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The Wild Coast is another good Sword and Sorcery location, lots of independant cities and lords, and the Great Kingdom could be any fractured land.

As for Keoland itself, I always likened it to Tol ...

Hi Everyone,

Somehow, after not playing for decades, I am forming a new group for in person play using 1st/2nd edition almost ceratinly in Greyhawk. We are based in NYC if anyone is interested.

...

I always figured the Suel Barbarians had something along the lines of how Vikings and Saxons held thralls.

As far as other regions, the Bandit Kingdoms would clearly have an active slave system at ...

I think the question is better, how complicated do you want to make the character's life?

Even in Greyhawk, the two dark elves mentioned in the Boxed Set live very circumscribed lives. One is a cri ...

It could be the tube for an ancient siege engine called, if I recall properly, a sambuca. Basically you could use it as a short range flamethrower to start a fire during a siege.

or it is a prefabr ...

I rather like the idea of the monastic abilities of the Scarlet Brotherhood being a surprise to the Flanaess that appears with the Greyhawk Wars. I believe that there were three kits introduced in one ...

I look at Hextor and Hieroneous as two paired Oeridian gods, and part of the "civic religion" of the original migrants. His worship is strongest in the Old Aerdy East, though there are small cults as ...

Is this the wordpress site, or is there another site?

National capitals are usually the area from which a region can most easily be controlled from, and the idea that the capital is a major city is a fairly recent one. For example, English Kings often ru ...

Historically, twins are a significant feature in Indo-European religions and myths. Think Castor and Pollux, Apollo and Artemis, or Romulus and Remus. I have been building out some anthropological tho ...

The Scarlet Brotherhood sourcebook stated this, thus breeding programs were certainly not beyond the pale for them.

I have not given much thought to the Suel breeding program, pre-Scarlet Brotherhood, but clearly they had one, and since the Suel rather unambiguously have a Nazi-like element to them, I don't see why ...

WG8 Fate of Istus has a city section on the capital of Nyrond, Rel Mord, and an adventure set there for 1st-2nd level characters entitled Swords for Hire.

I think the Greater and Lesser Boneheart were described in detail in Iuz the Evil.

Tuerny, in Nalfeshnee form is detailed in Return of the Eight.

Lyzandred the Mad is detailed in The Crypt of L ...

A lull in the fighting, as you described, makes perfect sense; medieval wars often had long lulls as maintaining a standing army was incredibly hard and expensive for such societies, even if magic is ...

I see the Flanaess as on the verge of a general conflagration in 579 CY, but the actions of various adventurers delays the advent of a general (as opposed to regional) war until 582 CY when Iuz sets h ...

I concur, especially on the setting "time frame". I keep mine societally and technologically where Carl Sergeant put it, just barely 13th century (plate armor recently exists, but not full or field pl ...

Samwise,

Interesting take on the migration period. I have been playing with the nature of the period myself, if only to provide some context when an ancient tomb is uncovered and what might be foun ...

Dr. Jacques,

Une belle theologie! Je vous applaudis! I like how you are using historical inspiration to make such a vivid background for the Oeridian belief system, and how it has evolved over time ...

Certainly 'twas in days of yore!

While 800 miles is a long distance, I believe "Visions of Greyhawk's" most recent issue introduced the Low Road through the Lortmils, which provide a means of easily covering about half of the distanc ...

Ray Dalio's book, Principals talks about the fact that there is an economic cycle of about 120 years, with smaller nested cycles. The reason things always seem to surprise people is that even if we li ...

Doc Jacques,

A truly stupendous effort and impressive in its details. I have personally been rewriting my own version of the ancient history of Eastern Oerik, and have recast the Ancient Suel as a ...

Regarding only the head-of-state positions:

Based on sources, the Great Kingdom, under the house of Nealax appears to function with a form of "to the strongest", think the Ottoman Turks post-Mehmed ...

I did not realize that the Church of St. Cuthbert had cells in the basement... perhaps a converted room for an acolyte?

I guess now the big question is, "does a church have legal authority to hold ...

By the way, I was able to take the Great Courses: Language Families of the World" by the famous linguist John McWhorter. A truly fascinating class that gave me some ideas for this.

Docjacques,

My approach to languages in the Flanaess is rather different than others. For instance, there is no Common language in my setting, as think that homogenizes things too much. Rather ther ...

Of note, I based my response on what used to be English, maybe even British law for treasure troves. I assume that there would be some customary Oeridian laws on the books for these situations, varyin ...

I take Lanthorn’s position to be focused on how soldiers engaged in internal policing would conduct themselves after winning an engagement against bandits, humanoids, or other monsters, specifically i ...

tarelton continued:
In my personal campaign development material, I consider the Oeridians and Suloise to have polytheistic pantheons, while the Old Faith of the Flan is more a single religion, with ...

I believe Oerth Journal 15 addresses this very topic in an article entitled, "The Nature of Druids in the Flanaess: The Old Faith".

In my personal campaign development material, I consider the Oeri ...

Another thing about the lower population densities is how, if the green flat prairies that make up most state territories are all settled and civilized, then how much territory is there left for aspir ...

For my game, I multiply the populations by 10 (except for cities like Gradsul which I double). It's a simple answer... not the best perhaps.

I've read the articles by Grognard - Armies of the Flan ...

MTG raises a very good point, and also inspired a bit of a rethink on my part.

Regarding trade in the Flanaess, I totally agree that it is a largely local affair, especially as so many of the trade ...

Well, 'Amazon' could simply be the term used to describe the powerful women in a matriarchal society. It doesn't matter if those women are spell-casters, warriors, or simply statesmen (um... stateswo ...

I like the names you've derived from the syllables quite a bit, but I'd eschew using those identical to the deity's name to prevent multiplication of imaginary entities and confusion at the gaming ta ...

1. In my mind, the Wild Coast is just that, a very wild place where the strong make the rules. Think Howard's Hyborea. I would say that slavery would be practiced here despite being considered repugna ...

https://greyhawkonline.com/wogcomic/title/wogstrip101a.htm

Enjoy!

Right on cue!

And perhaps some cultists of Tharizdun...

Simply put, the elves in my mind have declined to renew the lease for the others. As Edmund Scott put it, maybe the other races forgot that this was a temporary (to elves) arrangement, or they inadver ...

Lareth,

Great topic! Sadly these, imho, great products never went further with the end of 2E. I never gave much thought to Tenser's nascent organization, but the Circle of Darkness did cause a few ...

I'd go with a very small number of humans for actual mountain ranges.

Looking at a place like Afghanistan, it's population density back in the early 1960s was 14 people / km2 (or about 36 people / ...

Cryptic as possible. I always liked reading the vague Greco-Roman prophecies that mean whatever one wanted them to mean. For instance:

'Though all else shall be taken, Zeus, the all seeing, grants ...

Skech,

Most of your questions tend towards the peculiarities of a campaign. Personally, I like to keep my campaigns fairly realistic, with magic and fantastic beings being fantastic so that there i ...

You will need the following materials:

1. A dozen wish scrolls.
2. A miniature, peckish, tarrasque in stasis
3. A 10' pole
4. A troupe of 15 halfling trampolinists, fresh from performing at the ...

Lareth, you have a suitably Machiavellian mind as your namesake might have. It is a very tempting idea, complete with a moral or at least a legal quandary for the characters. What would a paladin do i ...

Vulcan,

Thank you for your ideas. I am going with legitimate line of the family having been wiped out in the rise of the Temple. The Temple is going to have steered a confidence man into making a c ...

As far as running a blockade, what the characters will need is information. As far as creating a subterfuge adventure, the most closely guarded resources during the age of sail were a ship's rutter a ...

As I endlessly rework T1-4 for my own amusement, I noticed that in the Player's background it states "Prosperity was great, for the lord of the district [Hommlet and environs] was mild and taxed but l ...

Sorry for the shameless 2e plug,...

-Lanthorn

Is there any other kind? -- Nathan Jessup

I've been wanting to work that in for so long!

For languages, I dispensed with Common existing at all. No Esperanto in my Flanaess! You want to speak with that foreigner? Time to roll the dice! This forces characters to invest in language skills a ...

I think we are all assuming that the entire population is within the city walls. That would be almost impossible. Most medieval cities had extensive suburbs outside the walls, thought he more defensiv ...

Actual pandemics, i.e. a Flanaess-wide illness? Outside of the Red Death I don't remember one being mentioned, though there should be something. I also remember that there was something about a plague ...

My emerging way of dealing with the need for currency in various denominations is to have some governments mint coins of different values. Instead of an electrum piece, for instance, a government coul ...

DriveByPoster, I really like the idea of using common-place items as a way to add detail and flavor to the setting. In my mind, more and more, electrum coinage is a relic of the past, and it might be ...

Thanks everyone for your contributions so far to this discussion. I took a short break at work today and did learn that the Byzantines later issued an electrum coin, the aspron trachy https://en.wikip ...

Ragson, my feeling is along with yours that electrum pieces would only be in circulation in the more backward realms, particularly the humanoid dominated realms of Iuz and the Pomarj. I do think they ...

Electrum coinage is definitely an anachronism, but there are some influences which probably led to its usage lasting longer than expected.
In the Living Greyhawk Gazetteer, it says the monetary excha ...

What if electrum were a necessary component for enchanted weapons or armor and loses this ability if separated into gold & silver? That would give nations an incentive to keep it in pure form; it ...

I was listening to a couple of histories books that touched on the ancient Near East, particularly the kingdom of Lydia. Lydia was most famous perhaps for its last king, Croesus, who was renowned for ...

I always though that Iuz would treat any offspring like Saturn did...

After all, Iuz is constantly plotting against his sire, Grazzt, why would he create another plotter to threaten himself...

I looked at the Temple having two support networks that the characters would struggle against outside of the Temple:

1. Intelligence. This included the traders, the spy at the construction site, an ...

I looked at the Temple having two support networks that the characters would struggle against outside of the Temple:

1. Intelligence. This included the traders, the spy at the construction site, an ...

I think there was meant to be some connection between Blackthorn and those under the Tower of War in Greyhawk Ruins.

I'm not aware of any specific tie between Iuz and the Flan. Based on the timeline, I agree that he should be a common deity.

Taking what everyone else as said, their is clearly the need for more detail. Some notable medieval European trade goods were:

Baltic amber (Gems I?)
Flemish cloth, made from English wool
Burgund ...

Based on the Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh The Sea Princes export brandy and silk. Based on Howl From the North and Iuz the Evil the Bandit Kingdoms are major exporters of weaponry.

Most of my work for ToEE has been to:

1. Understand it mechanically. By this I mean is I seek to gain a sense that if the module is played as presented, how rapidly will the characters gain levels. ...

I sometimes think a vaguely Byzantine/East Roman vibe might be a good take on Keoland.

Something along those lines... more the idea that Keoland is the continuation of the Suel Imperium than a new ...

I've be recently revamping my ideas of life and culture in the Flanaess. Roughly based on Carl Sergeant's works, I have largely broken the Flanaess into two sections:

The Oeridian East. East of the ...

I liked the rules in the 2nd Edition Forgotten Realms supplement Pirates of the Fallen Stars. They had fairly simple rules, but additionally a lot of the background material could be converted for Gre ...

Dysentery? Malaria? Yellow Fever?

Oh, that was not the question.

A really interesting book I recently listened to was Lost City of the Monkey God. It is 1/3 about the legends behind a rumored l ...

I'd say that a collection of "Dad" jokes would probably be best, sorted for applicability. Also, jokes about the next villages' dim-witted/immoral inhabitants are probably appropriate:

"How many p ...

...BTW, Tarleton, what happened to your Bloody Ban' avatar? Wink

I just noticed that... I am not sure. Good follow-up, and I loved the Tucker's Kobolds article. Even the smallest ant can bite ...

.

Further thoughts on this. How many nations not bordering Iuz have full standing armies as opposed to local militia manning forts and outposts?

Mostly it would be city guards in the really big ...

Start small finish big. :D An army of Wererats!

I needed reminded of the power difference between adventurers and Soldiers. Especially when the terrain makes it strategically advantageous to use ...

The Oeridian states seem to be largely feudal, and thus possess a small core of King's troops and rely upon the nobles to fill out the army... Marklands speaks to this specifically with Furyondy and N ...

1. Plausible deniability... think of adventures like City of Skulls where a potentate wants something done, but does not want/need the credit. "Should you fail, you will be disavowed..."

2. The mil ...

My simple campaign that I am still developing:
T 1-4 gets the characters to about 7-8th level (generous amounts of hirelings and henchmen to help, but also dilute XPs)
Then WGA 1-3 Falconmaster seri ...

Ummm, ummmm....

Good point. A quick internet search shows that most medieval galleys had a draft of 2 m, and cogs drew about 3 m (Wikipedia for the galley, https://www-labs.iro.umontreal.ca/~vauche ...

Great find! I wonder what other real world sites could approximate places in the Flanaess... This might be a fun weekend activity!

CSL,

First, thank you for the compliment... every now and then a stopped clock like myself is right.

The progressive concept of history is relatively new, and historically localized to western E ...

Actually, there are asiatic lions...

While I do like using the original concepts of the human races (Oeridians = germanic tribes, Suel = Babylonians/Romans/Byzantines, Flan = Celts/Native Americans ...

Greyhawk is a -- supposedly -- medieval world, but one created with 20th Century sensibilities. And newer editions of the game are even more influenced by 21st Century sensibilities.

In other words ...

Kirt's descriptions are very helpful. Perrenland is one of the states of the Flanaess, along with the Suel Barbarians (Vikings) and Grand March (Teutonic Knights), that are almost directly lifted from ...

I thought R.A. Salvatore engineered her apotheosis through book sales...

too soon?

As you say, Lanthorn, this varies by time and place, but here are some ideas from my reading on various time periods:

In the 30 Years War, especially as the war progressed, mercenaries were promise ...

Cruel Summer Lord,

I certainly did not know Gary, but from what I understand, he was creating a backdrop for his wargaming ideas when he developed Greyhawk, which is why his elements of it are low ...

Isn't the 'cash economy' of D&D kind of implied, though?

Cruel Summer Lord, this has been one of my gripes with AD&D for a while. While a cash economy does speed up the game, it also remove ...

Regarding the finances of the Furyondy and Veluna branches, I think we are looking too closely at a cash economy like our modern one, and not considering that this is a semi-medieval world.

The pri ...

To me, it has always had the perfect depth of information about the various areas, countries, etc. I know what each area feels like, whether it is the Viking feel of the Thillonrian peninsula, the cla ...

Greyhawk is closer to a Tolkien or Howard-style setting, which were the stories I grew up on. Other settings seemed to always be having to one-up each other with the latest, most powerful foes, allies ...

I've always liked the idea of keeping monks a class unique to the Scarlet Brotherhood. It just added that much more of an aura of mystery and menace to them...

43-Man Squamish?

I'd recommend football, though in its original, rougher medieval form. Terry Pratchett's Folklore of Discworld talks about this version of the game at some length, and it would apparently occupy entir ...

My interpretation is that the Old Faith is practiced as pantheon worship, i.e. Obad-hai, Beory, and the other Flan gods are worshiped as a group, whereas the dominant Oeridians worship their gods as i ...

“As the Morlin’s hammer descends on the Grimalkin, the statuette appears to shimmer or flinch as its doom approaches. There is a hiss as of an alley cat preparing for a fight and then the crunch/clang ...

I'd keep most of the gossip small-scale, e.g.:

1. The fishmonger's boy is slow-witted (apple not falling far from tree)
2. The vegetable-seller uses untrustworthy weights (no, just a sharp trader) ...

I always thought of Keoland as sort of being like Gondor from Tolkien's work. Thus I would lean towards using Iron Crown Enterprise's maps of Osgiliath. This city is set upon a river like Niola Dra, a ...

In my opinion, serfdom is the traditional Aerdian system, and the Great Kingdom uses it as a means of control. In my vision, Furyondy and Veluna moved away from it over the last couple of centuries sl ...