Monday, March 13, 2017

Best Brewers in Greyhawk?

Here is the results and commentary on my latest fun poll, who has the best brewers in the World of Greyhawk? The question is divided along racial and geographic lines as I surmised:

First, let's mention the outliers here. Coming in tied at last place with 3% I offered Krakenheim, capital of the Frost Barbarians for some nordic variety. Setting canon is mum on whether these viking analogs are big drinkers, but up in the Cold North they have to be drinking something other than walrus blood right? Also coming in with 3% of the vote is Gryrax. I chose the capital of the Principality of Ulek because it is nominally ruled by dwarves. Dwarves are historically famous for their brews and being a port city, I figured Gryrax would also be a good exporter of booze. I guess it was just me.

Speaking of dwarves, let's skip to the winner of this poll, Irongate at 44% of the vote. Irongate has alot going for it in brewing. It has a strong dwarven population (not to mention other small folk) being close to the Iron Hills. It too is a huge port city so they have the capacity to brew enough to export. Also. Irongate is a fortress that has withstood more than one siege in its time, so having good stores of alcohol is essential for morale and possibly combat. Lastly, Irongate was once featured in an article for Dragon #351. The city is a home to the plane hopping World Serpent Inn. That means Irongate has to have the Flanaess' most diverse collection of brews.

Tied for second is the Perrenland capital of Schwartzenbruin at 20%. I chose this place obviously for the Germanic analog. Perrenland is a mountainous home to proud mercenaries and adventurous demihumans, so it immediately conjures up images of festive halls in my mind. Also tied for second is the Free City of Greyhawk. This multi-cultural city was a no-brainer for the poll since there is a plethora of brew houses and bars in canon. One only needs to reference the City of Greyhawk boxed set to find info on the Guild of Ostlers and Brewers or randomly roll up a new brewery in Old City or Artisans Quarter.

To finish up, coming in with a surprising 6% of the vote is the largest Bandit Kingdom city, Rookroost. Much like Irongate, this city is a fortress and with it's own raucous bandit population, so certainly it's bound to have a good brews to keep them happy. Of course it's also plausible they steal all their brews from nearby Duchy of Tenh, Theocracy of the Pale or Shield Lands. Who knows? I'd have to ask some former Living Greyhawk folks to be certain. I checked the 2E adventure Fate of Istus, which has the most info on Rookroost and found a wealth of city material but no supporting brew facts. Darn!

One last tidbit. For those wanting some old school homebrew brew ideas for their Greyhawk campaign (and way back), go back in time to the Codex of Greyhawk website, archived over at the Wayback Machine! Enjoy!


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