Revisiting Greyhawk

Swords & Sorcery Adventure
In his Foreword to Supplement I, Greyhawk, Gary Gygax refers to "...the swords and sorcery of DUNGEONS & DRAGONS games." The fantastical fiction stories written by pulp magazine and science fiction authors and generally termed "swords and sorcery" served as an inspiration for the authors and players of the World's Original Fantasy RPG. Emulating the swords and sorcery style adventure story was seen as a goal of the early game, which combined with a new gaming phenomenon growing in popularity, specifically the underground dungeon, and an increasing audience for fantasy, in part due to the work of J.R.R. Tolkien, resulted in a large market for the new hobby which surprised even the creators. To feed the desire for the public to know more about this new wonder, TSR published additional material in the form of more Little Brown Books they titled "Supplements". The first two supplements are titled after the home campaigns of the two original authors, Greyhawk and Blackmoor.

Supplement I sets the standard for future additions to the popular system of TSR Rules. Included are additional classes, new spells and more monsters, magical treasures, "...and various additions to the suggestions and rules for adventuring above and below the ground." Future supplements to the Original Game and later versions published by TSR will follow the format set forth in Greyhawk. The organization of Supplement I mimics that of the original three Little Brown Books with sections devoted to Men & Magic, Monsters & Treasure and The Underworld & Wilderness Adventures. It is the additions under Men & Magic that signal a major alteration to the Original Rules. Supplement I adds a fourth character class, Thieves, to the milieu. Thieves may be neutral or chaotic in alignment, but not lawful, "...although lawful characters my hire them on a one-time basis for missions which are basically lawful."

Thieves progress in certain basic abilities including opening locks, listening for noise behind closed doors, hide in shadows, move with great stealth, and strike silently from behind. The abilities improve with level advancement. Hear Noise is listed as starting at a 2 in 6 chance, the ability to Open Locks and Remove Traps starts at a modest 15% and 10% respectively. The scores needed to Pick Pockets or Move Silently is 20%, and Hide In Shadows is 10% at level 1. Striking silently from behind grants the Thief a 20% (+4) bonus to hit and inflicts double damage. Thieves can also climb nearly shear surfaces, but Supplement I does not offer a numerical value for this ability, rather stating at level 1 there is a 13% chance of falling while climbing.
I find the Thief class troublesome on two levels. 1) The ability scores needed to succeed are so poor at 1st level (except Listening for Noise?) as to suggest nothing but failure most of the time, failure leading to discovery and conflict;  2) The use of a percentage mechanic seems inconsistent with the d6 and d20 dice used to determine outcome in other abilities, and;   3) By the inclusion of Thieves, Supplement I seems to imply that these abilities are unique to Thieves and therefore unavailable to non-thieves. No moving silently for Magic Users. No striking from behind advantage for Fighting Men. How about listening for noise at closed doors?
Non-human characters, elves, dwarves and hobbits (halflings), all have class restrictions and level limits in the White Box. presumably to encourage players to choose human characters. Thieves have no level limits for dwarves, elves, half-elves (a new race introduced in Greyhawk) or hobbits who all may continue "...to advance to the highest levels." Inclusion of half-elves as a player character race option expands the scope of the milieu in an interesting way. In Vol. 1, Men & Magic it states under the heading Other Character Types: "There is no reason that players cannot be allowed to play as virtually anything, provided they begin relatively weak and work up to the top". Whether inspired by certain characters found in Professor Tolkien's work, or based on some other source in the Greyhawk campaign, half-elves are described in Supplement I as a mix of elvish and human heritage and may advance as Magic Users and Fighting Men similar to the rules for elves and may be Thieves per Supplement I. The book states, "There are no half-elf Clerics, for in this regard their human side prevails." However, it also states "...half-elves with a basic wisdom score of 13 or more may also become clerics.
Some "fixes" or houserules that can make Greyhawk Thieves more appealing to me include placing level limits on the class for demihumans consistent with White Box. The low starting percentages for Thieves can be mitigated by the referee treating Thieves abilities rather like Keepers often treat skills in Call of Cthulhu, that is assign a "bonus" to easy traps, locks, etc. thereby making it more likely Thieves will succeed. Thieves are not a bad idea, but I do think they belong in certain campaigns and not so much others. If the referee fancies a lot of urban intrigue and sculduggery, by all means include Thieves. Perhaps even encourage most players to pick the class for their PC. Thieves may make an appearance in campaigns centered upon dungeon delving, but I personally would leave them out. Thieves and paladins (a new sub-class of fighting men introduced in Greyhawk) don't work in the same party because - Alignment! Supplement I states, "They [paladins] will associate only with lawful characters."
It seems that the half-elves require some explanation as well. I rather like the approach taken in the Midgard Worldbook by Kobold Press which portrays half-elves as being folks with some elvish blood. They are termed the elfmarked and they may manifest certain elvish traits. I have borrowed this idea for my own home-brew campaign where a 30+ year war between the elves and men has resulted in the true elves withdrawing from the world leaving only a scattering of humans with elvish blood (half-elves) behind.

"...it appears that there will never be an end to the development of fresh ideas..." - E. Gary Gygax, Supplement I, Greyhawk, 1975