D&D General UPDATE: this isn't greenlit : Jeff Grubb's Lost Mystara Sourcebook To Be Released

Ex-TSR designer Jeff Grubb wrote a Known World of Mystara sourcebook for AD&D 2E that was sadly never published. But now WotC has given permission for it's release to Shawn Stanley of the Vaults of Pandius website, the Official Mystara Homepage!

Grubb posted on Facebook:

"A long time ago I wrote a project for TSR converting the Known World of Mystara from D&D to AD&D 2nd Edition. Through a tale of woe and intrigue, (link below) that product was never completed, and instead became Karameikos, Kingdom of Adventure.

However, I kept a copy of the unfinished manuscript (well, print-out), and a short while ago, gave it to Shawn Stanley, who runs the Pandius Website. He in turn has cleaned it up a bit, and plans to release it, free, with WotC's blessing, to fans on the website's anniversary.

It is really nice to see this surface after so many years - it is a "Lost Tome" of D&D history, and I hope fans of the setting enjoy it."

He speaks more about the story, and why he left TSR, on his blog.

Mystara is a D&D campaign setting first published in the early 1980s, and was the 'default' setting for D&D for a long time.

Why I left TSR

A couple years back I talked about Stormfront , the TSR world that I never ended up creating. And in the initial entry I said: " Stormfro...

grubbstreet.blogspot.com

Updates from @Dungeonosophy

Jeff Grubb gives an overview of the book on his blog

As for the release date: Shawn Stanley, Webmaster of the Vaults of Pandius, announced (here) that June 27th is the planned release date.

Some people were wondering if Jeff is involved in the release.

I reached out to Shawn Stanley on April 10th:
"Yes I was going to reach out to him with respect to providing some sort of foreword for the release. I had been intending to do so once I had finished the graphic design - but with the release of new news yesterday, I reached out to him yesterday. I also wanted to get his okay for the editing that I had done. But yes, I would think that anything that Jeff wants to write to accompany the document would be a great idea. I do kind of agree that something a little bit less-depressing than the blog posts might be preferable - something to celebrate the release than recall the negative things that had happened during that time."
"I do hope that he will agree."

Jeff also responded to me on April 10th:
"Shawn has been in touch with me, and I will be glad to write a brief foreword for the project."

Which will be a fulfillment of Jeff's offer back in 2019:
"If you succeed [with the petition], I will be glad to provide an intro with a less-depressing history of the project."

Note Vaults of Pandius is the Official Mystara Homepage! Given that designation by WotC, back in the 2000s, when Jim Butler was managing fan policy for "other worlds." There's an official agreement and everything. That's why the site is the natural host for this.

UPDATE:
WotC's approval of this sourcebook's release have been premature, i.e. it isn't greenlit.

 

[darjr]

I’ll update the op when I get home

 

[Yaarel]

I am unfamiliar with the Mystara setting. I am curious if it ages well for contemporary sensibilities, such as how it represents other cultures, ethnicities, women, LGBTQ, and so on.

 

[Parmandur]

I am unfamiliar with the Mystara setting. I am curious if it ages well for contemporary sensibilities, such as how it represents other cultures, ethnicities, women, LGBTQ, and so on.

Honestly, probably worse than most TSR Settings. The origin was a College game at Kent State (students in the group included TOm Moldvay, David "Zeb" Cook, and Lawrence Schick) where the goal was to make a classic Swords & Sorcery world with each cultural stereotype they could think of got a whole country. Might not play well to modern sensibilities.

The “Known World” D&D Setting: A Secret History – Black Gate

Lawrence Schick Expands on the Origins of TSR’s The Known World – Black Gate

 

[darjr]

Yea. The more I think I’d rather have something new. As long as I could get access to these.

 

[Parmandur]

Yea. The more I think I’d rather have something new. As long as I could get access to these.

I appreciate the Setting still, but it is more difficult to imagine as being tweaked for current audiences than even most other 70's/80's content.

 

[guachi]

The best thing about Mystara compared to other official settings is the lore doesn't have a few decades of cruft added to it. I've also found that being based on real world cultures and civilizations makes it REALLY easy for new players to grasp what's going on and immerse themselves.

Also, easy to tweak and remove problematic elements. It's not like new players who know nothing about the setting have any attachment to these elements, anyway.

 

[The Glen]

It is one of the easiest settings to get new people into because of the real-world comparisons. It's got cultures from all over the globe included, and it's easy to just define Mystaran cultures as fantasy Romans/Mongols/Arabians/Serbs/Egyptians/Polynesians/Comanche/Texans/Vikings/Dutch in a way that new players instantly recognize. A few cultures need tweaking, but it's one of the best D&D settings created because of the variety you get in playable cultures.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

The best thing about Mystara compared to other official settings is the lore doesn't have a few decades of cruft added to it. I've also found that being based on real world cultures and civilizations makes it REALLY easy for new players to grasp what's going on and immerse themselves.

You wouldn't have known that when the 2E Mystara stuff came out. Hoo boy, the folks upset about how the Glantri book "wrecked" canon.

 

[hopeless]

How would it come across today then?
Its just that why would WOTC have problems with this being released then?
They could use it to demonstrate their interest in "classic" settings and it wouldn't cost them much especially if it proved popular.
Do they have something to fear about expanding the settings covered by 5e?
Or are they afraid it might draw attention away from something they want to release despite it might help in the long run?

 

[The Glen]

You wouldn't have known that when the 2E Mystara stuff came out. Hoo boy, the folks upset about how the Glantri book "wrecked" canon.

Wasn't just canon it wrecked, four out of 10 princes were dead or out of power, about 20% of the nation was a smoking crater, and a huge chunk of the internal politics that made it the unholy mess we knew and loved were gone. 2nd edition removed most of the internal problems that plagued the nation and reduced the plot to the people working for Synn and the people opposing her. Everybody else got shoved to the side. The hundred or so new spells were nice, but it was a Monte Cook product, he would have shaved off more interesting stuff to insert more spells if he could.