The World of Greyhawk Fantasy World Setting
| The World of Greyhawk Fantasy World Setting | |
| Type: | Campaign setting (folio) |
|---|---|
| Edition: | AD&D 1e |
| Author(s): | Gary Gygax |
| Editor(s): | Allen Hammack |
| Publisher: | TSR |
| Pages: | 32 |
| ISBN: | 0-935696-23-7 |
| Class: | Canon |
The World of Greyhawk Fantasy World Setting is the original World of Greyhawk campaign setting sourcebook, released in 1980 and written by Dungeons & Dragons creator Gary Gygax. It was the first published sourcebook to describe the campaign setting in detail.
It is commonly known among fans as the Folio. An expanded version was released in 1983 known as the World of Greyhawk Fantasy Game Setting.
Content
The The World of Greyhawk Fantasy World Setting is a 32-page sourcebook describing the Flanaess, a continent on the planet of Oerth, and the people who live there.
It begins by describing rules for rate of travel overland, the calendars of the Flanaess, and its climate and seasons. A few pages are dedicated to a summary of its history, from with its settlement by Flan tribes over 1,000 years ago to the year 576 CY, and maps thereof, including the paths taken during the Great Migrations. It also describes the major languages spoken.
The largest section dedicates 11½ pages to describing the various political divisions of the Flanaess: its kingdoms, baronies and so forth. Only a relatively small amount of information is given on each kingdom. One notable omission is the name of the rulers of each realm.
Nine pages are dedicated to various natural features such as rivers, mountains, and forests. One page describes various orders of knighthood and the precedence of royal and noble titles.
Finally, there are four pages of runes, symbols which might appear on ancient maps and so on. The final page also includes an advertisement for Gen Con. The front and back covers are decorated with the
One of the most notable inclusions was the Darlene Map, a definitive map of the World of Greyhawk created by Darlene (then known as Darlene Pekul). This full-color fold-out map is 34" by 44" (86 cm by 112 cm), and served as the basis of all future World of Greyhawk maps.
Development and release
Origin
The World of Greyhawk originated from Gary Gygax's home D&D campaign, which was based around his Castle Greyhawk megadungeon. Originally, Gygax's world was based heavily on real-world Earth, with the City of Greyhawk located approximately at Chicago and Dyvers near Milwaukee.[1]
Gygax was surprised when TSR asked him to produce his setting as a product, as he had assumed that most DMs would enjoy creating their own settings.[2]
Development
Wary of disclosing too much of his setting to existing players in his home Greyhawk campaign, Gygax decided to create an all-new world instead. This new world was to be called Aerth, and the continent Oerik.[1]
Gygax spent a number of weeks hand-drawing an all-new world map, based on the largest size TSR was able to print. He named the various locations, then wrote up a brief description of the various realms and geographic features. While the Folio was inspired by his home campaign, he made many changes to fit the new map and avoid revealing too much information to players in his home campaign.[2]
In all, around 90% of the Folio map was invented new for the product, with only the City of Greyhawk and environs remaining from his original home campaign.[3] Following the completion of the manuscript, Gygax then moved his home campaign to the new setting.[1]
Gygax intentionally left much of the world undefined, expecting that DMs would fill in the blanks with their own campaigns.[4] The weather tables drew from a friend of Frank Mentzer, and tended toward warmer climates as Gygax personally preferred a more Mediterranean climate; although he would later admit that he never actually used the tables in his own campaigns.[5]
Release=
Gygax planned to release further products, short booklets detailing various states and regions for use in individual campaigns, as well as a second boxed set to complete the world. These would ultimately not come to fruition.[7][8]
Reception and influence
See also
External links
- World of Greyhawk Fantasy Game Setting at Wikipedia
- World of Greyhawk at the Acaceum
Bibliography
- Gygax, Gary. The World of Greyhawk Fantasy World Setting. Lake Geneva, WI: TSR, 1980 (ISBN 0-935696-23-7). TSR9025
References
Citations
- ↑ a b c Q&A with Gary Gygax, page 274. ENWorld, Jun 4, 2006.
- ↑ a b Q&A with Gary Gygax, page 83. ENWorld, Nov 5, 2003.
- ↑ Q&A with Gary Gygax, page 413. ENWorld, Oct 15, 2007.
- ↑ Q&A with Gary Gygax, page 249. ENWorld, Oct 31, 2005.
- ↑ Q&A with Gary Gygax, page 100. ENWorld, Feb 29, 2004.
- ↑ World of Greyhawk at the Acaceum.
- ↑ Q&A with Gary Gygax, page 369. ENWorld, Apr 26, 2007.
- ↑ Q&A with Gary Gygax, page 411. ENWorld, Oct 11, 2007.
Encyclopedia Greyhawkania Index
The Encyclopedia Greyhawkania Index (EGI) is based on previous work of Jason Zavoda through '08, continued by numerous other fans. The EGI article has a list of sources, product names, abbreviations, and a link to the full, downloadable index.
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