Greyhawk is the 'sample setting' provided in the 2024 Dungeon Master's Guide, and it is illustrated with a massive hex map by the awesome Mike Schley.
Oh, Faerûn, and by a lotWhat's bigger this continent or Faerun?
I’d always thought of the run from Neverwinter to Waterdeep as being the fantasy equivalent of “popping down to the shops”. Then I realized the scale.. it’s like 450 miles?! I think the maps, great as they are, give a false sense of scale.Oh, Faerûn, and by a lot
The Flannaes is ~6.5 million square miles.
The Sword Coaat area covered by SCAG alone is ~5 million square miles.
The main issue is thst 3E/4E messed with the map scale, and the novels kind of trest the distances like nothing. Going from Neverwinter to Baldur's Gate is epic!I’d always thought of the run from Neverwinter to Waterdeep as being the fantasy equivalent of “popping down to the shops”. Then I realized the scale.. it’s like 450 miles?! I think the maps, great as they are, give a false sense of scale.
Another comparison, the smaller maps from the OG Grey Vox detailing "The Heartlands" are also about the same size as the Flannaes, taken together:What's bigger this continent or Faerun?
It had indeed angered the blood of a lot of grognards.Wow. I’d known this was an anger-inducing module among Gygax loyalists but hadn’t read it. Having listened recently to the “When we were wizards” podcast I recognize a bunch of these references and wonder about the thoughts ( resentments?) going on in Breault‘s (the editor’s) mind. His CV show a love and loyalty to the game.
The conventional take is presumably something like “Lorraine Williams ordered a hatchet job” but I am willing to bet the reality was very different. Not sure if there’s research into what was really going on at the time and how this found the light of day. Just bizarre.
Frank Mentzer's Empyrea campaign setting is on the Aquaria continent, which he apparently agreed with Gary was East of Oerik, across the Solnor Ocean. When Frank pitched it as a Kickstarter (and generally) he talked about how Gary had given him written authorization to set it on Oerth, but apparently the continent is also described briefly in module I12 Egg of the Phoenix (Mentzer & Jaquays), so that gives those geographical details at least a touch of officiality.The Greyhawk campaign is set in the Flanaess sub continent, the eastern end of Oerik.
Most of planet Oerth’s landmass is in Oerik + a very close by continent about the size of the Flanaess called Hepmonaland.
Nothing outside the Flanaess and Hepmonaland was developed or is even agreed upon among fans. Which is cool - a DIY planet.
The Flanaess is to Oerth as Europe is to Eurasia+Africa, if the Americas didn’t exist and no one could even agree on the shape of Asia much less what’s there.
In fact, if you look at the map, it's Europe (+North Africa & Western Asia) flipped backwards and tilted about 30 degrees southeastward.The Greyhawk campaign is set in the Flanaess sub continent, the eastern end of Oerik.
Most of planet Oerth’s landmass is in Oerik + a very close by continent about the size of the Flanaess called Hepmonaland.
Nothing outside the Flanaess and Hepmonaland was developed or is even agreed upon among fans. Which is cool - a DIY planet.
The Flanaess is to Oerth as Europe is to Eurasia+Africa, if the Americas didn’t exist and no one could even agree on the shape of Asia much less what’s there.
The map of Oerth in Dragon Annual 1996 have certain areas clearly correspond to certain reallife locations, including "Lynn" (Holy Roman Empire of France and Germany) and "Erypt" (Egypt and Arabia).In fact, if you look at the map, it's Europe (+North Africa & Western Asia) flipped backwards and tilted about 30 degrees southeastward.
"The Great Kingdom" could very much be considered the old Holy Roman Empire.