D&D 1E World of Greyhawk Box Set (1983)

[Marc_C]

Until recently I had never read the WGK box set. I had the Greyhawk Folio and some modules. That was enough for me back in the early 80s. Living Greyhawk didn't interest me during 3e.

The passage that I find the most interesting in the Fantasy Setting booklet is on page 13.

"THERE ARE FEW PURE RACIAL GROUPS EXTANT ON the Flanaess, save perhaps at the fringe areas of the continent. Of course, the races of demi-humans are relatively unmixed, but humankind, as is its wont, has industriously intermixed in the central regions to form a hybrid type which has actually become the norm.....

• Baklunish: The Baklunish people have golden-hued skin tones.
• Flannae: The Flan race have a bronze-colored complexion.
• Oeridians: The Oeridians have skin tones ranging from tan to olive.
• The Suel race: Is very fair-skinned, some being almost albino.

.......In general, the skin color of an individual is of no particular importance. The dark Flan complexion shows up quite often in most nations. By contrast, the nobles of the Great Kingdom are proud of being light-skinned, just as the rulers of Tenh are overly conscious of the supposed superiority of their deep bronze color. In the central region of the Flanaess, from western Urnst Duchy to Geoff, there is little heed paid to either skin color or racial type, whether human or demi-human (or even humanoid, in some places). The main exception to this is the demi-human kingdoms, where humankind is judged inferior, especially in Celene. "
______________________________________________________


Because of the artwork and the medieval-like heraldry I always assumed, incorrectly, that most of Greyhawk was population by "fair-skinned" people. That is quite a revelation to me.

 

[Shiroiken]

Yup. There was some backlash about the Greyhawk history from the Folio, with various assumptions about the appearance each ethnicity. The section about the appearance was cut for space (as was a lot of other stuff), and was put into the boxed set later. Human in Greyhawk was really just meant to be human, ignoring ethnicity. It's also important to note that the original game and early 1E didn't have the sub-races either, which are really the ethnicity for each race. In Greyhawk your culture is far more relevant than your ethnicity, as a similar ancestry is meaningless compared to the present.

Regions that list the various racial mixes do so simply with an order of commonality. For example, SO is one of the most common type, which is a mixture of Suel with just a slightly less amount of Oeridian. An area with OSf would be a mixture of Oeridian, with only slightly less Suel and a touch of Flan. They even have a section that describes the appearance of the different mixed ethnicity.

 

[Marc_C]

Yup. There was some backlash about the Greyhawk history from the Folio, with various assumptions about the appearance each ethnicity. The section about the appearance was cut for space (as was a lot of other stuff), and was put into the boxed set later. Human in Greyhawk was really just meant to be human, ignoring ethnicity. It's also important to note that the original game and early 1E didn't have the sub-races either, which are really the ethnicity for each race. In Greyhawk your culture is far more relevant than your ethnicity, as a similar ancestry is meaningless compared to the present.

Regions that list the various racial mixes do so simply with an order of commonality. For example, SO is one of the most common type, which is a mixture of Suel with just a slightly less amount of Oeridian. An area with OSf would be a mixture of Oeridian, with only slightly less Suel and a touch of Flan. They even have a section that describes the appearance of the different mixed ethnicity.

More over, if you decide to assume people who came from the South (Suloise) are of a darker tone, because of the Folio migration map, you are wrong. Suloise are described as "fair-skinned". While people who came from the North (Baklunish) have golden-hue skin tone.

The WGK box set is very important to better understand Gygax's vision. The Folio is not enough.

 

[Helldritch]

Yep, a lot was added with the boxed set and though I did liked the folios, the boxed set has always been my reference. Even the From the Ashes has a lot of interesting stuff in it too. Especially the Hearland and Iuz the Evil expansions. The Scarlet Brotherhood is just about the last book that added quite a bit of lore (at least, the info that I find useful for me).

 

[pming]

Hiya!

Just one more reason to love GREYhawk. It's in the name.

The easiest 'description' of Greyhawk I can give is this: "A land of various shades, with some bright areas, some dark areas, most somewhere in between, but virtually none in the black or white. In Greyhawk, the forces of Neutrality hold sway, always in opposition to the forces of both Good and Evil, of whom would seek to conquer and subjugate everyone under their banner of truth".

(and yes, I just made that up).

Greyhawk is about ADVENTURING...not so much "saving the world" or "being heroic and defeating Evil". In my longest running Greyhawk campaign (that is an on again/off again thing) I started back in 1981. The PC's that have made the most impact, some of which are still running around!, were ALL "Neutral" or "Neutral (Good)" [the bracketed Good means 'with tendencies towards good', not as in full-fledged Good]. A few "heroes" have made their mark (a Paladin/Ranger, a Ranger and a Cleric, in particular), and even one or two "evil PC's" (an Assassin, a Thief and a Fighter/Assassin)...but the vast majority have been True Neutral or even Lawful Neutral.

Anyway...keep reading! I think you'll find the lack of...hmm..."with us or against us" mentality refreshing and invigorating! Welcome to the Flanaess, traveler!

^_^

Paul L. Ming

 

[grodog]

The WGK box set is very important to better understand Gygax's vision. The Folio is not enough.

There were still significant omissions from the 1983 box, which is probably worth a blog post on sometime—and could be fodder for a “revised and expanded” 1983 box update edition, in my mind’s eye

Allan.

 

[David Howery]

There were still significant omissions from the 1983 box, which is probably worth a blog post on sometime—and could be fodder for a “revised and expanded” 1983 box update edition, in my mind’s eye

Allan.

what omissions are you thinking of here? Granted, the folio and boxed set only covered a part of one continent (although there was that teasing pic of an expanded view of Oerik in both of them).... and we never really had any official expansion of the area until The Scarlet Brotherhood was released....

 

[grodog]

what omissions are you thinking of here? Granted, the folio and boxed set only covered a part of one continent (although there was that teasing pic of an expanded view of Oerik in both of them).... and we never really had any official expansion of the area until The Scarlet Brotherhood was released....

David, I’m thinking about the various additional articles from Dragon that were not included in the boxed set, in particular:

• Jeff Easley’s and Jeff Butler’s artwork from the original and Suel D&DG of Greyhawk series, as well as details on all of the Suloise gods from Lakofka’s work, plus Raxivort
• the order of battle info for Robilar, Mordenkainen, Eric’s Cousin, and Tenser (and perhaps Bigby?) from TD#37, along with the relevant entries in Rogues Gallery, and WG5-6 pregens (and maybe others, like those from A1-4, C1-2, I1, G/D1-3, etc.)
• an addition to the recent events info in the history section, from all of the Dragon articles by Gary and Rob—as one example of how to set a campaign onto motion, with the 2e/3e changes being other examples (GH Wars, FtA, tAB, LGG, etc.)
• errata from Dragon 101 (including the maps), perhaps also including a comparison of changes from the folio to the boxed set
• a publishing history of Greyhawk, from its early wargaming roots with the Domeday book Great Kingdom maps where ToH, S3, and S4 tourneys were originally set before they were published modules, up through the present

I'm sure there’s more, but that’s what comes to mind immediately.

Allan.

 

[Nikosandros]

Now we just need to convince WotC to let you assemble a band of luminaries and take care of the project...