Brendan Byrd
Explorer
I guess much depends on whether the OP wants to use just the setting, or the setting with the Basic* ruleset.
* B/X; BECM/RC
D&D General Where to start with Mystara?
- Thread starter Kilimanjaro
- Start date
* B/X; BECM/RC
Tonguez
A suffusion of yellow
yeah I assumed they want to get a feel of the Mystara World not a new rules set
the OP explicitly says that the only Mystara product they have is 2nd Ed. AD&D Monstrous Compendium - which leads me to believe they do not want to do the full BX/BECMI dive.
Zardnaar
Legend
That's one product I've lost.
Didn't see my 2E books for 12 years. I assume my mother or sister packed it up somewhere and it ended up somewhere.
AnotherGuy
Hero
Love the setting, my most successful stories...
I ran a mini-campaign in Vestland a few years before its formation with Ostland agents and corrupt Vestland officials attempting to stop a group of teenagers (survivors of their burnt village) bringing a signed document of various chieftains to The Thing in order for them to begin their process of independence.
Our Darokin campaign featured an ex-militia chaplain and ex-Darokinian Corps member forming an adventuring guild in Akorros. With their connections in both the military and Corps it made for interesting political dynamics especially in the multicultural centre that is Selenica along with its competing Merchant Houses.
In Karameikos, we explored the political machinations in Highforge which included Glantrian influence attempting to destabilise the relations between Highforge and Karameikos.
I ran a mini-campaign in Vestland a few years before its formation with Ostland agents and corrupt Vestland officials attempting to stop a group of teenagers (survivors of their burnt village) bringing a signed document of various chieftains to The Thing in order for them to begin their process of independence.
Our Darokin campaign featured an ex-militia chaplain and ex-Darokinian Corps member forming an adventuring guild in Akorros. With their connections in both the military and Corps it made for interesting political dynamics especially in the multicultural centre that is Selenica along with its competing Merchant Houses.
In Karameikos, we explored the political machinations in Highforge which included Glantrian influence attempting to destabilise the relations between Highforge and Karameikos.
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Kilimanjaro
Explorer
You got it! I'm not opposed to running BECM, but I can only be sure of players for 5th ed or Shadowdark. I could just read the old modules I played through as a teen for a hit of nostalgia, but I'd like to learn more about the world. Details like that didn't matter to us when we were young players, but now I'd like to see how it all fits together. I have a copy of the cyclopedia so I'm going to start there before I buy anything else.
Zardnaar
Legend
Youre saying you've got modern players? You want to get them playing an older ruleset but not sure about buy in?
Whizbang Dustyboots
Gnometown Hero
Mystara stuff has already been converted to 5E and would be cake to convert to Shadowdark. I love doing conversions, so let me know if you need any help getting stuff working in Shadowdark.
Voadam
Legend
Rules Cyclopedia Appendix 1, pages 268-291. A lot of that is maps though. It is a decent big overview.
The B/X Expert Set has a one page hex map of the Duchy of Karameikos but that is it for Known World stuff.
For B/X the known world was mostly first introduced in X1 The Isle of Dread which came packaged with the B/X Expert set as well as being sold alone, the PDF of the B/X Expert set does not include X1 though. X1 has a short overview of most everything from what later became the Gazeteer series with a couple sentences/one paragraph description for each area over a total of a page and a little bit. It has a region hex map including pretty much every regional sourcebook area from the Gazeteer series and a tiny piece of the Thyatian empire.
The BECMI Expert Set has three hex maps, the sample starting Town of Threshold in Karameikos, The Duchy of Karameikos map from B/X Expert, and the Region map from X1 of which the duchy is just a single part.
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The Glen
Legend
If you haven't already, look at the 5E Mystara players guide. I'll attach a link. It's got most of the important information on the setting in one source combining all of their timelines with a look at every single one of the major nations. I'm the one that wrote it, I'm very proud of it, but I also haven't had any complaints. And if any of your players happen to be from the old world there's also an Italian option.
It's got sub classes from the setting, explains why many of the races are not there, introduces new races like Rakasta, Phanaton, Sidhe, Lupin and fixes the Tortles. It alters the 5e rule set to be more akin to the original setting, so dwarves can't use magic, most of the gish subclasses are racially restricted, but it makes sense. If you want to know about the background of the setting it's all there for you in the first chapter. And it's all free because since DM's guild won't open up for the last settings it has to be.
FreeMystara.com
Glantri is also my favorite. A version ended up in my dreams a few years ago, and compelled me to write the beginnings of two novels I've never finished. I didn't even realize it was glantri until is written them.
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