What is so special about Greyhawk?

[Invisible Stalker]

It's home.



The modules and the Greyhawk guides give me plenty of inspiration and I still think of Greyhawk as "the" D&D setting. But, it's a setting where I can change things to meet my needs. It's as if Gygax/ TSR/ WOTC provide a house and I get to choose the furniture, the shrubs and if I want a garage. As a specific 4e example, I chucked the gnomes out of the Kron Hills and made it the ancient home of the dragonborn.

I'd like to see a 4e Greyhawk published. One giant hardcover with all the classic 1e modules converted to 4e should suffice.

 

[jdrakeh]

But, didn't the modules predate the folio? My history is a bit fuzzy. I know I picked up the boxed set way back when, but, I don't remember if it was new or had been around for a while when I did so.

The folio isn't the same thing as the box set. The box set was released in 1983 and the folio in 1980. Only the original D and G series predated the folio in their entirety. Additionally, two of the tourney modules (S1 and S2) and Village of Hommlet (T1) predated the folio. All of the other original Greyhawk adventure modules were published the same year as the folio or came later.

 

[Dice4Hire]

This has turned into a pretty interesting thread. As I said above, I like Greyhawk, and except for homebrew worlds, it is the only place I play in.

One reason is it is so chock-full of adventuring opportunities, and it has always seemed that different areas lend themselves to different play and campaign styles. Want to explore ancient ruins, SW. Like intrigue head E. Survival against nature, head N. And so on.

 

[senodam]

Greyhawk is chock full of evocative ideas, from the Scarlet Brotherhood and Horned Society to the mad mayor of Greyhawk City or the Mage of the Valley.

Just like any good D&D setting, it is full of adventure potential at every turn.
That, combined with a slightly grittier feel than most pre-3e D&D worlds and the historic ties to the game itself makes for a fascinating world.

I'm a big student of D&D lore, such as it is, and learning more about Iggwilv, Mordenkainen and the origins of this creature or that spell holds a special attraction for me.

The only real downfall is the naming conventions of the setting. A nation called Geoff? Why not the Kingdom of Harry? Most of my players and friends attended St. Cuthbert Primary School...the chuckles at the god with that name ruined him forever in our eyes.

Other than that flaw? Greyhawk is a part of D&D's history, and that's what makes it special.

 

[Bumbles]

The only real downfall is the naming conventions of the setting. A nation called Geoff? Why not the Kingdom of Harry? Most of my players and friends attended St. Cuthbert Primary School...the chuckles at the god with that name ruined him forever in our eyes.

Reminds me of somebody I know who once complained about the name I picked for some villain being a swear word in some language I didn't speak.

Me, I just thought it was some random syllables that sounded nice.

Go figure.

 

[Lars Porsenna]

The only real downfall is the naming conventions of the setting. A nation called Geoff? Why not the Kingdom of Harry? Most of my players and friends attended St. Cuthbert Primary School...the chuckles at the god with that name ruined him forever in our eyes.

I think this is a cultural thing. FREX, with St Cuthbert, here in the US St Cuthbert is an obscure English saint, and I thought it kind of an interesting parallel.

One thing we did for the Geoff issue is pronounce it more like it was spelled. Thus it wasn't "Jeff" but "Joff." This made it a bit less lame. YMMV.

Damon.

 

[Stogoe]

A Greyhawk campaign setting wouldn't be too big an investment.

It actually is - publishing Greyhawk means anything that would actually be interesting will be pushed back at least a year.

IMO, the only right way to re-release a vintage setting would be to do a complete reboot. Forget the metaplot, the decades of modules and supplements that nobody new to the setting could ever find to read. Go back to what made the setting great at the beginning. I want a complete product, not just what amounts to a book of hyperlinks to out-of-print material.

 

[Erik Mona]

It actually is - publishing Greyhawk means anything that would actually be interesting will be pushed back at least a year.

IMO, the only right way to re-release a vintage setting would be to do a complete reboot. Forget the metaplot, the decades of modules and supplements that nobody new to the setting could ever find to read. Go back to what made the setting great at the beginning. I want a complete product, not just what amounts to a book of hyperlinks to out-of-print material.

Why is it that you think staying relatively consistent with what has come before and going back to what made the setting great at the beginning are mutually exclusive?

The Whispering Cairn (my module in Dungeon #124 and the kick-off for the Age of Worms) is absolutely 100% a Greyhawk module, but you don't need to know anything about the setting for it to be an enjoyable "first edition style" experience.

Keep the focus on adventure and what's going on RIGHT NOW, and you don't need to worry about invalidating a bunch of continuity. Advance the timeline to the year 600, keep a few marquee NPCs like Iuz and Mordenkainen, and thereafter keep the focus on the adventures of the PLAYER CHARACTERS, and not on NPCs and history, and you're back at the original formula that made the campaign setting great.

You do not need to burn down 20 years of development (including the exposure of the setting to tens of thousands of players through Living Greyhawk) to put out cool material that does not require a master's degree to understand and enjoy.

It frankly doesn't take much effort.

--Erik

 

[timbannock]

Not sure if it's even necessary, or if it'd just end up as filler, but you could always present a chapter on "Playing in the different eras of Greyhawk." Similar to what many Star Wars rulebooks did, where they explain not just the whole history, but also insert the "playable action points" of the various eras.

Want to play pre-Wars GH? You can run the battle of Emridy Meadows and the fall of the TOEE.

Post-Wars GH? You can run...whatever the hell happened then. (Can you tell which era I know more about?)

Just a thought.

I do have reservations on how to do the setting justice with 4e's fundamental ideology. I don't think it's impossible (or even very difficult for good designers), but I do think certain assumptions in terms of the population and some of the badguys of the setting might need tweaking. Just a gut feeling, so I can't really provide anything more specific.

But I'd definitely like to see it!

 

[timbannock]

double post...boo!