OD&D What is Mystara?

[mserabian]

And Dragonlance and Birthright are also kinda vanilla tbh. So, a fifth vanilla fantasy world for people who thought four weren't enough.

Except you know it was first published in 1981 in X1 Isle of Dread. So it was in fact D&D's second vanilla world and all those others you name except Greyhawk came long after it...

 

[Enrico Poli1]

If you want to get the feeling of Mystara, I suggest you to read Gaz1 The Grand Duchy of Karameikos or Gaz3 The Principalities of Glantri.

Then you could play these adventures as an Adventure Path (an * on the must-play ones), converting on the fly for 5e rules:
Eye of Traldar
Horror on the Hill
Night's Dark Terror*
Isle of Dread*
(Castle Amber* must be played, but as a stand-alone)
Drums of Fire Mountain
Master of the Desert Nomads*
Temple of Death*
War Rafts of Kron
Red Arrow, Black Shield*
Test of the Warlords*
Death's Ride
Sabre River*
Into the Maelstrom
Vengelance of Alphaks
Talons of Night

Mystara has limits, but still I think it is superior to Greyhawk and the Realms as a vanilla setting for the sheer amount of dreams it can inspire.

 

[Staffan]

And Dragonlance and Birthright are also kinda vanilla tbh. So, a fifth vanilla fantasy world for people who thought four weren't enough.

Mystara is definitely older than Birthright, and I'm not entirely sure about how it matches up to Dragonlance. So Birthright is the fifth vanilla setting, though I think it earns its keep with the focus on rulership and stuff.

 

[Mercurius]

Its the place where elves have facial hair.

 

[lowkey13]

*Deleted by user*

 

[Urriak Uruk]

The more I'm reading these replies, the more I'm thinking that if Mystara is released (big if) it will need a bit of a redesign to ensure it leans heavily into a colorful, pulpy fantasy where the heroes are really these larger-than-life characters.

Definitely would be more of a setting to start off for younger audiences (think He-Man, Thundercats, the Black Cauldron), leaning on that Capcom influence of pixel-art and color. But I don't think that's all bad, especially for kids who just want a power fantasy.

 

[Reynard]

The more I'm reading these replies, the more I'm thinking that if Mystara is released (big if) it will need a bit of a redesign to ensure it leans heavily into a colorful, pulpy fantasy where the heroes are really these larger-than-life characters.

Definitely would be more of a setting to start off for younger audiences (think He-Man, Thundercats, the Black Cauldron), leaning on that Capcom influence of pixel-art and color. But I don't think that's all bad, especially for kids who just want a power fantasy.

The thing they could really lead into with Mystara is the core conceit that heroes can become Immortals in the setting and use it to introduce Epic Tier/Immortal rules into 5E.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

For me, Mystara is most associated with a sense of newness and discovery. Of the joys of a simple sword+1, or playing a dwarf, not a dwarven cleric or dwarven rogue, just a dwarf. Your first fight with a dragon. It's picking up the Expert set and seeing your previously dungeon-bound adventures open up into an entire world.

It's a place that is elastic enough to handle just about any fantasy genre, whether it be Norse sagas, Arthurian legends, or tinker gnome built airships.

 

[Leatherhead]

Mystara is definitely older than Birthright, and I'm not entirely sure about how it matches up to Dragonlance. So Birthright is the fifth vanilla setting, though I think it earns its keep with the focus on rulership and stuff.

If you buy into the concept that Blackmoor is the past timeline of Mystara, then It's the first campaign setting.

 

[lowkey13]

*Deleted by user*