D&D 5E Mystara - Players Handbook

D&D 5E Mystara - Players Handbook

Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition

• Publisher: Glen Welch
• Rules: Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition
• Series: Bruce Heard's Mystara
• Developer:
• Reference:
• ISBN:

Product Description - D&D 5E Mystara - Players Handbook

The Mystara Player’s Handbook is a fan-written document by Glen Welch that provides conversion information for using the Mystara setting with the 5th edition Dungeons & Dragons rules.

Where it is used - D&D 5E Mystara - Players Handbook

Gods:
1. Ahmanni (mph89)
2. Asterius (mph90)
3. Atruaghin (mph90)
4. Atzanteotl (mph91)
5. Coberham (mph92)
6. Cretia (mph92)
7. Danel (mph92)
8. Eiryndul (mph93)
9. Garl (mph95)
10. Hattani (mph95)
11. Ilsundal (mph96)
12. Ixion (mph96)
13. Kagyar (mph97)
14. Khoronus (mph98)
15. Korotiku (mph98)
16. Mealiden (mph100)
17. Odin (mph101)
18. Ordana (mph101)
19. Protius (mph102)
20. Rafiel (mph102)
21. Tahkati (mph103)
22. Terra (mph105)
23. Thanatos (mph105)
24. Zirchev (mph108)

GM's Review of the Material - D&D 5E Mystara - Players Handbook

This resource is set in Mystarian year 1000 AC, by the Thyatian Empire reconing..

Overall the information is good, but it assumes that the reader has understanding from other supplements including what various abbreviations and terms mean. So it is informative but not for a beginner to the setting.

As a reference, this is definitely useful, but more to the use aspects from it that suit your game rather than use it as a bible for the setting converted to 5th Edition.

Would I print a copy for my shelves. No, unless a new version fixes some of the issues, this is a nice to look at but not one of my core references.

What it contains - D&D 5E Mystara - Players Handbook

• Table of Contents – (1 page) Basic list of sections, it ignores the sections and groups all of the subsections as the same level.
• Introduction – (1 page)
• Places and Times (title page) – looks like its an image of Alfheim
• Nations – (17 pages) One page per nation group covering the 14 gazetteers, two empires of the boxed set and the gnomish flying city.
• Cities – (1 page) a short description of 16 of the cities that are capital of the previous 17 nations skipping the Shadow Elf capital as its national description is based around just the city.
• Centres of Learning – (1 page) 11 places of learning in 8 of the nations described earlier. With a image of a library, but not details of which it might be.
• Locations of Ill Repute – (1 page) 10 locations in 8 of the nations described above with an image that could represent some of the locations.
• Crime and Punishment – (1 page) Table of nation vs crime with punishment listed.
• Calendars and Holidays – (9 pages) Starts with 4 pages of calendar, each showing three months of the year. It then has a page showing calendars of other nations and how the days of the week are named. Extra detail about the Minrothad and Shadow Elf calendars. Contains two images assumed to associated with each nation. This section then has 3 pages on the Holidays with a picture of people celebrating.
• Dread Creatures – (1 page) A paragraph on various creatures meant to be unique to Mystara.
• Money of Mystara / Coins of the Known World – (1 page) lists a table of Nations and Coins with the intersection having a unique name.
• Factions of Mystara – (3 pages) This details five factions of mystara and references another seven.
• Races and Heroes (title page) Image of heroes with a dragon skull.
• Races of Mystara – (12 pages) A picture of the races, with a variation on Dwarves, Elves, Halfling and Gnomes. It has a paragraph on Half Races. Lists 20 races of humans. New races gaining a two page write up are Lupin, Rakasta, Sidhe, and Tortle.
• Classes of Mystara – (5 pages) Describing how the various classes are seen in Mystara in a paragraph or two each.
• New Archetypes / New Mystra Class Options – (24 pages) Mostly 1 page per subclass with a picture. They are themed after the setting mostly.
• Backgrounds – (4 pages) There are 4 backgrounds themed for the setting.
• New Feats – (1 page) There are 5 feats themed for the setting.
• Immortals and Priest (title page) Another picture that could use a reference.
• Immortals / Immortal of Mystara / Prominent Immortals – (20 pages) A introduction on Immortals describing how to become a god in 4 of the 5 spheres, with a brief description of 46 of the possible 180 gods of the setting.
• Domain of the Spheres – (5 pages) A page for each domain relating to the five spheres of power.
• Spells and Runes (Title page) also without context.
• Secret Crafts of Glantri / Secret Magical Crafts Prestige Classes – (10 pages) A prestige class converting the seven secret crafts of glanti.
• Nordic Runes – (3 pages) an overview and two pages of tables detailing 23 Runes.
• New Spells – (10 pages) 49 news spells details.
• Goods and Services (title page) look slike a picture of a random market
• Magic Item Availability – 1 page replacement table to magical item a vailability.
• Major Imports and Exports – (2 pages) listing all major nations settlements major imports and exports.
• Markets and Guilds / Great Markets of the Known World – (2 pages) one page details locations around the nations described earlier, and one page split between Darokin and Minrothad Guilds talking about their specific guilds in a paragraph each.
• New Equipment / Tools and Equipment – (1 page) table of items.
• Castle Construction / Castles and Stronghold Construction – (1 page) table of items to build.
• Captain Quinn’s Nautical Emporium – (5 pages) 28 new magical items.
• Tarla’s Epicurean Delights – (10 pages) Setting specific descriptions of Wines, Brandies, Ales, Beers, Meads, Spirits, Non-Alcoholic drinks, Cheeses, Breads and Exotic Specialities.
• Maps of Mystara – (17 pages) 17 maps of the region.
• Legal Information (2 pages)

What it got right for me - D&D 5E Mystara - Players Handbook

1. Artwork – There is a lot of nice art work associated with the setting here. Most of the artwork used in the original books felt more like shared services where they could re-use the art work with other products, or comes directly from other settings.
2. Overview AC 1000 – Provides a good overview of the setting set around 1000 AC.
3. Factions – The factions section was a good expansion on what is already in the setting material.
4. Races – It was interesting to note that this version of Mystara goes back to “No Half-Races” which was thrown out with the conversion to AD&D 2nd Edition. There are also magically blended races in the original rules located in the serpent peninsula.
5. Exotic meals – Listing the exotic meals linked to the setting was a good inclusion to give some flavour to the setting that is missed in a lot of the other sections as it includes descriptions of what each item is.

What I think has room for improvement - D&D 5E Mystara - Players Handbook

1. Bookmarks – as a PDF delivery, bookmarking and linking of a document are useful tools of the Electronic Age, and being left out makes it harder to use.
2. Links – As as useful as Bookmarks, in document links are a hand way to navigate the document.
3. Summary – A summary of this book would have been useful, the sort of thing that is printed on a back cover if you were to print this yourself for instance.
4. Header/Footer Info – Having information on the page about what section your in is very useful, even if it takes up realestate on the page. it makes flipping through a finished product (or electronic copy with no bookmarks) easier when you know what section your in.
5. Titles – They need to match was is in the contents section. When also used, they need to be of consistent sizes, such as in the spell spection where different scale heading were used for the spell titles.
6. Images – The images could have descriptions so we know what they refer to as some of them look fantastic, but have no idea what or where they are meant to represent.
7. Crime and punishments – Could use a descriptor for punishment, though some might also need the crime as well. I remember that there were also levels of theft, and murder in some of the books so when a scale is provided some guidance could help.
8. Calendar – Has entries without descriptions Tried looking up Ylaruam Ashara’ Shi’a which was not under Ylaruam or Ahsa’Shi’a. It may have used another name in the description but referencing should use the same format as what’s being referenced. Here is it just confusing as the calendar entry starts with the nation, and the description does not. We also have multiple entries of the same thing (Glantri Spring Break) without context. I also miss the random events that could occur, and the phases of the moon that were tied to the calendar. When showing the other nation calendars you have the assumption that the first line is the first month, while indicating that another line is actually the first month, so missing the context to explain how everything lines up for those who have made those connections in the past. When discussing the Minrothad and Shadow Elves calendar they included what year it was according to those calendars, but with the Ethengar, Five Shires, Rockhome, Ylaruam and Alphatian calendars, no year according to those. The descriptions of the holidays would be better suited if they linked or referenced the date it was meant for.
9. Coins – They could do with a little more information on how they interact.
10. Humans – Missed a lot on the humans, with linking in the planar races as simply human and loosing their native languages seemed like an over simplification for this unique aspect of the cultures.
11. Immortals – It seems a lot of information is left out when it comes to the immortals, including which domains they serve under, and what pantheons they could belong to. While it has some interesting imagery, it appears to be miss one of the crucial elements of a god, what is their holy symbol.
12. Secret Crafts – Had no description on what the secret crafts are. The prestige class is off the mark when it comes to multi-classing and references to older version of this documents attempts at converting the secret crafts as feats.
13. Runes – Has no description on what the rune are.
14. Magical item Availability – Could use examples of how to use the table.
15. Guilds – Could have been linked with the Factions for more use of that mechanic.
16. Tools and equipment – Missing descriptions.
17. Castle construction – seems out of context in how it is placed as it also has no descriptions here.
18. Maps – Missing the legend, some maps are squished changing the proportions.
19. No Index or Glossary – This could have used an index and glossary to make things easier to find.