1/2e grognard recently returned to D&D as DM after 25 year absence. I decided to run ToEE, and spent an inordinate number of hours trying to place it in Forgotten Realms, the campaign world I was most familiar with, with no real success. Finally, after Frank Mentzer himself pointed me to Drive-Thru RPG, I acquired the Greyhawk Campaign resources, and I've never looked back.
Unfortunately I find the PDF map cumbersome, and was wondering if anyone could point me towards a good source for a nice quality printed map.
The map I made is printer friendly, but is dated for 589CY. Unfortunately the link seems to be broken, currently. I'll PM Ceb and see if we can get it fixed.
Edit: Apparently my PMs aren't sending so perhaps Cebrion will read this. Failing that, I could email the map file directly to you Torque-Nomar if you like? Just PM me your address and it will be on the way. _________________ Kneel before me, or you shall be KNELT!
My group has played all of the published D&D campaign worlds over the years and although most of our games have been based on Krynn, I have good memories of our trips through Greyhawk.
I cannot say I like some of the more inconsistent or humorous aspects of Gygax's original conception (I like a well integrated world that is more serious and a bit more heroic), but I have a great fondness for it.
I was definitely not a fan of much of what the Greyhawk Wars resulted in (Iuz's triumph) across the Flanaess, and although the world of Oerth map satisfied for a brief moment a desire to see the rest of Oerth, I quickly found much to dislike with it (as others have said elsewhere). As a summary of my thoughts:
1) The geography of western Oerik is not (IMO) realistic or aesthetic in its coast lines (triangles and rectangles).
2) The geography of western Oerik is not (IMO) realistic in the sheer size (for purposes of fantasy campaigns on the continent or for the size of the continent for an earth sized world).
3) The geography of the world does not align with the original box set (4 great continents and 4 great oceans).
4) The geography of the world does not optimally align with Dance of Demons narrative ('from distant south, up across the moving islands, across Gonduria, across the Agitoric Ocean, and across Oerik'), Aquaria, Blackmoon Chronicles, Chainmail/Ravilla, or good fan work such as Anakeri and Antaria.
5) I am not the most current on the canon map (and don't really care at this point), but it seems like the various official maps I have seen at different times (original from Dragon Annual? and then later map from the Living Greyhawk Gazetteer?, plus additional interpretations on line) have shown a different position and slightly different shape for the land called Terra Incognito.
I have had the idea over the years to offer up my own attempt at solving these issues, but it was never a priority and if I was going to do it, I was going to meet my own minimum threshold for quality (not necessarily polished aesthetics, but a polished idea of the relation of things that I would use if I were to ever start a campaign on Oerth.
The last 2 weeks have seen me both need and have the motivation to pull together the sources I wanted and dedicate time in Paint.net to put together my concept. I would be willing to post it for the community if there is any interest. Is there a way I could post it here? The Download submission requires a link to the file somewhere else on the internet. My file isn't anywhere on the internet yet.
Soulsong, it sounds to me like you're more interested in a Gygax world map of Oerth more so than a TSR map of Oerth. I think they are different concepts.
My collected notes on it say:
Greyhawk map seems to based on a backwards Earth with the four continents of Asia, Europe, North America, Africa (per "The Gnome Cache" from "The Dragon" from 1976).
"Francois had a map of a continent and some islands to the east, and they were going to be added. The "Orient" was actually to be past them, closer to the West Coast of Oerik... Len Lakofka had an eastern continental addition as well as the Lendore Isles, so what I planned to so [clarification needed] was incorporate Francois' and Len's maps with Oerik, complete the lower continent below it, and have a real globe." [Sorry, I didn't capture my source.]
Gary Gygax, Dance of Demons, p. 402 references Gonduria, "The three had been chivvied and chased across the whole of the world. From the distant south, through the Moving islands, up and across Gonduria’s vast continent, and thence across the Agitoric Ocean to western Oerik’s shore." So here, west of Oerik is the Agitoric Ocean. [I'm not sure what he means here by "From the distant south." Does he mean from the Flaness to the distant south? Does he mean across the northern part of the backwards Africa or does he mean to place Gonduria where the alternative North America is?]
World of Greyhawk Fantasy Setting that “Oerth has four great continents and countless islands, and four great oceans and countless seas which surround these bodies of land.” (Guide, p. 4) The Solnor and Dramij Oceans appear in the original folio maps.
In Dragon 1, Gary names the Earth-counterparts as Africa, Asia, Europe, and North America. So as I can name them, those continents are Gonduria, [Francois' BMC continent], Oerik, and Aquaria. And if published Oerth is a backwards Earth, Frank's maps aren't backwards [to me based on Aquaria shoreline seeming to match with parts of California] so Aquaria is a regular-shaped North America. For the BMC, Gary says, "Francois had a map of a continent and some islands to the east, and they were going to be added. The "Orient" wes actually to be past them, closer to the West Coast of Oerik." And when Gary says, "Len Lakofka had an eastern continental addition," maybe he meant the landmass that looks like the lands in the Yarth books except that is connected and a similar landmass on the Aerth map isn't. So maybe Oerth's version isn't connected. If the BMC continent, isnt' connnected, then it's a separated vesrion of France in Asia's place, yet Francois has a comic drawing which seems to show that it's connected. But to have an Orient west of Oerik that is separate from the BCM continent, then Aquaria has to go or maybe there is a space between the BMC continent and the oriental-continent which is connected by a land bridge so we can end up with something like the BMC picturesa and the TSR Oerth map (though it is missing Aquaria so maybe Aquaria is just hidden and that's four continents).
You cannot post new topics in this forum You cannot reply to topics in this forum You cannot edit your posts in this forum You cannot delete your posts in this forum You cannot vote in polls in this forum
Canonfire! is a production of the Thursday Group in assocation with GREYtalk and Canonfire! Enterprises
