A Word About Greyhawk & the Greyhawk Wars
Most of what I am putting on this site concerns Greyhawk. Greyhawk was the first campaign setting I ever owned back in the early 80's after I had run across the Greyhawk folio in a used book store. That folio has long since fallen apart and turned to dust, to be replaced with the box set.
I'm not one who is a slave to canon, be it Gygaxian or WOTC. If I don't like something, I won't use it or will replace it with something else that I either prefer or makes more sense to me. Jump forward to the Greyhawk Wars.
Not a fan. While Gygax hinted at wars in the folio and box set, and enumerated several battles in articles he had written for Dragon Magazine, the biggest problem that I have is that this all happens at the same time. The Great Kingdom attacks all of her enemies simultaneously, then collapses. A cavalry general from Almor makes a grand cavalry ride deep into the Great Kingdom, only to have his force annihilated far from home. I mean, really? Who was the general in charge? Jon Snow? That would be like sending your Dothraki hordes charging into an army of the dead thinking that will succeed. (Not to mention his huge success at the Battle of the Bastards.)
Anywho, Iuz tricks the barbarians into invading lands to the south, takes over the Horned Society (which I strongly disagree with unless they were going to turn on him), the Bandit Kingdoms, the Shield lands, most of the Vesve Forest, and parts of Furyondy.
Giants raid from the Crystalmists and take out one or two nations. The Scarlet Brotherhood manages to capture all of one nation. One. No other schemes were in the works for this secretive group. Greyhawk expands their domain to territory they pretty much already controlled.
And Rary. Don't even get me started about Rary and the character assassination of that character.
Did I like anything about it? I did like the Turosh Mak story thread, and think this could provide the most interesting plot angle of all that have been presented.
I felt that during the whole Second Edition run, it was all written as a cash grab. The City of Greyhawk box set was horrid and showed a major lack of imagination. Take a look at all the Dragon Inns exist in the city. Couldn't they think up any better names? I think every form of chromatic and metallic dragon had it's own in within the confines of the city.
So, while much of what is presented here is either based on canon or available materials, some of it may change to fit my tastes. For example, gnomes are not hiding the Sword of Kas waiting for someone to come along and prove they are worthy by being nice to a wonded bird. Instead, the Sword of Kas, named Oblivion, is in the posession of a Death Knight named Saint Kargoth. You want it? It will be much more challenging to get than in the module Vecna Lives. My opinion is that that module isn't worth the paper it's printed on.
In the end, what you see will present my sources as much as possible, but some bits may be altered slightly to fit my taste.
Other ideas I've entertained:
- the idea that Ivid, the Mad Overking of the Great Kingdom had either died and been replaced with a power demon in disguise (haven't decided if it would be a powerful demon or a demon lord)
- a family of blue dragons have taken roost in the Bone March, appearing as the "royal family" and controlling the humanoid population. They will only ally with the Great Kingdom in exchange for a great amount of treasure, and maybe ceding the North Province to them
- Having the giants raid out of the mountains isn't a bad idea, but having them highly organized is. If the drow are behind it, well, order and organization is not exactly their strong suits.
- A mad silver dragon lich (subvert expectations)
- a change in power in Keoland, and Keoland begins a new expansionist phase
Just a few. I'll see if any lead anywhere.
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