Jeff Grubb's Lost Mystara Sourcebook To Be Released to the Fans at Pandius

Edit: It has since been made clear that this announcement was a bit premature. The Vaults of Pandius are still awaiting the green light from WotC. Fingers crossed!

It was just announced that Wizards of the Coast have given their approval for a long lost manuscript written by legendary D&D Game Designer Jeff Grubb to be released for free to the fans at The Vaults of Pandius. 

The Mystara Sourcebook was comissioned by TSR in 1990s and was to be part of the companies relaunch of the Classic D&D setting under the AD&D 2nd Edition rules. Mystara first appeared in published form in 1980 with the release of the adventure X1 Isle of Dread and was from that point on the default setting of the B/X and BECMI D&D line which also incorporated Blackmoor. 

Sadly, the nearly completed book that Jeff Grubb had written was never published as curious reversals of decisions within TSR's management and sales department at the time suddenly decided that instead of a book presenting all of Mystara to AD&D 2nd Ed fans, they instead wanted a product focusing only on the Grand Duchy of Karameikos. These behind the scenes workings which would eventually lead to a gradual death of Mystara even resulted in Jeff Grubb leaving TSR. He describes the story better himself at his blog.

As rumours that this manuscript existed in a nearly complete form, fans became hopeful that it would one day become available for them to read and enjoy. One fan, Travis Henry, even started a petition with more than 800 signatures. Jeff Grubb said that he would love for this work to become available as he was always a fan of the setting since the days of the Known World.

This week, Shawn Stanley who has been managing the Vaults of Pandius website for almost 25 years announced at The Piazza that the book will now finally be released later this year for the website's anniversary. The website was made into the official fan website by Wizards of the Coast in the early 2000s and remains the best resource website for the Mystara fan community. It is very fitting that this book will now find a home there.

-Havard

Tribality.com Fails to Notice Mystara's Incredible Fan Base

Could Mystara be set to return as a published setting by Wizards of the Coast in the near future? Over the last few weeks, the rumor that WotC are planning to bring back three classic settings has lead to speculation all over the web about which three settings WotC are looking at. 

This incredible painting by Clyde Cladwell would have been a much better illustration for an article discussing the D&D World of Mystara.

Recently Tim Baker at The Piazza brought to my attention that an article at Tribality.com had a run down about what settings they thought were the most likely candidates. While the article was interesting, I found the description of Mystara very disappointing. Not only was the choice of image illustrating the setting disappointing, but it was especially this line that drew my attention:

"While fan love for this setting exists, it’s far quieter than other classic settings."

Mystara first appeared in 1981's classic adventure X1 Isle of Dread. While the setting was very popular and during the TSR era had more sourcebooks published for it than any other D&D or AD&D setting, the setting and its fans have a long history of being ignored by TSR and later WotC. While various teasers appeared for the setting during the D&D 3E and 4E eras, D&D 5th Edition was recieved especially positively for its explicit mention of the setting in the Players Handbook and with the adventure hardback Ghosts of Saltmarsh making extensive suggestions for how to adapt each chapter to the setting and even including a rewamped version of the Mystara adventure Isle of the Abbey. 

So how about this claim that the fans of Mystara are more quiet than fans of other settings? Mystara has had an incredibly active and dedicated online fan base that I have been a member of since the 1990s. Today these fans can be found on various Facebook groups including the 2,5000+ member Mystara Reborn group and on the D&D webforum The Piazza. The fan works of this highly productive and extremely friendly fan base is collected at the Vaults of Pandius website and also releases a quarterly 300+ page PDF professional looking free fanzine Threshold Magazine which is soon to release its 26th issue, not counting earlier iterations under other titles like the Mystara NetMag, Tome of Mystara etc.

So why is it that this community remains invisble to the world at large? Is it that we mostly prefer to stick to our own parts of the Internet? Or just that others don't know where to look for us? In any case it is a shame, because there are gamers out there who are missing out on something they might really enjoy!

-Havard

Threshold #5 Mystara Fan Magazine is Out: Focus on Davania

Another great thing that happened on Dave Arneson Game Day yesterday was the release of the 5th issue of Threshold, the fan magazine for the D&D World of Mystara. With an editorial group working out of The Piazza and working with the Vaults of Pandius, this fan project has moved from being a great idea to proving to the gamer community that this is a magazine that has come to stay.

As in the past, the current issue is professionally laid out with high quality illustrations and well written articles and beautiful maps. #5 focuses on Mystara's southern continent of Davania, a place that never got much detailed coverage in official material.

Go here to download!


-Havard

Threshold # 2

So, the second issue of Threshold: The Mystara Magazine is out this week. This is not the first time I mention this fan magazine on this blog. Although my name is listed in the credits, I'm not really sure there is much there I could take credit for. The end result however is terriffic! Even better for you Blackmoor fans, there is indeed a Blackmoor article by Francesco Defferrari (Sturm) in the magazine.

As with the 1st issue, Threshold #2 follows up with a classy cover, professional layout and editing and 182 pages of high quality fan material. The articles are well written and illustrated by a combination of commons lisence illustrations and art contributions. I really liked seeing the illustrations by I "Meandrathel" Calvin, both in the Hollow Moon and Lupin articles.

With the second issue of Threshold out, the editorial team has proven that they are able to deliver what looks like it will be a regular series of fan magazines for Mystara fans. Issues #3 and #4 are already in the works.

If you are still wondering how to get Threshold #2, simply click on this link. Also, the Magazine has a Facebook Page, so you can "like" Threshold here.



-Havard

Mystara Marches On!

As I posted in Mystara Community History discussion at The Piazza yesterday, 2013 is significant to the Mystara community as the year when Mystara modules returned to PDF. In addition to that Bruce Heard is posting even more Alphatia material on his blog, giving us the full details on the Kingdom of Ar.

Yesterday I got news that the Vaults of Pandius just got a new update! This update includes many old articles, including material from Bruce Heard there as well. Click here to see whats new.

If you are on Facebook, make sure to join the Mystara Reborn group to socialize with other Mystara fans and authors from the Golden Age. Also 127 people now "like" Aleena the Cleric. Are you one of them? :)

-Havard

Pandius is not dead!

Some of us recieved this message from Shawn at the Vaults of Pandius last week: 

The following files have been loaded or updated on the Vaults of Pandius:
  Several historic records relating to discussion on the MOrient team have been loaded. http://pandius.com/morient/morient.html
  Story: Sulescu: The Warding Stone. http://pandius.com/Sulescu Book 1 - The Warding Stone.pdf
  Bel Lendh Monandry: Subterranean realms below the Altan Tepes. http://pandius.com/Bel Lendh Monandry.pdf
  Maps of The Ghost of Lion Castle. http://pandius.com/lioncstl.html
  Rules Cyclopedia NPC Generator version 1.3. http://pandius.com/RulesCyclopediaNPCGeneratorv1_3.zip

 Dare we hope this means the Vaults are truly back? :)


-Havard

Vaults of Pandius 15 Year Anniversary

In June 1996, Shawn Stanley set up a website he called the Vaults of Pandius. Ever since this has been a focal point for the Mystara Fan Community. That is 15 years ago, this month. I joined the Mystara Mailinglist later that same year. The mailinglist hadn't been around very long at that time, but already at this point there was a vibrant community talking about this setting which had been created as the default world for the Classic D&D game. From the very beginning I was overwhelmed by the friendliness and creativity that characterized this community.

Many of the results of this creativity can be seen at the Vaults of Pandius, including some of my own humble writings. The Mystara Mailinglist still exists, but the center of the community's activities are now centered arount the Mystara forum at the Piazza. Interestingly many of the people I first met on the mainlinglist back in the 90s are still there, along with many others who joined over the years. This community remains a stimulation for my creativity.

Happy Anniversary Pandius!



-Havard

[Mystara] History of Dragonkind available!

The Mystara Community is one of the most creative D&D communities that I know of, which can be seen from the vast amount of high quality material available at the Vaults of Pandius, the official Mystara fansite. I have compiled a list of the most comprehensive of these fan productions here.

This week, a new community release was announced at the Piazza. This is the History of Dragonkind, by Simone Neri. Over the years alot of material on Mystara's dragons and what makes them different from the dragons of other D&D settings. Neri has been able to combine all of these sources presenting a great overview of the history of dragons from before the Blackmoor Era, through the events from the Dragonlord Trilogy and up to the modern Mystaran Era.

You can download this excellent fan sourcebook here.





-Havard