Reviving Greyhawk: A letter-writing campaign.

[Joseph Elric Smith]

From what I understand, the original plan for the living campaign was to put out a new sourcebook every year, but Wotc reneged on their promise and Greyhawk got hung out to dry. So in a nutshell, they're not even following their original plan for Living Greyhawk. It's not that they don't have buyers for Greyhawk, the LGG is still selling reasonably well, it's just that other supplements would have followed suit if Wotc had lived up to its agreement with the RPGA. But as you know, they didn't, and sadly, that was only the tip of the iceberg; then they went out and fired nearly everyone in the company.

A compilation of the Living Greyhawk Journal is a reasonable place to start if you want to request a specific product from Wizards/Hasbro. But their are others, notably an upadated and expanded hardcover sourcebook. Another one would be better maps, the sort of which we used to see with the old box set. A Faiths and Pantheons for Greyhawk is yet another that comes to mind. Take your pick. If you're a Greyhawk fan, all of these would pique some interest.
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if WOTC was ever silly enough to even think about putting out a guide every year, I am glad to see some one came to their senses. If a guide came out every years it would leave no room for the DM to have any creativity. that strength of Greyhawk has always been in the fact that it was created and left ot the Dm to populate, the more update and the more the world gets filled in, the less creativity, and less room a DM has. I am and have been a Greyhawk fan from the beginning, why would a greyhawk fan need a pantheon book? if you get a copy of the original source book, and a few dragon articles you have all the gods or pick up the LGG and a few Dragon articles and have what you need already for 3rd edition. As seldom as the gods directly interfere in Greyhawk do you really need their stats? and if you do, I am sure as a DM you can probably make them up to suit your campaign. the LGG was and is a great book for those that are new to the setting, and it give a great thumb nail of the world so that you can start a campaign, what more does a campaign setting need?
ken

 

[jokamachi]

Originally posted by Joshua Dyal

Yeah, well, you're missing my point. Isn't the whole idea of 3e Greyhawk that it's only supposed to be developed to a certain point? That it's supposed to be left open for DMs to do with as they will? Seems to me like you're mucking with the mission statement of the setting.

No, I'm merely asking for satisfactory growth within the parameters of that mission statement.

Living Greyhawk Sourcebook - Both Holian and Mona have said that they would have written more material for the sourcebook if they had been allowed to, but their hands were tied from the beginning. They were initially prepared to offer a lot more in terms of setting, classes, deities, well, you name it, but we were lucky to get what we did.

Deities - Both Deities and Demigods and the LGG failed to sufficiently address the Greyhawk Pantheon; the latter lacking in statistics and the former failing to cover the breadth of the pantheon. One book devoted to the subject could have adequately covered all of the deities (which happened for FR), but it never materialized for Greyhawk.

Maps - The quality of setting maps has dwindled considerably ever since Wotc got hold of D&D. While the current map has asthetic value, who would take it over the beautifully conceived version Gygax put out in the early eighties? When did it become so difficult to produce a quality product?

Living Journal - The journal is the life-blood of the Living Camapign but it barely makes it to players' doorsteps these days. It's well-written, brilliantly executed material, but it doesn't get the attention it deserves in terms of funding or adequate placement. First Wotc nixes the idea of a Living Journal compilation, then the Journal gets shuffled from Dragon to Dungeon. In short, players of Living Greyhawk feed on the bread crumbs Wotc allows to fall from their table.

These are the bare bones, the essential components of Greyhawk that must be developed for the setting to exist. None of these requests fall outside a mission statement for Greyhawk.

 

[smetzger]

Greyhawk is a fun setting. It is very open however which creates numerous problems when publishing a setting book. Though I must admit a big long level 1-20 series of adventures through the dungons of Castle Greyhawk would be a hella fun romp. Not so much as a setting but as a huge long dungon crawl... Very old school.

Or you could just get Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil.

 

[Desdichado]

All of the modules produced by WotC (with the exception of one or two FR ones) are also nominally in the Greyhawk universe. For that matter, so are almost all the "generic" sourcebooks. MotP is all about Greyhawk (doesn't fit the FR cosmology, for instance). Sword and Fist and Co. as well.

I imagine WotC would look at your request as a bit iffy. From a certain point of view, there's more Greyhawk material in print for 3e than any other setting. It's just your misfortune to not particularly like what they've done, and to want something else that they haven't.

 

[Holy Bovine]

Did the Living Greyhawk Gazatteer really sell poorly? I thought it was a great product.

I think you have cut to the heart of the matter. The Greyhawk Gazeteerr really was a great intorductory product (I notice that Sword & Sorcery Studios siezed upon the format when intorduing new elements to their campaign world, the Scarred Lands - smart, IMO, because it is a good format - a brief overview of the important places of the campaign world with just enough detail to get you started on some adventure hooks). However, it didn't sell. not in the numbers expected or required. So WotC (or hasbro) saw these great reviews coming in for the Caz and next to nothing in sales. But they still push ahead and bring out the LGG. Again, a good book (not great but very solid) and they thousands of people lined up for Living Greyhawk through the RPGA. The setting is popular! Yay! Lots of sales right? Nope. To date, despite being one of the first books out of the gate for WotC sales have not warrented a second printing.

I can see why game company execs get grey hairs. trying to figure us out must take degrees in rocket science

 

[Desdichado]

Maybe the setting isn't as popular as folks think it is...

 

[Emirikol]

Sorry for the repost. Com...pu...ter.....giving.....problems

Jay

 

[Emirikol]

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[Emirikol]

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[Desdichado]

You edited every version of your post, so none of the original text shows anymore...