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

[GameOgre]

Because you think elves should have beards.

You know I found this old old drawing of my Elf character from those days and besides being shocked that the drawing was so good(one of my friends really did have tons of talent) he had a goatee! He looks so shocking not elven compared to the elves of today that my first thought was that I didn't remember having a half elf character.

If I remember right those elves were not treehuggers at all but instead seemed almost to have been living in the remains of a High Magic civilization now trapped in a few isolated cities. So strange compared to my elves today.

 

[redrick]

We're currently playing through Tom Moldvay's Castle Amber module, which is loosely set in Glantri of Mystara. (Loosely as in it's actually set in a pocket plane/dimension with a brief foray into an alternate history medieval france, but the backstory is Glantri.) Since the campaign started in the Barely-Known World of so many half-assed homebrews, I've decided that we'll be moving things to Mystara if the characters can ever figure out how to escape Castle Amber. I appreciate that the setting material is organized into gazetteers by region, which feels a little less daunting than taking on an entire game world in one swoop.

 

[guachi]

1. It's 20 years on since there has been new material so it'll likely feel quite different form what most players are used to despite being the setting of the best selling D&D product (red box) of all time. There are piles of monsters totally unique to the world while also being completely absent of so many monsters that are now seen as iconic.

2. The cultures are easy to describe even if they don't often make geographical sense. I've just started a campaign and the material makes it really easy for the DM to focus less on the mechanical bits of the characters and more on the characters' backgrounds.

My new campaign:
Karameikan living in Threshold - half native Traladaran and half conquering Thyatian
Gnome from Hillforge about 25 miles SE of Threshold.
Minrothad Guild Water Elf who is a member of the Tutorial Guild - School of Magical Artifacts
Ethengarian (not-Mongols) from the Kaerut clan in the Ethengar Khanate
Atruaghin (not-native Americans) from the Bear Clan
Extremely religious Ylari (not Arab) from the Emirate of Alasiyan - half native Alasiyan and half Thyatian
Ethengarian from the Principalities of Glantri. This creates interesting dynamics with the other Ethengarian.

The characters are more defined by where they are from and how they grew up than what class they are.

3. It's a setting made for a DM as much as for the players. Many of the comments I've seen online from people DMing the setting are from people who just really love it and I assume that comes through for the players.

 

[Parmandur]

1.) Wears anachronistic real world analogues proudly on it's sleeve

2. Airships

3. Metric tons of adventures

 

[aramis erak]

I can't add much to Iosue-san's excellent list, but there are a few more...

Ethnic homelands - Elves, Dwarves, Halflings, and the Goblinoids all have ethnic homeland regions within easy reach of the two faux-european regions.

One of the Faux-European nations is an early renaissance Italian-style republic.

The setting has flying ships, but not spelljammers.

It's properly medieval thin-population. The cities are few and far between. Lots of wilderness surrounds them.

 

[ExploderWizard]

1) ISLE OF DREAD!

2) ORCS OF THAR!

3) ORCS OF THAR!

 

[Kwalish Kid]

I almost forgot!

0: All magic is the results of a hidden nuclear reactor.

(OK, that's not 100% true.)

 

[GMforPowergamers]

is this the red steel setting? I know that one had turtle and wolf men in it as PCs...

 

[HobbitFan]

Red Steel is part of Mystara yes but it's kinda a mini-setting inserted in on the periphery.

 

[GMforPowergamers]

Red Steel is part of Mystara yes but it's kinda a mini-setting inserted in on the periphery.

I thought so...

1) you can play a teenage Ninja Turtle
2) you can play a wolfman
3) it isn't the realms...