Is there an Oerth Almanac or Compendium or... something?

[inexorabletruth]

It's making me crazy. I'm really all about the details, and I've tried for years to let go of it, but I can't. I want to play within the confines of a mapped setting of Oerth... like you can with Eberron, Forgotten Realms, or Dragonlance.

But the information on Oerth is broken into chunks and spread out everywhere, most of it covering the Flanaess. I know the setting is vague on purpose, but Gary Gygax drew a massive detailed friggin' map of it with actual geographics, names, and even lore building up to the current era of Oerth, so there has to be some measure of demographics instilled into the setting!

I want monarchs, duchies, settlements, cultures, societies, racial demographics. Heck I want climate, average rainfall, common flora and fauna, common dialects, primary exports and imports. I want average military strength, general alignments, and a brief history of notable people in their regions.

I know this makes me sound crazy, and you're probably like, "Dude, chill," but maybe there is someone else out there with my kind of crazy, and knowledge of where to find this information, preferably all in one link, wiki, book, or whatever.

I can homebrew it all, and that's what I've been doing for the last 10 or so years, but I'd rather drop it into a setting and build off of that.

[LibraryOgre]

There is the Great Library of Greyhawk, which used to be part of Canonfire.

[hamishspence]

There is the Great Library of Greyhawk, which used to be part of Canonfire.

The Great Library link doesn't seem to work.

[Khedrac]

The 3.0 Living Greyhawk Gazatteer shoudl have hat you want - it's a pretty detailed look at the Flanaess.

The one twist is that Gary Gagax stopped having input before the 'Greyhawk Wars' happened...

[inexorabletruth]

There is the Great Library of Greyhawk, which used to be part of Canonfire.

That link didn't work. But it gave me new text to add to Google Searches which helped me find this. Which is on the aforementioned Canonfire website.

And that's getting closer to what I want. I'd like to be able to click on (or look up), say... Thalios, and find counties, provinces, duchies, forest names, wildernesses, river names, and then lore found in each region. The more detailed, the better.

[inexorabletruth]

The 3.0 Living Greyhawk Gazatteer shoudl have hat you want - it's a pretty detailed look at the Flanaess.

The one twist is that Gary Gagax stopped having input before the 'Greyhawk Wars' happened...

I found a PDF of that... is it OGL or free license by now, or should I start combing Amazon for a legal copy?

[hamlet]

Any reason you can't use the Greyhawk Boxed Set campaign setting? Works wonders and has pretty much everything you described.

[inexorabletruth]

Any reason you can't use the Greyhawk Boxed Set campaign setting? Works wonders and has pretty much everything you described.

Well... I didn't even know that existed.

OH WOW! That's $150 USED! Squeezing $5-$15 every few months out of my budget is one thing, but $150 means I have to make a choice between the Boxed Set or keeping the electricity running.

[Palanan]

So, you'll be reading the boxed set by candlelight?

[inexorabletruth]

So, you'll be reading the boxed set by candlelight?

LOL, Hard pass. Although I could probably by a reference book, or use a well-detailed homebrew setting.

[LibraryOgre]

Huh. The link worked this morning. No idea, then.

[hamlet]

Well... I didn't even know that existed.

OH WOW! That's $150 USED! Squeezing $5-$15 every few months out of my budget is one thing, but $150 means I have to make a choice between the Boxed Set or keeping the electricity running.

A PDF copy can be purchased on DriveThrough RPG for I think $9. I know what it's like to be cash strapped, too.

EDIT: $7 actually: http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/...etting-1e?it=1

It's actually worth it in my view. Fantastic setting, really, with lots of stuff but lots of room to customize and grow. Honestly, best of the TSR settings for straight up gaming.

[Nifft]

Huh. The link worked this morning. No idea, then.

Your query was the straw that broke the server-hamster's little back.

-- -- --

@OP - Be sure to snag Anna B. Meyer's brilliant Greyhawk maps:
- http://ghmaps.net/greyhawk-maps/flaness-map-download/
- http://ghmaps.net/flanaess-576-cy-map/

[inexorabletruth]

All your collective input is also helping me finding new words and phrases to add to my google mining.

I've found Greyhawk Grognard

It seems to be dealing exclusively with the mapping, but paired with some of the other lore you guys are helping me find, it's starting to come together.

Oerth feels like this giant jigsaw puzzle you have to put together blindfolded sometimes. And according to the Greyhawk Grognard my feelings on that are nearly accurate.

[Nifft]

Oerth feels like this giant jigsaw puzzle you have to put together blindfolded sometimes. And according to the Greyhawk Grognard my feelings on that are nearly accurate.

Remember that in Ye Olde Daye an RPG setting was intended to be nothing more than a spark of inspiration for your own world.

The idea of Setting-As-Collector's-Items had not yet become a thing.

There wasn't really canon as such, either -- you were expected to invent your. For example, the original Greyhawk artifacts & relics gave rumors & myths, but you had to choose and fill in their abilities & drawbacks yourself.

So Greyhawk's lore is always best looked at as a record of activity -- "Hey we did this thing and it was pretty fun, here's how it went..." -- rather than looking at it as some kind of planned, finished product intended for easy consumption.


Back in my day, consumption wasn't easy! We had to chase after scraps of setting lore, up hill both ways! And we liked it!

[inexorabletruth]

Yeah...

For the most part, I just use a map of Oerth and plop my own homebrew history and lore on top of it. No one seems to mind, but it feels like an itch I can't scratch.

I could toss my games into Forgotten Realms, Dragonlance, or Eberron, but something about Grayhawk draws me in. Maybe it's the mystery, maybe it's the fact that it looks so much like Earth. I dunno. But I was really hoping someone, or some group, had cannonized the lore and put it all into one source. And not just the Flannaess.

[Zombimode]

Maybe it's the mystery, maybe it's the fact that it looks so much like Earth.

It... does? Don't know, but the most relevant part (the Flanaess) does not look anything like Earth in my view.


More Setting material:
- From the Ashes
- The Scarlett Brotherhood
- Iuz the Evil

All available at DriveThroughRPG

[inexorabletruth]

It... does? Don't know, but the most relevant part (the Flanaess) does not look anything like Earth in my view.


More Setting material:
- From the Ashes
- The Scarlett Brotherhood
- Iuz the Evil

All available at DriveThroughRPG

It kind of does to me, maybe an early post pangea version of it. It's easier to see when you look at the whole map.

Plus the names have some similarities. But I'm derailing my own thread, so that's probably another topic.

[Zombimode]

It kind of does to me, maybe an early post pangea version of it. It's easier to see when you look at the whole map.

Plus the names have some similarities. But I'm derailing my own thread, so that's probably another topic.

Hm, I see what you mean.

It's a matter of perspective. For me "Greyhawk" is almost equal to "Flanaesse".

[hamlet]

It's supposed to look a little like Earth. The original original Greyhawk map sketched out by EGG himself was, in fact, nothing more than a rough map of the upper Midwest and the near Great Lakes to where Gary lived. When he got it ready for publication, he had to mix it up a touch and thus the Darlene maps that everyone knows today were born.

[Âmesang]

I see the Flanaess, at least, being a kind of backwards Eurasia; "Aerdy/Western Europe" is in the east, "The Baklunish West/Middle East" is on the western edge, "The Celestial Imperium of Shaofeng/East Asia" is… in the middle of Oerik, actually…

…which leads me to d20 Chainmail; if you can track down a copy the various factions, such as the "Sundered Empire" of Ravilla, takes place in the far western edges of Oerik.

Spoiler: Maps

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