Mystara 1983

In contrast to its sleepy second year, Mystara’s third year of publication saw a sudden flurry of activity, with the mapped extents of the world almost tripling in size.

First, the revised Expert Rules Set and X1 provided a few updates to the Known World area. Most important of these was surely the introduction of the town of Threshold. Its appearance in the famous red box, and its association with the characters of Aleena and Bargle, ensured that it would be one of the most well-known and beloved towns in the setting. Even today, it remains one of Mystara’s most iconic features.

Next came the Desert Nomads duo of adventures, X4 and X5, which expanded the world to the west of the Known World in two big leaps. The areas covered were painted with a far bigger brush than X1’s map, presenting the vast Sind Desert and the mysterious Hagiarchy of Hule, separated by the formidable peaks of the Black Mountains. Slagovich made its first appearance on X5’s map, peeping onto the corner.

All in all, 1983 was the setting’s first year of major expansion — the beginning of a long process that would continue for the next ten years.

The Maps

These maps have been made internally consistent, adopting the most detailed shapes and positions of each element.

Brun, 24 miles per hex (1983) — **Brun**
**24 miles per hex**

Known World, 24 miles per hex (1983) — **Known World**
**24 miles per hex**

Great Waste, 24 miles per hex (1983) — **Great Waste**
**24 miles per hex**

Hule, 24 miles per hex (1983) — **Hule**
**24 miles per hex**

Karameikos, 6 miles per hex (1983) — **Karameikos**
**6 miles per hex**

The Isle of Dread, 4 miles per hex (1983) — **Isle of Dread**
**4 miles per hex**

Gulluvia, 6 miles per hex (1983) — **Gulluvia**
**6 miles per hex**

Gulluvia (1983) — **Gulluvia**
**Non-hex**

Isle of Dread Central Plateau, 0.5 miles per hex (1983) — **Central Plateau**
**0.5 miles per hex**

Mystara 1983 Legend — **Legend**
**(colour)**

Mystara 1983 Legend (black and white) — **Legend**
**(black and white)**

Threshold (1983) — **Threshold**
**500 ft per hex**

Art — the printed style from 1981’s Expert Rulebook‘s Legend, with additional symbols from the 1983 Expert Rules Set‘s Legend.
Fonts — Baskerville. 1983 saw a major change in typography for the whole line, discarding the Souvenir of the past couple of years in favour of the more elegant Baskerville, both in the main text as well as in most of the maps. Baskerville would continue to be used extensively until the next major design shift in 1987.

*Baskerville was the most iconic font for Mystara maps from 1983 until early 1987.*

References

Let’s Map Mystara 1983
Let’s Read the Known World/Mystara post 137 — 1983 discussion starts at this post

1983 Product Lineup

This table lists all the relevant products published in 1983, with links to each map’s individual page here at the Atlas. Product titles link to PDFs at DTRPG where they are available.

Mystara Geographic Maps 1983

Map	Name	Hex	Year	M	Source	Reference
8	The Wilderness Map of the Great Waste	24	1983	4	X4 Master of the Desert Nomads	p. 7
9	Map of Hule	24	1983	7	X5 Temple of Death	p. 31
10	Map 6 The Continent	24	1983	8	X1 The Isle of Dread	p. 16-17
11	Map 1 The Isle of Dread	6	1983	8	X1 The Isle of Dread	p. 13
-	[Isle of Dread Players' Map]	6	1983	8	X1 The Isle of Dread	Cover Gatefold
12	Map 10 Central Plateau	1	1983	8	X1 The Isle of Dread	p. 20
13	Map #2 The Lands and Environs of the D&D Wilderness	24	1983	8	Expert Rules Set	p. 33
14	Map #1 The Grand Duchy of Karameikos	6	1983	8	Expert Rules Set	p. 32
-	[Legend]	-	1983	8	Expert Rules Set	p. 31

1983 Map Gallery

This gallery shows all of the geographic maps published over the course of the year. These are replicas of the original maps. For full details, please check out the post for each map, linked to in the table above. For corrected and expanded versions, use the maps near the top of this page.