Quote from: 3catcircus on December 20, 2021, 03:19:28 PM
I would get the RC, all the Gazetteers, the Hollow World, and the Dawn of the Emperor's boxed set, asking with the poor wizards almanacs. Might as well go all in...

Hear, hear! Even if you don't use Mystara, I find the nation Gazetteers are fantastic resources for any fantasy setting. Eg the Ethengar GAZ is a brilliant Mongols-type sourcebook, far better than the 2e FR The Horde boxed set that came out at nearly the same time. Elves of Alfheim is great for fleshing out a functional Elven nation/homeland in your campaign. Rockhome for Dwarves. Northern Reaches for vikings. Emperors for Romans, and for a vaguely Atlantis-themed Magocracy.

Quote from: S'mon on December 28, 2021, 05:52:33 AM

Quote from: 3catcircus on December 20, 2021, 03:19:28 PM
I would get the RC, all the Gazetteers, the Hollow World, and the Dawn of the Emperor's boxed set, asking with the poor wizards almanacs. Might as well go all in...

Hear, hear! Even if you don't use Mystara, I find the nation Gazetteers are fantastic resources for any fantasy setting. Eg the Ethengar GAZ is a brilliant Mongols-type sourcebook, far better than the 2e FR The Horde boxed set that came out at nearly the same time. Elves of Alfheim is great for fleshing out a functional Elven nation/homeland in your campaign. Rockhome for Dwarves. Northern Reaches for vikings. Emperors for Romans, and for a vaguely Atlantis-themed Magocracy.

Completely true statement.  Many of the cities and locales in my homebrew setting are cribbed from the Mystara gazetteers.  Some cool maps, interesting scenarios, etc.  And they often have war machine stats if you wanted to do mass combat on the fly.

I am using the GAZ series and the new printing of the C&C core set. It plays well together.

I don't like the free 5E book at all, and the B/X books would be what I used if I wasn't converting to C&C. I tried AD&D 2E Karameikos at first, but find that I like C&C better.

Quote from: Dropbear on December 28, 2021, 10:53:27 AM
I am using the GAZ series and the new printing of the C&C core set. It plays well together.

I don't like the free 5E book at all, and the B/X books would be what I used if I wasn't converting to C&C. I tried AD&D 2E Karameikos at first, but find that I like C&C better.

The C&C Mass Combat from the CKG is pretty straightforward so you could easily play some of those war scenarios in the gazetteers within your C&C campaign, if that's something you're up for.  I'm going to try out those rules in an upcoming campaign.

Quote from: Omega on December 28, 2021, 05:29:38 AM
Late to this.

Personally I love Karameikos/Known World, and in general dislike Mystara. Take note that in a way the two are different settings.

Karameikos is very bare bones and leaves kist about everything to the DM and players to flesh out past the basic paragraph given to various kingdoms.

Mystara tries to fill in every damn hex and theres just no room for anything then. This was a problem with other TSR products around that time too. Forgotten Realms comes to mind. Even Greyhawk and Star Frontiers got hit with it at some point.

That said, the Gazeteers are a great resource. And if you can find them, look up the Creature Crucible books.

I have a similar reaction to the Forgotten Realms. I think both settings are better when you start with the original sketchy outline (X1 era/pre-gray box), and flesh it out yourself. Treat all the later material as a box of goodies you can steal from, but don't feel compelled to fit everything (or anything!) in, steal from other sources as well, make up your own shit, and then put all that stuff wherever and whenever you want. Make the world yours. It's so much easier to run a world where you don't have to carefully fit everything new into a complex and established canon, and where anything undefined or off the map can be improvised or reimagined in whatever way makes the most sense at the time. It's hard work to play in someone else's playground, and so much easier (and so much more fun) to play in a world you created organically in response to the players.

Of course it doesn't work if your players are already invested in the canon, because it's effectively impossible to rewire people's pre-existing expectations. But in that case, just create your own world, and then add in whatever elements from the Known World or the Forgotten Realms you feel like stealing.