One source for Greyhawk - which one?

[AtomicPope]

Would you rather make history or read about it?

I'm getting ready to start a 4E campaign and am contemplating using Greyhawk (thanks to Mearls' Return to the Moathouse adventure). If I do this, I want to keep the word's background relatively simple. So, I only want to use one main source for the world's "canon."

I would go with the 1983 Boxed Set and start on the brink of the Greyhawk Wars.

I have much of the Greyhawk material. I have the original set, the 90's Moore set,the Living Greyhawk Gazetteer, the City of Greyhawk set, etc. Anything I am missing I certainly can download from Paizo, etc. However, I know I will have players with a limited knowledge of the world, and I want to keep the "canon" details limited.

So, which single source* would you recommend.

* A single source can be multiple products closely related, such as the Roger Moore DM/Player's Guide to Greyhawk.

Agree. LGG wasn't stellar writing either. It's no City of Skulls or Marklands.


The Advantage of the boxed set is it was designed for accommodation over canon. It's a true campaign setting. It doesn't suffer the problems that Novelist settings have of Canonical Incompatibility. The LGG has nit-noid details that you could cherry pick but by choosing the boxed set you have the foresight to toss plotlines you don't like. Furthermore, the boxed set is antebellum allowing it to unfold as you see fit. Advantages to an accommodating campaign setting is it allows you as a DM and players to make history rather than Greenwood's Mary Sue characters. For example you could:
* Quest for the Crook of Rao and enable the Flight of Fiends
* Find the Five Savage Swords and break the enchantment of Iuz
* Enlist as mercenaries in the War and protect the Yeomanry, starting with Kendall Keep (Keep on the Borderlands/Return to the Keep on the Borderlands). I'm doing this
* Against the Giants
* Liberation of Geoff (or Sterich)

There is an advantage about knowing the future - it gives your campaign direction. Many players aren't GH history savvy because it's not a Novelist world. As a DM that allows you to manipulate history because the only epic characters are PC, in do time...

 

[ExploderWizard]

Would you rather make history or read about it?

I would go with the 1983 Boxed Set and start on the brink of the Greyhawk Wars.

We have a winner 83 boxed set all the way. Enough detail to assist you without constraining what you want the world to be for your campaign. You can also advence the timeline as you see fit instead of the predefined Greyhawk wars.

If you are running this 4E then the deity alignments will need adjusting but everything else is fairly system unspecific.

 

[TerraDave]

God, I freaking love that picture of Gary.

--Erik

And thanks for posting it in the first place

Regarding the 83 boxed set: I know a lot of this was taken from articles by EGG in Dragon. Did the set include all the article text? Where they edited down, or somehow changed?

 

[SavageRobby]

Count me as an 83 boxed set vote. Some of the later sources are good, but nothing is quite as satisfying as the original (IMO, of course). Of course, I'd definitely mine any other GH stuff you have as DM source material for adventures and ideas.

 

[Hussar]

I'm gearing up for a Savage Tide campaign, so I wanted to brush up on my Greyhawk-lore and went looking. The Oerth Journals present so much information that I'm just loving them. Very clear and concise stuff for the most part. The early issues have some fantastic timelines that really give you a good grasp on the history of Greyhawk without getting too bogged down, IMO.

And the article on the Amedio Jungle, for me, is fuggin' fantastic. A must read for my players.

 

[haakon1]

I'd go with primary source of Gary's box set, secondary source of LGG for more detail, and DM decides what details in LGG to toss out.

My campaign is currently in 588 CY, but there has been no "Greyhawk Wars", just separate events that are somewhat related to the canon:
- Collapse of the Great Kingdom and formation of successor kingdoms. I treat some of "Iuz the Evil" as a vast exaggeration (less demons), but the situation basically being the 30 Years War (of the real world) with Plague, Famine, Pestilence, and War riding roughshod over the region. This is all off screen, so the details are mostly irrelevant.
- Rise of Iuz after he was freed by Robilar. He brought the Horned Society, the Bandit Kingdoms, and Stonefist into his realm by conquest/subversion. He's destroyed most of the Shield Lands, clashed with the Wolf Nomads, tested the Furyondy frontier, and may be implicated in growing darkness in the Vesve and the Tiger Nomads. This is just off-screen, with PC's and NPC's from background affected by this (my campaign is set in Bissel).
- Major war between Ket (with Uli, Tiger Nomad, orcish and goblinoid help, and Perrenlander mercenaries) and Bissel (backed by Veluna, Gran March, the Knights of the Watch, and the economic power of Greater Keoland -- Keoland plus its dependencies in Sterich and Geoff).
- Giant and drow attacks on Sterich, Geoff, and the Yeomanry blunted when adventurers slew Lloth.
- Rise of Slavers in the south threatening coastal Keoland around Salt Marsh and perhaps threatening the city of Cauldron.

You get the idea -- make it your own, not the canon, but start from Gary and LGG "best of".

 

[Glyfair]

I prefer the original folio to Gary's boxed set.

The thing is, I have one or the other, and don't know which I have. I guess I'll have to do some research. It's stored in with my City of Greyhawk.

 

[Philotomy Jurament]

However, I know I will have players with a limited knowledge of the world, and I want to keep the "canon" details imited.

I suggest the original '80 Folio or the '83 boxed set. Either one provides a broad overview of the classic setting without weighing you down with canonical detail; you have a very free hand to make the setting your own.

 

[Voadam]

It would depend on the mood I was going for.

Dark and Grim, with lots of demons and bad stuff going on in lots of the world? From the Ashes.

A few basic country details with some politics and history but very open to adding in and filling out? The 1980 folio with the 1983 boxed set if you want core greyhawk god info. Ready to go background setting with some old history explaining various current kingdom alliances.

For a more concrete whole picture one Living Greyhawk Gazeteer is great with some history explanations including recent war info plus the whole expanded pantheon as it built up in exploring all the minor subgods. The 2e Player's Guide works fine for this as well.

 

[Mercule]

83 box. Red and gold for the win.