When did you start using Greyhawk?

[sir_ollibolli]

I was always intrigued with Greyhawk.

When we decided to play the Shackled City Adventure Path under my "reign" three years ago, i suggested to play in Greyhawk, a decision I never came to regret (this campaign was put on hold after Chapter 4 due to several persons moving away). My follow-up campaign in Freeport is also placed in Greyhawk and we now have a crossover between both campaigns running at the moment.

One PC tries to find his missing parents, which have been sold into slavery to Cauldron to Zarn Kyass and from there into the Underdark - leading to an an enconter with the "customer" from the first chapter and the fate of the still missing kidnapped persons from Cauldron.

If we are continuing the SCAP somewhere in the future, it will have given the players some further insight into the surrounding plots of the region. If not, it will give the players from the previous campaign a nice nostalgia feeling about Cauldron.

 

[Jupp]

I had my first GH experience in '91 with T1 Village of Homlet (though we didn't move on to ToEE after that). After that we had adventures like A1-4. My favorite back then was WG4. We more or less skipped all the later GH modules like WG8+ or the WGA series.

 

[gizmo33]

On the other hand, what themes distinguish Greyhawk strongly enough from the Forgotten Realms that would justify supporting the setting as a full-fledged line without cutting into FR sales?

How many folks would play either Greyhawk or FR? I don't know exactly how to describe the differences, but I've seen plenty of people that use Greyhawk that don't like FR. That would suggest some kind of difference.

I personally like Greyhawk when it has one or both of the following attributes:
1. it's open ended - just a map and an outline of the characters and countries
2. Gary Gygax is writing for it.

Since WotC is not in a position to meaningly contribute in either case, I'd rather see WotC put it's efforts into FR.

 

[Jürgen Hubert]

How many folks would play either Greyhawk or FR? I don't know exactly how to describe the differences, but I've seen plenty of people that use Greyhawk that don't like FR. That would suggest some kind of difference.

Is it really a difference - or is it just a case of "They don't support my favorite setting any more, so the replacement setting must be bad!"?

I personally like Greyhawk when it has one or both of the following attributes:
1. it's open ended - just a map and an outline of the characters and countries

Which may be a downside from a sales point of view - after all, you want to sell supplements that cover the setting in detail.

If the prime attraction of a setting is that it isn't detailed, then there is no profit to be made with it.

2. Gary Gygax is writing for it.

The only of his products I am familiar with is the "Dangerous Journeys" RPGs. As a result, "Gary Gygax is writing for it" sounds less like a recommendation and more like a threat.

 

[Shadeydm]

Is it really a difference - or is it just a case of "They don't support my favorite setting any more, so the replacement setting must be bad!"?



Which may be a downside from a sales point of view - after all, you want to sell supplements that cover the setting in detail.

If the prime attraction of a setting is that it isn't detailed, then there is no profit to be made with it.



The only of his products I am familiar with is the "Dangerous Journeys" RPGs. As a result, "Gary Gygax is writing for it" sounds less like a recommendation and more like a threat.

So you woke up this morning and felt the urge to dig up this thread and poop on Mr. Gygax...

 

[the black knight]

When that folio came out. 1980, I think.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Folio, baby!

 

[Xyxox]

First DMed the setting in 1980

I picked it up days after publication as the folio with two map sections and a booklet.

I still have the folio and the boxed set sitting in my basement, along with a copy of the original publication of nearly every module for the setting, including a boxed set for the city, too.

 

[Tarek]

The reason I prefer Greyhawk to Forgotten Realms is that the Forgotten Realms always felt like someone dropped pieces of whatever caught their fancy into the Realms, without any thought or care as to how it would fit in the overall setting.

It's a pastiche, 30 different settings all stuck together at the edges, with everyone hoping no one will notice the gaps or lack of a coherent vision. Further, the settings don't interact with each other in any meaningful way, except if they're at war with each other... about the only things that affect the setting are if Elminster or Khelben suddenly dissapears.

Greyhawk, on the other hand, has always had *one* person making decisions for the entire campaign, as to what would fit and what wouldn't fit. Whether that was Gygax, Carl Sergeant, or Erik Mona, the official stuff has been mostly consistent with itself. I'm not counting the "adventure path" modules that were released early on, because none of them had any context outside themselves... they were so generic I'd be hard put to think of where they'd fit on the Flanaess.

There's a lot more differentiation in the Living Greyhawk campaign, but at the same time, there's also a lot of coherence, thanks to the Circle. The different regions feel like different countries, with their own customs and beliefs, which is what makes the whole thing come alive. And the different regions interact with each other, affecting their neighbors...

That's all stuff you don't get from just the officially published materials, though, which consist of the LGG, the RttToEE, and the Expedition to the Ruins of Greyhawk.

Tons of potential in Greyhawk, and none of it is being tapped by WotC because they don't see it or don't want to use anything from the seven years of development done under the Living Greyhawk aegis.

 

[Sunderstone]

Started Greyhawk in 1st edition.

Abandoned Greyhawk when the FR campaign was released (grey box).

Returned to Greyhawk almost a year ago because I was fed up with every single novel altering FR in some way (and always officially in future sourcebooks), I was also tired of all the Super Hero npcs, etc.