D&D 5E Mystara 5th Edition Fan Made Supplement

[Water Bob]

To this day, the Mystara Gazetteer series are one of the best series of supplements ever written for D&D. They are packed full of useful information for a campaign.

 

[bgbarcus]

To this day, the Mystara Gazetteer series are one of the best series of supplements ever written for D&D. They are packed full of useful information for a campaign.

I agree and would go even further. The gazetteers were close to perfect as they added many new options but ignoring any subset would have no detrimental effect of a game. That is the definition of an ideal rules supplement, fun, interesting, useful, and 100% optional.

 

[DM Howard]

Agree. Although as a small caveat, I probably would recommend picking up GAZ1 first and then pick-n-choosing the ones that interest you from there. If for no other reason: the Grand Duchy of Karameikos was often used as a default starting point for Mystara.

That said, my personal favourite has always been GAZ3. Hope you enjoy them!

Thanks for the added input. I decided to go in order, bought the first 5 via DTRPG, as I like the idea of reading them in the same order as people would have when they were first printed.

As an aside, I just spent $25 that I was not planning to spend due to a fan made work for an older setting. If that isn't a solid (if admittedly anecdotal) argument for adding more settings to the DM's Guild then I don't know what is.

 

[Water Bob]

Thanks for the added input. I decided to go in order, bought the first 5 via DTRPG, as I like the idea of reading them in the same order as people would have when they were first printed.

As an aside, I just spent $25 that I was not planning to spend due to a fan made work for an older setting. If that isn't a solid (if admittedly anecdotal) argument for adding more settings to the DM's Guild then I don't know what is.

Dude, you're going to love the Mystara setting. It's the home of those old Basic D&D adventures. Like the old "B" series. Most are located in Mystara. Before it was formally called "Mystara", it was just the "Known World". Some of those old adventures have also been transplanted into Greyhawk and Blackmoor. But, originally, most were considered to either be in a generic world or Mystara.

For example, the infamous Keep on the Borderlands. Threshold is located in Karameikos. Or, if you read about the Iron Ring (slavers), they're based out of Fort Doom. You may remember the infmaous dual module adventure about the Master of the Desert Nomads. That's set in the Sind desert.

Check out THIS PAGE for several old basic D&D adventures set in Mystara.

It is literally one of my favorite gaming worlds. It's very traditional and somewhat like Greyhawk. But, I love it.

 

[bgbarcus]

Mystara is still alive and vibrant with fan created material. That's where my games are set.

 

[Water Bob]

The only thing I don't 100% like about Mystara* is the Moorcock inspired Immortals. I prefer a more traditional set of gods.




*Well, there are two things, but this one is easily fixed. I always play Mystara using AD&D. I think it is a superior rule system than that of basic D&D, for which most Mystara stuff is written. But basic D&D is easily converted to AD&D--so, it's no biggie.

 

[Bad Fox]

The only thing I don't 100% like about Mystara* is the Moorcock inspired Immortals. I prefer a more traditional set of gods.


*Well, there are two things, but this one is easily fixed. I always play Mystara using AD&D. I think it is a superior rule system than that of basic D&D, for which most Mystara stuff is written. But basic D&D is easily converted to AD&D--so, it's no biggie.

Lol! I expect that those'll be two controversial statements for a lot of Known World fans!

Speaking for myself, I like the Immortals: it's a concept that really distinguishes Mystara from other the other D&D settings. Plus, the idea of ending a campaign by ascending to become a god has always seemed like a neat one. (Not that any of my games ever went long enough for that to happen!)

On the plus side for you, I expect it would be easy enough to house-rule out? Just change all the Immortals to more traditional gods?

As for the Basic D&D rules set, I always thought it was fantastic - the Rules Cyclopedia probably stands as one of the greatest collected role playing rules sets ever published. That said, I'll agree that I miss choosing your race separately from your class in Basic D&D. I always felt like that was its one real weak point relative to AD&D,

 

[Water Bob]

I do agree that the Rules Cyclopedia is a pretty mean work. There were talented people working on that game who got it right. Though the AD&D rule set is all over the place, I do like the more choices.

And, Basic D&D ain't bad. I don't hate it. And, I could probably grow to love it.

 

[Khoram]

Just want to jump on the bandwagon here and say "well done!" to TheGlen for the amazing effort that went into this work.

Mentzer's Red Box was my introduction to D&D, so The Known World/Mystara has always felt like it captured what I considered the essence of D&D more than Forgotten Realms.

I never really got to play much throughout the years, but when 5E came out I decided to DM for my wife and kids. They loved it! We started with the Beginner boxed set, and I felt that module was a perfect introduction. Afterwards, I looked around and people praised Red Hand of Doom so I tried my hand at presenting them a 5E conversion of that. It went well for a bit, but I think it was too big and too complex for beginners and they had no idea where to go or what to do/what was expected of them. We haven't played in 8 months or so now. Recently I began looking around for something easier to get them into, and decided to convert a couple of old B modules (thinking B11 & B12), which got me looking into Mystara/Karameikos again after 30 years. That led me to find this excellent 5E Mystara fan work.

One question if some of you know: I bought GAZ1 on dndclassics back about 2 years ago, and went to get the thing printed at OfficeMax and ran into copyright trouble. I was under the impression that all of these 20-30 year old pdfs were being sold with the intention that we could make print copies for our own use. Is this not the case? Seems like kind of a stingy oversight on WotC part if so.

 

[Icharbezol]

The Sidhe in Mystara, as well as all the fey races, are effectively natural sorcerers. That's why they generate their own spells, at the cost of extra damage from most weapons. If anything, you would be asking them to sponsor your warlock. Mystara doesn't do sorcery that much, I could only find two versions of it. Radiance which is a geographical feature that grants magic to those near it, and the wokani which are the animistic casters, but the sidhe can be part of.

From what I've read so far, you're doing a great job! I don't think every class and archetype option in the player's handbook needs to be accounted for in this setting or have a place, just because it's in the PHB. Mystara is a different world than the one described in the player's handbook (which is overwhelmingly FR-based). New and specific options for a new and specific setting can and should replace those that represent options for a different setting.