Sunday, March 22, 2009

Greyhawk Conversion to 4e is all too simple

Since Greyhawk was never intimately tied to the game system like other campaign settings (for example, Eberron banked on Vancian magic to create the Dragonmarked houses) conversion is actually quite simple. Greyhawk has long placed its stock in non-wizarding classes since its creation. Gord the Rogue, Sir Robilar, Kelanen, etc are dagger-wielding, sword-swinging heroes. The temptation in previous versions, particularly 3e, was to include far too many casting classes in roles of power. After reading through the Living GH Gazateer it became abundantly clear. Class and level became far more important footnotes than disposition or demeanor. There are no more mechanical reasons for Warlords being less feared than wizards. In 4e it seems Kas and Robilar get back a great deal of their punch.

In Greyhawk it was always the assumption that magic was difficult to obtain, costly, even dangerous. What was completely untrue in 3e is the reality in 4e. Magic travel is now more difficult and costly than ever, which makes the exploits of sailing the dangeous oceans in search of new lands all the more impressive (Fireland). Traveling the planes also requires either epic casters or places where the fabric between the worlds is very thin. This too fits better with the previous fluff. The portals in Against the Giants would be even more necessary and impressive by 4e standards. Traveling to Blackmoor from Greyhawk would truly be a heroes journey, rather than saving up for a teleport scroll and just making a caster level check.

So for me the question is: What is there to convert? Modules would be a good start. Greyhawk is made of modules. That's the real GH experience. I've already converted The Return to the Keep on the Borderlands and it played better than before, though I may be a bit biased. Currently I'm working on Against the Giants (Silver Anniversary Edition). I have no skill with Adobe Pagemaker but I'll see what I can do to get them up on the web. Here's the list of classics I'm converting/converted:
The Return to the Keep on the Borderlands
Against the Giants (Silver Anniversary Edition)
Return to White Plume Mountain (Silver Anniversary Edition)

What's so good about Greyhawk?

The most important thing about Greyhawk is it's a Roleplaying world and campaign setting first. Other popular campaign settings are Novel settings first (FR, DL, etc) and campaign settings second. When I ask someone a regional question about Faerun they'll tell me what Drizzt or Elminster did. The same with DR (except it's Soth or Raistlin, and so on). If I ask someone about anything in Greyhawk they'll be able to tell me the general history, then tell me about their adventures.

The shared experience in Greyhawk is the modules (Against the Giants, Descend into the Depths of the Earth, Slavers, Tomb of Horrors, White Plume Mountain, Temple of Elemental Evil, etc, etc, etc...). In FR and DR the shared experience is the novel. Their characters in both worlds are shadows of the Mary-Sue, the DMPCs. As a result, look at the core settings for each and you'll find the simple fact - if you ain't epic, you ain't $#!+. In GH there are no hard-coded events, not at the same level. The history of GH is peppered with events that were altered "by the deeds of brave adventurers." Those words are found throughout the setting. The same cannot be said for even Eberron, which is largely a Roleplaying Setting first.

Greyhawk is staple fantasy but far from generic fantasy.

Greyhawk is full of detail but open to interpretation.

Greyhawk has wonderful NPCs but they need your help.

Greyhawk is D&D.