I'm interested in basing my next campaign in the Known World, also known as Mystara...

I'm interested in basing my next campaign in the Known World, also known as Mystara, but I'm not sure where I should start reading about the lore and lands. Any help?

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forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?724379-Let-s-Read-The-Known-World-Mystara-ALL-of-it-from-the-beginning
mystara.thorf.co.uk/
mystara.thorf.co.uk/projects.php
twitter.com/NSFWRedditImage

The gazetteers are the best source. Add in Hollow World boxed set (if you're doing that) and the Creature Crucible series, and you're pretty good.

This however original Greyhawk (present 3.pf) is 1k times better

Greyhawk a shit, a SHIT

I dunno, O.G. Greyhawk did spawn the best fan-made D&D vidjeo game.
I'll grant that the sanitized No-Gygax-Remaining 3e version is total shit, though.

There's a huge online archive of almost all published Mystara material (including maps) that has been curated since the 90s - sorry I can't remember more, but it would be a great place to start.

There is an rpg.net thread where they read and summarize every product. forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?724379-Let-s-Read-The-Known-World-Mystara-ALL-of-it-from-the-beginning

Also, you should know that it was never a fully coherent setting. They just kept adding shit. There were a bunch of authors that didn't bother to read what the other authors wrote. The most common recommendation is to read the GAZ series.

>Replica Maps
mystara.thorf.co.uk/
>Repository of a shitload of stuff
www.pandius.com
>Active forum dedicated to Mystara
www.thepiazza.org.uk

>summary from page 150 of thread.
Pre-Setting Era
Dates: 1979-1980
Products: B1, B2
Description: These first adventures weren't written with any particular setting in mind. They're pretty much simple dungeon crawls. What little setting information we get in them is generic Gygaxian and could easily be part of any D&D setting.

Weird Tales Era
Dates: 1981-1984
Products: Moldvay Basic, Cook/Marsh Expert, B3-B6, B8, X1-X7, Also CM4 & M3 (both of which are later throwbacks to this era released long after it finished)
Description: This is the era dominated by the trifecta of Moldvay, Cook and Schick and their interests in pulp and weird fiction. It's notable for its use of alternate dimensions (rather than planes), its emphasis on lost civilisations in the distant past, and its influences from Clark Ashton Smith and even H. P. Lovecraft.

Back to Basics Era
Dates: 1983-1985
Products: Mentzer Basic, Mentzer Expert, Mentzer Companion, B7, B9-B10, X8-X11, CM1-CM3
Description: The start of this era is marked by Frank Mentzer's taking over of the line when he started editing the first of the BECMI sets. The era drops much of the Weird Tales influences, and initially pulls the setting back to a more generic feel, introducing elemental planes/monsters and monsters from other editions of D&D. There's much less of a "lost world" feel in the new map areas introduced in this era, and less of a Cthulhu Mythos feel; and the world is expanded to a consistent planet rather than a map with unknown areas beyond its edges (although not all of the map is given to the customers at once). There is a deliberate move towards the game and its setting being a simplified introduction to generic D&D rather than having its own feel.

Cosmic Era
Dates: 1985-1987
Products: Mentzer Master, Mentzer Immortals, CM5-CM7, M1-M2, M4, IM1-3
Description: As the power level of the setting expands upwards with the M and I sets and their associated adventures the setting moves away from being generic and becomes its own thing once more. We get a unique cosmology starting to develop with space travel and multiple planes and Immortal meddling and alien Alphatians/Atlanteans. This new cosmology is less Weird Tales and more Jack Kirby. However, Mentzer's changes to the setting and feel are all additive in that the older stuff isn't invalidated by them, it's incorporated into them; so we end up with a very complex setting containing both planes and dimensions; and a planet that is simultaneously both prehistoric Earth and a living elemental.

Gazetteer Era
Dates: 1986-1989
Products: DA1-DA4, GAZ1-GAZ12, CM8-CM9, B1-9, M5, PC1-PC3, B11-B12, Dawn of the Emperors
Description: This era starts when Frank Mentzer leaves TSR and Bruce Heard takes over the line. The main distinguishing features of this era are a desire to unify everything into a single historical timeline; an emphasis on increasing detail on the core parts of the setting rather than expanding the setting; a pull away from the big cosmic stuff that the end of the Cosmic era had (although there is some overlap here as the last few Cosmic era items were released after this era started); a steady and deliberate move away from Immortals-as-cosmic-superheroes towards Immortals-as-Gods; and a willingness to ret-con or ignore previously published setting information rather than feeling the need to incorporate it.

Hollow World Era
Dates: 1990-1991
Products: Hollow World Set, Rules Cyclopedia, New Easy To Master Dungeons And Dragons Game, DDA1-DDA4, GAZ13-GAZ14, HWA1-HWA3, First Voyage of the Princess Ark
Description: The Hollow World era is very similar to the Gazetteer era, and in some ways is a continuation of it - only more so. The willingness to ret-con earlier material extends even to material from the Gazetteer era. The changes to the timeline show a move towards big events being done by the authors' favourite historical NPCs (either before or after they gained Immortality) rather than events being done by populations, and the last vestiges of the Mentzer era cosmology are wiped away. The new adventures become much less freeform and much more railroaded tours around "important" regions and sights.

Metaplot Era
Dates: 1992-1993
Products: Wrath of the Immortals, PC4, HWQ1, HWR3, PWA1-PWA3, Champions of Mystara, Second Voyage of the Princess Ark
Description: With the publication of the Wrath of the Immortals boxed set, the changes to the cosmology and Immortals that have been creeping in over the previous eras are now set in stone, and we have another shift in emphasis. Since the Gazetteer era started, the setting has been "frozen" at 1,000 AC. The WotI campaign advances the calendar by ten years from beginning to end, with major changes happening to all parts of the setting invalidating much from the Gazetter era, and there is also a commitment to - in the Poor Wizard's Almanac series - keep advancing the calendar one game year per real world year. The emphasis changes once again. It's still on the doings of the favourite NPCs of the authors, but less about the Immortals (who as a result of thew WotI events now fade into the background as Gods in all but name) and more about big powerful living NPCs.

Reboot Era
Dates: 1994-1996
Products: Karameikos Kingdom of Adventure, Red Steel Campaign, Red Steel Savage Baronies, Glantri Kingdom of Magic, Joshuan's Almanac
Description: The reins of the setting (and metaplot) are yanked out of Bruce Heard's hands as the D&D line is cancelled and Mystara abruptly becomes an AD&D setting. The emphasis moves away from big NPCs and metaplot, and the Hollow World and associated cosmology is also pretty much dropped. Instead there's a new emphasis on providing a few detailed adventure environments rather than overall world descriptions. There's also an emphasis on the setting being for novice groups, with lots of player aids (including CDs in many products - although that's as much about internal TSR politics as it is about helping players).

>There is a deliberate move towards the game and its setting being a simplified introduction to generic D&D rather than having its own feel.
It was meant to be that in the first place, so I guess it was a good thing to bring Mentzer on board.

Sprites are taken from Tower of Doom and Shadow over Mystara.

Mentzer later added all kinds of strange shit to the setting. High level BECMI has some really crazy shit; like creatures from dimensional spaces outside of our 3 dimensions.

Well, yeah, it's an unlicensed fan project full of copyright violation. But it's also awesome.

Yeah, I know all about it. I love beat'em ups and since they don't really make them anymore I play the shit out of OpenBOR fan games. Rise of Warduke is good. Another decent fantasy one is Knights & Dragons.

The most minimalist form the Known World takes is encapsulated in the 1981 Basic D&D Expert Rules book + X1 The Isle of Dread. These two books and an imagination are all you need to begin creating the Known World in your image.

Later the 1983 Basic D&D Expert Rules book fleshed out the 1981 Karameikos setting more, including giving the players a home base, Threshold, to start in.

By the time 1986/7 rolled around, Gazetteers were being written for each nation/territory in the Mystara. Each Gazetteer goes into more depth about each territory.

Some appreciate the more stripped down and open flavor of the 1981 and 1983 Known Worlds, while others like having the Gazetteers define the structure of Mystara.

Start with reading 1981 Expert rules, X1, 1983 Expert rules, and the Karameikos Gazetteer.

K: KoA was my introduction to AD&D and RPG in general. Still love it.

Thanks m80

Anybody got a link to the gazetteers? Couldn't find them in the trove

The /osrg/ trove? 08_TSR -> 02 Basic D&D (or 05 Settings -> Mystara for the AD&D stuff)

bump

mystara.thorf.co.uk/projects.php

Does this link help user?