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Post by Mr Darke on May 23, 2019 12:35:16 GMT -5
Jumping off this discussion I am placing the ideas for my Mystara campaign that I will be running for my son and GFs daughter who are brand new to the game. I thought it may be interesting to show how one could world build within an existing setting to make it your own. This post will contain the breakdown of the rules and how I am approaching the setting as well as some inspirations. BreakdownRules: BFRPG with a few modifications (Detailed in a later post) Setting: Mystara/Known World that is drawn from the text in X1, Rules Cyclopedia and bits and pieces I find interesting. Technology Level: This is a major difference from Standard Mystara and other settings. It will be 'high magic' in the vein of Eberron or some of the Final Fantasy games (Especially VI and XII). I am doing this for the fact that one of the players is fond of things like this and it will help get him interested...also I want to do something different. Style: Mainly heroic. With new and younger players I do not feel that a dark feel is appropriate and again I want to do something different. The DMing style will still be my own of no fudged rolls, dice fall where they fall and so on but I am lightening the mood and going for popcorn munching fun. That's the basics. I think next week will be the first session and I will post how it goes.
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Post by Hexenritter Verlag on May 23, 2019 14:12:28 GMT -5
Keep us updated on the progress Mr Darke. I might do the same but with the Greyhawk Folio & original list of Greyhawk deities before they were broken down into ethnic pantheons.
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Post by Mr Darke on May 25, 2019 12:48:11 GMT -5
Technology Level
Playing off Mystara's tendency toward things like crashed spaceships, weird science, some magitek and taking Blackmoor into account I used this as a jumping point for how to play this off. It is not too far of a stretch to make the tech level is higher than your standard fantasy. While I do not want to go too far; the setting itself has some interesting thing that with a bit of research will take the setting a bit further in. I am also using the cold war between Alphatia and Thyatis as a catalyst for the rise in some of the breakthroughs that were made. As we know in the real world these things can drive research and invention.
There are a few rules to this:
Rule 1: Low to mid level magic is common but higher level is rare. At about spell level 4 to 5 spells get more rare and only higher level Magic-Users research and practice such things and they are secretive.
Rule 2: Magic does touch almost everyone. From light crystals to seeing an airship and even higher applications the world sees these things. A common person may own an item or two but they are still expensive. (Reference The Book of Marvelous Magic and The Book of Wondrous Inventions for the basic idea)
Rule 3: Magical Tech is not the only tech. While the rise of magic infusion, the arcane properties of crystals and certain ores and so on has made an influence; there has also been a mundane tech drive. Things like plumbing, hand operated water pumps, printing presses, and such are more common and in use. Even in our world such things have existed at times we may not have realized.
Rule 4: Wild areas are still wild. Towns and cities are havens from the monsters that still roam and taming these areas may never happen...partially because you still need them.
Rule 5: Wars and adventures are still fought with swords, axes, bows and armor. Weaponization has happened a bit but it is not trustworthy and still expensive.
This gives both some leeway in how to present it but still keeps the fantastic elements that i want to try. I have used these things in the past ( as evidenced in other threads) with success but never as full on as I have now. As I stated above the reason for this is threefold 1) To hold the interest of the younger players 2) My burnout on standard fantasy 3) To test run ideas for the world I am building without locking myself into the idea.
As well with the scarce time I have having a pre existing world to build from and using some modules saves me a fair amount of time in the long run. All I need to do is make a few notes, come up with a city or two and work on a few adventures to flesh some ideas out and still scratch the creative itch.
The next post will cover the mechanical changes and a few new rules. It will also look at how I will expand BFRPG out as play goes on.
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Post by The Perilous Dreamer on May 25, 2019 21:13:45 GMT -5
I love what you are doing Mr Darke, have an Exalt!
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Post by Hexenritter Verlag on May 30, 2019 17:54:35 GMT -5
You earned an exalt Mr Darke, keep up the great work.
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Post by Mr Darke on May 31, 2019 13:03:41 GMT -5
Very briefly: It's been a busy the past week but I am running the first session tonight or tomorrow. It is a rework of Castle Mystamere in the Mentzer Basic Set called Black Rock Keep. I remapped and restocked level 1 adding two new rooms and removing a couple of the sillier parts. Level Two was completely reworked and I am unsure on a third level but that can be added later. Also I have been delving into Mr. Welch's Mystara videos and have decided that I will go ahead and start in Karameikos but we will transition to Thyatis in the future. A good point was made by him here in that the RC (and by extension B/X and BECMI) are the rules for Mystara. While this does not exclude me from using BFRPG it makes me think that supplementing the game with the RC. Of course this leads into a bigger issue I have had with B/X clones and no real options for BECMI clones*. It's a long thing but to shorten it BECMI was where I started and I can't help but see B/X as a truncated game; seems like my love for late 80s through 90s D&D has not changed**. Anywho, that is where it stands and I will have the play report up later. * Yes there is Dark Dungeons but I have a few issues with it and the naming of the game giving Jack Chick any press has always bothered me. ** It is where I started after all and my early influences were the 80s fantasy films so there is that...
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Post by El Borak on Jun 1, 2019 20:07:49 GMT -5
Isn't Adventurer Conqueror King based on BECMI? I know it is not free, but the pdf is $10 which is not too bad.
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Post by Mr Darke on Jun 8, 2019 17:05:46 GMT -5
Isn't Adventurer Conqueror King based on BECMI? I know it is not free, but the pdf is $10 which is not too bad. I am not sure but I will have to look into it. Our game was postponed due to us going to a Japanese stroll garden that only cost 8 bucks for 4 of us and hanging at a larger park afterward. The Park, Nathaniel Green/Close Memorial, is one of our favorites in the area. Walking through gave me some inspiration and a needed day off. Also one of my older daughters and her boyfriend are joining the group for the kickoff so waiting was a good idea. Oh, and there was the fact I had massive dental work done and wasn't talking well and decided that I didn't want to sound like Daffy Duck running the game. Trying to describe a dank room with the lisp just didn't seem like a good idea. That said, using BFRPG as the B/X part of BECMI seems like a way to go and using the basic ideas presented there as a revision of sorts would work.
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Post by El Borak on Jun 9, 2019 19:38:22 GMT -5
Running a game with a Daffy Duck voice for the whole thing would be painful to you. I never could understand him.
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Post by Mr Darke on Apr 27, 2020 15:47:13 GMT -5
Wouldn't you know it that DMs Guild would have the Karameikos Gazetteer up on P.O.D. having a bit of extra cash I ordered it and am waiting on it to arrive. So Karameikos is set as the beginning. Since I also got the PDF I have already began reading it. I will let you know on the quality of the printing and how I am going to run it. I am still leaning to a BFRPG/Rules Cyclopedia hybrid as the rules but a recent video on Mr. Welch's channel has me looking at a few house rules. Of course development on the Karstlands will continue but I practicality is going to have me using ideas in the new game.
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Post by The Perilous Dreamer on Apr 28, 2020 23:50:08 GMT -5
Wouldn't you know it that DMs Guild would have the Karameikos Gazetteer up on P.O.D. having a bit of extra cash I ordered it and am waiting on it to arrive. So Karameikos is set as the beginning. Since I also got the PDF I have already began reading it. I will let you know on the quality of the printing and how I am going to run it. I am still leaning to a BFRPG/Rules Cyclopedia hybrid as the rules but a recent video on Mr. Welch's channel has me looking at a few house rules. Of course development on the Karstlands will continue but I practicality is going to have me using ideas in the new game. Mr. Welch's channel? Link please.
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Post by Mr Darke on Apr 29, 2020 10:16:42 GMT -5
Mr. Welch has an entire playlist called 'Welcome to Mystara' on his channel that is highly informative. His 'Mad Musings' list is also worth a watch.
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Post by The Perilous Dreamer on Apr 29, 2020 11:02:04 GMT -5
Mr. Welch has an entire playlist called 'Welcome to Mystara' on his channel that is highly informative. His 'Mad Musings' list is also worth a watch. Thank you for the link!
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Post by Mr Darke on May 7, 2020 11:56:02 GMT -5
Not a problem. While I am waiting for my copies of the two gazetteers to come I have done some research and will likely be using ideas from my post apocalyptic idea. Given the map of Mystara, many real world cultures and an actual apocalypse in that world's history it is going to be pretty easy to make the world a future Earth.
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Post by Mr Darke on May 16, 2020 18:32:05 GMT -5
From digging through the wiki's and other info I have my angle on how to do the future earth angle and it lines up well with my thread here. I can tie this all back to Blackmoor and the Great Rain of Fire or even have the Blackmoor era be after the initial apocalyptic events. Of course the world has stabilized more than my idea presented but that is perfectly fine with me as I can still place many of my ideas in with a bit of adjustment. So the demi-humans being mutations or dimensional interlopers, humanoids and gobliniods as descendants of genetically modified humans, magic having a concrete explanation and so on are still viable options. This would also explain why so many earth like cultures are on Mystara as well as the amount of technology that is a bit out place exists. I still have things like the Immortals to work out but that is fairly easy. I will also add the world map to show the similarities to Earth and how part of this idea formed...
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Post by The Perilous Dreamer on May 17, 2020 0:24:26 GMT -5
Wow! I love that map Mr Darke and it sounds like you have a good handle on it too. Awesome!
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Post by Mr Darke on May 21, 2020 9:57:00 GMT -5
Thank you!! I am slowly working through it and I think races will be the first thing I tackle. I think that will be the easiest way to begin and get a good feel for how the setting will work. I will also be working on a rough timeline to cover how the world went from our Earth to Mystara. The big difference in my original post-apocalyptic world and this is the fact the world is not a crapfest and has recovered from the devastation.
That all said there will still be ruins of the past world and some things that connect but it is not until players get to higher levels that they will see them. And it may be that it will never really come into play. But on my end of things it is a fun thought exercise.
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Post by The Perilous Dreamer on May 22, 2020 1:00:56 GMT -5
Thank you!! I am slowly working through it and I think races will be the first thing I tackle. I think that will be the easiest way to begin and get a good feel for how the setting will work. I will also be working on a rough timeline to cover how the world went from our Earth to Mystara. The big difference in my original post-apocalyptic world and this is the fact the world is not a crapfest and has recovered from the devastation. That all said there will still be ruins of the past world and some things that connect but it is not until players get to higher levels that they will see them. And it may be that it will never really come into play. But on my end of things it is a fun thought exercise. Sounds like a plan, love what you are doing.
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