Known World source?

[haakon1]

I’m interested in a quick, basic source for Basic info on the Known World setting. Something like the Greyhawk Folio, or the original AD&D 1e boxed sets for Greyhawk or Forgotten Realms.

Just the main parts, not the other continents or the Known World. Karameikos, Darokin, Thyatis, all that.

And I’m not interested enough to read all the GAZ supplements - just looking for an overview.

From reading on DriveThruRPG, I think B10 Night’s Dark Terror would cover Karameikos. Maybe that’s enoug?

 

[guachi]

There really isn't one from an official source. Module X1 has very, very brief descriptions.

The best best bet is something from a fan site like pandius.com, which has documents that provide a good overview.

Try this link: The Newbie's Guide to Mystara

 

[Yora]

Night's Dark Terror certainly can serve as a bit of an introduction to the setting. I believe a few villages are described with some detail. But it's only giving a couple of impressions, not a general overview.
And it's a really generic fantasy region, so not particularly much of note to find there.

 

[AtomicPope]

Official source? No, but there is an unofficial source that was compiled by TheGlen a while back. For a pet project it's astoundingly good. The editing and layout are superb. It's also updated for 5e:

https://www.rpgmp3.com/files/pdf/Mystara_Players_Guide_5e.pdf

There are other unofficial sources, some even from former TSR employees who have first hand knowledge, but I haven't seen any as complete or accessible as this.

 

[jdrakeh]

You're in luck! TSR published Joshuan's Almanac and Book of Facts specifically as an overview of the setting.

 

[DarkCrisis]

Gotta say the Gazetters are pretty cool though.

Ive started reading Hollow World and man is it good. I want to run a game there

 

[haakon1]

You're in luck! TSR published Joshuan's Almanac and Book of Facts specifically as an overview of the setting.

Thanks, especially for the link. At 240 pages, it’s longer than what I’m looking, but otherwis, yeah, exactly what I was looking for. In my Cart, but haven’t decided if I’ll buy it yet.

 

[haakon1]

Gotta say the Gazetters are pretty cool though.

Ive started reading Hollow World and man is it good. I want to run a game there

I PLAYED in a Hollow World in 1988, but I think the DM was homemaking it.

 

[Jer]

I’m interested in a quick, basic source for Basic info on the Known World setting. Something like the Greyhawk Folio, or the original AD&D 1e boxed sets for Greyhawk or Forgotten Realms.

Just the main parts, not the other continents or the Known World. Karameikos, Darokin, Thyatis, all that.

And I’m not interested enough to read all the GAZ supplements - just looking for an overview.

From reading on DriveThruRPG, I think B10 Night’s Dark Terror would cover Karameikos. Maybe that’s enoug?

Unfortunately TSR never really did a great full campaign setting for the whole setting. The closest we really get as overviews are the brief one-paragraph descriptions in X1 and the Joshuan's Almanac write-up that @jdrakeh linked to. And there's a bit of a timeline issue with them as well - the Gazetteers and the X1 description are based in the year 1000 while Joshuan's Almanac is set after the Wrath of the Immortals boxed set and is set in 1013 after some fairly large changes to the setting that happened in that boxed set.

The Newbie's Guide that @guachi posted and the Mystara Player's Guide that @AtomicPope posted are what I'd direct an interested party at. The Newbie's Guide was put together by the Mystara Message Board/Mailing List folks years ago and remains a great resource. The Mystara Player's Guide that Glen Welch put together is one of the most impressive fan works I've seen - it's an excellent summary of the information from the Gazetteers and is absolutely the kind of book/boxed set I wish that TSR had produced back in the day for the setting. It does include more than just the Known World portions of the setting but it doesn't go much farther than the Known World - Alphatia is in there but the Savage Coast isn't. Also it's free, so you have something you can read without spending anything to see if you want to go any deeper.

 

[RobJN]

I PLAYED in a Hollow World in 1988, but I think the DM was homemaking it.

Considering that the Hollow World boxed set came out in 1990, it's a good guess that would've been homebrewed stuff.