D&D 5E Greyhawk: Player Options for a Campaign Setting

[Plaguescarred]

I could see players options in a GREYHAWK campaign settings book to contain things like;

New subraces such as Human Backlunish, Flanae, Oeridian, Olman, Rhennee, Suloise and Touv

New Snow and Valley Elf subrace

New Furchin Halfling subrace

New Thilronian Primal Path for Barbarian

New College of Olidammara for Bard

New Old Faith Druid Circle

New Zuoken Monastic Tradition for Monk

New Knight of Holy Shielding Sacred Oath for Paladin

New Gnarley Forest Ranger Archetype

New Suel Sorcerer origin

New Tharizdun Pact for Warlock

New Backgrounds such as Knight of Hart, Knight of the Watch, Scarlett Brotherhood, Prophet, Zealot,

Unique Dieties and new Domain such as Pestilence or Entropy

New languages such as Baklunish, Flan, Oeridian, Rhopan, Suloise and Touv

Gazeteer of the Flanaess

New monsters such as sons of Kyuss, Suel liches, froghemoths, vegepygmies, valley elves, grugach elves, spell weavers, animuses, sussuri, xvarts, norkers, varrangoins, losels, gingwatzim, manscorpions, Scarlett Brotherhood cultist, Greyhawk dragons, blood golems of Hextor, swordwraiths, grungs, qullans etc

 

[Nikosandros]

Some of this proposals are interesting, but human "sub-races" doesn't look like a good idea to me.

 

[Voadam]

Greyhawk has a diverse range of kingdoms with different strong classic themes that can easily be modified to fit into other worlds, so if you have a new player option for the elven kingdom of Celene it can probably work fairly easily for elves of Evermeet in FR.

I can see doing pirate stuff, thief/thief guild stuff, viking style barbarian stuff, Mongol type barbarian stuff, various orders of knights stuff, Warlock pacts to fit in with Tharizdun/Horned Society/Demon Lords (Grazzt in particular but also Fraz Urb Lu as prominent Greyhawk history ones), various Greyhawk gods related stuff. Maybe some old powerful magics tied to the Ancient Bakluni empire and Suel Imperium.

The most unique player oriented things for Greyhawk are going to be specific organizations and gods. Orders of knighthood, the specific god and cleric type stuff that has come out before, etc. Greyhawk Adventures introduced a ton of wizard spells tied to the themes of the Greyhawk iconic wizards (Rary, Otto, Tenser, etc.)

Most of the Greyhawk unique things that come to mind though as a Greyhawk fan are DM oriented evil stuff, Scarlet Brotherhood, Iuz, the Great Kingdom (and post From the Ashes the animuses), Tharizdun, etc.

 

[pemerton]

/Demon Lords (Grazzt in particular but also Fraz Urb Lu as prominent Greyhawk history ones), various Greyhawk gods related stuff. Maybe some old powerful magics tied to the Ancient Bakluni empire and Suel Imperium.

These are all very GH. Though Graz'zt has been a bit genericised via Planescape, perhaps.

 

[Yaarel]

In the City of Greyhawk, and some other locales, these gods are important: Boccob, Celestian, Cuthbert, Ehlonna, Fharlanghn, Icabulos, Istus, Ius, Nerull, Pholtus, Ralishaz, Ulaa.

That said, other locales have different religions.

Oerth the planet that Greyhawk is on, is a vast diversity of different cultures − deriving from and inspired by reallife cultures.

I hope 5e world of Greyhawk, namely Oerth, has an Eberron-style approach to religion that embraces the different kinds of ways that humans express sacred concepts and customs.

The formative emergence of the Greyhawk setting is during the 1980s. Since then, many reallife cultures have spoken up about how the setting, and the D&D game generally, portrays them.

For example, most of the Indigenous American "Flan" need to be animistic, rather than polytheistic.

The Nordic peoples need to downplay the incorrect and sometimes offensive "barbarian" stereotype. Also, they are animistic too.

The Rhenee must avoid derogatory "gypsy" stereotypes.

5e must sensitively scrutinize and vet everything − especially each and every culture. Even doublecheck the portrayals of creatures such as the "beastman".

Reductionism − to reduce an entire culture to a handful of character traits − is always stereotyping and problematic.

I feel having several cultural backgrounds for a single culture can transmit the setting flavors in a reallife sensitive way. Backgrounds call attention to the diversity within a culture, more can be added, problematic ones can be deleted. And individuals can do whatever they want. Backgrounds need to depict the diversity, some roles connote high Intelligence, some high Strength, and so on. A culture must be a HUMAN culture, inherently diverse.

 

[Yaarel]

In planet Oerth, the Flanaess continent includes portrayals of the reallife North American Viking Period Norse settlements. refers to them as "Snow Barbarians", "Ice Barbarians", and "Frost Barbarians".

The use of the term "barbarian" here is sensitive for any culture, and especially so, in the context of Norse cultures. The historical berserkar are less that 1% of the population. The rest of the populations are normal diverse human cultures.

That said, if these cultural communities, go by the names "Snows," "Ices", and "Frosts", it is actually ok.

Within the larger map of planet Oerth, the Nordic peoples correspond to NW Oerik, namely Finland, Sweden, and Denmark are in the locales in and near the Fey Realm of Fallen Leaves and Ravilla. Compare the Fey Realm with historical Alfheimr on the Swedish southern coast bordering Norway. Norway and Saami correspond to the Domain of the Giant King that bridges the continent of Oerik with arctic Hyperboria. That Nordic peoples live among the Jǫtnar giants is how it is. Iceland is Fireland albeit splicing together various Nordic islands, including British Shetland and arctic Svalbard.

Despite the presence as "barbarians", the Nordic peoples lack an ethnic family name in Oerth. I propose to call them "Jotnum", relating to the "Jotnumheim Sea", that connects Fireland, Hyperboria, Giant King, Fey Realm, and Ravilla. In Norway, several prominent families are understood to descend from Jǫtnar giants, and other animistic beings, so the concept fun. One family descends from Logi, a manifestation from fire.

"Snow Jotnum", "Ice Jotnum", and "Frost Jotnum".

Keep in mind. Altho a Jǫtnar socalled "giant" individual can manifest to be the size of a mountain (even the size of a continent!), most Jǫtnar manifest as a normal human size. They are nature beings, the animistic minds of various mountains, rivers, glaciers, and so on. To reduce all Jǫtnar to "D&D frost giants" is problematic. But to call attention to how different one Jǫtnar can be from an other is good. Generally, these are sapient elementals but are native to the material plane. They are the actual particular mountain, river, glacier, etcetera.

 

[AdmundfortGeographer]

In planet Oerth, the Flanaess continent includes portrayals of the reallife North American Viking Period Norse settlements. refers to them as "Snow Barbarians", "Ice Barbarians", and "Frost Barbarians".

The use of the term "barbarian" here is sensitive for any culture, and especially so, in the context of Norse cultures. The historical berserkar are less that 1% of the population. The rest of the populations are normal diverse human cultures.

That said, if these cultural communities, go by the names "Snows," "Ices", and "Frosts", it is actually ok.

There already are proper names for these people.

Cruski, Fruztii, and Schnai

 

[Yaarel]

There already are proper names for these people.

Cruski, Fruztii, and Schnai

Can you give the 1e (maybe 2e sources) of these names?

Heh, I want to vet them!

But still, even with separate ethnic names, Jotnum (maybe Jotnmi) is a reasonable name for the family of Nordic ethnicities collectively.

 

[pemerton]

Can you give the 1e (maybe 2e sources) of these names?

From memory, the original gazetteer. Though I'd have to go and double-check.

 

[AdmundfortGeographer]

Can you give the 1e (maybe 2e sources) of these names?

Heh, I want to vet them!

But still, even with separate ethnic names, Jotnum (maybe Jotnmi) is a reasonable name for the family of Nordic ethnicities collectively.

Through out Gary’s 81 folio and 83 boxed set. Those peoples are intermittently referred to by their own name and the common name given to them by outsiders.

Likewise, Tiger and Wolf Nomads are called Chakyk and Wegwuir.