Dungeonosophy
Legend
haha - you got it.
Mike Mearls tweet: Is the Known World of Mystara coming to 5e? (What's Cool About Mystara?)
haha - you got it.
cbwjm
Seb-wejem
It was really bugging me, I was waiting to get home so I could find my pdf copy to find out the name, then I read the next post after mine which also confirmed it
Dungeonosophy
Legend
Even though I'm pro-Mystara, I'd personally I'd first like to see a Spelljammer+Planescape+Chronomancer* meta-setting book, which includes a planar/galactic map of all the worlds and planes ever mentioned in any D&D product, along with world-hopping adventure arc which visits a dozen of those worlds. I'd be happy for Mystara to just be one of many adventure locales in a world-hopping uber-setting: the D&D Multiverse.
*(Chronomancer, because then can visit Age of Blackmoor, Arcane Age of Forgotten Realms, and so forth. Plus, the timelines of the published settings are "off" by over hundred years.)
*(Chronomancer, because then can visit Age of Blackmoor, Arcane Age of Forgotten Realms, and so forth. Plus, the timelines of the published settings are "off" by over hundred years.)
Last edited:
Can I take my vote back so I can recast it against this as repeatedly and as violently as possible?
This is the cancer that killed Spelljammer by robbing it of any sense of its own identity, and everything that is tolerable about all of the standard primeworld settings is what makes them different. If you've got four different kitchen sinks full of slightly different flavors of dishwater to drink, you gain absolutely nothing by mixing them first.
If that's what they're going to do, I would rather they just didn't. I would rather they pulled their PDFs from stores again than **** on their predecessors' work this way.
Dungeonosophy
Legend
These worlds were connected from the start. The Mystara gazetteers had appendices with gates leading to Oerth and Toril. The original 1st Edition Dragonlance hardcover had extensive rules for what happens if a character from another world comes to Krynn. All the worlds were mention in Planescape, and had cameos from all worlds. Athas of course was cut off...but obviously its solar system lies within the D&D Multiverse, and there have been Dark Sun characters in Planescape. Ed Greenwood had the Egyptian and Babylonian pantheons actually travel from Earth to Toril. There was the Wizards Three series of articles.
Of course your position is a valid preference, and reflects occasional statements from some of the world-specific TSR authors such as Weiss and Hickman, but your preference is different than what the published D&D Multiverse has been in every edition. Same for 5E: the PHB lists all the D&D worlds as being located in the same Material Plane.
Presenting all the worlds of the D&D Multiverse as a single brand is not so different than the rebranding of the lands of Al-Qadim, Kara-Tur, Maztica as a single Forgotten Realms brand. It doesn't destroy the tone of Zakhara, Kara-Tur, or Maztica to highlight their connections with Faerun.
These are not pristine, haute-couture "art-worlds", or singular literary worlds like JRRT's Middle-earth. It's D&D!
Remathilis
Legend
Thank you. That is perfectly said. Those worlds are D&D worlds, both in the system played and the greater multiverse they exist in.
havard
Adventurer
I think its great seeing Mystara as part of the conversation again.
I see many people in this thread talking about what Mystara is, but I think it might also be useful to talk about how Mystara should be presented to a modern audience. Mystara in its original form (BECMI) was incredibly powerful, but the AD&D 2nd edition failed. A return to Mystara should learn from the mistakes made back then.
AD&D2nd Ed Mystara made two important mistakes:
a) TSR decided that Mystara should be presented as a kind friendly setting. (Not even kids want a kiddie setting).
b) TSR decided that in order to make Mystara as compatible with 2nd Ed as possible, they would tone down all the features that set the world apart from the other AD&D worlds.
I think you need to present the world in a way that amps up some of its unique features:
1) Pulp sense of wonder, not gritty.
2) Room for both low level exploration and plane hopping world altering epics.
3) a world where every hero has a real chance of becoming an Immortal or interracting with Immortals.
4) A fantasy world built on the ruins of a high technological civilization
5) A world where every elf can cast at least a few spells
6) A world where the strangest races feel right at home
7) A world where Secret orders of Wizards have access to unique powers
8) A flying city, flying ships, floating islands
9) Dark Nightmare Powers lurking behind the scenes
etc...
If we can't have a single book dedicated to each of the classic worlds, how about a single volume covering multiple worlds? I think it would be a great addition to all 5E games!
-Havard
I see many people in this thread talking about what Mystara is, but I think it might also be useful to talk about how Mystara should be presented to a modern audience. Mystara in its original form (BECMI) was incredibly powerful, but the AD&D 2nd edition failed. A return to Mystara should learn from the mistakes made back then.
AD&D2nd Ed Mystara made two important mistakes:
a) TSR decided that Mystara should be presented as a kind friendly setting. (Not even kids want a kiddie setting).
b) TSR decided that in order to make Mystara as compatible with 2nd Ed as possible, they would tone down all the features that set the world apart from the other AD&D worlds.
I think you need to present the world in a way that amps up some of its unique features:
1) Pulp sense of wonder, not gritty.
2) Room for both low level exploration and plane hopping world altering epics.
3) a world where every hero has a real chance of becoming an Immortal or interracting with Immortals.
4) A fantasy world built on the ruins of a high technological civilization
5) A world where every elf can cast at least a few spells
6) A world where the strangest races feel right at home
7) A world where Secret orders of Wizards have access to unique powers
8) A flying city, flying ships, floating islands
9) Dark Nightmare Powers lurking behind the scenes
etc...
If we can't have a single book dedicated to each of the classic worlds, how about a single volume covering multiple worlds? I think it would be a great addition to all 5E games!
-Havard
The Glen
Legend
Focus on what made each setting different so the players can choose how they want to play. Mystara is very much left for the players to discover. Lost Cities, hidden valleys, Borderlands, secret societies, and all of this before you reach level 4. How many of the nations are completely settled? Ierendi is the only one I can think of everything else has vast expanses of wilderness. The fact that players were expected to rise in their social ranks by becoming members of nobility was written into the rules. that was something that was missing in a lot of the other settings.
Tales and Chronicles
Jewel of the North, formerly know as vincegetorix
That makes me think. Since Birthright and its domain management rules were not very popular, maybe they could mix add the domain rules to Mystara, since the rules and lore make a lot a place for social advancement and the place of heroes in the world politic. The Big Book of the Known World could be this type of D&D: the one where your adventurer gets to epic levels and rules for titles and domains. If Eberron is the setting where magic items are a common reward/currency, maybe Mystara could be the setting where renown and titles are as common.
I know the DMG has the some basic rules for building, renown and alternative reward, but I think a specific setting could expand them, just as I think Darksun could be the setting where exploration and survival rules are expanded.
