First off, thanks to all of the 640 (as of this writing) people who took the time to respond to my little survey. It’s great to see folks are still interested in Greyhawk after all these years of, shall we say, not being at the forefront of the official D&D game. Let’s dive right in; for each graph, click to embiggen.
1. For which rule system would you like to see new Greyhawk material written?
2. What is your favorite Greyhawk timeframe?
Again, this wasn’t even close. The 565 CY timeframe (the same as the original folio and gold box) was the runaway winner with just over 50% support. Nothing else came close.
3. What types of new Greyhawk products would you be interested in purchasing?
Here the results were a lot more diverse. Five answers broke 50% support, and most of the others were pretty strong, too (“non-rpg products” trailed definitively with 15%). Individual adventures (like “White Plume Mountain”) topped the list, followed closely by Mini-campaigns (like “Temple of Elemental Evil”), Regional sourcebooks (like “Iuz the Evil”), City sourcebooks, and Gazetteer-type books covering other regions of Oerth (which got almost 60% support).
Basically, folks want anything for Greyhawk to use in their RPG games.
4. What types of adventures would you like to see?
Pretty unsurprisingly, combinations of dungeon crawl, wilderness, and urban adventures were more popular than any of those individual choices, and combinations of RP, combat, and puzzle-solving adventures were more popular than any of those.
5. What regional sourcebooks in the Flanaess would you like to see?
This was intended to be a question only for people who answered “Regional sourcebooks” in question 3, but I was somewhat limited by the tool, so included a “not interested” option. Even so, 200 people who didn’t say they wanted regional sourcebooks answered. Go figure.
The Central Flanaess had a slight edge, being the only option that broke 60%, but the Sheldomar Valley (Keoland, etc.), West-central Flanaess (Furyondy, Veluna, etc.), and Great Kingdom each beat 50%.
Given that Veluna, the central Flanaess, and Great Kingdom all had regional sourcebooks released (although the latter was a free release, as it was never actually published), I can only conclude that folks want to see pre-Wars versions of all those sourcebooks.
The Great Grinch-hawk Award goes to the guy who answered “none, no new products, thanks” to this and several other questions. I’m guessing he’s also the person who left a rather… spirited… comment on the original post that I had to delete because it was little more than self-indulgent name-calling designed to insult any Greyhawk fan who didn’t fit in with his personal idea of what the setting should be like. Nightscreed, you are missed. 😉
6. Which cities would you like to see featured in a sourcebook?
Same notation as on question 5; I included a “not interested” option, but a ton more people answered anyway, despite saying they didn’t want city sourcebooks in question 3. Greyhawk, Dyvers, and Verbobonc all broke 50%, and Irongate was a strong finisher as well.
7. Which other regions of Oerth would you like to see featured in a gazetteer-type book?
No question; the Sea of Dust was the clear winner here. Hepmonaland and the Baklunish Basin were somewhat distant also-rans, but folks don’t really seem jazzed about western Oerik. Which sucks, because that’s really what I want to see, personally.
8. What types of RPG rules supplements would you like to see specifically for Greyhawk?
All of the options here were pretty strongly supported, magic items/spells/monsters had a slight lead, character races/classes lagged a little behind, but everything was within 15% or so.
9. What sort of non-RPG products would you like to see specifically for Greyhawk?
I included this because it’s something of a wish of my own to see board games and wargames and such set in Greyhawk, but as noted above, only 15% of respondents wanted non-RPG Greyhawk material in question 3. Fiction did clearly lead the list, with 30% support; still nothing to write home about (heh). Nothing else broke 12%. Alas.
Good poll and analysis, Joseph!
In #7 I'll assume you meant you'd like to see WESTERN Oerik not Eastern.
What's interesting about those poll preferences is if you take the setting back to start, it rewinds A LOT metaplot-wise for eastern Oerik but for Beyond the Flanaess it gives a chance to practically start with a blank slate in my opinion. It does hearten me though that the Baklunish Basin is running close to 50% and the Sea of Dust holds much interest. That gives me hope for out of the way places like *ahem* Ull or yes, Beyond the Flanaess.
Whoops! Fixed the west/east thing.
As for the Sea of Dust, there's a complication. I'd love to see something along those lines, but the Widow Gygax holds the rights to the material in the Gord the Rogue book of the same name, and she doesn't seem inclined to make deals for those rights to anyone. Seems a pity to reinvent the wheel, especially when it was so cool.
Joe, this is all both intriguing and curious. I'd love to know what can be done with pre-1986 Greyhawk, since two entities own the IP OAD&D fans would be interested in playing, writing, and expanding. Also, how does one get an email to you? I would have preferred asking another way, but it looks like FB & G+ connecting with you is not possible.
Thanks and Happy Gaming,
Michael
Hi Michael,
Bear in mind that Gail Gygax owns the specific rights to the contents of the Gord the Rogue books, not to the Sea of Dust in general, which is firmly a part of the IP owned by WotC, and thus would be open game if Greyhawk should ever become fair game (heh) in the DMs Guild. So while one wouldn't be able to, for instance, use things like snake weeds and a Theorpart in the Forgotten City, but could invent stuff and use other details from various WotC sources.
As for contacting me, I'm on G+, but you can also email me directly. Just look in the lower-right corner of the blog, waaaaay at the bottom.
Thanks, Joe! I think the issue is that I'm not seeing it on my mobile. I'll be in touch!
"Given that Veluna, the central Flanaess, and Great Kingdom all had regional sourcebooks released (although the latter was a free release, as it was never actually published)"
Which Central Flanaess book are you referring to here, Joe?
I assume that you're broadly thinking of the general regional coverage across the Greyhawk '98 sourcebooks like Greyhawk: the Adventure Begins, Player's Guide to Greyhawk, and their associated modules (The Star Cairns, Crypt of Lyzandred the Mad, The Doomgrinder), as well as the City of Greyhawk boxed set and EGG's Gord stories (especially Night Arrant)?
Allan.
It was also a reference to products like "Iuz the Evil", "Marklands", etc. Although don't forget that the City of Greyhawk boxed set also contained a lot of central Flanaess info…