Maps of the Flanaess over the years
The new Dungeon Masters guide is going to include a poster map with a map of the Flanaess on one side and a map of he City of Greyhawk on the other. A teaser for the new map was just revealed, and it’s made by Mike Schley, this is but the latest of a number of maps of the Flanaess by TSR, WotC, and of course fans. Let’s have a brief look at the different maps, and what they tell us about the setting itself.
Due to copyright I’m only going to post low resolution versions of the maps as a guide, for full versions, I refer you to the products or creator.
The Great Kingdom
The roots of the Greyhawk setting ca be found in the Great Kingdom map from 1971 published in the Doomsday Book Fanzine #9
This map is already familiar to Greyhawk fans, Dry Steppes, Sea of Dust and the Lake of Unknown Depths (called Nir Dyv at this time) are present. The Layout of the mountains separating the western parts from the eastern Great Kingdom is somewhat already resembling the ranges we see much later on the published maps.
As the Castles & Crusades Society was established a more detailed version of the Great Kingdom map evolved.
The geography hasn’t changed much but lots of new names have appeared, most of them very familiar to Greyhawk players. Gary Gygax created and claimed the Principality of Walworth north of Nir Dyv, what would later become the Shield Lands with a Walworth province still part of it.
The Setting Takes Shape
As part of the work getting the Greyhawk setting ready for publication was to create a proper setting map. A sketch map was made and circulated among TSR staff and friends of Gary Gygax, and I have scanned Len Lakofka’s old copy of the map.
Now for the first time we have a map that every Greyhawk fan recognizes and are familiar with. Some of the names and places have been slightly altered or moved, like Rinton which became Rinloru on the published map, and Loreltarma which was moved from the northern coast of Lendore Isle to the southern.
The Darlene Map
In 1980 the Greyhawk Folio was published and with it came the 2-part poster map made by Darlene, which have rightly become fantasy cartography legend. It was one of the first fantasy setting maps and a great piece of art, with beautiful calligraphy and striking colors.
The style of the Darlene map was probably inspired by the Outdoor Survival board game by Avalon Hill published in 1972.
The Darlene map was reprinted again both for the 1983 boxes set, and From the Ashes in 1992, but tis time with blue borders instead of white.
The Saga of Old City and Artifact of Evil by Gary Gygax has a Flanaess map probably made by Clyde Caldwell depicting Gords journey across the Flanaess.
WotC Takes Over
After WotC acquires TSR in 1997 a new series of Greyhawk content was published and with it came new maps. A series of maps including a Flanaess map made by Sam Wood was included.
Third Edition D&D was launched in 2000 and with Greyhawk as the standard setting, and we got a new look at the setting in the D&D Gazetteer with a map by Dennis Kauth and Rob Lazzaretti.
This map was the first Flanaess map published that is based on a post war Flanaess without the Great Kingdom.
PaizoHawk
In the mid 90’s TSR announced an Atlas of the Flanaess that was never published, probably due to TSR’s failing finances. A decade later Paizo was the publisher of Dragon and Dungeon magazines. In 2005 a 4-part poster map was published in Dungeon #118-#121, it was made by Rob Lazzaretti and was hailed as the most detailed Greyhawk map ever published. That is still true, if you don’t count fan made maps.
It was a great new take on the setting and would be the last published Flanaess map, until the new DMG comes out.
D&D 2024
In the new DMG coming out later this year Greyhawk will be given a chapter and a new poster map, made by Mike Schley. It seems to be a reboot of the setting with some changes, but the cartography is solid, despite a bit overdone labeling. The labels might be for the low-resolution preview only, its too early to tell.
This was a quick overview of publication history of Flanaess maps. Jay Scott and me will discuss this topic on the Legends & Lore Show on the LordGosumba Twitch tomorrow Wednesday the 26th @7pm EDT. twitch.tv/lordgosumba
Here comes a very quick GIS Flanaess map created using orthographic projection, maybe we should call is Oerthographic projection 😉
The Scale is 1:16,000,000 and I added the metropolises as well. The icon shading is overdone and should be reduced for a better look, but this map is about testing the feasibility and to see how difficult it is to set up a new map in GIS. This map took me a couple of hours plus some extra time dithering on the icons, and with a style set already made making a new version of this would be very straight forward.
I wasn't sure ortho would work for a map covering the whole Flanaess, but to my surprise it does. For a DM reference map I think it would work. For a stylish fantasy map I need to find a better projection, WGS 84 that I use as a standard is bit to squished N-S, so I need to look into others to find the best that looks like we are used to.
Two grids on this one as well, a black 5 degree georeference grid, and a 500 mile white square distance grid. There is a slight discrepancy between the scale bar and the white grid. This is due to them being calculated using different methods and uses different averages from the map. This map is not detailed enough for that to really matter, if you need more precision, use a better map!
I think it proves the potential of using GIS to create a multitude of maps at various sizes, scales and for different purposes. I'm creating a number CRS's (Coordinate Reference Systems) to go along with my GIS data. Ortho CRS's for setting, regional and country maps, that will be distributed with the Geopackage files containing the map data. The first set of map files will be available in a couple of months, when I have entered all the data.
You can get this map here (5.5MB): https://annabmeyer.com/Downloads/GIS/GIS%20Test%20Map%20-%20Flanaess.jpg
It’s not every day we get a new Flanaess map, end an “official” one is even rarer, the Paizohawk map from over 20 years ago are the last one, I think. So today is a special day indeed. I’ve only had a couple of hours to study it, so these are just some initial thoughts.
The cartography looks like Mike Schley did it, it’s very stylish and looks like it belongs in a fantasy world. It appears very simple, but looks can be a bit deceiving, this map is way more detailed than earlier official Flanaess maps. Look at the coastlines and compare them to the Darlene map and you know what I’m talking about. Also, those coastlines look familiar, Mr. Schley has done an excellent job on those...
Labels for cities and towns seem to have been done with the map, because they look great and like they belong there. The rest of the labels, meaning all the other ones, are a different story. I don’t know who did it, and that is probably best. Most likely a quick and dirty job by the marketing department to make sure they stand out like sore thumbs.
Oceans have bands of color, and the hexes are still there, but in a more subdued fashion this time. The preview image has dotted lines to seem to indicate a page layout, or just lines to indicate where the map is going to be folded. An 8-page spread map isn’t bad, might be a pretty substantial size to this one.
Geography-wise it’s all what we could expect and are used to, very little news there as far as I can see right away. One change, Prymp has moved a bit more east to the little peninsula that offers a better natural harbor. This move is on my to do list for my campaign map, great work Mike!
On the political side we have a series of expected changes that I like, the barbarians in the northwest are now the Chakyik and the Wegwuir, an improvement that these names are used on the map. Scarlet Brotherhood is now more properly named Shar. Blackmoor is now Arn, interesting and a neat homage. I like Blackmoor and will keep the name in my campaign I think but there are probably good IP reasons behind the change.
Joe Bloch cover this and more in his great video about this map: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VxoXH4JFnZc
Hats off to Mike Schley (if he is the cartographer) for a job well done. Minus points to whoever took over and did the labeling, please get someone with s bit more stylish sense.
You can download the map here: https://www.enworld.org/attachments/d18b9a566830e9c1215c662599e141cc-png.367815/
Finally, after a journey or about five years of learning, planning, testing and many hundreds of hours of data entry, its finally time to show a first preview of the new generation of Flanaess GIS based maps.
First out is a look at the Pomarj on a 13 inch x 18 inch map in scale 1:2,000,000. This map is primarily intended to be used digitally with a resolution of 300 dpi and labels that are a bit too small for printing. The purpose here is to make sure all the bits and pieces are working and can be made into a proper map.
There are still things missing here like river names, area labels and political names which are in the process of being added. Each of these layers have special settings that can be a bit complicated, so I want to do them one type at a time to keep my skills sharp.
When I started planning a GIS conversion of my Greyhawk map, my main worry was that the map would not look good. I saw all these simple pure vector maps that didn’t look suited for fantasy at all, thankfully things turned out quite differently. GIS software and the power of computers have developed a lot, making it possible to create truly inspiring maps. This new generation of my old maps is an improvement not only in the features it can offer, but also in how it looks.
Let’s look at the features of the map. It comes with two different grids, a black geographic grid with a line for each degree of latitude and longitude. This grid is used to locate things and keep track of directions. The projection is Orthographic with minimal distortion, but the directions vary across the map which the black grid shows. The white grid is there to help you keep track of distances, and I made three different versions of this map, each with a different white distance grid, a 100 miles square grid, a 30-mile hex grid and a 12-mile hex grid.
Which of these white grids you prefer depends on your use case. 12-mile hexes for those of you who use that for your hex-crawls, 30-mile hexes for those of you who want to stay old school and 100 miles squares for those who want a more clutter free map and still have a measuring grid. I opted out of numbering the hexes for several reasons, it is a lot of work, and adds a lot of clutter. Hex numbers are used for finding things, but now you can use coordinates which are easier, and can be more precise and work across different maps without hassle. Setting up a global hex reference numbering is a use undertaking, and redundant. An interesting alternative is to use what3words for geolocations. It is really cool and kind of fantasy-like, but it doesn’t work on printed maps, so lat. long. reference seems to be a better way to do it.
The roads also have little pick tick marks to tell distances. Small ticks every 5 miles and a bigger tick every 50 miles. These are a bit too small, and I’m going to make them bigger but if you look carefully, you can see them. Thanks to GIS they are now accurate and show the true (horizontal) distance along the road.
You can download the maps here: https://annabmeyer.com/Downloads/GIS/Test%20Map%201%20-%20Pomarj.zip
This was a first look, more to come soon!
This series of maps comes with a BIG caveat, they are a VERY crude first draft. More of an attempt to see how I can go about tackle how the Flanaess came to end up where it did than an answer to that question. Now with that out of the way lest go back in history several thousands of years to try and see what The Flanaess could have looked like.
Map 1 - The First Suel Empire
The first human empire rose in the far north during Oerth's last warm period. A seafaring culture created a network of cities bustling with trade and innovation, exploration and resource extraction was widespread.
The Yorodhi, a people that would later split into the Bakluni, Oerid and others later forgotten in the east lived in the less fertile hotter southern shores and inland. They were mostly semi nomadic herders, and, in some places, they settled and trade towns along the Suel lands was established. These were calm and peaceful times. The climate was warmer and more humid than the Oerth we recognize today, and the oceans were much higher, splitting Oerik into several smaller continents. This meant that a lot of other folks that will play a vital part in the story are isolated on the center island of will become Oerik. Both the Yorodhi and the Suel began to raid these lands to take Orcs, Golls and others as slaves, a practice what would be important later.
In the east we find a Flanaess much smaller and largely a huge archipelago with two main actors running the show, the elves, and the Flan. The elves had a huge realm in the west, reaching from what would be the Vesve to the Southern Crystalmists. In the east there were two elven realms. One in what would become the Adri and was at this time a subtropical oceanside forest, and another on the Spindrift Lendore Isles.
The Flan roamed most of the rest of the Flanaess, from nomads to settled folks organizing around those who knew when and where the grazing was good to those who knew how to craft and wield the new wonder materials being invented and learned from the Elves and the Suel. Flan contacts with both the elves and the Suel was peaceful for the most part. Population levels where low and land was plentiful so very little reason for conflict, better to move when threatened.
The Suel brought the first Orc, Goblins, and other humanoids as slaves, bringing the first of these folks that would later play big parts in shaping the subcontinents. Runaway Orcs from the Suel settlements around the White Fanged Bay would later create Garel Enkdal, probably the first orc settlement in the Flanaess.
In the South the Olmans are spread out remnants of a culture that thrived in previous colder times. The Olmans are not a big part of the story now, but their time will come later, as one of oldest human cultures on the planet they are survivors.
Map 2 – End of the Warm Age
After many centuries of a warm Oerth cooler times are coming, with the change comes both opportunity and peril. Lands become more plentiful as the oceans recede, and a cooler planet offers more bountiful crops and pastures. Peril comes as well, to find and gather the riches you often had to migrate to new lands. The main victims of this were the Suel whose northerly empire now literary disappeared under ice and snow. An organized culture wide migration south was ordered and took place almost unanimously across the empire, it pays to be well organized at times.
The Yorodhi lands to the south the influx of Suel that often-had better knowledge and resources led to conflicts. To add to the problems in the west the shallow gap that kept the humanoids at bay disappeared and opportunistic Orcs, Goblins and others made good use of the changes with raiding eastwards.
The western threat lead to a need for the Sul and Yorodhi to cooperate, which soon turned out to be a good way to defend themselves. Yorodhi in the east where not impressed by tis and saw the Suel more and more as intruders and conflict broke out. This was the decisive moment where the Yorodhi started to split into what we today know as the Oeridians and the Baklunish. The western Yorodhi cooperated with the Suel and would later either blend in with the western Suel or migrate east as the Oerdian.
The Eastern Yorodhi descended into warlordism, feuding and conflict with the invading Suel. This is the first in what would be the most devastating conflict, so far, in the history of Oerth. Suel explorers had found a high plateau in the south, high up to be temperate and watered by rich meltwater from the surrounding mountains. Very defendable and large enough to hold a large population, the orders went out to set up a new empire on the plateau.
Not all Suel heard or followed the call. In the west most Suel was needed to defend cities and lands still very habitable, and with the help of the Oerids life was manageable. In the east a series of settlements was so far away that the message, if it ever came, was too late and the Suel in the northeast had an easier way to warmer lands in the south. The western Solnor is warm and habitable, and an eastern form of Suel culture was starting to take shape no longer under the gaze and spell of the old empire.
The elves noted that the climate was cooling, and Suel challenged them over the southern Crystalmists, so the elves retreated north. The Flan got along surprisingly well with the Suel in the north and the first settlements of Blackmoor and Kelten became a mix of Suel Flan culture. Both places had to be abandoned later due to the oncoming cold, but their mixed traditions held on into the future. The Orcs and other humanoids at Garel Enkdal either moved south or dug deep and survived. The Suel realms of the Thillonrian and islands in the northern Solnor was established at this time.
Flan culture was on the rise, more lands and more fertile lands meant that populations numbers grew and contact with the Suel and the elves gave them knowledge. The first true Flan realms where created at this time, names like Sulm, Ithar and others are emerging at this time.
The Olman also benefitted from the cooling climate and newly exposed landmasses. Old connections were reestablished, and new ones were made, a renaissance for Olman society.
Map 3 – Cold Age Peak
Oerth is now a much colder and drier place, and the Flanaess is both largely covered in, and isolated by, snow and ice. The Flan retreated south on the vast expanses of new land available to settle, all thanks to the record low ocean levels. Both Flan and elven societies thrive, and the first true Flan rulers and kings hold court.
The newfound highs soon have its first backlash, greedy rulers who want more power and keep it for longer. The ability to harness undeath becomes their way to do so, an old Suel tradition has gotten a Flan upgrade.
The diverse scene of chaos that has always been Olman society has grown rapidly and a shift between north and south is emerging, the Touv are coming onto the stage of history. In the east the newly formed Suel communities are suffering but holding on to their lands even on the fringes of the Thillonrian.
On their newly settled plateau the reformed Suel Empire is taking shape, weak and wounded now but it only takes a century before the industrious and disciplined Suel are on track to greatness once again. Two other remnants of the old Suel empire remain, one in the west guarding one of their biggest cities, Lankhmar, and one on the Gulf of Ghayar estuary. Lankhmar and its surrounding lands will soon be run by a Suel – Western Yorodhi blended culture of defenders determined to hold against marauding humanoids. The Suel remnants at the mouth of the Ghayar are soon absorbed into Oeridian society and forgotten.
The Baklunish build a new capital in Kanak on an island in Lake Udrukankar. The land is dry but provides a steady supply of water and the surrounding mountains provides timber and metals needed to build the best Bakluni realm the world have ever seen. Their perceived victory over the Suel that they made flee have given them a newfound pride in themselves. Both the Suel and the Bakluni are now harsh societies that make use of slavery and mercenaries, this means that weak humanoids are forced to serve as slaves, stronger ones are employed as mercenaries.
Map 4 – End of the Cold Age
This is the age of Flan culture, the age of Ehlissa, Vecna, Acererak, Woe, the height of the Flan. Vecna’s Empire is soon the most powerful realm the Flanaess had seen to date. In the east Queen Ehlissa rules with a much gentler hand, and the brutality of Vecna’s reign will soon come back to haunt the Flan in the next era.
The elves consolidate and endure, making sure to survive against Vecna and his thugs, using their best weapon, time. In a century or two most human enemies will perish, and the few that linger on to be dealt with using other means. Those other means are a topic for another day when I cover all the ones left out of this very incomplete first look, like Dwarfs, Gnomes, Dragons, Aboleths, Drow and many more.
Olmans have peaked and are yet again busy moving further inland away from rising sea levels. Long term institutional and cultural memory seems to elude the Olmans. Maybe having long lived elven neighbors can be handy at times. The Flan seems to plan ahead with much more foresight than the Olmans are able to muster.
The Suel Empire is now established, and even a mentioning of the old empire and the flight from the north and Baklunish a few centuries ago are on the pain of death. This is the time of the Suel and their might, the Baklunish in the north are managed and the disorganized Olman neighbors are simpletons that can be coerced, bribed or worse to do the biddings of the Suel. With a secure coast, plans were drawn up for future widespread expansion. The plans where never going to be implemented, history, ambition, and the ill-tempered planet itself was going to see to that in the next chapter.
In the northern Solnor the Suel descendants are keeping up their ancestors’ traditions as sailors, fishermen and whalers. The rich waters of the Solnor provides well and the new colonies on the northern Mentzeri islands are now established and their eyes are yet again looking north for new lands to settle as the world get warmer.
A distinct proud and ambitious new era was brooding in the Baklunish realm north of the Sulhaout Mountains. Being a stable society with a history they where proud of made them feel like winners for the first time. The humanoid menace from the Tyurzi foothills was manageable and, in some ways, even usable, slaves and mercenaries needed to come from somewhere.
The Oeridians where now truly its own society separated from the Bakluni, centered around the Gulf of Ghayar. The Oeridians at this time where still a society which valued moderation, compromise and trying to make reasonable political decisions. They would gain their imperial instincts later than their neighbors, but surpass them all in ambition, vanity, and success.
In the west the Suel-Yorodhi had become a merged society with a new culture of interdependence, trust and cooperation in harsh conditions.
The peak of the cold Age was in many ways the calm before the storm that was about come in soon.
Map 5 – Migrations Begins
A world waking up from the cold times means new opportunities opening, and first out to make use of if this was the Oeridians. Settling the northern Bakluni basin and even exploring the newly ice free Thornward gap.
The Suel began exploring east around the Jeklea Bay and ruthlessly confronted the Olmans who retreated inland, or fled across the ocean rather than putting on a fight. This would lead to the creation of places like Sasserine, Port Toli and Monmurg later on.
The Flan in the west was under the spell and whip of Vecna, which meant that most of the population was to scared to even raise the alarm that strangers in the north was starting to roam the countryside. The arriving Oeridians quickly found a group of eager allies, the enemies of Vecna who had been living in destitution on the fringes of Flan society for a long time. They saw hope and a future with the newcomers. The early Oeridians where unafraid of the Vecna’s thugs, being well trained and equipped, and many of them where veterans of war in the humanoids in the west.
Oeridian diplomacy even worked with the elves who also saw the newcomers as an opportunity, and a first acceptance of passage was established in Mitrik, a newly created settlement housing Flan refugees and Oeridian settlers. This agreement would later lead to the creation of Veluna, Furyondy and even Highfolk, a testament to the early diplomacy between unlikely allies.
New lands and all the opportunities that these first explorers related back to the west started a new movement in Oeridian society. Squabbily and warlike humanoids in the west, and Baklunish in the south who sounded more and more like imperial overlords. New lands ad opportunities in the west gave new hope and energy.
The Olmans at the time showed very little outwards ambition, being occupied with internal squabbles, Yian-Ti incursions, and various cult activities. The Touv on the other hand was busy exploring Southern Solnor, sending fleets of ships with people to settle on Ana-Keris in the south and Mentzeri in the east. Optimism and the promise of prosperous lives in new lands and few enemies made the Touv rise to new heights.
The Thillonrian Suel was also experiencing a golden age of exploration and growth. The thawing lands offered more and more each year, and vast new lands in the Northern Solnor was found. This gave a spark to the now hardened seafarers.
Stability was also the order of the day in the far west. With a secure hold on their center island, they kept hold of the lands along the major rivers inland and slowly expanded north as the temperatures rose. Carefully managed their borders and became very adapt at building and using defenses.
Map 6 – Cataclysms
A warming world can be a boon when it means you can make use of lands that was previously too cold. There where plenty of that going around, the Flan was busy resettle the north and a culture of nomadism and herding was re-emerging. Settled farming had become almost ubiquitous during the reign of Vecna in the west, who feared people that vas vagrant hard to control. In the Ehlissan east it was prosperity that almost put an end to old ways, but so much new land and not enough lords to control everything old ways was coming back. The unruly mentality of the Bandit Kingdoms was probably a product of this.
The Oeridians cut across the Flanaess on their dashing quest for new opportunities. East of the Relmor Bay they connected with the elves of the Adri and the Ehlissan Empire, and again diplomacy established at least a modicum or trust. The Ehlissan’s where the first Flan that impressed the Oerids, expansion would instead continue north and east settling the Flamni basin. Few Oeridians at the time realized that they where laying the foundations for the grandest empire the planet has ever seen.
The Suel Empire was now facing the negatives of a warming world. Living on a mesa in the tropics meant that it was getting warmer and warmer. The waters that had once been plentiful now evaporated sooner and sooner every year. Magic and storage could mitigate some but at a higher and higher cost in manpower magic and effort.
North of the Sulhaouts the situation was in many was even more dire, thankfully the Baklunish had room to move north, which started to happen. One thing that didn’t happen was letting their guard down at their southern border. Almost all Bakluni knew who their real enemy was, and they were determined to keep the Suel south of the Sulhauts. This is the time when the range got its name, a form of derogatory slur for the Suel in ancient Baklunish.
Tension rose with the temperature, and murky minds started to seek for solutions in the darkest corners of Suel power. The first strike came from the Suel Empire across a large part of the Bakluni held lands. Thankfully the Suel powers that orchestrated this magical assault concentrated it to the Bakluni settlements they knew about so the new ones in the north was spared. But the attack was enough to lay waste to a majority of the Bakluni world.
Surprisingly quickly and with the forces of the planet on their side the Bakluni counted and literary laid waste to the Suel Empire. The Bakluni Rain of Colorless Fire wiped out not only the lands of the mesa it turned it into a dustbowl surrounded by tall mountains that spewed out the ash covering most of the bowl in hundreds of feet, or more, of fine ash, making the whole area completely unlivable.
In an historic blink of an eye the Second Suel Empire perished, and most of the Baklunish lands devastated. The Suel plateau turned into the Sea of Death, and the Bakluni lands into the Dry Steppes. The Bakluni would rebuild fairly quickly again in the north and west of the basin that henceforth bare their name. The Suel reduced to a single city Lo Nakar, and the descendants who fled and more of less successfully reestablished themselves in various other places. Notably so on the Tilvanot Peninsula and the Sheldomar Valley.
Conclusions
This is a first draft at making an attempt at recreating the history that created the World of Greyhawk Setting as we know it from published and fan lore. The scenario is based on the people we know from the lore, Flan, Suel, Bakluni, Olman, Touv, Elves and their ancestors.
Lots of others of various kinds of creatures have played a role in this, and history is, in my opinion, much older than this. Humans, Humanoids and not even the elves where the first ones with intelligence, wisdom, and the ability to form societies, conquer, rule, and govern. I have ideas around that and more. Factors like evolution, planar influence, magic, and the divine shaping history.
In this I’ve also wanted to open up to include other content, like Lankhmar, that I think works well within a widened Greyhawk campaign. The lords of Lankhmar can be turned into variants of Suel Liches, and you can keep as much (or little) as you like of the lore of the Lankhmar Setting.
I hope you find this type of content as interesting to read as I like to create it, maps and worldbuilding combined with history is what I love to do more than anything else. This chapter will need to refinements, making sure I’ve properly honored lore and then its time to look beyond the common people of the Flanaess and look further back in time, place, and actors. To the time of the first gods, the time of the Wyrms, Witch Kings, and the chaos of the Fey and the first rulers from the depths..
You can get all the maps in a single zip file here (4.5MB): https://annabmeyer.com/Downloads/6%20historic%20maps-%20draft%201.zip
Credits
Thank you again for all your support, and patience, I’m in the middle of a commission for GameHole Con that taken way more time that I first thought. It was going to be a simple update to a map I did back in 2017, but due to sloppy backup standards (I’ve improved since then) I lost my source-files and need to re-create everything.
Its happening, Greyhawk is getting official attention and products again. It was a quarter of a century ago since an official Greyhawk product was released in the form of the Living Greyhawk Gazetteer in 2000. Ghosts of Saltmarsh was Greyhawk but too low key to really register. To get a Greyhawk chapter in the 2024 Dungeon Masters Guide will most likely be a milestone for the setting.
Here is a link to EN Worlds article about this: https://www.enworld.org/threads/how-does-greyhawk-fit-in-to-the-new-edition.704209/
and Gameinformer's post: https://www.gameinformer.com/2024/05/14/the-art-of-the-new-dungeons-dragons
When reading the comments this news have generated, it seems there are a large part of the community who see this mile stone as leading down the wrong path. Myself I'm causally optimistic, and at the same time bracing for the changes that will probably come to our community. Now I will try to speculate, and as a creator in this field to try to understand what it will mean for me and other creators who are making Greyhawk content.
As Greyhawk fans we have different ways to approach the setting and the products that have defined it. For me I see the World of Greyhawk more like a concept or a phenomenon that depicts a place that I know doesn't exist but I like to treat it like a real place where I love to go and adventure with friends. Pouring over old books, maps, blog posts and everything else created for the setting is like archaeology where you can't be sure what to find, but its is so much fun to connect the dots into a deeper understanding of the world of Oerth and its stories. Other Greyhawk creators I se as friends and colleagues who are sharing my joy in doing the same, and their effort helps me build my own vision of the place.
Having WotC now joining this effort I thought I would see as intrusive, but to my surprise I'm leaning more towards the positive. Many of the designers who are working on the new DMG are people I've met, some I even worked with on other projects and they are some of the best in the world at what they do. I see them as colleagues with different set of circumstances compared to myself. They have the resources to work as a team ordering art, editing and a lot more by professionals, I'm just a single person. With big publisher support also comes obligations and limitations.
WotC needs to make products that are profitable, meaning they need to reach a wide audience wide enough to offset production costs and deliver an handsome return on investment. Me in the other hand only need to please a small number of dedicated fans to hand over a small amount of money each moth to make it possible for me to work on greyhawk content instead of other things. When it comes to source material both WotC and me have access to pretty much the same source material, what we decide to include and how differs a lot since our goals varies immensely. Enough comparing myself to WotC, never thought I would even think this way but new official Greyhawk content does weird stuff to us in the community as seen around the interwebs today.
Time to try to not be a big corp sellout. Will this ruin my Greyhawk, or yours? No it shouldn't, more content (even official) just means that there are more to be inspired by. Will the the new content contradict old content? I'm sure it will in places, and a lot of the old content will be left out. Some of the new Greyhawk material will be be deliberately designed to adjust the setting to new sensibilities and ways to do things. Will Rary be gay? Its definitely a possibility, and to be honest the setting could make use of a bit more diversity in my opinion, and a bit of "secret gossip" being created can be fun. But it needs to be done with both an understanding of the setting and a respect for it. This is a delicate balance, it is impossible to please everyone.
Being more interested in the setting and its lore than the game aspect and its rules probably helps me to not getting upset each time a new edition comes around. The rules I've used have changed drastically roughly every decade I've been running Greyhawk games. I've come to the conclusion that the only way to get them the way I want them is to create my own version of them, which is very popular these days. In my defense I have to state that I started to do this several years ago, before it became popular..lol.
Greyhawk seems to spawn generations of dedicated fans each with a fixed view of what the setting is. Its kind of an irony that one of the worst things that can happen is if the new generation of Greyhawkers become as stubborn as the old, there will be a lot of hostile unnecessary arguments flying. The good about this is that it shows the love for the setting, the bad is that it also show our tendency to gatekeep and be excluding. I have left a toe in the old school gaming, a foot in the 3E era and now sliding into what feels like a parallel new school way of gaming. Another irony is that I'm very interested in politics, both real world and love to introduce the fantasy variety in my campaign. The other side of that coin is when the game and setting is being used as a tool to use against those you disagree with politically. Many of us in the community are guilty of this, me included, which we need to temper in these contentious times. There are many ways to enjoy roleplaying and Greyhawk, and my opinion is that as long as everyone involved is having fun you're doing it right. Just like a game setting is better with diversity, so is the gaming community.
I hope they are creating inspiring content for a new generation gamers, and make them more interested in Greyhawk. Old gamers who have been around sine the early days of the setting now have both a golden opportunity and a huge responsibility. We have the advantage decades to digest thousands and thousands of pages of text, maps and illustrations. To make sense of it, and in many cases contribute to it with our own creations. I see it as my job to try and do my best to welcome a new generation Greyhawk fans making the setting theirs as much as it has become mine over the years.
Of all the ways Greyhawk could have been reintroduced back in the D&D center again, presented as an example on how to world build and make your home brew content sounds very positive. As a professional Greyhawk home brewer having a DMG chapter dedicated to my passion is promising indeed. Now I need to think realistically about this, what the chapter contains might be saying I've been wrong the whole time. Horned Society might be into deviltry and those cute Tortle people are everywhere. I'm sure there will be some of these new takes I detest, but they can be ignored the same way I've ignored things I've disliked in earlier material.
There is going to be a poster map included with a setting map on one side and the city of Greyhawk map on another. Its going to be very interesting to see how they have handled this, will we get a Darlene reprint or something new. My guess is something new, and my hopes is that we will get a Fransesca Baerald take of Greyhawk. She is an amazing artist and her maps are truly works of art, it would be a great way to keep the Greyhawk publishing tradition of very artistic setting maps. This also leaves the more cartographic approach open for Greyhawk creators like myself to fill.
This move from WotC might also open up DM's Guld for Greyhawk content which will means I have to consider if I want to publish content on that platform. It is too early for me to have an opinion, I need to study their terms in more detail and wait until WotC have given us all the facts surrounding the DM's guild and Greyhawk. As things stand now probably not, I want my stuff to be used as a something Greyhawk gamers use, tweak and share which might be limited going through DM's guild, time will tell.
Another possibility is that they will change their Fan Creation Rules which are what I rely on for most of my Greyhawk content. If that becomes more restrictive that might force me to reconsider what I do and how I do things. Hopefully that is not the case, and the fact that WotC lost the OGL fight should make them stay on the open side. Releasing the new rules under Creative Commons is a good sign, but corporate short term greed might come back again and risk ruin things for us again. Lets hope that WotC have learned their lesson and realizes that a strong welcoming community of gamers and creators embracing their properties are good for both them and us in the Greyhawk community!
Now is the time to both hold WotC to their promise if an open game, and hold ourself to be open and welcome a new generation Greyhawk gamers. Tell them about all the cool stuff to see, do, learn and experience in the setting!
Here comes another post about my House Rules project, this time its a look at the d20 resolution mechanics and a characters default features. I base them on D&D5E and Level Up Advanced 5E from EN Publishing.
This post is just a first look at the very basics. There will be follow ups on all of the things covered here in more depth. I'm very new to making rules and writing them, so please bare with me as I gain experience and learn.
You can get the PDF here: https://annabmeyer.com/Downloads/rules/Core%20Rules%20First%20Look.pdf
My plans are to have a reference website with all my rules, that both my players and anyone else who want to se them can access them, as well as in PDF and markdown versions. When they are more complete and have gone through more playtesting I'm planning to have them professionally edited, but for now things are in the development phase.
Development have is jumping a bit back and forth between tings, it follows me taking on different aspects of the game I want to tweak. After a deep dive into a specific area I often come back to how to integrate into the rest of the rules. In this case it is a look at the d20 resolution and its modifiers and how a character gains these and a few of its others default features.
This morning I've been writing down ideas around how to tackle dying, resurrection, undeath and what happens to a character after its dead. I have some ideas around that that I'm now trying to put into game mechanics and making them work with my magic rules, senses and my model for fantasy physics. All this while still trying to keep it simple enough to be playable and even fun. My approach is to keep most of the dice rolling and number crunching on the players side, and the need to understand how the world works and how to resolve things more on my (the GM's) side.
My GIS project is progressing and it is time to start preparing for the presentation side of things. Greyhawk suffers from some of the same problems as our reals world, it is is planet. With that comes the impossible task of convert a spherical surface onto a flat one. Its a problem as old as cartography and numerous ways of solving this conundrum have been devised over centuries of map making. The term projection is used on the various forms of bending a planet onto a map.
Real world maps are used for things like find our way across an ocean using compass, sextant and a map. This makes certain projections preferable to keep navigational calculations consistent and simple (read: add as little to the workload as possible). For our needs as gamers understanding what the world looks like is the key feature. To help with that we need to look at what kind of map projections will do the job best.
Lets start with a look at the whole planet of Oerth. Here seen in an Equirectangular projection
This projection is the go to for creating planetary maps, it has a 2:1 aspect which makes it easy to set up in Photoshop or Illustrator to work on continental layouts. The main problem with this very simple projection is that its only accurate at the equator, and gets progressively worse the father away from the equator you get. Below is the same image in an orthographic projection, meaning it a map "as seen from space", in this case centered on Greyhawk.
Orthographic projections are accurate at the center and gets progressively worse the further away from it you go. It preserves shapes and their relations to each other well which gives a good understanding of how the geography are laid out. Ortho projections are lousy for navigation but great for understanding and visualization. Ortho maps have a major limitation and that is they can't really show the whole planet, only the side facing the center point. So for whole Oerth maps we need to look at other projections.
Most world map of Earth use a Mercator based projection which is makes a planet fit in a neat rectangle easy to print or place on a book page. Here is what Oerth look like using this type of projection.
The benefits with this type of projections are that they preserve angles locally, meaning directions like north are the same across the map. To make this possible the shape and area or the land is distorted, which you can live with when you need the map to plot your route, but gives you the wrong information about distances and local terrain relations.
To present a whole planet for gaming purposes an equal-area projection is, in my opinion, my better for this. Thankfully there are a lot of the to choose from. The shape and area of the land is much better preserved, but the latitude and longitude lines are distorted instead. My favorite among these projections are Mollweide, its large oval is beautiful and it keeps a lot of the spherical feel, shows the whole planet and gives a good understanding on the geographic layout of the world.
Eckert is another projection of this type that comes in many variants, Eckert III is in my opinion the best. Below is Oerth using Eckert III.
Natural Earth is a slightly more compact version of Eckert which might be better for certain applications.
A number of attempts to give up on the idea of preserving any property perfectly and make a compromise that simply make things "look right", which have given us the "compromise projections". Winkle Triple is one of them.
Wagner IV is another one.
They are, in my opinion, like the equal-area projections but a bit worse since they try to be a bit more "navigation friendly" which makes land a bit more distorted. This also makes them lass useful for understanding what the world looks like.
When we move in regionally and look at our corner of the world, the Flanaess and its surroundings projections change a bit. The projection of the Darlene map is unknown, or non-existent, so a bit of guesswork is needed to place the Flanaess. Luckily we have several references which gives un latitudes and in a few cases even longitudes which I've tried my best to preserve.
Below is the Flanaess seen using WGS 84 which is an Mercator based projection that is industry standard. This map is close to the Darlene map is the way we are used to see our Greyhawk. In reality the northern part is exaggerated and the land distorted.
Lets look at the Flanaess using an ortho projection centered on Greyhawk, which lies conveniently in the center. This map is great to understand how things are related to the City of Greyhawk, and the center part of free from distortion.
Lets move in a bit and look at the regions of the Flanaess referenced in Adventure Begins and the Living Greyhawk Gazetteer using the ortho projection. For regional maps like this, the ortho projection works well providing a minimal distortion in the kay area and keeps the land shape and layout right. Below is the Bitter North using an ortho projection centered on the western Wolf Nomads.
Northern Reaches centered on the eastern Cold Marches
Old Aerdy West centered on Rel Mord
Old Aerdy East centered on Rauxes
and a more zoomed out map centered on Rauxes.
Old Ferrond centered on western Furyondy.
The Sheldomar Valley
And finally the Thillonrian Peninsula
For regional and local maps ortho projection works really well, offering low distortion and high shape accuracy. Ortho maps works well by themselves. If you instead want to have the Flanaess printed on a number of small maps that can be laid side by side and match ortho doesn't work, and a Mercator projection like WGS84 works much better. The price you pay are increased distortion the farther north you go.
The projections used for real world maps are developed for viewing a 3D sphere onto a 2D surface. When you have a world and the purpose of maps are to show the geographic data you have gathered. For a fantasy world the situation is different, for starters the world doesn't exists in the sense that it can be surveyed using normal means. This means the data of the world needs to be created and then presented using cartographic standards.
Terrain tools (at least so far) works on a 2D plane which means having the 2D - 3D problem in reverse when creating terrain with the intention of making it fit a planet. Then converting it back into a 2D map again. Real world surveying is a challenging and expensive undertaking, but fantasy surveying comes with its own set och challenges as well. Information gathering from texts and fragmented maps, inadequate tools and having to work in reverse makes it both interesting and hard.
GIS is needed to develop maps that can be both printed and used digitally and work well for both uses. This means the need for both WGS84, ortho and a few other projections as well, I know I want that Oerth large poster map using the Mollweide projection!
To be able to instantly travel to another location is a staple in fantasy and the Teleport spell and other similar spells have been a staple in every edition of D&D. It has (like so many other things) being treated mainly from a game-mechanical perspective with a bit of mishaps and errors added. What if we instead looked at teleport (and similar spells) from a setting perspective, how do they work, wat limitations, dangers and quirks could we add and derive when it comes to the ways and means of magical transportation. The spells of interest usually falls under the Conjuration School, which doesn't gives us a good list of which spells that will most likely be affected by the ideas to come.
There are real world ideas for teleportation using what we know of quantum entanglement and other way out there schemes. For our purposes we only need to make it cool, reasonably easy to use and first and foremost make it fit a magical setting. I'm going to propose that there are more than one way to accomplish this, each with its own set of advantages and disadvantages.
Astral
Making use of the Astral Plane makes it possible to escape the limitations of the primal world, either in mind only which is fairly easy, or bring your body as well which requires much more of an effort (Teleport is a 7th level spell after all). The advantages are that you can reach a large part of the multiverse using this method and are not limited to places you can see or know well.
The drawbacks are that you need to either know the destination well, or have some magical means of targeting it (more on this later). Your travel can be detected and interfered with by those in the planes you need to traverse in order to get to your destination.
Ethereal
Travel using the Ethereal and ignore things like terrain and even the planet itself. It easier to master and also harder to detect at a distance for anyone not in the Ethereal Plane using magical means.
Less powerful than the Astral method, you can only reach across the prime (using the border Ethereal) or deep into the Ethereal itself. Another drawback are that traces of your journey can linger for quite sometime and can be seen and traced by those that can visit and properly sense the Ethereal.
Fey
The Feywild offers interesting and in ways powerful forms of transportation, like Tree Stride for example. It is very hard to detect and fairly easy to master, but comes with its own set of limitations. The main one is that it requires things that are somewhat connected to the Feywild, which are usually living in nature, and it requires their cooperation or at least acceptance for it to work, and it requires the creatures in both ends to be in on it. Creatures usually store memories, and can have motives and allegiances, sometime they can shift which can open up for interesting problems.
Shadow
Using the Shadowdark (Plane of Shadow) for your quick travel needs can be very convenient, shadows are found in lots of places, (usually) just a medium without an agenda. Hard to trace and even harder to detect from a distance, it is a very stealthy means of transport. It comes with risks, shadows are by their very nature fickle and can disappear as quickly as they appear. They are almost limited in what parts of the multiverse they are strong enough to be used as a mode of transport.
Elemental
Using the elemental planes to travel can be an tempting alternative to going there by normal means. Large bodies of a single element often have openings to its elemental plane, and portals to the elements can be opened using magic. A key advantage of using elemental travel is that it is very stealthy, away from the prime, astral and outer planes where most of able observers reside. Most of the elements are murky or solid (except air) which means senses are usually very limited in range.
A major problem with elemental travel is the very nature of the elements, they can be harmful, restrict breathing as so forth. Another major problem is the elements still adhere to the laws of the prime meaning travel speeds are as fast as they are on the prime. Elemental travel might be the sneakiest way around but it takes time, can be very risky and doesn't take you to large parts of the multiverse.
To know where you want to go and how to get there can be way more difficult depending on the nature of your destination, and its surroundings. The locations in the prime are easy to get to if you can see them or are intimately familiar with them. Intimately familiar means you have been there for a length of time, and crucially, you know how it relates to the place you are going from. So for a teleport to function well you need to both know where you are, and how you got here from your destination. This can be tricky if you have used magical means to get to where you are or demi planes and other forms of plans disturbances are at play.
Gates and Portals
Gates and portals are a way to overcome some of the problems reaching your destination by creating a place that have way to aid magic travels, in some cases just provide a higher degree of certainty for those who cast a teleport spell and other a permanent connection open for all to use for travel.
Gates and Portals can be very complex and require keys, special triggers like spells or only work at special times or conditions. Some of them are set to a specific destination, others can shift due to circumstances.
Forks
Planar Forks are a kind of "teleporting" key that can be set to guide you to a certain place. They are magical in nature and requires the creator to either have been to the location in question or its true name (which can be for a place as well as a creature). True names are very hard to find and understand which makes Forks very valuable and hard to create and come by.
They are magical meaning they can be detected, and they don't make the use of teleportation more stealthy.
Beacons
Like a Fork but it works at the destination and sends out its magic to guide teleporters to help them steer right. They have a range and work in a medium of some sort, like audio, smell or light in the prime. Beacons can also be way more special, working in the Ethereal, Astral, Shadow or Fey, sending pure magic, good or evil for miles around, sometime even across whole planes. This is up the the DM to create some flavorful beacons, like the Eye of Mordor for example, that has more than a single purpose.
The general rule is that the more useful a beacon is the more conspicuous it is. Beacons can be detected as far away as they are useful as a guide, often even farther away.
What happens when you miss your destination, something or someone messes with you on the way, or the destination itself is not stable enough to be there when you arrive.
Missed Destination
Magic travel is almost always inherently risky, and you might not end up where you intended with mild to catastrophic consequences. How likely this is depends on several factors like knowledge of destination and how to get there, the way you travel, magic or other forms of interference. Some forms of magic travel are riskier than others like shadow that are very shifting by nature. The current Teleport spell provides a good base table for missed destination.
Detection
The chance, or rather risk of, being detected while magically traveling doesn't have to mean anything, but it can be ruinous depending on the destination and/or purpose of the journey. The chance, range, means of detection and information obtained depends of where you travel and hoe the detection is attempted.
Here you can be both logical and a bit fantastic. Determine what kind of senses works where and then add in a bit of uncertainty, like protection spells that hides your identity but not prescence for example.
Detection can work both ways, the traveler might be able to detect attempts to actively scry for example.
Interference and Interception
This is a both the most interesting part of this discussion, but also the one that can ruin the fun of using magic transport in your game. It needs to be applied with reason and logic (fantasy logic that is). Magic forms of chase rules might work in some instances. Make sure that interception is a process that requires detection of enough information to be able to act, then some for of action, magical, sending a creature to intercept etc. Then the possibility for the Traveling party to detect the interference and maybe even avoid it or counter it. This is where you might run in to an astral dreadnaught trying to kill you, a shadow or fey monster ambushing travelers, or fiendish creatures on the lower planes always on the lookout for good smelling souls.
Sometimes it is enough to be able to slightly interfere with the magical travel and send the travelers off course instead of intercepting them. This might be a way to lessen the change for the traveler to know that someone detected their journey and influenced it.
Deception
Risky situations, detection and a hostile environment gives rise for the need to be able to deceit and fool your opponent. There are many ways this can be done, sending a decoy to se if it goes through, using teleport without sending anything and making use of illusions and enchantments to fool senses and minds of others can be used in creative ways to further your goals and provide a safer, more stealthy travel.
This was some short introductory thoughts on magical travel. I'm currently working on adjusting the existing spells to fit this way of looking at the topic, adding new spells and features to deal with the specifics. A closer look at both sensing and magic dispel will be needed, but I like a bit more depth to this. A general rule I have is that if something happens often the rules need to be simple, but if it happens rarely the rules can be more complex, and magical travel is not that common. It is also something that I see lacking in flavor so deserves more depth.
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