This is a thread where you can talk about your wildest fantasies of owning the Greyhawk IP. This is really an extension of Greyhawk Grognard's video. Plus I'm also curious as to what each of you would do.
Whether you would follow Gary's vision, or follow your own. This is a scroll to speak up about what you would do. As the people on Candlekeep would say.
Gary's vision or my own? Yes. There is plenty to use from Gary's comments and plenty he didn't define. I would further define all the continents. I think there are ways to do it with Gary's notes.
I would probably make Oerth hollow because of Gary's influence by Burroughs.
I would also develop Yarth based on the Gygax-Dille Sagard books...assuming I could get Dille to sign off. Then I could have Yarth and Barsoom (utilizing the "Warriors of Mars" war games rules) which doesn't conflict with the Oerth-Spelljammer stuff.
1) make a proper campaign update to From the Ashes. Carl Sargent created incredible material that built on Gary's articles and novels, but it was dismissed more because players disliked of Zeb Cook's Wars than any flaws in Sargent's work.
From the Ashes was the last time Greyhawk was a dynamic and growing official setting. With the 1998 relaunch, WotC split the difference, rolled back half of FTA's changes and atmosphere, and begun GH's slow descent to stasis, irrelevance, and trying to appease everyone by never taking any chances.
For one year, I would publish a short series of sourcebooks building on FTA and present it as a one-off, alternate timeline.
2) after that, resume building on all of the hard work done by Living Greyhawk and Greyhawk Reborn. I would make it all part of the official timeline and release an updated gazetteer digestible for new players.
3) I would seek out the best authors, up-and-coming and invite back any classic writers interested. Greyhawk has attracted the best talent and collaborators since its inception.
4) Official products would be a modest trickle. Greyhawk should be supported, but the ball is in the DM's court. Keeping up with the official campaign shouldn't require a lot of money. Brand focus would be high-quality, short modules like the good old days: dungeons, hex crawls, tournament gauntlets, deathtraps, and sandboxes, not stupid supermodules or linear adventure paths.
5) every year would be one larger product, alternating between a module trilogy or a regional gazetteer for the Flanaess or other parts of Oerth, starting with Aquaria, then Black Moon Chronicles, then Sundered Empire.
6) expand Greyspace with Spelljammer-branded products and the Underoerth and Empire of Ghouls with generic D&D branded products. Greyhawk players can use or ignore them as they wish.
7) reduce the pimping of famous NPC's. Constant references of overuse of Mordy, Vecna, and others make the setting finite and overshadow the players. Meddling gods walking the earth and constantly-hovering archmages are the province of Forgotten Realms, not Greyhawk. Greyhawk is ready for new plots, new names, new heroes, and new wheels within wheels.
8) give Greyhawk modest novel and video game support. Nothing huge, just some good ones.
1) make a proper campaign update to From the Ashes. Carl Sargent created incredible material that built on Gary's articles and novels, but it was dismissed more because players disliked of Zeb Cook's Wars than any flaws in Sargent's work.
From the Ashes was the last time Greyhawk was a dynamic and growing official setting. With the 1998 relaunch, WotC split the difference, rolled back half of FTA's changes and atmosphere, and begun GH's slow descent to stasis, irrelevance, and trying to appease everyone by never taking any chances.
That's interesting and provocative. I greatly enjoyed the WoG gold boxed set and FtA (and Sargent's regional sourcebooks—Marklands, Iuz the Old, and Ivid the Undying), but I didn't have the same negative reaction you've noted about Team Greyhawk / GH'98.
At the same time, I recognize your point and know that a substantial number of GH fans have similarly critiqued its "roll back" of Sargent's development. However, GH'98 also provided a lot of new details regarding the setting, and I can recall my excitement reading its initial two publications—The Adventure Begins and The Player's Guide to Greyhawk.
Similarly, the Living Greyhawk Gazetteer provided an extraordinary amount of detail, particularly regarding the history of the Flanaess.
vestcoat wrote:
For one year, I would publish a short series of sourcebooks building on FTA and present it as a one-off, alternate timeline.
Very interesting. Depending on the authors / quality of the work, I would be interested in such a series.
vestcoat wrote:
2) after that, resume building on all of the hard work done by Living Greyhawk and Greyhawk Reborn. I would make it all part of the official timeline and release an updated gazetteer digestible for new players.
I've long been interested in Living Greyhawk but don't know much about Greyhawk Reborn. From what I've gleaned about the former, some sounds interesting. Other parts don't. E.g., the Ether Threat's decimation of Tenh. Notwithstanding my reservations, I'd be interested in an overview of what that living campaign developed. I know that a couple of regional efforts have been made, e.g., for the Bandit Kingdoms, but an overview of the whole campaign would be very interesting.
I'll stop here but hope to respond more in the near future.[/i]
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