Thoughts about the Known World
I've been a fan of Mystara as a game setting for a long time, but I haven't had an active campaign in the world for a number of years. I've been running 13th Age for my regular gaming group, and using the Dragon Empire for that campaign has just been convenient. Recently I've been running some games for my son and his friends and so I decided to set them in Mystara - Karameikos in fact. As I've been immersing myself back in the world, I've been realizing that the world of the Gazetteers doesn't really fit the style of game that I want to run for these kids. But I recently re-read B10 - Night's Dark Terror - and it fits exactly the style of game that I want to run.
It's hard to think about this world being the same world that is portrayed in the later Almanacs - the world in the Almanacs is a world of nation-states and diplomatic politics playing out in almost a modern form. The world of B10 is darker and less secure than the world of the Almanacs - more of a "points of light" setting, with Karameikos as even more of a wild place full of monsters and the "safe" places few and far between.
This consideration of the two different "worlds" portrayed in these products has led me to thinking about an experiment in an alternate version of Mystara to use for this campaign. For this experiment, I'm going back to just the world map as given in the module X1 and the descriptions of each country given in that adventure. (The map below has been reproduced from the original module by Thorfinn Tait, whose Mystara maps are an amazing resource)
My current thoughts are to reconsider the history of this map, while leaving the nations on it mostly intact. Now for the most part this only impacts me as the DM because the players will only encounter this information as it becomes important in play and it mostly won't become important in play. But it will help me set the tone for the campaign (and hopefully give me more ideas for adventures and adventure sites).
I'm thinking that this map could represent the former extent of the Empire of Thyatis - once the Empire controlled the territory on the map north through Soderfjord, west through the Five Shires and Darokin, and northwest through Glantri - the only territories not under the control of the Empire were the lands of the Atruaghin, the Heldann, and the Ethengar. (Possibly the Empire even controlled Sind to the west of Darokin).
But 500 years ago the Empire began to contract. First troops were pulled from Glantri and it was abandoned by the Empire. The Northern Reaches were next, followed quickly by Ylaruam, as the Northmen and the desert horsemen seized the initiative to push the Empire out of their respective lands. Darokin and the Shires were abandoned as the Empire attempted to keep a grip on its northern territories, but to no avail. Finally Karameikos broke away and Thyatis has the bounds it has today.
From a story point of view, this makes the world a bit "post-apocalyptic". The land can be more sparsely populated, less protected, and a more dangerous place, with the urban areas being fortified places of safety in a world where the imperial military no longer patrol to keep the monster population low. The standing militaries of all of these countries can be much smaller, and unable to cope with the creatures roaming the countryside.
So why the contraction? The map of continent found in CM1 - Test of the Warlords suggests a reason (Thorfinn Tait's reproduction can be found here). Note how tiny the area of the Empire on the continent is and how large the rest of the Empire is. Additionally, the major threat to Thyatis is the Alphatian Empire in the East - the West has nothing comparable to threaten the Empire. In our real world history when the Roman Empire got too large to manage, the administrative duties were split between two Emperors - one in the West and the other in the East. My thought is that Thyatis has done something similar - with a second capitol on the Isle of Dawn that has, over the past centuries, has become the center of the Empire. The former capitol has lost prestige and power, having been administered by a series of incompetent Emperors. While the people in the continental lands still call themselves the Empire of Thyatis, the continental Empire has mostly broken up into separate duchies, counties and baronies whose rulers pay lip service to the Emperor. (Karameikos being an Imperial Duchy whose ruler got fed up with paying lip service and formally broke away from the Empire).
So that's the big idea - a points of light setting based on the original map from X1. I think this will lead to some major changes that will affect play at the table, and I'll be keeping notes here on this experiment as it progresses.
It's hard to think about this world being the same world that is portrayed in the later Almanacs - the world in the Almanacs is a world of nation-states and diplomatic politics playing out in almost a modern form. The world of B10 is darker and less secure than the world of the Almanacs - more of a "points of light" setting, with Karameikos as even more of a wild place full of monsters and the "safe" places few and far between.
This consideration of the two different "worlds" portrayed in these products has led me to thinking about an experiment in an alternate version of Mystara to use for this campaign. For this experiment, I'm going back to just the world map as given in the module X1 and the descriptions of each country given in that adventure. (The map below has been reproduced from the original module by Thorfinn Tait, whose Mystara maps are an amazing resource)
My current thoughts are to reconsider the history of this map, while leaving the nations on it mostly intact. Now for the most part this only impacts me as the DM because the players will only encounter this information as it becomes important in play and it mostly won't become important in play. But it will help me set the tone for the campaign (and hopefully give me more ideas for adventures and adventure sites).
I'm thinking that this map could represent the former extent of the Empire of Thyatis - once the Empire controlled the territory on the map north through Soderfjord, west through the Five Shires and Darokin, and northwest through Glantri - the only territories not under the control of the Empire were the lands of the Atruaghin, the Heldann, and the Ethengar. (Possibly the Empire even controlled Sind to the west of Darokin).
But 500 years ago the Empire began to contract. First troops were pulled from Glantri and it was abandoned by the Empire. The Northern Reaches were next, followed quickly by Ylaruam, as the Northmen and the desert horsemen seized the initiative to push the Empire out of their respective lands. Darokin and the Shires were abandoned as the Empire attempted to keep a grip on its northern territories, but to no avail. Finally Karameikos broke away and Thyatis has the bounds it has today.
From a story point of view, this makes the world a bit "post-apocalyptic". The land can be more sparsely populated, less protected, and a more dangerous place, with the urban areas being fortified places of safety in a world where the imperial military no longer patrol to keep the monster population low. The standing militaries of all of these countries can be much smaller, and unable to cope with the creatures roaming the countryside.
So why the contraction? The map of continent found in CM1 - Test of the Warlords suggests a reason (Thorfinn Tait's reproduction can be found here). Note how tiny the area of the Empire on the continent is and how large the rest of the Empire is. Additionally, the major threat to Thyatis is the Alphatian Empire in the East - the West has nothing comparable to threaten the Empire. In our real world history when the Roman Empire got too large to manage, the administrative duties were split between two Emperors - one in the West and the other in the East. My thought is that Thyatis has done something similar - with a second capitol on the Isle of Dawn that has, over the past centuries, has become the center of the Empire. The former capitol has lost prestige and power, having been administered by a series of incompetent Emperors. While the people in the continental lands still call themselves the Empire of Thyatis, the continental Empire has mostly broken up into separate duchies, counties and baronies whose rulers pay lip service to the Emperor. (Karameikos being an Imperial Duchy whose ruler got fed up with paying lip service and formally broke away from the Empire).
So that's the big idea - a points of light setting based on the original map from X1. I think this will lead to some major changes that will affect play at the table, and I'll be keeping notes here on this experiment as it progresses.
Comments
Post a Comment