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Message: <blockquote data-quote="hastur_nz" data-source="post: 7125568" data-attributes="member: 40592">I ran Greyhawk with the original box-set, as well as Gazeteer for my main references, with a bit of extra material from here and there.  Personally I didn't like much of the "Greyhawk Wars" stuff, but from memory the Gazeteer is actually about 80% original box-set, and 20% Greyhawk Wars etc.  So my answer is simply: it doesn't really matter.  Pick a starting location, and take it from there; use what you like, forget the rest.  Like you say, don't swamp people with background that's not needed, let pieces unfold as required.  Personally, I'd recommend starting in the Sheldomar Valley for a more 'rural / frontier' feeling, e.g. the Yeomanry.  The 'Wars' didn't affect that place much, you can largely ignore it.  The recommended places given in the Yawning Portal book are too far-flung, especially if you want to actually create a single campaign out of them (it's a very long way from NW Bissel, to the Pomarj, and that's just the first two!).  If you want classic old-school urban adventures, I love Greyhawk City, and that place is always full of shenanigans no matter what timeline you care for (Mad Gods Key, from Dungeon Mag, is a great kick-off adventure, it's easy to convert to 5e).  I've never liked Homlet or the area, although it is a classic.I've used Greyhawk a lot, from 1e through to 5e:I ran the 3.5 book "Expedition to the Ruins of Greyhawk", and needed very little back-story that wasn't already there.I ran "Age of Worms" campaign, twice (3.5, 5e), and the first time I used a bit of additional materials for side-treks, some additional stuff in Dyvers, and way out west somewhere, but mostly I needed very little back-story that wasn't already there in the adventure path.  The second time, I used very little back-story outside of the adventures, just a little bit around the Rift Canyon.Way back in 3.0 days, I ran Against the Giants, with the original locations in the Crystalmists etc.  PC's started at level 8 or so, with no real back-story (i.e. exactly as written in G1, lol).  Straight after that, we started a new campaign, starting in the Yeomanry.  They ended up adventuring all the way to the Hold of the Sea Princes, then up to Keoland etc.  That was a lot of home-brew wilderness, with adventure bits sourced from all over.  It was about 8+ levels of adventures, but still only covered a few geographical areas.Once we even did a retro AD&D game, starting around the Wild Coast and ending up in the Pomarj vs the Slavers; I used a few bits of background fluff to help pad out what were mostly just dungeons.Oh, last advice: don't try and change rules stuff to try and make it "more Greyhawk".  Greyhawk is pure 'fluff', the default D&D rules should be totally applicable to the world, because 'back in the old days', it was the default setting and baked into the core (AD&D) books.  Sure, you might wonder how a Dragonborn or similar fits in, if someone want to play one, but that's pretty simple, and probably not even required (none of my players ever chose weird, non-GH races in my GH games, and in all my campaigns across all sorts of settings, if they do, the player takes on most of the burden of explaining how it makes sense).  Make sure the Human Variant is an available option, and you should be sweet (the world is generally dominated by humans, with 'demi-humans' second, then 'monsters').</blockquote>

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