I'd love to see Mystara 4e

[Grand_Director]

I'm running a Known World game right now. It plays perfectly. My players (who had no knowledge of the world) have thrown themselves into the setting more then any other game I have run for them.

Of course it may have something to do with the fact I grew up with this setting in the 80's and I know it like the back of my hand.

 

[Holy Bovine]

Now, to be fair, my knowledge of Mystara mainly comes from the Voyage of the Princess Ark stories in Dragon. But, I would think that Mystara would be a great setting for 4e. It's a pretty wahoo setting with flying ships.

Actually, I could go on, but, hey, flying ships. Do I really need anything more?

Seriously though, I think that Mystara would rock as a 4e setting. Am I out to lunch here?

Mystara does indeed rock as a 4E setting. I've been using since Sept 08 and it has been a blast. It felt like coming home as this was the first campaign setting I ever used and I hadn't done anything with it in over 15 years. I never owned the Gazeteers but have been getting by with the 2E Kingdom of Karameikos boxed set and a few select modules. The PCs are on their way to a Grand Bazaar in the Emirates of Ylaruam on a mission from Orest Naeumar (from the city of Fallcrest write up in the back of the DMG). On their way there (I placed Fallcrest on the border between Karameikos and Thyatis) they have gone through 2 DCC modules and are about to have a few encounters lifted from X4 Master of the Desert Nomads which should give some set up to the whole war of the desert nomads story arch.

If you do decide to DYI Mystara for 4E Goodman Games DCC are a goldmine of ideas and unique locations and adventures.

 

[BlightCrawler]

Mystara is not bland. There are all sorts of things to criticize Mystara for... Lack of coherence, lack of seriousness, lack of any direction whatsoever, etc. However, blandness is not one of them.

Or at least that's what the samuraii cat-man from the invisible second moon said to the French werewolf-prince-wizard while flying on the gigantic airship during their quest to find the magic-suckig nuclear reactor buried somewhere under fantasy-Venice.

Clearly, your Mystara may vary. I didn't get any of that from my Basic D&D boxed sets or adventures.

Bland isn't a bad thing, although I know it can be used with poor connotation. Bread is bland, but it's also the basis of so many fantastic foods (including, bread, which can be delicious on its own). What I mean is that it's very basic and standard so that you can end up with werewolf princes and whatever else. It takes flavor very well. But that's absolutely not the baseline. The baseline is a psuedo medieval Europe fantasy world, the likes of which don't seem to sell (or at least don't seem to get made). One of those standard kingdoms might have a crash site with space frogs to explore, but it's not like you'll encounter them on a normal day, or even that they have any impact on the Euro-stye feudalistic culture.

If indeed the kitchen sink gonzo fantasy is part of the lasting appeal (something that fits 4E very well), then at the very least it needs a makeover to bring more of it to the surface. I think it would be difficult to do without making it look like Forgotten Realms or Eberron or a combination of the two. And I don't know if reworking it would bring out the fans more than simply creating a new world from scratch. It could bring about a lot of sturm and drang over unnecessary changes.

 

[hailstop]

I agree. Once you change the original statement to being "official" (it may have been the original intent, but that's not how it was stated). Given they stated they went with Dark Sun because they felt they had covered "generic fantasy" with Forgotten Realms and Eberron!?! then Mystara has no chance.

Indeed, I don't see where they could be going in 2011 for a setting.

It's certainly not quite as obvious as Dark Sun was this year. The only questionmark was the fact it was Dragonlance's 25th anniversary.

Planescape doesn't seem to be likely, since it seems to be actually being absorbed into the generic POL campaign.

Similarly with Spelljammer, although there it _might_ be different enough...and it's only with the fact there are 'spelljammers' in the MotP.

Dragonlance, Greyhawk, Mystara all are 'generic'.

 

[AdmundfortGeographer]

Mystara is perfect for 4e.

Heck, Nentir Vale is practically a reskinning of Karameikos' region around Threshold.

Speaking of hooks, Mystara never had setting-wide hook. They instead went the route of applying hooks on a regionwide basis, not a worldwide basis. You can look at single regions and find distinct hooks. This was as designed through the Gazetteer series. I think it is narrowminded to try to apply a design framework used for other settings onto Mystara.

But maybe WotC's management doesn't believe they can provide support for a world without a singular worldwide theme. Mystara did have a theme.

Where one of Eberron's theme was that anything in D&D had a place in the setting. Mystara had a theme that anything in fiction had a place in the setting.

 

[Holy Bovine]

I agree. Once you change the original statement to being "official" (it may have been the original intent, but that's not how it was stated). Given they stated they went with Dark Sun because they felt they had covered "generic fantasy" with Forgotten Realms and Eberron!?! then Mystara has no chance.

Indeed, I don't see where they could be going in 2011 for a setting.

Given the 2010 release schedule has a few planar books in it my money is on Planescape.

If it turns out to be Dragonlance you will probably be able to hear my scream of rage and agony from space.

 

[Mika]

This isn't official, but the Piazza's Mystara4E project definitely might be of interest:

The Piazza • View forum - Mystara 4E Conversion Project

 

[Holy Bovine]

This isn't official, but the Piazza's Mystara4E project definitely might be of interest:

The Piazza • View forum - Mystara 4E Conversion Project

Oh baby - that is some good stuff there. THe guy going through and converting old Mystara monsters to 4E is awesome. Although I do question his choice of Manscorpions as Artillery and Soldiers. Those guys are Brutes if I ever saw one!

 

[JohnBiles]

Oh baby - that is some good stuff there. THe guy going through and converting old Mystara monsters to 4E is awesome. Although I do question his choice of Manscorpions as Artillery and Soldiers. Those guys are Brutes if I ever saw one!

Hmm, adding a brute type wouldn't hurt. (I'm the guy who did those conversions)


Mystara does have an overall world hook which applies to every inch of it, from the Hollow World to the Known World to the Savage Coast/Red Steel.

And that hook is this. Mystara is the world where the ultimate goal of adventuring is divinity and all the gods used to be mortals.

Divine ascension isn't impossible in Greyhawk or FR, but it's fairly rare. In Mystara, every region's Immortals almost all used to be mortals except for a tiny handful who are so old, they don't even know where they came from.

High level NPCs tend to have their eyes on this prize, which is why the PCs have to solve problems instead of asking themselves why Elminister didn't just fix it himself. And some of the major villains (ex. Barimoor) are in the process of working towards immortality...until they cross blades with the PCs, anyway.

This applies to a lot of the unique/interesting stuff in Mystara--the Red Curse, the Hollow World, etc.

 

[Holy Bovine]

Hmm, adding a brute type wouldn't hurt. (I'm the guy who did those conversions)

I made mine up as level 6 brutes (only one type as they were paired with some living archer (artillery) statues) and I have a strong prejudice against soldiers of any kind but the artillery and controller manscorpions were great overall. I'm c'n'p' all of those threads for my own game asap. Thanks for all the hard work!

Mystara does have an overall world hook which applies to every inch of it, from the Hollow World to the Known World to the Savage Coast/Red Steel.

And that hook is this. Mystara is the world where the ultimate goal of adventuring is divinity and all the gods used to be mortals.

Divine ascension isn't impossible in Greyhawk or FR, but it's fairly rare. In Mystara, every region's Immortals almost all used to be mortals except for a tiny handful who are so old, they don't even know where they came from.

High level NPCs tend to have their eyes on this prize, which is why the PCs have to solve problems instead of asking themselves why Elminister didn't just fix it himself. And some of the major villains (ex. Barimoor) are in the process of working towards immortality...until they cross blades with the PCs, anyway.

This applies to a lot of the unique/interesting stuff in Mystara--the Red Curse, the Hollow World, etc.

Hmmmm - never thought of it that way and one of my players is even striving for the immortality epic destiny. Pretty cool idea actually.