Thursday, August 23, 2018

Quick Birthplaces For Greyhawk

Greeting Greyhawkers! Today's subject is one that has come up in my home games in the recent past. Where does my new character come from? New gamers, unfamiliar with the geography and history of the Flanaess will not have the slightest idea where to establish their character's home land. The 1983 World of Greyhawk boxed set conveniently solves this with some random tables based on fantasy races. One is for humans and the other is for demi-humans (elves, dwarves etc). You'll have to find these charts yourself, but for an example here is one I did recently for tieflings and dragonborn in Greyhawk.

It can be daunting to choose a homeland and build a backstory, so this guide below will help you pick one much quicker since instead of ethnic birthplaces or somewhere based on alignment, I'm selecting the most common areas of the Flanaess based on character class. If you want to be more specific later on then wonderful, but for a new Greyhawk enthusiast, this can get you started much faster and will take less explaining at game time. When in doubt, the City of Greyhawk is always a good choice for a birthplace because it is central to the setting map. Everything else below is in one of four quadrants from this middle point. Note, the nations below are from CY 576 timeline.

Barbarian: 
Barbarian North or the Barrens (NE)
Hepmonaland or Bright Desert (SE)
Amedio Jungle or Dry Steppes (SW)
Bitter North or Iuz (NW)

Bard:
Furyondy or Highfolk (NW)
Keoland or Wild Coast (SW)
Irongate or Great Kingdom (SE)
Barbarian North or Nyrond (NE)

Druid: 

Bitter North or Vesve Forest (NW)
Barbarian North or the Fellreev Forest (NE)
Adri Forest or Sunndi (SE)
Dreadwood or the Gnarley Forest (SW)

Rangers:
Dreadwood or Gnarley Forest (SW)
Highvale/Vesve Forest or the Bitter North (NW)
Barbarian North or Nyrond (NE)
Sunndi or Great Kingdom (SE)

Wizards: 
Keoland or Celene (SW)
Great Kingdom or Irongate (SE)
Furyondy or Iuz (NW)
Nyrond or Urnst States (NE)

Sorcerers:
Valley of the Mage or Wild Coast (SW)
Baklunish West or Iuz (NW)
Bandit Kingdoms or Barbarian North (NE)
Great Kingdom or Spindrift Isles (SE)

Warlocks:
Iuz or Baklunish West (NW)
Wild Coast or Pomarj (SW)
Bone March or Bandit Kingdoms (NE)
Great Kingdom or Bright Desert (SE)

Monks: 
Scarlet Brotherhood (SE)
Baklunish West (NW)
Wild Coast (SW)
Nyrond (NE)

Fighters:
Furyondy or Perrenland (NW)
Barbarian North or Nyrond (NE)
Irongate or Great Kingdom (SE)
Keoland or Yeomanry (SW)

Rogues: 
Hold of Sea Princes or Wild Coast (SW)
Great Kingdom or Scarlet Brotherhood (SE)
Bandit Kingdoms or Nyrond (NE)
Iuz or Baklunish West (NW)

Paladins:
Shield Lands or Ekbir (NW)
Keoland or Verbobonc (SW)
Theocracy of the Pale or Nyrond (NE)
Irongate or Almor (SE)

Clerics: 
Veluna or Ekbir (NW)
Keoland or Verbobonc (SW)
Great Kingdom or Almor (SE)
Theocracy of the Pale or Nyrond (NE)

1 comment:

Mystic Scholar said...

Very nice list, Mort. Well thought out.