The party leave the frozen caves of the north behind and resume their journey to the grand city of Specularum. Despite all the trouble Donard has caused them, the rest of the party wouldn't swap him for anyone.
When I GMed the Veiled Society, I mixed it in with Castle Caldwell (made Fortunato Vorloi to be the merchant in question, to connect to the Veiled Society), and Davinos' Complaint, too. And I removed to god-awful obvious clue of whodunnit from the crime scene. As the PCs had met both Lucia Vorloi (a charming, bubbly 18-year old blonde in our game) and Stefanos Torenescu (a noble bully from one of the PCs' background), they had a much stronger personal connection to her murder. It was very fun, and kept us entertained for several game sessions.
Welcome to a new adventure! A couple of notes: 1) Apologies for the sound quality in much of this. I was messing around with features in my editing program. And instead of producing snazzy results I made things worse. And once you mess up a sound file you can't 'unmess' it. Aw well. 2) I give an opinion on fantasy world 'style' - in this case architecture. I have a preference for the low tech, dirty worlds. Good examples of this on screen are: Dragonslayer (1981) Excaliber (also 1981) and, unexpectedly, Xena Warrior Princess. I don't know what you thought of that show but the art-direction was great on a limited budget. As always please comment, what are you preferences for fantasy settings?
Wanted to say a huge thank you for your channel. I’m still on your b2 run, enjoying it immensely and seeing how much different it is from my own (I’m using ODND). Massively inspiring and great fun. Been listening to an episode or two every night and gave your channel a shoutout and linked it on my latest blog entry on my Substack. Hope some more people find this great channel through it! Thanks again!
Glad you're enjoying it! And many thanks for the shoutout. I think I've had a little jump in subscribers. What is your blog about? Is it in any way fantasy? Please use the comments to link to it - share the love!
I'm finally caught up! Great job with Blizzard Pass. The ending was great. Although I didn't appreciate the cliff hanger. Donard is my favorite. I'd like to comment on Xena, Gabrielle was the best side kick ever. Aphrodite had a great costume (to keep it clean). Ares and Joxter (sp?) were also memorable.
@@WizardDeadloss I agree the characters were consistent. They also showed growth. Gabrielle had an impact on Xena and changed her (for the better). When I first saw it back in the 90s (?) I didn't mind the budget constraints. I'm rewatching the show now (still on season 1) and notice things I didn't notice back then. Honestly I don't mind the budget constraints. Honestly my "Xena time" has been impacted by my WizardDeadloss time.
When it comes to Fantasy architecture, i think whatever makes sense to you is the right version. Mystara is a great setting, but it's also a mass of contradictions. The 83 Expert Set said the Known World is equivalent to 15th century Europe but with magic instead of gunpowder. But then GAZ1 says Karameikos is basically Anglo-Saxon England moved to the Balkans and colonised by the Roman Empire. GAZ1 also multiplies all the urban populations by a factor of ten from previous books, which leaves us with a Specularum which is over twice as large as 15th century London (and Threshold would be the fourth largest city if it was transported to England at the same time). Threshold in Nights Dark Terror is a dark and grim medieval town with narrow streets. In GAZ1 it's a jolly garden city where everyone has a nice big yard. I may have thought about this a bit too much! 😅 Excalibur is great! 👍👍👍
One pretty much needs the x10 population to make Mystara even borderline realistic, but I'd actually argue that it'd need another x4 or so of the rural population. Based on the numbers we have in GAZ 1 and the Poor Wizard's Almanacs, the urbanization percentage of Karameikos is insane for a medieval kingdom, if I recall correctly around one third if not closer to one half. And there simply wouldn't be enough people to support a kingdom and commerce. At 500 people, Threshold would barely be a village, no chance of it actually being a town with its own slum, etc. Since Mystara has full plate (Suit Armor in RC), the tech is more akin to late 15th century (quite consistent with the Expert rules' statment): War of the Roses and the start of Tudor. So Tudor architecture is not that much out of place. Also, there is nothing inherently advanced about the Tudor framed houses. I think it is more of a matter of examples of that architectural style having survived to modern times, as it is closer to us in time. They certainly were capable of building multistory apartment blocks back in Rome, too. Where did you find the Anglo-Saxon England reference in GAZ 1? I skimmed through it and it didn't jump out at me straight away, but I could have missed it. I agree that there is a definite Norman Conquest / Ivanhoe vibe going on with the 'lower class' of native Traladarans (Anglo-Saxons) and the 'upper class' invading Thyatians (Normans). And yes, Excalibur is great. King Arthur Pendragon RPG is pretty neat, too. :)
@@anarionelendili8961 Thanks for your comment 😃 I agree with you about Karameikos' population. B10 and the later Carl Sergeant modules kept adding little settlements into the country. This would help inflate the rural population if widespread. It seems to me as if Karameikos is modelled more on an American frontier state, with islands of settlers surrounded by antagonistic natives. However that may be grossly wrong. US history is not my speciality so happy to be corrected. I was being a bit mischievous with the Anglo-Saxon reference. There's no cultural similarities. It was more the concept of an independent nation getting conquered by a militarily superior neighbour. Ironically, Anglo-Saxon Government was superior to most of the rest of Western Europe, and that's definitely not the case here. You may have read it already, but the Time Travellers Guide to Medieval England by Ian Mortimer is a great survey of medieval life. It also contains a list of the populations of English cities in 1377, showing just how big the Karameikan ones are in comparison. Recommended reading.
@@williammoore9794 Yeah, the size of Specularum is WILD for a medieval city, especially given a kingdom/duchy of less than half a million people (PWA). 10% living in the capital city? Nuh uh. Which is why I have been talking about multiplying the total population by 4 or so, and then keeping the towns the same. Alternatively, you could make the cities smaller again. Like Specularum around 10 000 - 15 000, that would be better demographics. But then you start butting against the amount of adventure you can have in a city of that size, and the size of the slums, etc. So I can see why one would want to have a city of 50 000, especially vs. 5000... Also, one starts running into issues of just how many people you can have adventuring and reaching higher levels, if you have a tiny population. Anyway, clearly one of my bugbears. :) And yes, very much agree with your book recommendation.
I suppose I'm biased against the twee mock Tudorbethan houses that get built all over the UK. I actually really liked that picture of the 12c town house. It looked really smart.
@@anarionelendili8961 With clerical magic impacting the spread of disease and other magicks (potion of longevity, et. al) it is less likely a reflection of our world than a complete fantasy world. Other than the building architecture and fashion sense the similarities may end there. I attribute the building style and fashion sense to stir the players and DMs imagination. That is just my 2 cents.
Nice explanation of the setting and designs to start things off. Great intro to the city and the hustle and bustle. Looking forward to how you play out the mystery in solo and the changes you’ve made.
A great introduction to the big city. I'm excited to see where this goes! I recently watched Dragonslayer and firmly believe it's the best dragon (and D&D) move ever made. Excalibur is amazing as well. As always, keep up the great work!
Thank you. There is a youtube version of Dragonslayer that is, apparently, better quality than the pretty average - and censored - dvd. The 1980s had great movies. Too many to mention.
I recently started watching Eye of Traldar again. I plan to watch your adventures once a week when I used to watch Magic games. It's good you're so far ahead of me, because it looks like I'll watch 3 episodes a week. I'm always glad to see a new upload from you, even if I'm currently many adventures behind watching them.
I would say that trying to nail down a specific era that Mystara would be adjacent to is kind of an exercise in folly. These fantasy worlds are just a hodge podge of different eras, cultures and technologies that would never have been able to exist along side each other. What I'd suggest is that the best way to do it is to use an almost Tudor period "look" for Specularum and the settled cities of Karameikos, while the smaller villages would be more in line with the Saxon pit houses of the 7th century Britannia. In the meantime, just next to their border is Darokin which is much more like post renaissance Italy. These things simply would not be in the same continent, let alone be trade partners with one another.
I wouldn't be quite so harsh about things not existing on the same continent. After all, while the Romans were building the Colosseum, my ancestors were sleeping in a ditch in the ground according to Tacitus. :P And while some places were building Gothic cathedrals soaring to the skies with their spires, most common peasants in the same kingdom were still doing wattle-and-daub houses, etc. That being said, I am in agreement with your general aesthetic: larger cities would have more advanced architecture, while the villages would be more humble/backwards in technology. That being said, I would also have differences in the different quarters of the city: The Bricktop ought to be Tudor Red Brick style, most of the commercial district and better class of housing would be more Tudor frames, and the Nest would be likely more of a hodgepodge of wattle-and-daub and wooden construction. Actual stone buildings were quite expensive, and there is a bit of survivor bias going on when looking back to Norman architecture: it is the stone buildings that have survived, while the wooden ones have largely been demolished by time/rebuilding.
@@anarionelendili8961 That's entirely fair. I wasn't trying to come off harshly, just to stress that fantasy doesn't need to be 100% logical. If you can accept magic as a key component of the world, building style is a fairly minor point
@@stephenmartin1982 I totally agree with this. The building styles varied a lot even within kingdoms during history, without even mixing in the different fantasy cultures from different tech levels and societal sophistication. We definitely shouldn't get stuck on a specific building style at a specific snapshot of our history, although I admit that it is convenient to have a visual representation what the PCs are looking at, and that various kingdoms likely would have local flavors, too.
Interesting to see how you run this one, B6 is not one I’d of chosen for solo, it that it’s more of a challenge to separate from what the DM knows. That said if you succeed it will make more interesting viewing. In terms of setting 12-14th Century Medieval Europe, you were starting to see larger cities towards the end of this period
