One source for Greyhawk - which one?

[Glyfair]

I'm getting ready to start a 4E campaign and am contemplating using Greyhawk (thanks to Mearls' Return to the Moathouse adventure). If I do this, I want to keep the word's background relatively simple. So, I only want to use one main source for the world's "canon."

I have much of the Greyhawk material. I have the original set, the 90's Moore set,the Living Greyhawk Gazetteer, the City of Greyhawk set, etc. Anything I am missing I certainly can download from Paizo, etc. However, I know I will have players with a limited knowledge of the world, and I want to keep the "canon" details limited.

So, which single source* would you recommend.

* A single source can be multiple products closely related, such as the Roger Moore DM/Player's Guide to Greyhawk.

 

[MerricB]

So, which single source* would you recommend.

The Living Greyhawk Gazetteer, without a doubt. It presents the world in a comprehensive manner, and with a view to the philosophies of the old 1983 boxed set (which I adore).

As the 1983 set is somewhat sparse on detail, the LGG is your best reference for the world.

If, on the other hand, you don't like impact of the Greyhawk Wars at all, go with the 1983 boxed set.

Cheers!

 

[Kzach]

If you can get a hold of them, I highly recommend Ivid the Undying (only available as a document online), Iuz the Evil, The Marklands and City of Skulls.

The LGG is fine but not exactly comprehensive or deep, whereas the above supplements go into significant detail about their respective areas and constitute a major revision to the setting (ie. Greyhawk Wars). Which is either loved or loathed

 

[GAAAHHH]

I would use the D&D Gazeteer if I were you. It gives the world of Greyhawk without the annoying canon. Greyhawk was intended for you to make up your own canon.

 

[Faraer]

I'd go with the original, rather than the hybrids and reinterpretations, every time.

 

[Sunderstone]

The Living Greyhawk Gazetteer, without a doubt.
Cheers!

Agree.

 

[TerraDave]

This one.

 

[Erik Mona]

God, I freaking love that picture of Gary.

--Erik

 

[JeffB]

Man..tough question- I like them all, and I've owned them all, including the 3E D&D Gaz.

IMO- FTA is the easiest to use right out of the box. I personally loved Carl's take on the GH wars as handed to him by Mr. Cook, but agree it wasn't really a good idea to go down the Wars route to begin with. A shame really, cos the material is damn good. If the GH Wars didn't really bother you though, I'd def reccomend FTA, and the several articles Carl did in Dungeon magazine around that time.

I prefer the original folio to Gary's boxed set. For me when it comes to campaign settings I'm an "all or almost nothing" type of guy. I like to either take a bare skeleton and work with it, or get something with alot more meat-like the 3E FRCS. Gary's box set had alot of added page count, but I did not feel it added much truly useful material to the folio.

Living GH Gaz is a great reference work, but extremely dry (no offense Erik) and I just didn't get "psyched up" for GH with that book (I actually found the LGJ's to be far more inspiring). Very textbook like.

I'm sure I'm in the minority, but for me Roger Moore's 2E Players Guide and The Adventure Begins books were the best- still a skeleton but with lots of juicy bits sprinkled throughout.

 

[Glyfair]

I'd go with the original, rather than the hybrids and reinterpretations, every time.

But the original is Gary's which isn't really any published version, except in the loosest sense.

TAs the 1983 set is somewhat sparse on detail, the LGG is your best reference for the world.

Ah, but I find sparseness attractive.

The LGG is fine but not exactly comprehensive or deep, whereas the above supplements go into significant detail about their respective areas and constitute a major revision to the setting (ie. Greyhawk Wars). Which is either loved or loathed

Again, I don't necessarily consider it an advantage of a setting to be comprehensive or deep. I like a bit of that, but it's easy to go overboard. I don't want to have to study every week to learn a setting.

Ideally, I would like just enough information so that I get a good overview of the setting and enough so that I can pick up any "Greyhawk" adventure and use that as my primary source with additional information from the setting.

Admittedly, I think all three key sets work pretty well with this (being the Gary's initial offering, Roger Moore's books and the LGG). I find it interesting that there isn't much support for the middle one. Are there issues with that one?