As a diehard Forgotten Realms fan, I had never really considered another campaign setting - that is, until I began to read the plethora of posts in the Age of Worms threads about the detailed history behind such characters as Prince Zeech and Dragotha - figures that are still mysteries to me.
So... can some knowledgeable person point this neophyte to the best source of information about Greyhawk? Is the LGG the best source of info? Thanks!
The thick LGG is the best resource out there. If you read all the Web based stuff, it can get confusing really quick.
Or just pick up the original boxed set and start playing in CY 576, before the Greyhawk Wars (which is what I've done), and have your players participate if you do choose to have the Greyhawk Wars occur.
Greyhawk is highly customizable....I love the Forgotten Realms and I will probably go back to them some day, but Greyhawk is very cool.
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Welcome to the fold, my son. I think you will find Greyhawk a rich and satisfying setting. I agree with farewell2kings, the LGG is the single best resource for getting a good handle on the history and Oerth at large. Plus it's a huge fermenting vat for ideas for home-brewed adventures and intrigues. Everyone who worked on it should be proud. And, if you want a little bit of the historical perspective, you can get a downloadable file of the origninal boxed set at some sites like RPGNow for $4.99 (and most of the old adventures as well).
Farewell, at the play-by-message board site I'm on, we are running three four more or less linked games (Lost Caverns of Tsocanth (or however you spell it), ToEE, Secret of Bone Hill, and a high-level homebrew adventure. We've jiggled with the timeline a bit so they are running concurrently. The fun thing is that only the other DM and I have a strong sense of Greyhawk history, but we are really ammused at how close to canon the goups work (especially the high level campaign where some of the actions of the party members seem to have perpetuated events that conencide with the Greyhawk canon. We enjoy speculating on the outcome of the old "if you give a monkey a revolver" scenareo.
I'd actually love to run my Greyhawk game as close to the official history as possible, but I don't have the time to keep up with everything and follow the RPGA stuff as well, so I just let it run its course.
I have a spreadsheet with all the major historical events (future) summarized and if the players do anything that changes the timeline, I edit the spreadsheet to reflect that.
I think that's probably one of the reasons I stopped running my game in the Forgotten Realms--I just couldn't keep up with all the "official" material in the 90's. I tried and I found that it was taking way too much money and research...plus, I really hated the "Time of Troubles."
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'Secrets Of Bonehill'. Wow, i really loved the Lendore-isles adventures back then...
Do you know, if 'Death's Ride' (my favorite 1st ed. adventure) is part of the Greyhawk-canon? Heck, is it even located in Greyhawk?
Death's Ride was actually part of the Basic and Expert box sets lines. So I would assume that it was located in what became known as Mystra.
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So many of the early Basic/Expert modules were locationless but were intended to be placed in WoG. I recall that B1 was supposed to be in the Bone March (or was it Ratik), B2 in the Yeomanry, B4 in the Bright Desert, etc. All of those locals were adapted to the Known World/Mystara once that became it's own distinct entity. The blurring of worlds is obvious when you look at Arneson's Blackmoor being both in Greyhawk and Mystara.
The LGG is the most current material that condenses a lot of information from previous editions of WoG. The 2E "Player's Guide" for Greyhawk is a nice item for giving just enough details to let the players get in-character without overwelming them (calendar/holidays/NPCs of note). It also has an excellent map of the Domain of Greyhawk detailing the locations of many of the "settings" for AoW arc. Also there's a map of the Free City in the booklet. A local shop has a couple used copies so if you have trouble tracking it down, drop me a post at forums.difonix.com and I'll get you hooked up.
~~~TSRORexx
'Secrets Of Bonehill'. Wow, i really loved the Lendore-isles adventures back then...
Do you know, if 'Death's Ride' (my favorite 1st ed. adventure) is part of the Greyhawk-canon? Heck, is it even located in Greyhawk?
"The Assassin's Knot" was one of the best 1st edition adventures ever written. "Secret of Bone Hill" and the "Assassin's Knot" are my two favorite AD&D modules.
I think that since my current Greyhawk campaign is still in CY 576, I might give my players a chance to involve themselves in the "take-over" of the Lendore Islands by the elves.
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"The Assassin's Knot" was one of the best 1st edition adventures ever written. "Secret of Bone Hill" and the "Assassin's Knot" are my two favorite AD&D modules.
I think that since my current Greyhawk campaign is still in CY 576, I might give my players a chance to involve themselves in the "take-over" of the Lendore Islands by the elves.
Excellent idea, Farewell. I had run such a game for a time as well. Track down a copy of L3 (Dwarven Delve it's called I think). The events in that adventure will certainly be enough to tick the elves off enough to boot non-elves off the island. In my game I had the elves in a Native American mode of having been conquered by Suel/Oeridian humans to have their population dramatically reduced by disease. They've recouped enough to begin start hatching the plans they've been working on over the past 500+ years.
"The Assassin's Knot" was one of the best 1st edition adventures ever written. "Secret of Bone Hill" and the "Assassin's Knot" are my two favorite AD&D modules.
Yes! An Assassin's Knot fan club. We'll have to meet up at the House of Abraham or the Theater of the Mystic and swap tales. "Damn shame that Tellish escaped, and all that."
To keep this thread on track, I actually prefer the very thin, very adaptable Greyhawk Gazeteer that came out with 3rd edition. As a DM, I like to fill in the blanks and create my own histories. I know that's not everyone's cup of tea, but there's another option if anyone wants to jump feet first into Greyhawk.
"The Assassin's Knot" was one of the best 1st edition adventures ever written. "Secret of Bone Hill" and the "Assassin's Knot" are my two favorite AD&D modules.
Yes! An Assassin's Knot fan club. We'll have to meet up at the House of Abraham or the Theater of the Mystic and swap tales. "Damn shame that Tellish escaped, and all that."
I loved that little gnomish assassin....he swung out of a tree and killed the party's arrogant cavalier with a single swing.
I loved that little gnomish assassin....he swung out of a tree and killed the party's arrogant cavalier with a single swing.
I am sure the cavalier deserved it ...
http://www.rpg.net/reviews/archive/10/10074.phtml
This is a very detailed review of the current Greyhawk core setting book that I did for PRG.Net.
I hope it answers some of your questions on this great setting. It's an amazing book and Amazon.Com has a good rate on it right now.
http://www.rpg.net/reviews/archive/10/10074.phtml
This is a very detailed review of the current Greyhawk core setting book that I did for PRG.Net.
I hope it answers some of your questions on this great setting. It's an amazing book and Amazon.Com has a good rate on it right now.
I checked out your review of the LGG on RPG.net, Yamo, and I thought it was very helpful. Thanks to everyone who responded to my question! I'll head to the bookstore ASAP and look for the LGG.
Yep, I read Yamo's review and thought it was very well written and fair.
Consider reading the Official History of the Greyhawk Wars. It's a great resource from which players can build their character backgrounds and for DM's to get a feel of the existing world.
http://www.geocities.com/TimesSquare/5878/gh_wars.zip
I too am about to embark to the land of Greyhawk for the first time as a DM...so I'm with you on your search.
I started my search at the Living Greyhawk area on the WotC boards. Make sure you download their deity .pdf file (v2.0). It's ok if you aren't running a LG campaign, it's all the same.
It's unfortunate but as far as books go most of the ones you may wish to purchase are pre-3.0.
Sure the "default" setting is Greyhawk, but outside of the LGG there isn't anything book wise like there is for FR. Definitley pick up the LGG btw.
Outside of the LGG and the website for the LG campaign I have found the following older books to be quite helpful
"The Adventure Begins" (it even has MAPS!!! YEAH!!!)
"The Scarlet Brotherhood" (just bought, haven't read fully yet)
You can try here for some topics, some even relating to how to incoporate things in new books (such as Races of Destiny) into your Greyhawk campaign:
http://www.canonfire.com/cfhtml/modules.php?name=Topics
...and last but not least...
Dungeon Dungeon Dungeon
They are in the midst of The Age of Worms adventure path, and if nothing else you can at least get some background info on how the followers of some deities work to achieve their goals in Greyhawk, or you may find some ideas within it to use for your game.
I'm sure there is more info on Greyhawk in previous issues of Dungeon (#109 has info on Hardby for example)...although I'm not sure if there is a list somewhere or not.
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It's also worth checking out the websites for the various LG regions -- ignore the crunchy LG bits, most of them have some decent fluff that can be poached, and some regions have put a lot of effort in and produced some great work.
Although this material may not be as canonical as might be liked it's a quick and easy way to get started on a canonish campaign in a particular area.
Unfortunately things vary quite a lot from region to region, with some being very ummm... minimalist in what they provide, and the "core" areas (eg Greyhawk, Empire of Iuz) tend have very little additional material available.
Lastly what they put up on the websites is pretty much all that's made available, getting hold of actual LG adventures is basically impossible unless you're a proper LGer doing proper LG games in your home region; but that is another rant to be had another time ;)