What is Greyhawk?

[doctorbadwolf]

That's actually a really good point, esp. w/r/t tribal societies. However, this isn't always a universal, and if the survival is tenuous due to (for example) humanoid raids, then there would be a strong suspicion of any non-standard humans.

In addition (and this is mere speculation, now) I think that when people have some limited knowledge of monsters, humanoids, and magic working against them, they might tend to be more on the "verify, then trust" rather than the other way around.

That’s certainly possible. It’s also possible that knowledge verified by direct experience creates a wholly different reaction than superstition does, but that is a choice one has to just make and trust oneself when designing a world with magic.

For me, what I enjoyed about Greyhawk (when I did enjoy it. Even more DM dependent than other settings IME), it was the same thing I enjoyed in Dark Sun. We weren’t out for ourselves, just trying to make a buck and amass power. It’s a world where the bad guys seem to be winning, and we played characters who refused to accept that, and challenged others to similarly refuse.

 

[lowkey13]

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[doctorbadwolf]

I'd agree. In a harsh world, if you verify that the person you are working with is an ally, you are going to treat them VERY well. It's important to have as many friends as you can get when civilized areas are spread out, and there are enemies everywhere.

Yep. Tenuous survival does not breed individualism. It breeds tight social bonds and a willingness to cooperate. But that isn’t the right kind of fun for the type of setting that depends on tenuous survival, ironically.

 

[Yardiff]

When a blackhawk and a whitehawk love each other very much...

You get a black and white patchy plumaged hawk.

 

[lowkey13]

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[Aldarc]

You get a black and white patchy plumaged hawk.

But "Black-and-White Patchy Plumaged Hawk" hardly makes for a catchy setting name now does it?

 

[Yardiff]

But "Black-and-White Patchy Plumaged Hawk" hardly makes for a catchy setting name now does it?

I don't know I think its rolls off the tongue quite well.

 

[Umbran]

2. It's small in scale. You aren't saving the Realms; you're making a buck. I say that partially in jest, but this is partly the aspect of Swords and Sorcery that needs to be played up in a Greyhawk setting. Small scale DOESN'T mean small stakes, however. You can save (or destroy) the village; but there should be a lot less of the "saving the world."

3. There's always something bigger, badder, and more mysterious. This is related to (2). You will never have the power of the Mages who destroyed the Sueloise civilization. There will always be the past glories or dangers, the stories of Vecna and of giant ships crashing from the sky, of beings that strode across the landscape, that are told around the fires at night.

4. Civilization is tenuous, at best. The great powers and empires are in decline and their best days are in the past, and it is always questionable if the forces of civilization will hold off the entropy and darkness. Progress is not assured. The forces of destruction are constantly howling and looking for a way in, and, more often than not, they are about to succeed.

We should realize there's a bit of illogic in this combination. Things stronger than you that will destroy civilization (either in one shot, or by defeat-in-detail) are about to succeed, but you should not expect to beat them? And the status quo of continuing threats has been around.. for centuries, right?

Statistically, then... shouldn't civilization be gone by now? The scale of actual threats to civilization has to cap out at roughly the scale of threats you expect people in the world to be able to handle, or the whole things falls apart in short order.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

I was thinking more about the tenuous survival. I think it might depend on the type of tenuous survival.

Usually, when you get situations of isolation or deprivation (islands, deserts) breeding a culture of hospitality, it's because of the issue of survival. But I don't think that holds if the survival issue is due to, for example, war. Maybe I'm wrong on that one. Not my wheelhouse.

True. War never changes (I guess?), but it does tend to change things around it.

One thing that might screw with things as well, is the existence of mind control magic, which IMO is objectively more “evil” and terrifying than a simple fireball.

If I invented a device that could be pointed at someone and used to make them do whatever you wanted, that would be much, much, much worse than a gun.

 

[lowkey13]

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