Greyhawk's doomgrinder

[MerricB]

What, you didnt like being a spectator in the final act? Come on, that's what Greyhawk was all about in that era (particularly Vecna Lives).

Actually, I thought the ending was cool. Especially as my brother's PC - a Frost Barbarian that he'd been playing for several years - ended up as the new King of the Fruzti. Pity about him being installed there

Spoiler

by Iuz as a puppet

and everything. But: cool!

However, the actual adventure of "Howl from the North" was pathetic. It really, really was. Carl Sargeant had written "Five Shall Be One", and it was entertaining. HftN wasn't.

Cheers!

 

[Wraith Form]

I always envisioned the Doomgrinder as more of a mechanical omen, slowly counting down to some-now-lost-prophetic doom, and that the PCs would need to find some way to discover what that doom was before they would be able to halt it's doomgrinding. (FWIW, I also pictured something mill-like, since that just seemed to fit, given the site's name).

.....Aaaaaaaaand...*yoink*

[wrings hands together maniacally and reads lotsa Lovecraft]

 

[meomwt]

Additional details from the Doomgrinder adventure follow in spoiler tags:

Spoiler

Some folks mentioned that it is an engine of war. To elaborate, essentially it's a gigantic tank-like vehicle buried in the ground with only the top (windmill-like) portion above ground. Once the derro get it going, it becomes clear that it is pre-programmed on a collision course with the city of Greyhawk and if not stopped will take out huge chunks of the city. It's possible that I have some details wrong, but at any rate, that's how I remember it.

From memory, I think you got that exactly right.

The Doomgrinder internals were made up of a set of geomorphs, put together randomly, with a Control Room at the end of them. That put me right off.

But my group never went near the place - they completed Star Cairns but refused point blank to go lich-hunting.

They were just about to enter Tenser's Tower in Return of the Eight when the game collapsed under a variety of scheduling and RL issues.

The Doomgrinder is such a cool concept I may have to design my own derro-filled labyrinth underneath it for a 3.5e game sometime.

 

[Prince of Happiness]

From memory, I think you got that exactly right.

The Doomgrinder internals were made up of a set of geomorphs, put together randomly, with a Control Room at the end of them. That put me right off.

The Doomgrinder is such a cool concept I may have to design my own derro-filled labyrinth underneath it for a 3.5e game sometime.

Yeah, it definitely didn't excite me at all. Not what I was expecting, but not pleasing either. What pleased me about tail-end 2E modules was that "The Shattered Circle" had good Greyhawk references, and more worthy of the title than Doomgrinder.

 

[qstor]

I am a huge fan of Greyhawk, both new and old material, and I unfortunately have little praise for the so-called GH-98. The Return of the Eight was a rather rail roaded affair. If I were you, I'd try to find the Slavers (a redux/return to the 1st Edition A Series) and the Scarlet Brotherhood. Both products came out around the same time as the adventures previously mentioned, and they give a great amount of source material and have numerous plot hooks that could drive numerous campaigns.

I liked the Scarlet Brotherhood and the Slavers books a lot. Slavers is one of my favorite Greyhawk supplements. I like the detail given to the various areas.

Mike

 

[haakon1]

(FWIW, I liked Return of the Eight and The Star Cairns quite a bit, Crypt of Lyzenrad the Mad less so, and Doomgrinder least).

I always envisioned the Doomgrinder as more of a mechanical omen, slowly counting down to some-now-lost-prophetic doom, and that the PCs would need to find some way to discover what that doom was before they would be able to halt it's doomgrinding. (FWIW, I also pictured something mill-like, since that just seemed to fit, given the site's name). Anyway, the derro engine of destruction was fine, just not as cool as what I'd hoped for, given my expectations (damn TSR for not reading my mind and building Greyhawk in my own image! ).

I fully agree with that. They missed my mind too.

 

[haakon1]

From the Ashes is indeed a really cool supplement in general. I use the Campaign Guide constantly in my own Greyhawk games. That one big poster map and enough places for members of the standard PC races to come from alone makes it awesome for a basic Greyhawk game. Now throw in all those dungeons in the Cairn Hills, the map of the Free City published in the Living Greyhawk journal several years back, and Greyhawk: the Adventure Begins (for a good writeup to go with that map). Greyhawk all the way baby!

The only thing that could make all this gameitude more awesome would be if it were collected in a 3.5-compliant hardcover that was on par with the Eberron or Forgotten Realms hardcovers. I'm already entertaining myself with updating this sort of stuff to 3.5 for my own campaigns.

I can't rationally approach FTA as a stand alone product, but as an old school fan o' the Hawk, I hate it and all its works (pretty everything for 'hawk produced between it's publication in about 1991 and whenever Greyhawk closed up shop, probably 1992 or so).

I tolerate Living Greyhawk much more. And Paizo is "respectful" of the setting -- I appreciate Erik Mona's work a lot. I also liked the 1998 stuff led by Roger Moore, in particular Return of the Eight (coming off a many year hiatus) and Star Cairns. Paizo is a better steward of Gygax's legacy than TSR was, and than WOTC is.