(Updated 5/6/2008)

I have loved the World of Greyhawk Fantasy Setting since before it was published. I would devour tidbits of Gary Gygax's own home campaign, doled out in magazine articles and snippets in adventure modules, back in my early days a a Dungeons and Dragons player and Dungeon Master, and that love has stuck with me over the years.

I have likened the study of Greyhawk to the Rabbinical study of the Bible, rooting out connections that are not overtly apparent, systematizing what lore is known to us, and attempting to reconcile apparent contradictions. I'm obviously a big believer in the concept of "Greyhawk canon", and my own campaign is designed with as much adherence to canon as possible and practical.

Greyhawk Lore

Many of the old stalwarts of the old Greyhawk campaign have, over the years, participated in various online chats, message boards, email lists, and so forth. In an effort to be true to the design philosophy behind my own Castle Greyhawk project, I am undertaking to collect the Greyhawk-specific bits of information that have been put out into public over the years. These will be collected into text files for ease of searching; I would like to be able to search on "Tenser" and find all of the public utterances that relate to that worthy magic-user. Regular updates to come.

Robert J. Kuntz (updated 5/4/2008)

E. Gary Gygax (updated 5/6/2008)

(Note that I claim absolutely no copyright or other origination for any of these files. I present them here merely for archival purposes.)

City of Greyhawk Maps

Here, presented for the first time, are my own hand-drawn maps for the Free City of Greyhawk, done many years ago and finally scanned in. Apologies for the poor quality on some of the edges; I had originally connected the four sheets with masking tape, and over the years it has ossified and shows through. The letter-number keys in some of the city blocks key to the City of Greyhawk boxed set. Not all of the locations in the boxed set are to be found on my maps, but many of them are. Bear in mind that on my original a half inch equals a thousand feet. The irregular shapes that make up my own City are not individual buildings (in most cases) but rather city blocks, and it can be assumed that small alleyways penetrate most of them. The maps here are based on the sketch map found in City of Hawks by Gary Gygax (New Inifinities, 1987), but obviously with a great deal more detail.

• Northeast Map
• Southeast Map
• Southwest Map
• Northwest Map

Castle Greyhawk

UPDATE: I've placed this project on a slight hold, in favor of the Greyhawk Lore project. At its heart, the Lore project is just the grunt-work research for the Castle project. And hey, in the meantime, Troll Lord Games might come out with one or two of their EGG-written Castle Zagyg products, in which case this might just end up being redundant!

I am currently in the process of designing my own version of the famous ruins in and beneath Castle Greyhawk. This is the quintessential dungeon-crawl setting, and it is to the great detriment of gamers everywhere that the original has never seen the light of day (and it looks as if it never will, except in the briefest of exerpts). My own efforts are a means solely of filling the gap for my own personal campaign; if others find the material herein of use in their own games, so much the better.

My own version of the castle ruins is very much a work in progress. Here's what I have so far (necessarily cryptic at this point because players in my own campaign might end up reading this):

• Ruins and Upper Works: 2 pages of maps, approximately 50 rooms total
• Level 1: "Vaults". 1 page of maps, approximately 75 rooms. Start of the Central Staircase.
• Level 2: "Dungeons". 2 pages of maps, approximately 160 rooms.
• Level 3: "Lower Dungeons". 4 pages of maps, approx. 335 rooms. Entrances from places other than the Castle ruins.

A bit of design theory; I'm trying to make my version of the famous Castle ruins as compatible with the known lore as possible. That is, you should be able to take one of EGG's stories that have appeared in various venues over the years, read it, and be able to retrace the steps of the adventurers without contradiction. It won't be a perfect replica, obviously, but it will be as true as I can make it without having the original maps and key.

Other Projects

I'm also working on a few other things in connection with the campaign, including a supplement on a full-blown NPC character class, the Witch. It's almost ready for presentation. My background in pagan religion and traditional witchcraft has really helped here. Iggwilv the Witch-Queen never got the sort of treatment she deserved, in my estimation. Hopefully this will help with that.

A Monster Manual-type supplement on Angels. I've always felt the outer planes were short-changed when it came to the Seven Heavens, Twin Paradises, etc. This is in the beginning stages.

"Pilgrims and Pilgrimages of the Flanaess". Most civilized countries listed in the encounter tables in the World of Greyhawk Fantasy Setting Gazeteer have between a 2 and 5% chance of encountering pilgrims. Who are all these walkabout worshippers, and where are they going? I've got some ideas, and I'd like to share them.

Links

Pied Piper Publishing, the place putting out the only genuine Greyhawk content in the world. Adventures by old-time Greyhawk player and co-DM Rob Kuntz. Awesome, awesome stuff. Buy everything they sell. I'm not kidding.

And, finally, a link to my favorite Greyhawk site on the Web, Greyhawk, Grodog Style. If my own humble efforts end up being a tenth as interesting and useful as his, I'll be content.