Canonfire!

I'm asking this because of some of the negative responses given by folks in the reimagined Greyhawk (4E) thread.

Just out of curiosity, what is the current year in everyone's game? Mine is 576 (Saltmarsh) and 581 (the start of RtToEE), what is yours?

I started Saltmarsh in 576 so I'd have access to all of the events that are going to happen there. Its some great adventure fodder. If the Reimagined Greyhawk has anything I want to use, I may do so.

RtToEE was a bit obilgatory, given the official history. I wanted to use real dates, so I did.

And don't worry about explaining it in terms of the reimagine thread, Just in terms of why you chose your time period and how it relates to your campaign. Some of you started in 576 ages ago, and are now, understandably advanced.

And how do you decide when to advance time?

Mon Sep 22, 2008 11:10 am

I'm starting in 591 CY on my next campaign, mostly because I have a lot of initiates or old hands who hadn't played in a while, and want to use the Gazetteer as an overview. Plus, for what I had in mind, I wanted the Greyhawk Wars still fairly fresh.

Mon Sep 22, 2008 11:57 am

I started my campaigns in 594; that was about six years ago. I try to keep the threads of my stories moving forward by the years. Now my campaigns are set in 600 CY.

Mon Sep 22, 2008 12:36 pm

578, ToEE ;)

Mon Sep 22, 2008 2:42 pm

My most recent Greyhawk game took place from 591-596. when I return to greyhawk when I am done running Rise of the Runelords, I think I will start it in 591 again, running concurrently with the events of my last campaign but in a different location (probably going to place it in Salinmoor, the site of my previous greyhawk game that ran before my domain of greyhawk game, the salinmoor game was set in 591 and ended after l;ess then a year of game time).

Mon Sep 22, 2008 4:29 pm

I'm in 571 CY. I started in 567 CY (about six years ago in real time) so that I could run old classics like Mordenkainen's Fantastic Adventure, Tomb of Horrors, and Ghost Tower of Inverness (hopefully coming up within the next year).

Mon Sep 22, 2008 9:13 pm

I must be in a minority. My long running campaign is on 617CY and has mostly incorporated events from eariler timelines into the current set as needed. As it goes I'm on a second generation now which gives the current PCs some real history besides that of the famous NPCs.

Mon Sep 22, 2008 11:31 pm

I'm also in the minority. We're currently in 616CY. We've started the campaign in 579 (1986 real time) with TOEE. Heroes are born, have died, have been reported missing and have breed.

Tue Sep 23, 2008 3:02 pm More in the Minority

My game is set in 598CY.
It advances one IRL year for each Game-year.

I think that I may be in the smallest minority. While I had played GH for years, I hadn't run a campaign in awhile. So, about nine years ago, I started a LG game that continued for quite some time. And even in my home game that doesn't necessarily follow LG rules, I have kept the practice of keeping to a yearly scheduled timeline. I find that sometimes the months get a little ahead, and then they'll balance by falling behind for a little while.

It almost always comes out so that the time of year is appropriate, and things don't get jumbled by trying to remember timelines. It's a pace that I don't have to set, and has yet to get off-whack. PCs sometimes have to spend months of game time making magic items, but other times, a single day will drag out over three sessions.

"And what it all comes down to my friends...
Is that everything's just fine, fine, fine."
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Tue Sep 23, 2008 3:56 pm

My campaign started in 560 CY (because it is a multiple of 28, and because I wanted the PC's to be name-level by the time the events of the 570's unfolded).

Several of the PC's were physically present during the kidnapping of Thrommel in 573.

Date advances by game time, with all time accounted for.

"Current" date is spread out over about six months of game time. While the campaign started when we were all in high school, our physical separation means that we play PC adventures when together on vacation, and then advance the followers and dominion stuff by e-mail afterword.

The earliest date still "in play" is in the last month of 573, while some encounters have taken place as far ahead as the middle of 574.

The PC's range from 10th to 14th level at this point (1E/2E hybrid), giving 1 level per year average for the highest PC, and there are several followers at 7th level.

Only one of the PC's has had children - she has a 4 year old daughter.

Kirt

Tue Sep 23, 2008 7:25 pm

My campaign is set in 591CY in the Wild Coast - Pomarj area.

Will shift to Castle Greyhawk soon.

Wed Sep 24, 2008 3:17 am

Mine started in 576 and is currently 592.

Alarmingly, that's 16 game years played out in 26 REAL years. Shocked

Wed Sep 24, 2008 3:47 am

Wed Sep 24, 2008 4:14 am

Depends how you define "same game". Wink

A quick headcount comes to 11 different players (plus the odd guest; usually very odd which is why they remained guests Smile

) in those years. I'm currently down to 2 permanent players, plus a part-timer who comes back from the US occasionally, and me as DM. In fact it's just me and my good friend Dave who've been here since the beginning.

I suppose it was stating the obvious to say that I was there at the beginning. I'm the DM. Doh!! Embarassed

Wed Sep 24, 2008 8:26 am

My current campaign has been going for about a year and a half (real time, and about the same in game-time). That started in CY 576.

Joe
http://greyhawkgrognard.blogspot.com

Wed Sep 24, 2008 9:08 am

My current game is set in CY 681 - but I wanted to set up a whole backstory about the rise of an immortal 'Dark Lord' in the wake of the Greyhawk Wars. Happy

In my last game, the party waded through ToEE and found the Yellowskull. They used it's connection to Iuz to bind and destroy him, leaving a big power vaccum for the next bad guy to exploit... Cool

Wed Sep 24, 2008 1:25 pm

I'm running a next generation Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil set in CY 594. The campaign is just two years old in real time which accounts for only about seven months of game time.

I chose the date mainly so that the human PC's would be the right age to be the children of the PC's from TOEE (the demi-humans are nieces and nephews).
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Wed Sep 24, 2008 5:06 pm

Thu Sep 25, 2008 2:22 am

I've got a feeling someone's going to better mine. Wink

In fact, that's quite an interesting sub-topic; not only what year is your game set in, but how long did it take to get there? It definitely surprised me when I worked it out.

Thu Sep 25, 2008 2:42 am

Mine started in 576 CY and is currently in early 585 CY(9 campaign years in 19 real years). On the upside, each player has three groups of two characters each.

The highest are 12th-14th level(started in 1e; transitioned to 2e relatively quickly), the middle group is 7th-10th level(started in 2e; eventually transitioned to 3.0e/3.5e), and lowest level group is now 5th-6th level(started in 3.0e to acclimatize the players and myself to the new rules without the risk of flubbing up their long time characters; transtioned very quickly to 3.5e).

I wish we played more often, but it is hard to find the time.

Thu Sep 25, 2008 2:22 pm

Two campaigns one in 601 (started in 598 three real years ago) and the other in 603 CY (just started).
I chose these dates to be some time after the Greyhawk Wars, quite in the same setting than in the gazetteer but not too much so that I can feel free to change some things.

Mon Sep 29, 2008 9:27 am

Right now it's 691 CY in my game. Some of the highlights from 598-ish onward:

- Iuz's empire had fallen.
- The world was embroiled in a long war with the Elemental Princes of Evil.
- A long period of planar instability followed altering parts of Oerth and introducing new creatures and races.
- Iggwilv's apotheosis is complete, having stolen Demogorgon's power after his death, now a true goddess.
- She returned to Oerth, destroyed the Crook of Roa and much of Mitrik, and now has created an abyssal planar region based in the Howling Hills. Iuz and Drelnza now serve as generals in her army.
- The domain of Greyhawk has expanded, annexing the entire southern region of the Nyr Dyv. A powerful group now rules these lands with ambitions that go far beyond their borders.

A whole lot more of course, but this could get very long, very quickly Happy

Tue Sep 30, 2008 12:00 am

Currently 587 CY. Started in 580 CY so that's 7 years game for 18 years play.

Tue Sep 30, 2008 8:00 am

My last, which is picking back up online after my players moved away last year, started out the 1st of Ready'reat in 576. We only got through one long adventure which involved crossing the Sea of Gearnat from Ahlissa to the Wild Coast, pirate action off the coast of Onnwal, a storm, shipwreck, busting up a cult of Zuggtmoy that had been dominating a fishing village south of Elredd, recovery time, and voyage to Port Elredd, which the players are reached the morning of the 11th of Sunsebb. Most of that's been taken up by travel. And just to tie in with the Player Experience in GH" thread they leveled up to 2nd.

Fri Oct 03, 2008 5:08 am

My Meta Campaign began in 1987. It was 570 CY. In the first campaign there were four principle characters that went pretty far. They founded their country (Silvermoon originally enough) in 572 CY in an area off map that was later revealed to us to be Zindia on the Dragon Magazine Map.

The captains of their followers (using the 2nd edition followers rules) and a few other folks campaign began in 576 CY during the summer of 1989. This group did the ToEE. This campaign ended in the fall of 1993.

After ToEE, THIS groups followers ran from 580 - 597 CY. This was in Spring of 1994 and ran for about a year.

The children of the first 4 and their hangers-on began play in 604 CY. This 2nd Generation didn't last long (some of us went to college, military; got jobs, wives, etc.). Technically it never ended, though I later determined that the PCs were not still camped outside a dragons lair.

In 1996 I started with a mostly new group of players with a third generation (The grand-children of the 1st four). This campaign started in 618 CY and ran until 633 CY.

In 1997 we did a pretty long manifest destiny style campaign (that actually consisted of about 6 smaller micro-campaigns) where the various nations of the Flanaess and some of the 'new' nations that had been established IMC went through various Imperialistic phases. This campaign started around 636 CY and lasted until 672 CY.

In late 1999 we ran three simulataneous campaigns. One campaign featured a vast empire from off map invading portions of the Flaeness crusades-style (Think Romans meet Charlemagne meet the Sith). The second campaign featured a ships crew that sailed the trade routes between the Flaeness and off-map to the south west hunting pirates. The third campaign was an evil campaign that eventually overcame Return to the Tomb of Horrors and through that subverted the Crown of Sunndi and took over that country.

Then 3rd edition showed up.

I hit Greyhawk with a comet, and shifted the poles some 28 degrees or so, and redid the map. The bad-guys won (The War of Light and Darkness), a global empire arose (The Pretannians), and lasted for 8 generations (2 Dynastys). Eventually they were toppled and the Wizard-King Nobility warred globally for 114 years.

After the Wars of the Wizard Kings, Oerik (now called Ruarc) went into a societal decline (a dark age) that lasted about 700 years. Oh, and I changed the calendar.

My first 3E Campaign began in 1390 PD (2166 CY) during the fall of 2000. It went Epic (the players were each 37th level at campaign's end) we played every weekend (mostly) for several years and it lasted until the summer of 2005. Although, there were a few micro-campaigns that ran concurrently during that time with a different player base. This campaign, I called it the Foundation campaign (one of the PCs was a DnD Jesus for Cuthbert) lasted until 1436 PD (2212 CY).

From Winter 2003 to Spring 2004 I ran a campaign dubbed the Age of Sail set in the 1450s (2220s CY).

After all that our campaigns started taking on a more exploration, westward ho! type feel. From Fall 2005 through to the Spring of 2008 we played 3 different campaigns that brought the timeline up to the 1470s (2240s CY).

In 5 weeks I start my next campaign that begins in the early 1490s PD (2260s CY). The way I have it written, it will take me about two real years of semi weekly sessions to run. I plan on it covering about 10 years of game time.

Then after that, probably sometime in the fall of 2010 I am going to start another mega campaign, the sequel to The Foundation campaign, that I am calling Secrets of the Nine Banes (I would offer more details, but I have players that sometimes come to this forum). That campaign, as currently written, will most likely run for another 3 - 4 years and it will probably cover about 20 years of game time.

So in summation: my meta campaign ran from 570 CY - 706 CY. There was a huge break, and then it ran from 2166 CY to its current date of 2260 CY; a total of 230 some odd years of actual game time has been 'played' out over the course of the last 21 years of real time. I have another 30 or 40 years of game time planned that will run for about the next 5 years of real time, or thereabouts.

I would really like to hit the lottery or something so that me and my players could all afford to stop working and just play 5 - 7 days a week. I have so many stories I want to tell and to be honest, I don't think I am going to live long enough to tell them. Hopefully, I will get my daughter trained in time to hand it off to her!

Hope this sates some curiosity...

Fri Oct 03, 2008 6:46 am Homebrew WoG

That is an amazing history for any DM to achieve in a home campaign. It is marvelous that you have involved multiple geneations and are still going. Congratulations.

That being said, however, I think that you lost me somewhere between, "... I hit Greyhawk with a comet, and shifted the poles some 28 degrees ..." and " ... that lasted about 700 years."

I think at that point one could arguably say that you're running a homebrew setting, and not actually Greyhawk at all anymore.

But still, very cool that you have friends and family that are that involved. I wish I knew people that eager to play.
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Fri Oct 03, 2008 8:37 am

Yeah it is pretty much a homebrew at this point (which was the real reason for changing things so drastically). Though, GH history is pretty relevant in many, many, ways. For instance, one of the larger cities is literally built on the ruins of ancient Dyvers.

I am a very luck DM though, that is to be sure.

Fri Oct 03, 2008 2:27 pm

very good thing about generations.

the only time i did that was in a dragonlance campaign.

a chislev (godess of nature) pristess (my wife -girlfriend at the time- who loves mists of avalon series) became the queen of her people (she was the elder), fought her brother who betrayl their country letting the evil dragonarmy pass and married her general.

then, they had a daughter who grow up to be a paladin ( a mix of father fighter and motehr cleric ;)), still played by my wife.

its very good to play like that, its like you can be part of the history of the world, as the generations continues the adventuring