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What is Mystara?
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<blockquote data-quote="The Glen" data-source="post: 7816936" data-attributes="member: 6800327"><p>I do a video series called Welcome to Mystara specifically detailing the game world. Let me see if I can sum it up in a blurb.</p><p></p><p>Mystara is the exploration setting, like Ravenloft is the horror setting or Birthright is the high politics setting. You've got multiple nations that are analogies of real-world nations like Byzantine Roman, Arabia or Polynesia. The difference between the Mystara nations and other fantasy nations is few of the Mystara nations are fully explored, it's up to the players to hack through the jungles and cross the deserts to find the mysteries of the setting. Then at higher levels, the party members are usually given domains as a reward for their service and then they can manage the domains or use them as a base of operations.</p><p></p><p>It's pretty different from other D&D settings because it evolved from the BECMI rules rather than the AD&D rules, meaning a lot of the monsters you see shared in Forgotten Realms or Greyhawk never appeared in Mystara. There's no drow, instead, there are Shadow Elves, which share nothing in common with the drow except their choice of domiciles. The duergar were replaced by the insane and cursed modrigswerg which are much, much worse. Mystara loses half races and the like because in the fluff interbreeding was difficult and the offspring just resembled one race or the other. But where you lose things like dragonborn, tieflings or half-elves there's sidhe, lupin, rakasta and the like. For every race you lose another takes its place. It makes for a unique experience if you are just familiar with Forgotten Realms. You're not going to find the Mos Eisley style bars like in the Realms, the setting's nations are largely homogeneous with a few exceptions.</p><p></p><p>The setting expanded with new supplements. When Arneson was welcomed back to TSR and allowed to create his Blackmoor setting it was placed in Mystara's distant past, then they blew it up because TSR <em><strong>loved</strong></em> nuking its settings. Another boxed set created a world within a world as the Immortals preserved dying civilizations in the Hollow World beneath the Known World. When the setting was converted to 2nd edition in the dying days we were given Red Steel, which is a plot of territory known for being plagued with an invasive curse that infects everyone present and forces them to rely on a magical metal to stay alive. Another aspect was there were no gods, they had immortals which were ascended mortals that served as the patrons of the clerics. Players could strive to become one of the immortals, though it was quite difficult and usually lethal. Still, 'you get to be a god' was a major selling point to players looking at the campaign.</p><p></p><p>Mystara is known for it's gonzo magic, but that's just a part of it. Not all the nations obsessed over magic like the magiocracies of Glantri and Alphatia. Most of the settings were more based in historical expies with some fantasy elements thrown in for taste. Nonhuman races are usually found only in large numbers in their own nations. One major aspect of the setting is the cold war feel between the two major empires. Thyatis and Alphatia are equally matched in power, and if war breaks out they would devastate everybody around them without really harming each other. Not as pronounced as Greyhawk but it's always in the background. When Mystara got its setting nuke with Wrath of the Immortals it removed the cold war tension and was the base break for the setting for a lot of players, one of the reasons why a large number of Mystara players keep to the original timeline and work from there.</p><p></p><p>This is the first video in the series, though it's a bit of an old shame because I wasn't that good at the beginning. It does get a lot better however.</p><p>[MEDIA=youtube]xQvrdKNGclY[/MEDIA]</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="The Glen, post: 7816936, member: 6800327"] I do a video series called Welcome to Mystara specifically detailing the game world. Let me see if I can sum it up in a blurb. Mystara is the exploration setting, like Ravenloft is the horror setting or Birthright is the high politics setting. You've got multiple nations that are analogies of real-world nations like Byzantine Roman, Arabia or Polynesia. The difference between the Mystara nations and other fantasy nations is few of the Mystara nations are fully explored, it's up to the players to hack through the jungles and cross the deserts to find the mysteries of the setting. Then at higher levels, the party members are usually given domains as a reward for their service and then they can manage the domains or use them as a base of operations. It's pretty different from other D&D settings because it evolved from the BECMI rules rather than the AD&D rules, meaning a lot of the monsters you see shared in Forgotten Realms or Greyhawk never appeared in Mystara. There's no drow, instead, there are Shadow Elves, which share nothing in common with the drow except their choice of domiciles. The duergar were replaced by the insane and cursed modrigswerg which are much, much worse. Mystara loses half races and the like because in the fluff interbreeding was difficult and the offspring just resembled one race or the other. But where you lose things like dragonborn, tieflings or half-elves there's sidhe, lupin, rakasta and the like. For every race you lose another takes its place. It makes for a unique experience if you are just familiar with Forgotten Realms. You're not going to find the Mos Eisley style bars like in the Realms, the setting's nations are largely homogeneous with a few exceptions. The setting expanded with new supplements. When Arneson was welcomed back to TSR and allowed to create his Blackmoor setting it was placed in Mystara's distant past, then they blew it up because TSR [I][B]loved[/B][/I] nuking its settings. Another boxed set created a world within a world as the Immortals preserved dying civilizations in the Hollow World beneath the Known World. When the setting was converted to 2nd edition in the dying days we were given Red Steel, which is a plot of territory known for being plagued with an invasive curse that infects everyone present and forces them to rely on a magical metal to stay alive. Another aspect was there were no gods, they had immortals which were ascended mortals that served as the patrons of the clerics. Players could strive to become one of the immortals, though it was quite difficult and usually lethal. Still, 'you get to be a god' was a major selling point to players looking at the campaign. Mystara is known for it's gonzo magic, but that's just a part of it. Not all the nations obsessed over magic like the magiocracies of Glantri and Alphatia. Most of the settings were more based in historical expies with some fantasy elements thrown in for taste. Nonhuman races are usually found only in large numbers in their own nations. One major aspect of the setting is the cold war feel between the two major empires. Thyatis and Alphatia are equally matched in power, and if war breaks out they would devastate everybody around them without really harming each other. Not as pronounced as Greyhawk but it's always in the background. When Mystara got its setting nuke with Wrath of the Immortals it removed the cold war tension and was the base break for the setting for a lot of players, one of the reasons why a large number of Mystara players keep to the original timeline and work from there. This is the first video in the series, though it's a bit of an old shame because I wasn't that good at the beginning. It does get a lot better however. [MEDIA=youtube]xQvrdKNGclY[/MEDIA] [/QUOTE]
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