TSR My BECM Gazetteer Collection is Complete!
AnotherGuy
Hero
I'm sure as a fellow Mystaran you have the GazF series too?
When my current campaign is finished, I will likely go back to Mystara (and never leave it again)
The Glen
Legend
We didn't get full color until the 2nd edition versions. The originals were all B&W except the maps. Unfortunately splitting the map into different pages makes it all but useless in the reprints
As Glen says - the original books were also black and white. And those maps in the original are pretty obviously the same color maps but printed in greyscale and are also a bit muddy and a bit harder to read than they need to be (shelling out the money to make two versions of the map might not have been in the budget, but it would have made them much nicer). So it sounds like they might have successfully reproduced the original Five Shires reading experience
I'm tempted to pick them up for myself eventually even though I own the originals. Having the Dawn of the Emperors books in a single hardcover is by itself really tempting.As for the maps, I honestly prefer to use the digital recreations that Thorfinn Tait has done at his Atlas of Mystara website - I don't think I've unfolded a Gaz map in years since he's put that site up (which is good, because I'm worried they're going to start tearing).
AnotherGuy
Hero
I was extremely fortunate to purchase most of the Gazetteers (2nd edition, used, but not in bad condition) for $3 each in 1998, when the varsity roleplaying club lost their club room to more popular organisations. The dude who had taken custody of the club's library had no idea what he was doing and so I jumped on the opportunity to get my hands on those books. It would have cost a small fortune to have purchased them online and have them delivered, with me being out the states. I have since taken the fold-out maps and had them colour-copied to preserve the original. The colour copies-cost me more than the actual Gazetteers.
The organisation never got their room back, but I heard they had a dedicated table at the cafeteria. The RPG books would have eventually found their way to someone's shelf, so I didn't feel bad for taking advantage of the situation. At least they got some cash out of the situation.
CleverNickName
Limit Break Dancing
Nope, the items are all shipped together and you are charged shipping on the package as a whole. So you will save on shipping if you order several books at a time.
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KirayaTiDrekan
Adventurer
Why did you skip Orcs of Thar?
CleverNickName
Limit Break Dancing
A fair question. The short answer is that I skipped it because I don't think it fits in the collection.
The writers and editors of The Orcs of Thar obviously intended for it to be an over-the-top silly, tongue-in-cheek book. Or at the very least, it clearly wasn't intended to be taken as seriously, since it is filled with puns, jokes, and silly illustrations. This tone is very different from the tone of all of the other Gazetteers in the series. It's more of a parody.
And since most of the 'jokes' and 'silliness' comes at the expense of marginalized real-life people and communities, The Orcs of Thar is rightly regarded as one of the most racially problematic legacy works of all time. There's already a whole other thread dedicated to that topic, so let's not get into those details here. You can join that discussion in the other thread if you like.
All that to say, I feel that The Orcs of Thar is too different to be included with the others, and should stand apart as its own work. (That, and I don't really care for "joke D&D" books.)
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As a long term fan of Mystara - I agree with everything you posted. I remember being a teen and thinking "some of this stuff is kind of offensive" when I read it even back in '88 as a teen (the Native American stuff was especially noticeable to me due to my upbringing).
I liked the idea of making the "humanoids" actual playable characters, but outside of the B/X rules for humanoids as classes and the maps that's one Gaz that didn't get as much play in my games even at the time. The broad idea of a nation of "monsters" is a good idea and I've used it in my Mystara games for the Broken Lands, but not the way the Gaz was published.
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