Greyhawk Adventures - Publication History

Publication History

Greyhawk Adventures was written by James M. Ward, with cover art by Jeff Easley, and was published by TSR, Inc. in 1988 as a 128 page hardbound book. The book features additional design by Daniel Salas, Skip Williams, Nigel D. Findley, Thomas Kane, Stephen Inniss, Len Carpenter, and Eric Oppen. Editing and coordination was by Warren Spector, with editing by Anne Browne, Karen Boomgarden, Steve Winter, Mike Breault, Scott Haring, and Jon Pickens and special developmental work by Pickens. The book was the thirteenth hardback manual published for the 1st edition Advanced Dungeons & Dragons rules, though a note on its cover states the book is also compatible with the 2nd Edition. It was the final hardback manual published for 1st edition. The book features interior illustrations by Easley, Jeff Dee, Diesel, Larry Elmore, Jim Holloway, Erol Otus, Dave Sutherland, Dave Trampier, and Gary Williams.

TSR released Greyhawk Adventures in response to requests from Greyhawk fans, and the book is unusual among AD&D hardcover manuals in that the author solicited input from the gaming community about what subjects to include in the book before publishing it. Ward later credited the 511 letters he received as the major impetus for including the rules for zero-level characters and adventures, both topics that had not been previously included in hardcover AD&D manuals.

Unlike many AD&D manuals, Greyhawk Adventures was not reissued for the 2nd or 3rd editions of D&D, although much of its content was incorporated into other supplements. All but two of the monsters introduced in Greyhawk Adventures, for example, reappeared in the Greyhawk Adventures Monstrous Compendium appendix (ISBN 0-88038-836-6).

Greyhawk Adventures takes its name and logo from a series of novels written by Gary Gygax and Rose Estes, published by TSR in the 1980s. The logo was later used on several 2nd Edition AD&D products, such as City of Skulls and The Marklands.