Dungeons & Dragons Settings: Greyhawk
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- čas přidán 22. 03. 2023
- A short, abbreviated history of TSR's first published campaign setting for Dungeons & Dragons, the World of Greyhawk. I didn't include every Greyhawk product but covered the main beats from 1971 - 2008.
The Secrets of Blackmoor Documentary: www.secretsofblackmoor.com/
IMAGE CREDITS
For products I don't own, I pulled images from the following sources online:
* Greyhawk Map: Greyhawk Wiki Fandom
* Domesday Book #9: The Acaeum
* Braunstein: DriveThruRPG (this image is a recent game inspired by Braunstein, not the original game)
* All Dragon Magazine Pages: Dragon Magazine CD-ROM Archive #1 - #250
* Quag Keep: Amazon
* Dungeon Module G3: DriveThruRPG
* Dungeon Module T1: DM's Guild
* World of Greyhawk (Folio Edition): Internet Archive
* Dungeon Module S4: RPGGeek
* Dungeon Module A1: DriveThruRPG
* Saga of Old City: PorPor Blooks Blog
* Dungeon Module EX1: DriveThruRPG
* Dungeon Module UK1: DriveThruRPG
* Dungeon Module WG5: DriveThruRPG
* Dungeon Module WG6: DriveThruRPG
* Master Wolf: GoodReads
* Dungeon Module WG7: DM's Guild
* City of Greyhawk Boxed Set: DriveThruRPG
* Dungeon Modules WGA1-4: DriveThruRPG, Noble Knight Games, RPGGeek
* Dungeon Module WGR1: DM's Guild
* Dungeon Modules WGS1-2: RPGGeek
* Greyhawk Wars Strategy Game: Noble Knight Games
* From the Ashes Boxed Set: RPGGeek
* Dungeon Modules WGR4-6: RPGGeek
* Dungeon Module WGQ1: RPGGeek
* Return of the Eight: RPGGeek
* Lost Tombs Module Trilogy: RPGGeek
* The Adventure Begins Sourcebook: RPGGeek
* Against the Giants (novel): ThriftBooks
* Die Vecna, Die!: RPGGeek
* Living Greyhawk Gazetteer: RPGGeek
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The Greyhawk Gazetteer from the 80s really inspired my own campaign development. It was a master class in that regard...
Thank you so much for watching and commenting (both here AND on MeWe!). I really appreciate it.
People who had never even heard the word "gazetteer" before made it the standard format for documenting campaign worlds.
I remember a lot of these modules and books. Some because I bought and played them, but most because I drooled over them in the game store 😂
It probably seems like my collection is large, and I guess it is by most peoples' standards, but I definitely grew up drooling over and pining for books and boxed sets that I never got. For my AD&D Hardbacks, three of them I acquired during the Pandemic, and one was a recent gift from someone on Reddit who noticed I didn't have it! So I'm continuing to add all the time!
One of the long-abandoned empires whose ruins can be explored in my own fantasy game is called Greygax, its coins are recognized by the hawk imprint stamped onto them. Conveniently, their weights and purity standards endure into the modern kingdoms of the present day so the old coins are used interchangeably with new.
I really like this! What a fun way to incorporate and acknowledge the history of the game into your campaign. Very clever! "...the old coins are used interchangeably with new." I see what you did!
That is really awesome. Feels exactly like something a cheeky, clever dev would put into a video game as an homage/Easter egg. Love seeing it being incorporated into tabletop!!
@@DivineBanana Considering I'm a videogame developer hobbyist a couple steps up my totem pole above being a tabletop nerd hobbyist, the comparison completely checks out.
I loved Greyhawk and we spent years campaigning in the Bone March Area. My players were basically operatives undermining the disorganized hordes and driving them from the area. Great times
I always love hearing about people's campaigns and what/how they played. Thank you for sharing, and also thank you for watching and commenting. I'm glad you enjoyed the video.
Ever visit Spinecastle?
Dude, I am glad I found your stuff. I have been playing Dand D since the 80's. Still have great memories of friends getting together after work every Thursday night at a friend's house and playing until sun up. 🙂
Thank you so much for letting me know! I'm so glad you found the channel and I really appreciate you watching and commenting. I remember those days of playing until the wee hours! For us it was usually on a weekend, unless it was summer.
Greyhawk will always be my favourite D&D setting.
I even have the Greyhawk Wars tabletop strategy game.
Greyhawk and the "Known World' (from the 1981 Expert Set) are the two settings I grew up with, so I have a special fondness for them as well.
It seems that, sadly, both setting are no longer being supported by the game. But they do live on in fan websites!
All my formative years of D&D in high school was set in Greyhawk. I enjoy Forgotten Realms, currently playing Baldur's Gate 3 on my PC, but all my nostalgic memories are from Greyhawk. I had the folio edition as a kid.
Still my goto setting even now.
Thank you for watching and commenting, and for your support of the channel!
I like quite a few of TSR's settings, but the standard for me was always Greyhawk as it was the first one for which I'd seen a developed "campaign setting" (I started with the boxed set) so that's how I've always thought settings should be presented.
That said, I really liked the 3E "Forgotten Realms Campaign Guide" book, even though I don't play in the Realms.
Most DM's I played with used their own campaigns. They would insert some modules into their campaign but alter them to fit or perhaps add a town with the name from the module.
Only one DM actually used the Greyhawk campaign as his base but he never used any of the modules for it.
Thank you for watching and commenting!
I, too, have never used a campaign setting" as is" but only used them to supplement my homebrew worlds.
Sounds like you're mainly a player? Have you ever tried your hand at running a game? If so, did you use a homebrew world?
@@daddyrolleda1 I only got to DM a few times. I used the Judges Guild Campaign settings. I had access to a lot of their stuff at low, low prices from my friend who owned a comic book shop. We mostly played in the "City State of the Invincible Overlord" campaign.
Those City-State and Wilderlands products always looked really cool from the ads I saw in Dragon, but I never saw them for sale at my local game shop.
My campaign was set in Admunfort, in the Shield Lands, which was right across the Nyr Dyv from Greyhawk. I later heard that TSR created a war where the evil armies of Iuz conquered the Shield Lands, including the island where the fortified city of Admunfort was located. I never liked the hand-waving that somehow allowed Orcs and Goblins to just pass over the lake with enough forces to take the city. Where was the Royal Navy? Where where the heroes?
That's one of the things I've not liked about published settings over the years - the constant changing and updating, advancing the timeline, etc. I totally understand why it happens, from a product development and marketing standpoint, but it can be frustrating because the idea, once I buy the setting, is that I'm going to use it the way I want to in my campaign, so what ends up happening in my version of that world is never going to match up with the published stuff that comes after my initial purchase. Anyway - that's a long way of saying I can empathize with you!
@@daddyrolleda1 Well put, my friend. I suppose I could have just ignored everything that came after the initial world setting was published, but it's interesting to see where the authors are taking things, too. I just would have wished they treated this little section of the world with more care, or at least explained how something so improbable could have happened.
Great video again. With the coming of Forgotten Realms a lot of the older campaign settings fell a little by the wayside in my opinion. Greyhawk wasn't a huge part of my games, as my original DM made his own setting, but it's really interesting to see how it all came together over time.
Thanks for watching and commenting!
Yeah, first Dragonlance, then Forgotten Realms, both kind of pushed Greyhawk to the side, and things of course got worse after Gygax left the company. The Forgotten Realms, also, really seemed to resonate with folks. I think there are a lot of reasons why, but for whatever reason, anybody new to the game now is being introduced to it via the Realms, and I suspect most have never even heard of Greyhawk!
Your videos are so informative criminally underrated. These videos are going to help players and DMs for generations to come
That is a really huge compliment and I appreciate that very much. I'm very glad you found my channel and are enjoying my videos. Thank you.
Thanks for showing us the details of the map!
You're welcome! It's so huge that it's difficult to fit into the camera but I tried to show a few different parts.
Thank you for watching and commenting!
Id like to know more about the origins of the FOrgotten Realms and how that replaced Greyhawk as the default official setting.
I can add that to my list. You will hear a bit more about that in my follow-up video to this one, on the origin of Early TTRPG Settings: czcams.com/video/Rrbei_hxDnQ/video.htmlsi=URkHYf1FdE4pc4cm
Thanks for watching and commenting!
I really appreciate the overview. I got into RPGs later in life and love seeing the old modules!
I'm so glad to hear that! Thank you for letting me know. I really appreciate you watching and commenting.
I got this, and used it. When I first incorporated it, I had had these 12 brothers (based on Roger Zelazny's work) who had walked The Pattern. My brother's two characters (ranger and elven F/MU) had run afoul of an evil brother. They had to run from one of them and ended up in the World of Greyhawk. Brother #12 (Chaotic Good) was the wizard in the gap (Valley of the Mage or something). Loads of fun. In college, my characters took over most of the Phosphorescent Forest (about the size of S. Carolina)
That sounds like a fun game! Thank you for sharing!
I had the box set… the Darlene Map….. so good.
Totally agree! As you saw in the video, I have two sets of maps and I'm strongly considering getting one framed. I just don't know where I'd hang them as my office is pretty much full on every wall with floor-to-ceiling bookshelves!
@@daddyrolleda1 such problems!
Another great video! I wasn't a huge Greyhawk guy back in the day so it is really fun to see all the history and where things came from.
Thank you so much, as always, for watching and commenting!
I'm kind of surprised - I know you use a lot (all?) of the Greyhawk deities in your campaigns now, so I assumed that was a holdover from your younger days. Did that happen instead because they were part of the 3E PHB?
This is the best thing I ever saw.
I'm so glad to hear that! Thank you for watching and commenting, and I'm happy you enjoyed the video.
Great video. Correct, David Wesley created the concept of table-top roleplaying in gaming. Indirectly, all games with roleplaying elements (video game or table-top) exist because of his original idea. I did a similar video on my channel several years back. Cheers!
Thank you for watching and commenting. I appreciate it!
I'll go check out your video now. Thanks again.
Highly interesting. Never heard of Dave Weasley? It's interesting to know where Arneson got the idea of individual play from. How that inspired him to really create RPG'S as we know them today.
There's a very old story in this industry that settings that says basically gygax kind of stole a lot of artisans ideas and claimed they were his own. And then proceeded to create dungeons and dragons.
The history you bring on this channel makes me wonder how true some of these things are.
There's a tiny bit more about Dave Wesely in my next video on the history of Early TTRPG Settings.
When I was first getting into the hobby, the corporate line, and what you saw on the news, is that Gary Gygax created D&D "out of nowhere" on his own. Arneson wasn't really mentioned.
The truth is much more complicated. D&D certainly wouldn't exist the way we know it without Gygax, but neither would it exist without Arneson. They came together to produce something that was new, but was based on an evolution of the games both were already playing. It's the evolution that I think is really interesting, but it's also complicated because it's much more difficult to explain than simply saying, "Gary Gygax created D&D in 1974" which is easier to understand.
Without Arneson, there's no D&D. But without Dave Wesely having read Strategos (from 1880) and working with the other gamers in the Twin Cities to take those rule and re-write them to make them easier to use and understand, Arneson probably wouldn't have created Blackmoor, which he then took to Gygax for them to together create D&D.
That said, I have seen several times where ideas for later things in D&D appeared in Dragon Magazine, such as the Bard, Illusionist, and Ranger classes, all of which were originally written by other people, but which found their way into Gygax's Advanced D&D Player's Handbook with very few changes.
Gary seems to have had a talent for recognizing things that would be appealing and then packaging them in a format that people would like.
For example, Blackmoor predates Greyhawk, there's no question. But if you read Arneson's 1977 "First Fantasy Campaign" (which is Blackmoor with the name removed for legal reasons) and compare that to Gygax's 1980 "World of Greyhawk" (Folio Edition) - there's no question which one is easier to read and use to run a game in the campaign world (it's Greyhawk). The First Fantasy Campaign reads almost like a stream of conscious word dump that makes it difficult to figure out how one would use it without a lot of work.
@@daddyrolleda1 TY for the reply. I think I may posted this somewhere here I bought a t shirt from your shop. Putting this channel in amongst my favorite go to for knowledge folder along with things like AJ Pickett etc. LOVE the background info.
That is a really nice compliment, Wayne, and I really appreciate you buying one of my shirts! Thank you so much for your support. Cheers!
I had that Greyhawk map on my wall next to Middle Earth.
That's so cool! I have two sets of maps and have been considering getting one of them framed, but I haven't figured out where I would hang them! Thanks for watching and commenting!
This was like watching my early and formative years in D&D shown by another fan of the setting - the nostalgia and visuals (I'm lucky to have many of these books as well) were truly laid out well. Great video!
Thank you so much! I really appreciate you watching and then taking the time to comment. I'm so glad you enjoyed the video and it give you some positive nostalgia.
Cheers, and Happy New Year!
Remember when we travelled from Tensers Tower or something to the old west via a portal, where we met Geronimo. So weird and great. Meeting Lord Rubilar , Otiluc (is that his name?) and fighting the terrasque and Iuz, those where the the days.
Love this series. So informative and well presented! Thank you!
I really appreciate that! Thank you so much for taking time to let me know, and for watching and commenting! Cheers!
Thanks for bringing up some great memories!
I'm glad you enjoyed it! Thank you for watching and commenting!
Wow! Really cool learning about the history of Greyhawk in such a comprehensive way, thank you! And what a collection of material!
I've never really delved into Greyhawk but it's always been there in my awareness since I was getting into 2e in the early 90's and I made the choice between FR, Dragonlance and Greyhawk. I went with the Realms.
Yeah, but the time of the 2E Era, the Realms quickly became the default primary setting for the game, as it still is today. While there were tons of settings in 2E, FR was dominant and Greyhawk was moved to the back-burner (mostly after the departure of Gary Gygax from the company).
I'm really glad you enjoyed the video! Thank you!
@@daddyrolleda1 Yeah. I think that was part of the decision. I think I wanted to also go with the more or higher fantasy of those. I ended up a huge fan of FR for years so not a bad choice 😀
@@paavohirn3728 That's a great point - Forgotten Realms is definitely more "high fantasy" whereas Greyhawk adheres a little more closely to a Conan-like Sword & Sorcery aesthetic. At least, that's how I always perceived it.
@@daddyrolleda1 Yeah. I might have to look more into Greyhawk eventually.
Great video!
Thank you very much! I'm glad you enjoyed it! That was a fun one to put together, as it's one of my favorite settings.
Great video, thanks! Greyhawk has always been my go to campaign world.
Thank you for watching and commenting! I really appreciate it, and I'm very glad you enjoyed the video. Cheers!
Martin, I loved this video. The more I listen to them, the more I wish I would have gotten into D&D earlier. But it is so cool you are running the girls through the early stuff. One think I heard, that I know nothing about, but would love to hear from you is about Gary being ousted from the company. Have you gone in-depth about this in any of your other vids?
Thank you so much for the kind words. I have not delved into that subject too much other than to just briefly mention it, partially because I felt that Jon Peterson covers it pretty well in his book(s) and I didn't want to be too repetitive, but I can certainly add it to the list of potential future topics. Thanks!
Great video, sir! Thank you! 👍
Thank you so much for watching and commenting! I'm really glad you enjoyed it. Cheers!
I had a bunch of Greyhawk stuff and we played a couple of campaigns there but once we discovered Forgotten Realms and Ravenloft it was over for Greyhawk in my group. Awesome video!
Thank you so much! I'm glad you enjoyed the video and I appreciate you commenting!
I used a combo of Greyhawk and the Known World, plus the world of Conan,, to build my own campaign setting back in the mid-80's. I'm still running a version of it today!
@@daddyrolleda1 That's awesome!
Man Greyhawk is the best of the D&D settings. Would never change to Forgotten Realms.
The box art on the boxed edition I purchased was not shown; it was a gray box with a much darker tone, and if I remember correctly, an adventurer on a horse.
Thanks for watching and commenting!
Based on your description of the box color and the painting of the adventurer on the horse, it sounds like you're referring to the 1987 Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting Boxed Set: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forgotten_Realms_Campaign_Setting
@@daddyrolleda1 you'd probably know better than I; thought I had Greyhawk as well as forgotten realms. It was a long while ago. I probably misremembered.
Ah, you know, the only Greyhawk boxed set I can think of that's a gray box with an adventurer on a horse is Greyhawk Wars which I talked about here: czcams.com/video/Ek1znTOMpl4/video.htmlsi=RjAte564F4SE0p7N&t=1079
Nice job 👏
Thank you! Glad you enjoyed it!
I got the full set on eBay for a miserly £30 this year. Stunning condition. I took the enormous map to a printer and have it laminated. It’s a thing of beauty
The map is indeed a work of art. I bought the folio when it first came out. No idea where the book went but I sure as Hell still have the map !
That's awesome! I keep thinking about getting the map framed to hang in my office but I think that the size would be way too big for the wall space I have available!
Ha that's my friend Blake's work @17:42.
That's cool! And thanks for watching!
Great history lesaon thannks!
You're welcome - I appreciate your comments, and thanks for watching!
Thanks for the video. I’d like to hear more about T1 and T2: The Village of Homlett and the Temple of Elemental Evil.
I'm glad you enjoyed it! I will add that to the list of potential future video topics. Thanks so much for watching and commenting!
For years I've wondered if Blackmoor might have been named after Richie Blackmore.
That is such an interesting theory! Chronologically speaking, the timeline works out, but I've never thought of that before!
@@daddyrolleda1 We'd have to ask people who knew him at the time whether he liked Deep Purple.
@@jonothanthrace1530 I suspect Griff from Secrets of Blackmoor could get in touch with the folks he interviewed for his documentary, if he thought it was worth their time!
That's what My cousin used to hook me into a lifelong habit! 1979.
Fantastic! As I mentioned in my video, still one of my favorite settings!
Thanks! Liked, subscribed and shared!
I am so happy to hear that! Thank you so much. I really appreciate your support. Cheers!
I never really did a huge amount in Greyhawk other than some of the published modules that were set specifically in Greyhawk. However I had the boxed set and the folio and would unfold the map, join the halves and set it on the floor and lay over my bed studying and staring at it for hours it seemed.
I did the same! And my first "exposure" to Greyhawk was via the G-series of modules!
@@daddyrolleda1same for me. The very first game I ran is a DM if I remember the title correctly Against the Steering of the Hill Giant Chief.
@@WayneBraack G1: Steading of the Hill Giant Chief was the very first module published by TSR (there were other adventures that pre-dated it, but they were published by other companies, namely Wee Warriors). I actually show G1 quickly in my video at this point: czcams.com/video/Ek1znTOMpl4/video.html.
There are a lot of RPGA adventures that were set in Grey Hawk from 2000-2008 that would be cool if you could scrap a video together about that.
Thank you! I can add that to the queue for a future video. Thanks for watching and commenting!
enjoyed.
I'm glad to hear that. Thank you!
Blackmoor and Gygax's unnamed Gonzo setting both pre-dated Greyhawk.
Yes, they did. That's why I was so specific in my language at 00:20 in the video. I was specifically referring to the first setting published by TSR that was created *for* Dungeons and Dragons, (meaning, D&D already was published and the setting was made for the game by TSR, not a setting that pre-dated and/or led to the creation of the game).
I know it might sound overly specific but I have quite a few videos on early games and settings including Empire of the Petal Throne (which is a game *and* a setting) and a whole video covering the history of TTRPG settings from the 1940s to 1977) including stuff by Judges Guild, etc.
Iuz the evil is a really good expansion that is worth reading.
Thanks for the tip - I appreciate it!
I'm amazed at how well informed you are on this topic. Very cool.
Thank you very much! I really appreciate that. It partly comes from just being older and having lived through a lot of this, plus a hobby of mine has been reading books and watching documentaries about the early history of the hobby.
Thanks for watching and commenting!
@@daddyrolleda1 I keep trying to reply to your reply, but it keeps deleting my comment. No clue why 😢
@@Lightmane Oh no! I don't know why that would be happening. You can always reach me at samothdm AT gmail dot com if you need!
@@daddyrolleda1 I'll try again : )
I'm 60, and the first time I played was 1980, so I know a little bit about the game, but clearly not as much as you do. I was going to share this video, but I saw you already did, so cool : )
I think you'd enjoy my story that I wrote and then narrated on my channel. Hope you check it out and let me know what you think.
Now that I'm on my computer, and not my phone, here's hoping this comment stays up : )
@@Lightmane I'm a little younger than you, and started a year later (tail-end of 1981). I do have a weird personality quirk that once I get into something, I *really* get into it, whether it's Star Wars, comic books, vinyl/jazz, cocktails, or D&D. As a kid, I got into learning as much about the game as I could, and I've read a lot of books and watched a lot of documentaries about the history and early days of the game, which is where that knowledge comes from! Luckily I retained at least some of it, too! My memory isn't as good as it used to be.
I will definitely watch your video! Thanks for the invite!
Great video showcasing a ton of history on Greyhawk and the various products. :-) It's amazing how much stuff there was. Do you plan to cover Forgotten Realms too? I wonder if it would be fun to cover the City State of the Invincible Overlord by Judges Guild... since it was the very first published D&D setting... and approved by TSR. You can do a long video just on Judges Guild stuff, I'm sure. heh
Loving these! Please keep them coming! :-D
Thank you so much! I'm glad you liked this. This one was tough to put together because, as you saw, there's quite a bit of content from the later years I don't personally own. Part of the reason I like doing these videos is that I can show and flip-through my books for folks who may not have seem them before.
I could cover Forgotten Realms but interestingly enough, the only true Realms book I have is the 3rd Edition Campaign Setting! I've followed the setting over the years but nowhere near to the level that I'm sure other folks have.
Judges Guild stuff is fun and that's potentially a topic for a future video! I'm considering covering Blackmoor next.
@@daddyrolleda1 I'm in for any of it! :-D Whatever you want to cover is fun.
On the Forgotten Realms, some of it appeared in Dragon Magazine. I recently bought a new copy of Dragon #54 (first issue I ever owned), and one of the articles was the deities of the Forgotten Realms. A good part of the deities were either pulled directly (Loviater and Mielikki, for example) or renamed gods from Deities and Demigods.
@@jimamos7984 Dragon Magazine was my first exposure to the Realms as well! There were a lot of fun articles that predated it being an official D&D setting. The story of how that came to be purchased and used by TSR is quite fun and interesting!
@@daddyrolleda1 I remember reading the story a few months back. As far as Dragon Magazine goes, it's definitrly a good source of information for anyone playing 1 and 2E. Would also recommend the 1E DM's Guide to any DM, no matter the edition.
Will you do similar videos for other worlds? Curious to learn about how forgotten realms evolved to become the default setting
I do have an ongoing list of potential future topics, and I have added Forgotten Realms to the list. I felt like doing Greyhawk first mainly because Forgotten Realms is so ubiquitous now and every new player to the game knows of it, while many of them have never heard of Greyhawk or Blackmoor!
For a taste of Forgotten Realms and how it fits into D&D's history, you can check out my video on the History of Early TTRPG Settings: czcams.com/video/Rrbei_hxDnQ/video.htmlsi=BPnfmyBK5S2XCyKW
Thank you so much for watching and commenting!
A lot of people think that Minaria (the world of the board game Divine Right) was a campaign setting before Greyhawk because there was a lot more campaign/general information published about it before Greyhawk. (1979-ish). But if you want to look into the history of that more, it might be interesting. I could be (and am perfectly willing to be) wrong.
I definitely remember those articles about Minaria in early issues of Dragon magazine. While "Divine Right" was published in 1979 by TSR, the year before the release of the Greyhawk folio in 1980, it was technically a board war game, not a tabletop roleplaying game. While it perhaps pre-dated Greyhawk, it wasn't created for the purpose of being a setting in which to play tabletop role-playing games.
I think I've had a bit of trouble articulating my point in my two videos about early tabletop roleplaying games, but what I'm trying to convey is that while there were settings that pre-dated Dungeons & Dragons (Tékumel, Forgotten Realms, Blackmoor, etc. - perhaps even Minaria) , Greyhawk was the first setting that was made SPECIFICALLY for a tabletop roleplaying game. Tékumel was adapted to be an RPG, but Greyhawk was created by Gygax as a way to playtest the ideas that would become the game we call Dungeons & Dragons.
If Mrs. O'Leary's cow hadn't kicked the lantern that burned Chicago down in 1871, there likely would have been a very different iteration of what Chicago would become; therefore, it's quite possible that Gary Gygax would never have been born and thus would not have invented Dungeons and Dragons. Praise be to the holy bovine.
Ha - that's a funny story and a fun way to look at things. It's almost like an episode of "Connections" if you remember that old TV show. Thanks for watching and commenting - I hope you enjoyed the video.
@@daddyrolleda1 I don't. Mostly 'cause I was born in 84--in Chicago. I know what you mean though. :D Every person I grew up with, raised me, teachers, friends parents made me who I am. I wonder if I even would have gotten into Lord of the Rings and roleplaying if my dad (who doesn't do either of those things) didn't teach me how to hunt with bow and gun, fish, make a fire, survive in the wild. I could go on and on about all the people that basically inadvertently pushed me in the direction of RPGs, LARP, HEMA, SCA. I'm sure a lot of us RP nerds have similar stories.
I thought judges Guild created the first realm around the city-state of the inevitable overlord
Yes, that's why I was specific in the language I used to introduce this video as "the first commercially available published setting for D&D by TSR" - while the City-State and the Wilderness of High Fantasy by Judges Guild pre-date the publication of the Greyhawk Folio (they were published in 1976/77), as you note, they were published by Judges Guild and I was keeping my earlier videos focused on TSR publications.
However, in my follow-up video on Early TTRPG Settings, I do mention the Judges Guild stuff: czcams.com/video/Rrbei_hxDnQ/video.html
Judges Guild published Blackmoore in 1977.
Yes, they did. But it wasn't called Blackmoor due to legal rights (Blackmoor was part of the World of Greyhawk at that point; at least, the *name* Blackmoor was, if not the actual setting), so they called it "First Fantasy Campaign." I have that book, too.
But it wasn't published by TSR. I tried to be VERY specific in my introduction to the video because I know this is a contentious topic, which is why I said, "The first commercially available setting created specific for the game Dungeons and Dragons by TSR."
Some or any info on the warring factions is what I’m looking to find. I want my backstory to be consistent with the world.
If I run Greyhawk the choice always comes down to: Folio only or boxed set? If Gary’s not on the byline then I’m not using it. A common theme actually. The gray box Forgotten Realms was a good set too. Then people with no vision come along and fill in details intentionally left blank and add metaplot which is one rung below fanfic.
You should check out Tony Bath’s Hyperboria. He did a series of articles in the 1960s in one of the wargame magazine. His seminal How to Setup a Wargames Campaign came out in 1973. He also did an article(s) in the early Dragon or maybe it was the White Dwarf.
Anyhow it is generally considered the first campaign setting (used as a gaming environment).
Thanks for watching and commenting!
That's a deep reference! Bath's Hyboria is definitely an early fantasy setting developed for gaming, but "How to Setup a Wargames Campaign" is, at least to me, a set of rules for a wargame, not a roleplaying game. While things were changings rapidly at this time, and there is a bit of a hazy period between the change from wargames to the development of RPGs, having read the book, I didn't consider it to be an RPG.
Braunstein, similarly, isn't an RPG, but it could be considered a form of LARP, and it definitely had a directly influence on the creation of Blackmoor, which was responsible, at least in part, for the creation of Dungeons & Dragons. Bath seems to have had correspondence with Professor Barker (Tékumel, which was later made into the Empire of the Petal Throne RPG in 1975), so there's clearly some shared DNA.
I just had to draw the line somewhere and I chose to focus on those settings that were specifically developed for, or turned into, settings for roleplaying games.
On the cover on Tomb of horror.....why is the priest trying to nuzzle his face into the fighters crotch instead of fighting the liche? To each his own.....but there's a time and place for everything. :)
Ha! So funny - I never really thought of it that way before!
I refuse, too this day, to call it O'ith. Sorry Gary but I won't. O'rth fits the spelling better and dammit I'm not from Boston!
Crimson Jester
Yeah, I used to call it "o-erth" as well (and sometimes still slip). It wasn't until years later that I learned it was pronounced Oith.
Blackmoor was the first D&D campaign world
Blackmoor *pre-dates* D&D. I was talking very specifically about the first campaign setting that was developed *for* the game, as I mentioned in the video. A lot of folks made that mistake based purely on reading the video title and not actually watching the video.
I talk a lot more about Blackmoor and other early settings (both Empire of the Petal Throne and Forgotten Realms pre-date D&D as well) here: czcams.com/video/Rrbei_hxDnQ/video.htmlsi=T0n3eYCzaG8d2LfA
You should cover the great mystery. Did you know we virtually know nothing about the couple that wrote the First Published Module?
Pete and Judy? That could be fun, but it would be a very short video! I heard Pete had appeared at a few conventions but there isn't a lot of information out there. I don't live too far from where they started Wee Warriors.
@@daddyrolleda1 I tried to do some research on them a couple of years ago. Not a lot of info. Save the idea for a CZcams Short. They will start bugging you to put up some shorts.
@@MrRourk That's a perfect topic for a short! I know my videos are long and I've been posting some "reels" on Instagram and Twitter, but those have all been around the 2-minute mark. I think CZcams shorts are limited to 1 minute. I'll have to figure out how to do that! Thanks for the idea!
Without Greyhawk. There will be no He-man in the 80s.
Did he miss out vale of the mage or did I miss him covering it.
I didn't show a picture of it or mention it by name, but I briefly said there were more modules published in the WG series: czcams.com/video/Ek1znTOMpl4/video.htmlsi=xMD_xo40VeOcGqfJ&t=1050
There were just too many novels and modules to go over each one individually without the video being a lot longer.
@@daddyrolleda1 I got it for birthday from a aunt I was strictly forgotten realms or home brew till then it made a good impression and I then pick up city of greyhawk and liked that so stop avoiding greyhawk just in time for them to wreck it by the greyhawk wars so I skipped there time line and still use the old setting
@@alanrickett2537 Now I feel bad that I didn't put a screenshot of it and call it out! Thanks for sharing your story. I always enjoy hearing another other people's history with TTRPGs.
There were more than 2 Gord the Rogue books. Did you just mean the two Greyhawk Adventures books? There are two others after those that get really farking silly.
Sorry for the nitpick, but drow debuted in G3. Good video, just my borderline OCD kicked in.
I'm glad you liked the rest of the video! Thanks for watching and commenting, and for catching that error. I appreciate it!
Domesday is pronounced “Doomsday”. It’s a real actual book. A historical population and economic survey of england and wales in the 1080s.
I was aware it was an actual book and of its purpose, but I honestly had no idea how to pronounce it! Thank you so much for letting me know for the future. Cheers!
Oi!
The 1st is Blackmoor.
Thanks for commenting.
When you get a chance to watch the video, you'll note in the very first part of the video, I say that I'm talking about the first setting that was created specifically for Dungeons & Dragons. Blackmoor of course pre-dates Dungeons & Dragons and was its own game and its own setting that then inspired the creation of D&D. I do mention Braunstein and Blackmoor in this video.
You may also find my latest video on Early TTRPG Campaign Settings interesting. I discuss Blackmoor in more detail.
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