City - City of Greyhawk Contour Map

City of Greyhawk Contour Map

Please forgive the grade-school style of my work, but I've never been a dab hand at drawing or cartography.

This map is based on the map found in Gygax's City of Hawk's novel.

The Purple is the highest elevation with each elevation depicting around a 50 foot rise, then red, green, and uncolored. The Blue represents the Selintan River. The red lines represents the city walls.

I placed the Citadel at the highest elevation. High, Garden and River quarters I envisioned as hills that had been shaped and plateaued. The University and Clerkberg areas as well. The Old City I saw as a two step plateau with a higher elevation in the center with one end containing the Old City barracks, now the Prison Workhouse.

For the most part I have seen the City of Greyhawk depicted as flat, but in City of Hawks it mentions that, "The rambling walls follow the entire complex of ridges and hills that rolled from the northern tip of Old City to where the Grey Run and the Selintan flowed together."

The colored splotches shown on this map are a very rough estimate. Within each area I see winding streets, some cliff-like areas while others rise slowly to higher areas. Some areas may have a more ridged or sculpted appearances, while many of the streets and buildings may tilt at angles in a ramshackle and shoddy construction.

City of Greyhawk Outer Wall and Gate

City of Greyhawk Outer Wall and Gate

Sorry for the rough map, but I'm terrible at drawing.

This seems to match the City of Greyhawk outer wall description from the City of Hawks novel.

"A double wall encircled the city. All of Greyhawk - Old City, the larger area called New Town and the Citadel too were within it. The outer curtain was some twenty-five feet high. This wall splayed out at the base where it met a ditch, or moat, or some other watercourse, and was topped with serried merlons and crenels to protect defenders in time of war.

Between the outer and inner walls was a relatively level sward a hundred or more feet broad. The outside edge of this strip of grass was level with the battlements that topped the outer wall. The crowning stone of the inner wall was much higher. The city had been built on a large hill - not especially high, but large in area. Those on the sward between the walls could look upward forty feet to where machicolated battlements stood topping the massively thick curtains of the inner wall. At intervals there were bastions on the outer wall, and matching them on the inside were tall towers.

Wherevere the walls were pierced by gates, the sward was broken. Every way that led into the city resembled a road at the bottom of a canyon. Travelers from the outside would pass through a gatehouse first, then a long passage, open above, but flanked by walls on either hand; then a tunnel that bored through another, bigger tower."

This is a very crude depiction of the outer wall. I intend to crudely draw out the various streets and buildings as well as add detail of interiors while trying to keep them faithful to the available information provided for the city.

Verbobonc - Sir Anglrieve's Manor - Part 4 The Map 5-9

Verbobonc - Sir Anglrieve's Manor - Part 4 The Map 5-9                   

Graph squares are 5feet x 5feet

4. Gate Walkway

The Gate Walkway (or Upper Walkway) above contains the mechanism for lifting the Draw-bridge. The mechanism and chains are part of the enchantment and are extremely resistant to normal damage. There are two winding spindles on the wall of the walkway and the chain wraps around them but turns into a thin silver wire instead of the ponderous links that appear outside of the wall connected to the bridge. By placing a hand on the side of the spindle and turning a small crank the Draw-bridge can be raised quickly and easily and lowered in a reverse turning. Both spindles must be activated at the same time requiring two people to operate it.

Beneath the walkway a normal gate can be closed to bar the entrance if the Drawbridge is lowered. A crossbeam requiring a strength total of 36 is needed to lift the beam into place. 

During the day the Draw-bridge is lowered and the gate shut until entrance is requested. The guards from the towers are responsible for handling the gate and the Draw-Bridge. At nightfall the Draw-bridge is raised and the gate shut and barred.

5. The Wall Walkway is 10 feet wide and runs the circumphrence of the manor except for the towers and the Gate Walkway. There are several ladders kept at various points for access or they can be accessed through the third floor of the Gate Towers. 

Each section of wall is walked by at least 1 bow-armed guardsman night and day.

6. There is a 10 foot grass verge between the base of the wall and the Moat.

7. The Hideworker lives here with her husband and two children. She is both a lightly experienced Ranger and one of the manor's hunters as is her husband. During times of trouble they make room for several of her relatives and pack the place with sleeping mats.

There are archer-holes cut in the two walls facing the grounds.

8. The Wagon Shed has room for one wagon but mainly contains tools and supplies for repairing or even constructing a wagon. During times of trouble local farmers sleep here if the Main Buildings are full. Otherwise during trouble at least two militia will be stationed here.

There are archer-holes cut in the wall facing the grounds.

9. The Wainright

The Wainright and his wife and daughter live in this small one room house. During times of trouble they move into the great hall and at least two miltia members will be stationed here. If the main hall is overflowing then the house will be used for housing.

There are archer-holes cut in the wall facing the grounds.

Verbobonc - Sir Anglrieve's Manor - Part 3 The Map 1-3

Verbobonc - Sir Anglrieve's Manor - Part 3 The Map 1-3 

The Manor is walled with a moat. 

1. The Moat

The Moat is twenty feet wide and twenty feet deep. The bottom of the Moat has iron spikes embedded in it. The spikes are coated with an enchanted paint that is meant to prevent rust, but about half the spikes have rusted through. There is a stream that feeds the Moat to the upper north-east of the keep and an escape tunnel from the well at the bottom of the old tower (Area 11b) opens up at the bottom of the Moat in this north-east corner.

Occasionally a large animal or monstrous creature will find its way from the stream into the most but the nearness of the farms and villagers makes it too dangerous to keep such creatures as further defenses for the manor and they are normally slain or charmed and removed.

2. The Draw-Bridge

The Draw-Bridge is a huge twenty by forty foot construction of wood and iron. Huge chains are set into iron rings to either side and a set of enchanted pulleys are set in the arch above the gateway. The enchantment allows a normal strength human to raise the Draw-Bidge as if it weighed only a small fraction of its true weight and to let it descend gently and quickly without smashing down on the far bank of the Moat. When raised the Draw-Bridge completely fills the gate.

3. The Gate Towers

The Gate Towers are identical structures. When under siege the towers act as barracks for members of militia. Normally only four guardsmen are stationed inside each tower. 

The first floor of each tower has no openings in the walls but the second, third and fourth all pierced with archer holes allowing two men to fire from the sides and four men from the front or back. The exception is the front wall of the second floor. Each tower has two large openings on the second floor with a bolt thrower at each. The four guardsmen always assigned to the Gate Towers are stationed here two to each bolt thrower. These are cumbersome weapons but very powerful. One man fires but it takes two men to load.

Each tower has a door on the third floor that opens on the Wall Walkway and a door on the fourth floor that opens Gate Walkway.

Verbobonc - Sir Anglrieve's Manor - Part 2 The Map

Verbobonc - Sir Anglrieve's Manor - Part 2 The Map

Each square is 10x10 feet
Walls are worked stone with a dirt center 10 feet thick with last 10ft crenelated. 30ft high with top 10ft crenelated


1.  Moat
2. Drawbridge
3. Gate Tower
4. Gate Walkway
5. Wall Walkway
6. 10ft verge at base of wall
7. Workshop - Tanner/Hideworker
8. Wagonshed
9. Wainright
10. Stables
11. Main Buildings
11a. Great Hall
11b. Old Tower - Armory, Barracks, Treasury
11c. Barracks covered entrance.
11d. Family and Servants Residence
11e. Connection between buildings
11f. Kitchen, Brewery, Servants Residence, Food Storage
11g. Workshop, Storage
12. Smithy
13. Kennels
14. Well House
15. Stream connecting to Moat
16. Packed earth grounds.

Baron Festeburt's Manor

Baron Festeburt's Manor

NOTE: Inspired by Tim Short's map and adventure work I've decided to throw my own hat into the ring and try to do some rough map work of my own. To start off a new campaign I want to have some local areas a group of players can use as a source for training, plot hooks and adventure ideas. The local lord or squire's manor is a good place for adventurers to find all three so here is my first sketch of Baron Festeburt's manor. More detailed maps and descriptions to follow.

Map Request

Regional Products of the Flanaess - Cloth and Fur

Blue = Fur
Red = Cloth

As can be seen the origional resource map shows a strong interconnection between areas exporting fur (almost all the northern realms with the exception of Blackmoor and the Snow Barbarians. The same is reasonably true regarding cloth production and export.

Fur in this case can be guessed at as referring to heavy winter furs rather than the inclusion of pelts, skins or hides.

Cloth production and especially exportation seems much more questionable. It is so widespread that it makes me wonder who is buying the exports?

City of Greyhawk Random Dwelling Generator #1

1) Single story 20x30 home with cellar and attic.

A common building often found in the:

Beggar's Quarter
Brewer's Quarter
Clerksburg
Carftsman's Ward
Foreign Quarter
Labor Quarter
Low Quarter
River Quarter

It is less commonly found in the:

Garden Quarter
Hutsham
Slums
The Shacks
The Strip
Thieves Quarter
Trade Areas
University Area

It is rarely found in the:

The Halls
High Quarter
Plaza D'Haut

As with most homes found in the city:

Cellar:

The cellar is normally a dirt floor whose walls are constructed of stone slabs or boulders. Two wooden support beams help to hold up the wooden floor of the first level. This is typically used as a storage place for food (jars of preserved fruits and vegetables, meats, herbs, etc...), beverages, normally kegs or barrels of ale or beer, sometimes smaller barrels or bottles of stronger drink. These cellars are normally dank and musty, mice are common, but rats can be found (more likely to be encountered in the Beggar's Quarter, River Quarter, Hutsham, Slums, The Shacks & The Thieve's Quarter).

In some areas, most notably in Old City Quarters, as well as the High Quarter, Trade Areas and the River Quarter, these cellars will be floored with stone and access to the sewer system beneath the city is common through grates or metal-lidded passages.

The First Floor:

Stone is easy to come by in the City of Greyhawk so most dwellings have either their first story walls constructed of stone, or of stone halfway up (three or four feet) and then wood.

Exterior doors are stout, often studded with iron nails or banded in bronze or iron in the Plaza D'Haut, Thieve's Quarter, River Quarter, Hutsham & The Shacks. These doors will often have a simple iron lock, and all will have staples and a bar ready to be dropped in place on the inside.

In the Beggar's Quarter and the Slums doors are commonly found broken or in disrepair. Most have a set of iron staples so that the door can be barred from the inside, but, for the most part, doors will have a simple wooden latch (in these quarters anything as valuable as a lock will most often have been pried or cut from an unprotected door.

In all other quarters exterior doors are stout, and capable of being barred from within but normally do not have locks.

First floor windows do not normally contain glass. In the Plaza D'Haut, Thieve's Quarter, River Quarter, Hutsham & The Shacks iron bars are often found. A double set of shutters is often in place, both capable of being bolted or barred from within.

In all other quarters first floor windows normally have a single set of shutters capable of being barred from within. In both the Beggar's Quarter and the Slums shutters are often missing or broken, with boards nailed into place over the empty window-frame.

First floor interiors normally consist of a single 10x15 bedroom. The rest of the first floor is a small area set around the fireplace with perhaps a cabinet for food, a stone sink, water-barrel, small table and chairs. There is a back door immediately across from the front in most dwelling with cellar stairs to onside and attic stairs to the other. Ceilings tend to be six to ten feet.

Second Story

Second stories are wood construction. In areas where the first floor windows are barred, so too are attic windows. There will also be shutters, normally a single set capable of being barred, latched or bolted from within. Even in the Beggar's and Slum Quarters these shutters are often found intact.

The two upstairs rooms are often bedrooms, but sometime used for storage. A trapdoor and ladder allow access to the roof and the area around the chimney stack often has a table or work-bench.

The roof is wooden with curved brickwork tiles. A gutter runs along the edges front and back. In the Beggar's Quarter and the Slums these roof tiles are often missing and the roof sagging or warped.

The Exterior

The back of most homes has an outhouse with a honey-pot and a shed containing gardening equipment (most tools of any value are kept indoors). The fence is most frequently made of wooden boards.

Most Greyhawkers grow food in their small plots of land. Larger areas will likely have a few hens and henhouse, goats or a pig or two.

At each corner of the house a gutter runs down to a water-barrel. Plumbing or wells are rarely, if ever, found in these dwellings.

Occupants

These homes are inhabited, for the most part, by small families of two parents, three to five children and a grandparent or great uncle/aunt. These are dwellings of peasants and commoners who have some form of employment.

In Hutsham and The Shacks these dwellings are often in good repair and occupied by the more well-to-do of the down-and-out of Greyhawk. They are sometimes used as guardposts, or homes of overseers and minor bosses.

There are likely to be found 2-5 1st Level Fighters or Thieves with a 2nd level Fighter or Thief in charge.

Walls surrounding these dwellings in Hutsham and The Shacks will be 8 to 10 feet high of stone with broken glass or spikes on top, or tree-boles with spiked tops. A door or gate in the back fence is likely. Yards may contain a shack or shed with 2-4 0-level servants living within.

City of Greyhawk Outer Wall and Gate

Sorry for the rough map, but I'm terrible at drawing.

This seems to match the City of Greyhawk outer wall description from the City of Hawks novel.

"A double wall encircled the city. All of Greyhawk - Old City, the larger area called New Town and the Citadel too were within it. The outer curtain was some twenty-five feet high. This wall splayed out at the base where it met a ditch, or moat, or some other watercourse, and was topped with serried merlons and crenels to protect defenders in time of war.

Between the outer and inner walls was a relatively level sward a hundred or more feet broad. The outside edge of this strip of grass was level with the battlements that topped the outer wall. The crowning stone of the inner wall was much higher. The city had been built on a large hill - not especially high, but large in area. Those on the sward between the walls could look upward forty feet to where machicolated battlements stood topping the massively thick curtains of the inner wall. At intervals there were bastions on the outer wall, and matching them on the inside were tall towers.

Wherevere the walls were pierced by gates, the sward was broken. Every way that led into the city resembled a road at the bottom of a canyon. Travelers from the outside would pass through a gatehouse first, then a long passage, open above, but flanked by walls on either hand; then a tunnel that bored through another, bigger tower."

I've seen the fan drawn map of the City of Hawks and the map published in LGJ#2. Both are excellent and well beyond my own cartographic skills, but while the first is much more faithful to the map from City of Hawks I dislike the squareness of the streets and districts. I also haven't compared the scale of this map with the scale from the book. The Greyhawk of City of Hawks is vast. About six miles wide by nine mile long within the walls.

The latter, Maldin's map is about one third of this size. It is also not faithful to the City of Hawks maps in a number of ways. The exterior rivers are missing, the Bastion outside the walls is missing, the Citadel and many districts have been moved. The interior wall seperating the Old City and smaller wall seperating the Foreign Quarter, etc...

One of the things I want in a Gygaxian City of Greyhawk is the ability to connect the streets and place various inns, taverns and other buildings as described in the novels. While this may be possible in the fan created version I just don't feel that the shape or size of the city is captured to my liking.

This is a very crude depiction of the outer wall. I intend to crudely draw out the various streets and buildings as well as add detail of interiors while trying to keep them faithful to the available information provided for the city.