Mystara is my favorite " haven't really played in it as much as I want" setting.  So much flavor. So much inspiration.

If you're going to go the B module route, go ahead and get the individual modules and the B1-9.  There are complaints that B1-9 cut things out (true,) but it gives some loose adventure path info as well.

If going the x module route, X4 and X5 can't be beat.  If going X1, you can steal from the Dungeon Mag adventures as well.

Quote from: TheGlen on December 16, 2021, 07:16:35 AM
If you have inexperienced players grab King's Festival which is a master class in intro adventures.  If they have played before Veiled Society is a refreshing break from dungeon crawls.  Horror on the Hill or Rahasia are good low level modules for people that want a challenge.

We haven't done a whole lot of dungeons so King's Festival sounds alot like what i'm looking for. Takes place in Karameikos so it's actually tied in with the world. I wanted to lead into Isle of Dread or some of the other expert modules. At least until i get a good enough feel for how to create adventures here that are more than just funhouse dungeons. Having flashbacks to running White Plume Mountain, a fun challenging dungeon but really has no reason to exist. The antagonists motivation seems to be just boredom.

A dungeon adventure like that i'm more inclined to just run as a standalone challenge than actually incorporate into a campaign.

Quote from: Ocule on December 16, 2021, 05:41:53 PM

Quote from: TheGlen on December 16, 2021, 07:16:35 AM
If you have inexperienced players grab King's Festival which is a master class in intro adventures.  If they have played before Veiled Society is a refreshing break from dungeon crawls.  Horror on the Hill or Rahasia are good low level modules for people that want a challenge.

We haven't done a whole lot of dungeons so King's Festival sounds alot like what i'm looking for. Takes place in Karameikos so it's actually tied in with the world. I wanted to lead into Isle of Dread or some of the other expert modules. At least until i get a good enough feel for how to create adventures here that are more than just funhouse dungeons. Having flashbacks to running White Plume Mountain, a fun challenging dungeon but really has no reason to exist. The antagonists motivation seems to be just boredom.

A dungeon adventure like that i'm more inclined to just run as a standalone challenge than actually incorporate into a campaign.

Sounds like a good plan.  If you really wanted to do a Karameikos campaign that wasn't mere dungeon crawls and gives some flavor to the setting, I'd suggest grabbing the gazetteer to help with character creation and background, then run B11: King's Festival, B12 Queen's Harvest, and B10 Night's Dark Terror, in that order.  The surviving PCs should be just about ready for Isle of Dread at that point.  And for later, the Desert Nomads modules (X4-5) kick ass.  I'm also rather fond of X3: Curse of Xanathon. Unlike many, I'm not that enamored with Castle Amber.  X13 Crown of Ancient Glory is a cool way to introduce domain play, but that's a long ways away....

B11: King's Festival, B12 Queen's Harvest - I would caution that like most of the later B-series, these are not particularly brilliant adventures. On this list https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Dungeons_%26_Dragons_modules#B
I'd say the good stuff is B1-B7, plus B10 (which is a B-E transition module).

Quote from: S'mon on December 17, 2021, 05:24:13 AM
B11: King's Festival, B12 Queen's Harvest - I would caution that like most of the later B-series, these are not particularly brilliant adventures. On this list https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Dungeons_%26_Dragons_modules#B
I'd say the good stuff is B1-B7, plus B10 (which is a B-E transition module).

The BSOLO module is also not bad and plays rather well when converted to be run by a DM.

Ahhh... Mystara... has a charm all its own...

All my earliest campaigns were set there, with only the map in the back of the Expert rulebook and a few tibits of info from the modules i had.

Like others here i'd recommend the Gazetteer supplements (the Grand Duchy of Karemekos is a good starting point and it's fairly cheap to acquire),
i'd never gotten to use them but i've read through them since picking them up and hopefully someday i'll get to actually use them.

For Modules, some of the best early modules were set there, B1/B2 are excellent starting points, and they pair together well, though i just ran B1 a few
months back to start off an AD&D campaign and you DO have to put in quite a lot of work to make that module work.  But after that, B2-Castle Amber and X2-Curse of Xanathon were two of my favorites.  B4-The Lost City is really good as well, but it almost cries out to be made into the focus of a whole
campaign, as there is so much in it just waiting to be fleshed out.  Though after about 1984-85 the quality of the B-Series modules falls off pretty sharply.

Should i use rules cyclopedia or castles and crusades for this?

Do you own either/both of those sets?  With the RC there's zero conversion.  But C&C conversion is pretty easy too.  And low level stuff in particular is easy to convert on the fly.  Depends on you and your players' preferences methinks.

Yeah I own both sets, though for C&C i have physical copies. I dont know how many people know this but things like RC, B/X and such were all licensed to be archived so you can get them from archive.org and far as i know it's legal. I'd love to have a physical copy though

Quote from: Ocule on December 19, 2021, 05:47:40 PM
Should i use rules cyclopedia or castles and crusades for this?

I'd start with Mentzer Basic & Expert then go to RC later taking the bits you like. RC has a lot of bloat and is not a great intro for new players.
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/116578/DD-Basic-Set--Players-Manual-BECMI-ed-Basic
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/116581/Dungeons--Dragons-Expert-Set-Rulebook-BECMI-ed-Basic?src=also_purchased

Oh I should mention I may have as few as two players at any given time

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...

Quote from: Ocule on December 20, 2021, 02:48:17 PM
Oh I should mention I may have as few as two players at any given time

If you're playing B/X, running 2-3 PCs per player is easy enough so I wouldn't fret about that.  The majority of my gaming experiences have involved fewer than 4 players with most players running multiple PCs.  In fact I've never played in a long-running campaign where everyone ran just a single PC.

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 was looking at the free 5e Mystara Player's Guide yesterday - https://www.rpgmp3.com/mystara-players-guide/ - it is extremely awesome and definitely makes for a nice place to start, whether or not you play 5e D&D. Despite the name it is very much Known World focused.