Last night I went with my gaming group to see a midnight showing of
The Hobbit. This is not a movie review however, and as ridiculous as it should be for any fan of Greyhawk to not know the plot of
the Hobbit, I don't consider anything in this post a spoiler. This is mainly some thoughts I had after the movie concerning how I run my Greyhawk campaigns. We all know
Gygax put all the same tropes in
D&D that
Tolkien uses in his stories so let's move on to what stuff I've been lacking in my games...
Dwarves: As strange as it sounds, my campaigns hardly ever feature the dwarven (dwur) race. Sure, an occasional player will make a dwarf fighter or something, but no effort is ever made to explore their culture or history in Greyhawk as scarce as it may be. This is all my fault and until I saw this movie in its full cinematic glory, I never realized how diverse and interesting dwarves could be. You can't get the same feel for dwarves watching the
Lord of the Rings trilogy even with
Gimli and
Moria thrown in. I'm sure my friends picked up some ideas as well.
Warg Riders: I use goblins and orcs sure, I use dire wolves and so on, but I've been neglecting the combination for a long time. Somehow a giant snarling wolf makes a plain old goblin seem more intimidating. I'll remember them for future reference if my players are ever in the Pomarj or
Iuz.
Glowing Magic Blades: I can't remember the last time I heard mention or read about magic blades in D&D glowing in the dark (or in Bilbo's case near orcs). I want to say this was standard for blades (daggers mainly) back in 1e/2e yet I've played
3.5 Edition for so long I really don't remember anymore.
Mountains: Half the danger of
the Hobbit is all the rugged terrain they have to cross and the
Misty Mountains is a good example.
The Fellowship of the Ring also had a tough time with this place, as well as the mountains of
Gondor and
Mordor. Lately I've been running sea based campaigns and before that was years of adventure paths that were mainly centered around
Greyhawk City,
Riftcanyon or various megadungeons. It's been so long I've forgotten how fun it can be making characters cross a mountain range such as the
Hellfurnaces, Yatils or the
Corusks. I used to commonly set things in these ranges. I need to get back to them.
That's all for now until part two
The Desolation of Smaug premiers on December 13. 2013, then
The Hobbit: There and Back Again on July 18, 2014. Yes guys I was right, the last two movies are half a year apart. ;)
Happy Needfest, Greyhawkers. This is the first time in several years that I don't have a Needfest Special comic to throw out there. Maybe next year...Until then, here is a review of my Greyhawk holiday classics for those who have never seen them, or for those who might enjoy re-reading them.
