D&D General Greyhawk setting material

[Son of the Serpent]

Not a grognard. Actually im quite young i just understand history.

Spoiler: Basically uncharactaristic grognard sob story even though im not one

You know...i was about to say a really contentiously unpopular opinion about my preferences regarding private versus publically traded businesses and a little bit about bad luck. But ive grown wise in my old (actually not old but adulting is a very effective crash course in reality) age and im not gonna say it.

The her we are talking about though. I think im pretty sure who that is. She was basically the bad luck. The first of the meteorites that struck the world of the dinosaurs down.

 

[Zardnaar]

If you're gonna have an evolving world I think Midgard and Golarion are the way to do it.

Nothing to Earth shattering and the changes are tied to adventures players got to participate in.

 

[The Glen]

It's Lorraine Williams. We can say her name she's not Voldemort. And she's largely considered the reason why TSR failed. TSR was famous for having fantastic game designers but very poor businessmen. When she took over and Gary was given the boot She chased out a lot of the best designers and that's when the death spiral started. Greyhawk was canceled because that was a Gary product. Mystara was turned into second edition where it died an ignoble death because that was Frank's product and he was Gary's friend. The fall of TSR is a cautionary Tale but it is an interesting one.

 

[Remathilis]

.And people @Hussar intermingle profit interests, modern mindset and old grognards wishes about how to handle their favourite classic setting. When I read all the posts in this and other threads and count the posts pro modern approach aka make greyhawk another generic kitchen sink like FR and the posts that counter it, then I roughly 50/50.

Well that's the heart of the matter: who is this hypothetical 5e Greyhawk product aimed for? What is it's purpose?

WotC isn't going to make a 5e supplement that caters to the grognards on cannonfire who haven't bought a supplement since the Regan Administration. They will be respectful of the past, but they aren't going to emulate 1e race demographics. They are going to remake It to match what D&D is now, not what it was in 30 years ago. For better or for worse, its going to be Greyhawk with modern sensibilities. Otherwise, what is the purpose, the perfect version already exists on DMs Guild.

Look, I'm not telling you how you should run your Greyhawk game. I'm telling you what to expect from a possible 5e version of Greyhawk. There will be dragonborn and tieflings. There will be warlocks and sorcerers. The 5e version of Greyhawk will reflect the 5e PHB. Ignore what your want, but don't be shocked when there is no explicit ban on those races or classes.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

The matter is now D&D is more like the cantina in Mos Eisley (Star Wars) and it will never be the Prancing Pony inn again.

Do you like Jack Kirby's comics about superheroes? OK, but style of 2020 superheroes comics can't be like Jack Kirby's art. Some changes are necessary or inevitable.

Currently WotC sells more crunch than fluff, among other reasons, because today we can get lot of "free"fluff from other franchises, videogames, movies, cartoons, comics or novels.

Old D&D canon isn't very ready to accept new ideas from the last editions. For example you should notice a war chariot with an arcanotech motor would be the end of the chavalry. Now after the steampunk genre and the "magictech" is like Mark Twain's "A Connecticut yankee in king Arthur's court".

Dragonborns were created by Bahamut, Greyhawk god, and half-dragons were canon since lot of time ago. Metallic dragonborns should be seen by people like Bahamut's chosen champions.

WotC can't sell the same background but it has to add new things to the metaplot, for example new kingdoms, or continents, to be explored.

We have got still the option of the crystal spheres, chronomancers and parallel earths or ucronies. Maybe this is the ultimate solution to can choose a "sandbox" style where the DM can create his own geography and timeline.

* How would be Oerth after the cataclysm if the events in the last novel of Gord the rogue was canon?

 

[Coroc]

Well that's the heart of the matter: who is this hypothetical 5e Greyhawk product aimed for? What is it's purpose?

WotC isn't going to make a 5e supplement that caters to the grognards on cannonfire who haven't bought a supplement since the Regan Administration. They will be respectful of the past, but they aren't going to emulate 1e race demographics. They are going to remake It to match what D&D is now, not what it was in 30 years ago. For better or for worse, its going to be Greyhawk with modern sensibilities. Otherwise, what is the purpose, the perfect version already exists on DMs Guild.

Look, I'm not telling you how you should run your Greyhawk game. I'm telling you what to expect from a possible 5e version of Greyhawk. There will be dragonborn and tieflings. There will be warlocks and sorcerers. The 5e version of Greyhawk will reflect the 5e PHB. Ignore what your want, but don't be shocked when there is no explicit ban on those races or classes.

Not much on this planet in this life which can shock me anymore.
And for once I total agree with you, if they bring out greyhawk at all they will not alter it to be incompatible with their other stuff these days, and since most of wotc staff is promoting the modern play style (at least if you watch their public PAX sessions on youtube) I would expect the same.
That is why I would be content with them focusing on other campaigns if they go for a change, especially since there is stuff missing for DS and DL on how to officially adapt these to 5e or convert old stuff properly.
And by this I mean mechanical stuff that is missing, not the coloring.

But my prediction is that they will focus a bit on eberron next, maybe some additional planar stuff and if it all runs well then maybe something else but I bet it is not high at all on their priority list.

 

[Zardnaar]

Agree about Eberron being next.

 

[Son of the Serpent]

It's Lorraine Williams. We can say her name she's not Voldemort. And she's largely considered the reason why TSR failed. TSR was famous for having fantastic game designers but very poor businessmen. When she took over and Gary was given the boot She chased out a lot of the best designers and that's when the death spiral started. Greyhawk was canceled because that was a Gary product. Mystara was turned into second edition where it died an ignoble death because that was Frank's product and he was Gary's friend. The fall of TSR is a cautionary Tale but it is an interesting one.

I actually didnt know if we were allowed to tbh. I could see it not being allowed because how sue-happy the internet has gotten. So i figured i was going to avoid it until someone like you piped up and made it clear it wasnt bannable (as stupid as that would be i again will refer you to look at how stupid the online world has gotten lately). Thankyou for clearing that up.

 

[The Glen]

I actually didnt know if we were allowed to tbh. I could see it not being allowed because how sue-happy the internet has gotten. So i figured i was going to avoid it until someone like you piped up and made it clear it wasnt bannable (as stupid as that would be i again will refer you to look at how stupid the online world has gotten lately). Thankyou for clearing that up.

Her tenure at the company is well-documented, though that's a little off topic for this thread but if you wanted to look at exactly what happened in the mid-to-late 90s TSR a lot of the old employees have aired their grievances. It wasn't just one big thing that spiked TSR, it was a lot of big things. Dragon dice, Buck Rogers, the disasterous waldenbooks deal, killing off profitable lines and replacing them with less profitable lines, and a noticeable downward Trend in quality of products all contributed. If you look around there's a lot of Articles talking about it in depth

 

[Son of the Serpent]

Her tenure at the company is well-documented, though that's a little off topic for this thread but if you wanted to look at exactly what happened in the mid-to-late 90s TSR a lot of the old employees have aired their grievances. It wasn't just one big thing that spiked TSR, it was a lot of big things. Dragon dice, Buck Rogers, the disasterous waldenbooks deal, killing off profitable lines and replacing them with less profitable lines, and a noticeable downward Trend in quality of products all contributed. If you look around there's a lot of Articles talking about it in depth

I actually know a lot about what happened despite being pretty young. This is why i said she was the first of several meteorites (then again she was more like multiple single handedly...). I just wanted to be wary about saying names out loud in print. Usually nothing happens. But it can turn out poorly. Thats why i avoided it at first. I javent been here long. Dont know the unspoken rules.