World of Greyhawk Fantasy Game Setting
Encyclopedia
The World of Greyhawk Fantasy Game Setting and the World of Greyhawk Fantasy World Setting are two closely related publications from TSR, Inc.
that detail the fictional World of Greyhawk campaign setting
for the Dungeons & Dragons
(D&D) fantasy roleplaying game. Both publications were authored by Gary Gygax
, and they were the first stand-alone offerings to provide detailed, comprehensive information regarding a D&D campaign setting.
's Castle Blackmoor
game, Gary Gygax
agreed with Arneson to co-develop a set of rules for a game that would eventually become known as Dungeons & Dragons. Gygax liked the idea of a castle and dungeon that players could explore, and created his own imaginary place called Castle Greyhawk, which he used to test and develop the game. With almost continuous play during the years 1972–1975, Gygax, and later his co-Dungeon Master
(co-DM), Rob Kuntz
, expanded the setting to include an entire world. After the creation of TSR
, publication of D&D and the release of several adventures set in his world of Greyhawk, Gygax was surprised to learn that there was strong player demand for access to his fantasy setting. He agreed to publish a campaign setting based on his home campaign.
TSR intended to publish The World of Greyhawk early in 1979; the foreword by editor Allen Hammack was dated February 1979. Gygax himself assured Dragon readers in issue No. 37 that, barring catastrophe, the World of Greyhawk was ready for official release. However, Gygax's The World of Greyhawk (TSR 9025) did not hit store shelves until August 1980.
The World of Greyhawk consisted of a thirty-two page folio (this edition is often called the "World of Greyhawk folio" to distinguish it from later editions) and a 34" x 44" (86 cm x 112 cm) two-piece color map of the Flanaess, by Darlene Pekul
. The book comes with a folder containing maps and a gazetteer describing every state and region on the maps. In addition to details of geography, history, and political states mentioned above, Gygax also included the following:
The first edition covers less than a quarter of the landmass of Oerth, concentrating on the eastern part of the continent of Oerik, giving only the most basic descriptions of each state; DMs were expected to elaborate on these areas in order to make them an integral part of their own individual campaigns.
No. 46. In his review, Jeff Sieken was generally impressed, mentioning its colorful folder, the outside covers of which are "adorned with the numerous coats-of-arms of the various states, cities and factions chronicled within the gazetteer". He said the two maps were "easily the highlight of the product", and that Darlene and the TSR art department "deserve to be congratulated for their quality", although he considered the sometimes dubious accuracy of the maps to be a major drawback. He felt that reading the entire booklet would give one a pretty good understanding of the world depicted on the map, but he found that more information on some places would have been useful, and remarked on the lack of pantheon of Greyhawk-specific deities, as well as the lack of any details on the famous personalities of the world. In Kenneth W. Burke's review, he remarked that he was glad to finally have "a universal constant" in the form of an official campaign setting. Burke complained mostly about minor flaws in the work, but was particularly incensed about the use of the terms "cannibal" and "savages", assuming this was a derogatory reference directed at Africans. Regardless, Burke rated the folio a 9 out of 10, blaming its problems on the product's size and scope. Lawrence Schick, Vice President, of Product Development at the time for TSR Hobbies, Inc., responded to the two reviews. He stated that the idea behind the product was "to provide a setting for a fantasy campaign, a coherent place where fantastic things could happen", and that although The World of Greyhawk was based on Gygax's own campaign, the publication "was made deliberately vague in many areas so that individual DMs could impress their own ideas and personalities upon it". He also responded to Burke's charges: "As regards the savages, nowhere in the text of the Gazetteer is there any indication of anybody's skin color. Nobody here ever gave it any thought, because it doesn't matter."
Schick, in his 1991 book Heroic Worlds, describes the campaign setting as "a medieval-Europe-type fantasy world where most of the early AD&D scenarios are set".
In 1983, TSR published an expanded boxed set of the campaign world, World of Greyhawk (usually called the "Greyhawk boxed set" to differentiate it from other editions). The boxed set features a cover by Jeff Easley
. This edition increases the total number of pages of information in the folio edition fourfold, to 128 pages. These are divided between an eighty page booklet titled A Guide to the World of Greyhawk Setting: A Catalogue of the Land of the Flanaess, being the eastern portion of the continent of Oerik, of Oerth and a forty eight page booklet titled Glossography for the Guide to the World of Greyhawk Fantasy Setting, compiled by Pluffet Smedger the Elder of the Royal University at Relmord, CY 998. The same four-color map of the Flanaess from the folio edition is also included.
The 1983 edition adds information on the gods of the setting, weather, tables for place-of-birth, encounter tables for the various kingdoms, and suggestions for scenarios. According to game designer Jim Bambra, "The second edition was much larger than the first and addressed itself to making the World of Greyhawk setting a more detailed and vibrant place."
New material was also added, mainly culled from the Dragon magazine articles published in the previous three years. This includes information about trees and other flora of the Flanaess, an examination of populations, including distribution of the four main human races, demi-humans (elves, dwarves, halflings), and humanoids (goblins and orcs), and human racial characteristics, including languages, appearance and modes of dress. There are also two one page maps, one of regional alignments (good, evil, etc.) and one of regional products and resources.
One fifth of the Guide is devoted to the deities of Greyhawk
; in addition to the nineteen gods introduced in Gygax's Dragon articles, another thirty-one gods are added, for a total of fifty deities. However, only twenty-two are given a full description of their appearance, areas of influence, and worshipers. Nineteen of those are the original Greyhawk deities from Gygax's Dragon articles; the other three given full descriptions are Raxivort (whose full description had been previously published in issue No. 64 of Dragon,) Ulaa, and Xan Yae. Combat statistics and specific powers for these twenty-two deities are also included, but placed in a separate appendix in the Glossography booklet. The remainder of the deities are simply listed by name and sphere of influence.
In Gygax's original Dragon articles, no mention had been made of racial preferences for any of the gods. The boxed set edition introduces four pantheons, one for each of the four human races. (In this edition, there are no deities for non-humans.) The twelve deities of the Suel pantheon had been created by Len Lakofka, and he would subsequently publish a five-part article on them in the July–November 1984 issues of Dragon. Most of the other gods are assigned to one of the three remaining pantheons, while a few are either declared either common to all humans or of unknown origin.
, Creative Consultant at TSR at the time, wrote four RPGA
tournament adventures taken from his home campaign setting of Acquaria (published by TSR as the first four of the R-series modules: R1 To the Aid of Falx
, R2 The Investigation of Hydell
, R3 The Egg of the Phoenix
, and R4 Doc's Island
). Mentzer envisioned them as the first part of a new Aqua-Oeridian campaign set somewhere on Oerth outside of the Flanaess.
By the time the 1983 edition was published, Gygax was in Hollywood on a semi-permanent basis, approving scripts for the Saturday morning Dungeons & Dragons cartoon series and trying to land a deal for a D&D movie. Without his day-to-day guidance, many of these projects never appeared.
, updated or modified the original information. The most significant of these included:
#33 (1980)
TSR, Inc.
Blume and Gygax, the remaining owners, incorporated a new company called TSR Hobbies, Inc., with Blume and his father, Melvin Blume, owning the larger share. The former assets of the partnership were transferred to TSR Hobbies, Inc....
that detail the fictional World of Greyhawk campaign setting
Campaign setting
A campaign setting is usually a fictional world which serves as a setting for a role-playing game or wargame campaign. A campaign is a series of individual adventures, and a campaign setting is the world in which such adventures and campaigns take place...
for the Dungeons & Dragons
Dungeons & Dragons
Dungeons & Dragons is a fantasy role-playing game originally designed by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson, and first published in 1974 by Tactical Studies Rules, Inc. . The game has been published by Wizards of the Coast since 1997...
(D&D) fantasy roleplaying game. Both publications were authored by Gary Gygax
Gary Gygax
Ernest Gary Gygax was an American writer and game designer best known for co-creating the pioneering role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons with Dave Arneson. Gygax is generally acknowledged as the father of role-playing games....
, and they were the first stand-alone offerings to provide detailed, comprehensive information regarding a D&D campaign setting.
Early development of Greyhawk
In 1972, after seeing a demonstration of Dave ArnesonDave Arneson
David Lance "Dave" Arneson was an American game designer best known for co-developing the first published role-playing game , Dungeons & Dragons, with Gary Gygax, in the early 1970s...
's Castle Blackmoor
Blackmoor
Blackmoor is a fantasy role-playing game campaign setting generally associated with the game Dungeons & Dragons. It originally evolved in the early 1970s as the personal setting of Dave Arneson, the co-creator of Dungeons & Dragons, first as a setting for Arneson's miniature wargames, then as an...
game, Gary Gygax
Gary Gygax
Ernest Gary Gygax was an American writer and game designer best known for co-creating the pioneering role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons with Dave Arneson. Gygax is generally acknowledged as the father of role-playing games....
agreed with Arneson to co-develop a set of rules for a game that would eventually become known as Dungeons & Dragons. Gygax liked the idea of a castle and dungeon that players could explore, and created his own imaginary place called Castle Greyhawk, which he used to test and develop the game. With almost continuous play during the years 1972–1975, Gygax, and later his co-Dungeon Master
Dungeon Master
In the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game, the Dungeon Master is the game organizer and participant in charge of creating the details and challenges of a given adventure, while maintaining a realistic continuity of events...
(co-DM), Rob Kuntz
Robert J. Kuntz
Robert J. Kuntz is a game designer and author of role-playing game publications. He is most famous for his contributions to various Dungeons & Dragons-related materials.-Works:...
, expanded the setting to include an entire world. After the creation of TSR
TSR, Inc.
Blume and Gygax, the remaining owners, incorporated a new company called TSR Hobbies, Inc., with Blume and his father, Melvin Blume, owning the larger share. The former assets of the partnership were transferred to TSR Hobbies, Inc....
, publication of D&D and the release of several adventures set in his world of Greyhawk, Gygax was surprised to learn that there was strong player demand for access to his fantasy setting. He agreed to publish a campaign setting based on his home campaign.
The 1980 "Folio" edition
The World of Greyhawk consisted of a thirty-two page folio (this edition is often called the "World of Greyhawk folio" to distinguish it from later editions) and a 34" x 44" (86 cm x 112 cm) two-piece color map of the Flanaess, by Darlene Pekul
Darlene Pekul
-Biography:Pekul graduated from Beloit College in 1976.After college Pekul dated Mike Carr, who was working as an editor at TSR Inc., the publisher of Dungeons & Dragons. As a result of this connection Pekul started to do freelance work for TSR...
. The book comes with a folder containing maps and a gazetteer describing every state and region on the maps. In addition to details of geography, history, and political states mentioned above, Gygax also included the following:
- names for the days of the week (Starday, Sunday, Moonday, Godsday, Waterday, Earthday, Freeday),
- names for the twelve 28-day months and the four 6-day festivals that made up the 360-day year (Needfest, Fireseek, Readying, Coldeven, Growfest, Planting, Flocktime, Wealsun, Richfest, Reaping, Goodmonth, Harvester, Brewfest, Patchwall, Ready'reat, and Sunsebb)
- notes on scale and movement, so the DM could keep track of how long it would take the players to move from region to region
- royal and noble precedence, so the DM could ensure the players addressed heads of state properly
- orders of knighthood, for players who desired to join one
- a glossary of runes and glyphs that the DM could use to create puzzling messages, mysterious omens and vaguely worded portents
The first edition covers less than a quarter of the landmass of Oerth, concentrating on the eastern part of the continent of Oerik, giving only the most basic descriptions of each state; DMs were expected to elaborate on these areas in order to make them an integral part of their own individual campaigns.
Reception
The World of Greyhawk folio received two reviews in DragonDragon (magazine)
Dragon is one of the two official magazines for source material for the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game and associated products, the other being Dungeon. TSR, Inc. originally launched the monthly printed magazine in 1976 to succeed the company's earlier publication, The Strategic Review. The...
No. 46. In his review, Jeff Sieken was generally impressed, mentioning its colorful folder, the outside covers of which are "adorned with the numerous coats-of-arms of the various states, cities and factions chronicled within the gazetteer". He said the two maps were "easily the highlight of the product", and that Darlene and the TSR art department "deserve to be congratulated for their quality", although he considered the sometimes dubious accuracy of the maps to be a major drawback. He felt that reading the entire booklet would give one a pretty good understanding of the world depicted on the map, but he found that more information on some places would have been useful, and remarked on the lack of pantheon of Greyhawk-specific deities, as well as the lack of any details on the famous personalities of the world. In Kenneth W. Burke's review, he remarked that he was glad to finally have "a universal constant" in the form of an official campaign setting. Burke complained mostly about minor flaws in the work, but was particularly incensed about the use of the terms "cannibal" and "savages", assuming this was a derogatory reference directed at Africans. Regardless, Burke rated the folio a 9 out of 10, blaming its problems on the product's size and scope. Lawrence Schick, Vice President, of Product Development at the time for TSR Hobbies, Inc., responded to the two reviews. He stated that the idea behind the product was "to provide a setting for a fantasy campaign, a coherent place where fantastic things could happen", and that although The World of Greyhawk was based on Gygax's own campaign, the publication "was made deliberately vague in many areas so that individual DMs could impress their own ideas and personalities upon it". He also responded to Burke's charges: "As regards the savages, nowhere in the text of the Gazetteer is there any indication of anybody's skin color. Nobody here ever gave it any thought, because it doesn't matter."
Schick, in his 1991 book Heroic Worlds, describes the campaign setting as "a medieval-Europe-type fantasy world where most of the early AD&D scenarios are set".
Between editions
Gygax used TSR's Dragon magazine as a platform to update the folio edition, and from 1980–-1983, articles on weather, the peoples of Greyhawk, and in-depth examinations of the various political regions appeared in its pages. Gygax also provided details of nineteen deities that could be used in the Greyhawk setting. Numerous projects were planned to add more depth and detail to the setting after the publication of the initial edition of the boxed set, but many of these projects never appeared for various reasons.The 1983 boxed set
Jeff Easley
Jeff Easley is an oil painter who creates fantasy artwork in the tradition of Frank Frazetta.-Early life:...
. This edition increases the total number of pages of information in the folio edition fourfold, to 128 pages. These are divided between an eighty page booklet titled A Guide to the World of Greyhawk Setting: A Catalogue of the Land of the Flanaess, being the eastern portion of the continent of Oerik, of Oerth and a forty eight page booklet titled Glossography for the Guide to the World of Greyhawk Fantasy Setting, compiled by Pluffet Smedger the Elder of the Royal University at Relmord, CY 998. The same four-color map of the Flanaess from the folio edition is also included.
The 1983 edition adds information on the gods of the setting, weather, tables for place-of-birth, encounter tables for the various kingdoms, and suggestions for scenarios. According to game designer Jim Bambra, "The second edition was much larger than the first and addressed itself to making the World of Greyhawk setting a more detailed and vibrant place."
The Guide
The larger Guide booklet is, in style and content, similar to the previously published folio. All the content of the folio edition is included in it, with a few changes. The focus of some of the details for each region is sharpened. For example, the rulers of countries, which had originally only had titles, were given names, and populations were given to within a thousand, rather than as rough estimates. The section regarding geographical features is reorganized and expanded. Gygax increased the four yearly festivals from six days to seven days; this increases the length of the calendar year from 360 days to 364 days and means each calendar date now always falls on the same day of the week every year.New material was also added, mainly culled from the Dragon magazine articles published in the previous three years. This includes information about trees and other flora of the Flanaess, an examination of populations, including distribution of the four main human races, demi-humans (elves, dwarves, halflings), and humanoids (goblins and orcs), and human racial characteristics, including languages, appearance and modes of dress. There are also two one page maps, one of regional alignments (good, evil, etc.) and one of regional products and resources.
One fifth of the Guide is devoted to the deities of Greyhawk
Greyhawk deities
The legion of fictional deities in the World of Greyhawk campaign setting for the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy roleplaying game covers an extensive range of spheres of influence, allowing players to customize the spiritual beliefs and powers of their characters, and as well as giving Dungeon Masters...
; in addition to the nineteen gods introduced in Gygax's Dragon articles, another thirty-one gods are added, for a total of fifty deities. However, only twenty-two are given a full description of their appearance, areas of influence, and worshipers. Nineteen of those are the original Greyhawk deities from Gygax's Dragon articles; the other three given full descriptions are Raxivort (whose full description had been previously published in issue No. 64 of Dragon,) Ulaa, and Xan Yae. Combat statistics and specific powers for these twenty-two deities are also included, but placed in a separate appendix in the Glossography booklet. The remainder of the deities are simply listed by name and sphere of influence.
In Gygax's original Dragon articles, no mention had been made of racial preferences for any of the gods. The boxed set edition introduces four pantheons, one for each of the four human races. (In this edition, there are no deities for non-humans.) The twelve deities of the Suel pantheon had been created by Len Lakofka, and he would subsequently publish a five-part article on them in the July–November 1984 issues of Dragon. Most of the other gods are assigned to one of the three remaining pantheons, while a few are either declared either common to all humans or of unknown origin.
The Glossography
The smaller forty-eight page booklet, the Glossography, contains reference tables for rates of movement, random encounter tables, and a list of rulers of each region. The booklet also contains a rewrite of David Axler's weather creation article from Dragon, although the number of tables is reduced from fourteen to ten. There are six examples of adventures that can be placed in the world of Greyhawk in the booklet, and the map coordinates of the twenty-one previously published TSR adventures set in Greyhawk. In addition, there is a section for determining a character's birthplace (from Len Lakofka's Dragon article), a list of notable non-player characters (from Gygax's Dragon article), and map coordinates for every region, city, and town marked on the color map. Finally, there are combat statistics for the 22 deities who had been accorded a full description in the Guide.Follow-up to 1983 edition
Publication of the World of Greyhawk was the first step in Gygax's vision for Oerth. Over the next few years, he planned to unveil other areas of the continent of Oerik, giving each new area the same in-depth treatment of history, geography, and politics as had been accorded the Flanaess. Gygax had also mapped out the other hemisphere of Oerth in his personal notes. Part of this would be Gygax's work, but Len Lakofka and Francois Froideval had also created material that Gygax wanted to place on Oerth. Frank MentzerFrank Mentzer
Jacob Franklin "Frank" Mentzer III , is an American fantasy author and game designer best known for his work on early materials for the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game. He was a performing folk musician from 1968 to 1975, and played one concert at the White House during the...
, Creative Consultant at TSR at the time, wrote four RPGA
RPGA
The RPGA , is part of the organized play arm of Wizards of the Coast that organizes and sanctions role-playing games worldwide, principally under the d20 system...
tournament adventures taken from his home campaign setting of Acquaria (published by TSR as the first four of the R-series modules: R1 To the Aid of Falx
To the Aid of Falx
To the Aid of Falx is an adventure module published in 1982 for the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game.-Plot summary:...
, R2 The Investigation of Hydell
The Investigation of Hydell
The Investigation of Hydell is an adventure module published in 1982 for the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game.-Plot summary:In The Investigation of Hydell, the player characters investigate an organization that sells slaves....
, R3 The Egg of the Phoenix
The Egg of the Phoenix
The Egg of the Phoenix is an adventure module published in 1982 for the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game.-Plot summary:...
, and R4 Doc's Island
Doc's Island
Doc's Island is an adventure module published in 1983 for the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game.-Plot summary:In Doc's Island, the player characters must deliver the Egg of the Phoenix to the mysterious Doc's Island....
). Mentzer envisioned them as the first part of a new Aqua-Oeridian campaign set somewhere on Oerth outside of the Flanaess.
By the time the 1983 edition was published, Gygax was in Hollywood on a semi-permanent basis, approving scripts for the Saturday morning Dungeons & Dragons cartoon series and trying to land a deal for a D&D movie. Without his day-to-day guidance, many of these projects never appeared.
Setting updates
After Gygax was forced out of TSR at the end of 1985 and lost all rights to development of Greyhawk, many subsequent works by TSR, and later Wizards of the CoastWizards of the Coast
Wizards of the Coast is an American publisher of games, primarily based on fantasy and science fiction themes, and formerly an operator of retail stores for games...
, updated or modified the original information. The most significant of these included:
- The 1988 hardcover book Greyhawk AdventuresGreyhawk AdventuresGreyhawk Adventures is an accessory for the Dungeons & Dragons World of Greyhawk campaign setting.-Contents:Greyhawk Adventures contains information about Greyhawk deities and clerics, major non-player characters, monsters, geography, spells of the setting's famous magic-users , magic items of the...
- The 1992 boxed set From the AshesFrom the Ashes (Dungeons & Dragons)From the Ashes is a supplement for Dungeons & Dragonss World of Greyhawk campaign setting. It was published in 1992 by TSR as a boxed set of materials...
- The 1998 sourcebook Greyhawk: The Adventure BeginsGreyhawk: The Adventure BeginsGreyhawk: The Adventure Begins is a 1998 sourcebook for the World of Greyhawk campaign setting for the Dungeons & Dragons roleplaying game. The 128 page book was written by Roger E...
(winner of the 1996 Origins AwardOrigins AwardThe Origins Awards are American awards for outstanding work in the game industry. They are presented by the Academy of Adventure Gaming Arts and Design at the Origins Game Fair on an annual basis for the previous year, so the 1979 awards were given at the 1980 Origins.The Origins Award is commonly...
for Best Roleplaying Supplement) - The 2000 sourcebook Living Greyhawk GazetteerLiving Greyhawk GazetteerThe Living Greyhawk Gazetteer is a sourcebook for the World of Greyhawk campaign setting for the 3rd edition of the Dungeons & Dragons roleplaying game. Despite the title, the Living Greyhawk Gazetteer is not exclusive to the Living Greyhawk Campaign...
Additional reading
Reviews: The Space GamerThe Space Gamer
The Space Gamer was a magazine dedicated to the subject of science fiction and fantasy board games and role-playing games. It quickly grew in importance and was an important and influential magazine in its subject matter from the late 70s through the mid-80s...
#33 (1980)
- "Green Nightmare: The Amedio Jungle, Part I", The Oerth Journal #4
- "Player's Guide to the World of Greyhawk: Perrenland", The Oerth Journal #5
- "Sage Advice", Dragon #141
- "The Iquandex, v. 10", The Oerth Journal #6
External links
- World of Greyhawk at Acaeum.com.
- World of Greyhawk Fantasy Game Setting at the TSR Archive.
- World of Greyhawk folio at the TSR Archive.