Bruce Heard + Mystara + Kickstarter [Hypothetical + Cross Post]

[heptat]

So this is a cross post from rpg.net (hope that's ok).

Basically I started wondering simply how much money could Bruce Heard raise on Kickstarter to work on new Mystara/Known World (Original/BECMI D&D) products? Of course he can't actually do this because WotC own all the copyrights...so this is hypothetical.

Bruce was good enough to reply and suggest getting it on the WotC radar by going to:

• https://www.facebook.com/Known.World.Central
• https://www.facebook.com/groups/mystara.reborn

And if you don't know much about Mystara/Known World, there's lots of continuing fan work including Bruce's blog, check it out:

• Bruce's blog - About Bruce Heard, D&D, and new stories
• official fan homepage - Vaults of Pandius - the Official Mystara Homepage
• official fan discussion boars - The Piazza forum - Mystara
• absolutely amazing maps - mystara.thorf.co.uk

By the way, I'm a huge Mystara fan and I'd drop a *lot* of $$ on new or re-released Mystara products whether they use the original rules or are converted to D&DNext (that's a big hint to WotC people).

 

[trancejeremy]

I pretty much own every Mystara product, so I'm a huge fan. But I think the worst thing they could do it is try to support it with 5e.

Switching it from BECMI to D&D pretty much broke the setting, 5e would only be worse.

 

[heptat]

I pretty much own every Mystara product, so I'm a huge fan. But I think the worst thing they could do it is try to support it with 5e.

Switching it from BECMI to D&D pretty much broke the setting, 5e would only be worse.

Which are the D&D products you mean - those big boxed sets from the mid 90s? Thunder Rift?

Up until 93 seemed pretty good - Wrath of the Immortals and Champions of Mystara. Although I only managed to pick those up in the last few years.

 

[Sadras]

Switching it from BECMI to D&D pretty much broke the setting, 5e would only be worse.

On what basis do you make this claim? Wasnt it mostly due to TRS's already existing financial problems AND the fact that they were supporting already two D&D systems - Basic and Advanced. Besides people naturally moved on from Basic to Advanced so it required Mystara to go Advanced. AND there were the multitude of settings it was competing with, which were supported with novels, comics and the like.
Mystara just did not have the following to compete with that that unfortunately.

 

[Alan Shutko]

I'll agree, trying to make it an AD&D 2e setting really ruined it.

The big problem was that it was put in the hands of people who didn't really understand the setting and the products included gimmicks that really weren't that good. For instance, the CDs. There were a lot of continuity errors and general confusion introduced around that time.

Despite Glantri and Karameikos being bigger, fancier boxed sets in 2e than they had been as Gazetteers, I'd say they had much less quality and depth.

I don't think this was a failure of the ruleset, so much as the management and direction of the time. I also didn't like the metaplot, but everything TSR did at the time had that.

 

[cimbrog]

My old Gazetteers are getting pretty ragged, I wouldn't mind refreshing the batch! Even if it's just reprints of the originals like they've been doing for other older products recently. But I wouldn't mind versions for the new rules. And pre-Wrath settings.

I think 5e will be a good fit for Mystara. As long as you were willing to do the work for new/altered races and classes, 1st, 2nd and 3rd edition all were functional for Mystara. Heck, I've been running 3e Mystara for over a decade. And from the looks of it, 5e has a few RC flourishes that I find hopeful.

 

[Bruce Heard]

Greetings all!

Quite a discussion! Sorry I missed this one here.

I re-posted this msg here (sorry), but I thought some of you might have missed it:

"I've been supporting that grand old campaign setting for the past year in my new blog*, and plan to continue to do so, although at a slower pace. Following WotC's decision not to support Mystara's RPG setting in some way, or allow me the opportunity to do it in a more official capacity (I was the brand's product manager and lead creative at TSR), I am presently working on a substitute world as the basis for new adventures inspired from the Voyages of the Princess Ark*. Some of you may remember the popular adventures I wrote for Dragon Magazine back in the 80s and 90s. The new world will be geared specifically for skyborne adventures. My goal is to release in E-Book format new adventures written in roughly the same format as the old Princess Ark stories (60% fiction/40% world setting). Background information will be non-game specific. Click here for the original announcement* I made to this effect."

(*) EN World does not enable me (yet) to post links here. Boldfaced entries listed above originally were links. Let's see if I can spell them out instead.

bruce-heard.blogspot.com/
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Champions_of_Mystara
bruce-heard.blogspot.com/2013/04/OSK.html

Cheers!

Bruce Heard

 

[darjr]

http://bruce-heard.blogspot.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Champions_of_Mystara
http://bruce-heard.blogspot.com/2013/04/OSK.html

got em.

 

[Zaukrie]

I think I would fund this.....but I recall the stories getting a bit goofy near the end, but I might be remembering that wrong.

 

[Bruce Heard]

Thanks, Darjr!