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Message: <blockquote data-quote="A'koss" data-source="post: 3972788" data-attributes="member: 840">Earlier today a somewhat strange revelation occured to me. Perhaps not so much a revelation as something I've never really stopped to think about. You ever wonder why the "ancient histories" of most of the published settings were considerably more interesting than what was going on in the "current" era? Anyway, I wanted to touch on villains again briefly as the more I thought about it, the more I realized that Greyhawk has, bar none, the most impressive array of uber-villains of any of WotC's settings. Iggwilv, Graz'zt, Acerak, Iuz, Lord Robilar (sorta), Eclavdra, Lolth (remember, FR basically stole her), Fraz'Urb'Luu, Vecna, Kas, Tuerny the Merciless, St. Kargoth, Kyuss, Tharizdun, the Queen of Chaos & Miska the Wolf-Spider. Even if you've never played Greyhawk, these names (at least most of them) are well-known to the D&D community. FR villains on the other hand are a pretty sad and unambitious lot, comparitively speaking. On the other hand, aside from the Circle of Eight, I think most people who weren't Greyhawkers would be hard pressed to name more than... one hero from the setting. I doubt they could name even one "good" organization in Greyhawk (as a matter of fact, I can't think of one off the top of my head!) I thought that was interesting. PCs have never really had trouble with (at least the perception of) being overshadowed by uber-powerful good NPCs. FR on the other hand, even if you haven't played the setting you'll likely recognize the names of their heroes.Another thing I thought was funny in published adventures was that it seemed that there was Greyhawk City, the Gem of the Flanaess (and surrounds)... then everywhere else. As far as adventures go, it's either in Greyhawk City, or someplace near Homlett... or damn near every time you gotta trek out to the fringes of the map.  <img src="http://www.enworld.org/forum/images/smilies/laugh.png"  class="smilie" loading="lazy" alt=":lol:" title="Laughing    :lol:" data-shortname=":lol:" />  Anyway, as I said in my first post, first and foremost I think it's important to leverage the strength and range in the setting's villains. That's what's going to get people's attention and distinguish it from FR. And there needs to be more than just Greyhawk City as the only vibrant, interesting city in the setting. Greyhawk really needs some shakeup in the kingdoms' department as well, though there a quite a few interesting ones that just need to be spiced up a bit. Moving the timeline forward to match up with FR can allow for that revitilization. Most importantly, the current era should not be a pale shadow to it's more colorful history.</blockquote>

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