Greyhawk Adventures (1988), by James M. Ward, is a weird one. It, and its sibling, Dragonlance Adventures (1987), sort of builds on the idea, put forth in Oriental Adventures (1985), of creating books that were part campaign sourcebook and part setting-specific player’s handbook. Except that description is way more consistent than the contents of any of the later Adventures books (including 1990’s Forgotten Realms Adventures).

This is basically a compilation of random Greyhawky bits and bobs: some gods, some monsters, some NPCs, some spells, some magic items and brief overview of the lands of Oerth (it suddenly occurs to me that this “a little bit of everything” approach forms the organizational basis of many, many 3E books). It also includes rules for 0-level characters, a 1E curiosity that allows players to play characters who haven’t yet chosen their class, which I dig (and is something, I think, that informs the gonzo Dungeon Crawl Classics character creation funnel). 

Funny thing: this is the only Adventures book that actually contains adventures – 6 mini ones. They’re aight. 

Though I am fond of it, I never knew what to make of this book. It doesn’t actually feel as Greyhawky as, well, pretty much every other Greyhawk product (notable exception: Castle Greyhawk). I think that is probably because it is such a potpourri – it never gives you enough of the stuff you want, and saddles you with plenty you don’t. Dragonlance Adventures has a similar problem. This is exacerbated by the art. While good – the credits are a who’s who of heavy hitting classic D&D artists – the wild variety actually makes the book feel overly generic (though I love the John Carpenter’s The Fog vibes from that undead sailor breaking down the door). None of it picks up on the vibes of Jeff Easley’s Boris Vallejo-esque cover, which always reminded me of He-Man for some reason. I would be down for a He-Man flavored D&D campaign sourcebook.