15:09 "If variety is the spice of life, Mystara is the Thai food of D&D." 😆

WotC have pretty much done everything possible to make me sick of Forgotten Realms at this point. Mystara and other settings like Dark Sun were so much more interesting. Great videos, man!

@Jayce_Alexander

2 жыл бұрын

Dark Sun is interesting but I can understand why it's not a setting they want to promote at all times. It's cool, but also quite niche. It's one of my favorite settings to run, but I can understand why it's a setting people either love or hate, and it's not the most beginner friendly of D&D worlds. But really, all of the more traditional fantasy D&D settings, like Mystara, Greyhawk and Dragonlance are way, way more interesting than the Forgotten Realms at this point. The Forgotten Realms peaked around 1988-1989, and was definitively wrecked around 2007-2008. It feels like a generic fantasy MMO setting at this point. Mystara, Greyhawk and Dragonlance have a much greater verisimilitude about them, with believable characters, cultures that have some depth to them and aren't just bog standard medieval fantasy on Warcraft-y steroids. And importantly Mystara, Greyhawk and Dragonlance all have tensions that are relatable - all three settings have plausible religious, ethnic and social tensions in certain regions, for example, as well as plausible geopolitical tensions that make the settings way more interesting, and contain the seeds of an infinite number of adventures and campaigns that a DM can weave around them. The Forgotten Realms just have an overabundance of everything except things that make the setting relatable and believable. For example there's an overabundance of magic in even your average small hamlet (which only makes it mundane - at least in Mystara the places where magic was common were geographically limited to two countries - Glantri and Alphatia, in the rest of the world magic-users and magical items weren't common as muck), an overabundance of ridiculously powerful characters, an overabundance of ridiculously powerful monsters. It kills all sense of wonder. It makes the Realms feel like a badly written fanfic version of a fantasy world. Mind you, there was a time when the Forgotten Realms wasn't like this - when it didn't have an overkill of magical items and being populating every town, and when it did have tensions and conflicts that made it easier to become invested in the world, but TSR and WotC have been botching the development of the setting for decades by this point, and I almost wish they'd just reboot the entire thing. But since Dragonlance is making a (hopefully triumphant) return this year, hopefully that will convince WotC to start reviving other legacy settings as well. Give us Mystara! Give us Greyhawk! Give us Birthright! And give us all the wonderful complexity that makes these settings into what they were originally.

@robintst

2 жыл бұрын

@@Jayce_Alexander Extremely well said, bravo!

@newnamesameperson397

Жыл бұрын

I loved darksun, in fact I loved it so much I brought it to the forgotten realms in a homebrew campaign that lasted 5 years. Me and the boys wanted to be gods so we killed 99% of the gods and drizzt and made faerune a blasted wasteland. It was best campaign ever that really solidified my love for homebrew.

As a lover of classic fantasy, I'm pleased to have found this series- and this channel. I only ever knew of Mystara from the logo in the back of AD&D books in the 90s; never got a chance to check it out unfortunately.

Hol' up wait a minute. Cyberpunk Elves, in a DnD setting? I MUST know more!

Mystara sounds pretty dope. I only know about it through the arcade games, but it sounds way more fleshed out and interesting than I thought it was. I’m especially surprised to find out that they introduced a lot of races that aren’t just various shapes of human.

You know, the first time I've heard of Mystara is of that Capcom arcade game..and then a buddy of mine recommended me this video.

My childhood realm. Finally decided to make a return for my players and this was perfect (in my opinion and as they've told me)

>Hears about Unjatwa... [Would you like to learn more?] > Clicks yes I mean... STR, INT, AND questionable eating habits? You had me at hello...

When I saw the thumbnail and the title, I had a happiness attack because I thought it was finally time for Mystara to return. Nevertheless, good stuff as always.

@leos5200

3 жыл бұрын

Same

@thekaxmax

Жыл бұрын

My GM is working with Wizards to write a 5E version. Not sure if it'll be official, but it's in train and we can hope.

My first experience with D&D was AD&D 2e way back in the mid 90's & was set somewhere in The Known World on Mystara...so many memories and yes exploration was definitely my fav!

THIS! This right here is why I love Mystara. You are doing amazing work to keep the setting alive and we are all grateful

I played AD&D, but I always collected the BX stuff, especially the Gazetteers. They were so full of good material, that you could easily use with any rules, and they were great sources of inspiration.

Havard's Mock Covers get me every time, dang

I am still surprised the Lupin and Tabaxi didn’t become among main playable races in the 4th and 5th editions.

I have the perfect starting point video to share with friends who aren't clued in, thank you for making an updated version.

Excellent overview, thank you!

As both a Player and Dungeon Master, I find the sheer volume of options to be overwhelming

Well done Mr Welch, your work and products are fantastic. Keep up the good work and pleasure. I hope you do, for we need you. I will be smoking the incense of Mystra and opening the Gate again. Plus using the Magic Portal back, but only at the right time. Be encouraged. You work is good.

I played a Mystara computer game back in the day. "Fantasy Empires", it was bundled with a bunch of other dnd computer games, including Darksun: Shattered Lands and Birthright: The Gorgon's Alliance. Those early dnd games are were some of my favourite games of all time for years on end. I played them until computers didn't support them anymore. I found out years later that it's because the game play was entirely based on frame rate, so a higher frame rate meant the game ran faster. Some of the games would end in minutes instead of hours because the game went so fast.

Where was this all those decades ago? That was rhetorical, never mind it. Now I can rejoice as I have found a bliss previously unknown. You have brought new life to the secretly stored cases containing decades of material I have been collecting since the 70's. Mystara is Reborn! Mystara Lives! Mystara Forever!

My wife's character will undergo The Shearing very shortly.

I really like when people make a nice “in between” introduction video to a setting like this. giving enough to really express the gist and sense of its many aspects, but not so much that it becomes an overbearing slog that you miss the whole by focusing to much on the smaller parts. its that nice middle ground.

13:37 Image of the thing that introduced me to Mystara in the first place. Fond memories of playing that game. Memories that would probably be ruined if I tried playing again. XD

I am *thrilled* that this channel exists, even though I now have 200+ videos to watch. I love Mystara. The only things I don't really love too much are the science-fiction elements and the immortals and my only real issue with the immortals is the inclusion of real-world gods like Odin, Thor, etc. I've always loved Norse mythology (long before the MCU and even before I read the Thor comics) and I am not a fan of "downgrading" them (so to speak) and leaving out most of the pantheon/ mythology (because as I recall, only about 4 or 5 of the gods are used). Anyhow, I have a lot of reading and viewing to do this weekend. EDI|T to ask about subtitles: Sometimes I need to watch with the volume low or even off and I will put on subtitles. I am wondering if this was uploaded from Korea, because the auto-generated subtitles are in Korean...

@DolFan316

2 жыл бұрын

This channel was recommended to me by someone in the comments on another channel's video last week, and I pretty much insta-subbed.

I got my introduction to mistaro when I got my introduction to DnD way back and I think it was 1995 or 94. The 1st Box set I grabbed was the CD Laden kingdom of karameikos ( Don't kill me on the spelling I've got a dig through boxes to find the book and I cannot remember how to spell that name) Followed by the hale the heroes Adventure campaign. After that I started eating up every product from mystra I could get my hands on. I grabbed night of the vampire. My favorite setting out of all of them because of my love of wizards and magic was the principalities of Glantri. Of course I grabbed red steel as soon as I could. And somehow I even manage to track down the book that detailed the creation of airships and a little bit of the hollow world I cannot for the life of me remember what that Box was called but it was all about building your own airship and then the adventures you could have sailing around the world of mystra. I even have the dragon Lord novel series which to this day is still one of my favorite trilogies. Just imagine what I can do with that armor. I truly truly hope someday wizards or whoever buys them out decides to go back to mystra and begin republishing and updating all that old material material they have so much to work with. And I would dearly love to return to the campaign world one more time before I kick off for my next great adventure in the outer planes....

Information overload, awesome! Thank you.

Keep the dream alive!

Auto-generated captions are in Korean. So that's fun!

Great overview.

This vid was awesome man! Growing up playing DnD Basic I can't belueve I never heard of Blackmoor, very cool

Excellent, Make Mine Mystara!

One thing I Don't get about the 5e d&d guys is why settings like mystara and krynn aren't opened up in dmguild when its clear they are going to do nothing with them. I also don't like then stealing stuff from other settings (greyhawk for example) to put into forgotten realms and then disingeniously say they love all d&d settings.

@rensten4893

3 жыл бұрын

It's arguably a business decision in my opinion. They strangle other settings for monopoly on one even though it's mediocre.

I remember maintaining a subscription to Dragon solely for the Princess Ark. Every month I hoped for more Known World lore though.

So nice.

Still my favorite magic item.. a washing machine

What the crap did I just hap upon? This is seems more wild than 40k, More hidden than the Bohemian Grove, and more fleshed out than Arda.

@Mr_Welch

Жыл бұрын

Only the greatest D&D setting ever made

I lack the patience for tabletop but very good video.

someone oughtta send a link to this to the people at Tribality

@docnecrotic

3 жыл бұрын

Yeah really

@Mr_Welch

3 жыл бұрын

I sent them an email. They said they were not accepting new material at this time

Damn. I think this is my not-africa homebrew setting.

Huzzah and Agreed!

Yo, great stuff! Tex sent me and this was what i wanted, few questions. What is 18:55 ? What in the name of Zorg is that, and where can i find the picture?

@Mr_Welch

2 жыл бұрын

I'm assuming you mean the elephant crab hybrids? That is a malfera classic monster from Temple of Death module. Art can be found on ArtofRubus

Damn, I thought you finally got the go ahead from Wizards and this was the “Players guide to Mystara coming soon to a store near you!” announcement video. Enjoyed the updated video regardless, I look forward to the day you do at long last get approval. 🚨🤷‍♂️🚨 *Question* 🚨🤷‍♂️🚨No night in the Hollow world? I imaged those floating continents as regularly eclipsing the “sun” and causing a sort of night, but you’re telling me there’s just no night aside for the week magic disappeared?

@Mr_Welch

3 жыл бұрын

It's more like a twilight than a night, They fall under the shadows of the larger continents but it's more of a dimming than actual night.

Who needs Dragon born when you can play a young. dragon

@EvilDoresh

3 жыл бұрын

"You think you are Dragonborn? I was _born_ a dragon!"

Hey there, I really liked the video. Question. is there a place where I can buy a good map of Mystara?

@Mr_Welch

4 ай бұрын

Can't buy it, at least not cheap, but you can download it from Atlas of Mystara and take it to get printed.

Any speculations onsome results of the Hollow workd spell being dispelled? (Possible by a group of Immortals or a powerful alien artifact)

@viktord2025

3 жыл бұрын

I believe the Spell of Preservation was undone by the Week of Dread. It was only for a week, but it was a damn near apocalypse. The Spell of Preservation is limiting, but it's also used to keep the Hollow World safe.

@ryderma1

3 жыл бұрын

@@viktord2025 Thank you, I have very limited to no knowledge of Hollow World.

@Kitsune44X

3 жыл бұрын

I'd worry about the worms first. Also post-Wrath of the Immortals Alphatian Empire taking full command of the Hollow World by way of their magic, which would then likely move up into the Known World. Just a guess though.

@ryderma1

3 жыл бұрын

The little knowledge I do have. I think I'd treat Wrath of the Immortals like 4th edition in that it didnt happen lol. Any campaign in Mystara for me Is start at the beginning and see where the players took that world.

Feck W.o.t.C File the serial numbers off Get it into players hands via the SRD O.G.L People will flock to it. Yer-Stiria

Heads up, the automatic subtitles are set to Korean! Can you switch them to English for the hard of hearing? Thanks!

@Mr_Welch

3 жыл бұрын

Strange. I could have swore I set them to Mongolian. I'll take a look

@Robert-fw1we

3 жыл бұрын

XD

@Mr_Welch

3 жыл бұрын

@@Robert-fw1we I switched them to English and now they won't appear at all! I followed the instructions word for word but nothing. Open to suggestions.

@Robert-fw1we

3 жыл бұрын

@@Mr_Welch Looks like you're not alone: support.google.com/youtube/thread/16663772?hl=en There might be no way to fix it... Your most recent video on Night City has the correct English subtitles, though, so hopefully it's fixed for the future!

I've been pretty impressed with the look of your Mystara book. Has wotc let you know if you can release it?

@Mr_Welch

3 жыл бұрын

No reply at all. I need to get with the times and try to talk to him about it while they're streaming someone else

@RhodesWC

Жыл бұрын

print on demand or pdf sources are plentiful.

As a kid, I thought the Blackmoor and hollow world parts didn't mesh too well with the known world gazeteer stuff.

Has anyone tried adapting the setting to 4e? There seem to be quite a lot of differences to the usual DnD settings.

I think something will be happening soon. Something is going on with the video game division.

What 5 or 10 products are best to get the setting as fully fleshed out as possible?

@Mr_Welch

5 ай бұрын

That's a tough one because of the way the setting was released. Mystara Player's Guide can be downloaded that compiles a good chunk of the lore into a single location. The Karameikos, Glantri and Darokin gazetteers are rather informative, but again they don't cover anything outside their borders. Champions of Mystara gives you quite a bit of lore for surrounding areas, and helps you create new regions as needed.

Isn't there one GOD in Mystara, I thought there was a creator deity? [thats what some sources online say atlest] also 2 things, 1 I brought the D&D Clyopedia and wanted to know what books to get for Mystara first and 2 where did the image at 13:44 come from it would make a great map for a Mystara Daggerfall Unity Mod?

@Mr_Welch

3 жыл бұрын

There's the Old Ones, but nobody knows what they are. They aren't worshiped by anyone and their background is deliberately vague. The image is from the old computer gamr Fantasy Empires

@Mr_Welch

3 жыл бұрын

As far as the first book to get, Karameikos is a good start, possibly a creature crucible and a good starter module like Keep on the Borderlands. That gives you plenty of things to kill and a good place to restock.

Didn't think genasi were ever officially in Mystara?

What are your thoughts on the new release of some old Jeff Grubb TSR/Mystara content? 🤔 When I heard the news I remembered your 5e Mystara book. Hoping the new content helps Mystara gain more publishing momentum.

@Mr_Welch

3 жыл бұрын

Hopefully optimistic. I hope it helps I really do. Jeff has a copy of my book and I will wait for a copy of his

The lack of a divine pantheon is intriguing. Who casts cure light wounds after combat?

@ForeverYoungKickboxer

Жыл бұрын

There are Immortals and their Priests casts them.

So the Blackmoor released by Zeitgeist games is part of Mystara? (Sorry im new here)

@Mr_Welch

2 жыл бұрын

No only the four books created by TSR. Even Mystara Blackmoor is different from Greyhawk Blackmoor

@scottmcley5111

2 жыл бұрын

@@Mr_Welch Ah OK. Thanks. I just picked up a used copy of the 90s Blackmoor product. I am running Keep on the Borderlands soon, and was surprised to find it in the Duchy of Karameikos. So it looks like I have some work to do. Also picked up the Rules Cyclopedia.

Is this a reupload? Still good.

@jasonitaliano8631

3 жыл бұрын

Oh, it is update, I noticed new art!

@Mr_Welch

3 жыл бұрын

@@jasonitaliano8631 there were some issues with the first one I wanted to address. So I recorded the video and replaced the original with this one

Please give this video English subtitles?

@Mr_Welch

3 жыл бұрын

That is a known issue on KZreads part. I have tried multiple times, best I can do is Dutch. I have no idea why it thinks I'm Korean

So was Mystara forgotten when D&D went from TSR to Wizards of the Coast???

@Mr_Welch

Жыл бұрын

Pretty much. Only a single Dragon article released new material for the setting. Everything else has been just simple mentions.

@archam777

Жыл бұрын

@@Mr_Welch that's a shame man. Seems like a unique campaign setting that would have added a rich variety to the current game. Thanks for the info. Been DMing since the '90s, but had heard very little about Mystara. It's not really mentioned by the other content creators here on KZread. Glad I found your channel, you got a new sub 😄👍 You even made a reference to Spaceballs, AWESOME....... That's one of mine and my son's favorite movies to watch together.

What order am I supposed to watch these? Publication order?

@Mr_Welch

2 жыл бұрын

Right. If you want skip the modules that will get you straight to the complete background immersion

Huh, closed captions are in Korean only, auto-generated

@Mr_Welch

3 жыл бұрын

Known issue. I've also had KZread translate commentary into Dutch for some reason.

first

@bellaususfitzpinguidpalate3194

3 жыл бұрын

Second first!! :)

I think I'll just stick with Sigil and Planescape...