Would a campaign set in Greyhawk...

[Ilbranteloth]

...deter you from playing in the Group? I ask because I'm torn between making another homebrew (which can be time consuming) or going the so-called lazy route and run using Greyhawk. I've moved across country and, as such, would be starting a new Face-to-Face group (my Fantasy Grounds group is perfectly happy running around Greyhawk but we've also known each other for 25+ years.)

No. And furthermore I think a published setting modified to suit the group’s specific needs is the best option. I don’t limit player’s access to published material (as if I could), and actually encourage it. They understand it might not be 100% correct, and nothing is canon until it actually enters the campaign.

I’ve done the full home brew thing. And I always come back to asking why I wouldn’t take advantage of the fact that much of it has already been done, and input from more creative people is a good thing. Just use what you like, and change what you don’t.

 

[Sword of Spirit]

That said, I'm sticking with Greyhawk though I think, to keep it fresh for myself, that I'm going to use the Living Greyhawk book and put my 1e box set on the shelf.

Just to see. Ya know?

I had the D&D Gazetteer first, and then got the 1983 boxed set, and wow is it nice! I'm running in CR 591 and due to external considerations decided to honor the official timeline up to that point, but I immediately saw why people like the original better. The PCs were going to be near the Wild Coast, so I looked up information...and discovered that it has been conquered by the Pomarj! ??? The Wild Coast is freaking awesome--that isn't going to stand.

So in my world, the Pomarj over-extended their reach when they invaded the Wild Coast. The local adventurers and rowdies almost immediately reclaimed their lands, and by late CR 591 are launching a joint retributive invasion of the Pomarj with the Principality of Ulek.

I might have to have some in-setting fixes for some other elements too.

 

[Gwaihir]

Ive always loved Greyhawk.
The problem I always have with a published setting is that I feel constrained by Canon and previously published material. I also want my players to have as much interest in the background history and setting as I do. I realize this a a personal problem and Im working on getting better at this using Forgotten Realms.

 

[Eltab]

To open a new campaign, sure why not use Greyhawk? If the group gels well and enjoys playing with each other, then you can introduce non-Greyhawk material and create your own world.

 

[StormbringerAUS]

I would be very excited to be invited to a Greyhawk campaign, though to be honest would love to be invited to play just about any campaign but as a player who remembers 70s and 80s Greyhawk would have a special fondness.

 

[Coroc]

Greyhawk from the blue box set is what i use as a baseline to DM. I changed the Thing to 30 years war feel, just witout gunpowder, but the rest of the tech Level is there. So my GH is a tiny bit steampunky. The Big conflict Iuz vs the rest of the world is the overarcing storyline, official year 579 is the Canon time i did start the campaign.

Greyhawk City is a good starting Point, in a city you got multiple adventure hooks. The blue box with ist essential NPCs running the City is still my most favourite City Setting, although the guild System of greyhawk is a bit strange. There waterdeep boxed set is better.

But in Greyhawk you can be much more creative, leaving out parts of the official material and adding your own does never hurt anything.
When you try this with FR like waterdeep or maybe neverwinter modules you stumble across something you have not considered upfront every minute, while applying your homebrew overlay.

E.G. cataclysms, agendas of your high Level NPCs, factions everything is much more simple in GH than in FR and will not root into everything else constantly.

 

[cmad1977]

Hell. I’m more likely to want to play in a Greyhawk world that we get to make our own than in a home brew of someone I don’t know.

I’d play in either.

 

[Let's Greenfield]

Total Grognard talking (which is about to be obvious), but I kind of thought Greyhawk was a "homebrew" campaign. I would be skeptical of any campaigns that hews to any text as Canon. Maybe Dragonlance (I don't think anyone's mentioned my favorite setting! No love?) would need to be strict. As an old-school guy "Greyhawk" would actually call me to the table, and then I would expect variances from it. I could go on about my Greyhawk campaign, of course, but I would just say that anything that deals with a "timeline" that occurs AFTER 1983, is kind of...trying to keep everyone on track. Like Encounters, or something. Meh.