Gazetteer

I suppose it would have made a bit more sense to do this before I did the Living Greyhawk Journal entry. Ah, well. The best-laid plans of mice and men, as they say. Or does anyone still say that? Probably not; nobody reads anymore.

So why am I doing this?

Anyway, the Gazetteer was the first campaign product for 3rd edition, released even before the Monster Manual. It's a short, 32-page book with a couple of pull-out maps that give a brief overview of the default 3rd edition setting, aka Greyhawk. I'm going to start with the maps.

For some reason, two of the maps are identical, showing the same region of the Domain of Greyhawk. But first, there's a full map of the Flanaess, from Blackmoor to Hepmonaland. I can't help but compare it to the classic and rightly-famous Darlene maps from the original Greyhawk Folio (1980) and World of Greyhawk Boxed Set (1983), and this doesn't compare at all. Whereas those maps were poster-sized, this is just a fold-out on one side. The countries are all shown, as well as a few settlements, but very little detail.

The Domain of Greyhawk map (which appears twice) shows the region from Furyondy to the Cairn Hills, and the Kingdom of Celene to the Duchy of Urnst and the Bright Desert. There's more detail, along with several settlements, particularly near Greyhawk City. Frankly, there's enough here to run a long campaign without the rest of the Flanaess involved.

The fourth map is a map of the Free City of Greyhawk. It's not in color, but there are a lot of points of interest labeled within the city walls. However, none of them are identified in the booklet, so I'm starting to wonder if this map wasn't originally included in the product. Looking around eBay, it looks like these aren't the proper maps for the product; it's supposed to be a four-panel map. Well, that sucks. Still, it's what I have, so I guess it will have to do.

Alright, I'll move on to the booklet itself. As I said, it's 32 pages. The first page is just the Table of Contents, which identifies five chapters. The first chapter is just one page, which includes the Greyhawk calendar and mentions the climate and seasons of the Flanaess,

The second chapter gives a brief overview of the history of the Flanaess, starting with the Suel and Baklunish wars of a long time ago. Although, I thought it was more than a thousand years; that seems rather recent for a pair of cataclysmic events that reshaped the land. The Great Kingdom of Aerdy gets a few paragraphs, as does the rise of Iuz the Evil. After that comes the buildup to and the events of the Greyhawk Wars (recounted in more detail in the 2nd edition boxed set of the same name), as well as some recent events. It's two and a half pages in total, so there isn't a whole lot of detail here.

The next chapter describes the various nations and states in the Flanaess, giving the nation's proper name, the current ruler, the form of government, major cities, resources, population breakdown (but no actual numbers), the 'law' (which is basically the kingdom's alignment), any allies or enemies, and a brief description. I'm familiar with most of these places due to having spent time in Greyhawk many moons ago, but the first nation on the list, Ahlissa, doesn't ring any bells and I think it's a new place that has basically replaced the old Great Kingdom of Aerdy.

The 'good' kingdoms include Celene, Ekbir, Furyondy, Highfolk, Irongate, Keoland, Lendore, Ratik, the Shield Lands, Sunndi, the Duchy and Principality of Ulek, the County and Duchy of Urnst, Veluna, Verbobonc, and the Yeomanry. These are variously chaotic good, neutral good, or lawful good nations. There's a pretty solid block of good nations from the Yeomanry through Keoland, Ulek, Celene, Verbobong, Furyondy, and Highfolk; Ekbir, Irongate, Ratik and Suundi are isolated, and Urnst is acruss the Nyr Dyv from the big block.

The evil nations are Ahlissa, the Bandit Kingdoms, Blackmoor, the Bone March, the Bright Lands, Geoff, the Empire of Iuz, the Lordship of the Isles, the North Kingdom, Onnwal, the Pomarj, Rel Astra, Scarlet Brotherhood, and Stonehold. The remainder are neutral, be it lawful or chaotic.

Sprinkled throughout this section are a few sidebars detailing new Greyhawk deities to add to the default list in the Player's Handbook. These include Al'Akbar, Iuz, Sehanine Moonbow, Pholtus, and Rao. These gods are given enough detail to run their clerics in the game.

Next is the geography of the Flanaess, that being the physical rather than the political geography. There are a lot of forests, from the Adri to the Vesve, with the Gnarley Forest and the Amedio Jungle being particularly noteworthy. Mountain ranges include the Crystalmists, the Hellfurnaces, and the Yatils, all of which are home to a whole slew of nasty beasties. The hills and highlands at the feet of these mountain ranges offer lots of places for adventure, including the Howling HIlls, the Drachensgrab, and the Kron Hills, home to many gnome clans. Major bodies of water include the Nyr Dyv, the Solnor Ocean, and the Woolly Bay. And there are wetlands and wastelands, from the Vast Swamp to the Barren Wastes. All in all, you can find pretty much any combination of climate and terrain in the Flanaess, from cold to warm, from desert to swamp.

The last chapter details a few of the power groups in Greyhawk, starting with the Circle of Eight. I'll merely note that the treatment of the Circle of Eight in Living Greyhawk Journal #0 is far more detailed and worth checking out. There are also several orders of knights in various parts of the Flanaess, including the Knight Protectors of the Great Kingdom, the Knights of Holy Shielding, and the Knights of the Watch.

The Gazetteer ends with a note to look for the Living Greyhawk Gazetteer, which will be six times the size of this volume in the near future. It also plugs the RPGA's Living Greyhawk campaign, which I'm not really interested in.

And that does it for this one. A quick and easy read, but there's not much information to really get a campaign going. The Living Greyhawk Gazetteer will hopefully do a better job (and include the proper map, which I didn't get with this purchase). Tomorrow...Dragon magazine.