A stick in the mud, a dinosaur?

[Vonlok The Bold]

That's a really weird sentiment. What does Greyhawk have to do with "Tolkienesque"? You have a high-magic world, thick with magic items and with thousands upon thousands of wizards and other magic-users, a world filled with adventurerers, and a bewildering variety of monsters cribbed at random from real world mythology and science fiction stories, including an alien flying saucer crashed in the mountains, vs. a low magic world, with a handful of magical items, a number of magic users you can count on your fingers, and a handful of supernatural monsters, most of which are so obscure that no one in the world other than a select few as ever heard of them.

How can you pine for a "traditional Tolkienesque/Greyhawk" setting? Its contradictory.

I would say Greyhawk is tolkienesque just bigger. It isn't going to be the exact same obviously, but I wouldn't say it was opposed either. Greyhawk may have a few more wizards, but not significantly more necessarily. In Greyhawk settings the party may have one sorc. or wiz, may fight one evil sorc or wiz, and may come across another one or two in the adventure. That isn't all that much more than Frodo/Bilbo in Middle Earth. Middle Earth also had magic evlen cloaks, magic swords, magic rings, armor etc.

I agree the two settings aren't identical, but I don't think they are exact opposites either.

 

[coyote6]

Well, why not look at the points they have in common? These are vast, empty lands with lots of wilderness for adventures, only very few population centers, they have wizards and magic, and they sport a generally rural, slowpaced society.

In Greyhawk? My map of Greyhawk has quite a few cities, towns, and villages. It has colleges where wizardry is taught, secret organizations of wizards, non-secret organizations of wizards, nations of elves, circles of druids, more than a dozen known fireball-tossing death knights, a nation ruled by racist martial artists & assassins, another (once & future?) nation ruled by a cabal of diabolists, another nation ruled by a demigod, and at least a couple of underground complexes that have or used to have other deities imprisoned inside.

And the setting is named after a city that features a criminal organization as one of the prime movers -- how much more urban can you get?

 

[DarrenGMiller]

In Greyhawk? My map of Greyhawk has quite a few cities, towns, and villages. It has colleges where wizardry is taught, secret organizations of wizards, non-secret organizations of wizards, nations of elves, circles of druids, more than a dozen known fireball-tossing death knights, a nation ruled by racist martial artists & assassins, another (once & future?) nation ruled by a cabal of diabolists, another nation ruled by a demigod, and at least a couple of underground complexes that have or used to have other deities imprisoned inside.

And the setting is named after a city that features a criminal organization as one of the prime movers -- how much more urban can you get?

As far as the urbanization goes, look at populations. The largest cities in Greyhawk are significantly smaller population-wise than those in Forgotten Realms or other settings.

DM

 

[Doug McCrae]

That's a really weird sentiment. What does Greyhawk have to do with "Tolkienesque"? You have a high-magic world... vs. a low magic world

Yeah, but compared with Forgotten Realms, Greyhawk is 'low magic'.

 

[Doug McCrae]

Well, I like Greyhawk and Eberron. And some of the stuff in between.

 

[DragonLancer]

I'm with the original poster, I like my worlds more medieval in feel and less Eepic, less highly magical, and less steam-punk.

I don't care that any world with such strong magic would not in all liklihood turn out as it does in a lot of D&D, thats what I want to see. A medieval world with monsters and magic but hasn't fallen into the magic is technology hole.

I like my worlds generic. There is no need for a plot hook to make the setting interesting. My players and I do that, we set the events and tell the stories and shape the world.


Though saying that, I am playing in a Eberron game at the moment and I'm enjoying it, but I wouldn't want to run the setting nor am I interested in knowing more about it than I need to play my character.

So count me in as a dinosaur as well.

 

[Ankh-Morpork Guard]

The funny thing is that Greyhawk really isn't all that different from Eberron...

 

[Turjan]

In Greyhawk? My map of Greyhawk has quite a few cities, towns, and villages. It has colleges where wizardry is taught, secret organizations of wizards, non-secret organizations of wizards, nations of elves, circles of druids, more than a dozen known fireball-tossing death knights, a nation ruled by racist martial artists & assassins, another (once & future?) nation ruled by a cabal of diabolists, another nation ruled by a demigod, and at least a couple of underground complexes that have or used to have other deities imprisoned inside.

And the setting is named after a city that features a criminal organization as one of the prime movers -- how much more urban can you get?

What are a dozen death knights compared to the size of a whole world? Nothing. And Greyhawk does not have any Sharn. Or do you count Middle Earth as urbanized because of Minas Tirith? Even the FR try to catch this wilderness feeling. You can step in front of the gates of Waterdeep, and there you are: welcome to the Savage Frontier .

 

[Turjan]

The funny thing is that Greyhawk really isn't all that different from Eberron...

I know. It's more about the details. The abundance of constructs, skyscrapers and 'magitechnical' gadgets just shifts the general feel of the setting to something I do not appreciate in my fantasy. To each his own .

 

[Flyspeck23]

Oh, don't get me wrong, I love Iron Kingdoms too. But there is nothing wrong with the archtypical fantasy setting either. Both are good, and I have fun in either setting. (And I will admit to a taste for steam...) But sometimes you just want to be a dwarf with an axe over his shoulder, whistling the Hi Ho song.

I think you got me wrong - as those were just general remarks, not aimed at you, and I tried to not pass judgement.

I agree with you, of course (and my homebrew is pretty "traditional", at least compared to my other game (Eberron)).