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.

 

[Yaarel]

The "Vortex Dimension" seems identical with the Plane of Negativity.

Negativity is literally nothingness, empty space. It is neither good nor evil. It is more like an element. Void.

However, to intentionally utilize negativity to kill, unravel, and rot, might be situationally evil. But ultimately, using Fire to kill or Void to kill is ethically equivalent.

The text suggests the Far Realms connects to the Material via the negativity. That is fine.


Limbo = Shadowfell?

 

[Yaarel]

Probably the "Spirit Realm" is simply the Ethereal Plane.

The ethereal plane encompasses the elemental planes, so the minds rocks, winds, sunlight, etcetera can manifest within the ethereal too. Likewise human ghosts are ethereal, confirming the spirit world as ether.

Especially if Plant is an element, this too exists within the ether, whence the nature beings of plants.

 

[Yaarel]

I would characterize the aster of the astral plane, including the outer planes, as the Dreamscape, being mental constructs, symbols, and archetypes. Literally, language taking on a life of its own. The outer planes are recognizable within the Dreamscape because they polarize according to ethical concepts.

 

[Yaarel]

Re the Norse worldview:
"
The Rainbow Bridge is a shining rainbow plane in which magic doesn't work. It leads to the Nine Worlds of the Immortal Realms, where the Northern Reaches pantheon dwells.
1. Asgard (home of the Immortals Odin, Thor, and Loki)
2. Vanaheim (home of the Immortals Frey and Freyja)
3. Muspelheim (home of fire giants)
4. Niflheim (home of frost giants and the Immortal Hel)
5. Alfheim (home of elves)
6. Svartalfheim (home of dark elves)
7. Jotunheim (home of giants)
8. Swergheim (home of dwarves)
9. Midgard, a parallel world similar to Earth during the Viking age. Some have speculated that this is the same as LaTerre, above, but during an earlier era.
10. Yggdrasil, the World Ash, which connects the nine planes.
"

The translation "home" is incorrect. Heim means "home". But heimr (with an r at the end) means "realm". The English term realm is a good equivalent, and mostly gets used in the same ways as heimr does. The "nine realms" refer to different regions of this world. Sometimes the whole world together is called the material "realm".

Niflheimr is the "realm of (icy) mist". Muspelheimr is the "realm of (fiery) judgment". And so on.

These are realms of the world.

Niflheimr = the northern polar icecap.
Muspelheimr = the equatorial heat, apparently identical with the Sahara Desert.

In some sense, Niflheimr is water but includes ice, and Muspelheimr is fire but includes soot.

Miδgarδr is moreorless continental Europe (but later will come to be understood as including Africa and Asia too).

Somewhat humorously, Jǫtunheimr is moreorless the Nordic countries, the outer edge of the world. The ice and lands are Jotnar nature beings.

Ásaheimr and Ásgarδr are different places. The Aesir live in Ásaheimr, which is the cloudlevel of the sky. They travel down the Rainbow Bridge to Ásgarδr where they vote on governmental issues. Ásgarδr is on the land. It is where the local parliament or congress of the Aesir is. Snorri says Ásgarδr is near ancient Troy, in the valley of the mountain of Ida (Iðavǫllr) in today NW Turkey. The Norse viewed themselves as at the northern edge of the world, and perceived the center of the world to be further south.

The Rainbow Bridge is the normal rainbow. Humans can see it flicker visible and invisible and shift. It often connects the sky to the land.

Hel is any grave, and in some sense, every grave collectively.

Svartalfaheimr is the realm of Dvergar inside rock and mud. These particular Dvergar have proved themselves to be beneficial despite their uncooperative nature.

Yggdrasill is the air itself, perceived as a dome-shaped living seasonal entity. The Nornir throw white muck across its branches, namely clouds. The air connects all the realms together and keeps the ecosystem alive and well.

Alfheimr is in the highest branches of the dome, in the sky above the clouds.

The Alfar, Aesir, and Vanir, are all nature beings of the sky. The Alfar are the luminous clear sky above the cloudlevel. The Aesir are the cloudlevel. The Vanir are the winds below the cloudlevel. Among the Vanir, Njǫrδr is the warm coastal breezes important to fishers, Freyr is the fertile weather of spring and summer important to farmers. Freyja is probably winds as well, such as her going berserk shatters the rainbow understood as her necklace, albeit her other aspects become more important. The winds neigh like horses, and are aspects of the Vanir. These three families of beings − Vanir, Alfar, and Aesir − are the normal sky.



The point is. All of the nine realms are part of the Material Plane. Humans can see and touch these realms. The inhabitants of these realms are the minds of the features of nature all around.

This is an animistic worldview.

The nature beings are mortal and can grow old and die. The Aesir keep themselves youthful and healthy by means of magic. I think it is fair to describe Norse beings such as Thor (Þórr) as "immortals" in the sense they have achieved epic levels. However, they are nature beings (vaettir) and very much part of the Material Plane.

 

[darjr]

Jeff Grubb is going to be on NewbieDM’s show tonight. If you have any questions for him they might answer them there.

D&D General - NewbieDM to interview Ed Greenwood and Jeff Grubb!

Tomorrow night, July 7th, 8pm Eastern. He's been really good at answering questions during his previous live streams and I have quite a few! See you in the twitch chat! Oh, any questions you have? I might ask some of them from this very thread if you can't make the stream.

www.enworld.org

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

and is probably only around 18-20 years away for the people of Eberron.

The Eberron Campaign Setting is the D&D equivalent of The Quiet Year.

 

[Blue Orange]

Was there any more information on this?

 

[The Glen]

Was there any more information on this?

Nope. Apparently one person said it was okay to publish and then somebody else overrode the decision. That's all we know

 

[Blue Orange]

Nope. Apparently one person said it was okay to publish and then somebody else overrode the decision. That's all we know

Too bad. Well, thanks for letting me know.