"...specifically the Sword Coast of the Forgotten Realms because nothing else ever happens ~anywhere~ in Faerun except the Sword Coast." Owch. On behalf of Vaasa and Damara, I feel you bro. ;)
@@ryderma1 ...I had that set and I fully agree. I swear to God I don't think I've heard "The Ruins of Myth Draenor", "The Citadel of the Raven" or "The Harper's" mentioned in over three decades!
@@michaelmclaughlin261 you had to say Ruins Of Mythdraernor, now I'm going to have to read Spellfire again lol. I've really just recently got back into the DnD worlds. A lot has changed and been changed back lol
WotC hasn't been friendly to much of the old school settings, or all of D&D for that matter. The 5th Ed. rule set is about the only decent thing to come out of there.
I admire and support your goal to bring Mystara to 5th edition. I just bought the edition, ran across your material while planning a campaign, and decided to go full retro. Straight BECMI using the Cyclopedia and the Gazatteers. I never played past Expert as a kid. Like most, I went into AD&D1 from B/X. I admire the elegance, how it starts simple, and scales up in complexity only as you progress. My point is that I would love to see the concept go even further beyond a 5th ed update. Mystara deserves to be its own game. I have played many other games and spend years away from D&D. 3rd & 4th editions are naught more than strange tales to me. I am just looking at BECMI with new eyes, and there are so many little quirks and nuances that are a joy to play with. But there is discontinuity, and the science of game mathematics has advanced since its creation. So imagine this. Mystara as a stand alone game, based on the D20 system or something similar, but modified to the exact specifics of Mystara. The continuity ironed out, the mechanical bugs repaired, a total stand alone package that is not concerned with other settings or variations.
@@nevoyu Oh, I understand all that. I have worked for games that share some lore, where you have to call X a Y in one company and a Y a Z in the other, and anything I create is forever part of the one company and cannot be used by the other, even though my idea was inspired by the materials of both. I am speaking of Ars Magica versus Mage. Here, what we have is an extensive fan community that constantly makes commentarties, reviews, and fan fiction. Some of it is very professional level. *Better* than professional in some cases. And there is no currently published material supporting the mythos. It has been what, 30 years? Dreams are free, and any one of us could home brew such a game. I admire and respect Mr. Welches fan work and would buy it up if it ever gets published. I am imagining a mirror image of such a project. Maybe mirror is the wrong term. But still. If the material is good, and if the fan base is strong enough, the IP owners will come to the table and make a bargain. I have faith and confidence that this Mystara Player's Guide will be printed some day. I am also confident that the Mystara revival will keep growing.
I'd like to see the Dark Elves as a Race that mainly resides in some Immortals home world only venturing to Mystara in disguise. A tall (6') elven type race with stronger connection to the Fae. Maybe a offshoot of those cloud living Shae ( not sure if I spelled that right). Or even a spacefaring race. Hell you're the only one putting in work to bring this setting back, I say molded it and its races any way you want 😁😁 and Thank you for all the hard work
Listening to this video, Modrigswerg actually sound more like cursed, epic level versions of the Derro, a race of insane, cursed, magic-using dwarves originally from Greyhawk, than they sound like Duergar.
The part of the curse that weakens and kills them if they’re away from home for too long: how severe is it before death and how long does it take for the effects to wear off? My first thought was if Rot Dwarves with teleportation magic would be able to partially circumvent the curse keeping them in one place by just making sure they teleport him regularly and then teleport back to wherever.
So, I have been thinking about it. Maybe the dark elf's are not elf's at all. Just tall smart and powerful Nightmares from the realm of Nightmares..... I might like the concept of the realm of Nightmares too much.
Ooh these guys seem rather like some of the original mythic dwarf stuff though even those usually worked in families they generally weren't in great nations, plus the divine level crafting.
Iirc they were the original dwarves of blackmoor. I'm not quite sure what dark elves they were talking about either though I do agree with your suggestion.
Cool video. Because I don’t own the Northern Reaches Gazetteer, I’d never heard of this particular breed of Dwarf. When I saw the list of choices in the last round of voting, I assumed that these guys were like the gully dwarfs from Dragonlance. Boy was I wrong. A couple of things I wanted to go over. One, couldn’t Shadow Elves, with their soul stones and other Magic’s, be the “corrupting “ force behind their demise? Just spitballing. Two, where I can get more information about the Dwarves who would be the substitute for the Duergar?(sorry about the spelling). Third, is it possible that some of them could be located in Rockhome? That is an area where there might be one or two, perhaps? Seeing as how it MIGHT have been Kagyar who might be responsible for their affliction? Again, just spitballing. I only ask because their location limits the amount of contact that player characters would have, unless you want to have them deal with their underlings. But eventually they will have to travel to Soderford. And unless you have the Gazetteer, your screwed. Anyhow, I look forward to hearing back from you. Please keep up the good work. Stay safe, Glen!
Shadow elves have too many factors against them to be the dark elves. Specifically they're on the wrong side of the known world. Rot dwarves are tied to Soderfjord. Shadow elves are under the broken lands close to Glantri. Clan Buhrodor is a rockhome clan of dwarves with some of them looking to stage a coup. They are based in Rockhome but would be scouring the known world for weapons and allies.
@@Mr_Welch Yes, that's true about the rogue clan within Rockhome. But, if you take a second look at the Gazetteer for the Shadow elves, you'll see that due to their extensive tunnels, they have their fingers all across the known world. Plus, Raphael has them playing the long game. He was a Nuclear engineer after all. I only bring all this up because I love to sandbox everything. Any good idea, I'll expand, contort, and adjust for the overall effect to better the campaign. Oh yeah, you didn't say anything about the duergar substitution. Who would they be again, in Mystara?
It's a bit of a conflict of incompatible cosmologies, to import Norse versions of dwarves and elves and the Neibelungenlied into Mystara. Maybe the dark elves are just dead, removed with the ruin of Nithia, say, or maybe added into the Shadow elves, with their powers suitably nerfed and their memories suitably altered. I don't remember them appearing in the Hollow World, so they must be on Ka's shit list. Or you can run a Jarldoms and Rockhome only campaign, and just ignore the rest of Mystaran Elfkind.
Actshually...according to "The Northern Reaches" Gazetter, the Immortals whom over see those lands (Odin, Loki, Freya, Hela) have a plane with it's own planet called "Midgard" that's basically an untouched Norse setting. So you could have those Dark Elves along with many other nordic themed monsters on this planet and a place where all the legends lead to.
Yes, these guys must fucking shred. Also I must say Mr. Welch your thumbnails kick ass, you need to pat whoever does them on the back and buy them a beer - even if its you.
When I played Warhammer Fantasy I had about 10k points in Chaos Dwarves I got for a steal. Always had a soft spot for the Dweri-Zhar, even if GW all but disowned them.
I generally don't do solo modules because they are almost impossible to review in any coherent way. People want to play them, and you can't talk about the plot without either spoiling it or having a very abbreviated review.
@@SerpenThrope It's a self-contained bottle episode, and a bunch of continuity errors as the geography listed doesn't match any maps. But it's straight-up choose your own adventure
Considering in 4 pages you've got blood sacrifice, open demon worship, treason and about half a dozen other things that would make a drow blush I would say pretty evil
Evil Dwarves are great, Dawi Zharr, Duergar(Sorta, their powerset's cool but the boring joyless workaholic bit does take out some of the pageantry of a good badguy,) WoW's Dark Iron, I hope these guys are cool.
"...specifically the Sword Coast of the Forgotten Realms because nothing else ever happens ~anywhere~ in Faerun except the Sword Coast."
Owch.
On behalf of Vaasa and Damara, I feel you bro. ;)
I like the 1st edition box set for FR. Most everything was in the Cormyr and Dale lands. And the adventures in Blood Stone an epic adventure.
@@ryderma1 ...I had that set and I fully agree.
I swear to God I don't think I've heard "The Ruins of Myth Draenor", "The Citadel of the Raven" or "The Harper's" mentioned in over three decades!
@@michaelmclaughlin261 you had to say Ruins Of Mythdraernor, now I'm going to have to read Spellfire again lol.
I've really just recently got back into the DnD worlds. A lot has changed and been changed back lol
WotC hasn't been friendly to much of the old school settings, or all of D&D for that matter. The 5th Ed. rule set is about the only decent thing to come out of there.
I admire and support your goal to bring Mystara to 5th edition. I just bought the edition, ran across your material while planning a campaign, and decided to go full retro. Straight BECMI using the Cyclopedia and the Gazatteers. I never played past Expert as a kid. Like most, I went into AD&D1 from B/X. I admire the elegance, how it starts simple, and scales up in complexity only as you progress.
My point is that I would love to see the concept go even further beyond a 5th ed update. Mystara deserves to be its own game.
I have played many other games and spend years away from D&D. 3rd & 4th editions are naught more than strange tales to me. I am just looking at BECMI with new eyes, and there are so many little quirks and nuances that are a joy to play with. But there is discontinuity, and the science of game mathematics has advanced since its creation.
So imagine this. Mystara as a stand alone game, based on the D20 system or something similar, but modified to the exact specifics of Mystara. The continuity ironed out, the mechanical bugs repaired, a total stand alone package that is not concerned with other settings or variations.
The problem is that WotC owns all the TSR licenses from those days, So you can't really make a d20 game and call it Mystara and use the same lore.
@@nevoyu Oh, I understand all that. I have worked for games that share some lore, where you have to call X a Y in one company and a Y a Z in the other, and anything I create is forever part of the one company and cannot be used by the other, even though my idea was inspired by the materials of both. I am speaking of Ars Magica versus Mage.
Here, what we have is an extensive fan community that constantly makes commentarties, reviews, and fan fiction. Some of it is very professional level. *Better* than professional in some cases. And there is no currently published material supporting the mythos. It has been what, 30 years?
Dreams are free, and any one of us could home brew such a game. I admire and respect Mr. Welches fan work and would buy it up if it ever gets published. I am imagining a mirror image of such a project. Maybe mirror is the wrong term. But still. If the material is good, and if the fan base is strong enough, the IP owners will come to the table and make a bargain. I have faith and confidence that this Mystara Player's Guide will be printed some day. I am also confident that the Mystara revival will keep growing.
The more I hear about these guys, the more I love them.
Mr Welch is influencing me online! Please let him put up his book on the DMsGuild
I'd like to see the Dark Elves as a Race that mainly resides in some Immortals home world only venturing to Mystara in disguise. A tall (6') elven type race with stronger connection to the Fae.
Maybe a offshoot of those cloud living Shae ( not sure if I spelled that right). Or even a spacefaring race. Hell you're the only one putting in work to bring this setting back, I say molded it and its races any way you want 😁😁 and Thank you for all the hard work
Listening to this video, Modrigswerg actually sound more like cursed, epic level versions of the Derro, a race of insane, cursed, magic-using dwarves originally from Greyhawk, than they sound like Duergar.
The part of the curse that weakens and kills them if they’re away from home for too long: how severe is it before death and how long does it take for the effects to wear off?
My first thought was if Rot Dwarves with teleportation magic would be able to partially circumvent the curse keeping them in one place by just making sure they teleport him regularly and then teleport back to wherever.
They have minutes to live if they leave their Mountain.
Mr. Welch ah well I guess they wouldn’t work then
I so wished to see more about these guys. There were a couple of modules that could have used them, but nary a mention.
Insane but with a great deal of intelligence and cunning? It seems like they share quite a bit in common with the Derro of Greyhawk.
So, I have been thinking about it. Maybe the dark elf's are not elf's at all. Just tall smart and powerful Nightmares from the realm of Nightmares..... I might like the concept of the realm of Nightmares too much.
These dorfs sound like they're closer to derro or Warhammer's chaos dwarves
Ooh these guys seem rather like some of the original mythic dwarf stuff though even those usually worked in families they generally weren't in great nations, plus the divine level crafting.
Iirc they were the original dwarves of blackmoor. I'm not quite sure what dark elves they were talking about either though I do agree with your suggestion.
Those are the kogalor dwarves who are now in the hollow world
Cool video. Because I don’t own the Northern Reaches Gazetteer, I’d never heard of this particular breed of Dwarf. When I saw the list of choices in the last round of voting, I assumed that these guys were like the gully dwarfs from Dragonlance. Boy was I wrong. A couple of things I wanted to go over. One, couldn’t Shadow Elves, with their soul stones and other Magic’s, be the “corrupting “ force behind their demise? Just spitballing. Two, where I can get more information about the Dwarves who would be the substitute for the Duergar?(sorry about the spelling). Third, is it possible that some of them could be located in Rockhome? That is an area where there might be one or two, perhaps? Seeing as how it MIGHT have been Kagyar who might be responsible for their affliction? Again, just spitballing. I only ask because their location limits the amount of contact that player characters would have, unless you want to have them deal with their underlings. But eventually they will have to travel to Soderford. And unless you have the Gazetteer, your screwed. Anyhow, I look forward to hearing back from you. Please keep up the good work. Stay safe, Glen!
Shadow elves have too many factors against them to be the dark elves. Specifically they're on the wrong side of the known world. Rot dwarves are tied to Soderfjord. Shadow elves are under the broken lands close to Glantri.
Clan Buhrodor is a rockhome clan of dwarves with some of them looking to stage a coup. They are based in Rockhome but would be scouring the known world for weapons and allies.
@@Mr_Welch Yes, that's true about the rogue clan within Rockhome. But, if you take a second look at the Gazetteer for the Shadow elves, you'll see that due to their extensive tunnels, they have their fingers all across the known world. Plus, Raphael has them playing the long game. He was a Nuclear engineer after all. I only bring all this up because I love to sandbox everything. Any good idea, I'll expand, contort, and adjust for the overall effect to better the campaign. Oh yeah, you didn't say anything about the duergar substitution. Who would they be again, in Mystara?
@@johnbalk6091 Clan Buhrodor insurrectionists replace duergar in function
@@Mr_Welch Thanks! Please excuse me, I've had a few Gin and tonics. Sorry if I asked that question twice!
It's a bit of a conflict of incompatible cosmologies, to import Norse versions of dwarves and elves and the Neibelungenlied into Mystara. Maybe the dark elves are just dead, removed with the ruin of Nithia, say, or maybe added into the Shadow elves, with their powers suitably nerfed and their memories suitably altered. I don't remember them appearing in the Hollow World, so they must be on Ka's shit list. Or you can run a Jarldoms and Rockhome only campaign, and just ignore the rest of Mystaran Elfkind.
Actshually...according to "The Northern Reaches" Gazetter, the Immortals whom over see those lands (Odin, Loki, Freya, Hela) have a plane with it's own planet called "Midgard" that's basically an untouched Norse setting. So you could have those Dark Elves along with many other nordic themed monsters on this planet and a place where all the legends lead to.
@@michaelmclaughlin261 Thus and so.
Yes, these guys must fucking shred. Also I must say Mr. Welch your thumbnails kick ass, you need to pat whoever does them on the back and buy them a beer - even if its you.
When I played Warhammer Fantasy I had about 10k points in Chaos Dwarves I got for a steal. Always had a soft spot for the Dweri-Zhar, even if GW all but disowned them.
These guys remind me of the Chaos Dwarves from Warhammer.
Btw, are you ever going to do Ghost of Lion Castle?
I generally don't do solo modules because they are almost impossible to review in any coherent way. People want to play them, and you can't talk about the plot without either spoiling it or having a very abbreviated review.
@@Mr_Welch Ah. Does it have any relevant lore? And is it any good? I just ordered it.
@@SerpenThrope It's a self-contained bottle episode, and a bunch of continuity errors as the geography listed doesn't match any maps. But it's straight-up choose your own adventure
Evil & twisted + Mad = DM Fun
The remind me a lot mythological/ folklore dwarves.
Now, now. The price is likely A soul, not necessarily the buyers. Adventure souls are far too common.
I love your work. Have to say however, I am interested in your work because of BECMI. Why fix what isnt broken? I have no interest in 5th edition.
How are they all Evil if Mystara was written for single-axis alignment, and they weren't in the 2e conversion?
Considering in 4 pages you've got blood sacrifice, open demon worship, treason and about half a dozen other things that would make a drow blush I would say pretty evil
So, not quite Dawi Zharr, but not quite *not* Dawi Zharr.
Dawi Zharr if Vashtor and Tzeenche found them instead of Hasut
For Hashut!
They seem more like Derro than duergar.
Insane dwarves with magic? Sounds like Derro would be a better analog than duergar.
Who or what are the Ord?
I heard you mention them.
I don't play d&d, I just like listening to lore
Oard. Time traveling science aliens that like messing with rhe past to benefit them
@@Mr_Welch ty for your time and effort.
I wish this was transcribed
Evil Dwarves are great, Dawi Zharr, Duergar(Sorta, their powerset's cool but the boring joyless workaholic bit does take out some of the pageantry of a good badguy,) WoW's Dark Iron, I hope these guys are cool.