I've been rereading The Living Greyhawk Gazetteer lately. I have to say, using this book with a few of the Moore era supplements (Giants and Scarlet Brotherhood) is easily the best version of the setting. I know that will piss off the grognards, but I find just tons of cool things in these books, many of them geared right at players.

I do think the 1e box set was ok for its time, but the books were largely just lists of numbers and a paragraph or two of information for each entry. It provided a nice springboard for do-it-yourselfers that didn't want to make a completely original world, too. But compared to the later stuff, it's kind of dull.

Things I really like in Moore/Living Greyhawk:
1. The split of the Great Kingdom into multiple, antagonistic entities (and seriously, the Great Kingdom? That's the best name Gary could come up with? I just prefer something a little less modern.)
2. The Scarlet Brotherhood is exposed. It's still tough, but has suffered some setbacks.
3. Iuz is more powerful, as a demigod should be. But even he is facing rebellions.
4.  Plot hooks everywhere. Seriously. Every kingdom has a list of current issues that any PC group can tackle.
5. I have the 4 poster maps published in Dragon, and they show all the published module locations, which is awesome. And those maps combined blow away the Darlene map.
6. Pictures of each race, which while seemingly minor, is very important for showing players and giving them a very quick idea of what each race is about.
7. Mayaheine. I like the Joan of Arc-style demigoddess.


Stuff I think it missed out on:
1. Busting up the Circle of Eight. This felt contrived to me. The newer members are nothing special, either.
2. The adventures actually published (Doomgrinder, etc), were underwhelming, except for the Giants redo, which was half sourcebook and very well done.
3. I LIKED Ivid as a bad guy. Trapping him in Rel Astra (and basically removing that city from the world for most campaigns) just sucks.

I agree with you pretty much down the line.

Especially #3 and #4.

I think you've got the right end of the stick there.

QuoteI've been rereading The Living Greyhawk Gazetteer lately. I have to say, using this book with a few of the Moore era supplements (Giants and Scarlet Brotherhood)

Links and /or ISBNs?

Quote from: danbuter;5452555. I have the 4 poster maps published in Dragon, and they show all the published module locations, which is awesome. And those maps combined blow away the Darlene map.

That is a mighty boast, what number Dragons?

Quote from: daniel_ream;545449Links and /or ISBNs?

ISBN on the page here.

Something I have been meaning to ask a Greyhawk fan for a while.

I understand 3rd edition basically changed the setting in some key ways. As my understanding of Greyhawk is principally from 3rd edition, what things were changed?

I gotta say, the Dragon maps that showed where all the classic adventures happened, those were awesome.

Greyhawk had some solid stuff right through its lifespan. Of the non 1s stuff I really likes the 2E reboot of the Slaver series and for 3E the gazetteer of the realms was excellent. A true work of love.

Quote from: jadrax;545528Something I have been meaning to ask a Greyhawk fan for a while.

I understand 3rd edition basically changed the setting in some key ways. As my understanding of Greyhawk is principally from 3rd edition, what things were changed?

From the Ashes was for 2nd edition, and that's where most of the major changes happened. There was what amounted to a World War, and some countries disappeared, some split up into new countries, the Scarlet Brotherhood conquered a bunch of places, and Iuz conquered a bunch of places. Moore and the LG started repairing some of the most extreme cases, like letting some of the areas Iuz conquered regain their freedom and having some countries boot out the Scarlet Brotherhood.

Some other changes were in my OP.

Stuff like The Living Greyhawk Gazetteer gives D&D a bad name.

I always did like From the Ashes Greyhawk way more than Gygax Greyhawk.

RPGPundit

Stuff like From The Ashes gives D&D a bad name.

You are wrong. Sorry.

Quote from: danbuter;545934You are wrong. Sorry.

Don't feed the little troll. It had to squawk twice to be even noticed.