Greyhawk Core

[Falconer]

I've made a page that lists the core Greyhawk products and why I think they're relevant, and listed them in, as I think, a logical order. It's pretty self-explanatory, I think. Please take a look and give me advice. Thanks!

[geneweigel]

Maybe Dragon articles by Gygax, Kuntz and Lakofka as well. There's a lot of good "core" stuff in there too that shouldn't be missed if you're trying to recreate the not-so-reimagined Greyhawk.

[Falconer]

Which Dragon articles would you consider actually essential? I would suppose primarily the following:

Dragon 37 - The Shape of the World (Gygax)

Dragon 56 - News of the North Central Flanaess (Gygax)
Dragon 57 - Developments from Stonefist to South Province (Gygax)
Dragon 59 - The Great Kingdom and the Knights of Doom (Kuntz)
Dragon 63 - Events of the Eastern and Southern Flanaess (Kuntz)
Dragon 65 - Events of the Eastern and Southern Flanaess (Kuntz)

Dragon 86 - Presenting the Suel Pantheon (Lakofka)
Dragon 87 - Gods of the Suel Pantheon (Lakofka)
Dragon 88 - Gods of the Suel Pantheon (Lakofka)
Dragon 89 - Gods of the Suel Pantheon (Lakofka)
Dragon 92 - Gods of the Suel Pantheon (Lakofka)

I'm also going to do a small page devoted to the Gord stories, at least some of which, in my view, are surely essential. Regards.

[Scott]

falconer said:

Dragon 37 - The Shape of the World (Gygax)

Dragon 56 - News of the North Central Flanaess (Gygax)
Dragon 57 - Developments from Stonefist to South Province (Gygax)
Dragon 59 - The Great Kingdom and the Knights of Doom (Kuntz)
Dragon 63 - Events of the Eastern and Southern Flanaess (Kuntz)
Dragon 65 - Events of the Eastern and Southern Flanaess (Kuntz)

These would be definates IMO. The rest are good, but I don't know if I'd consider them essential.

[geneweigel]

I like the Gods of the Suel pantheon series they were very provocative.

Yeah, I'd include a full read of the Gord series as these may be the last remnants of the lost style.

[grodog]

Looks like a good start, Michael. I would definitely include the Gods of Greyhawk series starting in Dragon 67, for the artwork if nothing else. Gygax wrote a lot about GH in his early FtSS columns too, such as in issue #9 for example.

[Falconer]

Well, I don't really want to get carried away in listing too many products as the "core". I feel one doesn't need the illustrations from the original Dragon Magazine gods articles in order to have a pretty good feel for Greyhawk, or really the Suel gods articles at all either, though I do like them. I didn't list Land Beyond the Magic Mirror with its nifty Murlynd bits, or Tomb of Horrors, or Expedition to the Barrier Peaks, or any of Rob's Xaene work, etc. They're valid Greyhawk lore, fine for the "complete" list, just not exactly core to the big picture Gary seemed to be setting up in the published Greyhawk. (To me, that big picture is pretty well summed up by the novel Artifact of Evil.)

I know there's tons of Greyhawk minutae in Dragon Magazine, but aside from MAYBE the news/developments/events articles listed above (and the stuff reprinted in WoG), I can't really see anything in there being really essential reading.

Well, I would add the story "At Moonset the Black Cat Comes" from Dragon 100, but that would go in with the list of Gord tales. Regards.

[GT]

I would definitely include the Dragon articles on the Flanaess; and the Suel gods (just because they illustrate an inherent difference between the Suel and other pantheons). Also, MM2 has listings on Hordlings, Daemons, etc. which are integral to the outer-planar politics that are going on...