Heyas,

We are wrapping up Crimson Throne (I am a player) and since our gm is leaving for some military stuff soonish I think I'll be the interim gm. I ordered the Shackled City hardcover and I might use it for our game while he is away (well he will participate at some point when he gets back).

Now I could use some pointers/suggestions.

I think I want to keep the adventure in the Greyhawk world but I am not sure what books I should read just to be informed about greahawkish things. I have only a rudimentary knowledge about the setting and I realize that there is a ton of books about it. What do you suggest I read?
Living Greyhawk stuff? Older stuff?

Since we have been playing Crimson Throne with Pathfinder beta (and now pathfinder ) rules, I am tempted to use them. Do you foresee any big issues with this? I am not that familiar with the normal 3.5 rules so it actually might be even more difficult to use them ( to "unlearn" the changes).

Best regards,
skyde

I set my campaign in Greyhawk and I do fine using only the Greyhawk Gazetteer and the online resources (realizing that online info may be campaign specific). Cauldron is in the Amedio, of course, and I found it important to pick a spot in the timeline as well. Our game is set about one year after the use of the Crook of Rao.

If you do go Pathfinder, realize that all your monsters and NPC's will need to be converted, and Appendix IV is pretty big (ot to mention the Monster Manual)! There might be folks on here who are doing that and would be willing to share their work, but most people here are 3.5 or converting to 4E because Pathfinder just came out. If I were converting Pathfinder, I'd start from scratch and build all the NPC's instead of trying to convert them.

I set my campaign in Greyhawk and I do fine using only the Greyhawk Gazetteer and the online resources (realizing that online info may be campaign specific). Cauldron is in the Amedio, of course, and I found it important to pick a spot in the timeline as well. Our game is set about one year after the use of the Crook of Rao.

Gazateer is always a good choice for the Gods.

SCAP, being the first AP, I think the designers wanted it user friendly for many different worlds. Like Dungeon modules that took place, obstensibly, in a particular realm, "but could easily take place in any forested/mountainous/urban/etc. location in your world."

With that in mind, as was mentioned in the last post, SCAP does not venture far from Cauldron. You do not need an extensive knowledge of Greyhawk to run it. I wouldn't even bother boning up on it; if the players never leave the area, all your cramming will be for naught.

Instead, spend the time getting to know Cauldron really well. Know the street names and use them. Talk about this shop or that boutique that the players pass on their way to the Cusp of Sunrise in "Zenith Trajectory," that sort of thing.

If you make Cauldron a vibrant, living city, your players won't want to go anywhere else!

Thanks for the advice! We won't be starting the campaign just yet so I have some time to mull over my options. The book itself arrived today and it looks beautiful :)

The only Greyhawk specific items I've used so far has been the Greyhawk calendar which you can find online. I usually have festivals during the holiday weeks on the calendar with the size/extent of the festival dependent on what gods the week is oriented toward. I'll see if I can find some of my write ups and give you some specifics later.

When I set my first Shackled City game in Greyhawk, I just used the Greyhawk boxed set from 1983 and it worked out fine.

Greyhawk Wars -- what are those? Pluffet Smedger the Elder never mentioned anything by that name...

;-)

As a DM that has been running Shackled City for the past year, let me say that you really do not need to bone up on the setting at large, as has already been mentioned. I second that getting really familiar with Cauldron will make it all come alive. What made it work really well for my group was a small players guide I made that had lots of details about the city that they could read and feel like they were a part of a real, living city.

Creating this sense of attachment and life from the get-go is important in the long run since the entire campaign deals with the city. Even when the characters leave the city, as has been said, they do not go far and the events are related to goings on in the city.

Additionally, Shackled City is not structured very well and may end early if you don't spend some time tweaking what is written. When I run a published adventure I end up changing so much I end up using about 50% published material and 50% original work, so the changes that need to be made to it were not anything too major for me. With a little bit of work, this can be an amazing and memorable campaign and has been a blast to run.

Be sure to check out delvedeep's alternative foreshadowing article as well as the other resources available here and on theRPGenius.com. While I converted the campaign to my homebrew world, my player's guide and the conversion notes for the first couple of chapters are available on theRPGenius.com and I am willing to send any advice your way.

The Shackled City community is worth it's collective weight in gold coins, use it.