Karameikos - Vaults of Pandius

Bruce Heard Interviewthe credit was labeled as “coordinator.” Anumber of us in the Games Division alreadyacted as lead designers or “proto-linemanagers.”We did a lot more than merely“coordinate.” Mine was a sideways entry intothat field. I was first hired as a Frenchtranslator and relocated from France to LakeGeneva in Wisconsin. I was laid-off for a fewmonths and re-hired to “coordinate”freelance contracting for the GamesDivision—a tip of the hat to Harold Johnsonwho was instrumental in this decision. AfterFrank Mentzer’s departure from TSR, therewas no one left to steer the Basic D&D line.It probably was a political hot potato thatnobody wanted to deal with because of itslink to Frank, and therefore Gary Gygax. Bythen, Lorraine Williams had taken over TSR’supper management. Besides the politicalissue, most authors at TSR were moreinterested in the AD&D game because it hadmore bells and whistles to play with, and itowned a much greater exposure in thegames’ industry based on general salesnumbers. Since the vast majority of BasicD&D game supplements had to be farmedout to freelancers, by default, I became the“nanny” for Frank’s baby. This put me in theright place to devise the format for GAZ1,that is, its contents, length of chapters,general idea and goal, and physicalcomponents. I worked with the art managerat the time to select an outstanding internalillustrator, Steven Fabian, and with in-housecartographers to develop the hex-map styleinto a colored, poster-sized version. This wasthe beginning of a long and successfulcooperation with the mapping department,which eventually led to the Mystara TrailMaps, the first in that format at TSR. I alsoworked with Clyde Caldwell to settle on aconcept for the cover art. Finally, I pickedAaron Allston, with whom I had alreadycooperated in the past, as the author.Beyond the terms of the contract I issuedhim, I left Aaron a lot of leeway to furtherdevelop the concept and the contents, whichresulted in the Karameikos we all know today.Karameikos evolved quite a lot from theoriginal map in the Expert Set to theGazetteer. One key evolution was theintroduction of the ethnic divide betweenTraladarans and Thyatians. Was there aspecific interest in making the settingmore attractive to a more matureaudience?I think the answer to this lies in my gamingstyle, but also in my choice of freelanceauthors, who were mature writers—AaronAllston (Karameikos, Rockhome, to namejust these two), Ken Rolston (Ylaruam,Northern Reaches), Steve Perrin (Alfheim),Ed Greenwood (the Shires), etc. I wrote theGazetteers for Glantri and the Broken Lands,but my light-hearted approach didn’t alwaysplease everyone. These last two werenonetheless very successful, and GAZ3 set anew standard for this category of products,not just for Mystara, but other game lines atTSR and elsewhere.In Wrath of the Immortals we saw DukeStefan declaring himself King, and thisevolution is already hinted at in theGazetteer. Do you have any thoughts onwhere this young kingdom would go next?It’s bound to remain at odds with the empire,which should continually seek to re-attach itto its mainland possessions. Karameikosholds a tricky position. It can’t defeat theempire militarily, therefore it must rely ondiplomacy and strong links with internalforces in Thyatis, which would act on its83THRESHOLD: The Mystara Magazine Issue #1