Best Greyhawk book for a start?

[Bocklin]

Hi people,

The nice Greyhawk mythology background used for the AoW Adventure Path has attracted my attention and I would like to read more good stuff about Greyhawk.

I came to D&D with the 3rd, so I only know Greyhawk through the fade and distorting lense of the Core books. Hence my question:

What is the best read for someone who wants to start with Greyhawk?

I once saw the 3rd Ed. "Living Greyhawk Sourcebook" (or something like that). Is it worth it? For the old sources available as cheap pdf, what would you recommend?

Hope some Greyhawk expert can chime in and suggest something. ;-)

Thanks,
Bocklin

[Callum Finlayson]

The Living Greyhawk Gazetteer is probably the best place to start, even if you're not playing Living Greyhawk.

As for pdfs (eg from RPGnow) the best starting places as the "City of Greyhawk" box set, "Greyhawk:the adventure begins", and "From the Ashes". At $5 each it's not too much!

After you've got a feel for the setting as a whole check out the various websites created by the LG regional triads -- some of these have quite a lot of excellent fluff (and some don't, so it depends on how well your regions of choice are supported).

[Rexx]

AoW takes place in 595 CY and all the older Greyhawk materials are 591 or older. The Living Greyhawk book was...593 (nope, 591, thanks Callum!)? As already stated, the 2E Greyhawk: The Adventure Begins by Roger Moore is perfect if you're going to be running AoW as it has an excellent map of the Domain of Greyhawk along with a map of the Free City of Greyhawk. Holidays, historical moments, geography, pantheons, the nuances of Suel/Oeridian/Flan/Baklunish are covered (vital to any GH game) and even the Domain currency of plates/orbs/luckies/nobles/commons are covered. If you prefer something "lighter", perfect for players in an AoW game, I prefer the Greyhawk: Player's Guide which presents much of the above but orientated towards what is "common" knowledge to the typical adventuring PC. It also has the superb map of the Domain of Greyhawk.
Good luck and I hope you find Greyhawk ideal for your use. It's a perfect setting for the DM that likes a strong campaign world framework to craft their own plots and machinations without Canon Buffs crying foul.

[Callum Finlayson]

Rexx wrote:

AoW takes place in 595 CY and all the older Greyhawk materials are 591 or older. The Living Greyhawk book was...593?

LGG is 591CY.

[Bocklin]

Thanks, guys. Sounds like I have some download to do tonight... ;-)

Is there any book focusing more on traditional GH history/mythology or is it all scattered over various books?

Bocklin

[Rexx]

If you can track down a copy of the World of Greyhawk folder or original box-set, there was a lot of good historical data in one of the "folios". Most of that has survived the rewrites and is in "The Adventure Begins" which gives much more detail of the hows and whys of Greyhawk. The "Player's Guide" is much lighter reading and tends to leave a lot of questions unanswered...which makes it a great player book (thus the name, imagine that!).

[Faraer]

The best starting point for the whole World of Greyhawk experience is the 1983 World of Greyhawk Fantasy World Setting boxed set, which is an expansion of the 1980 folio. That's the basis that all the modules, novels, and the non-Gygax material build on. Unfortunately I can't wholeheartedly recommend the ESD because it's one of the later bitmap-bloated scans rather than the nice layed-out ones. The Living Greyhawk Gazetteer is good in its own right, but it's a later derivative.

[Jaws]

Callum Finlayson wrote:

After you've got a feel for the setting as a whole check out the various websites created by the LG regional triads -- some of these have quite a lot of excellent fluff (and some don't, so it depends on how well your regions of choice are supported).

Highfolk used to have lots, until a certain someone decided to become a Associate Editor for Dragon. And write awesome Greyhawk adventures in Dungeon. Including the next one in AoW.

Peace and smiles :)

j.

[grodog]

Bocklin wrote:

Is there any book focusing more on traditional GH history/mythology or is it all scattered over various books?

It's pretty scattered, but these are the key historical sources:

• 1983 GH box set
  
• 1991 Greyhawk Wars box set
  
• 1992 From the Ashes Box set
  
• 1998 Greyhawk the Adventure Begins sourcebook
  
• 2001 Living Greyhawk Gaz. sourcebook
  

There any many good online resources linked to from Canonfire! (www.canonfire.com) or my own web site at http://www.greyhawkonline.com/grodog/greyhawk.html. For example, the history file from the Greyhawk Wars box set is available free (and the only real reason to buy that box set, unless you're into the wargaming side of GH) online (WotC and/or CF!). You can also download the Ivid the Undying supplement for free, which expands upon the history and lands of the Great Kingdom. Etc.

If there are specific areas of GH history you're looking for info on/about, you may want to drop over to the Canonfire! forums, the WotC GH forums, etc., to get more input from the core GH fan community.

I hope that helps :D