Greyhawk: Favorite regions for campaigns.

[Nellisir]

Off the map! Sea of Dust! Hyborre! Hepmonaland!


Nell.

 

[ivocaliban]

I much prefer the Old Aerdy East. I'm an intrigue hawk and this area has the most tantalizing possibilities for me. Ancient decaying empire, political pressure cooker (Great Kingdom, Solnor compact), civil war threats all over the place, surrounding region instability (old aerdy west, scarlet brother hood to south, barbarian encroachment to north-east, theocaracy/Tenh problems to north-west)......exciting!

The Old Aerdy East intrigues me, but being one of those poor D&D players who couldn't afford campaign settings growing up I only discovered Greyhawk, Forgotten Realms, etc. with the publication of 3.0e. As handy as the Living Greyhawk Gazetteer is for summing up so much background information, I never felt the political dynamic of that region was sufficiently explained. With the noble houses, lich-kings, and general insanity, it seemed too much to tackle for my first Greyhawk campaign (which is going into it's fourth year now and will probably take another year to complete). Maybe next time.

 

[Prince of Happiness]

The Old Aerdy East intrigues me, but being one of those poor D&D players who couldn't afford campaign settings growing up I only discovered Greyhawk, Forgotten Realms, etc. with the publication of 3.0e. As handy as the Living Greyhawk Gazetteer is for summing up so much background information, I never felt the political dynamic of that region was sufficiently explained. With the noble houses, lich-kings, and general insanity, it seemed too much to tackle for my first Greyhawk campaign (which is going into it's fourth year now and will probably take another year to complete). Maybe next time.

I remember there being an Aerdy download available on the WOTC website a few years back. It was for a planned splatbook that covered the region. It never came out because the line got cancelled before its release date. I think...think it was called "Ivid the Undying."

 

[Aeolius]

I think...think it was called "Ivid the Undying."

You'll find a link to Ivid the Undying HERE

 

[The_Gneech]

The funny thing about all the regions of the Flanaess is that they all seem the *same*. In other words, no deep cultural distinctions have ever been made in published material (with the exception of the Western Bakluni lands which are clearly "Arabian").

Well, some of that is deliberate -- Greyhawk is vague in many ways specifically so you can make what you want out of it. But you can make some deductions about it ... based on its proximity to Ket, for instance, I have cast Bissel as being something like Romania/Turkey, while Gran March and Geoff are more Germanic in feel. For Veluna, with its powerful church, I always think "Enlightenment Italy," and so forth. Not that it's a 1:1 swap ... just a handy touchstone to give me an idea of the look and feel of the place.

-The Gneech

 

[Davelozzi]

You'll find a link to Ivid the Undying HERE

Also, I just found this nice fan-formatted version here

 

[Desdichado]

Just finishing up the "Black Ice" module outta Dungeon. Other than that, I'm not actually that familiar with the various Greyhawk locales.

Although I do have to say, those names really turn me off...

 

[dead]

Well, some of that is deliberate -- Greyhawk is vague in many ways specifically so you can make what you want out of it. But you can make some deductions about it ... based on its proximity to Ket, for instance, I have cast Bissel as being something like Romania/Turkey, while Gran March and Geoff are more Germanic in feel. For Veluna, with its powerful church, I always think "Enlightenment Italy," and so forth. Not that it's a 1:1 swap ... just a handy touchstone to give me an idea of the look and feel of the place.

-The Gneech

The Geoff region is supposed to be thick with Flan folk. I've always wondered what sort of real-world culture they would translate to because it would make that particular nation distinctive. At the moment, in my Geoff campaign, I've kinda dodged the issue. My Geoff is pretty generic-medieval-European but I do describe quite a lot of dark skinned Flan folk as being among the populous (perhaps a third).

Flan folk have always seemed to me to be a kind of cross between a Native American and a Negro. Maybe in Geoff they have adapted to the Oeridian feudal way of life?

The Great Kingdom region seems Romanesque . . . what with their old Empire and all. Furyondy is probably a mix of Anglo and Saxon culture.

Were would the French be? Veluna?

As for Italy . . . for some reason I've always felt like lumping it over in the east closer to the Great Kingdom. Maybe The Pale could be Italy? Is Basilica an Italian word?

Funny thing . . . If you read the first Gord books (either Saga of Old City or Artifact of Evil), Gary has a shop-keeper from Urnst speaking in a very German-type manner. I don't know, I'll have to consult my books; maybe I can supply a quote. Of course this was just *one* person in Urnst that Gord happened to be chatting to (maybe more spoke like this, though; can't quite remember).

Then you've got Perrenland. This is kind of a Switzerland-type region.

 

[Olive]

Maybe The Pale could be Italy? Is Basilica an Italian word?

My DM plays it as Russian, but I'm not sure that's right.

http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-pal2.htm

That site explains what a 'pale' is. To whit:

A pale is an old name for a pointed stake driven into the ground to form part of a fence and—by obvious extension—to a barrier made of such stakes, a fence (our modern word paling is from the same source, as are pole and impale). This meaning has been around in English since the fourteenth century. By 1400 it had taken on various figurative senses, such as a defence, a safeguard, a barrier, an enclosure, or a limit beyond which it was not permissible to go.

In particular, it was used to describe various defended enclosures of territory inside other countries. For example, the English pale in France in the fourteenth century was the territory of Calais, the last English possession in that country. The best-known modern example is the Russian Pale, between 1791 up to the Revolution in 1917, which were specified provinces and districts within which Russian Jews were required to live. Another famous one is the Pale in Ireland, that part of the country over which England had direct jurisdiction—it varied from time to time, but was an area of several counties centred on Dublin. The first mention of the Irish Pale is in a document of 1446–7. Though there was an attempt later in the century to enclose the Pale by a bank and ditch (which was never completed), there never was a literal fence around it.

The most famous 'pale' is the Irish one, so perhaps that was what Gary was thinking of?

 

[Davelozzi]

The Geoff region is supposed to be thick with Flan folk. I've always wondered what sort of real-world culture they would translate to because it would make that particular nation distinctive. At the moment, in my Geoff campaign, I've kinda dodged the issue. My Geoff is pretty generic-medieval-European but I do describe quite a lot of dark skinned Flan folk as being among the populous (perhaps a third).

Flan folk have always seemed to me to be a kind of cross between a Native American and a Negro. Maybe in Geoff they have adapted to the Oeridian feudal way of life?

In another thread (or somewhere) recently I saw someone describe the Flan as sort of a cross between Native Americans and early Celts, and I could kind of agree with that.

Though I would not take it to the level that the Living Greyhawk Geoff triad and have everyone speaking Welsch Gaelic (or whatever that is).
http://www.living-geoff.com/modules.php?name=Gyruff_Gazetteer&pa=showpage&pid=101