FAQv3.txt~¶ÿXö@@/ÈXö~¶ø~¶Xö@@Ž@>TEXTttxt´`.´L¯¼Ju¯¼Jv<_from: HMUSSEAU@CompuServe.COM Mystara FAQ version 3.0 by Herv Musseau Q: What is Mystara? A: Mystara is an imaginary world created by TSR as a campaign world for roleplaying games using the rules of Dungeons and Dragons. Q: What is a roleplaying game? A: Roleplaying games are games in which people play the role of imaginary fantastic characters like warriors or wizards and try to complete an adventure under the guidance of a game master. Q: I never heard of Mystara, but I know a setting called the Known World which looks pretty the same. What's the difference? A: Mystara got a name as a world only recently; before that, it was often referred to as the Known World, although Mystara is more than just the Known World. Q: So, what's Mystara? The Known World and what else? A: Mystara is basically composed of 2 main parts, the Outer World and the Hollow World, plus 2 moons, and some other exotic settings. Q: A Hollow World? A: Yes. Mystara, unlike our earth, is hollow, an empty sphere. It has an internal sun that lights the interior world, making it inhabitable. It holds old civilizations that are now extinct on the Outer World, placed there by the Immortals with strong magic preventing them from evolving much or dying away. The only entrances to the Hollow World are through underground passages between the two worlds, and through the holes that stand in place of the north and south poles. Q: And the Outer World? A: The Outer World is mostly like our Earth. It comprises: - the Known World, where the most civilized countries are located, - Alphatia, - the Savage Coast and Hule, - the southern continent, called Davania, - the eastern continent, called Skothar. Q: On the continental map published in the Master DM's book, there are some empires I've never read anything about in other products and on the list, like the Empire of Dorphin IV or the Empire of the Great Khan. Do they exist? Where can I find information about these? A: The map in the Master set is wrong, wrong, wrong. In the series of articles written by Bruce Heard in Dragon Magazine, the first in the series (Dragon #153) explains this all. The map was the was released by a very imaginative Thyatian, and wrongly accepted for the truth. There is no Empire of Dorphin IV, no Empire of the Great Khan, etc. Also, as you probably guessed, the size of the Thyatian Empire was also largely exagerated on this map... Q: I've already heard from the Known World, and from the Hollow World too, but never as Mystara. What does all this mean? A: This is because Mystara is a very old world, one of the oldest created by TSR, and, as TSR grew, so did Mystara. All of these product lines are revelant to Mystara: - Mystara, of course, - the Known World and most stuff that were made for D&D (as opposed to AD&D) like these old good modules B and X, or the Gazetteers, - the Hollow World, - Red Steel/the Savage Coast, - Blackmoor. Also, some products bearing the label First Quest are related to Mystara. Q: Blackmoor? I know a Blackmoor, but it's part of Greyhawk, isn't it? A: Blackmoor was, like Greyhawk, the campaign world of one of TSR's founder. It was later placed in both Greyhawk and the Known World (as a past kingdom in the later), effectively making two Blackmoors exist. It seems there is no relation between the two Blackmoors, however, although some people made the assumption. Q: Where is it located? A: Blackmoor was a techno-magical kingdom that blew itself up a few millenia ago. The event shifted the planet's axis and Blackmoor is now the north pole. Sources are contradictory as to where Blackmoor stand; some place it on Brun, some on Skothar. Arguments in favor of Brun are the position of the Inn Between the Worlds and the Nucleus of the Sphere, and the fact that the Known World stands there; this is the solution proposed in some Gazetteers. Arguments in favor of Skothar are its sort of canonical status, and the feeling that all civilizations should not systamatically come from the Known World; this is the solution proposed in the Hollow World box. Note that, if you consider the Hollow World solution to be the truth in your campaign, the map in the box does have a typo : the names of Blackmoor and Thonia have been reversed (Blackmoor was north of the Empire of Thonia according to all other sources). Bruce Heard's opinion on this matter : << Blackmoor -- the travelling legend. If there were archaeologist on Mystara, they would have a devil of time figuring where the darn place was really located. Officially, it's supposed to be up there by the Thonian Marches. Unfortunately, conflicting info has crept into several products, getting in the way of the Thonian theory. The best thing is to assume evidence of Blackmoor's presence elsewhere is the result of later colonizations and outposts. Other communities were also magically displaced (such as a certain ancient tavern in the Broken Lands of the Known World). Definitely a messy development of the World of Mystara! :) >> So officially the answer is Skothar. Q: Ok, and now what's Red Steel? A: Red Steel is a setting that is part of Mystara (west of the Known World), although it was released as a stand-alone setting. Q: I have a player of the Church of Karameikos, and I whant to give him an Immortal, I suppose that it's a church with many Immortals (like the Greek / Latin church) but in Gaz 1 I dind't find any list of Inmortals... A: These are the immortals of the Church of Karameikos, as told by Bruce Heard in an old Dragon Magazine: Asterius (Eternal of Thought), Leader Kagyar (Eternal of Matter) Ilsundal (Hierarch of Thought) Valerias (Hierarch of Matter) Vanya (Empyreal of Time). Also, although Chardastes is a native Traladaran Immortal, he is venerated through the auspices of the Church of Karameikos, not the Church of Traladara. This is extrapolated from info in B1-9 In Search of Adventure. The Immortals of the Church of Traladara are: Halav Petra Zirchev. Q: You spoke of Immortals, what are they? Are they Gods? A: Mystara has a different pantheon when compared to other D&D settings. Most notably, it has no gods, but beings called Immortals. Immortals are mortals who, through their deeds, have reached a higher status granting them more power than mere mortals. Basically, however, Immortals are not very different from Gods of other settings. Q: Also you mentionned something about D&D not being AD&D. What does that mean? A: Mystara was the world designed to be used with the rules of D&D (often called OD&D to better distinct it from AD&D and from the generic term D&D which could mean both; OD&D stands for Old D&D or Original D&D). It appeared in the old boxed rules: the Expert box, the Companion box and the Master box. Most of the earlier modules designed for D&D were set in this world. Recently, however, Mystara has been converted to AD&D (along with Red Steel), but many people who play in Mystara do it with the old rules (or their reedition, Rules Cyclopedia). Q: When I read stuff about Mystara I keep seeing acronyms I cannot understand like WotI or PWA. What do they mean? A: There is a list of Mystara relevant acronyms at http://www.esiee.fr/~musseauh. Q: I heard that the Mystara line was cancelled. Is this true? A: It is unfortunately true. And Red Steel is cancelled too. Some novels pertaining to Mystara may be released as part of the First Quest line, and modules may be part of the Odyssey line. AFAIK, there is no such products in preparation however. Joshuan's Almanach was the last product of Mystara (to be precise the novel "The Black Vessel" has been released after, and to be even more precise it deals with the Savage Coast) and the Savages Baronies the last of Red Steel (except for online exclusives). Q: But I saw in TSR's preview that there would be Red Steel modules released as online exclusive. What does this mean? A: TSR will release these modules for free on its site of MPGN at ftp://ftp.mpgn.com and on AOL and GEnie. Q: So, if TSR has dropped the line, how can I get new material for Mystara? A: There are many people on the web who love Mystara and have taken upon themselves to keep Mystara alive (and well alive). There is a mailing list dedicated to Mystara where people discuss together about it, exchanging ideas, points of view, and more. To subscribe, send e-mail to majordomo@io.com. In the body, have the single line: subscribe Mystara-L . There are also many pages around the net dedicated to Mystara, sometimes with lots of interesting materials. The pages I am aware of are: http://www.esiee.fr/~musseauh Herve's HomePage the homepage of the writer of this FAQ http://www.io.com/~oryon/mysthome.htm The Mystara Mailing List Home Page http://moray.ucc.gu.uwa.edu.au/%7Eknight/mystara/index.html Knight's Mystara Homepage new material http://www.ing.unipi.it/~s153349/diary Fabrizio's Mystara Homepage diary of a Shadow Elf http://www.geocities.com/TimesSquare/6011/ Lord Estlor's Mystara Page new material http://www.geocities.com/TimesSquare/5304/ Shawn's Mystara Site articles collected from the mailing-list http://www.miniworld.com/adnd/ Dungeon and Dragons Section Toowin's travels and Madame Aleksandra's horiscopes http://www.angelfire.com/pg7/HL/index.html The High Legion Clan campaign presentation http://www.geocities.com/Area51/4090/index.html The Druid's Grove druidic information http://www.angelfire.com/pages0/redwolf/index.html Mystaran Almanac I, by Red Wolf http://www.spherenet.com/fmt/kat-path/mystara.html Kat's Mystara page (in French) http://www.geocities.com/TheTropics/7296/Mystara.html RimX's Mystara page http://www.angelfire.com/id/Mikes/Mystara.html Mouse's Mystara page http://www.geocities.com/TimesSquare/Arcade/2426/index.html Thothian Escarpment Encounter table http://www.angelfire.com/fl/NickusGemeye/index.html Nickus Gemeye's Hut http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Vault/4991/index.html Cantrip the Chaotic's Home Page http://www.geocities.com/SunsetStrip/Towers/1466/Lucin.html Lucin's Goods a store in the Minrothad Guilds http://www.geocities.com/HotSprings/2843/index.html Castle Kalamonia http://radon.mat.univie.ac.at/~pbalazs/rollen.html#myst Mystara and Diplomacy (in German) ftp://ftp.mpgn.com/Gaming/ADND/Worlds/Mystara/ Mystara at MPGN ftp://ftp.mpgn.com/Gaming/ADND/Worlds/SavageCoast/ Savage Coast at MPGN http://www.tsrinc.com TSR's official homepage http://skaro.lawlib.wm.edu/~msphil/fnn/ The FNN Adventurer's Journal ftp://ftp.io.com/pub/mailing-lists/mystara-digest/ archive of the Mystara-digest http://www.geocities.com/TimesSquare/8315/ Loup-rouge's homepage http://www.geocities.com/Area51/8264/ Ivanov's Homepage (in Spanish) http://www.geocities.com/Area51/2524/mystara.html Hawk's Home Page. Information on an IRC Mystara campaign. http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Corridor/4206/ The Principality of Mysteria http://members.aol.com/XDeum/legion.html Castle Misha. Part of the High Legion Clan. http://www.geocities.com/Area51/8306/index.html Alan's Dungeon Master Tools http://gumby.une.edu.au/dnd/ The Gumby Dungeons and Dragons homepage Q: Where can I find a complete list of the material published for Mystara? A: The most complete lists to my knowledge are at http://moray.ucc.gu.uwa.edu.au/~knight/mystara/prodlist.html (I think it is almost a complete one except for the most recent products) and in the digests of the mml. Also check TSR's list of products at http://members.aol.com/tsrinc/products.html. Q: And where can I buy it? A: Since the Mystara line is out of print, it is difficult to find them. If you're lucky you can find them in any shop that sells RPG stuff, or buy second-hand books. Places where you can find Mystara stuff on the web : http://www.dragontrove.com/listing.html the newsgroup rec.games.frp.marketplace. Q: Where can I find the FAQ for the Mystara mailing list? A: Check at http://www.io.com/~oryon/mmlfaq.htm. AFAIK there is no plain text version of this FAQ. 2.BC 900: Some Varellyans, diss FAQv3.txtTEXTttxtTEXTttxt¯¼JuL southwest, going through the Brasol Range and reaching the southwestern coast of Davania. They reach their new home on the coa 2æ=Æ2styl €ÿÿæšP