What didn't people like about Greyhawk From the Ashes?

[diaglo]

Or one that actually lived up to the idea which Gary put in place that Greyhawk was a violent world of warfare and strife?

While GW and FtA might not have been as well written as they could have been...

i can agree with what is quoted. i snipped off the part i disagreed with.

diaglo "i was on the lists too" Ooi

 

[S'mon]

What change do you think they would have liked better: an updated timeline with every country exactly the same as it was 20 years earlier: Or one that actually lived up to the idea which Gary put in place that Greyhawk was a violent world of warfare and strife?

Neitther, of course. They/we would have wanted more detail on 576 CY, like how Wilderlands and Harn do it. No timeline advancing - that's fine for comics and novels, IMHO it's consistently terrible for RPG settings. We GMs want a world we can bend to _our_ will, not have our campaigns bent to someone else's will!

 

[Gentlegamer]

From the Ashes with its "evil is everywhere" theme gave me an idea for Greyhawk campaign set in the ancient past during the time of Lum the Mad or Vecna. I never have been able to put that idea in motion, though.

 

[MerricB]

FtA had a big problem in that it turned Greyhawk from a "fill in the blanks" setting to a "blanks filled in setting". And what was worse was that the blanks that were filled in were often at odds with that had gone before. (To say I am unfond of 'Ivid the Undying' understates it somewhat).

What I really, really hated about it was that the conflict was known as the "Greyhawk Wars". Talk about shoehorning in a name that didn't make sense because of brand identity.

Cheers!

 

[ShinHakkaider]

No timeline advancing - that's fine for comics and novels, IMHO it's consistently terrible for RPG settings. We GMs want a world we can bend to _our_ will, not have our campaigns bent to someone else's will!

This sums up my feelings EXACTLY. Thank you.

 

[Mycanid]

This sums up my feelings EXACTLY. Thank you.

I am afraid I agree with this summary as well.

 

[Mycanid]

No worries Krolik ... obviously we just have differing tastes in this regard.

You liked what was done, or could roll with it, perhaps, and appreciated the attempt (as did others).

I did not (also, as did others).

I think the reasons why those who did not like the supplement has been pretty accurately explained in the thread thus far. People can agree or disagree with the stance.

 

[Cthulhudrew]

I liked it myself, and I especially liked the advancement of the world in subsequent products (and in the articles in Dragon magazine that appeared). To me, it made Greyhawk feel like a more fleshed out, living world than I'd ever seen it (outside of the Gord novels, that is- particularly the first two).

That said, I did get the feeling that it was rushed somewhat, and I think that was part of the problem many people had with it (not the whole problem, obviously). A similar thing happened to my favorite TSR world- Mystara- wherein the introduction of a metaplot and subsequent annual event packed almanacs really made the world a living interesting place, but the whole metaplot was far too rushed and sudden for my tastes (especially as they ended up putting it so close to the "standard" year of the previous Gazetteers- even the original design notes had the whole of it stretched out over a longer and more believable period of time. Don't know why they condensed it.)

So it was good and bad for me. Like I said, I'd never really been interested much in Greyhawk before that, but I felt that in retrospect it should have been more gradual than it was.

 

[Nellisir]

For the record, Carl Sargent had nothing to do with Greyhawk Wars (which was a lame attempt at a lame product). He -did- write just about all the accessories for FtA. I think Jim Ward was Greyhawk Wars.

 

[the Jester]

For me, what sucked about Greyhawk Wars and FtA can be summed up in one word: Metaplot.

To use any of the stuff in those sets would have required me to invalidate a decade's worth of game history imc. Screw that- if I wanted to have those kinds of issues, I'd have played Darksun or Forgotten Realms.