There is a third way; reset the timeline but keep details from later books and have everything set up to prepare for the Greyhawk wars, so that if someone wants to use FtA, they can just advance the timeline appropriately. It's a compromise for purists and later fans, and new fans probably will never be the wiser and use the "on the edge" compromise.
Yep, you are absolutely right on that one. I am an old fan, but I really loved what had been done with the From the Ashes timeline. At the same time, a lot of the compromises (an in between the lines) would also require a lot of work that I do not have the time to do my self. Which classes and subclasse would go into:
Knights of the Hart
Knights of the Great kingdoms.
The Scarlet Brotherhood.
The Boneheart.
The Animuses.
The Clergy of Hextor as vilains has a lot of stuff open in the FtA. You have to rely on fan stuff to make it so. But something official would be welcomed.
Orrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr................................
They should just open Greyhawk to DM Guild and be done with it.
Or Make a contest as to the best new iteration of GH and let the winner make the "official" new Greyhawk.
You see, for me Greyhawk is both less defined than the FR and a lot more defined.
Let me explain.
A lot of the details are left opened to the DM. It is almost free form and very basic.
Yet, countries are well defined in their borders, alliances and short and long term goals. The political aspect of Greyhawk is so well defined that the FR is pale in comparison. You pick a country in Greyhawk and you immediately know its borders, its allies and its enemies. You know where its influences stop and where it makes contested claims. The same can't be done so easily in FR. Where does the true influence of the Luskan ends on the main land? Where are its consteted lands? Are there any? How about Waterdeep? It is allied with Silvermoon that is thousands of miles away from it... The realm is more filled with city states than it is with nations (at least the sword coast fits this bill). Greyhawk has more nations than city states.
A nation offers a lot of opportunities that city states does not. Example, the Kingdom of Furyondy is allied with Veluna, Vesve and the Shield lands. It made tentative alliance parlay with the County and Duchy of Urnst, the Kingdom of Nyrond, the City of Dyvers and the city of Greyhawk. All these can be within easy (relatively speaking) of the Furyondan lands. It makes sense to have close allies. Who are the allies of Baldur's Gate? We know they are "friendly" competitors with Elturel because of the DiA adventures but anything more than that? Who are its enemies? Do they have real ally that will come to the aid of the city states if necessity calls? And if so, where are they? Thousands of miles seperating you from your allies practically means that you have no allies.
Greyhawk is a land of kingdoms and political intrigue with fantasy elements mixed in.
