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5.0 out of 5 stars
The GH book I always wanted...., Feb 28 2002
Ive been playing in Greyhawk for over 13 years now. I remember buying the old boxed set many years ago with birthday money. Cracking that pristine box open and looking upon the works of Pluffet Smedger (the Eldar, of course), unfolding the beautiful maps..... Greyhawk has persisted as my favorite fantasy rpg setting since that day; outlasting childhood, adolescence, girlfriends, 5 years in the USMC, 6 years of marriage, several jobs, dozens of friends and acquaintences, more gaming groups than I can count on two hands, and relocations around the US and jaunts overseas. Even when the setting was kicked to the curb by T$R and went 'underground' for too long a time; even when met with the uncomprehending stares of Forgotten Realms players when trying to get a game going, I stuck with my old favorite setting to the bitter end if need be. Greyhawk is synonymus with FRPG in my mind. Thru major campaigns and story arcs, even conversion to another game system my love of the setting has continued to the present day. So, suffice it to say Ive got an investment in the setting of both time and emotion, and thus am not exactly an unbiased reviewer. With all of that said, as empirically and objectively as I can manage, I must give the LGG a full 5 stars. On a 1 to 10 scale it might be a 9, due primarily to overall lower quality intererior art, but such a nick isnt worth 20% on a 1 to 5 scale; thus on a scale of 1 to 5, the LGG goes the distance. Why such a high rating? Because this is the book that Ive wanted so many times over the years, feverishly detailing campaigns and sessions with too little time and too many widely scattered sources of material, or worse a total lack of material period. This book manages to coalesce many of the crucial Greyhawk canonical works into one quality product while expanding material in many places, fabricating new material in others, and somehow managing to bridge the gap between the oftentimes widely different 'eras' of pre-Carl Sargent and post-Carl Sargent work (for the record, Im mostly pro-Carl Sargent). While I have run & played in many Greyhawk campaigns, I persist the events of past campaigns in my version of Greyhawk; including material that I have had to make up over the years to fill gaps in the printed canon or altered canon to fit my purposes, and the actions of PCs from various groups. Therefore there are discrepencies between 'my version' and the official canon as Im sure is true of many other DMs Greyhawk campaigns, but that is hardly a fault on the part of the writers and thanx to the largely modular approach taken by the design team I can easily snap in replacement sections where needed without unduly skewing all other relevant material. I remember Erik Mona and Gary Holian from the days of GreyTalk; in fact, I played in a play-by-email rendition of the classic Slavers module run by Gary Holian briefly many years ago. They both have grass roots-level history with Greyhawk, and it shows. Though I will likely never meet either, I feel indebted to them both for providing this book, which is obviously a labor of love, to the community in general and me specifically. To sum up, all players and DMs who have an interest in Greyhawk should check this book out, and all Greyhawkers both old-school and those who prefer From the Ashes on owe it to themselves to buy this book. Let me say it again. ALL GREYHAWKERS SHOULD BUY THIS BOOK. Now that's about as gushy of a review as Ive ever given, but I cant stress my appreciation of this product enough. Oerth lives in the shadow of its over-commercialized successor Faerun and there is likely little we can ever do about that. Nevertheless the setting has survived in the hearts and homes of its fans for a very long time even when excommunicated by its original publisher, and with a quality product like this new players and old alike can reap the benefit of what has come before while pressing on to forge new adventures in the FRPG world which started it all.
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