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    Canonfire :: View topic - Anyone used the Gord the Rogue storyline in their campaign?
    Canonfire Forum Index -> World of Greyhawk Discussion
    Anyone used the Gord the Rogue storyline in their campaign?
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    Journeyman Greytalker

    Joined: Mar 15, 2004
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    Sun Aug 08, 2004 4:58 am  
    Anyone used the Gord the Rogue storyline in their campaign?

    Just wondering if anyone has used the events as portrayed in the Gord the Rogue novels in their GH campaign.

    I mean, you'd probably have to change the ending -- or you'd have no campaign left!

    Is Gord an NPC in your game?
    Journeyman Greytalker

    Joined: Mar 15, 2004
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    Sun Aug 08, 2004 5:00 am  

    Yes! I'm a Grey Sage!!!!!!!!!!!
    Journeyman Greytalker

    Joined: Sep 14, 2002
    Posts: 180
    From: Patra, Greece

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    Sun Jan 16, 2005 9:23 am  

    My campaign has been frozen for two years now, since certain players and masters have moved to different towns. To the better though, since I continue my research on Greyhawk, thus the next sessions will be more thrilling.

    Our last campaign was set from 569 CY on. When the players got to Greyhawk city 571 CY, I used the Saga of the Old City novel, set in Greyhawk city 571 CY. The whole novel was an invaluable source of information, since there exists no other product focused on that period and place. Note, that Sargent used Saga of the Old City also, since in the Greyhawk boxed set he refers to the beggars-thieves war and to the Beggarmaster at that time Theobald, all detailed in the novel. Erik Mona has also worked on Saga of the Old City. He has compliled notes on the novel available in electronic form (just put the name of the novel and Iquander as keywords).

    Moreover, I use the Gord novels when I write articles to the extreme, like I use to the extreme all other Greyhawk sources. For example when I wrote an article on the lost Suss city I used Artifact of Evil, since it is the only comprehensive reference on this ruined city. Of course these articles serve my game, and not vice versa.

    Another example of my use of the Gord novels is my take that Serten is alive, since he appears in Night Arrant, Five Dragon Bowl story, as well as in Come Endless Darkness, under the pseudonym Poztif. To my surprise Mona, who evidently has read and worked on the Five Dragon Bowl story (after the Thu Kin Boh reference in his notes on Utter West), wrote his LGJ#0 article on Co8 where Serten dies for good (this finality is evident through Greytalk communication on the subject). To fix the contradiction I devised a solution that members and visitors of the site will have the chance to read in the very near future. Be alert that in a few days the article entitled “Greyhawk Content of the Coloring Album” will appear in Canonfire!.

    Salute,

    tzelios
    Journeyman Greytalker

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    Sun Jan 16, 2005 7:06 pm  

    Thanks for the reply. Smile

    I'm suprised Gord doesn't appear in any recent publications . . .
    Journeyman Greytalker

    Joined: Aug 26, 2001
    Posts: 171
    From: Pittsburgh

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    Sun Jan 16, 2005 7:40 pm  

    Baggins wrote:
    Thanks for the reply. Smile

    I'm suprised Gord doesn't appear in any recent publications . . .

    Do you mean Greyhawk publications, or just Gord material?
    Gord and Zagyg were about the only things EGG could keep after leaving TSR, so no Gord or Zagyg in anything canon that I know of.
    Zagyg was referenced to in the Lost City of Gaxmoor, and the Slayers Guide to Undead, maybe dragons too, I can't remember. Then there's that castle thing coming out.
    I'm pretty sure Gary told me that he won't be writing any more Gord material. If he did any more fiction it would be to support his new LA world.
    Scott
    Adept Greytalker

    Joined: Jun 29, 2001
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    From: Cooke City, MT, USA

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    Sun Jan 16, 2005 8:39 pm  

    Baggins wrote:
    Thanks for the reply. Smile

    I'm suprised Gord doesn't appear in any recent publications . . .


    Gygax owns Gord

    WotC owns Greyhawk

    No surprise really
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    Apprentice Greytalker

    Joined: Nov 17, 2004
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    From: Wales

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    Sun Jan 16, 2005 10:35 pm  

    I preferred the Gygax take on Greyhawk City, to the boxed set that was released in the late 80's. I used the guild fueds as a backdrop to my campaign in the city, and used some other refinements from the novels.

    Generally I find them best as a mine of ideas - much as I use more recent Greyhawk publications. I have not followed canon in any campaign.
    Journeyman Greytalker

    Joined: Sep 14, 2002
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    From: Patra, Greece

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    Mon Jan 17, 2005 8:05 am  

    Yeoman wrote:
    I preferred the Gygax take on Greyhawk City, to the boxed set that was released in the late 80's. I used the guild fueds as a backdrop to my campaign in the city, and used some other refinements from the novels.

    Generally I find them best as a mine of ideas - much as I use more recent Greyhawk publications. I have not followed canon in any campaign.


    Problem is that you've only got a rough map and just bits of information if you follow Gygax's Greyhawk City. On the other hand the canon Greyhawk City is adequately described in the boxed set and later publications of LGJ. Respectively, if you use only Gygax Greyhawk material some day you will run out of material. So I personally use all Greyhawk material and try to devise ways so that both material, Gygax and post-Gygax, is true. For example, I use the canon Greyhawk City map, and then find the appropriate buildings for Gravestone´s domense, Odd Alley, and other blow material from the Gord novels. Thus I follow Greyhawk canon and exploit in parallel Gord novel material, since no one can claim that canon Greyhawk city is completely described. It is simply not, most of the buildings are not described in canon material and are available for expansions. Please note also, that Erik Mona who is a true fan of Gygax did his best to incorporate and integrate Gygax material. Through his efforts Mona has offered tremendously, but you will realise this only if you read him. Check for example the follow up to the Beggar's Union (a JGJ article), his notes on Utter West, his Canonfire! articles like Exag Mystery and Myth of the Cairn Builders. Gygax is genius, but Mona is well enough qualified as his follower and continuator of his legacy.
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    Apprentice Greytalker

    Joined: Nov 17, 2004
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    From: Wales

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    Mon Jan 17, 2005 12:00 pm  

    I accept the point regarding the lack of Gygax material, and would certainly not preclude using other sources of information.

    I preferred the tone of the Gord books for Greyhawk City, and found the boxed set a little less dark. I have used the set map - to a degree - but found it not my liking in places, too spacious in the areas around the citadel and not clustraphobic enough for my campaign. Likewise I found some of the buildings too whimsical for my taste.

    That said, I found plenty of information in the set which I could and did use, and much in the latter sources of Greyhawk. In fact the point I made really related to the fact that whilst I prefer some Gygaxian elements, the Greyhawk City tone being a good example, I do not place a high degree of status on any Canon source, but mine information and ideas from several sources.

    I find that I get the best of all worlds there - not having to wrestle with fitting storylines into my campaign which I do not feel comfortable with, whilst getting some great ideas and themes from the settings many contributors. the Gord books provide a healthy dose of ideas for my campaign, but no more than that, for, as you rightly point out, there is little detail in the books which can sustain a game without development.
    Master Greytalker

    Joined: Jul 13, 2002
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    From: Orlane, Gran March

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    Mon Jan 17, 2005 12:12 pm  
    Interesting

    I find it interesting that you prefer Greyhawk dark. IMC it is one of the few shining lights in the world. Not perfect, but compared to Aerdy or even Keoland, it is, IMC, the modern metropolis.
    Apprentice Greytalker

    Joined: Nov 17, 2004
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    From: Wales

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    Mon Jan 17, 2005 2:04 pm  

    I like Greyhawk City to be a place of contradictions - the magnificence of the University, High Quarter and Gardens, a beacon of freedom and independance not touched by the greater despots that rule elsewhere. But it sits alongside the slums, fractious guilds, a powerful thieves organisation which has its fingers in too many pies, Dickensian beggars that would literally kill to keep their cut of the trade etc.

    IMC Greyhawk is not quite what it seems, both light with pervading darkness behind it, a claustraphobic world shut in city walls where even the grander residences sit on each other - much like medieval European cities. The original boxed set map did not captujre that for me, and the setting was not entirely successful either.

    Just my preferance I guess.
    Apprentice Greytalker

    Joined: Sep 19, 2003
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    From: New York City

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    Mon Jan 17, 2005 4:13 pm  

    I borrowed heavily from the books, the first three of which I think are brilliant (probably the best fantasy novels I've read). However, as you say, to follow them through to their conclusion is pretty much impossible. My campaign is set in 582 CY, just as the Wars are breaking out. My twist is that the Elder Elemental God is stirring all the races of the Underdark to war, simultaneously, forcing the forces of Good to ally with neutral (and some evil) lands to stave off invasion on two fronts, and the PCs to go looking for legendary lost forces of good (Rockseer elves, etc...) in the Underdark.

    Gord actually played a small part in my campaign, interacting with a few of my PCs when they traveled to Sigil after inadvertently passing through a powerful Gate. In my revisionist history, he DID slay Nerull just as it reads in Artifact of Evil (the void has allowed Orcus to step in and fill his shoes!), and did travel to the Forgotten City, but his quest wasn't to thwart Tharizdun or find any Theorparts, it was to stop other, unspecified as yet, evil.

    He's now a retired adventurer, and as many retired Greyhawk champions are wont to do in my world, spends much of his time in Sigil, with an ear to the ground listening for rumors of the spread of any great 'disturbance in the force', his sometime colleagues including Leomund the White, Yrag, and Riggby.

    If the @$#* hits the fan in the coming wars, these hardies may return to Greyhawk to lend a hand and tip the scales a bit - after all, they don't want Oerik overrun by evil. So yeah, most of Gord's adventures and experiences are canon for me, although the 'puppetmasters' and ultimate goal has altered. Sorry for being long-winded.
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