Difference between Living Greyhawk and From the Ashes and 1e Greyhawk

[Doc_Klueless]

I own 1e Greyhawk and Living Greyhawk Gazetteer, but I don't own the From the Ashes box set. I've got some cash just sitting around from a check I found in a Holiday card from my elderly folks and was thinking about picking up the box set.

So I thought I'd ask a quick question to those in the know: What's the difference between Living Greyhawk and Greyhawk: From the Ashes and 1e Greyhawk?

I suspect that Living Greyhawk is the closest to From the Ashes and that the Timeline has simply been advanced by x-many years, but that's about the depth of my knowledge.

(plus it would give us a topic to talk about without much argument. Heh. )

 

[pemerton]

There are three GH products between the first boxed set: City of Greyhawk boxed set; From the Ashes; and The Adventure Begins. The second and third are both on D&D Classics, but last time I looked the CoG wasn't there.

CoG takes the timeline to 580-something, FtA to around 585/6 (?) and then TAB to 591, which is the same as LG

There is not much history/setting-wise in FtA or TAB that you won't find summarised in LG. The CoG actually is something of a variant history, because it mentions stuff (like an invasion of the Shield Lands) that got forgotten in FtA, but is then ret-conned back in in TAB (I think I've got those details right).

The FTA world maps are a bit different from the originals to reflect the changed borders, but nothing very dramatic. There is also a smaller, City-of-GH-centred map.

What FtA has that adds to the LG book is a whole lot of information (geography, NPCs, etc) for a City of GH-based campaign (to go with the aforementioned map), though some of it presupposes information in the CoG boxed set. It also has 2nd ed AD&D-style treatments of the GH gods and some monsters (eg Animus) if that is important to you. There are also a half-dozen odd mini-adventures (a couple in one of the books, the others on two-sided cards) and some setting plot hooks (a bit like the ones in the first boxed set's smaller book, or in the Greyhawk Adventures hardback).

I know you wanted info and not advice, but my advice would be: if you don't have the CoG boxed set, and it is avai;able somewhere/how (I have it from when it came out, and so have never looked) I'd recommend that over FtA. But FtA as a download from D&D classics isn't very expensive and certainly won't do you any harm! On balance I think it's better than TAB, although the latter does have a lot of historical/political detail that I'm not sure is all reproduced in the LG.

 

[Doc_Klueless]

Thanks, Pemerton. I'll pick up FtA from D&D classics and give it a look through. I'm currently in the process of acquiring CoG. (It's nice to have found-money and a raise in the same month.)