rogueattorney
Adventurer
The Savage Coast, which is the area of Mystara covered in the Red Steel setting, is the section of Brun (same continent as the Known World) that runs from the City States around the Gulf of Hule to the Orcs Head penninsula and the Arm of the Immortals.
It was originally covered in the adventure module X9 The Savage Coast (c. 1985) which was a wilderness focussed adventure much like X1 Isle of Dread and X6 Quagmire! I didn't think it was very good, covering way too much territory too sparsely for my tastes. It had a series of missionaries that were all identical, using the same map for each (a la X6 Quagmire! and the sprial cities). All in all, it didn't seem like much adventure for the price. It presented the area as basically uncivilized, full of jungle and savages, with lost cities, and corrupt missionaries looting the natives for their gold.
Later, the area was covered in the latter half of Bruce Heard's Voyage of the Princess Ark and Known World Grimoire columns in Dragon (c. 1991-1994). The area covered was significantly more settled (it was explained that X9 was set in the far past) with Spanish/Portuguese style settlers nestled against British cat-people, French dog-people, a Celtic nation of druids, mysterious spider people, and other wierdo settlers. There was a curse in the Spanish/Portuguese settled areas, in which exposure to Red Steel resulted in disabling mutations. These mutations could be kept away through exposure to a strange red dust. Portions of the Voyage of the Princess Ark series were re-published in the Champions of Mystara boxed set, but not in its entirety. Most importantly, none of the stats or rules that went with the setting were included.
Later (c. 1994-1995) TSR released the Red Steel campaign setting. This converted the Bruce Heard articles to 2e, but made some significant changes. The extent of the Red Curse was expanded greatly, and it was made far more prevalent. The secret spider kingdom was also greatly changed. In 1996, TSR again, re-released the setting, this time on the Internet as the Savage Coast setting. It was essentially a repackaging of much of the Red Steel stuff. The Savage Coast campaign stuff is still available as a free download from WotC, as others have noted.
For my money, the best version of the setting was the one presented in the Bruce Heard articles. It seemed the most 'true' to the Known World as a whole and handled the Red Curse in a more restrained fashion. The 2e changes seemed to be there largely to distinguish the Red Steel campaign setting more from other campaign settings. For some strange reason it seemed TSR was trying to dissassociate Red Steel from Mystara.
R.A.
It was originally covered in the adventure module X9 The Savage Coast (c. 1985) which was a wilderness focussed adventure much like X1 Isle of Dread and X6 Quagmire! I didn't think it was very good, covering way too much territory too sparsely for my tastes. It had a series of missionaries that were all identical, using the same map for each (a la X6 Quagmire! and the sprial cities). All in all, it didn't seem like much adventure for the price. It presented the area as basically uncivilized, full of jungle and savages, with lost cities, and corrupt missionaries looting the natives for their gold.
Later, the area was covered in the latter half of Bruce Heard's Voyage of the Princess Ark and Known World Grimoire columns in Dragon (c. 1991-1994). The area covered was significantly more settled (it was explained that X9 was set in the far past) with Spanish/Portuguese style settlers nestled against British cat-people, French dog-people, a Celtic nation of druids, mysterious spider people, and other wierdo settlers. There was a curse in the Spanish/Portuguese settled areas, in which exposure to Red Steel resulted in disabling mutations. These mutations could be kept away through exposure to a strange red dust. Portions of the Voyage of the Princess Ark series were re-published in the Champions of Mystara boxed set, but not in its entirety. Most importantly, none of the stats or rules that went with the setting were included.
Later (c. 1994-1995) TSR released the Red Steel campaign setting. This converted the Bruce Heard articles to 2e, but made some significant changes. The extent of the Red Curse was expanded greatly, and it was made far more prevalent. The secret spider kingdom was also greatly changed. In 1996, TSR again, re-released the setting, this time on the Internet as the Savage Coast setting. It was essentially a repackaging of much of the Red Steel stuff. The Savage Coast campaign stuff is still available as a free download from WotC, as others have noted.
For my money, the best version of the setting was the one presented in the Bruce Heard articles. It seemed the most 'true' to the Known World as a whole and handled the Red Curse in a more restrained fashion. The 2e changes seemed to be there largely to distinguish the Red Steel campaign setting more from other campaign settings. For some strange reason it seemed TSR was trying to dissassociate Red Steel from Mystara.
R.A.
rt 2 Player Characters", "Campaign Book Part 3: The Campaign", "Savage Steel: Four Adventures in the Orcs Head Peninsula", "The Orcs Head Peninsula Sourcebook", and the "Savage Coast Monstrous Compendium" plus some Map Packs. 
