Running a Greyhawk campaign

[Theron]

I've always thought Nitescreed's essay, "The Grey In The Hawk" summed up the key aspects of a Greyhawk campaign quite nicely.

 

[Infernal Teddy]

I think the best greyhawk material I ever bought must be the City of Greyhawk boxed set

 

[Jhaelen]

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:

As Emirikol already mentioned there's a fourth way: Just have a look at what's available online, pick your favorite region, and get wild. That's what I did. You really don't need much more than a bit of background for the deitites (there's a great free pdf from the Living Greyhawk setting for this) and a couple of names.

 

[Darrell]

I tend to run mine using only the 32-page D&D Gazetteer released right after the initial release of 3e, the expanded gods list from Complete Divine, and Dungeon magazine (includin' that big ol' map they released).

That's all I've really required for the past several years; but then, I pretty much use it solely as a backdrop for adventures from Dungeon or those of my own device.

Regards,
Darrell

 

[howandwhy99]

Ask what your players think Greyhawk is. Setting canon is a warzone. The setting itself has multiple contradictory iterations. Couple that with so much of what is considered "the History of D&D" and you've got a blood frenzy from simply determining the setting.

 

[Agamon]

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.

Yeah, and by "Detail Heavy", he means "Detail Very Light" compared to Forgotten Realms. LGG is pretty much all I use anymore, though I reference my City of Greyhawk boxed det once in a while. There was a great map of Greyhawk City in one of the LG magazines, too.

 

[Thurbane]

Thanks for the replies.

I guess I'm mainly looking to have the campaign setting as a backdrop for my own adventures, with some details on cities and the countryside, as well as notable persons and organizations.

 

[Infernal Teddy]

There was a great map of Greyhawk City in one of the LG magazines, too.

Is there any known way to get my hands on that?

 

[Ron]

[...]

• 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).

Ivid the Undying is really fantastic. However, instead of downloading the Wizards' file, get this nicely edited and formated pdf version by William Allman, available at the Acaeum.

 

[meomwt]

Ivid the Undying is really fantastic. However, instead of downloading the Wizards' file, get this nicely edited and formated pdf version by William Allman, available at the Acaeum.

Thanks for the tip-off: I wasn't aware of the pdf. It's safely on my hard drive now.