| WHERE SHOULD I START IN GREYHAWK? By David Insley |
| THIS EDITORIAL DOES NOT REFLECT THE OPINIONS OF THE OWNERS, MANAGEMENT OR PATRONS OF WIZARDS OF THE COAST, THE RPGA, THAT GROUP OF GRUMPY DWARVES THAT POUND SHEET METAL AT BOB'S BODY SHOP, THE AFL-CIO, MY UNCLE FRED'S BUDDIES AT THE ELKS LODGE, OR ANY OTHER ORGANIZATION, INCLUDING THE NOW-DEFUNCT WoGFC. BUT IT DARNED WELL OUGHT TO. FEEL LIKE COMMENTING? GO RIGHT AHEAD - DROP ME A LINE. |
| Back in 1982, I started playing Dungeons and Dragons at the tender age of 11. By the following year, my group of middle-school friends had switched to Advanced D&D, with its amazing hardback books with the cool artwork. And with AD&D came the Greyhawk setting... the amazing World of Greyhawk, first campaign setting for AD&D. My very first advanced D&D game was as a player. I didn't DM until early 1984, so the first 18 months or so was a true adventure. I knew little of the rules, didn't have all the monster stats memorized, and couldn't tell you the casting time of dancing lights for five dollars. And, entering the World of Greyhawk was the most fun I ever had. My cousin John was the DM. He took us through the Giants series (G1-3, with its cool new green cover), after we had "converted" out 7th--10th level expert D&D characters to the "new" advanced version of the game. My fighter nearly got killed, and the party priest violated his alignment in combat by killing the unconscious critter that almost put my warrior under for good. But we survived, one and all, and continued on to fight drow, kuo-toa and even got to face Lolth. We had to escape from her, though, because we were not strong enough to face her. That time. We went back a few weeks later and won the day, though, but it cost us a couple of PCs. And with these adventures, my personal Greyhawk history began... Over the years, I've run campaigns in Keoland, the Hold of the Sea Princes, the Yeomanry, Furyondy, Greyhawk City, Nyrond and Almor. I've been a player from the Hellfurnaces to the Rakers, and I've buried PCs from Hepmonaland to Dorakaa (that was a bad idea, that particular excursion! Iuz was quite upset with us when we started breaking things in his capital.) And I still don't know much about the land, at least, not like some. I know the game rules better than the history of any one region, though I'd say Furyondy is the area I know best. And yet, when someone recently asked me, "Where should I start a Campaign in Greyhawk?" I drew a blank. So I started thinking - and I started asking people what they thought. I figured a good sampling of opinion would be more balanced than my slanted view. I say slanted because I freely admit that my favorite low-level adventures are the U series, centered on the sleepy fishing village of Saltmarsh in the Hold of the Sea Princes, in the southwestern Flanaess. Be aware that most of my comments below are made assuming you start your campaigns in the year 585 CY, the year after the official end of the Greyhawk Wars. But some areas can be used in back-dated campaigns, so to speak, as they affect little the eventual outbreak of hostilities in the Flanaess. Here are the top five places selected by the people I've asked and the reasons why: 1] The Free City of Greyhawk. Go figure! The city on the Selintan is truly the Gem of the Flanaess, as one sourcebook in the Free City of Greyhawk boxed set refers to it. It has everything - evil cults hiding in plain sight, big fires wrecking big portions of town, brutal winters, international ambassadorial intrigue - and Rary turning traitor last year, killing two of his fellow Circle of Eight members, Otiluke and Tenser. Bigby, too, nearly died, and then, turncoat Rary fled south with Lord Robilar to the Bright Desert - Rary's tower even went there! The aforementioned City of Greyhawk boxed set can still be found at a few hobby shops, but like everything Greyhawk that didn't just come out, it is no longer in print. 2] Furyondy. Another excellent choiuce. This nation, ruled by King Belvor IV, is busy shoring up its borders against the hordes of goblinoids and more powerful evil beasts Iuz holds sway over in 585 CY. In the kingdom itself lie ruins to be explored, a forest to the northwest to clear of orcs and the like, and intrigues even within the noble knightly orders, as worshippers of different gods vie to persuade the king to launch a pre-emptive campaign against Iuz, thereby starting anew the wars that nearly ruined the Flanaess. The best sourcebook for this country is WGR4: The Marklands - if you can find it. It's out of print, but hopefully it will come back in some form in the future. 3] The Great Kingdom of Aerdy. Ruled by a mad Overking whose power is more illusory than real anymore, Ivid V's kingdom is a splintered array of lawful, nautral, chaotic, good and evil people and creatures, all bent on fulfilling their own agendas, be they great or small. A sourcebook entitled Ivid the Undying, written by Carl Sargent, never saw the light of day back in 1992 when it was nearly completed just as Greyhawk got cancelled, but it's available in Adobe Acrobat PDF form at http://www.io.com/~wmallman/ivid.html. This sourcebook is very informative, and has a lot of interesting NPCs and adventure ideas for those interested. 4] The Crystalmist/ Hellfurnaces/ Barrier Peaks mountain ranges. Aside from a number of old, old adventures set there, this formidable, thousands-of-miles-long set of mountain ranges is the imposing barrier to the ancient Suel Imperium and Baklunish lands above the Sulhaut Mountains. Both were destroyed a thousand years ago in a cataclysmic war. Aside from dealing with the extreme temperatures in the Hellfurnaces, which can range from below freezing to downright sweltering, depending upon your proximity to the active volcanoes in that range, the desert steppes of the Sea of Dust are leagues upon leagues of desolate land that only the most well-prepared and hardy of adventuring groups should try to tame. 5] My old favorite, Saltmarsh. The famous and popular U series, also known as the Saltmarsh Trilogy, start a group of beginning adventurers in a quiet fishing community, and throw them headling into a twisting series of delves, ranging from a haunted mansion to an underwater lair if sahaugin, which were recently featured in the Monstrous Arcana accessory, The Sea Devils. UPDATE 8 AUGUST 2005 - I got a copy of DUNGEON MASTER'S GUIDE II a couple of weeks ago, and was interested in the sample city that had been put in that book to use as a sort of "instant campaign base." To my surprise and joy, it turned out to be none other that Saltmarsh! It's fully jigged out and much grander than anything I had ever done with the town, but it makes for a good starting point - and hey, an homage to the heady days of First Edition is always welcome in this day and age. This series truly shows the best in first-person AD&D adventures, with the all-important GREY in Greyhawk - plots within plots and levels of intrigue that you can't hit upon in just one sitting. This area is Greyhawk in microcosm, and I strongly recommend finding the following modules: U1- The Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh U2 - Danger at Dunwater U3 - The Final Enemy I could go on to discuss five or ten more interesting areas to look at for adventures and ideas for entire campaigns - including the Second Greyhawk War, which I admit to having DMed before - but these five are the most commonly mentioned areas, if not particular modules, in which to game. What's YOUR favorite area of the Flanaess in which to game? Email me with your thoughts, and I'll see you in the Flanaess!!! David Insley |
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| This column originally published 18 May 1998 |
| Please note: Due to "web rot," not all links might be valid anymore, but I'll try to keep them up to date. |