As there are many new D&D players and the amount of existing lore for the various campaign can be a little daunting, multiple authors over on Canonfire.com put together a bunch of Postcards on the various countries of the Flaness (the World of Greyhawk) to help new DMs who want to experience the original campaign setting without getting overwhelmed.
The Postcards do not rehash or summarize the existing lore - instead they describe the type of adventures that can be run in each country. This way if you want a Viking, King Arthur, City of Thieves, or Arabian nights type adventure, the Postcards will guide you to select the best country to start your campaign in. The Postcards then provide a list of resources (supplements, books, etc) that you can use to get more information specific to the country you like best. Each Postcard is half a page so makes for quick reading.
That's pretty interesting, thanks for sharing this. I really like that people attached so many known detail sources, it must have been quite a bit of work.
You are most welcome, glad you liked it. Our goal when we put it together was to find a way to ease people new to the hobby (mostly 5e players) into all the existing lore without overwhelming them. We designed the Flanaess Postcards to be edition agnostic this way everyone can use them. The amount of existing lore is a mixed blessing for gamers -- it is great to have access to it when you want it to enhance your game, but there is so much of it that it can be difficult to find exactly what you need.
Hopefully the Postcards helps resolve this quandary. If you have any suggestions on how to improve the experience please let me know.
It took me a while to figure out that I needed to click on the dot, to get up a speech bubble thing and then click on the picture of a sealed letter, to open the postcard for that location (or use the place names on the left to bring up the speech bubble things and the sealed letters beside them to go direct to the postcards). You might want to talk to whoever made this interactive thing, to see if they could add a "Help" button, for anyone that can't figure that out.
Is there a list that shows what Greyhawk realms Ghosts of Saltmarsh and the Greyhawk adventures, from Tales from the Yawning Portal are set in?
Is there a list that shows what Greyhawk realms Ghosts of Saltmarsh and the Greyhawk adventures, from Tales from the Yawning Portal are set in?
This has been a topic of debate over the years and I don't think there is a "factual" answer of the exact location for Ghost of Saltmarsh. Keoland is the presumed location based on undocumented answers from the original writers of Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh but its not mentioned in any Greyhawk material. As for the locations in Tales from the Yawning Portal, it would depend on the exact adventure. Some have well-documented locations, others less so. Worth pointing out that some of the adventures are in different settings entirely, Dead in Thay for example is set in the Forgotten Realms, while Tomb of Horrors is in Greyhawk while others like Sunless Citadel is not set anywhere very intentionally as part of the 3e push to make adventures setting neutral.
Thanks BigLizzard.
That's a great point. Dead in Thay did jump out at me, as being a FR thing.
I have struggled a bit more with 1e and 3e material. Both eras of D&D have a generic-ness to them that works in different ways.
And there is a minor time jump with 2e, with the Greyhawk Wars thing, that means that I have to choose if I want to do Greyhawk before the wars...or after the wars. It's not quite as big a deal as the Spellplague time jump, but it's something I want to figure out for myself.
I recently got pointed to an article about using the scro (from Spelljammer) on other D&D settings. That seemed to suggest that the Greyhawk Wars would be happening around the same time as the Second Unhuman War. And, as I like Spelljammer, and would like to use the Second Unhuman War, rather than have it as a past event, I guess I would like to explore the pre-Greyhawk Wars Greyhawk...but be prepared for the Greyhawk Wars changes, so that I could do some foreshadowing stuff that ties into available adventures.
When we wrote the Postcards for each country we created them to be edition and game system agnostic. We wrote them in such a way as it describes the "feel" of the country and the types of adventures that would be a best fit for the country - based on the written publications that someone could find for Greyhawk. This way if/when the DM researches the published material they don't find something that contradicts the country feel.
The Postcards help the DM to grab adventures from any fantasy based world and have a guide on which country to place that adventure in. A lot of the published modules are generic enough to fit into Greyhawk. So if a DM has a FR module, a Mystara module or even a module from non-WotC companies, the Postcards can help the DM decide which country they would fit into.
For example, many of the Sword Coast adventures could fit in the country of Ratik. Candlekeep, being a repository of lore, could fit in Greyhawk City, Rel Astra or numerous other metropolises of the Flanaess. For Mystara you need to look no further than the controversial Isle of Dread which was originally written for the Known World but is also included in the southern seas of the Flanaess.
The flexibility and variety of the Greyhawk countries is what makes it such a great setting for DMs. There is enough lore out there for the DM to create a feel for each country, but it is light enough that you can place most modules in the Flanaess without breaking anything to make the world your own.
There is now a 145 page pdf document available that provides the kinds of adventures available in Greyhawk and the Flaness in a single document. You can find the link to the Postcard Booklet here:
Hello everyone,
As there are many new D&D players and the amount of existing lore for the various campaign can be a little daunting, multiple authors over on Canonfire.com put together a bunch of Postcards on the various countries of the Flaness (the World of Greyhawk) to help new DMs who want to experience the original campaign setting without getting overwhelmed.
The Postcards do not rehash or summarize the existing lore - instead they describe the type of adventures that can be run in each country. This way if you want a Viking, King Arthur, City of Thieves, or Arabian nights type adventure, the Postcards will guide you to select the best country to start your campaign in. The Postcards then provide a list of resources (supplements, books, etc) that you can use to get more information specific to the country you like best. Each Postcard is half a page so makes for quick reading.
If you are interested, here is the link to the interactive map: Greyhawk Postcards (canonfire.com)
Hope you find this useful. Good gaming everyone!
That's pretty interesting, thanks for sharing this. I really like that people attached so many known detail sources, it must have been quite a bit of work.
You are most welcome, glad you liked it. Our goal when we put it together was to find a way to ease people new to the hobby (mostly 5e players) into all the existing lore without overwhelming them. We designed the Flanaess Postcards to be edition agnostic this way everyone can use them. The amount of existing lore is a mixed blessing for gamers -- it is great to have access to it when you want it to enhance your game, but there is so much of it that it can be difficult to find exactly what you need.
Hopefully the Postcards helps resolve this quandary. If you have any suggestions on how to improve the experience please let me know.
Thanks for posting this Longtalos.
It took me a while to figure out that I needed to click on the dot, to get up a speech bubble thing and then click on the picture of a sealed letter, to open the postcard for that location (or use the place names on the left to bring up the speech bubble things and the sealed letters beside them to go direct to the postcards). You might want to talk to whoever made this interactive thing, to see if they could add a "Help" button, for anyone that can't figure that out.
Is there a list that shows what Greyhawk realms Ghosts of Saltmarsh and the Greyhawk adventures, from Tales from the Yawning Portal are set in?
David "Big Mac" Shepheard
Spelljammer 3E Conversion Project - Spelljammer Wiki - The Spelljammer Image Group.
(You can see more of me at the D&D forums at The Piazza.)
Thanks BigLizzard.
That's a great point. Dead in Thay did jump out at me, as being a FR thing.
I have struggled a bit more with 1e and 3e material. Both eras of D&D have a generic-ness to them that works in different ways.
And there is a minor time jump with 2e, with the Greyhawk Wars thing, that means that I have to choose if I want to do Greyhawk before the wars...or after the wars. It's not quite as big a deal as the Spellplague time jump, but it's something I want to figure out for myself.
I recently got pointed to an article about using the scro (from Spelljammer) on other D&D settings. That seemed to suggest that the Greyhawk Wars would be happening around the same time as the Second Unhuman War. And, as I like Spelljammer, and would like to use the Second Unhuman War, rather than have it as a past event, I guess I would like to explore the pre-Greyhawk Wars Greyhawk...but be prepared for the Greyhawk Wars changes, so that I could do some foreshadowing stuff that ties into available adventures.
David "Big Mac" Shepheard
Spelljammer 3E Conversion Project - Spelljammer Wiki - The Spelljammer Image Group.
(You can see more of me at the D&D forums at The Piazza.)
When we wrote the Postcards for each country we created them to be edition and game system agnostic. We wrote them in such a way as it describes the "feel" of the country and the types of adventures that would be a best fit for the country - based on the written publications that someone could find for Greyhawk. This way if/when the DM researches the published material they don't find something that contradicts the country feel.
The Postcards help the DM to grab adventures from any fantasy based world and have a guide on which country to place that adventure in. A lot of the published modules are generic enough to fit into Greyhawk. So if a DM has a FR module, a Mystara module or even a module from non-WotC companies, the Postcards can help the DM decide which country they would fit into.
For example, many of the Sword Coast adventures could fit in the country of Ratik. Candlekeep, being a repository of lore, could fit in Greyhawk City, Rel Astra or numerous other metropolises of the Flanaess. For Mystara you need to look no further than the controversial Isle of Dread which was originally written for the Known World but is also included in the southern seas of the Flanaess.
The flexibility and variety of the Greyhawk countries is what makes it such a great setting for DMs. There is enough lore out there for the DM to create a feel for each country, but it is light enough that you can place most modules in the Flanaess without breaking anything to make the world your own.
Hello everyone,
There is now a 145 page pdf document available that provides the kinds of adventures available in Greyhawk and the Flaness in a single document. You can find the link to the Postcard Booklet here:
http://www.canonfire.com/cf/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=9555
Enjoy!