I loved Tomb of Horrors. I re read it every once in a while. Paul Kidd's stuff pretty much got me back into Greyhawk after I'd played Forgotten Realms for quite a few years.
Night Arrant is the overall best, I agree. It also conveys a lot of the flavor of the world while turning SotOC's biggest weakness (lack of a strong plot) into a strength by being a short story collection instead of a novel.
2:32 My favorite of the list, Nigthwatch was written before the Greyhawk Wars in a clearly more stable Oerth :) Written in four months at the request of TSR, it came out the same year as the first Drizzt novel. Bailey wrote books for the Thieves World series also.
I enjoyed the 2 Gord books you mentioned. I never read the more recent Greyhawk novels. I certainly found Night Arrant the most fun of the Gord books I’ve read. 😀
We started out with Quagg Keep by Andre Norton but when Gygax released Sea of Death, it changed everything. Our 6 member gaming group devoured it. It is the story. Sea of Death is my fave. Gygax's greatest novel.
Saga of Old City was my first D&D-ish book I ever read. Love it to this day. I like Night Arrant due to the missing pieces it filled in. There was several of the stories that take place in and around of the scenes in SoOC, but from a different POV.
Love you studio or library or whatever you call it, the map curtain is beautiful. Greyhawk , is my favorite world. Mystara and Forgotten realms are also great. Watch you quite often. Keep going and I’ll be here. I have Saga of the old city.. loved it.
Excellent video and reviews! Great choices for your Top 5. The only one I haven't read is Nightwatch, and it's on my TBR list now. Gord the Rogue was an enjoyable character, although, by the last book, I think Gygax was kind of killing the world off because of the way that he'd been ditched by his old company. The Justicar series by Paul Kidd was amazing! You were spot on about the side characters: they are some of the most entertaining characters in D&D. I figure you probably already know, but there is a short story which tells the story of how the Justicar and Cinders met. It's "by the Job" in Dragon # 271. It's a little more serious in tone, but Paul Kidd does the usual amazing job with the story.
Started playing Greyhawk in the 80's. Even after Forgotten Realms came out I wouldn't switch. It really was a well balanced realm map, lots to keep players busy.
Picked up Tomb of Horrors from audible based on your recommendation. It’s terrifyingly descriptive. I’m only I. Chapter 7 but it feels like an adventure played at the table so far.
Hi Joe! Thank you for this video. This takes me back... 🙂 I think you're the first person I've ever seen who has mentioned the Night Watch novel in a YT video; I kind of thought I was the only person in the current era who'd ever heard of it, and even I stumbled on it by accident myself as a teenager wandering through a bookstore; I can't even remember which store. I'm glad I hung onto it all these years. And thanks for the recommend on Tomb of Horrors and White Plume Mountain, the only ones in your list I don't have. I've been leery of those since seeing them on Amazon. I guess I was worried that they were some sort of hollow pastiche by B-list writers doing a cash grab, cause I've seen that happen so often in other genres. I'm going to have to eat my words on that, and give them a second look. Thanks!!
@@GreyhawkGrognard Yeah I've been tempted to buy at least the ones Gary wrote off ebay, but its the shipping that usually kills it for me. There is a great used book store in my town I've found, I've found some DnD books and classic appendix N stuff. I've found a bunch of Frtiz Leiber and Robert E Howard books from the 70s.
I read the Gord books when they first came out. I eagerly picked up the third "Greyhawk" novel and literally threw it in the trash...those Estes novels were unreadable. I was ecstatic when I found the New Infinities Gord books at The Compleat Strategist that summer and bought them all. Paul Kidd's books were a blast. I wish he had gotten the opportunity to write the Temple of Elemental Evil which since they were so obviously setting that up.
@@SimonAshworthWood "oh...if only I could cast spells of the third level, but alas I am only capable of spells of the second level." 🤮 hmmm...lemme try a spell that is a level beyond my ability as a magic-user of the third level... *shapechange*... LOL, I am an owl with big human feet...suck wacky spell failure... 😱 The pain of that book has never left my soul...
My five are: Saga of Old City, Artifact of Evil, Sea of Death, Keep on the Borderlands, and any/all of the Paul Kidd books. Keep on the Borderlands plays out like a regular D&D adventure. Home base, get some men-at-arms to follow you into the dungeon to loot it. Characters die. The others are all pretty watered down when it comes to a normal D&D adventure. The Paul Kidd books are goofy as heck but a lot of fun. My daughter and I listened to them on Audible and she loved them. We listened to his Gamma World book, too, and it was a lot of fun. Tomb of Horrors is my least favorite of the 3e Greyhawk. It was almost painfully formulaic. Gee the fallen paladin, wonder if he will get forgiveness...... yawn!
Greyhawk Grognard !!!!! liked and subscribed just now. Excellent video. You just informed me of books I don't own, But i need your help. Is there a way to get the complete list of ALL Greyhawk books that exist ( canon And non-canon ) or a video overview of " Greyhawk in Literature " ?? --luckily i own all ( i think ) the Gygax books but I want them all.
I read a few of those novels and I didn't remember much. There were okay but I felt something was missing. And I agree with you, I think my favotire one was aslo Saga of the City because it was written by Gygax. You have an adventure written by the 1st DM! We could see throught his eyes how he saw Greyhawk. I don't know how he find time to write so much (books, adventures, business, play...) . I have Night Arrant somewhere hidden on a shelf but I have not read it. I may gave it a chance since you have it as your top 1.
never read Nightwatch, Return to Quag Keep, or the last two New Infinities Gord the Rogue books. I collected all of the late 90s Greyhawk books, but when I moved I ended up getting rid of all but Against the Giants and the Paul Kidd trilogy. Every Greyhawk Novel I Own In Order From Most To Least Favorite- 1) Artifact of Evil (takes the character/world built up in the first book and throws them into an EPIC CONTINENT-SPANNING ADVENTURE) 2) Saga of Old City (just stupendous set-up/worldbuilding) 3) White Plume Mountain (I don't feel I need to explain anything) 4) The Name of the Game (a VAST leap above the previous Mika-Oba books) 5) Descent into the Depths of the Earth (lacks a bit of the freshness WPM did, does have more epicness though) 6) Against the Giants (I do hate how rushed it gets towards the end, when they try to cram in the frost and fire giant lairs too) 7) Queen of the Demonweb Pits (still love the characters, but feel they get overpowered/too lucky in this one) 8) Sea of Death (okay, but I find it slow up until Gord actually gets to the Sea of Dust) 9) Master Wolf (I genuinely like the Wolf Nomads and the character Mika-oba even as the sequels turn him into more of a butt-monkey and mangle the lore) 10) Night Arrant (hit and miss, though I do keep wanting to create a character based off of Pinkus the ehjure/ogre-mage) 11) City of Hawks (unnecessary retcons) 12) The Price of Power (things happen that are mostly uninteresting, any potential the characters and plots had slowly drains) 13) The Demon Hand (...yea, there's only so many times that the characters can survive [not WIN, merely SURVIVE] purely due to LUCK before I stop caring anymore) 14) Quag Keep (interesting, but being a product of it's time [extremely early in D&D's existence] makes it so very disconnected from later material) 15) The Eyes Have It (it has a few things I liked as I read through it the first time, but haven't bothered to read through it since)
I don't own that one, but from what I find online, it seems it's not set in Greyhawk, despite being based on the Ghost Tower of Inverness adventure, which is.
Saga of Old City was the first D&D novel I ever read and it brought me into this wonderful world
@Bleek Skaduwee same here! 🙂
yep same
The whole Justicar series is so much fun! "No One touches the Fairy!"
All the Gord novels were great!
Vin Diesel is the Justicar :)
I loved Tomb of Horrors. I re read it every once in a while. Paul Kidd's stuff pretty much got me back into Greyhawk after I'd played Forgotten Realms for quite a few years.
This is good to hear. I definitely need to quit ignoring these and buy them.
Love Paul Kidd. Endlessly re-read his Greyhawk novels.
Sea of Death is my all-time favorite. The three-way chase into the Sea of Dust was awesome. Have you ever done anything with the Sea of Dust???
Not y et, but I do have some ideas.
I really enjoyed the Paul Kidd novels as well.
Night Arrant is the overall best, I agree. It also conveys a lot of the flavor of the world while turning SotOC's biggest weakness (lack of a strong plot) into a strength by being a short story collection instead of a novel.
2:32 My favorite of the list, Nigthwatch was written before the Greyhawk Wars in a clearly more stable Oerth :)
Written in four months at the request of TSR, it came out the same year as the first Drizzt novel.
Bailey wrote books for the Thieves World series also.
I enjoyed the 2 Gord books you mentioned. I never read the more recent Greyhawk novels.
I certainly found Night Arrant the most fun of the Gord books I’ve read. 😀
We started out with Quagg Keep by Andre Norton but when Gygax released Sea of Death, it changed everything. Our 6 member gaming group devoured it. It is the story. Sea of Death is my fave. Gygax's greatest novel.
I just got many of the novels on eBay, so the video was very timely. I'm really enjoying Saga of the Old City.
Got to say my favourite was Temple of Elemental Evil, followed by Nightwatch, Tomb of Horrors, and Keep on the Borderlands.
Damn! At one point or another, I actually had all of these...
Saga of Old City was my first D&D-ish book I ever read. Love it to this day. I like Night Arrant due to the missing pieces it filled in. There was several of the stories that take place in and around of the scenes in SoOC, but from a different POV.
Love you studio or library or whatever you call it, the map curtain is beautiful. Greyhawk , is my favorite world. Mystara and Forgotten realms are also great. Watch you quite often. Keep going and I’ll be here. I have Saga of the old city.. loved it.
Excellent video and reviews! Great choices for your Top 5. The only one I haven't read is Nightwatch, and it's on my TBR list now. Gord the Rogue was an enjoyable character, although, by the last book, I think Gygax was kind of killing the world off because of the way that he'd been ditched by his old company. The Justicar series by Paul Kidd was amazing! You were spot on about the side characters: they are some of the most entertaining characters in D&D. I figure you probably already know, but there is a short story which tells the story of how the Justicar and Cinders met. It's "by the Job" in Dragon # 271. It's a little more serious in tone, but Paul Kidd does the usual amazing job with the story.
I love the Gord series of novels and short stories
Thanks for the video! I've read some: Emerson & Kidd series, but not the later ones. I'll have to check out the Nightwatch novel.
Started playing Greyhawk in the 80's. Even after Forgotten Realms came out I wouldn't switch. It really was a well balanced realm map, lots to keep players busy.
I buy up copies of the Gord the rogue novels every chance I get. They're still going for about 3 to $5 a piece right now
Picked up Tomb of Horrors from audible based on your recommendation. It’s terrifyingly descriptive. I’m only I. Chapter 7 but it feels like an adventure played at the table so far.
Hi Joe! Thank you for this video. This takes me back... 🙂 I think you're the first person I've ever seen who has mentioned the Night Watch novel in a YT video; I kind of thought I was the only person in the current era who'd ever heard of it, and even I stumbled on it by accident myself as a teenager wandering through a bookstore; I can't even remember which store. I'm glad I hung onto it all these years. And thanks for the recommend on Tomb of Horrors and White Plume Mountain, the only ones in your list I don't have. I've been leery of those since seeing them on Amazon. I guess I was worried that they were some sort of hollow pastiche by B-list writers doing a cash grab, cause I've seen that happen so often in other genres. I'm going to have to eat my words on that, and give them a second look. Thanks!!
I wish these were easier to find!
Yeah, eBay is a beast, but if you cruise the used bookstores you can sometimes find 'em cheap.
@@GreyhawkGrognard Yeah I've been tempted to buy at least the ones Gary wrote off ebay, but its the shipping that usually kills it for me.
There is a great used book store in my town I've found, I've found some DnD books and classic appendix N stuff.
I've found a bunch of Frtiz Leiber and Robert E Howard books from the 70s.
Great summation as always - have to find a Hammer Film shirt like that....love it
I saw someone wearing it at a con, and got one myself on Amazon. 🙂
I read the Gord books when they first came out. I eagerly picked up the third "Greyhawk" novel and literally threw it in the trash...those Estes novels were unreadable.
I was ecstatic when I found the New Infinities Gord books at The Compleat Strategist that summer and bought them all.
Paul Kidd's books were a blast. I wish he had gotten the opportunity to write the Temple of Elemental Evil which since they were so obviously setting that up.
I enjoyed the Rose Estes Greyhawk novels.
@@SimonAshworthWood "oh...if only I could cast spells of the third level, but alas I am only capable of spells of the second level." 🤮
hmmm...lemme try a spell that is a level beyond my ability as a magic-user of the third level... *shapechange*... LOL, I am an owl with big human feet...suck wacky spell failure... 😱
The pain of that book has never left my soul...
My five are: Saga of Old City, Artifact of Evil, Sea of Death, Keep on the Borderlands, and any/all of the Paul Kidd books.
Keep on the Borderlands plays out like a regular D&D adventure. Home base, get some men-at-arms to follow you into the dungeon to loot it. Characters die. The others are all pretty watered down when it comes to a normal D&D adventure.
The Paul Kidd books are goofy as heck but a lot of fun. My daughter and I listened to them on Audible and she loved them. We listened to his Gamma World book, too, and it was a lot of fun.
Tomb of Horrors is my least favorite of the 3e Greyhawk. It was almost painfully formulaic. Gee the fallen paladin, wonder if he will get forgiveness...... yawn!
Greyhawk Grognard !!!!! liked and subscribed just now. Excellent video. You just informed me of books I don't own, But i need your help. Is there a way to get the complete list of ALL Greyhawk books that exist ( canon And non-canon ) or a video overview of " Greyhawk in Literature " ?? --luckily i own all ( i think ) the Gygax books but I want them all.
I read a few of those novels and I didn't remember much. There were okay but I felt something was missing. And I agree with you, I think my favotire one was aslo Saga of the City because it was written by Gygax. You have an adventure written by the 1st DM! We could see throught his eyes how he saw Greyhawk. I don't know how he find time to write so much (books, adventures, business, play...) . I have Night Arrant somewhere hidden on a shelf but I have not read it. I may gave it a chance since you have it as your top 1.
Thanks for the recommendations. I like the world and the situation in Greyhawk, but I feel Iike it missed the boat with novels the way they did for FR
never read Nightwatch, Return to Quag Keep, or the last two New Infinities Gord the Rogue books. I collected all of the late 90s Greyhawk books, but when I moved I ended up getting rid of all but Against the Giants and the Paul Kidd trilogy.
Every Greyhawk Novel I Own In Order From Most To Least Favorite-
1) Artifact of Evil (takes the character/world built up in the first book and throws them into an EPIC CONTINENT-SPANNING ADVENTURE)
2) Saga of Old City (just stupendous set-up/worldbuilding)
3) White Plume Mountain (I don't feel I need to explain anything)
4) The Name of the Game (a VAST leap above the previous Mika-Oba books)
5) Descent into the Depths of the Earth (lacks a bit of the freshness WPM did, does have more epicness though)
6) Against the Giants (I do hate how rushed it gets towards the end, when they try to cram in the frost and fire giant lairs too)
7) Queen of the Demonweb Pits (still love the characters, but feel they get overpowered/too lucky in this one)
8) Sea of Death (okay, but I find it slow up until Gord actually gets to the Sea of Dust)
9) Master Wolf (I genuinely like the Wolf Nomads and the character Mika-oba even as the sequels turn him into more of a butt-monkey and mangle the lore)
10) Night Arrant (hit and miss, though I do keep wanting to create a character based off of Pinkus the ehjure/ogre-mage)
11) City of Hawks (unnecessary retcons)
12) The Price of Power (things happen that are mostly uninteresting, any potential the characters and plots had slowly drains)
13) The Demon Hand (...yea, there's only so many times that the characters can survive [not WIN, merely SURVIVE] purely due to LUCK before I stop caring anymore)
14) Quag Keep (interesting, but being a product of it's time [extremely early in D&D's existence] makes it so very disconnected from later material)
15) The Eyes Have It (it has a few things I liked as I read through it the first time, but haven't bothered to read through it since)
read them
Would you consider the Super Endless Quest book "The Ghost Tower" to be a book or a solo adventure? Do you even consider it to be a Greyhawk product?
I don't own that one, but from what I find online, it seems it's not set in Greyhawk, despite being based on the Ghost Tower of Inverness adventure, which is.
Do you read any other Dungeons and Dragons novels set in different settings? Spelljammer novels are overlooked but entertaining.
I really enjoyed some of the early Dragonlance novels, and the Icewind Dale novels, but I haven't read any in a long time.
No mention of Thieves World seems strange . What happened there?
Those aren't set in Greyhawk. ;-)
@@GreyhawkGrognard right.
what is the name of the bad novel you said ? I'm curious XD
I'm sure I don't know what you're talking about. :-)
Pauli Kidd has a very entertaining UA-cam channel for game reviews and stories if anyone is interested . I agree her greyhawk novels are tons of fun
Pauli. Paul Kidd is trans, and she gies by Pauli now. Same great author, though; I love her work.
You're right - I knew that and forgot. Thanks.