World of Greyhawk Fantasy Game Setting
Both publications were authored by Gary Gygax, and they were the first stand-alone offerings to provide detailed, comprehensive information regarding a D&D campaign setting.
With almost continuous play during the years 1972–1975, Gygax, and later his co-Dungeon Master (co-DM), Rob Kuntz, expanded the setting to include an entire world.
TSR intended to publish The World of Greyhawk early in 1979; the foreword by editor Allen Hammack was dated February 1979.
[4] In addition to details of geography, history, and political states mentioned above, Gygax also included the following: The first edition covers less than a quarter of the landmass of Oerth, concentrating on the eastern part of the continent of Oerik, giving only the most basic descriptions of each state; DMs were expected to elaborate on these areas in order to make them an integral part of their own individual campaigns.
I was struck by the beautiful artwork on the cover folder, bearing the arms of all the principal persons and organizations of the world.
In his review, Jeff Sieken was generally impressed, mentioning its colorful folder, the outside covers of which are "adorned with the numerous coats-of-arms of the various states, cities and factions chronicled within the gazetteer".
[2] In Kenneth W. Burke's review, he remarked that he was glad to finally have "a universal constant" in the form of an official campaign setting.
[7] Burke complained mostly about minor flaws in the work, but was particularly incensed about the use of the terms "cannibal" and "savages", assuming this was a derogatory reference directed at Africans.
He stated that the idea behind the product was "to provide a setting for a fantasy campaign, a coherent place where fantastic things could happen", and that although The World of Greyhawk was based on Gygax's own campaign, the publication "was made deliberately vague in many areas so that individual DMs could impress their own ideas and personalities upon it".
"[8] Game designer Jim Bambra found the original set "disappointing", because "there is only so much information you can cram into a 32-page booklet, particularly when covering such a large area".
[4] Gygax used TSR's Dragon magazine as a platform to update the folio edition, and from 1980 to 1983, articles on weather,[9] the peoples of Greyhawk,[10][11][12] and in-depth examinations of the various political regions appeared in its pages.
These are divided between an eighty-page booklet titled A Guide to the World of Greyhawk Setting: A Catalogue of the Land of the Flanaess, being the eastern portion of the continent of Oerik, of Oerth and a 48-page booklet titled Glossography for the Guide to the World of Greyhawk Fantasy Setting, compiled by Pluffet Smedger the Elder of the Royal University at Relmord, CY 998.
[4] According to game designer Jim Bambra, "The second edition was much larger than the first and addressed itself to making the World of Greyhawk setting a more detailed and vibrant place.
Combat statistics and specific powers for these twenty-two deities are also included, but placed in a separate appendix in the Glossography booklet.
The twelve deities of the Suel pantheon had been created by Len Lakofka, and he would subsequently publish a five-part article on them in the July–November 1984 issues of Dragon.
The booklet also contains a rewrite of David Axler's weather creation article from Dragon, although the number of tables is reduced from fourteen to ten.
[23] Hunter had some problems with the map (the two halves did not fit together well; rivers seemed to flow up into hills; deserts were too close to forests).
[citation needed] By the time the 1983 edition was published, Gygax was in Hollywood on a semi-permanent basis, approving scripts for the Saturday morning Dungeons & Dragons cartoon series and trying to land a deal for a D&D movie.
