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| GREYHAWK: Start of it all, heart of it all By David Insley |
| THIS EDITORIAL DOES NOT REFLECT THE OPINIONS OF THE OWNERS, MANAGEMENT OR PATRONS OF WIZARDS OF THE COAST, THE RPGA, MOTHERS AGAINST DRUNK DRIVING, OR ANY OTHER ORGANIZATION, INCLUDING THE NOW-DEFUNCT WoGFC. BUT IT DARNED WELL OUGHT TO. FEEL LIKE COMMENTING? GO RIGHT AHEAD - DROP ME A LINE. |
| In the early 1970's, a cashed-in life insurance policy provided the startup capital for a game that was to forever change the future of gaming. That life insurance policy belonged to one Don Kaye - and with the small amount provided by its redemption, a small role-playing rulebook, entitled "Dungeons and Dragons," was printed. The game got most of its original popularity from college students, but soon, it snowballed, and gained a foothold in the hearts and minds of thousands in the United States and throughout the world. The game, as we all know quite well, was set in the mythical world of Greyhawk, and included such fantastic places as Orc-Reich, the Great Kingdom, and Celestial Imperium... and Blackmoor. The Free City of Greyhawk, the Barrier Peaks, the enigmatic Scarlet Brotherhood and a myriad other places came into being as well, providing the basis for a thousand campaigns, and a million amazing adventures. From these humble beginnings, from the hours and hours of effort put in by people such as the late Mr. Kaye, Ernie Gygax, and his father, Gary, Rob Kuntz and so many others, the greatest role-playing setting ever created was born. A new member of the WoG Fan Club recently emailed me with a question - "How can you convince players of other worlds, such as the Forgotten Realms, Al-Qadim and Dark Sun, to try WoG? It has been said online that Greyhawk is just a way for some people to relive the nostalgia of years ago - so why should anyone else play it?" It was hard not to take a bit of umbrage to the latter portion of this query, but I swallowed hard - and thought hard. It was, after all, a valid inquiry. Hmmm... Why WoG? I can think of a number of reasons: 1] The world of Greyhawk is THE first role-playing world. (I was later told, if I remember correctly, that "Empire of the Petal Throne" was the first setting ever produced, so let me add the words "that's worth a damn" to that declaration...) If it wasn't worth playing, can anyone logically assume that other worlds would have come into being? It doesn't make sense to reinforce failure (unless you keep voting Democrat, or follow the Washington Redskins), so WoG has to be a playable and fun world. 2] The PCs are the heroes of the adventures and campaigns. Not ultra-godlike NPCs who have powers the PCs can't even possess (i.e., the Chosen of Mystra from the Forgotten Realms of such repute). Psionic powers are rare in the extreme - WoG is the ultimate role-playing world, simply put. 3] No gunpowder. Officially, anyway. Of course, the only "canon" exception to this was the famous quasi-deity Murlynd, played by the aforementioned Don Kaye. There has been talk of allowing priests of this demi-deity to be allowed to use them, but I think even I might hesitate before this small concession. Let the Gondsmen stay on Toril, I say. 4] The World of Greyhawk is a "low fantasy" setting. By this, I mean that the world is grounded more in reality than having a heavy reliance upon powerful magicks, and encumbering PCs with magical items. (A mistake, I admit, I have made running my own worlds.) Again, it is the role-player's "dream world." 5] One word - Iuz. Name another world which has, in such vivid detail, given us a diabolical overlord who controls such a vast realm, and who has caused so many problems over decades and decades. A fiendish twit who was imprisoned for years, set free to wreak havoc upon the world for years to come - to become a godling in his own right, and a force to terrorize and threaten even the mightiest of parties for many a campaign. 6] This world, unlike so many others, is STILL 90% UNEXPLORED. Ask the majority of WoG gamers "What lies west of the Sea of Dust?" and the most common reply is "I don't know. Probably some other mythical place - like New Jersey." Why is so much of WoG left to the imagination? Perhaps because the Heartlands, as I, at least, call the eastern Flanaess, are so vivid, that in-depth exploration is only now uncovering what now occupies the remnants of the Suel Imperium, or what is east of the Hold of the Sea Barons - there's still so much to do in the existing, or "known" world! Perhaps because so much has happened, because so much can happen, in this one mapped section, that so many adventure opportunities still await, that to see who now resides west of the Paynim Plains and what is south of the Forbidden City in Hepmonaland would be almost a secondary issue. (Not that I mind reading articles on these areas!) Why finance an expedition to these areas when there is so much to do against the infamous Overking of Aerdy? When the Furyondian and Nyrondese people are besieged by a power so horrendous it makes dictators in the history of mankind - in the real world - look like so many grade-school bullies, in the form of the aforementioned Iuz? Ok, this might not sound like the best reason, but let me step aside form the itemized list and expound upon it from personal experience. Early in 1997, I DMed a campaign for a group of six "core" gamers, plus several "floaters," or occasional players. They were assigned to guard a caravan from Chendl, the (new) capital of Furyondy, to Greyhawk City. The trip was to take an estimated four months, give or take. Along the trip, the encountered amazing dilemmas, just in CIVILIZED Oerth, were swept up in the exploration of a ruined mansion, found a fugitive elf wrongly accused of murder, saved the lives of a number of farming families, were sucked into Ravenloft, took on hirelings, made new friends and allies along the way... By the time the caravan arrived in the Free City, that is, by the time the party reached the site of the campaign's alleged beginning, the campaign was already finished. Every character was up to at least sixth level, and most were higher! Getting there was not half the fun. It was ALL OF IT. Not to mention, when they crossed the dry plains of Furyondy, during one of the hottest summers in memory, when they sailed the Velverdyva and Att Rivers, when they encountered bandits in the northern stretches of the Gnarley Forest, they were making history. By the time they crossed the Selintan, and entered Greyhawk City, the first snows had fallen. And in the final tally, the four-month trip had taken just a bit less than half a year. The most interesting point in the campaign came just north of the town of Libernen, in south-central Furyondy. Along the way, they found several gnoll cubs, and were involved in the moral dilemma of what to do with them. They encountered two farmers who lived on opposite sides of a stream - a stream which could provide for only one of the two families. And they were asked to decide what to do. The chaotic neutral fighter in the group suggested "Kill one family!!" and was quickly shouted down. The elven priest finally took charge of the debate, and one family opted to accompany the caravan, AT THE PCS' EXPENSE, to a new locale, to start fresh. Holmur Jacobsen, the son of the farming family adopted by the party, took a job as the apprentice to the group's mage, and Mrs. Jacobsen, the mother, was involved in the heated debate of the fate of the gnoll infants. You see, she lost most of her family to gnolls years ago... And this segues me back to another reason to play WoG. 7] Plots within plots, wheels within wheels. Subplots with even more acute subplots. (See my own anecdote, above, again!) My final reason - though there are so many more - is its true appeal to gamers. I cite one simple, yet powerful, example of this: 8] Fan Support. The World of Greyhawk is the only fantasy role-playing world I myself know of ever to be discontinued and then brought back into the mainstream by fan support. This fact alone speaks volumes on its populatiry and appeal to the average gamer. Yes, it hit a low point a few years back, and got the dread status of "on hiatus," but during those years, role-playing as a whole was a bit slack, if memory serves. If I am wrong, it must be because I was having a personal slack time at that point when it came to gaming, so forgive my being out of touch during the rise of Magic: the Gathering, also known as Cardboard Crack in my gaming circle then. I guess that job I took as a promoter of Pepsi Clear was an indicator of where my brain was, too, no? But, in any event, no longer is the world of Mordenkainen, Belvor (the late) Sental Buryev and so many others relegated to the "might have been" section of gaming conversations. WoG is back, and back to stay. And it's better than ever, thanks to the contributions of so many common folks like that new WoG fan who asked such a simple, stirring question. And to not try a campaign in the world that has so much to offer would truly be, as Jodie Foster's character said, in the movie Contact, "a big waste of space." David Insley |
| This column originally published 9 February 1998 |