it to only focus on the Known World (the gazeteer countries) and skip the other places on the planet for now (Savage Coast, Hollow World). My preferences is for Brun to the the focus (maybe with some more stuff about Sind and that crazy place where Gnolls & Elves live in harmony. But I'd still like at least some brief info about Hollow World and the Savage Coast, maybe even some passing reference to "Thunder Rift" the land of low level characters who "escape" it to do some REAL dungeon-crawling

I'd also like to see a map with Zanzer Tem's dungeon and Bargle's keep (I imagine he escaped from the Black Eagle barony once the black eagle was arrested).