Running a Greyhawk campaign

Thurbane · Apr 18, 2007

Hi all,

If I was to seriously look at running a Greyhawk campaign for my players, what resources would you recommend? I have a few 1E and 2E Greyhawk books, but nothing in 3E.

I have downloaded the free material from WotC LG section: http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=lg/welcome

I also assume that most "default" D&D adventures and such are treated as being Greyhawk (i.e., the "default" setting)...

Any suggestions would be welcomed.

Thanks - T

meomwt · Apr 18, 2007

Most grognards would recommend the Wold of Greyhawk Folio alone, take what you will from there and adapt.

Whilst there is a hint of old-school in me, I'm more flexible.

I'd recommend getting hold of the City of Greyhawk Boxed Set (2e) if you haven't already. It's got lots of info on the Free City and surrounding lands, with some good plot hooks and some 2e-style adventures. Given the Castle Greyhawk module due out this year, it would be useful to have this one.

If you need more detail on other countries, I'd suggest the Living Greyhawk Gazetteer (WotC/ RPGA), produced in 3e for the Living Greyhawk campaign. Some hack called Mona

wrote this one.

There's also some 2e sourcebooks from the Carl Sergeant era, describing some locations in detail:

WGR4 - The Marklands - details Nyrond, Furyondy, Highfolk and the Vesve - key locations in the fight against...
WGR5 - Iuz the Evil - which describes the Old One's lands, powerbase and religion
Free Download - Ivid the Undying - available on the WotC website, it examines The Great Kingdom in detail. There's also a fan-made map showing the region. This work was completed but never finished.

There's little in the way of stats in these books, so they are still very useful for 3.5e (as I'm doing right now).

Inferno! · Apr 18, 2007

Check out www.canonfire.com, it is more or less the unofficial HQ for Greyhawk.
Maldin's Greyhawk at http://melkot.com is also good.

best, Wayne

Emirikol · Apr 18, 2007

The nice thing about Greyhawk is that you don't need much. There are some nice resources out there, but you don't need anything other than:

1. Living Greyhawk Gazetteer (This is the UPDATED world setting..complete). It has nothing to do with Living Greyhawk. They just put "Living" on the cover to sell it to 14,000 players.

2. DUNGEON MAGAZINE

Online resources abound. Pick an area and if it is a player region in LG, you'll have more than enough extra background material that you can pick and choose.

jh

BluSponge · Apr 18, 2007

Depends really on what kind of campaign you want to run. Greyhawk was originally designed to be nothing more than a backdrop for a DM's adventures, a mindset considerably different than the modern design goals of, say, Eberron. So there are three ways you can run it:

Detail light: 1983 WoG boxed set, 1998 Greyhawk Players guide, 3e Deities and Demigods. Those three resources will give you 90% of the info you and your players are going to need to get going. This mix is heavy on player info, but leaves you plenty of room to make the Flanaess your own. Alternately: The D&D Gazetteer will substitute for the WoG boxed set in a pinch. Not ideal, but its easier to find in print.

Detail Heavy: Living Greyhawk Gaz, 1998 Greyhawk Players Guide, 1998 Greyhawk: The Adventure Begins. Add whatever other sourcebooks are available. Given the changes to the history, more recent material takes priority. Lots of reading and many scarce books and modules to hunt down. Track down the Living Greyhawk Journals and work down the tree from there. When all you have left to incorporate is the old Greyhawk supplement for Classic D&D, you're in the home stretch.

Living Campaign: Living Greyhawk Gaz, join the RPGA. Start ordering mods. All the work is done for you. Enjoy.

Tom

Voadam · Apr 18, 2007

Thurbane said:
Hi all,

If I was to seriously look at running a Greyhawk campaign for my players, what resources would you recommend? I have a few 1E and 2E Greyhawk books, but nothing in 3E.

I have downloaded the free material from WotC LG section: http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=lg/welcome

I also assume that most "default" D&D adventures and such are treated as being Greyhawk (i.e., the "default" setting)...

Any suggestions would be welcomed.

Thanks - T

Pick an era.

WoG folio or boxed set, From the Ashes with demonic invasion and dark fantasy feel, the reboot afterwards when things tone down after the Flight of Fiends.

For the first era all you need is the folio or the setting.

For the second the From the Ashes book

for the Third either the 2e The Adventure Begins or the 3e Living Greyhawk gazetteer or that little 3e greyhawk gazetteer they put out.

I would just assign domains to gods myself and not worry about official ones.

Those are the basics I would recommend and not worry about other sources.

freyar · Apr 18, 2007

Just out of curiosity, what do people think about Greyhawk Adventures (by James Ward, I think)?

Alaric_Prympax · Apr 18, 2007

I liked it, in fact I used a few of the things in that book in my campaign. The Storm Rider was part of a 3 adventure arc. My PC's in a way got tired of chasing that ship before they actually got it.

BluSponge · Apr 18, 2007

freyar said:
Just out of curiosity, what do people think about Greyhawk Adventures (by James Ward, I think)?

Crap. Pure crap. About as useful as your appendix. Unless you just have to have more Bibgy's hand spells. Then again, no it's not even useful then.

Tom

Ripzerai · Apr 18, 2007

The "Hall of Heroes" and "Legendary Places" chapters of Greyhawk Adventures were generally very good, and played a huge role in the development of the setting. Most of the material in it hasn't appeared in any detail anywhere else, either.

The new spells, magic items, and rules for 0-level characters were eminently skipable.

The deity section was good, but not so useful if you have earlier or later material on those deities.

The monster section was good, although the same monsters have been covered elsewhere.

Running a Greyhawk campaign

Thurbane

First Post

meomwt

First Post

Inferno!

Explorer

Emirikol

Adventurer

BluSponge

Explorer

Voadam

Legend

freyar

Extradimensional Explorer

Alaric_Prympax

First Post

BluSponge

Explorer

Ripzerai

Explorer

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