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

[Schmoe]

The secret origins of the Known World!

Awesome, awesome link. My favorite quote from that article is: "Plus in every land there would be hidden cults that worshiped Lovecraftian Elder Gods."

 

[Parmandur]

Awesome, awesome link. My favorite quote from that article is: "Plus in every land there would be hidden cults that worshiped Lovecraftian Elder Gods."

Dude, that is pretty cool stuff!

 

[The Mirrorball Man]

1. Every country on the map is a well-realised, well-crafted mini-setting with a distinct mood, tone and a unique cultural background. The unified culture of blandness that plagues other settings doesn't exist in Mystara.
2. Because it has its roots in BECMI D&D, the Known World is easy to access, easy to understand and doesn't require any extra reading.
3. It lives on as Calidar.

 

[Doc_Klueless]

3. It lives on as Calidar.

For some reason, I had the impression that Calidar was it's own setting. Written in the style of Mystara and the Voyages of the Princess Ark, but it's own thing with no real "in world" ties to Mystara. The description is littered with "inspired by" and "new fictional world." I can definitely see where it's like Mystara and am quite interested in it, but Mystara/Known World it is not.

It still looks very cool though and would like to know if my impressions are wrong in that it IS tied to the Known World.

 

[The Mirrorball Man]

For some reason, I had the impression that Calidar was its own setting.

It is its own setting, but it has the same flavor as Mystara, and even has close equivalents to Karameikos, Alfheim, Glantri and the others.

 

[Iosue]

I just want to note in passing that I much prefer the name "the Known World" over "Mystara". The Known World has a certain pulp fantasy feel to it, at once telling you something about the lands in question while also telling you there are lands beyond these, a world of the Unknown. Mystara sounds like a stripper's name.

 

[Prickly]

What is the difference between a God in Greyhawk and an Mystaran Immortal?

 

[Doc_Klueless]

It is its own setting, but it has the same flavor as Mystara, and even has close equivalents to Karameikos, Alfheim, Glantri and the others.

Ok. You've piqued my interest, so I ordered up the PDF. Always willing to support an author whose work I've enjoyed.

 

[Estlor]

Deep beneath Glantri lies the remains of the S/S Beagle, an ancient spaceship (5,000 years or so). Its reactor was altered, long ago, by the Immortals of Energy in order to enhance magic and provide a pathway to Immortality. Immortals of other spheres (Time, Matter, Space, and Entropy) thought that was cheating and modified it some more, so that drawing on its power leads to magic being permanently drained out of the world.

So the nuclear reactor is not the source of magic in the world, but more like a lens through which that magic can be focused in different ways, but at a very, very steep cost.

You are totally forgetting about the nuclear reactor the subterranean shadow elves are building at the behest of their patron, the ancient nuclear physicist turned immortal Rafiel. And that, essentially, the "degenerative sickness" their race is dealing with is radiation sickness.

 

[chriton227]

Ok. You've piqued my interest, so I ordered up the PDF. Always willing to support an author whose work I've enjoyed.

If you don't mind me asking, which PDF did you order? I love Mystara and have a fair amount of both the D&D Known World and AD&D Mystara products, but I always thought one of the big weaknesses of the setting was that there was no main setting book like Greyhawk Adventures, the World of Greyhawk folio, or the Forgotten Realms Adventures. The world information was spread across the various gazetteers for D&D or the few nation specific box sets from AD&D.