Canonfire! Forums-viewtopic-Seasons in the Flanaess

Wed Jun 14, 2006 9:48 am Seasons in the Flanaess - your experience?

Hello everybody. I'm new to these boards. I'm a recent "convert" to the World of Greyhawk: basically, I'm going to DM the Age of Worms adventure path from Dungeon Magazine, and since I was in need of a new campaign setting anyway (the campaign would not "fit" into any of my homebrew worlds for a variety of reasons), I hunted down a second-hand copy of the Living Greyhawk Gazetteer and became quite involved with it. ( Exclamation

not that I'm not willing to make quite a lot of changes to the setting just for the fun of it, anyway, since that's to me an integral part of the pleasure of DMing Exclamation

)

The one thing that really puzzles me about the Flanaess is the seasons: the two "summers" coming in a row and the very short winter. Seems odd, with icy nordic sagas being such an integral part of the basic genre repertoire.
So, what's the deal with WoGH's unearthly seasons? Why (from an author's perspective, if at all known, and from a DM's perspective) not just stick with the traditional four seasons of equal length?
How do the different seasonal cycle makes the life of people in the setting different (from our Earth)? How does it affect mundane trades, adventuring, mythology, mystique?
I'm curious about the experiences of long-time Greyhawk DMs and players.

Wed Jun 14, 2006 11:37 am

You want the real reason why the Flanaess has six-month summers? It's because Gary Gygax grew up in Chicago, lives in Lake Geneva, and hates cold weather. (Seriously — I asked him once. Laughing

)

Wed Jun 14, 2006 5:51 pm

Thats as good a reason as any, in a world with beholders, rust monsters, and Bigby. I ask the same questions, and sometimes I think I am too scientific about it.

Sun Jun 25, 2006 10:12 am

Awesome!

I live in Texas, and run a Yeomanry campaign. By latitude, the campaign should be like southern Texas, but I've buffered it with altitude, simply because I can't see adventuring in south Texas in the summertime....

Telas

Mon Jun 26, 2006 5:03 am

*chuckles*

Yeah, six months of summer sounds about right for Texas. And just like Gary had his reason, I have a reason for wanting a more traditional 4 seasons...

I hate only having 2 seasons in Texas:

Summer
Not Summer

Smile

Mon Jun 26, 2006 6:59 am

Yeah - the official answer is "magic done it". :)

Sun May 06, 2007 7:44 pm

I had always wondered about this as well. Really it's not too far off Ozarks weather. Spring is really only a few weeks before the summer temps hit us and winter is short but harsh. Early fall is still summer like as well.

Makes a bit more sense to me looking at it like that.
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Tue May 15, 2007 3:23 pm

Pardon my ignorance... Where's Ozark? Question

Tue May 15, 2007 3:46 pm

Wed May 16, 2007 11:58 pm

We had joy, we had fun, we had seasons in the sun. Question

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