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I have a confession to make. I genuinely started the game with 2e (although my first-ever material was with the black box; I still have the D20 from it...); as such, the Realms were the setting I discovered first. I have never had much of a chance to lay my hands on genuine Greyhawk material.
So, my dear fellow gamers, I am requesting help. I have found the Canonfire! site, but I also want to find 'official' materials. If they can be found via a PDF site, in issues of Dragon and Dungeon, or if anyone knows someone willing to sell me some reasonably decent-quality tomes, please speak up.
I do indeed lament not having collected any material any sooner than this...
This is the best site for PDF versions of out of print games that I know of.
Go to RPG NOW.
Here are the books/titles I would recommend as source material:
World of Greyhawk Box Set.
Greyhawk Adventures.
From The Ashes Box Set.
Ruins of Greyhawk.
Treasures of Greyhawk.
Living Greyhawk Gazeteer.
Expedition to the Ruins of Greyhawk.
Technically the last two are for 3.0/3.5 and can still easily be found in game stores, with Expedition to the Ruins being a relatively recent release. In fact, I am pretty sure you can get them through the Paizo store. Check there first for dead-tree versions.
There's another old boxed set that is hard to find and not currently available through any PDF source that I know, and that would be the beautiful City of Greyhawk boxed set. I own one, and I adore it. It's got the entire city of Greyhawk detailed out from beggers on every street corner to the secrets of each small dank alley, plus complete maps and entries for both the surface and the undercity. You might be lucky enough to find a copy cropping up on Ebay every now and again.
Also, I'd be remiss in not recommending that you search Ebay, Amazon, and used bookstores for the following novel titles:
_Greyhawk Adventures 1: Saga of Old City_, Gygax, Gary. TSR, 1985.
_Greyhawk Adventures 2: Artifact of Evil_, Gygax, Gary. TSR, 1986.
_Sea of Death_, Gygax, Gary. New Infinities, 1987.
_Night Arrant_, Gygax, Gary. New Infinities, 1987.
_City of Hawks_, Gygax, Gary. New Infinities, 1987.
_Come Endless Darkness_, Gygax, Gary. New Infinities, 1988.
_Dance of Demons_, Gygax, Gary. New Infinities, 1988.
_Nightwatch_, Bailey, Robin Wayne. TSR Books, 1990.
(The book was released under the "TSR Books" label, was not advertised as a Greyhawk novel, and does not feature the word "Greyhawk" on the front cover.)
These novels are really one of the most immersive ways of getting a great vision for the Greyhawk setting, though to be fair the last book really isn't that helpful for normal tabletop campaign inspiration unless you choose to run a Epic Elder Evils style of game. They can be fairly affordable, as I managed to get my entire collection of Greyhawk novels under a budget of $40.00. They really are worth the effort if you can get them.
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You could also try Oerth Journal.
Though not 'official', it's as near as can be, since several of the Paizo staff (hi, Eric!) and regulars (hi, Lilith!) work on it, and they do seem to have done their homework as far as naming sources, etc.
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Asturysk, thank you. I actually have the Expedition hardback (shipped to me by good old Paizo), but the others shall definitely be ordered and downloaded.
Snorter, thanks; I actually was poking at it via the Canonfire! site, but it is certainly good to know that people I already am aware of having a bent for quality are involved. My main concern has been that I know very little about the World of Greyhawk, so I'm seeking to fill in the massive gaps.
Asturysk, thank you. I actually have the Expedition hardback (shipped to me by good old Paizo), but the others shall definitely be ordered and downloaded.
Snorter, thanks; I actually was poking at it via the Canonfire! site, but it is certainly good to know that people I already am aware of having a bent for quality are involved.
My pleasure! Oerth Journal is awesome, and was the source of my Greyhawk fix for a long time.
A word of advice for you though. While all the stuff I mentioned is some of the greatest for finding both crunch and fluff, there's something else to consider. When looking for older Greyhawk materials there's a double edged sword; the curse and blessing I discovered as I built up my own collection from childhood memories was that the best source material was actually the steady volumes of interconnected modules, such as Against the Giants, Vault of the Drow, the Vecna series, the Slavers, the Lost Tomb series, the Falcon series, as well as the standalone "Classics" like Temple of Elemental Evil, Tomb of Horrors, Night Below, and so forth.
Unlike Forgotten Realms which relied more on comprehensive campaign books and sets, much of the built up history of Greyhawk was through the adventure modules, many of which ran through successive story arcs that connected to one another. These actually build up the "history" of the world as it happens, and then the boxed sets and sourcebooks compile what happened and narrate it, while also filling in all the spaces with vivid details; giving you the kind of places that characters go in-between the epic adventures, fully fleshing out the local tavern where they drink, gamble, and spend their gold with names, descriptions, rooms.
Because I am not sure what sort of stuff you like best, the classic adventure and epic storylines, or the everyday grit and detail that really brings a roleplaying campaign to life, I wanted to make it clear that it's a different way of gathering campaign setting information that what you might be used to with the Forogtten Realms. :-)
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Mainly, what I'm looking for is information to help me understand it; until recently, I knew the term 'Rain of Colorless Fire', but I had no idea it was part of the Twin Cataclysms, that there *had* been a Twin Cataclysms event, or what either term meant or what had resulted.
I do, now, but that's the kind of information I'm seeking. Things to help me put things like the three APs from Dungeon into the context of Greyhawk; things to help me understand the oldest campaign setting of D&D, where the original characters of the game's creators have gone on to be an important part of the setting itself.
And, truthfully, I can understand what you mean about the difference with FR; I've frankly gotten sick of most of it, largely due to the way that there are high-level spellslingers on every street corner. It isn't a world of high fantasy, it's a bloody caricature. When the gods are on a first name/drinking buddy kind of relationship with some of the mortals... Yeah. FR games I run anymore tend to be in areas which have less attention paid to them... Preferably with the high-end muckity-mucks being distracted. Not that Elminster's hard to distract - a full pipe and a pretty girl and he won't answer the door for anything.
Once ran a campaign set through the Greyhawk Wars, and I have to tell you, it was one of the finest experiences I've ever had. I have no idea if Greyhawk will ever see the light of day again, but the materials listed above are the backbone of any RPG library.
One important source of Greyhawk information is the list found on Canonfire which cites all articles in Dragon and Dungeon about Greyhawk, starting with the earliest magazines. Also, try to find the Living Greyhawk Journals - the early, separate print editions are hard to get now, but that that were included in the mags are somewhat easier to get.
Be aware that there are massive contradictions within the source materials - look at the imprisonment of Iuz for an example. Another one: just yesterday, I noticed that the County of Urnst is noted as having Countess Belissica as ruler within the 83 Box set in the Guide to World of Greyhawk, and Lorgan, Fighter 16, in the Glossography - within the same product. So , this is one of traps in the source materials.
Stefan