Reviving Greyhawk: A letter-writing campaign.

[The Blue Elf]

Blue,

I like Vecna. But if you kill him I want his other hand and eye. That way I can complete the collector set.

The fun part about Greyhawk is that you can mess with any bad or good NPC or God in that game sometimes like Forgotton Realms. To find out Vecna is still alive and well, and he out of Ravenloft and in Greyhawk now but everyone knows that.

 

[jokamachi]

Another reason to keep Greyhawk alive; so many classic characters.

 

[Morte]

I'd love it if they made a hardcover Greyhawk sourcebook.

Why do you folks all want hardcovers? It's not like you're going to continually thumb through the LGG for reference -- it's a high level background/overview book, it doesn't map every road and name the headman of every town like the FRCS.

 

[Melkor]

Why do you folks all want hardcovers? It's not like you're going to continually thumb through the LGG for reference -- it's a high level background/overview book, it doesn't map every road and name the headman of every town like the FRCS.

Because hardcovers are sturdier ?

 

[buzzard]

Personally I think anyone who needs a Greyhawk fix should just take advantage of Living Greyhawk. The popularity of that game provides a wealth of information for interested parties. All of this is free as well. Ok, LGG costs something, but it can be found pretty cheap used these days. Other than that there is a whole bunch of stuff provided in each of the regions as to local details. Also you can download a whole bunch of adventures for the simple trouble of joining the RPGA (by passing the DM test online) which costs nothing. Now I won't vouch for the quality of all the adventures, but hell, they could certainly be modified for your use. You'll just have to fib and report the game to RPGA HQ and list off who played (RPGA members, of course).

buzzard

 

[Henry]

Point #1: I bought The Greyhawk "Adventure Begins" Guide, the Player's Guide, AND the Scarlet Brotherhood. I referred to them for our Greyhawk game, and should we play in Greyhawk again, I'll use them again.

Point #2: Procreation is not the only way to reproduce in D&D; otherwise, monsters like chimeras, displacer beasts, and centaurs would not exist.

Point #3: Greyhawk has taken on a religion and fractiousness of its own so complete that it will likely never enjoy popular support again.

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MOD HAT ON:
Point #4: Disliking an author's work is fine, and telling everyone else how much you think it sucks is well and dandy, but before this thread gets anywhere close, we're not gonna entertain personal attacks on someone, either.
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MOD HAT OFF

Even still, if one wishes to begin a campaign to restore its prevalence, good luck and best wishes.

 

[Joseph Elric Smith]

Because hardcovers are sturdier ?

Bring back the boxed set, with two or three books and lots of maps i say
ken

 

[GENEWEIGEL]

some autistic jerk gamers who thought they were Greyhawkers decided that they couldn't handle Carl Sargeant naming orc tribes after flan names for differen humanoids and FREAKED OUT in typical autistic gamer style.

Whoa! That was derived from a letter that I wrote and was isolated into a question for Sage Advice for Dragon #200. It was a long list of problems that weren't just technical flaws but problems of style and direction of the current D&D game's treatment of Greyhawk in general. The letter also featured an interest in seeing more Gary Gygax material instead of fill-in authors like Carl Sargent who had no interest in maintaining the feel and themes of Greyhawk and were fast converting GH into a Diet Warhammer .

Thanks for the nice comments by the way. I think this should be brought up with ENworld's famous moderators.

What d'ya mean they've already seen it?

==================
MOD HAT ON:
Point #4: Disliking an author's work is fine, and telling everyone else how much you think it sucks is well and dandy, but before this thread gets anywhere close, we're not gonna entertain personal attacks on someone, either.
==================
MOD HAT OFF

DOH!

I guess personal attacks on "autistic jerk gamers who thought they were Greyhawkers" are just fine though, right?

Get some continuity with all this politically correct crap. Will ya?

 

[Henry]

DOH!

I guess personal attacks on "autistic jerk gamers who thought they were Greyhawkers" are just fine though, right?

Get some continuity with all this politically correct crap. Will ya?

Gene, personal attacks are against board rules. Spouting off isn't, nor is copying something that someone else wrote, even if they misquote the source. If you see a problem, please let me know via e-mail.

 

[JeffB]

A noble effort, but GH has a big problem to keep that from ever occuring (and St. Cuthbert Knows I'd LOVE to see GH get a book ala the FRCS).

To paraphrase Elrond from the FotR movie:

"Greyhawkers are scattered, divided, leaderless.."

The fan base is carved out into too many slices..

You've got the fans who only like the 1E GH stuff when Gary was at the helm, and despise everything else

You've got a smaller slice that like anything pre 2E GH (including latter 1E stuff like the CoGH, FoI, etc), but 2E turned them off of D&D period.

You've got a small portion who like the From the Ashes Era stuff (and thought pre FtA GH was boring)

You've got a portion who likes the changes brought back by the GH revival in '98

You've got those who like all aspects of GH

And you've got those who know nothing of GH but the RPGA LGH campaign

I could sub-divide further.....

The most vocal "slices" are the Gygax era, and the GH 98'/LGG era..these are the groups who would buy the "RIGHT" product. But they can't agree on what the "right" product is. Perhpas if a compromise could be reached sales between the two slices would allow for a GH Hardcover. But catering to one or the other won't bring in the bucks WOTC needs to see.

Supporting Living GH is an option for some, but IMO the RPGA is just doing the living City junk over w/ GH names. Same as what has been done w/ GH as the "core" setting for 3E. Some folks say "you have plenty of GH support, it's the CORE setting". In actuality the setting has only been paid lip-service since 3E "revivial" other than the LGJ. Historically the setting si ignored, and WOTC just tacks on some GH names to generic Prestige classes, spel;s, and whatnot. That is not support in my book..

And this brings up another division among GH fans regardless of "Era of PLay":

Should we even HAVE detailed supplements about GH as a campaign world (non mechanics-wise). There are many GH fans who would love to see detailed books on different aspects of GH. Then again, there are many GH fans who want GH to be as little detailed as possible as it allows them to customize to their own whims w/out contradiction from the publisher (the way Gary meant the setting to be).

Personally I like all Eras of play, and I'd love to see a true Greyhawk Hardcover ala the FRCS instead of the horse-hockey that's been labled as GH content for the past 3 years (other than the LGG and LGJ) by WOTC, but unless the license is farmed out ala Ravenloft, DragonLance, etc, I don't see it happening. As another poster alluded to, GH has an identity problem, and the fans in the different camps further those identity problems.