WoG timeline rollback suggestions (OK, is that better?)

[Christian]

OK, maybe too strong a word. (Made you look!) But seriously, I'm looking to put together my first 3rd Edition campaign (yay!), and I'm waffling between using the World of Greyhawk and converting my homebrew world from 1st Edition. And frankly, the main strike against WoG is the goofy recent history that's been cooked up by TSR & WotC over the last few years.

Looking at my copy of the Guide to the World of Greyhawk Fantasy Setting, copyright 1983 (by the good Colonel, naturally), I see a timeline ending in CY 576. The Living Greyhawk Gazetteer has a timeline ending somewhere around CY 590 ... Does anybody have any suggestions about how far back I should roll back the history? I'm thinking about c. CY 580 at the moment, it doesn't look like anything particularly inane happened before then. But I might change my mind as I start digging into the Dragon magazine archives. (I wasn't reading the WoG articles much back then, as I was heavily into the world I was designing at that point.)

Any suggestions/words of encouragement/raspberries/whatever?

 

[Errant]

Sheesh. Most trolls at least TRY to be subtle.

So either you're a bad troll or you're just not very clear. You've gotta be a little bit specific about what you don't like if you want constructive suggestions.

 

[Tsyr]

I take it you don't like what occoured in the Greyhawk Wars. They do seem to be a point of... contention, to say the least. You don't actualy even need to roll back the clock at all... As long as you aren't trying to keep canon with Living Greyhawk, it's perfectly possible to just say the wars never happened. I mean, heck... if you like Greyhawk circa 576, then fine... don't change anything.

Personaly, the wars as a mixed bag to me. On one hand, I don't really like the world-changing crap (Like the time of troubles in FR)... but at the same time, I do like the feel that the world is a real, changing place.

 

[Disciple of Darwin]

Christian, I don't haven't played a game placed in the GH game for . . . years. If it isn't your cup of tea, you might take a look at the Kingdoms of Kalamar.

Take a look at this thread on the Kenzer messageboards

http://pub49.ezboard.com/fkingdomsofkalamarfrm2.showMessage?topicID=289.topic

and you'll see that probably 75% of Kalamar converts were in the exact same boat you were.

 

[Wolfspider]

I've been following the changing history of the World of Greyhawk since 1983 and I don't have any problems with recent developments. In fact, Greyhawk seems to be an exciting place to adventure now.

So, what don't you like about recent developments? Let's start there.

And if you don't post again to explain your comments, well, then we'll know you really WERE a troll.

 

[herald]

Sad, sad sad.

 

[Tsyr]

Yes, Kenzer is fairly greyhawk-esq, but the guy was asking about Greyhawk... Some people just like one setting for reasons unexplainable (I love Dragonlance, despite the fact that my educated, semi-elitest "World building is an art" brain recognizes that there are several things that could have been done better about it)

I'm curious why so many people are so ready to dismiss this guy as a troll. I mean, while the question was phrased perhaps a bit mroe abrasivly than truely nessasary (and I didn't think it was that bad, really), he does have a fairly valid question.

 

[EricNoah]

Come on boys and girls, let's start with the assumption that he has a serious request. No need to bash yet.

 

[Corinth]

Christian:

Honestly, if you want to kick it old-school with Greyhawk then you're best off starting at 576 and ignoring the Greyhawk Wars entirely. Use the LGG as a point of reference for 3e-specific datapoints and use the old boxed set for the rest. You won't go wrong.

 

[Christian]

Dang it, I can't regenerate that flame damage.

I was at least half-serious, although I was in a bad mood yesterday. I just kept going back and forth between the two sets of books, and I dunno, some of the recent history didn't ring 'true'. And I'm not sure how to explain it beyond that ...

Particular things that bugged me: the sets of alliances made and broken in the Greyhawk wars; Iuz successfully impersonating a Suel god to take control of the various Barbarian kingdoms; the sudden and widespread success of the Scarlet Brotherhood in taking over kingdoms; the Circle of Eight's virtual annihilation; heck, the Circle of Eight-where did that come from? I don't even know ...

Why I even care? There are a lot of different worlds to choose from these days, but the only one I've seen with anywhere near the detail of Greyhawk is Forgotten Realms, which I never liked from day one. (And let's not start a flame-war on that-I'm just stating a personal preference, not trying to comment on anyone elses's personal preferences.) It's mostly pedigree, of course-this world has been in development for thirty-odd years, which makes for a level of detail that's hard to catch up on.

Greyhawk has the advantage of familiarity for me-the name change to D&D (dropping the 'Advanced' and 'Basic' D&D labels) is a full-circle one for me, because that's how it was when I started playing. Greyhawk was the first published campaign world I ever used, because it was the first published campaign world. My longest-run player-character ever was a human ranger who travelled virtually every inch of the western half of the Flanaess-I still remember with pride how he won an honorary knighthood from the Knights of the High Forest, which would no doubt have been an actual knighthood had he been an elf. There are fond memories there, not to mention significant familiarity.

(Sigh.) Maybe I'll take another look at KoK. I've heard some good things about it, but it didn't impress me much when I looked through it at the game store.

Thanks to everyone for their comments, even those who thought I was a troll.