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Old 04-03-2023, 11:08 AM   #1
Anders
 
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Default Anyone run a campaign in Mystara?

Thinking about starting a campaign in the Grand Duchy of Karameikos - the Mystara setting for Dungeons & Dragons Rules Cyclopedia. Has anyone thought about this or run such a campaign?

Probably start the campaign at 62 points (thanks Delvers to Grow) for that delicious 1st-level feeling. Anyone have any tips around low-power play?
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Old 04-03-2023, 10:12 PM   #2
mburr0003
 
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Default Re: Anyone run a campaign in Mystara?

I ran a few Mystara campaigns back in 3e's days, mostly as I have the Gazeteers...

AS for lower powered play, that's not really my forte, but I'd be ready to have enemies flee when below 1/2 HP instead of standing and fighting and make sure you allow for capture of the PCs as a setting default. If you can stress surrender instead of 'fight to the death', combat will go better for you. Also be prepared for the PCs to try to be super cautious and always go for stacking the deck against their foes as hard as they can, it's really the only way they'll survive.
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Old 04-05-2023, 01:03 PM   #3
Dalin
 
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Default Re: Anyone run a campaign in Mystara?

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Originally Posted by mburr0003 View Post
I'd be ready to have enemies flee when below 1/2 HP instead of standing and fighting and make sure you allow for capture of the PCs as a setting default. If you can stress surrender instead of 'fight to the death', combat will go better for you.
QFT. Be careful with creatures that would just eat their opponents (or dissolve them, crush them to pulp, etc.). If the dice have a bad run, you can end up in TPK territory pretty easily.

When I design scenarios for relatively low-skill PCs, I always think about keeping the story going regardless of success or failure. Not to say that their actions don't matter, but I'm prepared to handle the story either way. Maybe they want to steal something from a shop. If they succeed, I've got an idea for how things might play out. If they fail, I might have prepped a jail scene and a trial or something like that. Moreover, as with the combat ideas above, I try to set realistic-but-non-lethal stakes. Many challenges are about their reputation or their money or their relationships with NPCs or their interactions with the law rather than life or death every time.
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Old 04-05-2023, 01:04 PM   #4
Dalin
 
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Default Re: Anyone run a campaign in Mystara?

Oh, as for Mystara, I dimly recall the old maps and whatnot, but it's been decades since I've interacted with the setting. I don't remember what, if anything, would make it different from a more typical DF setting.
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Old 04-05-2023, 11:48 PM   #5
mburr0003
 
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Default Re: Anyone run a campaign in Mystara?

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Oh, as for Mystara, I dimly recall the old maps and whatnot, but it's been decades since I've interacted with the setting. I don't remember what, if anything, would make it different from a more typical DF setting.
It is the Prototypical Dungeon Fantasy setting. It's also probably the moztfully fleshed out settings, if you have all the Gazeteers and adventures (as I do).

And it doesn't suffer from the "reboots" and "progress of history" that the Forgotten Realms does (the other well fleshed out prototypical DF setting).
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Old 04-06-2023, 01:51 PM   #6
martinl
 
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Default Re: Anyone run a campaign in Mystara?

I have mostly run this setting in various flavors of that other game, but there was someone (D'ellorto? Brackin?) who ran a GURPS game there. I seem to recall an ostrich with laser eye beams.

There is an online community for Mystara at http://pandius.com/ that is devoted to Mystara. Amongst other things I think they have hex maps of a lot of Karameikos at a 1 mile per hex scale.

Game wise, The Veiled Society is a good starter adventure that should be easy to convert, and Night's Dark Terror is set there and is a partularly fun adventure.
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Old 04-07-2023, 01:52 AM   #7
Anders
 
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Default Re: Anyone run a campaign in Mystara?

I've found the pandus society and have ordered a compilation of B1-B9, with instructions on how to set them all in Karameikos. And we'll go from there.
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