Where the heck do all these modules take place...?

[Katie Boundary]

I recently acquired a trove of modules, or adventures, or campaigns, or whatever you want to call them, and I've also found some decent maps of the Greyhawk setting. I'm now trying to figure out where on the map each of these modules takes place. I started with Greyhawk City, which I found on the southwestern coast of Nyr Dyv on this map (http://www.greyhawkonline.com/canonfire/abyss_cy589_darlene_map_redo.jpg). Then I found Tristor, setting for the adventure "The Fright at Tristor", on this map (http://geoawesomeness.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Dungens-and-dragons.jpg), right on the edge of the troll Fens and Theocracy of the Pale.

But does Barrow's Edge from "Scourge of the Howling Horde" have a place on this map? The Valley of Obelisks? Newkeep from "The Ettin's Riddle"?

[afroakuma]

With many of these smaller or lower-level adventures, the hamlets and villages from which they are based are not native to a particular campaign world; while they may fit the trappings of Oerth, for instance, they are not embedded on the map somewhere. It is intended that you be able to make flexible use of them.

[tomandtish]

As afroakuma said, the majority of those modules were setting neutral.

Part of the problem is that while Greyhawk was supposed to be the default setting in 3.0, there's no indication that they followed through with it. You see Greyhawk influence in some of the names (Bigby, Tensor, etc.), but even that assumes you already know who they are.

Heck, in the original three core books Greyhawk is mentioned ONCE, and it's alongside other worlds as an example. There's nothing that would tell a new player Greyhawk is supposed to be the default.

[Thurbane]

I'm a member of a couple of Greyhawk focused groups on Facebook; there's often discussion there about where certain module might take place. Might be worth a look.

They're called Flanaess Geographical Society and Oerth - Adventures in Gary Gygax's Greyhawk.

[Blackhawk748]

A bunch of the villages in the modules would be too small to be featured on any but the most detailed maps. Like I wouldn't expect the Sunless Citadel to appear

[the_david]

I can tell you that both Barrow's Edge and the Valley of the Obelisks are not (really) part of Greyhawk. WotC used a Greyhawk Light setting. You'll find some references to Greyhawk (Mostly the deities.) but they usually don't have a specific location in Greyhawk. Instead you can just drop them anywhere in almost any setting with a few alterations.

[Katie Boundary]

That's slightly disappointing. I was hoping that I could assemble a bunch of stuff into a single logically coherent game world with multiple quest chains to choose from as the players went along and a distinct sense of where everything took place relative to everything else... it would help the in-game events feel more "real".

[Troacctid]

I mean, you can still do that, you just have to draw your own map.

[Nifft]

That's slightly disappointing. I was hoping that I could assemble a bunch of stuff into a single logically coherent game world with multiple quest chains to choose from as the players went along and a distinct sense of where everything took place relative to everything else... it would help the in-game events feel more "real".

There is no such thing as logical consistency in D&D, except insofar as it is created by you or your DM.

The world is yours. You can make a game that is logically coherent if you want. Pick the modules you want to use, and you can make them fit. Not all modules will fit at the same time, of course, but that's fine because you couldn't play all modules at once anyway -- and as a feature, being allowed to pick & choose means you are under no obligation to import things you don't want in your game.

[Mordaedil]

Greyhawk is not really made in the same way as Forgotten Realms, where things get very specific about locations and the like. Greyhawk is the very epitome of "we didn't really think about it because we didn't want to restrain creativity".