I'm A Banana
Potassium-Rich
Man, the ratio of serious responses to jokey/sarcastic responses here is not great. 
D&D 5E Give Me Three Reasons To Play Greyhawk
Dire Bare
Legend
Man, the ratio of serious responses to jokey/sarcastic responses here is not great.
Yeah. That and nothing has really convinced me that Greyhawk is where it's at, moreso than any other epic fantasy setting from WotC or another publisher.
Personally, I think that playing a classic D&D game in Greyhawk would be fun for the nostalgia and tradition, but I don't see that as a plus for folks not already somewhat familiar with the setting. I think it does mesh well with "old-school" style, but so do other settings as well.
chriton227
Explorer
1) A solid structure to the world but with plenty of room to make changes and additions to make it your own
2) Things aren't just black and white, there are lots of shades of gray and moral ambiguity that can result in strange partnerships and interesting interactions.
3) Plenty of resources available but without getting to the level of canon overload that plagues settings like Forgotten Realms and the associated "settings lawyers"
2) Things aren't just black and white, there are lots of shades of gray and moral ambiguity that can result in strange partnerships and interesting interactions.
3) Plenty of resources available but without getting to the level of canon overload that plagues settings like Forgotten Realms and the associated "settings lawyers"
This is why I like Greyhawk, and how I like to run it. YMMV.
1. Greyhawk is a setting where a big, bad, evil demi-god rules half the land and wants the rest.
2. The biggest threat to him is probably the demon-haunted, decadent, and equally evil empire that dominates the half he doesn't yet rule.
2a. The "good" states don't trust each other owing to their history as vassal states of various other powers, including the now demon-haunted empire.
3. Your job as an adventurer is to turn this epic conflict into your personal path to vast wealth and unmatched power.
I always like Mordenkainen as the end-game goal for Greyhawk characters - powerful enough to do as you please, while always keeping the various power groups in the world that could threaten him off balance and bickering (the balance, my ass - the Circle of Eight's end game is "keep everyone else - good or evil - two steps behind us.")
1. Greyhawk is a setting where a big, bad, evil demi-god rules half the land and wants the rest.
2. The biggest threat to him is probably the demon-haunted, decadent, and equally evil empire that dominates the half he doesn't yet rule.
2a. The "good" states don't trust each other owing to their history as vassal states of various other powers, including the now demon-haunted empire.
3. Your job as an adventurer is to turn this epic conflict into your personal path to vast wealth and unmatched power.
I always like Mordenkainen as the end-game goal for Greyhawk characters - powerful enough to do as you please, while always keeping the various power groups in the world that could threaten him off balance and bickering (the balance, my ass - the Circle of Eight's end game is "keep everyone else - good or evil - two steps behind us.")
pming
Legend
Hiya!
Hmmm.... for me, the best 3 things about Greyhawk would be:
(1) It's GREYhawk. The three morals of alignment, Good, Neutral and Evil are all there. However, Neutrality seems to have the 'most widespread' influence. Most folk in GH just want to live their life in peace. Alas, Good wants to "make things better for them" and Evil wants to "make things better for themselves"...so there are a lot of skirmishes, border wars, etc going on somewhere in the Flanaess (the name of the section of Oerth [the planet] that is "Greyhawk") all the time. Because of the pervasiveness of Neutrality, guys who are really good or really evil tend to stand out (re: paladins, anti-paladins, devout clerics, dragons, demons, angels, flumph, etc). If a commoner saw a tiefling walking down the street, you can bet your bottom copper that tiefling is going to get noticed...NOW! In keeping with the "greyness" of GH, the druids actually play (or can, if you so choose) an equal, maybe even greater, role in the goings on of the world. You may have the generally Good forces of Furyondy battling the generally Evil forces of Iuz...but you *know* that the forces of Neutrality are in the middle, playing both sides. This makes for, IMO, a very "Game of Thrones" kind of feel, with armies of human militia making up 95% of any force (generally speaking). It brings it all down to earth, making the fantastical side of D&D, well, fantastical and not just "Oh, look, a contingent of Dragonborn Sorcerers riding wyverns."
(2) It's a buffet. Take what you want, leave what you don't. I've run multiple campaigns of multi-year length in GH since my first exposure to it with the '81 "folio". Each and every one has been different...sometimes vastly so. I've used 1e, 2e, Hackmaster 4e, and even some non-D&D-style systems (Powers & Perils, and HARP). I've had campaigns set in/around the same area as a previous one...with totally different feels to 'em. As a DM I don't have to "change" much of anything...mostly because what is there is loose enough for interpretation or usable from different angles. For example, in the Yeomanry; one campaign was focused on raising and training militia for a noted up-tick in Giant activity (sort of a military-feeling to it all)...and another campaign was focused on discovering the epicenter of a huge, mysterious pinkish-red 'explosion' that covered half the country one night (a very 'magical weirdness mystery' style feeling). Both took place (game year wise) at the same time. I could use the info given on the Yeomanry to run both. I didn't have to "ignore" anything, nor did I have to remove NPC's, or make assumptions about anything...I was free to write what I want "around" the skeleton of it all.
(3) Community. I am bias, but I find the old grognards who stick to Grehyawk easy to talk with (for the most part). This may be because I'm in the same rough decade as them (I'm 45). Ask a question about GH and you'll get 8 answers of "well, this is how it is in MY campaign", 2 answers of "well, in pre-wars...", and 1 answer of "well, post-wars...". But you pretty much never get "LOL! Newb! Go read the books, it's all right there...duh!". Also, if you ask for ideas for your campaign where the Circle of Eight were killed off or otherwise disappeared decades past, you'll get a lot of what you asked for: ideas. You won't get people telling you that you "aren't playing real Greyhawk", or that "you'll have to rework so much lore it won't be worth it". I guess the closest I can think of is...the GH community seems overall very supportive of other DM's campaigns (exceptions there are...after all, lots of old dogs in the kennel and all that...).
Bonus Answer! (4) Anna's maps. Just looking at these things....*drool*.... If looking at her maps doesn't get your creative juices flowing, well, there's no hope for you, sorry. Oh, here...: http://ghmaps.net/
Bottom Line: If you want a game world with AMAZING maps and descriptions that spark your imagination, Greyhwak is it. If you want to be able to run campaigns from gritty war-stories, to high-magic save-the-world campaigns, Greyhawk can accomodate. If you want a world where the players feel like their PC's actually are the "only ones who an rid the town of the ogre menace", the Greyhawk will do perfectly. If you want a campaign where the players feel like their PC's are just entertainment for the cabal of high-level NPC's that sent them to "rid the town of the ogre menace" (knowing full well that even just two of those NPC's could deal with those ogres in the space of about 20 minutes)...well, Greyhawk probably isn't for you.
^_^
Paul L. Ming
Hmmm.... for me, the best 3 things about Greyhawk would be:
(1) It's GREYhawk. The three morals of alignment, Good, Neutral and Evil are all there. However, Neutrality seems to have the 'most widespread' influence. Most folk in GH just want to live their life in peace. Alas, Good wants to "make things better for them" and Evil wants to "make things better for themselves"...so there are a lot of skirmishes, border wars, etc going on somewhere in the Flanaess (the name of the section of Oerth [the planet] that is "Greyhawk") all the time. Because of the pervasiveness of Neutrality, guys who are really good or really evil tend to stand out (re: paladins, anti-paladins, devout clerics, dragons, demons, angels, flumph, etc). If a commoner saw a tiefling walking down the street, you can bet your bottom copper that tiefling is going to get noticed...NOW! In keeping with the "greyness" of GH, the druids actually play (or can, if you so choose) an equal, maybe even greater, role in the goings on of the world. You may have the generally Good forces of Furyondy battling the generally Evil forces of Iuz...but you *know* that the forces of Neutrality are in the middle, playing both sides. This makes for, IMO, a very "Game of Thrones" kind of feel, with armies of human militia making up 95% of any force (generally speaking). It brings it all down to earth, making the fantastical side of D&D, well, fantastical and not just "Oh, look, a contingent of Dragonborn Sorcerers riding wyverns."
(2) It's a buffet. Take what you want, leave what you don't. I've run multiple campaigns of multi-year length in GH since my first exposure to it with the '81 "folio". Each and every one has been different...sometimes vastly so. I've used 1e, 2e, Hackmaster 4e, and even some non-D&D-style systems (Powers & Perils, and HARP). I've had campaigns set in/around the same area as a previous one...with totally different feels to 'em. As a DM I don't have to "change" much of anything...mostly because what is there is loose enough for interpretation or usable from different angles. For example, in the Yeomanry; one campaign was focused on raising and training militia for a noted up-tick in Giant activity (sort of a military-feeling to it all)...and another campaign was focused on discovering the epicenter of a huge, mysterious pinkish-red 'explosion' that covered half the country one night (a very 'magical weirdness mystery' style feeling). Both took place (game year wise) at the same time. I could use the info given on the Yeomanry to run both. I didn't have to "ignore" anything, nor did I have to remove NPC's, or make assumptions about anything...I was free to write what I want "around" the skeleton of it all.
(3) Community. I am bias, but I find the old grognards who stick to Grehyawk easy to talk with (for the most part). This may be because I'm in the same rough decade as them (I'm 45). Ask a question about GH and you'll get 8 answers of "well, this is how it is in MY campaign", 2 answers of "well, in pre-wars...", and 1 answer of "well, post-wars...". But you pretty much never get "LOL! Newb! Go read the books, it's all right there...duh!". Also, if you ask for ideas for your campaign where the Circle of Eight were killed off or otherwise disappeared decades past, you'll get a lot of what you asked for: ideas. You won't get people telling you that you "aren't playing real Greyhawk", or that "you'll have to rework so much lore it won't be worth it". I guess the closest I can think of is...the GH community seems overall very supportive of other DM's campaigns (exceptions there are...after all, lots of old dogs in the kennel and all that...).
Bonus Answer! (4) Anna's maps. Just looking at these things....*drool*.... If looking at her maps doesn't get your creative juices flowing, well, there's no hope for you, sorry. Oh, here...: http://ghmaps.net/
Bottom Line: If you want a game world with AMAZING maps and descriptions that spark your imagination, Greyhwak is it. If you want to be able to run campaigns from gritty war-stories, to high-magic save-the-world campaigns, Greyhawk can accomodate. If you want a world where the players feel like their PC's actually are the "only ones who an rid the town of the ogre menace", the Greyhawk will do perfectly. If you want a campaign where the players feel like their PC's are just entertainment for the cabal of high-level NPC's that sent them to "rid the town of the ogre menace" (knowing full well that even just two of those NPC's could deal with those ogres in the space of about 20 minutes)...well, Greyhawk probably isn't for you.
^_^
Paul L. Ming
The only reason to use Greyhawk, as "the place to be", is if you want to share the experiences of other players who use it. Every setting ever released by TSR was a complete, usable setting with pro's and con's that were entirely subjective. Greyhawk's appeal is dependent on if you like what it happens to have. I know I and others have contributed solid posts about what Greyhawk's more distinguishing features are. If the goal was to say why Greyhawk is the only setting to choose, I wouldn't even have answered because that means to disrespect other settings. There is no setting that is better than every other like that, and you are implying a popularity contest determines it. If you want to get in on what some other players have with Greyhawk, join them or try the setting and see for yourself.
Greyhawk has a loyal fanbase, and it's really remarkable for how little the setting has been supported over the years. It's also remarkable that it seems to be the setting of choice for a very large number of 1st Edition AD&D players, still to this day. Think about that if you will. These people have been using the same edition, and the same setting, despite little to no support and shrinking popularity. There must be something to it, right? Maybe no one can be "told" what this is. You have to see for yourself.
Greyhawk has a loyal fanbase, and it's really remarkable for how little the setting has been supported over the years. It's also remarkable that it seems to be the setting of choice for a very large number of 1st Edition AD&D players, still to this day. Think about that if you will. These people have been using the same edition, and the same setting, despite little to no support and shrinking popularity. There must be something to it, right? Maybe no one can be "told" what this is. You have to see for yourself.
I'd like to suggest, humbly, that Greyhawk be published for AD&D again instead of re-making it for 5th Edition.
TarionzCousin
Second Most Angelic Devil Ever
I agree; needs more jokes.Man, the ratio of serious responses to jokey/sarcastic responses here is not great.
Actually, there are some great responses in this thread and on this page. It makes me want to run/play in Old Greyhawk again.
Nergal Pendragon
First Post
This brings up an interesting question...
Can someone take the basic Greyhawk info and use it as just a loose basis for creating a heavily customized version of Greyhawk? I have a few setting details and mechanics I want to test out, and using a variation of an existing campaign is a lot easier than creating one entirely new.
Can someone take the basic Greyhawk info and use it as just a loose basis for creating a heavily customized version of Greyhawk? I have a few setting details and mechanics I want to test out, and using a variation of an existing campaign is a lot easier than creating one entirely new.
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