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It wasn't Zagig's slow apotheosis to divinity that made him mad, it was his accelerated growth that did it. Had he gone through the usual path to godhood (i.e. quasi-deity to hero deity to demigod), ...

I remember somebody making the comment that Boccob was a (relatively) recently ascended deity and that Wee Jas was his elder. If you're looking for a reason of why the Suel Imperium was so advanced i ...

The Paynims have been renamed.

I see that Almor, the Horned Society, Tenh, and the Shield Lands are back. Did they rewind to before the Greyhawk Wars? I'm aware that some later material might hav ...

At level 10, the priestess of Iuz is pretty high up in his hierarchy. She's almost certainly an agent of one of the Boneheart, a trusted agent of one of the Greater Boneheart priestesses or a very tr ...

I have not done anything with Philodor and don't plan to for two main reasons. The first is that I don't need an extremely powerful NPC who breaks the rules in my game like Philodor does. The second ...

Is this a one-shot in an existing campaign or a one-shot for something like a convention game?

Either way, I wouldn't recommend it because in the former case it is basically picking on the players ...

I like that if the PCs screw up, it doesn't destroy the setting. It makes it interesting instead.

I might add that if the PCs mess up Return of the Eight, then the Iggwilv/Tuerny alliance could co ...

I look at vampires from a societal point of view rather than a personal order point of view. By their very nature, vampires feed upon society and do not build it. I think Chaotic is suitable for tha ...

I regarded Return to the Tomb of Horrors as a campaign-killer simply because it has the original Tomb of Horrors in it. If they softened the original Tomb, then it might be workable. Though I'm also ...

The final installment of the original The Enemy Within campaign, Empire in Flames is written by Carl Sargeant and has a reputation of being liked by no one.

The PCs make their way to the Empire's c ...

I like that idea! To take my reference to Passing Shadow from Iuz the Evil, I would also make her the same as the thief "Shadow" mentioned in City of Greyhawk (under the Thieves' Guild in the High Qu ...

I don't actually like the Night Below on the account that the aboleth are too deadly for my tastes with their domination and mucus membrane attacks. Their 2nd edition stats list the number appearing ...

Admission: I don't like Tolkien, so elves going to an island has no special place in my heart.

I dislike the People of the Testing because a) they are a piece of 90s RPG design that believed scatte ...

I ignore the takeover of the Lendore Isle. "Elves retreating to an island" doesn't interest me.

Looking at what they've done, why not have the People of the Testing really be following the edicts ...

I'll be honest that I never kept up with Living Greyhawk at all. The times I played at a convention, I felt the adventures weren't that good, and I had no belief that the people involved knew anythin ...

It's probably worth mentioning that Gygax himself opened the possibility of non-evil or at least less evil drow in D3 Vault of the Drow.

Under the Rakes random encounter (page 16): "The bands with ...

The Greyhawk revival by WotC was short lived before it got turned into Living Greyhawk in the 3.x days and whatever happened in the pages of Paizo's Dragon and Dungeon magazines.

There were a coupl ...

Let's look at it from the perspective of the town.

Replacing feudalism with a modern, progressive Western-style democracy in a few weeks to couple of months isn't going to go last. What happens wh ...

For reference, the Gnomish Vale in Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth consists of 675 gnomes (with 3 giant badgers) and is described as "a large clan of gnomes". It also pegs a hex as being 3.5 miles.

I hadn't seen either that blog or The Gates of Firestorm Peak before. I am personally not fond of putting too much Mythos-inspired things in my game, but it could work!

It was a long time ago, but I want to say that someone on the AOL Greyhawk message board suggested that he look like James Doohan.

Don't worry! In my personal version of Greyhawk, Thrommel went in disguise as "Avras" and joined an adventuring company to do good like a young paladin should. When the Company of Nine came back to ...

I am having a really hard time making my way through The Horned Rat because it's pretty stupid.

The idea is that the skaven (the Chaos humanoid rat race that is kept secret from the general populat ...

At this point, it becomes less of Vesper's detesting dwarves and more of the necessity for upholding the Assassin Guild's reputation. If there is another repulsed abduction attempt, then I think the ...

Hi there
And if we imagined the opposite. The queen discovers the plot against Thrommel in which her second son soaks and the SB which eliminates her.

Marklands lists Sewarndt as 25 and "beginning ...

I would probably be less inclined to use buildings or structures and instead go with "the Seven Legendary Artifacts of the Flanaess."

The Machine of Lum the Mad
The Mighty Servant of Leuk-O
Baba ...

Thanks!

And, wow, Randy Richards and the World of Greyhawk Fan Club. That takes me back.

I think with Anna Meyer's maps, I'll have the area, and I'll populate it as I want.

I was wondering if anyone had maps of the Sea of Dust. I have an idea for a Greyhawk campaign that would use that area.

The idea would be that the Twin Devastations didn't happen and the Suel Impe ...

I've always been a bit mixed about wiping away pretty much everything that happened in From the Ashes. I don't think that FtA was a good fit for Greyhawk, and I question whether it fits D&D at al ...

Don't forget Jumper and Vayne! Illusionists aren't barred from casting Alteration spells.

Though I read the rules for creating scrolls, and I think that none of the Boneheart would be willing to t ...

I'd have that particular PC receive a holy vision from Syrul, but he or she believes it to be the particular deity he or she worships. In it, Syrul promises a blessing and would the PC accept? Say i ...

Let's run down the archdevils. I'm not sure what point in time you're using, so I'll include the different ones across different editions.

Tiamat - corruption of a mortal is not her style, she's m ...

Iggwilv is not on the path of divinity because doing so means following certain rules and accepting certain constraints. Iggwilv accepts none other than those of her own choosing.

I will admit tha ...

Why not have Lareth be the legitimate heir, thought dead when the Temple slew or abducted his family? That way he pumps up the pretender and then can dramatically appear with proof of his legitimacy. ...

We're going to look at Something Rotten in Kislev, the original adventure 5. In full disclosure, I did not run this one; I ended my group at Power Behind the Throne for various reasons. This is also ...

A flesh golem would work thematically, I'm just not sure it would work mechanically. I estimate the PCs would probably be level 4 or 5 by that time, and a golem would seem to be a bit too much for th ...

Vecna originally built the Silent Tower to act as the tailpipe for his Doomgrinder juggernaut. Unfortunately for him, Kas attacked him before he was able to assemble the two parts.

I say the above ...

The boxed set is pricey, but you can also get the PDF (or printed softcover) from DriveThruRPG. It's not nearly as good as the original, of course, but if you're more interested in the text, it does ...

I don't think the centipede should raise interest. If it is clearly a familiar, it is less of an issue than pseudodragon familiars that are allowed to roam the city by themselves.

From the City of ...

I also forgot to say that if you are running it as a one off and unconnected to the rest of the series, I would suggest placing it in the Duchy of Urnst and having the Seer of Urnst as the secret vill ...

There's a split for the next one. Something Rotten in Kislev is the original fifth adventure, but the latest version of WFRPG came out with the Horned Rat. My plan is to look at both of them, though ...

The third main adventure is The Power Behind the Throne (adventure 4) written by Carl Sargeant. Like Shadows Over Bogenhafen, it is restricted to one city, but this time it is Middenheim, the center ...

I've always looked at the claims of Suel purity as more of what tack the Scarlet Brotherhood took to wrest away authority from the remaining magic-users of the Suel Imperium. Eventually, they reached ...

The City-State of the Invincible Overlord might have a good table, as well.

Though if you are homebrewing a table, then I would actually use a mixture of the 1st edition DMG and the "Random Encount ...

The second main adventure is Death on the Reik (adventure 3). This adventure lacks the focus of Shadows Over Bogenhafen. After a brief skirmish with some mutants on a boat, the PCs take the merchant ...

Since D3 makes it clear that Eclavdra was either raised or cloned if she died in G3, it could always be that the earlier sample that she was cloned from was Cleric/Fighter 10/4 instead of her more exp ...

Sorry for the delay on this. I started writing it and then got distracted by other things. You know how it is.

The first main adventure is Shadows Over Bogenhafen (adventure 2). Naturally, it ta ...

Those are reasonable suggestions, but I am not sure if the adventure series is worth the effort of adapting everything to an earlier time period. I guess it depends on how much extra work you want to ...

Demographics also need to account for immigration in and out of the community. If it's very safe, then more faeries may go there. It would be offset by residents leaving for other towns or other rea ...

My condolences to all the knew him.

The Enemy Within is the first part of the Enemy Within campaign. The original release involved mostly source material for the Empire and an introductory adventure which is called "Mistaken Identities ...

Graz'zt works. I'm not even sure whether it needs to be someone on the level of a demon prince/archdevil; a duke of Hell or the Abyssal equivalent would work just fine.

Let's go over some technical details first.

While Paizo's adventure paths are designed to take a character from level 1 to 20, the Enemy Within is not going to do that. The bulk of any experience ...

The Enemy Within is a series of six Warhammer Fantasy Roleplaying (hereon abbreviated as WFRPG) adventures and source material published from 1986-1989. They are highly regarded and considered the de ...

In your campaign, what's the reason Rary has gone to the Bright Desert? I'm curious.

Ed Greenwood describes Naome as being "highly regarded in the hells for her settling of disputes where others have failed" (Dragon #75), and that's a good basis for her. She settles disputes between ...

Lilith is, of course, completely different from Lilis. She's Moloch's consort. Ed Greenwood has her "held in high regard by many witches on the Prime Material Plane" but abilities do her no favor in ...

With Lilis, Ed Greenwood made her the controller of a spy network "said to be second only to that of Asmodeus". She is also very close to Dispater's provost, but they are both "unswervingly loyal to ...

I'd look at it as a technique issue more than anything else.

Which ethnic group is most likely to have figured out that beating eggs and then continuing to beat them changes their properties for ba ...

On one hand, I feel that the Scarlet Brotherhood is too regimented to fall prey to Glasya's manipulations. She might manage the odd agent here and there (I want to say that the low level monk in Grey ...

My personal favorite is D3 Vault of the Drow because it should be played as a delicate balancing act of factions and intrigue. But Drowmania casts an unfortunate light on it.

I know the OP is anci ...

It's taken me too long to get back to this, but I am here to start on the second half of Hell's consorts. Maybe I'll do a post for Tiamat's consorts; I haven't decided.

Glasya is difficult to writ ...

I am going to be honest, I dislike the Cthulhu mythos and prefer to keep it out of Greyhawk. This extends to making things like Cthulhu with the serial numbers filed off; I just don't think it fits D ...

It was designed to be modular, so cutting down the number of rooms from 50 to something more manageable is possible. Since it all takes place in a demiplane, you can also steal rooms from other modul ...

"The man who would become Warnes Starcoat was born..." is such a strange phrasing.

If I recall, he adopted the name "Starcoat" after the item he found (or maybe created). I want to say that was in ...

(Also, I had forgotten about the "Binders." Did anyone develop them further?)

The Binders are almost certainly another name for the Sha'ir from Arabian Adventures. The members of the AOL message b ...

Good to know and thanks for sharing this! I've never had a chance to chat about his non-D&D products much. I picked up Lichmaster, Empire in Flames, and Power Behind the Throne over the last coupl ...

If you don't want to use a flying city, how about using a city in a demiplane? That has a more Greyhawk feel to it.

You will get no argument here. I feel that designers have two ways to build up their new additions/design to a game: they either show why their creation is good or they tear down existing creations t ...

If you don't like Sargent, I can see how post-Gygax Greyhawk would be a bust. I'd encourage you to give him another shot, though. His modules demand real problem-solving, with a great mix of stealth, ...

Q1. What is your favorite realm or region in the World of Greyhawk setting?

Furyondy. I like the nobility of the land, contrasted by their hostile neighbors.

Q2. If you could actually be one Gr ...

It was difficult to figure out what to do with Cozbi. I considered her a little uninspiring until I approached her mechanics from a role-playing perspective. Some of her unusual spell-like abilities ...

Outside of the various imprisoned gods in Castle Greyhawk, do we have many other imprisoned deity-level figures in Oerth?

I'm not sure if there is a definitive list, but excluding Zagig's 9 and ...

It seems as if you are a divine power that visits Oerth, you're going to get imprisoned at some point*. I'm thinking that it might be worthwhile to stop considering divine imprisonment as a "big" thi ...

Ed Greenwood's Nine Hells articles (75, 76, 91) are some of my favorite articles.

I like the article in 111 about magic items that focus a spellcaster's spell into another spell; it allows some ver ...

I do have Gaxmoor. When I flipped through it, its encounters weren't suitable for my group.

I am currently running The Enemy Within campaign via Roll20, and I think there are some parts that can b ...

I went back to look at the Oerth Journal, and I was confusing that with a thread on Dragonfoot where 3 different people asked Gygax about Prince Thrommel's abductor and received 3 different answers, o ...

If Sewarndt was 25 in the Marklands, he would have been 10-12 when the Lorinar sisters were assassinated. And, he's Neutral, not evil.

I'll plug my Nyrond's princes post.

http://www.canonfire.c ...

Org Nenshen or Arentol would be candidates, as well. Either would have been members of the Directing Oligarchy, which is probably close enough to being a lord. You could even have it be that the **** ...

I am going to admit that I have never been particularly fond of Tharzidun, so having a portion of the Scarlet Brotherhood worship him does not work for me at all.

I would just take any reference in ...

I'd probably have it that Zuggtmoy and Iuz came to an agreement about the Cult of Elemental Evil prior to Iuz's imprisonment. Then, Zagig imprisoned Iuz, and Zuggtmoy puts it aside.

In the 550/560 ...

This is the next in my series of posts about the consorts of Hell. It took me a little while to figure out the right spin for her, but then it clicked.

It is said that Bensozia speaks not, save by ...

Osmund-Davizid,

It is a completely reasonable take on things. However, the Reckoning still leaves a bad taste in my mouth. The first is that it puts Asmodeus so far ahead of all the archdevils. ...

This is the continuation of my series of Consorts of Hell where I am looking primarily at the 1st edition sources. I am not a fan of what 2nd edition did to the Nine Hells, and I don't recall if any ...

Baftis was originally referenced in Gary Gygax's preview of the devil section of the Monster Manual II in Dragon #75. However, when MM2 was published, she was not included on the list of the hierarch ...

I am okay with letting the players fail, but I think that setting them up for failure is another thing. I think that is where L2 and Shadows Over Bogenhafen end up failing to be fair.

One thing that comes to mind is the stats for Murlynd in EX2: The Land Beyond the Magic Mirror. It's not the quasi-deity version quite yet (doesn't match the boxed set stats), and he has Int 19.

The Reckoning of Hell ended up being the explanation for the changes to the Nine Hells between 1st and 2nd edition. There was going to be a big battle between Baazebul's and Mephistopheles's factions ...

I read through this relatively recently. If it is not the first published murder mystery for RPGs, it is certainly one of the first.

I have to ask, for anyone who has either run it or played in it ...

I did take a look at Caermor. I generally like Nigel Findley's work, but this was not a good adventure for AD&D. It is perfectly fine as a Warhammer Fantasy RPG adventure though.

I do think t ...

I've been looking at the consorts of the Nine Hells recently and have been putting together some thoughts on them. I'm going with the 1st edition versions because I am not sure how much has been done ...

I think anyone who uses a potion of longevity as a "poison" to stop a marriage is just nuts.

Take the potion yourself and outlive the bastard.

I think you're missing the point of what the poison ...

I know I made a comment about the expense of the potion, but I looked at the price of some poisons to compare them.

In the 1st edition DMG, a single dose of Ingestive E is 1000 gp (page 20), the sa ...

Poison is illegal in Furyond, as befits a land ruled by a paladin king. However, there is a particular type of poison involved to prevent marriage alliances that some find too worrying. It is very e ...

The way that Nyrond handled Sewarndt and Lynwerd always bugged me because it is the most obvious and lazy thing to do. After all, the book that sets it all up lists Sewarndt as being Neutral. It is ...

That's an interesting use of the Regalia of Power. In my game, I have the Orb of Evil under the guardianship of a paladin; he was chosen by his former adventuring party as the one who could best keep ...

In my current Greyhawk game, I was trying to come up with a new scenario for my players and idly leafing through RPG products I had. I happened to pick up Ruins of Adventure which is probably better ...

If you're looking at using/altering non-Greyhawk material, I thought that Kenzer's Beneath the Waves was pretty good.

In my game, there has been a lawful good Scarlet Brotherhood member who is an ally of the party. I've got a faction of the Brotherhood that is more focused on order and battling chaos, so they are mo ...

I must admit that I was a little disappointed at the Alliance of Defiance article. I had hoped for a little more than just a summary of the cards, perhaps some addition lore spun around the character ...