If you have missed the drama today, it started when a Mystara fan discovered a WotC produced video from january this year where the hosts answer a question about what happened to Mystara. A link to the video was posted on the Mystara Reborn group on Facebook. The response given in the interview angered many Mystara and Spelljammer fans, as well as Mystara Godfather, Bruce Heard, who wrote an article about it on his blog pointing out the problems with the video with regards to Mystara.
Anyway, Matt Sernett of WotC did appologize both to Bruce Heard and Mystara fans out there. We all make mistakes and it does show character to admit it and appologize. Did Mystara fans overreact to comments made in the video? I think it would have been easier to accept this type of comments if Mystara had not been mostly overlooked for more than 20 years. Many Mystara fans still remember when bringing back the Hollow World was presented as an April's Fool's Joke on WotC's website many years ago.
Most of us dream of Mystara being brought back to life. While that might never happen, it would be nice if the reason for it being ignored for another 20 years is that the people at WotC really haven't bothered to understand what Mystara was about beyond not liking the CDs and the art in the 2nd Ed Mystara Monstrous Manual. Let's hope that at least one person at WotC now sits down and reads some gazetteers! :)
-Havard
I would like to see Mystara get some official support. However, I am aware that there are a lot of D&D settings that each have their proponents and in terms of sheer numbers of fans, Mystara is not WOTC's top priority.
ReplyDeletePerhaps the best thing about Mystara is that WotC is letting the Piazza and Vaults of Pandius develop it without official contradiction. I don't think WotC has officially announced it has handed Mystara over to the fans, but they seem happy (or at least not upset enough to interfere) for fan-created things like Threshold Magazine to carry Mystara on into the 21st century.
Yes, you are probably right about this! :)
ReplyDeleteThe DMsGuild would be perfect to support these settings.
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