Talk:Mystara

Dungeons & Dragons "boxed" editions

Shouldn't there be a mention that the Known World Gazetteers did not originate from Advanced Dungeons & Dragons? It was published for the "boxed set" version of Dungeons & Dragons, which did not use the word "Advanced" although the rules material ended up being pretty extensive in its own right and were collected into a hardcover, before the "boxed set" version was discontinued. A lot of good ideas started in D&D as opposed to AD&D, such as weapon specialization bonuses. Then D&D was discontinued, and the version of the game using multiple hardcover rulebooks changed name from Advanced Dungeons & Dragons to simply Dungeons & Dragons. --204.92.65.10 (talk) 18:38, 20 January 2011 (UTC)

Does it appear that this article currently conveys the idea that the gazetteers might originate from the AD&D game? 129.33.19.254 (talk) 18:48, 20 January 2011 (UTC)

The Gazetteers (extensive material on the Known World) originated with Dungeons & Dragons, but not with the version which is now called Dungeons & Dragons. It's confusing and obscures proper recognition. --204.92.65.10 (talk) 20:07, 20 January 2011 (UTC)

That's part of the problem with the way WotC marketed 3rd edition... a lot of people don't even know about the AD&D/D&D split if they started playing D&D within the last ten years. 129.33.19.254 (talk) 20:32, 20 January 2011 (UTC)

Source material

I have added source material published on Mystara, hopefully clarifying some of the Dungeons & Dragons vs. Advanced Dungeons & Dragons question above in the process. However, I do not know which of the general Dungeons & Dragons products refer to or can be considered Mystara material. Perhaps someone could add the appropriate products?
In case most Dungeons & Dragons products could be considered Mystaran, I am not sure if the source material list I started here really makes sense, or if referring to another list of Dungeons & Dragons material would be better?
I have also added some in-line citations. It would be great, however, if someone could provide more "secondary source" than Dragon magazine. I imagine that some source other than TSR has made some statement about the Mystara setting over the years? Daranios (talk) 18:03, 5 October 2011 (UTC)

I'm not even clear on when the "Mystara" setting (with that name) was actually started. Did that come on with the transition to 2nd edition AD&D, or was that an unofficial name before then? 129.33.19.254 (talk) 19:36, 5 October 2011 (UTC)

I added info on when the name "Mystara" was first published (1991 about 3 years before the change to 2E). Sbwilson (talk) 23:37, 4 March 2021 (UTC)

More on the mysteries of Mystara...

Hi, I'm Michael Dobson, and I was director of games development at TSR during the development of what eventually became Mystara. I've written a long retrospective of my TSR years, including background on the Gazetteers and X10, available as a free PDF here: https://efanzines.com/RandomJottings/RandomJottings22-Again.pdf. Hope you enjoy it. Michael Dobson (author). Michael Dobson (author) (talk) 16:13, 9 June 2025 (UTC)