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Greyhawk Elevator Pitch?
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<blockquote data-quote="epithet" data-source="post: 7603936" data-attributes="member: 6796566"><p>The World of Greyhawk is different from The Forgotten Realms in large part because of the approach taken by their respective creators. </p><p></p><p>The Realms was first conceived of by Ed Greenwood as a childhood fantasy, a world where his imagination could run wild and populate it with magical people and things, and put some dark and dangerous elements in there for them to fight and be heroic. It has come a long way since, and has been expanded by countless different creators, but it's core remains the space between "Once upon a time" and "happily ever after."</p><p></p><p>Greyhawk, by contrast, was conceived as a backdrop and connective tissue for dungeon crawls. The world was created by wargamer, to link together campaigns created by wargamers. That means a few things:</p><p>1: The setting exists to give you a place to put your campaign in relation to other campaigns, and to give you some ideas for your campaign. That means that a lot of the world is waiting for you to define it.</p><p>2: The defining element of the world is conflict, most often in the form of warfare. The kingdoms of Oerth fight for territory and power. The religions of Oerth fight for followers. The races fight for survival. It is possible and reasonable for a Lawful Good character to be in conflict with another group of Lawful Good NPCs, and in fact the setting presupposes that Law and Good are almost as dangerous as Chaos and Evil. Only the path of balance offers any hope of long-term respite.</p><p>3: Most people want to kill you. The primary human cultures around the area of the Free City of Greyhawk are the Flan, the Aerdi, the Suel, and the Baklunish. They all resent each other and carry millenia of racial animosity. The elves and dwarves don't much like each other, or humans. Most groups of elves and dwarves will give you a chance to persuade them not to kill you, but don't count on it. The exception is the large commercial centers, where your worth is measured in what you can buy or what you have to sell, with little regard for your race or culture. Of course, alliances between these groups form quickly in the face of a greater threat, but trust comes very slowly.</p><p>4: The world is mostly cruising along in the mid-to late middle ages with little magic beyond what a hedge mage or acolyte can command. There are areas that are exceptions, some barely out of the bronze age and some experiencing a Renaissance. Some areas are home to cosmic-level magic, and some remote, secret places hide technology beyond understanding, either from other worlds or from a past so remote as to be before the time of legends.</p><p></p><p>Here's your elevator pitch: Thousands of years of war between cultures, races, gods, and ideologies have created a world of deep grudges and strange bedfellows. Threats abound, and the promise of civilization offered by the Great Kingdom has proved to be empty. To keep the Flanaess from being consumed by tyranny, slaughter, and worse, the bloody-handed marauder has as great a role to play as the righteous paladin. These are interesting times.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="epithet, post: 7603936, member: 6796566"] The World of Greyhawk is different from The Forgotten Realms in large part because of the approach taken by their respective creators. The Realms was first conceived of by Ed Greenwood as a childhood fantasy, a world where his imagination could run wild and populate it with magical people and things, and put some dark and dangerous elements in there for them to fight and be heroic. It has come a long way since, and has been expanded by countless different creators, but it's core remains the space between "Once upon a time" and "happily ever after." Greyhawk, by contrast, was conceived as a backdrop and connective tissue for dungeon crawls. The world was created by wargamer, to link together campaigns created by wargamers. That means a few things: 1: The setting exists to give you a place to put your campaign in relation to other campaigns, and to give you some ideas for your campaign. That means that a lot of the world is waiting for you to define it. 2: The defining element of the world is conflict, most often in the form of warfare. The kingdoms of Oerth fight for territory and power. The religions of Oerth fight for followers. The races fight for survival. It is possible and reasonable for a Lawful Good character to be in conflict with another group of Lawful Good NPCs, and in fact the setting presupposes that Law and Good are almost as dangerous as Chaos and Evil. Only the path of balance offers any hope of long-term respite. 3: Most people want to kill you. The primary human cultures around the area of the Free City of Greyhawk are the Flan, the Aerdi, the Suel, and the Baklunish. They all resent each other and carry millenia of racial animosity. The elves and dwarves don't much like each other, or humans. Most groups of elves and dwarves will give you a chance to persuade them not to kill you, but don't count on it. The exception is the large commercial centers, where your worth is measured in what you can buy or what you have to sell, with little regard for your race or culture. Of course, alliances between these groups form quickly in the face of a greater threat, but trust comes very slowly. 4: The world is mostly cruising along in the mid-to late middle ages with little magic beyond what a hedge mage or acolyte can command. There are areas that are exceptions, some barely out of the bronze age and some experiencing a Renaissance. Some areas are home to cosmic-level magic, and some remote, secret places hide technology beyond understanding, either from other worlds or from a past so remote as to be before the time of legends. Here's your elevator pitch: Thousands of years of war between cultures, races, gods, and ideologies have created a world of deep grudges and strange bedfellows. Threats abound, and the promise of civilization offered by the Great Kingdom has proved to be empty. To keep the Flanaess from being consumed by tyranny, slaughter, and worse, the bloody-handed marauder has as great a role to play as the righteous paladin. These are interesting times. [/QUOTE]
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