D&D (2024) Greyhawk Confirmed. Tell Me Why.

[Parmandur]

Legacy. You may think a new direction is necessary to attract and keep newer players, but legacy is a strong attraction. I know when I started D&D I didnt want it to fit my perception of what was hip, I wanted to know its history.

Yup. Leaning into the origins of the game and old stuff from the 80s will appeal to kids who like fantasy literature, based on my experience of once being a kid into fantasy literature.

 

[Charlaquin]

Greyhawk is a world inspired by Gygax's love of sword and sorcery pulp fantasy and hard coded medievalism. I just don't understand how that is going to appeal to generations raised on Avatar, Harry Potter and Steven Universe.

One of these things is not like the others. I’m from the generation that was raised on Avatar and Harry Potter. I graduated college the year Steven Universe came out.

 

[Parmandur]

One of these things is not like the others. I’m from the generation that was raised on Avatar and Harry Potter. I graduated college the year Steven Universe came out.

Yeah, my experience is that even Zoomers (who are, again, aging out of the target demo for D&D) are not that into Harry Potter. That's an Elder Millenial thing, and fading.

 

[Parmandur]

As to Gen Alpha fantasy touchstones, Greyhawk is a perfect fit for How to Traik Your Dragon, Amulet or Lightfall style adventuring.

 

[overgeeked]

Ah. There it is. Thanks.

It sounds like they’re going to emphasize the sword & sorcery aspects which is absolutely not 5E’s strong point. Mentioning it’s less fleshed out and has vast unexplored wilderness gives me points-of-light vibes. If they do that, awesome. Though I agree that the chances of them excluding anything race, class, etc is zero.

If they really wanted to grab today’s younger people, they’d be going all in on anime. Especially with series like Frieren blowing up the internet. Which would be wonderfully full circle. Frieren is basically “what happens to Deedlit after Record of Lodoss War.” Lodoss War was based on a Japanese home game of early D&D.

 

[Gradine]

If I had to wager, I'd guess that they're going to lean heavily into the "Points of Light" aspect of Greyhawk. It's definitely not going to resemble anything close to the "Not in MY Greyhawk" version of the setting. There will be some of the iconic locations and heroes and villains, and whole lot of "here be monsters (and tieflings, I guess)".

 

[Reynard]

So what we are saying is that there are going to be some very, very unhappy greynards?

 

[billd91]

How did they justify it then? I am just curious. Greyhawk never grabbed my attention enough to read more than a few Dragon articles.

What justification is needed? Greyhawk was pretty much everything D&D when it first came out. I don't see why that would have to change. Some assumptions would change because the game has evolved, but that's about it. Everything else can pretty much fit if you want it to.

 

[payn]

So what we are saying is that there are going to be some very, very unhappy greynards?

I thought it was called Groghawk?

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

So what we are saying is that there are going to be some very, very unhappy greynards?

How do we differentiate them from the other Greyhawk fans?