Greyhawk information?!

[MerricB]

I'm just starting a series of articles on Canonfire! that should be useful for beginners in familiarising them with the main aspects of the World of Greyhawk.

The first can be found here (A Short Introduction to the World of Greyhawk).

They won't replace the Living Greyhawk Gazetteer, but I hope they'll be helpful for your players and you in quickly identifying the major themes of the Greyhawk setting.

The LGG is stunning. Much Greyhawk, very little LG. It's absolutely perfect for those wanting to know more about the setting. Unlike the FRCS, it isn't full of rules information. One possible reason is that Greyhawk is the world D&D is designed from... so the core rules are Greyhawk rules. When you take the D&D rules to other settings, you start diverging from the base! (This isn't strictly true any more, but does sound good. )

Hopefully I'll have part II up on the site sometime in the next week or so.

Cheers!

 

[murlynd]

Hey all,

For what it is worth this website seems to have a pretty good grasp of the Greyhawk campaign setting.

http://www.users.bigpond.net.au/greyhawkcampaign/Greyhawk.htm

I am a long time Greyhawk fan and this site is very beginner friendly.

Also, just from a personal standpoint, the idea that the core of 3E is bull. I have looked at the new modules from WOTC and I see in no way, shape, or form how they can be considered core Greyhawk. That is just me, I may be way off base, but I feel let down on the "Greyhawk is the Core" song and dance.

FR gets a nice, shiny full-color hardback and Greyhawk gets a black and white perfect bound. FR gets accessories and four part maps in Dragon magazine, Greyhawk gets nothing. Greyhawk is core? Yeah, and Steve Jackson redefined the dungeons and dragons game.

It's a shame really, Greyhawk is a setting so full of great characters and stories, yet it is ignored by WOTC in terms of support.

 

[Harp]

I don't think I'm hijacking this post with my question, but if so, I apologize in advance.

One of the minor knocks I have against LGG is that it doesn't give the gods of the Greyhawk pantheons a full 'Faiths & Avatars' style treatment. Granted, the full list of Greyhawk gods is exhaustive, and they all seem to be addressed in the LGG, but we don't learn a lot about the in's and out's of day-to-day worship for the various cults. Obviously space was a huge consideration, so I assume the chapter on the gods in LGG was merely meant as an introduction, leaving DM's to define the particular cults for their own GH campaigns.

But that brings me to my question: what role will the new 'Deities and Demigods' book play in further defining the Greyhawk gods? If the article on Iuz, Pholtus, Rao, and Tharizdun in the most recent issue of Dragon is a preview of what the new book will bring, then I have some concerns. The approach seems to harken back to the original Deities & Demigods book of 1e, which didn't do a lot for the gods but provide stats so that uber-characters could engage them directly. Hey, I admit to having had a great time with it at the time too, but my gaming needs have changed. I thought Eric Boyd, et al, had reset the bar with the trilogy of gods books for the Forgotten Realms, and I was initially quite excited about the prospect of a new 'Deities and Demigods' but now I'm not sure.

 

[qstor]

Harp - you are correct in your thinking. The only Greyhawk gods in the new D&D book are the ones in the PHB. No Faiths and Avatars style write up for any of the others.

Mike

 

[Erik Mona]

It also occurs to me that you can read the firirst several pages of the LGG on amazon.com. You might want to check it out to make sure it's what you're looking for.

Thanks,

Erik Mona
Co-Author, Living Greyhawk Gazetteer

 

[Davelozzi]

But that brings me to my question: what role will the new 'Deities and Demigods' book play in further defining the Greyhawk gods? If the article on Iuz, Pholtus, Rao, and Tharizdun in the most recent issue of Dragon is a preview of what the new book will bring, then I have some concerns. The approach seems to harken back to the original Deities & Demigods book of 1e, which didn't do a lot for the gods but provide stats so that uber-characters could engage them directly. Hey, I admit to having had a great time with it at the time too, but my gaming needs have changed. I thought Eric Boyd, et al, had reset the bar with the trilogy of gods books for the Forgotten Realms, and I was initially quite excited about the prospect of a new 'Deities and Demigods' but now I'm not sure.

My sentiments exactly.

I think that the Faiths & Avatars series definately set a bar and that if Deities & Demigods returns to the mostly stats format, it's a real shame. It's not the existence of stats for the gods that bothers me, it's just that statting takes up so much space that IMHO could have been put to much better use with F&A style details of the religion. After all, even if you have an epic level campaign in which characters are likely to come face to face to the gods, it's probably still a lot rarer than them interacting with the god's church/priesthood.

But as to the main topic at hand, I agree that the Living Greyhawk Gazetteer is an excellent reference and will probably fit your needs quite well.