As stated on the Introductions forum, I'm looking for a players guide. Specifically, I'm looking for a few pages that new players can skim through to get a feel for the setting, and that they can refer to during the first few games to get their bearings.
As I'm not sure such an animal exists, allow me to outline my basic vision. If someone knows of something remotely like this, feel free to direct me to it. Otherwise, this outline will serve as a starting point so that kind netizens can help me make it myself.
Ideally, I'd like something like this:
Quote:
Page 1:
1-2 sentences on each of the human subraces. Ex. "Suel: nordic caucasians who act X and dress Y. Rule in County of Urnst, [insert country] and [here, too], but also found in TK."
Rest of pg 1 is a BRIEF timeline of GH history, ending with the starting year of the campaign.
Page 2
List of surrounding countries, each with a few words to give them the gist. ex:
County of Urnst
Ruled by Suel Feudal Aristocracy; good terms with A, B, and C, hostile with X, Y and Z, at war with TK.
Page 3
List of background-specific tidbits:
"Ten things every Keolander knows"
So, where could I go to gather this kind of stuff?
Don't be fooled by the title. This 32 page booklet is roughly the equivalent of the 83' World of Greyhawk boxed set/80' Folio contents (with some added material from later products), minus the weather charts, encounter charts, and other oddball things that really don't tell you anything about the campaign setting. The D&D Gazetteer provides a nice overview of Greyhawk for new players, and with rules references being practically non-existent it is perfect for anyone, no matter what rules they use.
A DM should get this for themselves (if they don't already have it):
The 192 page Living Greyhawk Gazetteer provides a much more in depth look at the campaign setting, but with rules references still being nearly non-existent.
Even if you prefer to play in Greyhawk at a time in which the current events as presented in the Living Greyhawk Gazetteer haven't happened (or you don't intend for them to happen at all), there is still a lot of information in the LGG to draw ideas from, and so it should be useful to anyone for that reason alone. _________________ - Moderator/Admin (in some areas)/Member -
Last edited by Cebrion on Sat Feb 23, 2013 6:12 pm; edited 1 time in total
Don't be fooled by the title. This 32 page booklet is roughly the equivalent of the 83' World of Greyhawk boxed set contents, minus the weather charts, encounter charts, and other oddball things that really don't tell you anything about the campaign setting. The D&D Gazetteer provides a nice overview of Greyhawk for new players, and with rules references being practically non-existent it is perfect for anyone, no matter what rules they use.
A DM should get this for themselves (if they don't already have it):
As stated on the Introductions forum, I'm looking for a players guide. Specifically, I'm looking for a few pages that new players can skim through to get a feel for the setting, and that they can refer to during the first few games to get their bearings.
...
So, where could I go to gather this kind of stuff?
I'm looking for the same thing and haven't had much luck. Fans made a small start to an online players' guide in the Nineties, but it never got far. If you're running a modern campaign, the D&D Gazetteer and/or Player's Guild would work fine. My problem is that my players are starting in 576cy and I don't want to confuse them with a bunch of vanished nations and spoil the Wars and the recent upheavals. In the past I've loaned players the Guide from the '83 box or the Folio, but I don't want to reveal the whole ancient history of the Flanaess; I like how the cataclysms aren't common knowledge in the Gord books and how they're revealed over the course of his adventures. So... I'll probably cut and paste a bunch of stuff together from PDF's.
smillan_31 wrote:
If that's the case I found some used copies on Amazon of the '80 folio for about $40 bucks. Worth it in my opinion just for the Darlene maps.
$40 is pretty steep. That's what Noble Knight and the BIN gougers charge on ebay. Wait for an auction and it goes for $20-25.
Ceb, did you mean the 1980 folio edition of the World of Greyhawk? Just wondering. The info in the 2000 Greyhawk Gazetteer seems to me to just be an abbreviated form of some of the info in the LGG.
I edited my post to be more clear. The D&D Gazetteer is not an abbreviated version of the LGG, but rather the LGG is an expansion on the D&D Gazetteer, seeing as the LGG came out after it. It would be more accurate to describe the D&D Gazetteer as the 83' Wog text/Folio text, minus the weather charts and extraneous stuff, plus material having to do with the 2E product line (i.e. From the Ashes, The Marklands, Iuz the Evil, Ivid the Undying, etc.).
Also, the links I posted were not necessarily for buying them, but to show what the products are called and what they look like. Buy them where you can, for what you can, though hopefully RPGNow.com will soon have them available as pdfs for about $5 each.
One could also get the 1998 Greyhawk Players Guide (hopefully this will be offered as a pdf soon too) that Bugsy mentioned, and it does what the D&D Gazetteer does, but in 74 pages, and not quite as up-to-date with tall of the pu7blished material(though some may like that). It really depends on what time period you prefer, and how much information you want your new Greyhawk players to have/deluge them with. If you want short and simple (and up-to-date), stick with the D&D Gazetteer. _________________ - Moderator/Admin (in some areas)/Member -
Wow! I appreciate all the recommendations, but I'm really looking for a 3-5-page handout that I can give to everyone as a quick reference at the gaming table, not a 32 page book that they would have to pass around and study between sessions. I'm really okay with making it myself!
Here's what I have so far for human subraces:
Quote:
Flan--bronze skin, dark eyes and hair, prefer primary colors
Oeridian--olive skin, blonde, brown or black hair,
Suloise--pale skin, blue eyes, blonde, white or red hair
Baklunish--golden skin tone, grey or green eyes, dark hair,
And here's what I have for history:
Quote:
-2004 The Flan people spread across the Flanaess.
-484 Beginning of the Baklunish-Suloise Wars
-421 Suloise Mages of Power call down the “Invoked Devastation” upon the Baklunish. In retaliation, Baklunish spellcasters bring down the “Rain of Colorless Fire” upon the Suloise Imperium, transforming the empire in the Sea of Dust.
-216 Foundation of the Kingdom of Aerdy
-110 Aerdy becomes known as the Great Kingdom.
1 Grand Prince Nasran I of the Great Kingdom of Aerdy in 645 OR (1 CY), when he declares universal peace throughout his the land, and takes the title of Overking. At this stage the borders of the Great Kingdom of Aerdy extend all the way to the City of Greyhawk.
320 Outer dependencies of Aerdy gain sovereignty. Perranders, Velunians, Furyondians, and Tenhas each establish independence in a series of minor but bloody wars.
Zagig Yragerne begins construction of Castle Greyhawk.
356 Kingdom of Nyrond,Theocracy of the Pale and Urnst secede from Great Kingdom.
438 Keoland and Furyondy go to war, resulting in the secession of the Keolandish regions of Gran March, Bissel and the Yeomanry.
446 Foundation of the Iron League. Rise of the Sea Princes.
450 The County of Urnst gains independence from Nyrond.
455 Sunndi joins the Iron League.
461 Realms of Ulek and Celene established.
498 County of Urnst becomes palatinate under the Duchy of Urnst. Greyhawk becomes a free city.
582 A series of regional conflicts erupts into the continent-wide battle that eventually becomes the Greyhawk Wars.
The Duchy of Tenh is conquered by the Fists/Northern Barbarian armies.
583 Armies of Iuz conquer the Horned Society, Shield Lands and Bandit Kingdoms.
The Scarlet Brotherhood invades the Hold of the Sea Princes.
The Great Kingdom attacks the Theocracy of the Pale, Almor and Nyrond. Almor is conquered.
584 Keoland, Gran March, the Ulek States and the Yeomanry enter into a mutual-defense pact and military alliance. Geoff and Sterich are conquered by humanoids and giants.
The Battle of Innspa results in a decisive defeat of the Great Kingdom's armies. The North Province secedes from the Great Kingdom.
The Wars end with the Pact of Greyhawk in the month of Harvester.
586 The Great Kingdom comes to an effective end, as it splinters into two major states (The United Kingdom of Ahlissa and the North Kingdom of Aerdy) and numerous minor states.
Canon Hazen of Veluna causes the "Flight of Fiends" through use of the Crook of Rao. Most (but not all) evil-aligned outsiders are banished from the Flanaess.
I just found a brief player's guide that someone made up. Despite the fact that the creator repurposed the cover from the 1983 A Guide to World of Greyhawk, it isn't the same thing. It doesn't have everything you're looking for, but there's a summary of the human races, a birthplace chart, a description of the various languages, and brief summaries of the lesser and greater gods.
I'd cut out most of that, personally. There's a lot of words in it that as a new player (if I were a new player) I don't think I'd need to know, and my eyes would just glaze over. The "Flan only spread across the Flanaess in -2004 CY" bit is kind of a pet peeve for me, too. It seems like it'd needlessly tie your hands as DM if you wanted to introduce an older Flan civilization, and why would players even care?
I'd probably get rid of the specific dates and just replace it with prose.
A brief history of the Flanaess
The world is Oerth. The land is the Flanaess, which is the eastern portion of the continent of Oerik.
Over 1000 years ago, the wars between the rival empires of the Suel and Baklunish came to a cataclysmic end. Suel Mages of Power called down an "invoked devastation" that wiped out most of the Baklunish civilization. In retaliation, Baklunish spellcasters brought down the "Rain of Colorless Fire" upon the Suloise Imperium, transforming the empire into the Sea of Dust.
Centuries passed. Migratory Suel and Oeridians who had fled the wars into the lands of the Flan—the Flanaess—established new kingdoms and empires, marginalizing the Flan who had dominated the region before.
Nearly 600 years ago, Grand Prince Nasran I of the Great Kingdom of Aerdy declared universal peace throughout his land, taking the title of Overking and marking the date as Year 1 of the Common Year calendar. At that stage, the borders of the Great Kingdom extended all the way to the city of Greyhawk.
As the centuries wore on, the Great Kingdom became decadent and much of its territories—including Perrenland, Veluna, Furyondy, the Duchy of Tenh, Nyrond, the Pale, and Urnst—seceded. A century or so later, in the western half of the Flanaess, many of the territories of the Kingdom of Keoland seceded as well in protest of Keoland's expansionist, imperialistic phase.
Near the City of Greyhawk, the mad wizard Zagig Yragerne built a vast, eccentric dungeon beneath his castle, a dungeon that even today hasn't been thoroughly explored.
Only five years ago, the Great Kingdom came to an effective end in the wake of a series of wars that had devastated the Flanaess, splintering into two minor states (the United Kingdom of Ahlissa and the North Kingdom of Aerdy) and numerous minor states. The same year, armies of demons led by the evil demigod Iuz were banished by Canon Hazen of Veluna through the agency of the Crook of Rao, helping to check the Flanaess's descent into darkness and horror and move it, if not into the light, at least into the shadows.
The year is now 591 in the Common Year calendar established by Overking Nasran. The forces of good and evil are in precarious balance. Iuz still plots in the chilly north while the villainous Scarlet Brotherhood still schemes in the south and remnants of the Great Kingdom maneuver to reclaim their ancient glory.
I just found a brief player's guide that someone made up. Despite the fact that the creator repurposed the cover from the 1983 A Guide to World of Greyhawk, it isn't the same thing. It doesn't have everything you're looking for, but there's a summary of the human races, a birthplace chart, a description of the various languages, and brief summaries of the lesser and greater gods.
That's a great little resource Rasgon! Thanks for sharing it!
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