This issue starts with a real treat for Mystaran fans, an exclusive short story by Bruce Heard set in Alphatia, sixth installment of his “Once Upon a Time in Ar” that he is publishing on his blog. Even if Mystara has not been officially published in the last 20 years, the fact that the man many of us consider the major game designer of the setting is still active in the community, and this fanzine has now reached its 11th issue, is proof enough that our favorite gaming world is as vibrant and alive as it could be.
The recent inauguration of the Dungeon Masters Guild by Wizards of the Coast, official publisher of Dungeon & Dragons, allowing individuals to publish D&D material, could be good news for our hobby. At the moment the possibility exists only for the Forgotten Realms and Ravenloft settings, but it could be opened for other settings too.
Obviously we are
already publishing new Mystara material here, on The Piazza forum and
the Vaults of Pandius official website, yet an official sanction by
the D&D publisher could be able to bring a better knowledge of
the wonderful Mystaran material to the younger generations of gamers.
In the meantime we are doing our best here to keep Mystara
alive. This issue also contains ideas on how to use Calidar, the new
setting developed by Bruce Heard, with Mystara. The Atlas
of Mystara by
Thorfinn Tait, featuring Thyatis, and an interview with the very same
world famous (in Mystara surely) cartographer. We will then move to a
conversion of one of the newest D&D adventurers, the Elemental
Evil storyline, to set it in Mystara, at the fringe of the Alphatian
Empire, in the untamed lands of Esterhold. Then to Thyatis, with a
treatise on the Thyatian language and a Gazetteer of Carytion, and
two articles about the Foresters: a revision of the class and details
about the Order. Two more articles about the most famous explorers of
the two empires and the lost civilization hidden in their mainlands,
bring us from Thyatis to Alphatia. We will learn something about the
Alphatian Alphabet and we will visit the Kingdom of Limn. Then to
examine the might of the Heldannic Warbirds with new blueprints. We
end our voyage through the Empires with an atlas and a recent
timeline of the Isle of Dawn. Finally, to the last installment of the
Koskatep megadungeon and the charms of the fairy folks. A Grand Tour
of Mystara indeed. In the next issue, in which Threshold magazine
will reach the milestone of three years of publishing the fanzine, we
will delve into the mysteries of Ages Past!
Francesco Defferrari (Sturm)
Editor-in-Chief, Threshold Issue 11
Visit Thyatis and Alphatia!
Two great Empires which have shaped the history of Mystara as we know it. Thyatis and Alphatia, enemies since a thousand years, one the dominion of fighters, the other a house of wizards.
From an exclusive story by Bruce Heard set in Alphatia to the more ancient past of the empires, a conversion of the Elemental Evil storyline set in Esterhold, the foresters of Thyatis, the Alphatian alphabet, the Thyatian language, gazetteers of Carytion and Limn, and to the Isle of Dawn.
Threshold magazine brings you to the heart of the empires, to contemplate their Dawn and to meditate about their future. Sunset seems still quite far away, the empires have no intention to submit, not to their enemy, not to passage of time.