What area in Greyhawk is good to start a campaign?

[dreaded_beast]

For starting a 1st level campaign in a generic Greyhawk, using only the 3.5 core rules (PHB,DMG, MM), what area would you recommend?

For example, the FRCS and 2nd Ed. FR Box Set recommends using Shadowdale or the Silver Marches as good places to start off a campaign.

 

[danbuter]

Greyhawk City is a common starting point. I kinda like the Great Kingdom, myself.

 

[dreaded_beast]

I'm looking for a place that has no nearby big cities, mainly small villages and towns and a surrounding wilderness to be explored.

 

[MerricB]

What type of campaign do you want to run?

I've run three campaigns in Greyhawk, and the areas we used:

The Free City of Greyhawk - a metropolis, easy access to the Ruins of Castle Greyhawk dungeons, and other tombs in the Cairn Hills, and plenty of intrigue and underworld activity if you like that sort of thing.

The County of Ulek - a druidical setting, demihumans and humans living peacefully together, but threatened by humanoids in and beyond the mountains. I also threw in various political elements.

The Great Kingdom - a fallen, evil-aligned kingdom, with plenty of political intrigue, undead and danger. Eventually the PCs annoyed too many of the local authorities and had to leave, but before then were doing jobs for merchants and the local lords.

Cheers!

 

[MerricB]

I'm looking for a place that has no nearby big cities, mainly small villages and towns and a surrounding wilderness to be explored.

Try the Wild Coast, then. Various frontier towns, somewhere there's an ancient ruined city, and plenty of adventure opportunities.

Cheers!

 

[S. Baldrick]

The Wild Coast is great place to start. In addition to the Wild Coast, another good place to consider would be the Gnarly Forrest. The old “From the Ashes” box set had a number of great adventure hooks that were set there.

 

[dreaded_beast]

Try the Wild Coast, then. Various frontier towns, somewhere there's an ancient ruined city, and plenty of adventure opportunities.

Cheers!

Thanks for the suggestion Merric!

Is the Wild Coast an actual country/area or is it a large geographic area that encompasses various countries and city states?


In regards to the campaign, I'm bascially just gonna run the Burning Plague module and I'm trying to find a place in Greyhawk to put it in. I wanna keep this as close to the core rules as possible, to keep everything simple for me and for the players, hence a relatively "small" area of Greyhawk.

However, I would still love to hear other suggestions on where good places to start Greyhawk campaign would be.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Is the Wild Coast an actual country/area or is it a large geographic area that encompasses various countries and city states?

The Wild Coast is my choice, too. It's a small geographic area, really, with several small independent towns/cities, but it's mostly home to bandits and hermits. It's where the first half of the Slaver series was set, back in the day.

If you NEED a metropolis, Greyhawk City is a reasonable distance away, as are a number of other interesting areas, but for low level adventuring, it's hard to beat the Coast.

 

[S. Baldrick]

The kingdom of Furyondy could be an option. Furyondy's crusade against the empire of Iuz would be a good back drop for a campaign. I used it myself back in my 2nd Edition days.

 

[Ant]

Our campaign started in the Celadon Forest and has mainly centred around the Duchy of Urnst. Rich, fertile and secure, Urnst makes a great place to establish a home base. You don't need to travel far to run into trouble, though - lurking undead in the Cairn Hills, nomad raiders in the Bright Desert, invaders from Nyrond etc.

Currently the party are returning to Leukish in the Duchy after helping Onnwal fight against the vile Scarlet Brotherhood. Good fun!