Close
Close
Advanced Search

GAZ8 The Five Shires (Basic)Click to magnify
Full‑size Preview
https://watermark.dmsguild.com/pdf_previews/16980-sample.pdf

GAZ8 The Five Shires (Basic)

ADD TO WISHLIST >
Selected Option:

Humans (and other races) call them "halflings," and tend not to take the little folk too seriously. They look like children, so they get treated like children?distrusted, underestimated, or just plain ignored.

But there's much more toe the hin (as the halflings call themselves) than petty thievery and childish pranks. They are a tough, mature people, proud of their legacy of centuries of survival in the face of indifference and outright persecution from other races. The Five Shires, the latest Gazetteer for the Dungeon & Dragons game system, gives you a total, in-depth look at the hin and their world, including:

  • A new halfling character class
  • Everything you need to know about halfling magic
  • Exciting adventures in the Five Shires
  • A large full color map of the Five Shires, and its towns
  • A secret about halfling pirates
  • Separate DM and player's booklets — 96 pages in all!
  • The secret of the Blackflame
Print on Demand for this product includes both books and a composite map!

Product History

GAZ8: "The Five Shires" (1988), by Ed Greenwood, is the eighth book in the "GAZ" series of Gazetteers for the Known World. It was published in September 1988.

Origins. By 1988, Greenwood was already working hard on Forgotten Realms sourcebooks and novels. However, when Bruce Heard asked him to write "The Five Shires", as part of the rapid expansion of the Known World, he was happy to contribute.

Greenwood approached "The Five Shires" as a world designer. He opted to create a "golden land of plenty", in contrast to the more violent and unstable countries that filled the Known World. The trick was then to place danger and adventure within this seemingly utopian landscape.

Famous Personalities! While driving across Canada, Greenwood chanced upon a hobby store in rural British Columbia just as "Five Shires" was released. He accidentally outed himself as the author by quoting a paragraph for a young customer who found his copy marred by an ink blotch. Afterward, the GAZ fan ran out and told the whole town about the author's presence; Greenwood found himself signing many autographs on diner napkins before he and his wife fled.

Continuing the “GAZ” Sourcebooks. "The Five Shires" continued the "GAZ" series of geographical sourcebooks for the Known World. Like its immediate predecessors, "The Five Shires" contained two books, one for players and for GMs; the players book contained lots of crunchy game bits, while the GMs book was full of fluffy source material.

"The Five Shires" was also the third of the race-oriented "GAZ" sourcebooks, the previous two being GAZ5: "The Elves of Alfheim" (1988) and GAZ6: "The Dwarves of Rockhome" (1988), both published earlier in the year.

Expanding Basic D&D. As with many of the later "GAZ" books, "The Five Shires" contains expansions to the Basic D&D rules. Most importantly it includes a new halfling subclass, the Master, who can go up to 35th level, where normal halflings were limited to 8th level. "The Five Shires" also describes a special "denial" ability available to halflings in the Shires, has mechanics for influence and clans, and expands the blackflame rules originally found in the D&D Companion Set (1984).

A History of Halflings. Halflings first appeared in OD&D (1974) as hobbits, clearly borrowed from J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings (1954-1955). However Elan Merchandising, who held Tolkien rights in the US, objected to TSR's use of Tolkien material and sent them a cease & desist in late 1977. Hobbits became halflings, but still remained very hobbit-like. The main exception was in the world of Krynn (1984+) where halflings became the child-like kender.

Halflings have never been as popular as dwarves or elves, so there weren't any major halfling sourcebooks from TSR prior to "Five Shires". Unsurprisingly, the halflings described here are still hobbit-like, with a rural country full of pipe smokers. However, "Five Shires" also details highwaymen and pirates, giving some variety to its halfling people. Greenwood also introduced a new name for halflings — hin — which allowed him to save space in the manuscript.

Half-a-decade later, TSR would release PHBR9: The Complete Book of Gnomes & Halflings (1993), their first generic look at halflings (and gnomes).

Expanding the Known World. "The Five Shires" expands on an area of the Known World that hadn't previously received much attention. Greenwood's detailed descriptions of individual communities within the Shires, complete with smaller scale maps of the areas, is reminiscent of his later work on the Volo's Guides (1992-1996, 2000) for the Forgotten Realms.

Many of the Known World setting books are linked to real-world countries. "The Five Shires" has the rural feel of the British countryside, though it doesn't seem connected to any specific part of the British Isles.

Expanding the Forgotten Realms. Greenwood also uses the word "hin" to describe the halflings of the Forgotten Realms. When asked whether "The Five Shires" could generally be used for Forgotten Realms play, Greenwood said:

"Sure. Superimpose the Luiren cities and government structure, shift places 'just a little' to make room for them, and, yes, it works admirably for that. Almost as if someone designed it that way."

Expanding the Outer Planes. "The Five Shires" also touches upon the unique cosmology of Mystara by connecting the Halfling's blackflame with the Sphere of Energy.

Future History. Greenwood wrote specifically about the halflings of the Realms in "Hin Nobody Knows" for Dragon #269 (March 2000).

About the Creators. This was Greenwood's second non-Realms book for TSR, following CM8: "The Endless Stair" (1987) and preceding SJR1: "Lost Ships" (1990). By 1988, Greenwood was extensively writing Realms books for TSR, with his first novel, Spellfire (1988), being his most notable release for the year.

About the Product Historian

The history of this product was researched and written by Shannon Appelcline, the editor-in-chief of RPGnet and the author of Designers & Dragons - a history of the roleplaying industry told one company at a time. Please feel free to mail corrections, comments, and additions to shannon.appelcline@gmail.com.

We (Wizards) recognize that some of the legacy content available on this website does not reflect the values of the Dungeons & Dragons franchise today. Some older content may reflect ethnic, racial, and gender prejudice that were commonplace in American society at that time. These depictions were wrong then and are wrong today. This content is presented as it was originally created, because to do otherwise would be the same as claiming these prejudices never existed. Dungeons & Dragons teaches that diversity is a strength, and we strive to make our D&D products as welcoming and inclusive as possible. This part of our work will never end.

pixel_trans.gif
pixel_trans.gif
 
 Customers Who Bought this Title also Purchased
pixel_trans.gif
pixel_trans.gif
Reviews (3)
Discussions (51)
Customer avatar
Jeremy G July 04, 2022 11:12 am UTC
PURCHASER
Hey GAZ fans. On page 6 of the players guide, under "Clan Loyalty" there is reference to the clan rune symbols printed on the other side of the Five Shires map. Does anyone have an original copy and know if this is accurate? If so, can we get this included in the downloadable version of this product? That would be great.
Thank you.
Customer avatar
Joe C April 23, 2022 11:46 pm UTC
Amazing think we can now have all the Gaz's. Will be purchasing my collection soon!!!! Be great to get these.
Customer avatar
William L March 18, 2022 12:51 am UTC
PURCHASER
They actually listened to us, GAZ8 POD now!
Customer avatar
Tapio P March 16, 2022 2:12 am UTC
PURCHASER
POD Please!!
Customer avatar
Jimmy L March 10, 2022 8:05 pm UTC
PURCHASER
I concur with all the others requesting a POD of this one. Would be nice to have the whole set in print.
Customer avatar
Tristan K March 08, 2022 3:28 am UTC
PURCHASER
Another vote for POD please.
Customer avatar
Shane J March 01, 2022 6:19 am UTC
PURCHASER
Why no POD?
Customer avatar
James W March 01, 2022 2:45 am UTC
PURCHASER
Print on demand please.
Customer avatar
Ajay S February 20, 2022 10:41 am UTC
PURCHASER
I'm back to add my voice once again to all the others requesting a print on demand version.

This is the last Gazetteer to go and it would be amazing to have the whole set in print.
Customer avatar
Eric R February 19, 2022 6:30 pm UTC
PURCHASER
Please make this POD. I have a halfling in my group who has become Sheriff of the Blight Swamp...the Sixth Shire! I have the PDF but I need a hard copy! The tan pages are a monster to print!

Print on Demand....pretty please!
Customer avatar
James J February 18, 2022 6:17 am UTC
PURCHASER
POD please
Customer avatar
Tapio P February 14, 2022 12:36 pm UTC
PURCHASER
POD Please!! Last one to go !!
Customer avatar
Daniel R February 11, 2022 8:23 pm UTC
PURCHASER
POD please
Customer avatar
Esmeralda T February 04, 2022 9:02 pm UTC
Another vote here for POD, as I start buying these GAZ titles with a giant helping of nostalgia.
Customer avatar
William L February 04, 2022 7:30 pm UTC
PURCHASER
POD pleasex1000
See 16 more
Narrow Results
$ to $
 Follow Your Favorites!
NotificationsSign in to get custom notifications of new products!
 Recent History















Product Information
Mithral seller
Author(s)
Artist(s)
Rules Edition(s)
Pages
96
Edition
1.0
Publisher Stock #
TSR 9232
File Size:
84.42 MB
Format
Scanned image Click for more information
Scanned image
These products were created by scanning an original printed edition. Most older books are in scanned image format because original digital layout files never existed or were no longer available from the publisher.

For PDF download editions, each page has been run through Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software to attempt to decipher the printed text. The result of this OCR process is placed invisibly behind the picture of each scanned page, to allow for text searching. However, any text in a given book set on a graphical background or in handwritten fonts would most likely not be picked up by the OCR software, and is therefore not searchable. Also, a few larger books may be resampled to fit into the system, and may not have this searchable text background.

For printed books, we have performed high-resolution scans of an original hardcopy of the book. We essentially digitally re-master the book. Unfortunately, the resulting quality of these books is not as high. It's the problem of making a copy of a copy. The text is fine for reading, but illustration work starts to run dark, pixellating and/or losing shades of grey. Moiré patterns may develop in photos. We mark clearly which print titles come from scanned image books so that you can make an informed purchase decision about the quality of what you will receive.
pixel_trans.gif
Original electronic format
These ebooks were created from the original electronic layout files, and therefore are fully text searchable. Also, their file size tends to be smaller than scanned image books. Most newer books are in the original electronic format. Both download and print editions of such books should be high quality.
File Information
Watermarked PDF Click for more information
Watermarked PDF

These PDF files are digitally watermarked to signify that you are the owner. A small message is added to the bottom of each page of the PDF containing your name and the order number of your purchase.

Warning: If any files bearing your information are found being distributed illegally, then your account will be suspended and legal action may be taken against you.

Here is a sample of a page from a watermarked title:

File Last Updated:
August 11, 2014
This title was added to our catalog on August 12, 2014.