Subject: MYSTARA-L Digest - 6 Mar 2003 to 7 Mar 2003 (#2003-67) From: Automatic digest processor Date: 08/03/2003, 19:00 To: Recipients of MYSTARA-L digests Reply-to: Mystara RPG Discussion There are 10 messages totalling 410 lines in this issue. Topics of the day: 1. Half-Elf Debate (3) 2. Cultures (4) 3. Weather Again 4. Cannot post all messages due to some bizarre filter 5. HackWorld of Mystaros: changes to "other" regions ******************************************************************** The Other Worlds Homepage: http://www.wizards.com/dnd/OtherWorlds.asp The Mystara Homepage: http://www.dnd.starflung.com/ To unsubscribe, send email to LISTSERV@ORACLE.WIZARDS.COM with UNSUB MYSTARA-L in the body of the message. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 7 Mar 2003 10:41:10 +0100 From: =?iso-8859-1?q?Havard=20Faanes?= Subject: Re: Half-Elf Debate --- Eric Anondson skrev: > > Should there be half-elves in Mystara, or not? > > > > Darokin and Alfheim GAZs have conflicting passages > about this, > > Welcome to the joys of reconciling canon. Actually, Darokin and Alfheim gaz'es are easily reconciled. Half-elves do exist, in the Known World, but not True Half-elves. That is, elves and humans may have offspring, but these always take after one of the parents when it comes to abilities and traits. > > and the Savage Coast gets absurd in having > "demi-elves" and > > "half-elves" and discussing the mating between all > possibilities. Half-elves do exist in the SC, but this is not known in the KW. > > The Mystara3e has decided to include half-elf into > Mystara, but this > > doesn't sit well with me, because I feel it's too > much munchkinism... > > What exactly is "munckinism" about the 3e PHB > half-elf? In any case, there shouldnt be much of a problem leaving them out. > > If he have half-elfs, we might as well have 1/2 > dryads, 1/2 satyrs, > > 1/2 goblins, 1/2 dwarves, 1/2 giants, 1/2 hin, 1/2 > kolbolds, 1/2 > > ogres, 1/2... > > Are any of those in the core 3e rules? OD&D had plenty of rules for mixing the Goblinoid races, as there is alot of crossbreeding in the Broken Lands. See Orcs of Thar for more on that.. Håvard ______________________________________________________ Få den nye Yahoo! Messenger på http://no.messenger.yahoo.com/ Nye ikoner og bakgrunner, webkamera med superkvalitet og dobbelt så morsom ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 7 Mar 2003 10:58:11 +0100 From: Giampaolo Agosta Subject: Re: Cultures Asgor Ironfist wrote: > > Yes, Italian would easly fit the Slag description > and works very well with that description of being 50% simmilar to Verdan > and Espa, but for me, is hard to think in the far-west with cowboys > speaking > italian, hehehehehehe Of course. > About Terra Leãoça, i don't think that this name is just a name, because is > sounds like Leão (Lion) and Onça (Jaguar, i think... at least Onça Pintada > is Jaguar), and because it's very close to Bellayne. So, the verdans calls > this land with this name because of the rakastas. I agree. BTW, in Dante's Divina Commedia, a feline beast named "lonza" is mentioned, which would look like a black pelted lynx. The pronounciation shouldn't be too difficult. > And now, some fresh questions: =) > 1- The Yezchamenid Empire would be an mystaran Persia? Yes. > 2- The Empire of Zuyevo would be an mystara Russia? Yes. > 3- Herath and Nimmur have any real world equivalents? Nimmur is definitely Assirian, much like the Enduks (who may be more Babylonian than Assirian, though). Herath is a weird one--the culture is not based on any specific RW culture, though the language is supposed to be middle-eastern, probably Hebraic--though IIRC the names don't make sense in that tongue. Ohad (Morphail) would know more about this. > In My d&d3a Red Steel, > i'm planning make both like american cinilizations, like the Mayans, since > there isn't neither oltecs nor ascans in the SC, and i want to make an more > "conquest of the America" campaing. You might consider having a look at the original Savage Coast module, if you can find a copy--it was much more discovery oriented than the later SC materials. IIRC, later timelines put that module back one hundred years, more or less. Ah, there are Oltecs, of course, in Torreon, for example, though their culture has in modern times nearly disappeared--much like in the RW. The Goblinoids are mostly "american" as well, though they fit better in a Far West campaign. The last american-like people are the Tortle, who are somewhat modeled on mayan. > Tchau para todos =) Ciao, -- Giampaolo Agosta http://digilander.iol.it/agathokles ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 7 Mar 2003 15:33:50 +0100 From: =?iso-8859-1?Q?Andr=E9s_Piquer_Otero?= Subject: Re: Cultures > 3- Herath and Nimmur have any real world equivalents? > Nimmur is definitely Assirian, much like the Enduks (who may be more Babylonian than Assirian, though). > Herath is a weird one--the culture is not based on any specific RW culture, though the language is supposed to be middle- >> eastern, probably Hebraic--though IIRC the names don't make sense in that tongue. Ohad (Morphail) would know more about this. I remember checking on the map of Herath published in VotPA and the place names have a very distinct Hebrew-Phoenician taste to them, albeit in a more or less altered form. Actually, they're quite close to the place names in Syria-Palestine during Greek and Roman domination, when Greek pronunciation and structures altered quite a bit place and person names. It was also a time of heavy esoteric / hermetic writing and movements, which fits quite well with the Magocracy nature of Herath. Andrés ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 7 Mar 2003 16:58:32 +0100 From: Giampaolo Agosta Subject: Re: Cultures Andrés Piquer Otero wrote: >> Herath is a weird one--the culture is not based on any specific RW culture, >> though the language is supposed to be middle- >> eastern, probably Hebraic--though IIRC the names don't make sense in that >> tongue. Ohad (Morphail) would know more about this. > > I remember checking on the map of Herath published in VotPA and the place > names have a very distinct Hebrew-Phoenician taste to them, albeit in a more > or less altered form. Actually, they're quite close to the place names in > Syria-Palestine during Greek and Roman domination, when Greek pronunciation > and structures altered quite a bit place and person names. Ah, that's interesting. If you have time, would you mind posting a brief analysis of the Herathian names? > It was also a > time of heavy esoteric / hermetic writing and movements, which fits quite > well with the Magocracy nature of Herath. Indeed. I see it could give a lot of inspiration on the Herathian culture. Bye, -- Giampaolo Agosta http://digilander.iol.it/agathokles ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 7 Mar 2003 11:23:44 -0500 From: Geoff Gander Subject: Re: Half-Elf Debate Darknerd wrote: > Darokin and Alfheim GAZs have conflicting passages > about this, and the Savage Coast gets absurd in having > "demi-elves" and "half-elves" and discussing the > mating between all possibilities. IMC, I decided that half-elves *do* exist; I simply found the explanations given in Gaz 5 and GAZ 11, regardless of whether they made sense genetically or not (I have no expertise there, but it has been discussed on this List), to be too contrived. I think the recommended XP penalty given for OD&D half-elves in Dragon magazine (#178, I think) evens things up enough. DMs can always tweak it if they want, anyway. :-) Geoff -- Geoff Gander, BA 97, MPA 02 Carnifex Loremaster/Mad Roleplayer Master of the Elemental Plane of Bureaucracy au998@freenet.carleton.ca : www.geocities.com/TimesSquare/Realm/2091 ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 7 Mar 2003 09:29:47 -0800 From: Joaquin Menchaca Subject: Re: Cultures Someone mentioned that Traladaran are RW Slavic peoples. However, the official canon does not exactly state that, but rather Central-Eastern European. It is rather vague on this point. The module B6 uses a lot of Romanian/Italian names, and as such, Traladaran appear as later Romanian people (which is a mix of folks). The language with names that end in "-escu" reflect the Romanian language, which is different from Slavic languages. However, many names in Romania are borrowed or similar to Slavic names, while others like Magda are Polish. The legends of vampires and werewolves stem from that area, which included Wallachia, Transylvania, and Moldovia. This area is most well known for Count Dracula, or Vlaad Dracula (dracula meaning little dragon). Some of these lands are apart of Romania today. - Joaquin __________________________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! News - Today's headlines http://news.yahoo.com ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 7 Mar 2003 10:02:20 -0800 From: Tech Support FaenWorks Subject: Weather Again Hey there~~ So I'm trying to figure out what y'all think about some issues = concerning the weather. Do alot of you use wind factors for ship = transport, etc.? It had never occured to myself that this could be = important until someone mentioned it to me, so....how many of you use = wind? that's all. =20 Take care tech@faenworks.com Patrick J D Newnan pjdn jade falcon ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 7 Mar 2003 14:48:11 -0400 From: Steve Carter Subject: Re: Half-Elf Debate I'm a great one for rationalizing things. ;) IMC what I decided was to make the birth of a visible minority of half-elves be a plan of some Immortals that has taken centuries. Even though the old rules state that births are either human or elven, these children are carrying recessive genes. As human and elven genes become more and more mixed over the centuries both humans and elves wind up carrying more of each other's genetic code. The elven genes though have a tendancy to stay around in humans through many generations so while they may not be expressed they are present. Today we might have more visibly half-elven births from mixed couplings than we did several generations ago. While half-elves might be an established social minority in some regions (or indeed on some worlds, such as Faerun) in the Old Known World, if your campaign goes that way, it can be a recently recognized demographic trend and a newly emergent race. Similar cases for half-orcs. I'd tend to say that half-orcs conceived to human women living in human society would likely be aborted or killed at birth (likely by the midwife before the child breathed its first). Born within orc society (IMC) it's likely going to be accepted as just another cursed child of Hel. au998@FREENET.CARLETON.CA wrote: > Darknerd wrote: > >> Darokin and Alfheim GAZs have conflicting passages >> about this, and the Savage Coast gets absurd in having >> "demi-elves" and "half-elves" and discussing the >> mating between all possibilities. >> > > > > IMC, I decided that half-elves *do* exist; I simply found the explanations > given in Gaz 5 and GAZ 11, regardless of whether they made sense > genetically or not (I have no expertise there, but it has been discussed > on this List), to be too contrived. I think the recommended XP penalty > given for OD&D half-elves in Dragon magazine (#178, I think) evens things > up enough. DMs can always tweak it if they want, anyway. > > :-) > > Geoff > > -- > Geoff Gander, BA 97, MPA 02 > Carnifex Loremaster/Mad Roleplayer > Master of the Elemental Plane of Bureaucracy > au998@freenet.carleton.ca : www.geocities.com/TimesSquare/Realm/2091 > > ******************************************************************** > The Other Worlds Homepage: http://www.wizards.com/dnd/OtherWorlds.asp > The Mystara Homepage: http://www.dnd.starflung.com/ > To unsubscribe, send email to LISTSERV@ORACLE.WIZARDS.COM > with UNSUB MYSTARA-L in the body of the message. > ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 7 Mar 2003 14:58:42 -0800 From: Joaquin Menchaca Subject: Cannot post all messages due to some bizarre filter Hi, I am not sure if this message will get through. One of my messages was filtered out because it stated that my message looked like it had list server commands. Go figure... - Joaquin __________________________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Tax Center - forms, calculators, tips, more http://taxes.yahoo.com/ ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 7 Mar 2003 15:49:48 -0800 From: "Jenni A. M. Merrifield" Subject: HackWorld of Mystaros: changes to "other" regions James: You've spent quite a bit of time answering questions on and talking about your plans for a few of the areas around the Known World that tend to get the most attention from fans or that will be getting a large number of changes. Examples: Alphatia, Glantri, Ierendi, and the Atruaghin. I'd like to hear a bit more about some of the other regions, particularly ones with Gazetters that generally lean more towards the "serious" side - such as the Duchy of Karameikos, the Republic of Darokin, or the Emirates of Ylaruam. I'm personally quite interested in hearing about what you're planning to do to the society and regions of the HackWurld Darokin that are not encompassed by the "Westerlands" that you discussed on list, as that tends to be the one mainland region I like to DM in. But aside from that, I'm simply curious to hear about what you have up your sleeve for the other areas of the "HackWurld of Mystaros" that you haven't really touched on yet (at least not that I've seen - though I do have to admit to being behind in reading all the MML posts). Could you, perhaps, provide a few comments about any plans you have for the regions you haven't really delved into on the list yet? Maybe run through the Gazetteers, Creature Crucibles and Boxed Sets in order, and just skip the ones you've already covered in detail (like Ierendi, for example). Thanks, Jenni -- Jenni A. M. Merrifield strawberry @ jamm . com Designing to Requirements and Walking on Water is EASY. . . . . . So long as both are Frozen. -- ------------------------------ End of MYSTARA-L Digest - 6 Mar 2003 to 7 Mar 2003 (#2003-67) *************************************************************