Theron
Explorer
I've always thought Nitescreed's essay, "The Grey In The Hawk" summed up the key aspects of a Greyhawk campaign quite nicely.
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.BluSponge said: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:
BluSponge said: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.
Agamon said:There was a great map of Greyhawk City in one of the LG magazines, too.
meomwt said:[...]
- 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).