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I can't remember off hand where the original concept came from (Scarlet Brotherhood sourcebook?) but I was under the impression that the current Olman pantheon were originally deities from Earth. For ...

Ideally yes, but if you flip Europe without warping it to fit the landmass of the Flanaess its less easy to see the comparison of sizes because a lot of Europe ends up in the water and Scandinavia sti ...

No worries mtg.

I think one of the things that really stands out is the vast size of some of the forests. The Vesve is bigger than Norway!

This raises something I've meant to ask you, Wolfling. Have you ever made a map that superimposes, say, Europe or the Mediterranean over the Flanaess? If not, would you be willing to create and post o ...

Thanks for all your thoughts! I was reading up on Celtic paganism and the huge variety of deities they seemed to revere. They seemed to have certain key deities or deific roles throughtout the Celtic ...

I've always just taken for granted that there are eight druidic 'circles' corresponding to the eight broad geographic areas of the Flanaess (exlcuding 'Isolated Realms' as the ninth) each with the dru ...

So these are a few maps I cobbled together using as the Darlene or Anna Meyer maps of the Flanaess as a base. With the climate zones I used the information in the Greyhawk Player's Guide as it's a can ...

I can't remember where the 30 degree tilt originates from, I'll keep searching. The below info is gleaned from the Greyhawk Player's Guide, p8

The Northern Border of Day & Night – Oerth's polar ...

Thanks for your feedback. With small standing armies and lots of uninhabited wilderness it brings into the perspective the need for more outlying communities to hire mercenaries for protection. I gues ...

I know this topic has likely come up before over the decades but I've been considering the low population figure for the Flanaess afresh.

As written in the Guide to the World of Greyhawk populatio ...

If someone is able to do a rough sketch of the winds etc then I'm more than happy to edit my map!

Sure thing, I'd been asked by a couple of people to do this a while back but kept forgetting!

https://i.pinimg.com/564x/80/11/1d/80111d6424857f455f3459a7a105d193.jpg

Hmmm, this is a different ma ...

This is something I hashed up a while back. I'd like to add that I have no expertise in wind patterns or ocean currents so this was a best guess based on what little I read!

https://i.pinimg.com/or ...

I agree that the actions of the People of the Testing and more particularly the elves on Lendore Isle don't seem to gel with a CG alignment.

It's worth noting though that according to the 2e FR so ...

Thanks for the feedback everyone!

I'd starting working on population figures for various nations but totally overlooked that the figures listed in the WoG Guide exclude the populations of major ge ...

I always find the demihumans who veer away from their standard racial alignment interesting: Obmi and Markessa leap to mind.

It also makes much more sense that there would be more variance in demi ...

Does anyone has any thoughts or guidance regarding calculating the human & demihuman population sizes within the various mountain ranges? There are populations listed for some of the major forests ...

An idea I've been playing with is that the Suel Imperium was much more multicultural and diverse than the Scarlet Brotherhood believes.

Yeah I love this idea too. I've always felt that if the Suel ...

Thanks for the feedback everyone.

I agree TwiceBorn, I quite like the element of hypocrisy by having a band of monks from Kara-Tur influencing the martial arts of the Brotherhood. A couple of the S ...

I was wondering if there was any specific reason why there is so much variance between the history of the Scarlet Brotherhood described in Chapter 10 of Fate of Istus compared to S.K. Reynolds version ...

Although Bissel has Keoish origins it was a province of Furyondy after the Small War for about 4 decades before it was declared independent. During that time the government was replaced by Furyondian ...

Just trying to work out the dates that these four adventures are set as well as Priestly Secrets in Dungeon #71

Priestly Secrets is set 5 years after L2 The Assassin's Knot and mentions on p.11; ...

If we went with the dual-class version, going by 2e rules he can still use his wizard abilities he just doesn't gain any xp as a thief for the encounter that he does this in and subsequently 50% xp fo ...

Thanks rasgon!

From the Ashes has Basmajian Arras as a TN W11/T5 but in Ivid the Undying he's listed as a LE fighter of 13th-level. The LGG seems to follow its lead from Ivid and has the Lord High Admiral also as a ...

Hmmm yeah that does make the map location seem less plausible. I suppose a hex represents a 780 square mile area so the marker for Bale Keep on the map is only an approximation, if the Keep isn't dire ...

I think that what the text might mean is that Bale Keep is along the Hool Marshes/Salinmoor border as opposed to the Hool Marsh Protectorate/Salinmoor border.

From what I gather, in 576CY any Keois ...

I can't remember the exact source but I think Living Greyhawk material for the Duchy of Ulek mentions a King Llandrier around -344CY.

I did a Faiths & Avatars style write up of Zagyg for a player in my last campaign. The speciality priest info isn't canon but was created using the Spells & Magic points buy system.

Here's ...

I have a sneaking suspicion that I read somewhere Gygax envisioned the Baklunish to be Central and Eastern Asian in appearance which would tie in nicely with their origins being in the Celestial Empir ...

Royal Pathwardens of the Celadon: Formed 581 CY.

Reading the start of Natural Selection I think it implies the Royal Pathwardens were already established by 581CY and that rather than creat ...

I have the following notes;

Guide p.40 states that the Duke maintains an excellent army of borderers while maintaining a centrally located force of cavalry.

Guide p.56 - Contingents of archers & ...

Unlike poison the 2e rules for poison seem a little vague. I was wondering how you all deal with disease, any saving throws, recovery from any ability damage, natural healing et cetera...

I've done some work in the past converting 3e devils and demons into 2e rules so had a go at the blaspheme for you.

Blaspheme

CLIMATE/TERRAIN: Cold hills and plains
FREQUENCY: ...

I think the problem with using real world food analogies is that it's always dependent on our individual take regarding each ethnicity's cultural reference we use. We can see from a lot of other threa ...

I've attempted a compromise of sorts;

535CY – The future archmage Warnes is born (the first of 5 children) to a prosperous farming family living on the County of Urnst's border with the Bandit King ...

"The man who would become Warnes Starcoat was born..." is such a strange phrasing. If you're going to be precious and emphasize that he wasn't who he'd eventually grow to be, I think it's more likely ...

I was just doing some research regarding the Urnst States and came across a contradiction in Warnes Starcoat's origins.

Return of the Eight, p.59 states:

"Warnes was born fifty years ago (535CY ...

Thanks for the feedback. Both suggestions are really sound so perhaps the glyph could mean both these things; 'the Tenha people' and 'strength'?

Does anyone know what the symbol on Tenh's heraldry is? I can't find it amongst the glyphs in the Guide to the World of Greyhawk but it looks kind of anthropomorphic to me.

I really, really hate WotC's corporate guff about 'not all drow are evil'. That is to confuse fantasy with reality & potentially devalues the seriousness of discrimination & oppression in ...

I finally made the time to review the entire thread. It's nice to see so much dialogue over the subject.
Yeah it's been nice to have some good debate on the topic.

My modest contribution is to rem ...

Thanks Cebrion. I wasn't sure how best to describe things that were crowned.

Is there a need to describe that the crown on South Province's boar is gold or is it always assumed that it will be that ...

I was wondering if there are any blazonry expert out there? The wiki page has quite a few of the blazons listed but there are a few missing. I've tried to work them out but it's like learning a new la ...

Personally I like an element of moral ambiguity. I think Greyhawk totally lends itself to that vibe too. For example, during the Greyhawk Wars Perrenland made a truce with the unabashedly evil Iuz. Pe ...

Ahhh, yeah that's a really good analogy CSL. I definitely like the idea of working class Suel saving up to try and send a child to receive formal education. "Why can't you be more like your brother an ...

He has not yet been depicted as having a bob haircut with blonde highlights.

Hahaha! But he does drive an Abyssal SUV and always wants to grill the manager (both metaphorically and literally)

Thinking about it, I think some of the varying differences of views hinge around how we all see the class structure of the Imperium.

A few models might be;

i) The Suel were actually quite small ...

My depiction of Korenth Zan was heavily inspired by Robert Gould's illustrations of Elric, and so the Suel Imperium as I imagine it was heavily inspired by Michael Moorcock's Melnibone, in particular ...

Totally didn't spot that this was a sticky thread so re-posting this where it actually belongs;

Firstly, thanks for the hard work gone into the Adventures in Greyhawk section, it's a great resour ...

Here's one suggestion if you don't mind an evil god;

Karaan (CE, possibly demi-god) - "a vile god of savage lust and wanton destruction, representing the dark side of nature. His symbols are gnawed ...

I’m just jumping in to defend poor Norebo. He’s Chaotic Neutral. I don’t believe Len ever described him as having evil tendencies, unless that change was made by a later designer.

To be fair to Nor ...

Reading through all these excellent posts has given me lots of food for thought! Rasgon makes really important points about considering the difference between the Suel people and the body of the Suel ...

I agree that the reputation of the migrating Suel as wicked and vile shouldn't be ignored but I don't think it needs to be indicative of the average commoner of the Imperium. My mind turns to Nazi Ger ...

Looked at through this lens, a very different picture emerges of the Suel Imperium. The old Suel Imperium was malicious, tyrannical and racist, with intrigues, double-dealing, murder and magical ...

I've often thought about how the Suel deities might reflect the culture and mindset of the Suel Imperium.

A few things stand out for me;

Maritime Deities: Despite the presence of Xerbo, Osprem a ...

Thanks for getting back to me on those queries.

I'm happy to help out with a 1e WoG style alignment chart (and trade goods map if you like). If you want to send me the relevant info for the region ...

I think Telchur is implicated in the imprisonment of Vatun and he also has some dodgy allies like the Archdevil Belial who most likely aided him in dealing with Vatun. As a result Llerg and Dalt are v ...

Thanks for another great piece, I'm a big fan of these Beyond the Flanaess articles!

I had a couple of questions;

i) do you have in mind alignments for the various regional leaders and/or their ...

It's also worth keeping in mind that those encounter tables don't indicate numbers just how likely you are to encounter such creatures in relation to other creatures dwelling in those areas. They also ...

Hey Phalastar. I'm a freelance illustrator. I've been able to do a couple of Greyhawk related pieces which was great and when my current commissions are done I plan on finally doing some more Greyhawk ...

And four versions of the rough climate zones based on the information in the Greyhawk Player's Guide. Obviously these zones don't really hug a straight latitude all the way across the globe, it's more ...

The topic of climate is still coming up in a few different threads so I tried my hand at a few maps to attempt to make sense of all the various information. I am definitely not a climatologist so thes ...

Hey, I'm not sure I've seen anything in canon sources that describes the geographical origins of the various elven sub-species. If you can remember those sources I'd be really interested to see as it' ...

...but it's very clear that there is magical tampering with the climate of the Flanaess (perhaps on the Oerth as a whole).

Clear, how? I am curious what evidence you have come across that makes th ...

...but it's very clear that there is magical tampering with the climate of the Flanaess (perhaps on the Oerth as a whole).

Clear, how? I am curious what evidence you have come across that makes th ...

...but it's very clear that there is magical tampering with the climate of the Flanaess (perhaps on the Oerth as a whole).

Clear, how? I am curious what evidence you have come across that makes th ...

To me, a lot of the Greyhawk nations' implied (or even outright stated, in the case of Saltmarsh being like a medieval English fishing town) "cultural equivalents" imply a significantly cooler culture ...

Good topic SirXaris!

It frequently crossed my mind why an empire like that of the Suel people didn't seem too large. Technically an empire should constitute several territories and cultures but som ...

Just read an interesting reference to Seaton in L4C - The Lendore Isle Companion by Lenard Lakofka;

It's described as a fairly simple town well known for its shipyards and is one of several main su ...

I would imagine that as originally published, Greyhawk would have used Gygax's 1E theory of the nature of magic found in the 1E DMG, p.40.

As described, the verbal components are "charged with ener ...

I would imagine that as originally published, Greyhawk would have used Gygax's 1E theory of the nature of magic found in the 1E DMG, p.40.

As described, the verbal components are "charged with ener ...

I would imagine that as originally published, Greyhawk would have used Gygax's 1E theory of the nature of magic found in the 1E DMG, p.40.

As described, the verbal components are "charged with ener ...

Rather than starting a new thread I figured it made more sense to resurrect this one.

Has anyone managed to come up with a simplified interpretation of prevailing winds and currents that makes sens ...

I love how varied the interpretations are for Keoland's feel and the detail of thought everyone has applied!

I calculated Keoland lies at maybe 22 to 30 degrees North which I think matches to cent ...

The Forgotten Realms supplement Faiths & Avatars also has details on the crusader, along with the mystic and a reworking of the monk.

Thanks for sharing this! I just had a look through and its great! Really nice to see fresh 1e content

Hi nijineko, in my last 2e campaign I had a player who was desperate to use psionics. In the end I relinquished and allowed them to manifest a couple of psionic abilities and no ability to launch a ps ...

Nice investigating Lareth. I find this really interesting as I've always considered the the 'consorts' of the Archdevils probably more interesting than the diabolic patriarchy and by necessary likely ...

"The Razing of Redshore" in Dungeon #92 which assuming they're meant to be the same place, details the city of Redshore which at some point has been placed in Salinmoor on the Anna Meyer map but could ...

Here's a couple more from Hommlet;

Jaroo Ashstaff [Druid 7] - T1
Smith [Druid 3] - T1

I realised I never followed up on this thread ...

Previously I usually used the double xp to attain each level above the racial cap option. However, in my last campaign I introduced the use of char ...

Torque-Nomar, your thread completely reminded me that I'd mentioned in a different thread somewhere in the 2e board about some monsters I'd converted from 3e into 1e/2e.

I'm not sure if it's of any ...

The Kozak's fit the bill of the Rover's to a T while tossing in an amalgamation of Amerind cultural tidbits seems ridiculously out of place. Save Amerind culture for a region near the Olman rather ...

When I first started exploring the various cultures of Greyhawk in depth I tried to apply a single defining cultural parallel to the various ethnicities, races and countries. It was very much like try ...

So the shield is a tangible barrier of force that can move to protect the wizard from frontal attacks only. In the same way a regular shield doesn't provide two separate ACs for an attack to bypass, I ...

My first 2e character was a druid so I have many fond memories of shapechanging....and a goodberry jam cottage industry.

In agreement with Cebrion and SirXaris, I think it's easier to go with sunri ...

Bone March - California (San Diego to San Jose) (30 degree tilt) or Oregon (23.5 degree tilt).

The Bone March is roughly 40 degrees latitude, similar to New Jersey on Earth.

North Province ...

Thanks for the feedback mtg

I've been looking for a good book on the Ottoman Empire. Do you, or anyone, have some to recommend? (I've been eying Jason Goodwin, Lords of the Horizons (1999, 2003).) ...

In response to your request in the Earthly Cultural Analogies thread I thought it would make more sense to respond here about my points of reference for this region.

Historically, I have the tribes ...

This kind of topic has always been of great interest to me and I can see value to both CSL and rasgon's approaches. For me the key is to foster consistency in my gaming world to help create a strong s ...

My reading of the spell, based on the fact that it is alteration magic is that it doesn't 'delete' stone, it shifts the existing volume into a new shape. You could use it to create a tunnel but you wo ...

Thanks for sharing! I'm looking forward to getting a chance to re-run ToEE and to include this.

Going by the rules as written, the only time the beserkers don't "gladly attack anyone the possessor of the horn commands them to fight" are when the horn is blown by a class group unable to use the h ...

I concur with jtylerk. I think that an open-ended request like "Guard the temple." would cause the spell to fail. I think that the stipulation should also be a concept the animal could understand such ...

Sorry Lanthorn, I probably should have checked the threads more thoroughly first.

But yes, I find that some creatures seem to have their Strength considered in their damage dice others not so much. ...

Okay, so another question about how you deal with your monsters ...

Some creatures seem to do very little damage with their attacks. Especially demons and the like. For example, a big hulking glabr ...

Paladin In Hell is a great module, I ran a slightly modified version of it for the showdown in the last campaign I ran and it went down well.

Depending on how purist you are you might consider allo ...

Converting from one edition to another can be tricky but I do tend to find it easier converting back from 3rd to 2nd. xo42, I've done a few conversions from the Savage Tide AP, I'm happy to share thes ...

Thanks for your input Lanthorn!! Lowering the familiarity leve for a moving 'place' makes sense unless the PCs go out of their way to create a special cabin for that purpose perhaps.