While any game can run a Mystara campaign, and especially any version of B/X or the Rules Compendium, I have not returned to this world for a while, and it was my first campaign world to run, so I really have fond memories of the place. These days, most of the world's information is stored in the Vaults of Pandius, an excellent resource for maps and other information. The DM's Guild also has all the classic Gazetteers to buy.
If I were going to play Mystara today, my first feeling would be to go for an excellent OSR game, such as Old School Essentials. But, what about 5E? Can Tales of the Valiant handle this well and give you a meaningful play experience in this world?
Tales of the Valiant has a Basic D&D feeling. It may be the game's focus on new players and its organization that presents everything you need to know one step at a time. Where 2014 D&D felt like D&D 4, and it adopted that planar model of the world, ToV feels more grounded and down-to-earth for me. The focus of ToV is on the campaign world, where D&D's focus moves to the planes quickly.
However, I must return to the basic D&D feeling that ToV has. Even the fact that there are only two subclasses per class plays into this feeling that ToV is a starter game, and the more in-depth options shall come later. Myself? I am not having any problems with porting them in from wherever I want, so the subclass issue is a moot point. Even Shard VTT has a plethora of options to choose from. We are also receiving a comprehensive core book expansion for all classes very soon, with Player's Guide 2 (PG2).
Part of the joy of playing ToV is learning to forget most of D&D. It sounds like nonsense, but it is true. Something about ToV has that "new car smell" to it, and the way the books are written is infectious with their positivity and message of fun. Yes, I am still "playing 5E," but it feels new again.
That feeling of newness reminds me of the same sense of wonder when we explored Mystara for the first time. This is a Dwarven kingdom! This is where all the Elves live! This is a magic kingdom! This stuff was cool back then, fresh, unexplored, new, and it hooked us for life.
Now, I have been playing since the late 1970s. I have been down the road with D&D far longer than most. Your feelings may be different since 5E "was your first time" with a roleplaying game, and you still have those "new feelings" with that game.
I have seen D&D handed off to Wizards and have witnessed 25 years of them remaking the game six times (D&D 3E, 3.5E, 4E, 4E Essentials, 2014 5E, and 2024 5.5E). I have seen them try to pull back the OGL twice (the OGL scandal and GSL with 4E), and lived through the horrors of the TSR legal department days. I still have a submission guidelines letter from TSR. Wizards got a lot right with 5E; the nods to old-school design were in the correct direction, but it drifted off with Tasha's into a more generic system.
With ToV, I don't have to work with the 2014 book, plus the fixes from Tasha's and X, Y, and Z. I have one Player's Guide, with everything fixed and in one place. The best of 2014-2024 is presented in the book, in a base game form, with everything sorted out, better organized, and with the rules and rusty parts replaced and fixed.
Just like my Basic D&D books were fixed, easy to use, all in one place, and my one-stop shop for knowing what a rule was. D&D 2024 tries to do this, but they started to fundamentally change the game (weapon masteries, no humanoid monsters, bastions) to the point where core things in the original D&D game were left out or added on, increasing complexity.
D&D 2024 was written for system masters.
Tales of the Valiant is written for beginning players, just like Mystara. This is why I get that feeling.
Nothing is preventing ToV from driving the world of Mystara. The lineages in the core game, and even the supplement one, cover all the options, plus a few more, nicely. When Player's Guide 2 rolls around, we will have even more. We have Orcs, Goblins, Gnolls, and Kobolds to cover Thar. Shadow Elves can be Elves, tweaked somewhat for their underground nature, or we could use the Drow from PG2.
The only odd choices are the Syderean lineage with the Celestial and Infernal choices, since basic D&D and Mystara avoided demons in the world due to the game being targeted at a younger audience. Include them if you want them, but don't feel forced to.
The classes adhere to all D&D standards, so there is no problem there. The mechanist is the only standout, but by the end stages of Mystara, they had introduced airships and all sorts of technology, so I don't see anything that would prevent them from feeling at home in the setting.
The monsters are just fine. The TSR product identity monsters never played a significant role in Mystara and were more standard for AD&D, Greyhawk, and the Realms. You have a fine collection in the Monster Vault as it is, covering all the D&D basics.
I am sitting here trying to find a problem, or even a "it doesn't feel right" issue with ToV and Mystara, but I can't find it. With the 2014 or 2024 D&D, I can see a few problems, like some of the Greyhawk and Realms lore and monsters creeping in. There are no mind flayers or other psionic creatures in Mystara. While ToV has demons and devils, you can omit them if you desire. The ToV monster selection feels closer to Basic D&D than 5E's, even without the beholder and a few of the others, which we always saw as "AD&D monsters."
If you ever wanted them, the 2014 Monster Manual is not that far away.
Also, multiclassing is an optional rule in ToV, and in Mystara, it was never a huge thing. That setting is turned off. It's not a big deal, but you can turn it on if you'd like. However, a more pronounced "race as class" dynamic was present in the setting. While ToV does not have that, the builds and characters in Mystara tended to be more straightforward than today's Frankenstein D&D multiclass builds.
Also, at this point, Mystara is so far gone from the D&D canon and support that ToV feels closer in spirit, while D&D feels like it is the Forgotten Realms' home system. Even Greyhawk at this point does not feel like a "5E world," and that feels closer to AD&D for me, truthfully. The plane-hopping gets both D&D 2014 and 2024 down, since they need to keep pushing that IP. Mystara had minimal planar travel and dimension-hopping plots, and it was a giant sandbox world that focused inward on itself.
One of the best parts about Mystara is that all the excellent B and X module series were set there, and if you were lucky enough to pick up the Goodman Games remasters, you have a lot of the classic adventures in this world. Even if you don't, you can still pick up the original adventures over on DM's Guild and convert them yourself by just swapping the monsters out for something similar.
I sit here and have a counter-argument in my head, "You know you can do all this in 2014 D&D?"
Yes, true, but what I am trying to find is whether the feeling of Mystara feels closer to ToV or 2014 D&D. I can't say it does for 2014 D&D, and 2024 feels even further off from the setting since the art is all wrong and introduces concepts that aren't in the setting. The 2024 Monster Manual gets rid of the humanoid monsters, which is a travesty, since they are a central part of the Mystara setting, especially with Thar. D&D 2024 does not do the classic setting justice.
So it comes down to 2014 D&D or Tales of the Valiant to take the crown of Mystara. Given that 2014 D&D is now living in the past, and it still has several issues that ToV fixed, ToV is the better game. It has that new-gamer feeling. It is different enough to compel investigation into new builds and synergies. The monsters hit hard, just like their B/X counterparts, but they don't have the piles of hit points that D&D 2014 or 2024 gives them, so the fights are faster and more exciting.
Feeling-wise, ToV feels closer in spirit to the original Mystara setting than does D&D 2014. easily convert from 3rd-party 2014 D&D books. That beginner-friendly vibe, the colors, the art, and the choices made in presentation just sing Mystara to me, far more than D&D 2014. ToV feels like a B/X version of 5E, just in its simplicity and construction. These days, with the new hardcovers we got, there is no problem with subclass choices, lineages, or heritages. You can convert from 3rd-party 2014 D&D books easily. It will get even better in January 2026 when Player's Guide 2 ships.
ToV is the better choice for how Mystara is presented and feels. To me, the setting feels alive again.
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