Help Describe Greyhawk (seriously)

[DarrenGMiller]

I am trying to give a group who has little exposure to the Greyhawk setting a description of the campaign world that captures the feel and style of the game. I am running a "classic feel" 3.5 game.

Note: I am not looking to debate the merits or lack thereof of Greyhawk, just to give a brief and simplified intro to the world and how it compares to what they may know (they know World of Darkness, Eberron and FR).

Any help would be appreciated, especially from any who have been using Greyhawk for a long period of time. World history is not as important as describing what the setting "feels like" in style and magic, etc. I will be using some classic adventures, NG stuff and Dungeon adventures (all heavily modified). The Demon Lords (Orcus, Jubilex, Lolth, Demogorgon, et al) will be the main behind the scenes adversaries, or at least their agents will.

Even though I am very familiar with the setting, any new ideas are always useful.

Thanks in advance!

 

[MerricB]

Not quite what you're looking for, but here's my Short Introduction to the World of Greyhawk

Cheers!

 

[DarrenGMiller]

Not quite what you're looking for, but here's my Short Introduction to the World of Greyhawk

Cheers!

Thanks! I had already found and read that and it was the closest thing to an intro to Greyhawk that I have found. I own the Players' Guide, LG Gazeteer, 1983 Box, Greyhawk Adventures hardcover, the Adventure Begins (or whatever it was called), but the essence of the world is difficult to put into terms that newbies to the world can clearly relate to (IMO).

DM

 

[Helfdan]

A few thoughts

Here are a few things that set GH apart (at least from FR)

1- The PCs are THE heroes... the few powerful NPCs around are usually neutral, or too involved in politics to be gallivanting around. (No hordes of heroic, well-known NPCs to steal the PCs' thunder)

2-There are many foes plotting to conquer the same areas: Scarlet Brotherhood, Iuz, Great Kingdom all have designs on the central Flannaess

3-The world is ANCIENT... the same lands have been ruled by many an empire, and all have left their mark. There are also ancient magics and curses waiting to be discovered

4-Though the larger cities are racially mixed, there are "demi-human specific" countries... Principality of Ulek for the dwur, Celene and Highfolk for the elves, etc. This allows for unique customs and traditions to be added for flavor.

These are off the top of my head... I remember an exhaustive list in the Greytalk mailing list some years back

Helfdan

 

[Illvillainy]

Here are a few things that set GH apart (at least from FR)

1- The PCs are THE heroes... the few powerful NPCs around are usually neutral, or too involved in politics to be gallivanting around. (No hordes of heroic, well-known NPCs to steal the PCs' thunder)

2-There are many foes plotting to conquer the same areas: Scarlet Brotherhood, Iuz, Great Kingdom all have designs on the central Flannaess

3-The world is ANCIENT... the same lands have been ruled by many an empire, and all have left their mark. There are also ancient magics and curses waiting to be discovered

4-Though the larger cities are racially mixed, there are "demi-human specific" countries... Principality of Ulek for the dwur, Celene and Highfolk for the elves, etc. This allows for unique customs and traditions to be added for flavor.

These are off the top of my head... I remember an exhaustive list in the Greytalk mailing list some years back

Helfdan

Um with all due respect, bad licensed fiction and DMs aside on the first point of course... That sounds similar to the Realms, not dissimilar.

 

[Doug McCrae]

It's like the Forgotten Realms but with less magic and lower level NPCs. More of a medieval flavour with the knightly orders and so forth.

 

[Voadam]

It's the default and template D&D world, so all the flavor from the PH applies exactly. Lots of magic, all the races, classes, and gods are represented, the tech and culture is a medieval and renaissance mix, and there is a history of ancient cultures that left ruins. Plenty of monsters from the MM throughout the world as well as evil organizations for the PCs to go against but also plenty of good guys to ally with.

 

[DarrenGMiller]

I have actually found two decent Greyhawk style guides this morning. One is over on the Greyhawk forum over at Wizards, by GVD. The other is an older one by NiteScreed that has been copied all over the net. They both work pretty well. Thanks for the help (especially Helfdan & MerricB).

DM

 

[collin]

Um with all due respect, bad licensed fiction and DMs aside on the first point of course... That sounds similar to the Realms, not dissimilar.

Actually, there are many similarities between the Realms and Greyhawk. But whereas FR was specifically created to be a D&D fantasy world, GH started out as simply a setting for miniature wargaming and over time was adapted to the role-playing setting.

One way to approach this might be to do a compare-and-contrast of GH to the FR. If you can better describe FR, then think about what about GH is similar (i.e., fantasy world, monsters, dragons, etc.) and what is different (i.e., magic is not that common in GH like it is in FR).

collin

 

[Ed Cha]

I don't see how Greyhawk is similar to the Forgotten Realms. Ugh.