Rating: 
Summary: Inferior to what has gone before
Review: As an avid devotee of the Greyhawk campaign setting since 1980, I wanted to love this. At last, a panoramic overview of our favorite fantasy world, for the first time since 1983! Regrettably, most of my enthusiasm evaporated once I cracked the cover.The map on the cover of this booklet is deceptively alluring - lush colors, painted seas with names in delicate script, colored and definitive borders; the inside map is horridly drab. If you don't know what you're missing, it is perfectly serviceable and adequate; but if you've collected the 1980 or 1983 edition of the World of Greyhawk (which I strongly recommend), you'll be sharply disappointed. Remember the colossal maps of days gone by? This one is a measly 17"x22", about 25% of the size of the original. The "colors" are uniformly brown and gray. The gorgeous (and useful!) colors of the old maps, noting such things as ocean depth, are totally absent. Worst of all, there are some features missing! What's gone? Spindrift Isles are re-designated Lendore Isles of L module fame (not entirely accurate), Hepmonaland isn't named (OOOPS!), Ahlissa is not named South Province, Idee, Almor, Fax, Badwall, Elredd, and the Forgotten City and ALL of the ruins in the Sea of Dust! Did I like anything about the map? Yes. It's very easy to read, there's an enticing map of the western hemisphere of Oerth beyond the Flanaess, and cities are well-marked for calculating distance. Best of all, a few "secret" names (like Bonewood and Dunhead Bay) are revealed that weren't before. The 32-page booklet is woefully inadequate if you own the boxed set from 1983; but, it does provide excellent historical overviews, clear and concise descriptions of the major kingdoms and features, and a very clean generalization of the world and its epics. This makes this product an excellent primer for people new to Greyhawk, or people totally new to D&D in general, which is probably the Wizards' intention. And now, the good news... a LIVING GREYHAWK Gazetteer is coming, a 192-page work that should fix ALL of my gripes! Rejoice, but it makes me wonder how useful this book is going to be in a few months. :)
Rating:
Summary: Inferior to what has gone before
Review: As an avid devotee of the Greyhawk campaign setting since 1980, I wanted to love this. At last, a panoramic overview of our favorite fantasy world, for the first time since 1983! Regrettably, most of my enthusiasm evaporated once I cracked the cover. The map on the cover of this booklet is deceptively alluring - lush colors, painted seas with names in delicate script, colored and definitive borders; the inside map is horridly drab. If you don't know what you're missing, it is perfectly serviceable and adequate; but if you've collected the 1980 or 1983 edition of the World of Greyhawk (which I strongly recommend), you'll be sharply disappointed. Remember the colossal maps of days gone by? This one is a measly 17"x22", about 25% of the size of the original. The "colors" are uniformly brown and gray. The gorgeous (and useful!) colors of the old maps, noting such things as ocean depth, are totally absent. Worst of all, there are some features missing! What's gone? Spindrift Isles are re-designated Lendore Isles of L module fame (not entirely accurate), Hepmonaland isn't named (OOOPS!), Ahlissa is not named South Province, Idee, Almor, Fax, Badwall, Elredd, and the Forgotten City and ALL of the ruins in the Sea of Dust! Did I like anything about the map? Yes. It's very easy to read, there's an enticing map of the western hemisphere of Oerth beyond the Flanaess, and cities are well-marked for calculating distance. Best of all, a few "secret" names (like Bonewood and Dunhead Bay) are revealed that weren't before. The 32-page booklet is woefully inadequate if you own the boxed set from 1983; but, it does provide excellent historical overviews, clear and concise descriptions of the major kingdoms and features, and a very clean generalization of the world and its epics. This makes this product an excellent primer for people new to Greyhawk, or people totally new to D&D in general, which is probably the Wizards' intention. And now, the good news... a LIVING GREYHAWK Gazetteer is coming, a 192-page work that should fix ALL of my gripes! Rejoice, but it makes me wonder how useful this book is going to be in a few months. :)
Rating: 
Summary: Not as bad as all that...
Review: I'm relatively new to gaming in general, but this is the absolute first time I've touched Greyhawk. It's also the first time I've run a D&D game. My first feeling when I opened this book was disappointment. I wanted more info! So I pouted for a week and then opened it again. What I discovered on a second look was that it left lots of space for me to fill in. And that my friends is the core of a true Dungeon Master: "What can I add to make this my own?" I've taken some of the story hints they've given and started writing my own campaign. I've mixed some things, made up others and I *like* what I've ended up with. The Gazetteer is a great starting point. Where you take it is up to you. As an aside, I *am* unhappy with the included map. It serves its purpose to an extent, but it is bland and does not delineate borders well at all. I'm left uncertain if cities lie in one country or the next. But as above I will fill in myself what WOTC has left blank.
Rating:
Summary: Not as bad as all that...
Review: I'm relatively new to gaming in general, but this is the absolute first time I've touched Greyhawk. It's also the first time I've run a D&D game. My first feeling when I opened this book was disappointment. I wanted more info! So I pouted for a week and then opened it again. What I discovered on a second look was that it left lots of space for me to fill in. And that my friends is the core of a true Dungeon Master: "What can I add to make this my own?" I've taken some of the story hints they've given and started writing my own campaign. I've mixed some things, made up others and I *like* what I've ended up with. The Gazetteer is a great starting point. Where you take it is up to you. As an aside, I *am* unhappy with the included map. It serves its purpose to an extent, but it is bland and does not delineate borders well at all. I'm left uncertain if cities lie in one country or the next. But as above I will fill in myself what WOTC has left blank.
Rating: 
Summary: This isn't a good buy, no matter who you are
Review: If you are an old Greyhawk fan, this is all common knowledge. If you are getting into Greyhawk, get the Living Greyhawk Gazeteer as this smaller version is way too small to be of any real use. Sure it is only 8 dollars, but you may as well burn the money because this book, if interesting, can ONLY make you want the bigger version, and if you don't find it interesting, well... that speaks for itself.
Rating: 
Summary: Save your money
Review: If you want a good gazeteer for the world of Greyhawk, buy the Living Greyhawk Gazeteer. This is good as a refresher, or if yo just need the map. It's size means the info on everything is limited. Very brief writeups on the various countries and factions don't have enough meat to make your own campaigns off of unless you're looking to make the Greyhawk world your own creation. But if that's the case, why aren't you creating your own world instead of buying an official one? Save the money and buy the Living GreyHawk book. It has more to it and is more worth the money.
Rating:
Summary: Save your money
Review: If you want a good gazeteer for the world of Greyhawk, buy the Living Greyhawk Gazeteer. This is good as a refresher, or if yo just need the map. It's size means the info on everything is limited. Very brief writeups on the various countries and factions don't have enough meat to make your own campaigns off of unless you're looking to make the Greyhawk world your own creation. But if that's the case, why aren't you creating your own world instead of buying an official one? Save the money and buy the Living GreyHawk book. It has more to it and is more worth the money.
Rating:
Summary: mediocre
Review: Its your basic setting nothing special, its worth it if you dont got the bucks or dont want to wait for the forgotten realms or any other more specific setting.Also good for beginners!!!
Rating: 
Summary: Just what we needed.
Review: Just in case you wanted to bolt adventures together and needed something to hang them on, here's the very thing. If you ever played 'Traveller', Adventures in the world of space trading and stuff, you had a complete map of the universe with data on every planet. This made plugging one adventure into the next, to create a whole campaign, easy. This is just what we needed to glue the edges of all our new adventures.
Rating:
Summary: A good book for beginners....
Review: OK, this book is for those who don't know a lot about the world of Greyhawk setting. There have been previous intro products for WG they were more detailed in comparison. However, as I said, this is a beginner's guide and this is affordable for those wanting a peek before buying something more advanced/detailed (there WILL be other WG products this year, keep that in mind)...Anyhow, it should be good enough for a start. As long as you take these into account you'll enjoy this product. :)
| 
