A year or so later after much procrastination the wish-list was further reworked as was seen in Dragon #55, More 'Meat' for Greyhawk(Gygax):
"A. Regular WORLD OF GREYHAWK game information There are few 'pure' racial groups extant on the Flanaess, via the 'Sorcerer's Scroll' column - you have the first here!"
"B. Completion of the CITY OF GREYHAWK map and gazetteer. Rob, Terry Kuntz, and Eric Shook are now at work on the project."
"C. Detailed, smaller-scale maps of important areas of the Flanaess, complete with important residents and some encounters. The same team has ruled off the world map, and as soon as CITY OF GREYHAWK is finished, I expect this project to move ahead with force."
"D. Miniatures rules for large-scale battles between the states of Oerth - in limbo now, although Steve Carpenter of Minifigs has mentioned that he is working on possible rules for this use."
"E. GREYHAWK CASTLE & DUNGEONS production - at this point, this is only in a very general discussion stage, because of the other projects and the fact that the existing is only suitable for use by Rob and I. (As with most extensive dungeon complexes, much is developed and kept in the head due to actual play, and some areas are so difficult as to be impossible for those not used to our DM style.) So, initial work is unlikely to begin on this effort until sometime in late 1982."
With these wishlists for Greyhawk we saw that TSR had alot on their plate to do in the ensuing years after the setting went public. Of course, it should come to noone's surprise that they fell short of expectations. But using the 7th-level name spell, Rary's Hindsight we can now look back and see it's a startling fact that Greyhawk did eventually manage to somewhat accomplish much of what Gygax & Co. had originally planned, even if the end result was somewhat twisted:
"Connected to the World of Greyhawk project is a set of miniature rules for large-scale battles there, and to get ready for that, I had to complete rosters for the 'Armies of Greyhawk.' It is all in the capable hands of Steve Carpenter of Miniature Figurines now. Steve is going to do an excellent set of rules, I know, and MiniFigs will do a special line of Armies of Greyhawk miniature figurines soon."
- What's Ahead for TSR?, The Dragon #35
It's a shame this project stalled out of the gate, because Gygax had apparently already worked on many of the army lists. He featured these in his Dragon #37 column. It was only in this obscure place that DMs would likely ever find info on the forces of the well-known NPCs, Bigby, Mordenkainen, Robilar, Tenser and 'the Unnamed' better known as Erac's Cousin. The left-overs of this nascent project were surely the backbone of Gygax's later Sorceror's Scroll articles dealing with the politics and wars of the Eastern, Southern and Northern Flanaess. While these articles are a trove of military data, Gygax unfortunately never got around to the Western parts.
"Steve Carpenter of Miniature Figurines Ltd. is currently designing a set of miniatures rules for warfare on the World of Greyhawk. These rules will set forth the orders of battle of the states of the Flanaess and add to the information pertaining to the 'World.' At the same time, miniature figurines of the various troops are being assembled, so that details of what various units look like will also be known-say the Overking's Guards or the Knights of the Hart. In addition to having adventures, campaign participants will soon be able to fight major battles which will affect the course of things. The figure line could eventually number in the hundreds of sets, with possibly a thousand different figures. The initial release will be in the 50-set range, according to Steve. Of course, I'll be contributing to the miniatures rules, and I'm helping to select figure types. The rules and figures will be significant contributions towards developing the 'World,' but more is needed."
- Greyhawk: The Shape of the World, The Dragon #37
Minifigs did indeed manage to put out nearly 75 sets of these Greyhawk minis, maybe not the 'thousands' that Gygax was dreaming of, but it was a minor victory for the Greyhawk collectors out there at the time(myself not included-someday!). Why the mini effort stalled and what became of Carpenter's rulesset is beyond the scope of my research. Perhaps Gygax's love of warfare gaming was not strong enough to be imposed on the general RPG crowd so he shelved it. At any rate, check out the list of what was made, it's a fairly impressive lineup.
Update: Also check out Joe Bloch's ongoing efforts at collecting these rare minis here.
Tremble with fear at Hardby's all Amazon Cavalry with toxic lead spears!
(Thanks Greyhawk Grognard)
In 1985 with Greyhawk still hot as an iron, TSR put out Battlesystem. This tabletop miniature boardgame included decent mass combat rules, two miniature generals and gobs of counters (which I still use to this day). Battlesystem did well enough to carry over into AD&D 2nd edition and a further 'skirmish' rules, but it was still not tied to Greyhawk explicitly. Then in 1991, the grim specter of Gygax's original plan for Flanaess-wide war finally erupted with the release of the setting specific, Greyhawk Wars boxed set. This game was quite a different animal from Battlesystem and was more akin to boardgames like Risk or Axis and Allies rather than what Gygax envisioned back in the 70's. So how did fans receive this product that finally brought the promise of Greyhawk warfare to a full-circle?
Possible mock-up cover for Shadowlords or a space-fantasy boardgame? I can't tell for sure. ;)
"...modules of the World of Greyhawk are currently in the works. Skip Williams is working on my original outline for Shadowland, and from what I’ve seen so far, we should be able to have a final product out this year. The module will be an adventure on the Plane of Shadow—perhaps that should be Quasi-plane of Shadow."
- The Dragon #37, Greyhawk: The Shape of the World
This module was evidently scrapped within a year, but then in 1986 a rather familiar sounding module appeared in the TSR Product Catalog; WG7 Shadowlords was to be a 48 page adventure not by Skip Williams but by Gygax and Ralph Williams. Hmm. This module was also cancelled except this time due to a nasty ongoing lawsuit between Gygax and TSR. It's a shame because the plot synopsis was very intriguing:
"A high-level module set in the WORLD OF GREYHAWK Fantasy World Setting. Journey to the perilous Plane of Shadow to rescue Princess Esterilla and confront the master of that plane... and then find yourself an unexpected guest at a wedding where the guests include a lizardman, a catlord, and a mistress of illusion!"
Then there was the other planar modules Gygax mentioned...
"Other such modules are also in the hopper. As I’d mentioned in a previous column, Steve Marsh sent me a wealth of material on various planes, just as I was getting my own creative processes going. At first I envisioned a long-distance exchange with manuscripts eventually going back and forth between us. Now Steve will be coming to work for TSR this summer for a couple of months or so, and I have hope that he and I can work up general outlines and hammer out details, so that only one exchange of materials will be needed for each piece. Because of this, there might be as many as ten World of Greyhawk modules based on the planes by the end of 1981 or mid-82. Much depends on Steve and me, but the needs of the Kindly Publisher must also be considered. If you are really hot to see these scenarios, start asking for them. Customer pressure does get back to us via retailers and wholesalers. In fact, sometimes it is hard to tell them from the fans, for their inquiries soon become demands after a missed deadline or two. I’ll get back to demands a bit later."
- The Dragon #37, Greyhawk: The Shape of the World
Ten modules on the planes plus another one on the Plane of Shadows. Wow. That would be a tall order for even Paizo in their Greyhawk-Adventure Path heyday. Well apparently as Gygax expected the fans didn't demand much about the Planes as none of these projects materialized in the time frame originally mapped out. And as we saw earlier, it was rightly dropped by Gygax and Co. so they could focus on other projects, that is when they felt like it.
Does your head hurt yet? Good.