Canonfire! Forums-viewtopic-If you were to start a fresh level 1 group near Greyhawk ...

If you were to start DMing a group of level 1's off with the intent to make it a long epic campaign and start them off in or around the Free City of Greyhawk where and what would it be? Myself and my group are returning to Greyhawk. I want to run them on a 1-18 epic campaign and there going to start off at the Free City of Greyhawk what module would you begin them on to get them started?

PS: oh and hi everyone ;) It feels good to be back home in the Flanaess

Mon Jul 18, 2016 9:58 am

Welcome back to Greyhawk.

There are literally dozens of adventures set in or near the City of Greyhawk but my top two suggestions for a long campaign would be to either:

- Frame it around the exploration of Castle Greyhawk using either the Greyhawk Ruins 2E adventure or the 3E Expedition to the Ruins of Castle Greyhawk; or
- Use the Age of Worms Adventure Path from Dungeon Magazine. It starts near Greyhawk and explores some of the Domain of Greyhawk and the city (before moving on for its higher levels).

From the Ashes and the City of Greyhawk Boxed set are excellent resources to fill in a campaign with extra stories and there are a handful of Dungeon adventures set in and around the city (Mad God's Key from #114 and Legend of Guthulga from #91 spring to mind as good level 1 modules).

Good luck!!

Wed Jul 20, 2016 8:36 am

So many great adventures/modules in and around the city to start a new campaign. I agree with Flint that exploring Castle Greyhawk using the Greyhawk Ruins 2e adventure (I'm biased toward 2e) will give you tons of adventures from 1-15th level. Although I'd recommend your party getting a few levels of experience in the city before venturing into the castle. In the City of Greyhawk boxed set there are numerous adventure cards starting at low levels that can get them ready and also create threads for other adventures.

I agree with Flint again regarding the Age of Worms Adventure Path from Dungeon Magazine. I converted it to 2e, but you could use it at any edition with some work. You could combine some of the adventure cards I mentioned with the Age of Worms path and really make an epic campaign.

There are many more you could look at including the Falcon series (not great overall, but it has some good info), and then the module Slavers (which includes low through medium level adventures) and later Return of the Eight for something tougher. Your options are really unlimited.

Wed Jul 20, 2016 10:41 am

The only thing of value I can add to the previous suggestions is that you may enjoy using Isle of the Ape as part of your high level campaign. It is quite different and loads of fun.

SirXaris
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Thu Jul 21, 2016 6:34 pm

Forgive the shameless plug also for 2e (with 1e influences) as well. Happy

In addition to those mentioned earlier, how about The Lost Tombs series, including "The Star Cairns," "Crypt of Lyzandred the Mad," and "The Doomgrinder." Those all hail right in the vicinity.

There are many adventure ideas mentioned in the boxed set sources, especially the "City of Greyhawk" and "From the Ashes."

If you are willing to have your group venture further away from the City, I highly recommend "The Village of Hommlet" because it leads right into the dreaded "Temple of Elemental Evil." That alone is epic.

-Lanthorn

Fri Jul 22, 2016 6:36 am

As Flint mentioned, i recomended Mad God's Key from Dungeon #114. It happens inside the city, have a nice chase scene that all the groups that i DMed enjoyed, and you can link to any evil faction by changing the religion of the adventure`s bad guy.

Fri Jul 22, 2016 6:57 pm

Interestingly enough, during boring meetings I have sketched out myriad campaign paths based on geographic starting point and time setting. For the city of Greyhawk:

Assuming start year 576 CY (Classic GH):

Segment 1 (576-579 CY) Getting to know the Town, levels 1-3
Characters are introduced to the city and long-term relationships are set up, including with the Paladin who later dissapears in Old Mother Grubb's and one or two future victims of the Shapechangers. Initial adventures will come off of the adventure cards primarily, and the characters will not wander further afield than Hardby or Elmshire.

Segment 2 (579-582 CY) The Domain, levels 4-7
Characters explore most of the Domain of Greyhawk, with the Cairn Hills, Gnarley Forest, and Wild Coast as prime destination. I would combine the Elredd Gambling House in Greyhawk Adventures with the Fate of Istus adventure set in the town as a standalone. The characters will get an important treasure map, but be unable to use it for sometime. This is also a good period for them to defeat the Shapechangers and possible Old Mother Grubb.

Segment 3 (582 CY) Slave Lords, levels 7-8
Run A1-4, Scourge of the Slave Lords, modifying the journey from Hommlet. By the end of the series, they know that something is up in the Pomarj (Torrush Mak) and they will be spreading a warning as they flee north.

Segment 4 (583-584 CY) The Greyhawk Wars through 10
The characters will attempt to delay the Pomarj invasion, and possibly help save the northern cities, and maybe meet some of the future movers and shakers in the Wild Coast. They may have the opportunity to be present before the Great Signing.

Beyond: Players should have three long term aims:

Defeat the cult of the Shriven Sickle

Find the lost city of the Suloise

Liberate a portion of the Wild Coast (and possibly claim it as their territory)

I avoided Greyhawk Ruins for this starting year as I wanted the characters to spend a lot of time exploring the city and domain. Additionally, I do not use the Falcon trilogy with them as it is designed for characters unfamiliar with the city... I actually think it is a better sequal to Temple of Elemental Evil and have designed that for my ToEE campaign.

Sun Jul 24, 2016 7:57 pm

Great topic! Good answers guys.

Nothing special but in my own experience I got the most longevity out of Greyhawk Ruins. The running back and forth to the city and dungeons is a nice simple set up that can keep ya going for a long time. As more subplots develop and characters have motivations I would definitely go with the suggestions above.

Wed Jul 27, 2016 11:18 am

Thu Jul 28, 2016 3:34 pm

River of Blood is a nice little introductory adventure that takes place in the City, although it's LG, so it would be hard to find a copy unless you know someone you can borrow it from.

Fri Oct 07, 2016 4:06 pm

I really enjoyed running "Star Cairns" in the earlier sect of a campaign once that also made heavy use of WGR1.

"Needle" was another lower level one I liked. I think I placed it the Gnarley Forest.

Its been as long as I can remember that I've actually used a module in a campaign though. Probably since the Sean K. Reynolds days.
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