What Would a 4e Mystara Look Like?

[Bluenose]

Would this scare away previous Mystara fans? Hell, I dunno. I made up half of that. Would it give the setting something that stands out? I think so. I am admittingly, to some degree, just utilizing my own homebrew setting for ideas here

I don't see why it should. There was enough of it already going on in the setting, with both Thyatis and Alphatia having overseas colonies, explorers heading off in all sorts of directions (Like the moon). An 'age of exploration' setting seems different to any we have now. If that's enough of a hook to grab people, then it sounds doable.

 

[S'mon]

So what would Mystara concentrate on? Being an age of discovery. I admittingly know little about Mystara as a setting, but concentrating on swashbuckling, expanding civilization, a very 1600's-1700's feel could help set it apart. Instead of the points of light idea of 4e geography, change the idea of geography to that of an empty map. A previous age ended long ago, and civilization has finished picking itself up off the ground. It's not a world of darkness with points of light, it's a vast and sprawling "Unknown territories" that's just begging to be found, explored, and perhaps even looted. It's time to go into the unknown and uncharted lands. Heroic campaign, you belong to a country, perhaps a quazi-legal guild of adventurers. Paragon campaign, you've obtained your own land, building your own colony, gaining independence. And then epic campaign would be all about the Immortals and, well, becoming one.

Yes, I think that fits Mystara very well. The Gazetteers were great for exploration within a mostly small-ish setting like Karameikos, 8 miles/hex, basically Heroic Tier in 4e terms; there was somewhat more limited support for larger scale (24 miles/hex, 4e Paragon Tier) exploration - eg Test of the Warlords and the Thyatis/Alphatia box set, which I loved. I definitely think exploration and territory development is a strength of Known World/Mystara which could be exploited.

 

[JustKim]

I've been reconciling Mystara with the 4E mechanics and as much of the 4E canon as I can manage over the last 9 months in my ongoing game. I have a thread dedicated to brainstorming ideas with the helpful and knowledgeable folks on the Piazza Mystara board here.

The game started in the Nentir Vale, which I later fit between Alfheim and Rockhome in an untamed frontier of Darokin. It takes place roughly during Wrath of the Immortals, Mystara's super-adventure. Everything works together surprisingly well.

I could go into detail about what I feel are Mystara's strengths as a setting, but there were some great responses already in a thread entitled What's Mystara's Hook? a year ago. It's absolutely worth a read if you're curious.

 

[AFGNCAAP]

IMHO, making Mystara a vaible product for 4e seems tough (and, as I reflect on it, the same is true for Greyhawk). The PoL setting can more or less cover both of these campaign settings. With the Village of Hommlet and Tomb of Horrors bonus modules, it can be said that the PoL setting is taking Greyhawk's stuff; wouldn't be difficult for it to do the same to Mystara.

I think that, for either Greyhawk or Mystara to thrive on their own, they'd need to find their own niche.

In Mystara's case, the idea of it being a growing, exploring realm seems to be the best approach. Red Steel & its effects can be the dragonmark/spellplague-style flavor for PCs, while viably, it could have the really strong Earth analog feel to it (which was really wrecked in the Realms with the reboot/returned Abeir stuff).

It could also, seriously and with well-thought out rules, include gunpowder weaponry into the setting (esp. with the Renaissance-style settings of some of the nations). It could cover an enture world for adventuring (whereas the other campaigns seem to focus on particular regions).

In Greyhawk's case, I think it would be a world of intrigue and forgotten horrors. Various groups vying for power, while the threat of long-lost (and now forgotten) evils await to be found (or reveal themselves once more to the world). It isn't a PoL setting, because there are established nations. But the light is rather dim. Either going back to Day 1 with the setting would work, or advancing the timeline considerably would work (with Mordenkainen and the Circle of Eight being historical figures rather than active forces in the world; but not a reboot-apocalypse that FR & DL underwent).

 

[Estlor]

The issue with trying to find the hook that makes Mystara unique and viable in 4e is the fact that 4e core beat Mystara up and stole all its themes already.

Points of Light? Check. Karameikos was PoL before PoL had a name.

Law/Chaos centered alignment axis? Check. Mystara was always more about the struggle between order and chaos than good and evil anyway.

So, yeah, pick something and focus on it to make Mystara viable. I like the idea of playing up the exploration aspect of the setting because that was always a big deal. Push the boundaries. See what's out there. Find the farthest point the last guy went to and GO FURTHER. But, beyond that, I'd also center the setting around the friction and competition between Mystara's three strongest nations, armies, and explorers - Thyatis, Alphatia, and the Heldannic Knights. A campaign would play out something like this:

Heroic Tier - Explore the world, discover new lands, make a name for yourself.

Paragon Tier - Carve out a domain and deal with the machinations of the big three nations and the constant friction of war between them.

Epic Tier - Undertake the great quest for immortality and change the world forever as a result.

4E Epic tier really lends itself to the quest for immortality. I've even toyed with the idea of making four epic destinies - Paragon, Polymath, Dynast, and Epic Hero.

 

[Stormonu]

I think my question at this point would be how do you fit in Dragonborn and Tiefling without ruining what is Mystara already?

 

[Orius]

Mystara had so much crazy stuff shoehorned into it I don't think anyone would notice.

 

[Bluenose]

I think my question at this point would be how do you fit in Dragonborn and Tiefling without ruining what is Mystara already?

You can't see a place for a race touched by the outer planes in a world where there are whole countries involved in magical experiments? Or a race of dragon-men in a world which already has cat-men, alligator-men, and turtle-men?

Apart from anything else, throwing out the Divine power source from Dark Sun suggests WotC aren't afraid of discarding parts of the game if they want to.

 

[JustKim]

Mystara has two additional continents, Skothar and Davania, which were never really detailed. The Princess Ark flew over parts of Davania, and it was implied that it was populated by fallen civilizations and evil dragons. If you need a special place for dragonborn to arrive from, I'd say Davania is at least as good as Eberron's attempt.

A few people have had the idea to link tieflings to the Nightmare Dimension, and the previously described diabolus that hail from there. I think this works very well if, again, you need a special place for them to arrive from.

I didn't see any reason to draw attention to the idea that these two races have not been around for a long time already.

 

[Hussar]

JustKim - reading over the thread you linked. Great stuff. Love the "thousand 36th level wizards" bit.

I would love to see Mystara mug Birthright and steal its stuff. Why not? Birthright's been dead for what, fifteen years? That's long enough to wait before picking over the corpse.

Make Mystara the setting where you run countries a la the Companion rules and then become an Immortal.