Starting a New Greyhawk Campaign
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- Опубліковано 20 лип 2024
- The Castle of the Mad Archmage Kickstarter is still going strong! www.madarchmage.com
0:00 What's today's video about?
0:31 Decision #1 - Timeframe
4:09 Decision #2 - Game System
7:00 Decision #3 - Starting Adventure
9:49 Decision #4 - Tentpole Dungeon
12:48 Thanks
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#Greyhawk #D&D #OSR #DnD - Ігри
HAPPY GARY GYGAX'S BIRTHDAY!
I suggest starting early, and let your player characters rewrite as you go along. It's been doing very well in my home campaign.
I also recommend the Sheldomar Valley region. Start with N1 (Cult of the Reptile God), then the Saltmarsh saga (U1-3), then off to Tamaochan (C1), then the penultimate G1-3, D1-3, Q1
I like that idea, well any idea that includes G1-3 I like.
I second the recommendation for the sheldomar valley. I started a night below campaign as originally intended in the yeomanry. The campaign has a much better feel and fit set in greyhawk rather than the generic format it was released in. Another great story for this region of the flanness. 🙂
Slavers series can easily be in there as well between Saltmarsh and Giants.
I'm planning an AD&D/TOEE campaign for my next game and I've been a bit overwhelmed by all of the Greyhawk material available. So this is very well timed for me. Thank you.
We’ve started a 1e campaign with the classic against the cult of the reptile god. Great fun!
That's a great module; you're in for a lot of fun!
What system?
@@AAron-gr3jk AD&D 1st edition
Chris Barber is a stud !!! Favorite Module Favorite Edition
Interesting. While I can see the advantage for new players to try to go central so there is a lot of information, modules, support, etc., I typically take the exact opposite approach.
I pick fairly remote non-central areas for new player campaigns. I pick a hex, blow up the map to maybe a smallish country, cut and pause that country (and maybe a few neighbor's) from the Gazetteer, give a short recent history, and give some character creation guidelines for the players. This way, players aren't overwhelmed by dozens of countries, gods, races, history, etc. They start as locals and have little need to worry about such distant happenings. I find it easier to get them into something local and slowly introduce things during the game as they meet people, travel, etc. It's easier for most players to start if you say something like... you are guarding hunters in a tiny northern coast kingdom which has an uneasy alliance with viking-like nations to the north (Ratik) than try to orient them in Greyhawk or Furyondy, etc.
While ToEE is a great starting module, you lose a lot if you don't understand the factions at a higher levels and, due to their secret nature, it is hard to slowly introduce them to it. It's also really hard for an inexperienced DM to run it that way. Hommlet often just becomes a generic starting village to adventure from for new people. All that backstory is typically lost. Remote hexes, a mission, small area, some NPCs to introduce the world, etc. is often easier to run. Many starting 1e modules were great as were many LGH regional adventures.
Boxed set or folio is a given. I'd add Castle of the Mad Archmage if you don't want to go DIY on the Castle. Greyhawk itself is tricky, since the best sources we have on it aren't game accessories, but Gygax's fiction: Saga of the Old City, City of Hawks (which includes the "real" city map), and Night Arrant. The TSR city boxed set doesn't have the correct Lankhmarian grit to it, IMHO. Those are my bare bones essentials, but sprinkling in the classic modules as desired never hurts and your own compilation of anecdotes from the original campaign's participants is also great inspiration.
Began a BECMI campaign in the flannaese.
Started out in Orlane, down into the Rushmooors, currently heading west into the giant invasion which is now happening.
They don't know it yet, but they will skirt the invasion and enter the valley of the mage.
He will teleport them into the sea of dust for the Pharoah trilogy.
Ran my most recent campaign in 576 using 5e with the more grittier optional rules. Worked quite well, but had to add some old school dungeon exploration rules to handle the long dungeon crawls. Played ToEE and linked to Slave Lords using Nulb as a slaver hideout.
I've done it a number of ways, but the way you recommend is the most common one. I actually started the latest crew up a different way, somewhere in the Gnarley Forest running into the DMG example dungeon. They didn't last long there, and wandered into Nulb (reworked by prior adventurers) and then Hommlet. They ended up working as pawns of Lareth for a bit before killing him and now are on the first dungeon level of TOEE, killing humanoids and ghouls and such.
First edition is my choice always. The best edition by far. Made two different world’s with it. Played Greyhawk a lot . Used Dungeoneers survival guide for underdark play. Went to Mystara , Isle of Dread, Grand Duchy. Put Expidition to Barrier Peaks in Mengol Mountains. Went to Caves of Chaos.
Great video! And great timing as I'm currently setting up a Castles & Crusades campaign that I'm putting in Greyhawk.
Ha! You too?! Great minds!
@@DrRotwang Nice! The player base around here is mostly younger than I am and rooted in 5E, so I'm trying to convince them to try something better. I'm potentially starting them in N1 or T0/T1, or maybe a new level 1 module I just got from a Kickstarter.
I would’ve added 2 additional eras: 582 CY from the Greyhawk Wars boxed set, and also a shoutout for 595 CY Paizohawk. I’ve always been a huge fan of the Greyhawk material Paizo published back in the day. Age of Worms, which includes the City of Greyhawk, the Wind Dukes of Aaqa, Khellek, Tenser, Bucknard, Dragotha, and even an appearance by Warduke, remains my favourite Greyhawk campaign.
This would be a great subject for a video, Joe.
It warms my old cockles to see so many folks in this comments section starting up Greyhawk campaigns! Happy birthday Gary Gygax, and happy birthday to my oldest daughter Riley (14)!!
Hey Joe, Another interesting video with great information. When I start a new Greyhawk campaign I usually use the Village of Hommlet (T1) or Keep on the Border (B2) with In Search of the Unknown (B1), also the Secret of Bone Hill is a good starting one as well is Against the Cult of Reptile God (N1) or the Lost City (B4). As far as systems go I have used of course AD&D 1e & 2e, Plus GURPS, Palladium, and Gamma World. I have been thinking about starting a new campaign using either Castles and Crusades or Adventures Dark & Deep.
Hi from Italy, i'm currently DMing T1-4 (Goodman Games) using 5e and some of your blog material. Thanks a lot for helping the community and keeping Greyhawk alive
The Greyhawk campaign I just started, I started with your T0 module.
Awesome! Hope it worked out okay.
@@GreyhawkGrognard clear out most of the moathouse and then move on
Recently started playing a weekly campaign set in the southwest Flanaess and southern jungles. 576. 1e AD&D. It centers around the Brotherhood taking control of the region. We finished the U series, and have moved into Dwellers of the Forbidden City. So, it's been mostly modules with political intrigue developing as we level. It lacks tentpole descent, but makes up with more wilderness excursions and anthropological/archaeological exploits. Campaign premise was an expedition sent to the region to uncover artifacts and history. Very fun area to explore so far. Heart of Darkness vibes.
Hi Joe! Happy Gary Gygax Day! RIP Gary; thank you for everything you did for us. Again, your video comes out with perfect timing. I am starting my first Greyhawk campaign in quite a while soon, with new players who have never heard of it thanks to Hasbro and 5e. I'm going out of my "comfort zone" on this one and setting it in the 591 CY era instead of the year 576 like I always do, in a much-belated attempt to move forward with GH canon. We're starting in Keoland, which is a bit of a blank canvas for us DMs, and I'm looking at a trade rivalry between two rival merchant guilds in Flen and Cryllor in western Keoland. The PCs will start out as trouble-shooters for the guild in Flen who have a shaky arrangement with Flen's thieves' guild to open new trade routes (or protect existing ones) since the Scarlet Brotherhood has essentially wrecked all the imports of exotic goods that come through The Hold of the Sea Princes. The merchants in Cryllor are angry and jealous that the demihumans of the Good Hills prefer to do all their business in Flen, but then Cryllor absolutely commands all the river shipping traffic on the Javan River thanks to the shallower waters further north. What intrigues will come from all this? I guess we'll find out. :-) I have a fascination with realistic in-game economies so I'm going to take a stab at this. Sorry for the long post, thanks for the video!
Picked up a well worn gold box a while back. Crazy how there was always the AD&D books and modules around back then but I could never get my hands on the greyhawk box set until later on in life.
Happy Gygax day !!
My younger brother and sister have never played 1e before, so we're currently trying our hand at the Village of Hommlet.
It was fun figuring out our characters, since there are only 3 of us playing, we created 3 characters, one which is a bit higher level rolling 4D6 drop the lower and 2 others that are 3d6, they're more like henchmen/hirlings.
It was nice to balance out thet party that way, I feel like when we eventually try our hands at the Temple of Elemental Evil we'll do fairly well.
We just started a new GH campaign set in 576 on the Lendor Isles. I am running them through the Secret of Bone Hill series using the Castles & Crusades rules. The party is loving it. We have played so much 5e I think we forgot how fun an old school sandbox adventure can be.
Please do another video on good starting spots like you briefly mentioned!
I didn't start out planning on running a "campaign" but our Savage Pathfinder group has just finished Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh (1e) and will be heading into a home brew version of the Sahuagin conflict. Love the Greyhawk setting.
Great video! Greyhawk in 576 and then make it your own always strikes me as the best way to go. You have just enough info to use it but lots of room to make it your own. Any game system works. We even tried Palladium back in the day.
Mix in a few modules with home brew and you have it all.
Cool video. Greyhawk has such a cool back story
I ran the A0-A4 series for my one group and started my other group with Boarder Watch, both converted to 5e. Both groups have ran other modules as well as Patriots of Ulek, Forge of Fury, Devils of Molag and adventuers from Dungeon Magazine and City of Greyhawk boxset easily converted to 5e.
For systems you could also use any of the many retro clones, like Old School Essentials, Basic Fantasy, Osric and so on. If you are going for that old school feel, and it has the advantage of it being easy to convert (or straight up use) old modules.
My high-level players wanted a fresh start, so everyone rolled up new 1st level characters. I have started them in L1-The Secret of Bone Hill. It has a great town and six adventuring areas. I had to make it a little easier to start, and I reset it slightly to the border area between Medegia and Sunndi.
Thanks for the video! Nice GH setting primer!
Great video, Joe! Timely, too, as my son (about to head off to college) was asking if I could start a campaign for him and some of his friends (who are new to D&D). About 6 or 7 years ago, I ran my son and some other friends thru T1 with the village of Hommlett, and that was a blast. So now I was thinking of maybe doing N1 with the village of Orlane (which I think can be set around 576, unless there is some lore I’m not aware of tying it down to a different year, like 577, 578, etc). I was also considering your V1 with the hamlet of Volage in 576 😊
Thanks! This is very helpful! I’ve been wanting to start up a Greyhawk campaign and my players have never played in the setting before… I’ve been playing D&D since the early 80s, but a lot of them didn’t start until the late 90s/early 2000s, so I’ve been curious to know which existing setting materials will be the most helpful when I start piecing it all together.
Awesome presentation/ I have ti be the odd one out though. We played our Greyhawk Campaign in Rolemaster Standard Edition .Greyhawk is flexible like that
I'm getting dangerously close to running a Gold Box campaign with Castles & Crusades, so this video is very useful. Thank you!
DO IT!
Recently found you. I got into it with 3e. I really like the Greyhawk setting.
Man, if I hadn't already wrote and pitched my campaign I would love to run "The Keep on the Borderlands" set in Yeomanry. I actually got here because I'm using 3.5 and a lot of things in the PHB are from Greyhawk (The gods, some pictures of the currency) so I wanted to figure out how to tie Greyhawk into my campaign setting. My players would probably throw a fit if I tried to get them to try BECMI. One of them already threw a fit when I mentioned AD&D.
Really enjoy your videos. This one is really helpful for newbies, and one I found extremely helpful.
left 5e, went back to 1e and never looked back.
I tried to run 5e Greyhawk. It is too high magic to run a quintessential Greyhawk game. We now use B/X-OSE with OSE Advanced classes.
Great video!
TLDR: I'd like to hear your thoughts about approaching development of new material, incorporating the knowledge we have, to launch a new campaign - for NON-newbies to Greyhawk. How do we fit the data together. Also EDIT: You can define my situation as analysis paralysis.
As someone who has dabbled in Greyhawk, I was a Gygax kid after all. I think the thing that might be worth mentioning here is the Gord books - which, I should mention, were the source of me getting insecure about running the setting.
Yup. I suddenly felt Gygax's city, and realized that there was nothing published... but if I could cobble it together...
The knowledge of what Castle Greyhawk, the parody module, was - from the moment it came out... made me distrustful of anything, even Greyhawk Ruins, for years.
I slept a minute on the old C&C modules and they were gone. El Raja Key is an investment (though incredibly high on my most often forgotten about wants...).
I've used Hommlett a number of times, adapting it to the home base. I've used Keep on the Borderlands a good number of times to introduce new players to the OSR...
I've never run Greyhawk for more than a one shot.
I have too much reverence, if that makes any sense.
Lamentations of the Flame Princess was the first system to make me really stop, and think, could I do this here? For me, Oerth begs to be gritty, and savage... Magic seems like it should have a cost. I never saw the Tolkien in it, but I zeroed in on the Howard, Lovecraft, Ashton Smith....
It's coming up on year number 50 of OD&D, and I've been wracking myself... homebrew... random tables... what shall the campaign be...
I really feel I need to see what's been done, what's been learned before I ever choose to add to it. I'm very fond of the Rhennee, I like the strong demi-human cultural differences, I love the rather grimy feel of Gygax's depiction of the City, I enjoy the nearly unfathomable interplay between elements of evil - and the ancient forms that came before, who are indifferent to all. I love that Wuxia stuff, and would have loved to see what Oerth's orient was like beyond the one book, that came so late in Gary's career with TSR.
I'm not coming at Greyhawk as beginner, but as an absolute icon of my youth. The Gold Box, as it were, was out for a few months when I started playing... but things got murked up pretty quick thereafter. I don't really want to run the Temple, despite having never done it 'straight' (I rewrite the whole dungeon every time, plot and all - most memorable was my hacking of Tegel Manor into the fray). I use "Keep" for kids nowadays having run several boarding school groups and friends of my son through...
I love the hooks, but what I really need to feel comfortable is the 'where to start assembling the knowledge gathered about Greyhawk (especially early)' - without just getting lost in details, that I find utterly fascinating.
I just don't know how to piece together all the knowledge, concisely, when so much has been done... so much has been written...
It's like being a historian, and perhaps I'm missing out on the freedom of the setting because of it.
But, no, I don't feel that way. I've used the Kingdoms of Kalamar setting for years - and I just don't honestly care if I contradict it, or modify it, because it's meant for the same purpose as Greyhawk...
I need a guide for Gygaxian Era Greyhawk campaigns that don't require me to read all the archives at Dragonsfoot or ODD74 or Knights and Knaves to garner. Or to find hacked copies of the old Gaxmoor C&C type stuff - because I will never afford the originals.
I mean, I chatted with Gary when he was alive a few times - but, because I am chef, and he liked cooking... the topics wandered off into that...
Sorry, rambling. But how about a post 101 course in the future? "Want to dive a little deeper, Grasshopper?"
Love your stuff, have done so for years, but, man, do I get overwhelmed sometimes...
The Oerth Journal is still available. Although it's fan-made, I find most of the content quite good and in keeping with established lore.
I’m getting ready to fire up the ToEE in WoG (obviously) using Pathfinder 2e. Hope it goes well. My first 2e DMing foray.
I'm currently working on translate ToEE to portuguese and adapting the stats for 3.5.
I think roleplaying White Plume Mountain in 'Tales From The Yawning Portal', if one is very familiar with 5e, is a good gateway.
@@elliotvernon7971 This version of White Plume Mountain is designed for
a group of 8th-level player characters. I don't know yet how it exactly compares, if anything is added or removed, most likely just adjusted.
Have no interest at all after 2nd edition.
@@autisticallyaccurateThanks
We play AD&D or what you might call e1.
We called it AD&D, always emphasizing the 'A'.
576 is primo gold.
Great video Joe and really useful for new players & DMs considering how much Greyhawk material is out there to choose from. Personally I wouldn't recommend Temple of Elemental Evil as the actual temple part I think is poorly designed and problematic to play. A better introduction in my opinion is to run "Fate of Istus" which starts from 1st level and goes all the way to 10th-12th and introduces players & DMs to a bunch of cities across the Flanaess and can be broken up into very manageable chunks.
Oof... I think Fate of Istus is spotty at best, but if you like it, so be it!
Love the t-shirt!
When do you want to set it: Gygax's era, the time Lorraine Williams put a torch to anything remotely Gygaxian, or Wizards trying to make it up to Gygax before seemingly abandoning the setting?
What game system:
One with a fantasy system
Where to start:
The obvious Free City of Greyhawk, or somewhere more unusual?
Tentpole Dungeon: theoretically any megadungeon will do, but some are more official (and officially unofficial) Castle Greyhawks than others.
Would probably be looking at either the gold box or the adventure begins; 1st edition, BECMI, or Savage Worlds; Blackmoor, Barrier Peaks, or even the Shattered Empire; and probably would either use a megadungeon that isn't supposed to be Greyhawk...probably Art of the Genre's Complete Roslef Keep/Curse of Roslef Keep campaign (assuming Shattered Empire), or get a megadungeon map of my own and fill it out on my own.
On a side note, Nice Shirt! I grew up reading Elfquest, still sometimes go to the website and read the old comics.
Got me thinking of playing an old school adventure paying homage to the earliest days of the hobby. Was wondering if the “Blackmoor”area in the far north has any relation to Dave Arneson’s Blackmoor, the co-creator of D&D. Was Gary Gygax actually situating Blackmoor in the world of Greyhawk? Or is Dave Arneson’s Blackmoor in Greyhawk’s distant past, remembered only in legend, and its ruins are now glacially frozen up north?
Yes it does. That's where Gary Gygax put it. There are four modules in the DA series.
@@jamesnell1999Thanks, reading up on DA-1 Adventures in Blackmoor now. What interesting chronology, not only for the adventure but it’s publication date.. it is set “3000 years before all other D&D settings from TSR” which would include world of Greyhawk. And it was published 1986/1987, so after Gary Gygax left TSR and long after Dave Arneson’s ran his Blackmoor campaign in the 70s. Still a bit puzzled about the modern day Blackmoor listed in the gold box up North
I use Castles & Crusades for my Greyhawk campaign, circa 576
I've seen people use all sorts of things; Fantasy Trip, Runequest, Savage Worlds, GURPS...
I think I I’ll run my first GH campaign using Dragonbane from free league. It seems perfect!
I'd love to see a map of the the Flanaess that shows years 576, 585, 591 like you find in a good atlas. Has anyone ever made anything like that?
Someone did do an animated map of the Flanaess in the past, but I don't think it carried forward past CY 576, and it mainly showed the ebb and flow of the Great Kingdom.
I wonder if another good topic of discussion is how do you make the campaign feel uniquely Greyhawk when you run it?
This might be helpful:
ua-cam.com/video/qAjKiglPBxo/v-deo.html
Where did you get that map of the Flanaess thats hanging like a glorious tapestry behind you?
I really need to put that in a FAQ. 🙂
I had it made at one of those sites where you can upload images and they put it on various things. There are a bunch of them out there. It's okay since it's for my personal use, and it's not like I sell them or anything.
@@GreyhawkGrognard That’s so awesome! I need to look into doing that! I have a high resolution image of the Darlene map and I’d love to have that as a tapestry hanging on my wall!!!
@@BlackDragonRPGReviews Happy I could help!
The main problem for me with Temple of Elemental Evil, is it is VERY text heavy.
Still on the fence about backing the KS since I have the older version. But if you added XP to the stat blocks, that would push me over the top. Any chance of that?
Afraid not at this stage. Including the ascending/descending AC was enough work - I don't think I could do that to my editor!
@@GreyhawkGrognard Fair enough; but there's zero need for ascending AC. Just subtract from 20. XP, on the other hand, take a long time to calculate if not already in there. It's a big reason I prefer the Swords & Wizardry megadungeons over most others. The XP are already in there. But I get not wanting to do it.
@@sunsin1592 Backers of the KS wanted it.
Where was KotB retconned to in WoG?
In Return to the Keep on the Borderlands, it was placed in the southwest of the Yeomanry.
Greyhawk 2000
Hmmm... I recognise 576cy and 598cy...
I don't share your opinion on 5E. Its a perfectly fine system to run Greyhawk with. I started my current campaign in 591 using Living Greyhawk Gazetteer and the adventure module The Sunken Citadel, which was released in 3.0, and updated to 5E in Tales From the Yawning Portal. I set the adventures in the Sheldomar Valley, mostly Bissel and Keoland, with a later journey to Geoff for Expedition to the Barrier Peaks.
I use a combo of 1st and 2nd. Never played 3/4/5th edition, no interest.
Pathfinder 2e :) its an easy conversion. classic race only. I hate 5e
Starting a new one using the GURPS system, which I personally find a superior system.
I LOVE GURPS! Played 3rd edition for 30 years! Good choice!
576 4 lyfe, dawg. Metaplot is the lowest form of fanfic.
Love the shirt!