D&D: Jeff Grubb’s Long-Lost Mystara Setting Book Is Coming This Year
While there are still three official setting books still coming soon from WotC, it seems like veteran designer Jeff Grubb will also be releasing a Mystara book this year.
Jeff Grubb is an important figure in the growth of D&D. Since the early days, he’s worked on many of the books that make the game what it is today–including the first Unearthed Arcana, the initial collaboration that would become the Forgotten Realms, as well as Spelljammer and more. He’s got quite the legacy from the TSR days, and now, with WotC’s blessing, he’ll be releasing a free guide to Mystara, once known as “The Known World” for fans of the setting.
Mystara is one of those more obscure settings that you might not have tried since its popularity faded during the switch from TSR to WotC, and odds are good most players today started with 3rd or later edition D&D, which isn’t a condemnation, just an observation on the passage of time that will eventually claim us all. Today’s 18-25 spending bracket is next week’s irrelevant 35+ demographic.
Anyway, this past week Jeff Grubb himself confirmed the upcoming release on a Facebook post:
So.
A long time ago I wrote a project for TSR converting the Known World of Mystara from D&D to AD&D 2nd Edition. Through a tale of woe and intrigue, (link below) that product was never completed, and instead became Karameikos, Kingdom of Adventure.
However, I kept a copy of the unfinished manuscript (well, print-out), and a short while ago, gave it to Shawn Stanley, who runs the Pandius Website. He in turn has cleaned it up a bit, and plans to release it, free, with WotC’s blessing, to fans on the website’s anniversary.
It is really nice to see this surface after so many years – it is a “Lost Tome” of D&D history, and I hope fans of the setting enjoy it.
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The Vaults of Pandius are a repository for all things both Classic D&D and Mystara, which makes it a fitting place to release the upcoming tome of lost history.
Curious about what Mystara is? Here’s a brief overview.
Originally developed under the name of “The Known World” by Lawrence Shick and Tom Moldvay for their home campaign of Dungeons and Dragons, Mystara joined official canon once Schick (and later Moldvay) was hired by TSR to work on the Expert Set. They needed a world to use as the background material, and lo and behold, one was extant already, just waiting to be used.
There are three main landmasses in the Outer World–Brun, Davania, and Skothar. Brun contains the Known World, a hodge-podge mix of cultures and kingdoms–there’s the Grand Duchy of Karameikos, which is a sort of default baseline fantasy setting. Karameikos is home to the town of Threshold, from which many an adventure is launched with a poetic, literary send-off. East of Karameikos are the Emirates of Ylaruam, in a massive desert basin. You can rest easy knowing that there are djinn and efreeti and all the rest located here. About what you might expect.
But then you get countries like the Principalities of Giantri, where magic rules (and everyone else, especially clerics drools). Imagine if Western Europe was ruled by Wizard-princes (so basically a bit like the Tevinter Imperium from Dragon Age), only they’re militantly anti-divine casters. Being a cleric is punishable by death, and there were rules to help power up your mage (though, really this was unnecessary) if you wanted.
It’s a lot of fun, there’s a lot to look forward to with the upcoming guide, which even though it’s aimed at 2nd Edition is still ripe for the picking with whatever edition you’re playing.
Happy Adventuring!
