D&D 5E Give Me Three Reasons to Play Mystara/Known World

[KirayaTiDrekan]

Over in this thread, [MENTION=2067]Kamikaze Midget[/MENTION] asked for folks to provide three reasons to play D&D 5E in the World of Greyhawk. I thought it would be nifty to do the same thing with the other settings. So, going roughly by order of when they appeared on the market...

If you had to boil down the reasons to play Mystara/Known World instead of any other D&D setting and present it to someone fairly new to the game (say, a few months' experience) and present it in a list of 3 things, what would you say these are?

What makes Mystara different than other settings? What does it offer that you can't get in other official settings in the D&D pantheon? What can you do with it? What makes it better at those things? What are the "selling points" of Mystara?

Note that we're not too concerned about the history and the context and the Proper Nouns. In this hypothetical, that doesn't add much. We'll be more interested in what we can actively do with the setting -- in how a Mystara experience is different from any other D&D experience.

What say ye?

 

[GameOgre]

To me Mystara always had a vastly different feel to it in part because the Gods were just powerful beings that used to be mortal. It gave the Immortals a much more valid reason to be actively involved in the world than in other words. Also some of the Immortals actually lived in the world. Thor is a much more fearsome presence when he is right over there!

How much of this was the game I played in verse the setting as written I don't really know as at the time I was a kid and a player. Back in those days getting caught with book other than my old ratty copy of the Classic rule book (Classic and Expert) was a good way to get your character instantly killed.

I have found memories of Kingdoms that seemed to by young self to be much more based on earths ancient kingdoms than I have played with since.

Forgive me if these 40 year old memories do not reflect on the actual products though!

 

[Iosue]

1. Glorious inconsistency. On one continent you have your typical faux-medieval Europe, elves, dwarves, faux Mongols, faux Vikings, and faux Arabia. And a kingdom of halflings. To the south you have a Lost World island. It's not your typically built fantasy world. The real world influences are not even hidden. Everything's jumbled together. It feels like a world built through D&D play, not a pre-made world D&D has been calqued onto.

2. It was designed for the original D&D, so it's designed for exploration. There are huge areas that are essentially unfinished, waiting for your adventurers to fill them out. It really fits well with sandbox play. Unlike other settings, it doesn't really have a genre. It's not heroic fantasy like FR and DL, it's not sword & sorcery like GH and DS, it's not horror like RL, not D&D...in Spaaace like SJ, not just one flavor like Kara-Tur, Al-Qadim, or Maztica, not themed like BR and PS. It's like Gozer the Gozarian -- whatever you want it to be.

3. Unlike FR, DL, and GH, TSR put it out there and then left it alone. No novels, no big shake-ups, no fast-forwarding of timelines. The biggest change was the intro of the Hollow World, which didn't mess with people's games. You can start where everyone did and immediately make it your own.

 

[Remathilis]

1.) Just the Basics: The world isn't designed to have a lot of unique or special elements to it. It thrives on Dwarves, Elves, Fighters, Magic-users. Sure, later books introduced unique races and classes, but the vast majority of the world was built out of the core elements of the game.

2.) Richly detailed, if you don't mind inconsistencies: Mystara has a lot of "X is like Y culture, but magical" elements to it. Ylarum is fantasy Arabia, Norworld is fantasy Iceland, Thaytia is fantasy Rome (time shifted to middle ages). That makes working with most of the material fairly easy, once you adapt the "fantasy" element to it. On the other hand, it does suffer from the "fantasy Arabia is neighbors with fantasy Iceland and fantasy Rome" element; its a collection of distinct cultures that seem to have sprang up without contact from its neighbors.

3.) The Unexpected: This will seem like a contradiction of 1, but there is a LOT of unexpected things in Mystara (and commonly expected things left out). This is due to its Basic roots again. Still, most PCs raised on AD&D and Realms have never seen a lightning zombie, an onyx dragon, or a thoul and won't know what to expect. Likewise, some classic monsters of D&D lore (drow, most planar beasts, etc) don't exist or have altered lore. Its really a good look at an "alternate" vision of D&D's cannon when it comes to that.

If I could add a fourth, it'd be that Mystara always felt High Fantasy. Knights and castles, lords an servants, etc. It seems very suited to that classic image of a knight on horseback with a lance striking a dragon to save a princess; except add in a cleric (who doesn't serve a deity, but an ideal), a mage, and a rogue with him. In that regard, its a hybrid of Dragonlance's epic romanticism and Realm's heroic adventure paradigms.

 

[Kwalish Kid]

1. Some great old adventures.
2. A great meta-story for the world. Get the Almanacs and there is always something going on in the world that your PCs can hear about.
3. The world really feels like D&D.

 

[Remathilis]

3. Unlike FR, DL, and GH, TSR put it out there and then left it alone. No novels, no big shake-ups, no fast-forwarding of timelines. The biggest change was the intro of the Hollow World, which didn't mess with people's games. You can start where everyone did and immediately make it your own.

CoughCoughWrathOfTheImmortalsCough

Sorry to say, but TSR did advance Mystara's timeline. Its a big deal at Pandius. Among the things changed was Karameikos (from Duchy to independent kingdom), the fall of Alfheim (and its invasion by shadow elves), several immortals going missing (notably Ka) and the big one: Alphatia being "wiped off the map" and sent to the Hollow World.

The Poor Wizard's Almanac describe most of these changes, as did the Princess Ark series and the aforementioned cough.

 

[SirAntoine]

1) It has a country for every different culture including elves and dwarves, Viking barbarians, and all the different empire builders.
2) Not many know any of the canon.
3) There is a ton of source material available including for a setting within a setting, the Hollow World. (The planet is hollow, with a miniature sun at the core surrounded by continents.)

 

[GlobeOfDankness]

1. it's part of D&D's identity
2. it's quirky and painstakingly crafted.
3. i feel like it's written as much for the DM as it is the players.

 

[KirayaTiDrekan]

CoughCoughWrathOfTheImmortalsCough

Sorry to say, but TSR did advance Mystara's timeline. Its a big deal at Pandius. Among the things changed was Karameikos (from Duchy to independent kingdom), the fall of Alfheim (and its invasion by shadow elves), several immortals going missing (notably Ka) and the big one: Alphatia being "wiped off the map" and sent to the Hollow World.

The Poor Wizard's Almanac describe most of these changes, as did the Princess Ark series and the aforementioned cough.

Wrath of the Immortals was one of my favorite boxed sets (along with Dawn of the Emperors). The epic, ten-year spanning campaign in there was ridiculously over the top, with adventure hooks all over the map as the timeline advanced (even a possible adventure on an asteroid hurtling toward the planet). I actually DMed that campaign during the D&D Next playtest.

 

[Mercurius]

Because you think elves should have beards.