Rating: 
Summary: A comprehensive guide to all things Greyhawk
Review: If Greyhawk is old hat to you, then this won't be any thing new to you. But for those of us who are new to Greyhawk, this is better than the first 3rd ed. Gazeteer that WotC released. It is chock full of everything you need to play in greyhawk. Extensive writeups on countries, history, the gods and factions are jammed into this thick book! This is the info I was looking for in the other Gazeteer. If you need a gazeteer with info on everyhting in Greyhawk, then buy this one and skip the other.
Rating:
Summary: A comprehensive guide to all things Greyhawk
Review: If Greyhawk is old hat to you, then this won't be any thing new to you. But for those of us who are new to Greyhawk, this is better than the first 3rd ed. Gazeteer that WotC released. It is chock full of everything you need to play in greyhawk. Extensive writeups on countries, history, the gods and factions are jammed into this thick book! This is the info I was looking for in the other Gazeteer. If you need a gazeteer with info on everyhting in Greyhawk, then buy this one and skip the other.
Rating: 
Summary: It just depends on who you are
Review: If you are new to D&D, this is a good, safe buy. Even if you are just waiting for Forgotten Realms to come out, this is a very entertaining read and is chock full of ideas for adventures in any world. However, if you have been a fan of Greyhawk for a long time and/or have spent lots of money on older source matierial, then this book is probably a waste of money (and a good bit of it at that ;p) The section on the gods at the end is very useful, but if that is all you want, just take a notebook and the book to a dark corner in your gaming store... did I say that out loud?
Rating:
Summary: It just depends on who you are
Review: If you are new to D&D, this is a good, safe buy. Even if you are just waiting for Forgotten Realms to come out, this is a very entertaining read and is chock full of ideas for adventures in any world. However, if you have been a fan of Greyhawk for a long time and/or have spent lots of money on older source matierial, then this book is probably a waste of money (and a good bit of it at that ;p) The section on the gods at the end is very useful, but if that is all you want, just take a notebook and the book to a dark corner in your gaming store... did I say that out loud?
Rating:
Summary: Mona and Holian are spot on.
Review: In the long history of the Greyhawk canon there are many books that shine, and this is no exception. The writing duo of Mona and Holian is simply brilliant; they approach the matter of Greyhawk with the utmost care, detailing every aspect of change over the last twenty years and proving what a deeply engrossing world Greyhawk truly is. You'll spend many hours enjoying this book. Let's hope for another Greyhawk release soon.
Rating:
Summary: The GH book I always wanted....
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: Living Greyhawk Gazetteer---worth it!
Review: No, it doesn't cost $40 and no it doesn't have little gremlins which pop up to turn the pages for you but the LGG is worth purchasing for all the reasons mentioned by other reviewers. Also, I'd like to mention that Sword & Fist includes details on the Knights of the Great Kingdom, Knights of the Watch, etc., likewise you'll find other Greyhawk-related details in other such guidebooks (e.g., Defenders of the Faith)with which you can further enrich your Greyhawk gaming experience. And let's not forget that more can be found by signing up with the RPGA in order to get the Living Greyhawk Journal. That, too, is worthwhile. But the Living Greyhawk Gazetteer is where it all starts so get your copy ASAP! Just thought you would like to know. :)
Rating: 
Summary: Always leave them wanting more?
Review: Overall, I think this is an excellent sourcebook. I can't compare this to previous boxed sets, for two reasons: 1) I'm relatively new to Greyhawk; and 2) just about every campaign product more than 2 years old is now out of print. But here's my quick rundown. The Good -- At 192 pages, this is a very comprehensive guide. It's organized in much the same way as the D&D Gazetteer, only in much greater detail. While a lot of this material (especially the history of the Flanaess) has been covered previously, the country descriptions make up the heart of the book. You get at least a full page for each country, breaking down the cities, religions, politics, economy and more. Want the stats for the head of one of the noble houses of Ahlissa? It's here. Wondering how many orcs live in the Pomarj? No problem. The section on Greyhawk's pantheon of gods is equally in-depth, expanding on the information in the Player's Handbook. I also thought including the color heraldry for each country was a nice touch. The world map is essentially a larger version of the D&D Gazetteer map, only with hexes and more cities indicated. Good, but not great. The Bad -- There's more here on the organizations of the Flanaess than in the D&D Gazetteer, but nowhere near enough as far as I'm concerned. For example, I figured the Knights of the Hart would be treated like a prestige class. However, there are no guidelines or prerequisites for characters to join such groups. It simply says they're actively searching for new members. While this may be covered in an upcoming product, it should be here. The Ugly -- I have mixed feelings about Wizards of the Coast turning over Greyhawk to the RPGA. Putting the campaign world in the hands of players is a good thing. (After all, players sustained Greyhawk while TSR was neglecting it.) At the same time, it seems like some details are being reserved for the Living Greyhawk campaign. And that's not for everyone. Greyhawk adventures once made up the heart of D&D. I'd hate to see such a rich product line dry up completely. If you like campaigning in the world of Greyhawk, this is probably an essential buy. Taken as a whole, it's extremely well-done and deserves a strong recommendation. We'll just have to see if there's more to come.
Rating:
Summary: Greyhawk is back, let's hope it's for good this time !
Review: The first fantasy world I used for my adventures was Greyhawk. That was .. well, long ago. At the time, all a DM had to work with were the original Greyhawk boxed set, some articles in Dragon Magazine and what info he could milk out of the Gord the Rogue novel series (by G. Gygax himself). That was fine enough if all you wanted was some hack and slash campaign but not if you aimed at something a bit more ambitious. The real problem at the time was an almost total lack of info on the political/social web (especially for the western nations) and holes big enough for a dragon when it came down to local info on towns and places which were just weird names on a map. Not anymore ! At long last this brilliant accessory give you all the insight you need on civilizations, gods and organizations (the Knights of the Great Kingdom in particular are a nice plus). The major problem awaiting any DM is that he'll have to sit for a few hours and read through all of it before he is able to see the large picture (and, believe me, you'll need to) if he isn't an old timer used to this world. I can but regret that Carl Sargent hasn't been asked to continue his Greyhawk Gazetteer series (which ended with Ivid the Undying) to supply info on each nation in turn. The one thing I find amusing is how fast they changed the world's outlook. At first (with the From the Ashes) box, you had a war-ravaged world on the brink of disaster with demons, devils and such in every corner of the map, just waiting for your characters to make one wrong move. Then, probably deciding it was too depressing for young players, they used a deus ex machina device (aka the Crook of Rao) and banished 95% of the big bad demons back to where they belong. Wew, the world is safer, now the villains are "only" mortals again. Last but not least, they don't seem to be able to make up their mind about some nations. Nyrond, for one, goes from 'war-torn' to 'start to recover' to 'still in shambles' 6 years after the wars ended. During all this time, the new king is described as trying to repair the roads and re-establish trade. I mean, the nation wasn't even invaded and two years of war left its road system virtually destroyed !?! Why ? How ? Did it rain like hell for two years in a row ? If leaving the roads untended for two years was enough to eradicate them, then I wouldn't have wanted to use them before !
Rating:
Summary: Greyhawk in a nutshell
Review: The Living Greyhawk Gazetteer is a great sourcebook for any new D&D player. It goes into greater detail than the other Gazetter (which is much smaller and cheaper) and the details it has is a great help to building a character that is fully set for this campaign world. The book is not a absolute-must-rush-to-get, but due to the fact that the core rule books are set in the greyhawk setting, this helps with all the small things. Not to mention that you get a map of the Flanaess, and we all know that the reason we buy these things are for the maps.
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