Post by Finarvyn on May 22, 2010 7:44:32 GMT -6
I'm still working on this, but for a long time I've been pondering the layers of the Greyhawk Campaign. Thanks to Falconer and his synopsis of this whole thing here, which got me thinking about it again. Parts of this is his work, re-organized.
First Layer – The genesis of Greyhawk (1972)[/b]
The second campaign ever, after Blackmoor, this version is mostly a town and a dungeon. The “world” is loosely based on North America and the C&C Society map. Local adventures were done on the “Outdoor Survival” map as a generic wilderness section of terrain. An even more macrocosmic view was that Oerth is a fantasy version of Earth, with Greyhawk as a fantasy version of Chicago and Dyvers as Milwaukee. A chute in Castle Greyhawk could take you to the other side of the world to a fantasy China; there were also various ways to get to Mars (Burroughs’s Barsoom).
The material developed at this time is more or less what you see in such products as:
* EX1 Dungeonland
* EX2 The Land Beyond the Magic Mirror
* WG6 Isle of the Ape
* Yggsburgh and Castle Zagyg (for C&C; Troll Lord Games)
The Dungeons of Castle Greyhawk were expanded to become 13 levels deep:
Level 1 – A simple maze of rooms and corridors.
Level 2 – Nixie pool, fountain of snakes.
Level 3 – Torture chamber, small cells, prison rooms.
Level 4 – Crypts and undead.
Level 5 – Gargoyles, fountain of black fire.
Level 6 – A repeating maze with dozens of wild hogs... in inconvenient spots, naturally backed up by appropriate numbers of Wereboars.
Level 7 – A circular labyrinth and a street of masses of ogres
Levels 8,9,10 – Caves and caverns featuring Trolls, giant insects and a transporter nexus with an evil Wizard (with a number of tough associates) guarding it.
Level 11 – Home of the most powerful wizard in the castle: He had Balrogs as servants. The remainder of the level was populated by Martian White Apes, except the sub-passage system underneath the corridors which was full of poisonous critters with no treasure.
Level 12 – Dragons.
Level 13 – Anyone who made it to the bottom level alive met Zagyg, the insane architect of the dungeons, who led them to an inescapable slide which took the players clear through 'to China', from whence they had to return via "Outdoor Adventure".
Side levels included a barracks with Orcs, Hobgoblins, and Gnolls continually warring with each other, a museum, a huge arena, an underground lake, a Giant's home, and a garden of fungi
Second Layer – Gary and Rob Combine[/b]
Robert Kuntz was running his “El Raja Key” campaign and this was blended together with Gary’s Greyhawk as the two served as co-Referees for the game. Rob was made the primary DM of the new “Greyhawk”.
Some of Rob’s contributions have been published as:
* Mordenkainen’s Fantastic Adventure
* Garden of the Plantmaster
* The Living Room
* Bottle City
* The Stalk
The Dungeons of Castle Greyhawk were modified to (1) get rid of Gary’s level 13, and (2) allow for Rob’s levels to be inserted. At its peak in 1985, the Greyhawk dungeons were supposed to have roughly 50 levels and sub-levels.
Third Layer – TOEE Greyhawk and the Tournament Dungeons[/b]
The “Temple of Elemental Evil” and village of Hommlet (1978) form a smaller, but somewhat self-contained campaign based on the Greyhawk world.
The modules created for GenCon tournament play were probably run by Gary somewhere in the world of Greyhawk.
* Lost Caverns of Tsojconth (1976), republished in 1982 as S4 Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth
* S1 Tomb of Horrors (1978)
* G1 Steading of the Hill Giant Chief(1978)
* G2 Glacial Rift of the Frost Giant Jarl (1978)
* G3 Hall of the Fire Giant King (1978)
* D1 Descent into the Depths of the Earth (1978)
* D2 Shrine of the Kuo-Toa (1978)
* D3 Vault of the Drow (1978)
* T1 The Village of Hommlet (1978)
Fourth Layer– Greyhawk Re-Imagined[/b]
There seems to be no secret to the fact that the 1980 Folio version of the world of Greyhawk is not the one that Gary actually used, because he didn’t want his players to be able to cheat and learn secrets without playing. However it’s clear that this Greyhawk soon took on a life of its own as new products were created and Game Masters took the product and built their own campaigns from it. Indeed, this is the “official” Greyhawk campaign in the minds of many since at the time we thought it was pretty much Gary’s game. This Greyhawk was later expanded with a boxed set for the world (1983).
Fifth Layer – Gord’s Greyhawk (1985-1989)[/b]
At the end of Gary’s TSR days he wrote a couple of “Gord the Rogue” novels, and he continued this series once he left the company. It would appear that the Gord novels present a Greyhawk which is more similar to Gary’s own game rather than the TSR published material.
Sixth Layer – Post Gary Greyhawk[/b]
Lots here, although not too interesting to me. I mention it only because there are many Greyhawk fans who want to collect anything regardless of when it was produced. There are various editions of Greyhawk that appear for each successive edition of the rules, along with a “Living Greyhawk” whereby players have taken control of the campaign to the point where it certainly can’t resemble Gary’s master plan. The module “Dungeons of Castle Greyhawk” was a slapstick set of levels, none of which were written by Gary. Also created were a City Greyhawk boxed set (1989), and both the “Wars” and "Ashes" sets that modeled a huge war in the lands.
Greyhawk would appear to be a "dead" world at the moment, no longer supported by WotC with their 4E rules set.
First Layer – The genesis of Greyhawk (1972)[/b]
The second campaign ever, after Blackmoor, this version is mostly a town and a dungeon. The “world” is loosely based on North America and the C&C Society map. Local adventures were done on the “Outdoor Survival” map as a generic wilderness section of terrain. An even more macrocosmic view was that Oerth is a fantasy version of Earth, with Greyhawk as a fantasy version of Chicago and Dyvers as Milwaukee. A chute in Castle Greyhawk could take you to the other side of the world to a fantasy China; there were also various ways to get to Mars (Burroughs’s Barsoom).
The material developed at this time is more or less what you see in such products as:
* EX1 Dungeonland
* EX2 The Land Beyond the Magic Mirror
* WG6 Isle of the Ape
* Yggsburgh and Castle Zagyg (for C&C; Troll Lord Games)
The Dungeons of Castle Greyhawk were expanded to become 13 levels deep:
Level 1 – A simple maze of rooms and corridors.
Level 2 – Nixie pool, fountain of snakes.
Level 3 – Torture chamber, small cells, prison rooms.
Level 4 – Crypts and undead.
Level 5 – Gargoyles, fountain of black fire.
Level 6 – A repeating maze with dozens of wild hogs... in inconvenient spots, naturally backed up by appropriate numbers of Wereboars.
Level 7 – A circular labyrinth and a street of masses of ogres
Levels 8,9,10 – Caves and caverns featuring Trolls, giant insects and a transporter nexus with an evil Wizard (with a number of tough associates) guarding it.
Level 11 – Home of the most powerful wizard in the castle: He had Balrogs as servants. The remainder of the level was populated by Martian White Apes, except the sub-passage system underneath the corridors which was full of poisonous critters with no treasure.
Level 12 – Dragons.
Level 13 – Anyone who made it to the bottom level alive met Zagyg, the insane architect of the dungeons, who led them to an inescapable slide which took the players clear through 'to China', from whence they had to return via "Outdoor Adventure".
Side levels included a barracks with Orcs, Hobgoblins, and Gnolls continually warring with each other, a museum, a huge arena, an underground lake, a Giant's home, and a garden of fungi
Second Layer – Gary and Rob Combine[/b]
Robert Kuntz was running his “El Raja Key” campaign and this was blended together with Gary’s Greyhawk as the two served as co-Referees for the game. Rob was made the primary DM of the new “Greyhawk”.
Some of Rob’s contributions have been published as:
* Mordenkainen’s Fantastic Adventure
* Garden of the Plantmaster
* The Living Room
* Bottle City
* The Stalk
The Dungeons of Castle Greyhawk were modified to (1) get rid of Gary’s level 13, and (2) allow for Rob’s levels to be inserted. At its peak in 1985, the Greyhawk dungeons were supposed to have roughly 50 levels and sub-levels.
Third Layer – TOEE Greyhawk and the Tournament Dungeons[/b]
The “Temple of Elemental Evil” and village of Hommlet (1978) form a smaller, but somewhat self-contained campaign based on the Greyhawk world.
The modules created for GenCon tournament play were probably run by Gary somewhere in the world of Greyhawk.
* Lost Caverns of Tsojconth (1976), republished in 1982 as S4 Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth
* S1 Tomb of Horrors (1978)
* G1 Steading of the Hill Giant Chief(1978)
* G2 Glacial Rift of the Frost Giant Jarl (1978)
* G3 Hall of the Fire Giant King (1978)
* D1 Descent into the Depths of the Earth (1978)
* D2 Shrine of the Kuo-Toa (1978)
* D3 Vault of the Drow (1978)
* T1 The Village of Hommlet (1978)
Fourth Layer– Greyhawk Re-Imagined[/b]
There seems to be no secret to the fact that the 1980 Folio version of the world of Greyhawk is not the one that Gary actually used, because he didn’t want his players to be able to cheat and learn secrets without playing. However it’s clear that this Greyhawk soon took on a life of its own as new products were created and Game Masters took the product and built their own campaigns from it. Indeed, this is the “official” Greyhawk campaign in the minds of many since at the time we thought it was pretty much Gary’s game. This Greyhawk was later expanded with a boxed set for the world (1983).
Fifth Layer – Gord’s Greyhawk (1985-1989)[/b]
At the end of Gary’s TSR days he wrote a couple of “Gord the Rogue” novels, and he continued this series once he left the company. It would appear that the Gord novels present a Greyhawk which is more similar to Gary’s own game rather than the TSR published material.
Sixth Layer – Post Gary Greyhawk[/b]
Lots here, although not too interesting to me. I mention it only because there are many Greyhawk fans who want to collect anything regardless of when it was produced. There are various editions of Greyhawk that appear for each successive edition of the rules, along with a “Living Greyhawk” whereby players have taken control of the campaign to the point where it certainly can’t resemble Gary’s master plan. The module “Dungeons of Castle Greyhawk” was a slapstick set of levels, none of which were written by Gary. Also created were a City Greyhawk boxed set (1989), and both the “Wars” and "Ashes" sets that modeled a huge war in the lands.
Greyhawk would appear to be a "dead" world at the moment, no longer supported by WotC with their 4E rules set.
I have a few corrections/observations/thoughts below:
