April Fool's: Skyship Admiral Takes Game Desiger Hostage!

April Fools: BREAKING NEWS: Famous Admiral Appears in Washington, Takes Game Designer Hostage RENTON, Washington — A naval officer who was declared dead when his legendary vessel crashed exactly seven years ago today made a sudden and unexpected reappearance in Renton, WA. Witnesses reported a series of strange flashing lights culminating in a group of people in strange clothing appearing in the middle of a car park.

Art by Terry Dykstra, Colorized by Havard

 “It was like they teleported in from some alternate dimension or something, man!” remarked a bystander named Chris. The group made their way to local gaming company, Wizards of the Coast, where they walked into the building and began making demands. The leader, apparently the captain of a “sky-ship”, demanded to see the lead designer of famous role playing game DUNGEONS & DRAGONS (R). “In the name of her Imperial Majesty, I insist that you bring this Mr. Mearls to me this instant!” he was heard to say, brandishing a strange stick in one hand in a strangely hypnotic manner, the feather in his outlandish hat waving about his head. To the shock of everyone present, the receptionist proceeded to summon Mr. Mearls, who appeared in short order wearing a t-shirt emblazoned with the slogan, “Unearthed Arcana: The Truth is Out There!”

 From there, the situation escalated quickly. The interloper’s leader announced that he was “an admiral of Her Imperial Fleet”, and began to accuse Mr. Mearls of collaborating in the destruction and looting of his “sky-ship”. “It was your company’s employee, a Mr. Robert J. Schwalb, who reported that my ship was crashed — my crew dead! — was it not?!” When Mr. Mearls informed him that Mr. Schalb no longer worked for the company, and was not there, the group became agitated. A large-looking man wearing a tiger-like mask (which looked amazingly real) stepped forward and grabbed poor Mr. Mearls, and amid shouts of “The Princess will have vengeance!” the whole group disappeared in a cloud of coloured smoke. The current whereabouts of these people and the unfortunate Mr. Mearls is unknown. Police have interviewed witnesses, but many find the whole situation to be inherently unbelievable.

 In other news, scientists today discovered hitherto unknown tunnels leading deep into the interior of the Earth. "We never would have believed these tunnels could go this deep!" the lead scientist told reporters. "Ordinarily the conditions beneath the ground would make such deep tunnels impossible. And yet, here they are."




Edit:
For the record, the text linked above was written by my good friend Thorf. Were were discussing the idea of an April Fool's Joke that was a little retort to the pretty poor taste joke WotC played on Mystara's expense back in 2012 which is linked in the article. Thorf suggested I post the text on my blog.




-Havard

Bruce Heard's Calidar Kickstarter

Former TSR author Bruce Heard is perhaps best known for his work on the world of Mystara, during the time when he was Product Manager for TSR's Classic D&D line. He is also the author of the Voyage of the Princess Ark series which ran in Dragon Magazine in the issues #153-188 as well as a final installment in #344.

Now, however, his own Fantasy Setting is about to become a reality. Featuring gorgeous maps by Thorfinn Tait, this world is now out on Kickstarter! I am a backer and I am really excited about this. Only up for 2 days, the project has almost reached its initial goal already and we have a good chance of seeing several stretch goals being met. Go over to the kickstarter page and join the fun now!




-Havard

Bruce Heard's New Fantasy Setting Revealed!

Back in April, I mentioned on this blog that former TSR designer, Mystara Guru and author of the Voyage of the Princess Ark, Bruce Heard had decided to create his own fantasy world for publishing. Bruce Heard has often been described as to Mystara what Ed Greenwood is to the Forgotten Realms. He originally intended to return to writing new stories for the ever popular Voyage of the Princess Ark series which were published in Dragon Magazine from #153-188, with a final installment in #344. However, since this option was not something WotC were interested in at this time, Bruce instead decided he would move towards creating a brand new world via kickstarter:

"Time has come for me to set sail across stranger skies. I think there's plenty of room out there for another ship, another crew, and new adventures unbound by darkness. Although stories would take place in another world, in spirit one might think this is the Princess Ark reborn. "

Although not much of this project remains a mystery, new clues appeared in the new Mystara fanzine, Threshold, discussed on this blog earlier this week. In the exclusive interview in Threshold #1 Bruce Heard revealed the name of the setting the first time: Calidar.

Threshold #1 reveals exclusive news on the new fantasy setting.

Fans of Mystara, BECMI D&D and the Voyage of the Princess Ark are already getting excited about this. A recent discussion at The Piazza seems to be the place to go for whatever other information on the World of Calidar may exist so far.

Stay tuned for more updates!

-Havard

The New Adventures of Bruce Heard

Well, in case you havent heard it yet, there's bad news and there's good news. Bad news is WotC has given their thumbs down to Bruce Heard's request at writing new stories for the Voyage of the Princess Ark. Although not surprising given WotC's position on lisencing out their IP since 2008, I think Bruce really wanted to do this and I know it would have been great to read more stories about Prince Haldemar of Haaken and his Skyship flying over Mystara, just like in all of those installments back in TSR Era Dragon Magazine.

Good news is, Bruce Heard will be continuing writing Mystara material on his fantastic blog. Even more good news is, Bruce will go on to publish fiction. It will be set in a world of his own creation rather than Mystara, but this may actually be a good thing too. I know I am excited about it!


Image Source

More discussion on this article

-Havard

WotC to kill the Princess Ark?

Many Mystara fans were in distress earlier this week when WotC announced the destruction of the legendary Flying Ship from the classic Dragon Magazine article series Voyage of the Princess Ark:

Last Voyage of the Princess Ark
By Robert J. Schwalb
The Princess Ark, a legendary flying ship, has crashed! Explore the wreckage to find out what happened, and loot the bodies of the dead. A D&D adventure set in the world of Mystara for characters of levels 1–3.

Fortunately, it all turned out to be an April Fool's Joke.  The joke was not well recieved by the fan community however. "Imagine this in Star Trek terms to see just how unfunny it is: 'The Enterprise, the legendary Federation starship, has crashed! Explore the wreckage to find out what happened, and loot the bodies of the dead.' Try posting that in a Star Trek forum and see how much interest it generates." says one fan.

Mystara fans can take comfort in the fact that the last chapter in the Voyage of the Princess Ark has not yet been written. Bruce Heard, who recently rejoined the community stated:

"Well, yes, eventually I will write Princess Ark material. [...] If it were me, I'd just find a spot in the timeline where I could resume the exploration/adventures."

 Whenever you are ready, Bruce. We're here waiting :)





-Havard