Unboxing! Karameikos: Kingdom of Adventure

I love Mystara!

My old group in New Jersey and my current one in Orlando know I am a Mystaraphile.  I have so many pdfs, mainly Threshold and the old Gazetteers.  Yet, I have had no physical Mystara item.... until now!

Before I crawl in, I want to make you aware that, yes, I am aware of what a lot of the Mystara community thinks of the AD&D Box Sets, excluding the Red Steel ones.  While not reviled, many state they do not hold up a candle to the old Gazetteers.  I will leave my thoughts on the matter by saying that I personally disagree, but I can see where they are coming from.  I have read the old Gazetteer for Karameikos, and love it deeply.  It made the Grand Duchy/Kingdom my favorite setting with its realism and detail.

I got the box set because I came across a pdf of it and wanted to find a hard copy. That, and I have AD&D books but no Classical BECMI in hard copy.  Let me state that the art is beautiful, and I can't wait to play a game in this setting.

Now let us get into the unboxing!

I'm going to start with the box already opened.  I am posting with my phone and the box closed would have given away my address, which is a dumb thing to do on the internet.  The first glimpse into the box and seeing that typeface made my heart race, and I was already dead tired from working an overnight and then going to Aquatica and SeaWorld with barely any rest.

And then the box itself.  I like evocative art.  Its what attracted me to the newest edition.  Well, that and the fact that it was no longer 4e.  Here we have a knight fighting a red dragon.  Evocative, but kind of trite, even for the old days of gaming.

When I first opened the box, I was kind of scared of the possibility that some of the material would not be there.  From my last check, I believe the only missing material is one or two of the handouts.  That's okay with me.  Disappointed?  Yeah, but it could have been worse.

And here is the meat of the set, the campaign book and the adventure book.  I love these books.  I'll start with the adventure book by saying that the adventures are basic but solid, and ends with more adventure hooks that you could use.  I would work with these as well as using the Mystara fan edit of Lost Mines of Phandelver, placing the action near Verge and Threshold.  This would make for a good intro campaign for 5e until they get around to an official 5e Mystara.

The campaign book is basically an updated version of the Gazetteer to bring it up to speed both with the rules and with the Wrath of the Immortals plotline.  Again, I know what people think about WotI, and again, I didn't mind it much.  To me, it made Mystara become less like the generic medieval fantasy.  Amazing medieval fantasy, perhaps one of the best ones, but still Tolkeinesque and generic.  Immortals are important to the setting, and WotI brought them out in force.  But I digress.  The campaign book has in depth info on the landscape and its history.  We also get a solid cast of characters to put in any Karameikan campaign.

Also, sexy leg time!

Here we have two poster-sized maps.  I guess one of my only criticisms of the set is how ugly the maps look.  I have better maps on my phone that I will use for any campaigns, but these would make for amazing wall art when framed and put on the wall of a future game room.  But the region map does have nearby nations mapped a little, for out of country adventures.

Lastly, if I send this in I feel like the ghost of TSR might come and haunt my apartment.  If it does, I don't think I would want to exorcise it at all.  Hell, I would be holding nightly seances for all my friends so we could get campaign ideas and adventures.

I guess a downfall of this is that it gets hard to find people who want to play the old stuff.  Most gamers I know get nerdboners over Pathfinder.  The NJ group didn't want to play 5e when I came out, not crunchy enough.  However, a beautiful thing about Mystara material is how easy it is to adapt to any D&D ruleset or clone of said ruleset.

When Elves were Elves; or looking back at Classic D&D after being able to choose any class.

I began gaming with the second version of the third edition of Dungeons and Dragons also known as 3.5.  One thing I loved with this was being able to play a variety of classes with any race I basically wanted.  Half-Elf Ranger was a personal favorite.  A friend of mine loved Halflings and would play a variety of classes as a Halfling.  Rogue, Cleric, Warlock; he did them all.  Looking back, I think his race of choice would have probably been Kender if he could choose it.

I remember this one hilarious adventure where our Druid (who was a Dwarf btw) left the party to face the undead without any divine help, except for my Paladin.  Of course, my Paladin gets killed almost immediately.  Upin the Druid's return, my character was reincarnated via the spell of the same name, and became an Elf.  Reincarnate would be a huge deal back in AD&D.  My Paladin would, in the normal rules, no longer be a Paladin.  Elves cannot be Paladins, only Humans.  This would have left quite an awkward situation for our party, as well as been almost a character ender since the now Elf non-Paladin would be somewhat of a sucky Fighter without Fighter abilities or Paladin ones.

While the 2e DMG suggests that the class restriction rules can be waived, this would be for rare situations, and Paladins are supposed to be rare as is.  Its weird to think that my character's career would have ended due to changing race.  Were the deities in 2e racists who saw Elves as only Chaotic?  Or maybe Elves have some other divine warrior fate.

In the Threshold e-magazine for Alfheim, they had Elf classes for Classic BECMI D&D.  In that list was the unique name level class of Druid Knight, a Paladin-like character that uses the forces of nature for his powers.  Something about the Druid Knight seems so perfectly Elvish, something alien and mystical, a warrior who takes his prowess to an art form.  This would be something I would pilfer for AD&D.  Something akin to the Druidic Knight appears in the current edition eith Oath of the Ancients, a subclass of Paladin.

I guess its just weird for me, a child of the d20 era. Here, Dwarves can totally become wizards if they wish to. With older editions and retroclones, I would sooner run into a scientists and tell him that pi is exactly 3 instead of suggesting a Dwarf Wizard.  The overwhelming ability to choose my character without debating the idea to the DM is something the newer generation takes for granted.  Forget Classical D&D for a moment where Dwarf was a class, the idea of an arcane casting class for Dwarves is such an alien concept.

And yet, I find it somewhat artistic in its own way.  Dwarves, Elves, what have you; the older editions seem to make then feel more like a vibrant culture with some of the restrictions.  I believe something similar to this is the explaination to Race as Class.  The explaination being that non-humans are so rare that they only have that ine example to work with.  Its why Dwarf Clerics only came into being eith the Rockhome Gazetteer.  Its a weak defense, but I can understand it.

So what do I, a child of the d20 era prefer?  I guess what was done in the AD&D era, but with caveats.  Humans were unique with choice, but even certain human cultures would probably have class restrictions.  I can't see the Red Wizards really be okay with non-magical warriors running around all the time.  Then again, my expertise is not in Realmslore.  So if we only view class restriction as a cultural thing, then the concept comes into view.

What is your take on this subject.  Do you see yourself agreeing more with Classical, AD&D, or the d20 and post-d20 era?  Post in the comments below.

Let's Open the Chest!

Welcome to my blog, fellow travellers.  I am Kyle, your storyteller and a fellow adventurer in the world of table-top gaming.  I began gaming in 2004/2005, back when 3rd Edition and 3.5 was in full swing.  I began reading old-school material and OSR in 2014.  As such, I am a newbie who is finding his way.  As a newbie, we can all discover together why Elf is a class and why Thieves are the only ones who sneak.

I also love reading and writing.  So I will also review OSR and other books to let you know how they are and if I think others would like it.  I will also post writings of my own here, as well as hints and tips on making your own campaigns.

So let us journey on...