D&D General Greyhawk setting material

[Zardnaar]

Yeah Greyhawk is indeed more of a Swords and Sorcery setting. While FR is Heroic Fantasy.

The 2e book from the Ashes decided to go father into it and made the setting bleaker even.


I think you are losing cartoon wrong.

Zhentarim are a criminal/mercenary group, so yes they would be quite different to the Racial Supremacist Scarlet Brotherhood.

I would say Greyhawk is more cosmopolitan, it has more actual Kingdoms and Nations then FR. And why should Dragonborn, Drow and Tieflings not be running around?

Greyhawks humanocentric, anything to exotic shouldn't exist or at least be available as PCs.

They've been watering down Drow for example every edition now they're just another race.

 

[MonsterEnvy]

Greyhawks humanocentric, anything to exotic shouldn't exist or at least be available as PCs.

They've been watering down Drow for example every edition now they're just another race.

I think you are overestimating it's humanocentricness. While Human Nations are dominant. There are non human nations and tons of weird naughty word around.

The Drow are around just like in FR Underground in creepy evil cities. And teiflings and dragonborn are not that weird.

 

[Quartz]

If I ever run Greyhawk again, dragonborn will be the inhabitants of the oriental-style empire that is supposed to exist beyond the Sea of Dust. There's a reason that the Suel and Baklunish fled to the Flaeness.

 

[Hussar]

Yeah that's fair. GH is a lot less cartoon like than FR and it's more gritty in tone with evil cults etc.

Tech wise it's more 14th century than FR which is more 16th.

They're similar in a lot if ways but if I was DMing them I would try and make the tone very different.
The Zhentarim are a bit cartoon like compared with say the Scarlet Brotherhood who are basically Nazis.

FRs also a bit more cosmopolitan. Things like Dragonborn, Droe and Tieflings should not really be running around.

Except, right in Saltmarsh, you've got a Tiefling emisary from Iuz buying supplies and shipping them out regularly. Plus a half orc working in the cemetary. The modules introduces you to sea elves pretty early on. The bad guys are working with humanoids and 2/3rds of the modules are dealing with non-humans. And not just in an adversarial mode either.

This notion that Greyhawk is humanoicentric is an odd one. I'm not sure where it got started.

I have to admit though, because I loved Paizohawk, I've set my game about 598 CY. Also because the Anna B Meyer maps are just so frigging GORGEOUS. I just have to use those in my game. Which means that places like Cauldron and The Isle of Dread (which, some of my players played through the Savage Tides AP with me) and Sasserine all exist in my Saltmarsh game. Dramij has an underwater lair nearby (well, near ish ) and the Scarlet Brotherhood is a major player a short day's boat ride away in Monmurg.

To me, for this area of Greyhawk, it's a much, MUCH richer background than if I stuck to the original timeline.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

This notion that Greyhawk is humanoicentric is an odd one. I'm not sure where it got started.

Gygax, who was quite open about his campaign being human-centric, with non-human PCs being a rare exception.

The actual campaign setting was quite vaguely defined though, so there is plenty of room to increase non-human representation, which is what GoS has done. The sea elf was in the original module, but that wasn't written by Gygax.

 

[Zardnaar]

I don't recall the Tiefling in the original.

I'm a lot more open to things being NPCs. If Greyhawk is everything goes why bother playing it over FR? At least adding Tieflings makes some sense and they tied it to Iuz so they made an effort.

Or if Nerath is everything goes along with Eberron there's not really that much point in the individual settings unless they have unique mechanics in some way.

Greyhawk was one option I gave a new group. They picked Midgard, but I was thinking of adding the AD&D alignment and racial restrictions back into the game.

One player asked why and I pointed out Ehlona and Hieroneous alignment. They were actually fine with it as it's a reason in game.

Unless you are the world's best DM for inter kingdom politics how would you make GH distinct to FR? Ban everything after 1983 as player options.

 

[lowkey13]

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[Ralif Redhammer]

I read this blog post on Greyhawk and its demographics and it really has stuck with me:

The Howling Emptiness of the World of Greyhawk

“ Humankind is fragmented into isolationist realms, indifferent nations, evil lands, and states striving for good...Nomads, bandits, and...

hillcantons.blogspot.com

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

Maybe Greyhakw needs its own Kara-Tur, Al-Qadim and Maztica, but not in the same planet, but in the same crystal sphere.... or using ideas from Chronomancer and the time spheres with a different timeline.

Greyhawk is now a world what has become too "little" for all new things, monsters, classes and races from later editions.

 

[lowkey13]

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