Is AoW Cannon?

[ASEO]

With the death of the ruler of Redhand, the PCs may become the new leaders of the region. Is this Cannon, and if so as of what GH date? I know that there are some LG adventures that still deal with the leader that is soon to be replaced in AoW.

In any future GH adventure/Gazeteer, will Redhand be ruled by NPCs that completed AoW in the cannon world?

ASEO out

[Demetrius]

There has been nothing written for the World of Greyhawk that can be considered 'canon' since WotC/TSR stopped officially supporting the campaign. Heck, even some of the material released officially by TSR during the 2nd Edition AD&D days is not considered 'canon' by the die hard Greyhawk fans.

As a matter of fact, 'canon' is a dangerous word to use when talking about the World of Greyhawk. Just post a question regarding what is and what isn't canon over at the WotC Greyhawk messageboards or the forums over at Dragonsfoot.org and you're sure to start a huge argument between the different camps of Greyhawk fans.

[Rexx]

Which is why I love the Paizo.com boards. There's plenty of Greyhawk fans that do not obsess about canon vs. wayward plot line. This allows for greater objectiveness of suggestions made by the authors and users of the Greyhawk related adventures.

As for what is canon, the last "official" products (circa 1998) had the setting in 591 Common Year. Age of Worms is 595 CY. What happened over the past four years in Greyhawk really depends on what you, as DM/player, have witnessed happening. If you've run Doomgrinder, you may want to have more deterioration of the Whispering Cairn to show the effects of the earthquakes caused by the Doomgrinder. Knowing what transpired in The Star Cairns allows me to explain how the Whispering Cairn has gone unexplored for decades by adventurers as much of the current adventuring activity is focused in southern portions of the Domain where the Star Cairns are. If you've run The Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil, the results of that scenario should have a ripple effect in the Ebon Triad's procedures. If Tharizdun was reborn because the PCs failed, then perhaps you should be running Age of Worms in another setting entirely. ::smirk::

It would be nice if the "gestalt" of the Living Greyhawk campaigns could be summerized so the regions not covered by recent adventures can be updated to 595 CY. I'm curious how Nyrond is coming along. Has Onnwal thrown off their Suloise occupiers or is still a fantasy version of Iraq? When will I ever read about Ull's issues over the past few CYs? If WotC does drop Greyhawk like the rumour-mill suggests, we can only hope that everything will be updated sufficiently.

[Greyson]

Rexx wrote:

I'm curious how Nyrond is coming along...

The Nyrond region just had a big, simultaneous, multi-state interactive on Saturday, September 3 where it appears that King Lynwerd was restored to his throne.

Player characters fought Hextorite, demons, devils and the Scarlet Brotherhood in the streets of Rel Mord during the Iinteractive. They they watched (crippled by box text, of course) as Lynwerd and Sewarndt fought in a divine sphere above Rel Mord's royal palace. With Xenia's help, Lynwerd cut off the Black Prince's head.

I know this is off topic, just answering a question. Happy gaming.

Don Kenneth Brown
Salt Lake City, Utah

[farewell2kings]

Keeping my Greyhawk campaign official is too complicated. It'd be nice, but I don't have the time, effort or desire to do that. I've never been in the RPGA or even been to a Convention. D&D is enough of a administrative headache already, but I admire all of you that are able to keep it official, sanctioned, Canon or whatever.

[grodog]

I like "Whispering Cairn" enough to make it canon in my games: http://www.greyhawkonline.com/grodog/gh_grodog.html :D