In the Nineties, it seemed like most online GH fans had read most of the available books. These days it's harder to keep track of everything, and the scene has fragmented a bit; perhaps our libraries have too. Looking over the attached list, please answer the following questions:
1) What areas of GH lore do you own and make a point of referencing?
2) With which body of work are you the least familiar?
3) Do you primarily reference hard copies or electronic documents?
4) How much do you integrate material from other campaigns (Dave Arneson's Blackmoor, Planescape, Al-Qadim, Oriental Adventures, etc.)?
*1E Greyhawk
*2E GH 1988-1993
*2E Revival 1998-2000
*3E Greyhawk books (all three of them)
*3E Core books with GH references
*4E FrankenHawk
*D20/OGL books with a GH pedigree (Castle Zagyg, Pied Piper, etc.)
*1E-2E Dungeon Magazines
*3E Dungeon Magazines
*1E-2E Dragon Magazines
*3E Dragon Magazines
*Living Greyhawk mainstream (LG Journals 0-25, WotC online articles, Tristor)
*Living Greyhawk - the massive collection of modules
*Polyhedron articles
*Oerth Journal
*Other web sources: Canonfire, Footprints, Greytalk archives, etc.
*TSR novels
*New Infinities novels
*WotC novels (GH Classics & T.H. Lain generics)
*Comics and graphic novels
*Aquaria
*The Sundered Empire
*Lore from the original Gygax/Kuntz campaign
Last edited by vestcoat on Wed Oct 12, 2011 10:31 am; edited 1 time in total
Fun! I'll start. But first, to be clear as a member of the staff, I will disclaim that even though this poll is on the CF forums, it does not mean the site itself condones torrents.
1. I own nearly all official material from 3e and before and I continually look out to collect anything I don't have in print. I keep an eye on 4e-hawk for informative purposes but only read what is available online. I am also an avid reader/contributor to Oerth Journal and CF articles.
In articles or for my comics and blog I make a point of referencing any source however obscure. Now, in my own campaigns I tend toward 1e/2e era sources and the LGG primarily due to its thoroughness in tying all the previous sourcebooks together. I also made heavy use of 3e era Adventure Paths in Dungeon that featured GH locations, and GH of any era in Dragon Mag was treasure for me (The Lakofka Suel Deities series was my favorite).
2. I believe I'm least familiar with Polyhedron and LG works due to their scarcity and the amount of information to digest.
3. I primarily reference hardcopy. Call me crazy but I can find what I'm looking for quicker. If not, there is an excellent Encyclopedia Greyhawkia out there which can help.
4. I once incorporated a ton of Al Qadim (For my Ull campaign) and Planescape (for my Epic stuff) stuff. I own all of Arneson's Blackmoor stuff from d20 to before, but never found time to work it all in.
Though I've been playing D&D/AD&D since 87-88, I'm still a Greyhawk noob--I only started collecting Greyhawk resources since I picked up the LGG.
1) I have a good portion of 1e-2e material in electronic format (back when you could still legally buy that stuff), but I try to pick up hard copies whenever possible. I also have the 3e stuff, and a good collection of the LG material (even the stuff that's in languages I can't understand!). In addition, I have some of the miscellany (Dragon & Dungeon magazines, Oerth Journal, D20 stuff). Too much to reference effectively, so my primary references are the LGG, 1e materials (including the few Dragon articles), and some 2e materials, and some of the LG stuff for Sunndi and the surrounding areas (though I'm not hip the the campaign arc they went with as far as the Wastri Wars). Sometimes I get overwhelmed.
2) A lot of the 2e material, any Polyhedron stuff, non-TSR/WotC materials, novels, comics and fan stuff.
3) While I prefer to reference hard copy, most of my resource material is electronic (and electronic copies do have their perks).
4) Not much at all. I'll use some of the OA material, but not Kara-Tur as it's presented. (It's not the direction that I'd take with an "Asian-inspired" expansion to GH... unlike with the countries in the Flanaess, it tries to hard to have direct parallels to real-world cultures.) I'd probably mine some of the Al'Qadim stuff for the Baklunish lands, but it'd still be minimal.
But first, to be clear as a member of the staff, I will disclaim that even though this poll is on the CF forums, it does not mean the site itself condones torrents.
Gary Holian -- PSmedger, Overlord of Canonfire! -- owner of this site, does not officially support or condone the sharing of torrents. And I believe that is his personal position as well. Therefore . . .
I own pretty much all the boxed sets and supplements (including the booklet that was reprinted in the first boxed set) and most of the modules. The only pdfs I have are Patriots of Ulek which I paid for, the free pdfs that came with Dragon during 3e, and a copy of Dragons of Mystery, which I just found for free floating around online to help me with 4e Dragonlance builds because I couldn't be bothered to dig around for my hard copy. I can't see the point of downloading torrents illegally - if you want to support your game world the only way to do that it to pay so that they know it is a popular money-spinner.
I did manage to get online copies of most of the LG modules after they shut up shop but there was no other way to obtain those. They build on the LG Gazeteer, which contains the most detailed information of any supplement. However, I actually prefer the tone of the earlier stuff such as lower population levels, rare non-humans, and the rarity of magic but there are plenty of nuggets in LG to pad out a 1e version of the game world if you strip out edition-specific stuff.
1) What areas of GH lore do you own and make a point of referencing?
Except for large amounts of the LG triad materials and a few obscure things I've been unable to get my hands on I own most products from 1e to 4e containing GH references. For CF articles I make a point of referencing everything I can, even fanon, if it fits with what I'm writing. For my current Sterich campaign I've gone a little off the rails as far as official GH history, but not too much. I just think of it as "alternate history" GH.
2) With which body of work are you the least familiar?
The Gord Novels. Never read them, although Gord's Greyhawk has proven a very useful reference. Probably City of Greyhawk also. I've sat down to read the thing a couple of times and never have gotten through it. I think the amount of info is too overwhelming for me.
3) Do you primarily reference hard copies or electronic documents?
Primarily electronic. I even have electronic copies (for my personal use) of much of the stuff I have hard-copies of, just because I can reference them more easily.
4) How much do you integrate material from other campaigns (Dave Arneson's Blackmoor, Planescape, Al-Qadim, Oriental Adventures, etc.)?
I don't at all, to the extent that I reject even the parts of official GH sources that tie GH with other campaign settings. For example I would use the parts of "The Black Pegasus Trading Company" from Dragon # 199 that don't rely on spelljamming. Anything else that I find useful I would just change to expunge references to spelljamming. Sorry, Maldin.
I have a VERY extensive collection of material both in hardcopy and pdf.
I have been collecting since the ealry 80's, it hasn't alwasy been easy obtaining everything I wanted. I do however make a point of buying either the original hardcopy or pdf if I know it is something that I will using on a regular basis.
Yes there are a wealth of torrents out there, with possibly everything you will ever need, but you will only help kill the game you love in the end by supporting piracy.
My collection covers almost all of the released campaign worlds from TSR and WoTC and then some more. I have all the core rules from OD&D to 4e. My 4e collection started and stopped at the release of the Red Starter Boxset.
I have incorporated Al-Qadim, Blackmoor, Kara-Tur, Ravenloft, Darksun, Spelljammer, Planescapes into different areas of Greyhawk.
I have many sites that I reference online on a weekly basis.
I have started compiling my own, "Greyhawk Guide." Let me tell you that it is no small project, so I see a lot of late nights a head of me. When I am finished what I am hoping for his to have 2 Leather Bound, hand stitched, printed Hardcover books. A Player's Guide and A Dungeon Master's Guide, with no other books needed to play.
Last edited by DarkHerald on Wed Oct 12, 2011 10:00 pm; edited 1 time in total
Mystic-Scholar and mortellan - Sorry I mentioned that taboo subject. The wording in the first post has been edited.
1) I own hard copies of just about everything up to ’00-01, plus the LGG, RttToEE, EttRoG, LGJ 0-5, the WotC novels, and the OGL Gygax/Kuntz stuff. I recently got the comics, the Chainmail references, and the 3E Dungeon Magazines and I’m wading through those. I’ve read all of Sargent’s work multiple times, but I reference Sargent, Gaygx, Moore, and the LGG equally these days.
2) The Paizo adventure paths, the LG mods, 3E core references, 3E Dragon Magazine, anything 4E, and the last ten or so Oerth Journals. Also, for some reason, I’ve never read the 1E trilogy of supermodules. I read T1 and the GDQ series individually, and I’ve skimmed T1-4 many a time, but never gave the big books a proper reading.
3) I prefer hard copies for both reference and first-time read-throughs. It doesn’t hurt my eyes and I seem to digest and retain information better. That said, I DO like PDF’s when it comes to research. There’s nothing like punching “Xaene” into a search and cranking through a small hard drive to find those obscure references!
One issue I’m dealing with as I try to update my library is that I’m running out of shelf space and I find that a lot of 3E-4E products don’t give very much bang for their buck in terms of GH content. I’m willing to add Dragon magazines to the shelf for a good GH article, but it’s hard to justify thick, hardbound books with decorative, two-inch borders on every page, extra tactical maps, and massive stat blocks that aren’t relevant to my edition doubling the page count just so I can reference a couple of gods or a Saltmarsh update. After looking at the recent 4E Tomb of Horrors and consulting the Annotated 3E Bibliography, I think I may collect these books as PDF-only rather than double my shelving.
4) I integrate everything I can from Blackmoor. In the southern jungles I use some Mazteca and the David Howery material. I also use as much Spelljammer as I can while keeping the campaign Oerth-bound. Planescape is an enigma with which I’d like to get better acquainted. I’m not very interested in Oriental Adventures. I had Arabian Adventures, but sold it to make way for more GH books. :)
1) What areas of GH lore do you own and make a point of referencing?
I currently own the three core rulebooks for both 2nd Edition and 3.5 Edition along with several of the most important supplements. These include the '83 Greyhawk folio boxed set, the City of Greyhawk boxed set, From the Ashes boxed set, WG8 Fate of Istus, The Scarlet Brotherhood softbound, and a few others.
In addition, I have retained my most favorite modules of old: G1-3 Against the Giants, D1-2 Decent Into the Depths of the Earth, D3 Vault of the Drow, Q1 Queen of the Demonweb Pits, B2 Keep on the Borderlands, Isle of Dread, Ravenloft, White Plume Mountain, Temple of Elemental Evil, etc. I have also kept a few Dragon and Dungeon Magazines that have very cool stuff in them (like Best of the Dragon, Vol. III).
I used to own many more of the magazines and books for AD&D and Basic and Expert D&D, but sold them on ebay a few years back when I needed money and realized I would probably never use them again.
Quote:
2) With which body of work are you the least familiar?
Planescape and most of the LG material after the Living Greyhawk Gazateer.
Quote:
3) Do you primarily reference hard copies or electronic documents?
I prefer my books, but since I only own a few necessary copies now, I rely mainly on pdfs for more esoteric research.
Quote:
4) How much do you integrate material from other campaigns (Dave Arneson's Blackmoor, Planescape, Al-Qadim, Oriental Adventures, etc.)?
Not much. If I read of an interesting idea, I may incorporate it into my Greyhawk campaign, but I will change it enough to be fully Greyhawk and not noticeably from another system. Really, I'll only import the idea, not specific names, stats, etc. (Well, that's true of the serious stuff. I will, sometimes, make obvious references as tongue-in-cheek jokes.)
1) I own everything, and reference everything(I even scored a copy of Andre Norton's "Quag Keep" recently, but haven't read it yet). I now have an extensive(but not likely complete) collection of the LG adventures/material too, but that is going to take some wading through- months of reading material there alone, and I've barely scratched the surface.
2) Probably Ivid the Undying, and the updated lands that it covers, as my playing/DMing has seldom taken any characters throughout to that part of the Flanaess(excepting Rel Astra). I still know a little bit about the area though.
3) I reference both hard copies and electronic documents. I picked up many pdfs when they were available through RPGnow(I think that is who was selling them for WotC), most notably Queen of Spiders which I haven't managed to get my hands on in hard copy form. Most of those PDFs are simple scans(not all of them very good), not OCR'd PDFs. In effect, they are just pseudo hard copies rather than truly searchable PDFs. Still, beats having every single thing I own out of storage all at once. Perhaps I'll have all of the hard copies out when I get a large room completely lined with bookshelves/display cases...THE ULTIMATE GAMER CAVE!
4) I integrate only a little bit of material from outside sources, and even then I usually change it up a bit just so that it is more suitable to Greyhawk. Of the satellite material out there, I think that from Al-Qadim and Forgotten Realms are rather good overall. Also, when I say I make use of outside material, what I mostly mean is making use of the crunchy stuff- rules(for instance, DMGR9 "Of Ships and the Sea" softcover supplement; AD&D 2nd Edition TSR2170), classes(almost any source, so long at it fits a character, and Greyhawk), spells(almost any source), magic items(almost any source), etc., given a Greyhawk twist if needed. I do NOT use Spelljammer, nor have I owned anything dealing with Spelljammer other than the Spelljammer Monstrous Compendium from AD&D 2E(and even that product left a somewhat bad taste in my mouth). I definitely reference Planescape material on the planes and Ravenloft material on the undead, though I tend to modify information from the latter and not the former.
I have too many areas of interest to really classify myself as having a specialty in any one area of Greyhawk lore. My current level of insight will usually have much to do with what I am currently interested in. Dang, but I have more than few articles to finish. I gotta get some meds for my AGOCADD(Adult Gamer Obsessive-Compulsive Attention Deficit Disorder). _________________ - Moderator/Admin (in some areas)/Member -
1) I own (I think) every D&D/AD&D GH branded product from the '83 boxed set onwards and began my collection with ToEE from the second hand bin of a long-extinct gamestore. I followed this with Scourge of the Slavelords and Queen of the Spiders as Christmas presents and built from there (the boxed set coming a bit later). I also bought PDFs of most of my collection when they were available to buy and have a pretty complete set of LG modules. I have some of the Gord novels and even read the much-maligned Rose Estes ones when I was younger in an effort to mine them for GH lore (I got very little from the latter as you can imagine).
2) Ivid the Undying or Scarlet Brotherhood. I have never really got around to reading them in detail as my campaign / writing has never taken me to these areas.
3) I prefer to reference hard copies wherever possible. A pdf can never replace the feel of holding a book in your hands and diving into it.
4) I haven't actually integrated a great deal from other settings but, as I've posted elsewhere, I'm keen to adapt material to fill the blank spots across the Flanaess. I particularly like the Golarion stuff as it excellently written with a very rich background. Al-Qadim is also on my list of possibilities. This is partly due to a certain amount of creative laziness, a lack of time, and the desire to use the material without leaving Greyhawk.
1) I own much of the old Gary Gygax era materials, especially out of print modules. I possess the original golden boxed set (now battered), along with the Greyhawk City, From the Ashes, and Greyhawk Wars boxed sets. I own 1e and 2e rulebooks and sourceguides (including the Options system), many of them well-used/loved though time has not been kind to them. I reference everything in my collection, perusing constantly for cross-overs and also to clarify points that seem contradictory. I own nothing 3e or 4e whatsoever. I do have a decent stash of older Dragon magazines.
2) I am completely ignorant of 3e and 4e, as well as Spelljammer.
3) Call me old-fashioned, but I am a hard copy dude all the way. I like to peruse books, to feel the pages in my fingers, to feel the tangible knowledge in my grasp...
4) I integrate little from other systems, except for Ravenloft at times to enhance the gothic horror feeling with undead and lycanthropes. I do own one or two Forgotten Realms books (gasp!) as well. I have Oriental Adventures stuff, but don't integrate it into WoG. For the most part, I am pretty much a purist.
In the Nineties, it seemed like most online GH fans had read most of the available books. These days it's harder to keep track of everything, and the scene has fragmented a bit; perhaps our libraries have too. Looking over the attached list, please answer the following questions:
Great idea, vestcoat! :D
vestcoat wrote:
1) What areas of GH lore do you own and make a point of referencing?
I own most Greyhawk materials from 2000 and back.
I'm most familiar with OD&D and AD&D 1e era Greyhawk, and have a decent memory about many of the online sites and resources that have faded away in the past 2 decades.
vestcoat wrote:
2) With which body of work are you the least familiar?
2e Greyhawk (I'm broadly familiar with FtA and Wars, but less so with City of Greyhawk, and pretty spotty on the modules), Planescape GH (I know little beyond what what Rip has written about here ;) ), along with 4e Greyhawk (about which I know next to nothing, although I do have the RPGA DM Rewards for Hommlet and Tomb of Horrors).
vestcoat wrote:
3) Do you primarily reference hard copies or electronic documents?
Both.
vestcoat wrote:
4) How much do you integrate material from other campaigns (Dave Arneson's Blackmoor, Planescape, Al-Qadim, Oriental Adventures, etc.)?
Depends on the campaign I'm running, I suppose. I don't own much PS, AlQ, OA, or other 2e era settings, so I don't really leverage those much in general.
Here are my sense of familiarity with these sources (using the 1e Sage knowledge categories :D )
In Special Category: Very Familiar
===
*1E Greyhawk
*D20/OGL books with a GH pedigree (Castle Zagyg, Pied Piper, etc.)
*1E Dragon Magazines
*TSR novels - Gygax
*New Infinities novels
*Lore from the original Gygax/Kuntz campaign
*Additional specialty: Greyhawk convention tournaments and original manuscripts
In Major Field: Generally Familiar
===
*1E Dungeon Magazines
*2E Revival 1998-2000
*3E Greyhawk books (all three of them)
*3E Dungeon Magazines
*Living Greyhawk mainstream (LG Journals 0-25, WotC online articles, Tristor)
*Oerth Journal
*Other web sources: Canonfire, Footprints, Greytalk archives, etc.
*TSR novels - Nightwatch, WotC Tomb of Horrors
In Minor Field: Somewhat Familiar
===
*2E GH 1988-1993
*2E Dungeon Magazines
*3E Core books with GH references
*3E Dragon Magazines
*Polyhedron articles
*Living Greyhawk - the massive collection of modules
*WotC novels (GH Classics & T.H. Lain generics)
*Comics and graphic novels - Vecna: Hand of Revenant only
*Aquaria
Out Of Fields: Generally Unfamiliar
===
*4E FrankenHawk
*TSR novels - Estes
*Comics and graphic novels - most D&D comics
*The Sundered Empire
*2E Dragon Magazines _________________ Allan Grohe (grodog@gmail.com)
http://www.greyhawkonline.com/grodog/greyhawk.html
99% of my knowledge comes from my time with Living Greyhawk. Specificity Geoff and Sheldemar valley adventures and provided material. I know quite a bit about Geoff my home region but outside the Sheldemar I have very little no knowledge.
I am primary a home brew player and DM. I loved Greyhawk and became accustomed to the very strict guidelines of the LG campaign. Existing systems I tend to mix in very little outside of the established material, other than creating towns and other minor NPCs, I tend to stick entirely to the provided material.
I have access only to the LG material all in PDFs. I think I might have one or two random Greyhawk novels that I have not had time to read.
I have played in all D&D systems but almost exclusively play 3.5
Perhaps we could implement this like a Greyhawk-specific Geek Code, and you'd know at a glance what somone's areas of experise are? _________________ Allan Grohe (grodog@gmail.com)
http://www.greyhawkonline.com/grodog/greyhawk.html
1) What areas of GH lore do you own and make a point of referencing?
OD&D, 1st edition, 2nd edition, 3rd edition, a little bit of fourth edition.
Quote:
2) With which body of work are you the least familiar?
I know very little about Living Greyhawk other than the LGJs and what the various triads put on their websites.
Any RPGA thing is a weakness for me. I haven't seen any 4e conversions of 1e modules.
Quote:
3) Do you primarily reference hard copies or electronic documents?
I do both, omnivorously. I usually have a stack of books next to my computer, but I'll also use ebooks if it's convenient.
Quote:
4) How much do you integrate material from other campaigns (Dave Arneson's Blackmoor, Planescape, Al-Qadim, Oriental Adventures, etc.)?
Planescape is part of Greyhawk, as far as I'm concerned (as is Spelljammer). Arneson's Blackmoor I'm fairly familiar with, but I don't see it as very connected to Greyhawk's Blackmoor (except for the Immortal Khoronus possibly founding both Arneson's Blackmoor and the City of the Gods). I don't really care about the Occidental regions of Oerik. I think the Al-Qadim classes are a logical part of Baklunish culture, but Baklunish culture is much more than just fantasy Arabia - the Oriental Adventures classes are appropriate for that region, too.
You cannot post new topics in this forum You cannot reply to topics in this forum You cannot edit your posts in this forum You cannot delete your posts in this forum You cannot vote in polls in this forum
Canonfire! is a production of the Thursday Group in assocation with GREYtalk and Canonfire! Enterprises
I now have an extensive(but not likely complete) collection of the LG adventures/material too, but that is going to take some wading through- months of reading material there alone, and I've barely scratched the surface.
I gotta get some meds for my AGOCADD(Adult Gamer Obsessive-Compulsive Attention Deficit Disorder). 
