I am starting a new campaign, one with players who are fairly new to the Greyhawk setting. This group seems to be delvers, i.e., they like to know the history and events going on around them.
I am planning on starting the game in 550 CY +/- (or 525,or 500), and I need your help. I am planning on playing in the Gran March/Geoff/Keoland Region. I am planning on the characters having long periods of down time (3 years at a time maybe). Eventually (at 20th Level or so) the game will progress to the CY, and then I will write new history IMC. (This is all conditional on people surviving; I tend to run brutal games, and raise dead and ressurections are hard to come by).
The purpose is for the long lived creatures (elves, dwarves, gnomes, etc.) to age some; humans may have to retire and let their children continue. We will probably use troupe style play, and heavily detail one to four hexes on the Darlene map.
I have found in my other campaigns that this is more than enough area for even a high level charater to play in. A player just can't know, map and be familar with more than this effectively, and consistently. Anyway, that is the plan to pick a small area, and make this a home for the characters.
So, what I wish to know is, is there a tag date in this region around this time that would be a good, documentable time. If so, I want a lot of history & atmosphere to throw in, world events to understand. This group loves to have knowable, three dimensional NPC's to deal with, so I want to have a lot to work with.
Actually, as a quick check of the Timeline of Doom! (which Gary promises everyone will get to see in another few days) confirms my initial thoughts, much of nothing was happening then. There was a bit of excitement towards the beginning, with a civil war ending in Geoff, and an invasion of Bissel by Ket, but those are before 500 CY. The Hateful wars were raging in the Lortmils, and the Pomarj Falls in 513 CY, but those are the other side of the valley. An outbreak of witch hunts in Salinmoor in 501 and 502, but that's on the other end of the valley. Otherwise just a boring transition of three Neheli kings until Kimbertos is elected in 564.
If you wait until 580, Evard causes trouble in Bissel. Or another decade back you get the lead up and full civil war in Geoff, the start of the Hateful Wars, plague in Salinmoor, and Eor being overrun by lizard men. But at that rate you might as well go back to 460 CY, and deal with the fallout after the dead of Tavish III. Bissel is controlled by Furyondy, the Gran March is electing its first Commandants, the Uleks and Yeomanry sign treaties with Keoland, the Pomarj leaves Ulek, and the Sea Prince is killed in the Battle of Jetsom Island. But 500-578 CY is a totally boring time in Keoland, Geoff, Bissel, and the Gran March.
Excellent. I am now strongly considering 508 CY. I am choosing this because it is after the Gyri civil war, and towards the end of the Hateful Wars (right? anyone care to resolve this conflict in the literature); and then, as you point out, it is fairly quite. Such events often lead to groups of well trained, murderous men and women, wandering the land looking for things to do.
Thanks for the summary Samwise, I am printing it out and using as a road map to the future. Quiet is good! These are first level grunts, it will probably be 90 years IMC before many (particularly the demihumans) are of such a level that they can deal with important events. We will start with these lowly recruits chasing down a few goblins in the Lortmil. Gran March, I am assuming, still has the mandatory military service? It would seem that Keoland is more of an influence now than it will be in 70 to 80 years.
So, two years of boredom in the Hateful Wars, Gran March was not in the thick of things. I am checking now, but it seems that they just participated enough to make sure the huminoids did not come their way. Then, I think we will go on to the cult of the Reptile God.
So, what was going on in the Flanness at this time that merchant guards would talk about? Which rulers?.. Keoland, Geoff, Aerdy.
Anced_Math, I went through a similar exercise for my 175 CY campaign---in my case, I worked with Steve's GreyChrondex, and tried to find a "dead" period sufficiently far back that the GK was still a force to be reckoned with, but one where I could have free reign to design anything I wanted in order to feed into future canon development. I also liked the idea of the StarCairns comet and the Turmoil between Crowns being in the near-ish future.
After figuring out what nations and gods did/didn't exist (Iuz, Zagyg,
Mayaheine, Keoghtom, Murlynd, Heward, etc. were all deified well-after 175 CY for my purposes; I hadn't decided for sure on Vecna, though), I re-forested parts of the Flanaess, and tried to determine the status of some key NPCs who might be around in my time period (the previous olven ruler of Celene [a male] was in power, for example; I also decided that it was too early for Iggwilv to be a power, though I hadn't decided for sure if it was too early for her to exist or not).
Thanks for all the help so far. I have settled on 503 CY, and the characters have been created. The background stories tend to place us in Barony Dieren, but that is a fine start. All characters are member of the army, and will serve out their 7 years during the Hateful wars. As they are not mountain troops, and not greatly experianced, they will be spending lots of time in camp. They will have some small adventures (levels 1 to 2), and then be reassigned to Farvale as the war is finishing up. They will then encounter Cult of the Reptile God. I am working on a way to tie them to Farvale, but they seem to like the idea of battling the forest and the swamp. All are poor to begin with, so the area provides wealth.
So, what is going on in the world in 503? Anyone... we know that the hateful wars, but is there anything elses? When was the Gyri civil war? Didn't Keoland attempt to exert influence during this time? I am going to the GreyChronodex, but there has to be more out there, and you have proven that this is the place to ask. So, let me have it, all help welcome.
Hello All, it is me again. I am revisiting this post as I am about to start this campaign tommorrow. We have 8 hours set aside to set the stage and move forward, and I am still vague about the world events.
As a quick summary- I have a party of 4 who will be mustering into the Gran March Army in 503 CY. There is 1 human, two gnomes and an elf. The Hateful wars are ongoing, with Gran March, the Uleks and Celene involved.
But what else, I had the 83 boxed set (destroyed in flood) and have read most of the articles on this site (Thanks All). However, really, they only get me back to say 570 CY (Wolfing's post and all contributors helped there...thanks). But I need to go farther.
The stage is somewhat set in the 1995 write up of the Greyhawk Wars...
"The Course of the War
Given the delicate balance of good and evil in the Flanaess and the tragically flawed natures of the land’s tyrants and kings, the question was not whether a war would erupt, but how, when, and where it would. By 582 CY, these questions had met with some startling answers." by Zeb Cook, J. Robert King, and Roger E. Moore
[/quote]
So.. what rumors would 4 youths in a minor power in the Flaness hear? What is going on in Keoland and Bissell? Oh, and does anyone have a prewar map? The original maybe.
And Abyssilyn, is your map available in a CC2 format?
I was given CC2, other wise i was using P&P. Yikes Huh?
PS I have just upgraded to 3.5. I do not need the 3.0 books. You pay shipping, they are yours, if you are considering upgrading. Start with the PH. (My shelves actually collapsed over the weekend, so no more books till i clear out some stuff).
There's lots of history available in the Living Greyhawk Gazeteer, but this really does seem to be a pretty quiet timeframe. For local events in Bissel/Keoland/Gran March, I've found:
- Bissel recently gained its independence from Furyondy, in 477 CY.
- "At this time (circa 477 CY), there was a change in government in Ket, and a conservative-militant faction with strong ties to the military came into power. This group whipped up war fever with tales of Keoland's invasion in the mid-300s. Ket attacked Thornward and besieged it for a year (499 CY), then continued to raid into Bissel and Veluna off and on for the next eight decades. Bissel withstood the attacks and remained independent, with the considerable support of Keoland, Furyondy, and Veluna."
You might also want to check out the Living Greyhawk sites for these nations. They've often got a lot of details on the history of their nation, for inspiration (if nothing else).
I'll see what I can find about larger world events for ya. _________________ ~basiliv
I didn't design the world,
I merely facilitated its creation
World events around 508 CY (some of these are rather minor, but I'm including them in case they can provide some flavor for ya):
- [from Ivid the Undying] A Duxchan ship bearing nearly 40,000 gp worth of pearls and ingots of precious metal was sunk in 515 CY.
- [from Ivid] Ahlissan froces attempt to sack Rel Deven in CY 531.
- According to "Iuz the Evil", "From the Ashes", and "The Adventure Begins", Iuz's imprisonment is "generally dated" to CY 505. But "The Marklands" indicate it as 503 CY.
- [from The Marklands] Dyvers becomes a Free City in 526 CY.
- [from The Marklands] The Velunese Lights (which resemble Will-O-Wisps) are first sighted east of Devarnish in CY 516.
- [from Iuz the Evil] Of the Pentress Castles (the bulwarks of Tenh‘s defenses against the Troll Fens), Dour Pentress "was so
named because of a spectacular siege-battle there in 511
CY when over two thousand trolls surrounded the castle,
cutting it off from supplies in a Troll Winter, for a period
of over three months before it was relieved."
- [from From the Ashes] Losels are first reported in the Flanaess around circa CY 500.
- [from The Adventure Begins] Greyhawk is declared a Free City in 498 CY.
- [from The Adventure Begins] "A large number of half-orcs came to Greyhawk in the years following the collapse of the Pomarj in 513 CY, unable to find acceptance among orcs or humans in their ravaged homeland and desiring more opportunities than were available along the Wild Coast."
I think you already mentioned the Hateful Wars dates:
- Begin in CY 498.
- End in CY 510.
- Invasion of the Pomarj in 513 CY.
Hope this helps! _________________ ~basiliv
I didn't design the world,
I merely facilitated its creation
A baboon-orc crossbreed, used by Iuz when invading forests. Very stupid, they only speak a form of pigeon-orcish, but they swing through the trees like monkeys so they make excellent advanced scouts.
Personally I haven't used them in any campaigns yet, but I'm considering a connection with the Scarlet Brotherhood that does or does not introduce losels to the world. It all depends upon the success of the PCs. :-) _________________ ~basiliv
I didn't design the world,
I merely facilitated its creation
It has a lot of compiled dates that would be quite useful. If you backtrack to about 460 CY and then look from there forward, you should get a lot of context for your game.
You've also picked a fortuitous year to start the campaign---among many other interesting events, in just two years' game time, Iuz and others will be captured by Zagig. _________________ Allan Grohe (grodog@gmail.com)
http://www.greyhawkonline.com/grodog/greyhawk.html
I suspect the biggest thing people were talking about at this time was still the dissolution of so much of Tavish the Great's empire. Everything he had added except Geoff had left, but to "make up" for that, the Yeomanry left as well. In addition, the leadership of the Gran March had been forcibly changed by treaty. People would definitely still be talking about this.
I'm not sure how much the Gran March would be involved in the Hateful Wars. I wouldn't expect it would be much beyond watching their borders and slaughtering any fleeing humanoids. (I expect Gary and I will discuss this in more detail while working on Part II of the timeline, but that is my feeling at the moment.)
Perhaps the second most important thing would be the impending or recent change in the ruling dynasty from the Rhola to the Neheli, and the impact that would have.
As for the Civil War in Geoff, there are several issues with that I'm saving for the timeline. However I'd suspect there was definitely outside involvement.
That was generally my read. It seems from the available literature that Gran March was involved in the hateful wars to a limited extent. They hunkered down as you describe, only committing the troops who would have gone to fight anyway (i.e. dwarven and gnome contingents). I would put this "What you cannot change, make look intentional," philosophy.
This is based OJ2, LGG, some articles on canonfire, the Gran March LG site, and some on my read of what a reasonable ruler would have done.
Can you elaborate on the treaty and change of GM government?
Oh yeah, and would the world have known that Zagyg was the one that captured Iuz, and that he was captured, or would they have simply thought that he disappeared?
After the Short War, the Gran March went from having the Commandant appointed by the King of Keoland to the local nobles electing the Commandant every five years. This greatly reduced the power and influence of Keoland in the Gran March.
Ah, yes, i remeber than now Sam, thank again. What do you think, would the characters know about the capture of Iuz, and who would do it.
PS - as a running commentary, two of my three Satruday players survived the first three years of Grand March Military service. One died in the Lortmils, where Gran March is providing caravans of supplies to the dwarves; on was wounded (losing a pt of dex) and offered disability retirement, and the last graduated with honors from the Mage School in Hookhill (Not called the Syrloch for nearly 50 years yet). For anyone who games in the region, I have come up with a D20 Traveller style chart, where the characters Roll through Basic and Advanced Training, as well as years in the garrison and on caravan with limited breaks for Role Playing. They are all 2nd level as a result of their training and one to two years military service.
They will go through their first adventure in the 4th year of service, 507 CY. It will be a simple military guard detail gone wrong. Darned overconfidnet commanders.
So far this chart system is VERY popular with the players, and allows them time to role play into family/friends/careers without being overburdensome. Anyone who wants a copy and is willing to assist in development, please let me know.
I'd say no, the PCs won't know about Iuz's imprisonment. There really wasn't a Player's Guide-type supplement when the folio or '83 boxed set came out, so all the info from those sources is for DMs. How much is for players is really up to you. My personal opinion is that this wouldn't be public knowledge.
You might also want to base it on your plans for the future of your campaign. You could build adventures around PCs discovering the truth behind Zagyg's ploy. You could make these homebrew, use Greyhawk Ruins, or use Gygax's new Castle Zagyg products. _________________ ~basiliv
I didn't design the world,
I merely facilitated its creation
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