What is Greyhawk?

[lowkey13]

*Deleted by user*

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Mild quibble. When survival is tenuous, societies tend to have very strong rules of hospitality. So, suspicion, sure. Mistreatment without direct cause, less so.

But that is a good bullet list. Someday I may understand the appeal of grim gritty “no good guys and little to no hope for something better” fiction.

I’m curious to see what others see in the setting, though. I know from experience that some see it in a wholly different light from yours.

 

[lowkey13]

*Deleted by user*

 

[Enrico Poli1]

Greyhawk is a world in which evil is winning. It has just a grim atmosphere. It's not about heroism, it's about power.

The forgotten god was sundered in three, and the parts will be united again in the Day of Wrath.

It's the land of Mordenkainen and Robilar, Vecna and Iuz, Eclavdra and Dragotha, Gord and Zagyg Yragerne.

P.S. for me, the true feeling of Greyhawk can be only found in Gygax' Gord novels. Nothing compares.

 

[lowkey13]

*Deleted by user*

 

[Sacrosanct]

Point 7 is the biggest point for me. Greyhawk is the outline, and adventures should be able to be drag and dropped into homebrew campaigns with ease. It's not nearly as fleshed out as FR, intentionally.

 

[Aldarc]

When a blackhawk and a whitehawk love each other very much...

 

[Wolfpack48]

Mild quibble. When survival is tenuous, societies tend to have very strong rules of hospitality. So, suspicion, sure. Mistreatment without direct cause, less so.

But that is a good bullet list. Someday I may understand the appeal of grim gritty “no good guys and little to no hope for something better” fiction.

I’m curious to see what others see in the setting, though. I know from experience that some see it in a wholly different light from yours.

I'd agree. In a harsh world, if you verify that the person you are working with is an ally, you are going to treat them VERY well. It's important to have as many friends as you can get when civilized areas are spread out, and there are enemies everywhere.

 

[Yardiff]

Its a Hawk whose plumage is mostly greys in color.

 

[Enrico Poli1]

So ... I remember (back when they were published) reading Saga of the Old City. And it was .... fine. I mean, Gygax wasn't a great novelist, but I like it, at the time.

And Artifact (I think?) was next. I vaguely recall it being ... not as good. I almost didn't finish it.

And after that, I think I tried to read the next one after he left TSR. And I wanted it to be good. Because GORD! GYGAX! SEA OF DUST!

It was terrible. I couldn't finish it. I really tried.

They aren't literary masterpieces, that's clear.
But I was a teenager when the Italian translation came out. I remember that I was conquered by the figure of Gord, I loved his adventures and companions, I absolutely adored the fiendish politics aspect and the Theorpart metaplot.
I imagine we like different things!