I figure since b/x and becmi are some of the most popular games in OSR, i'm trying to like Mystara so I wanted to get some reason why I should play it. How immersive is it as a setting, is it consistent? Like does it work as a world or does the logic break down quickly if you think about it too hard. Also the immortals in practice it seems they can be a bit overshadowing over the world.

Also why are there so many god damn furries

I never can make up my mind on Mystara.  There are pieces of it I enjoyed.  I've run Isle of Dread multiple times in at least 3 different systems.  However, it seems uneven to me.  Glantri just leaves me cold for some reason.

When I look at the maps of Mystara what it makes me want to do is start from scratch in the Worldographer map-making tool and build a similar map but with more consistent ideas about how everything fits together.  Though it would be pretty cool to just recreate the Mystara maps in such a tool, but then rename all the places and groups, too.

Read it and make up your own mind is the best course of action. No one is going to write something in a couple paragraphs to make u like or understand the setting.

Right now I haven't quite figured out my own homebrew setting and was thinking if I had a premade setting that was "standard" for lack of a better term for D&D what should be my to setting. There is always Greyhawk, but they also have silly elements like the space ship, plus this Council of Nine which to my understanding ends up being a sort of emergency button for the DM to bludgeon players with if they do anything too disruptive. Plus inclusions like Melf the Elf etc, or that deity with a revolver. 

3rd parties are great and I really do enjoy a lot of low fantasy but most groups I play with really do like high fantasy games that play with a lot of the core assumptions of D&D. Forgotten realms for me is out however, I really dislike that setting with a passion. I thought maybe Mystara could do it but I can't seem to find anything I really like about it. The immortals come across as too involved, and i'm really not a fan of anthropomorphic races in general.

Though I guess for here my biggest question is does the setting follow it's own internal logic, with the core assumptions of the universe is it plausible or is my immersion going to come to a screeching halt when I discover something like this civilization could never have developed naturally. Like Golarion in pathfinder so patchwork that you're better off treating each region as it's own setting, Eberron that somehow never developed firearms despite being basically 1920s game, or having a nobility despite not actually having a social caste system or even a feudal society.

I can't see myself talking you out of something that might be really awesome for your game.

My suggestion is to download the free .pdf of the Mystara Player's Guide by Glen Welch, that he has posted on this very forum a couple of days ago.  Read it and see if you like it.  Even if you don't go full Mystara, perhaps there is something that you will love to put into your game?

Link to post:
https://www.therpgsite.com/pen-paper-roleplaying-games-rpgs-discussion/mystara-player-s-guide/

Quote from: Steven Mitchell on September 01, 2021, 02:39:42 PM
I never can make up my mind on Mystara.  There are pieces of it I enjoyed.  I've run Isle of Dread multiple times in at least 3 different systems.  However, it seems uneven to me.  Glantri just leaves me cold for some reason.

When I look at the maps of Mystara what it makes me want to do is start from scratch in the Worldographer map-making tool and build a similar map but with more consistent ideas about how everything fits together.  Though it would be pretty cool to just recreate the Mystara maps in such a tool, but then rename all the places and groups, too.

"Isle of Dread."

Still one of the best modules ever written.

Quote from: Ocule on September 01, 2021, 02:30:01 PM
Sell me or Unsell me on Mystara

It is a kitchen sink of ideas which could potentially sell or unsell you.

And you can potentially play a shit ton of PC races which is triggering for some DMs.

Quote from: Steven Mitchell on September 01, 2021, 02:39:42 PM

When I look at the maps of Mystara what it makes me want to do is start from scratch in the Worldographer map-making tool and build a similar map but with more consistent ideas about how everything fits together.  Though it would be pretty cool to just recreate the Mystara maps in such a tool, but then rename all the places and groups, too.

Are you familiar with Thorfinn's Atlas of Mystara?
https://mystara.thorfmaps.com/
He's gone through a ridiculous number of maps from all the rulebooks, gazetteers, and modules and reconciled them.

Gedyur ozz ta da hollow vuhrlt! Neeeyigh.

Quote from: Ocule on September 01, 2021, 02:55:39 PM
Like Golarion in pathfinder so patchwork that you're better off treating each region as it's own setting

That definitely describes Mystara/Known World. I think the Gazetteers are brilliant, but they definitely do not describe a coherent setting.

Wow . You have done a great job. I can't even believe that it was all done by one person. I definitely want to try this

Quote from: Svenhelgrim on September 01, 2021, 04:56:54 PM
I can't see myself talking you out of something that might be really awesome for your game.

My suggestion is to download the free .pdf of the Mystara Player's Guide by Glen Welch, that he has posted on this very forum a couple of days ago.  Read it and see if you like it.  Even if you don't go full Mystara, perhaps there is something that you will love to put into your game?

Link to post: employee monitoring software
https://www.therpgsite.com/pen-paper-roleplaying-games-rpgs-discussion/mystara-player-s-guide/

Mystara is a love it or hate it thing.  I didn't mind the Expert sets and early modules, but once someone tried to make sense of it all in a cohesive setting it wasn't my cup of tea.

Mystara/Known World was my first D&D setting (even including homebrew) so I will be biased.

I think the biggest plus for Known World was the vast variety of cultures. You can have a mysterious magocracy (Glantri) right next to the Mongols (Ethengar). There were countries just for swashbuckling on land (Darokin) or at sea (Minthrod Guilds). You can two massive empires fighting each other for influence (Thyatis and Alphatia) or you can run in the D&D equivalent of Dune (Ylaruam). This is just the tip of the iceberg and does not even cover 2/3 of the Known World nor the Hollow World.

That being said, I think the best use of Known World is actually starting point for homebrew. As mentioned above, these areas are better treated as separate settings for campaigns or better yet, locations for various adventures much like how Conan would a pirate in one story and then the next be a ranger on the frontier in the next.

Full disclosure, I am very fond of the Pathfinder setting as well. Just not the company and the rule set.

Biggest attraction as well as what puts people off is the real world expies of nations.  If you want to play a Mongol, a Viking, a centurion, a Comanche, or a Highlander this is where you want to be. If you want more fantasy elements then there's other settings.

Think of the entire setting as basically DND Australia. It evolved separately from the other settings so it have a lot of unique aspects that you're not going to find in greyhawk or the realms.  There's only one type of playable dwarf because all the rest died from radiation. Our gnomes are actually competent. There's only one type of halfway because solidarity is their defining theme.  The elves very from stereotypical Tolkien completely off the wall. Somewhere one of the designers said "you know what Zorro needs? Pointy ears."  Even our Subterranean pointy gits are nothing like the drow,  being in the naive cave fish stereotype.

Do you want to play anachronistic historical equivalents fighting some nightmare inspired bad guys? If you do, then play Mystara.

If Mr Welch can't convince you, no one can.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JrIbBixP5dU