Re: Mystaraspace

On Sep 2, 2007, at 11:36 AM, Jonathan Thompson wrote:

> Why cant we use the rules on races from the AD&D Mystara box sets?  
> That
> would eliminate the whole racial level question. Also if you still  
> wanted to
> keep that element, then there is always the rules on racial levels  
> from
> Dawnforge (Fantasy Flight Games )or Arcana Evolved (Malhavoc Press).

As I recall (and I could be wrong), none of the AD&D Mystara products  
really presented anything new in terms of character races (that is,  
to play a Mystaran Elf, you need the fluff from the box and the core  
rules from the PHB).

As for Dawnforge and Arcana Evolved, both are d20 products and really  
not compatible with the pre-d20 rules I'm presenting as an option  
(which is not to say that everything I wrote in my draft is exclusive  
of d20; most of the crunch notes are for integrating AD&D and OD&D.  
Info on the sphere is universal).

As to the why... I happen to be a fan of OD&D's racial classes. They  
do work within standard AD&D fairly well, and they are a nice  
departure from the normal breakdown of warrior-wizard-priest-rogue- 
psionicist characters. I should also note that as I present them,  
they're an option rather than a rule. An Elf in my Mystaraspace  
campaign can choose to play either within an AD&D class, or advance  
as a race-classed Elf.

I should also say, I don't think I like the AD&D Mystara product line  
as much as Old Skool OD&D Mystara. The feel and look of it are  
different; it doesn't feel like Mystara to me. And that's clearly not  
a critique on the rules system, since I do prefer AD&D generally.  
It's more a nostalgia for older Mystara products.