D&D 5E Greyhawk: Pitching the Reboot

[Pauln6]

all I see is why greyhawk was left alone to decay, with it seems ill-adapted for what players want.
beyond the prestige of being made by the founder, what is so wondrous about it?

I don't think it's right to assume that what you want is what all players want. I think players overall enjoy novelty and it was smart to branch out into different styles of game world over time. Either making Greyhawk more like other game worlds or the game world with the default assumptions is the mistake. Greyhawk had to change to fit the 3e adjusted set of assumptions. Then, over time, the game has systematically stripped out default assumptions and culture can now be more flexible. Orcs no longer need to be evil marauders, but most of them are in Greyhawk (with exceptions including a few neutral tribes and a great city). What they need to do now is say here are the specific assumptions that apply to Greyhawk to show which specific details make it Greyhawk.

 

[Hussar]

all I see is why greyhawk was left alone to decay, with it seems ill-adapted for what players want.
beyond the prestige of being made by the founder, what is so wondrous about it?

From whose POV? DMs or players?

For a DM, you have a setting with a lot of freedom. Tons of spaces for you to fill in. Take Ghosts of Saltmarsh as a great example. You start off with a solid town with gobs of npcs plus then you have three solid adventures based in Saltmarsh itself. But with the gazetteer, you also have the Hool Marsh and the honking big faerie forest whose name escapes me right now. You could easily run a full campaign within the neighborhood of Saltmarsh.

For players? Well you have a setting where you can actually affect the setting. You want to build a stronghold somewhere? Go for it. It’s not like they isn’t tons of unclaimed land around. The themes of Greyhawk - points of light, exploration heavy, and freedom without having to read a hundred page setting guide.

 

[Wolfpack48]

all I see is why greyhawk was left alone to decay, with it seems ill-adapted for what players want.
beyond the prestige of being made by the founder, what is so wondrous about it?

You seem to be completely missing the point that Greyhawk was meant as a world for players to develop into their own unique version. It is intentionally "left alone" so that it doesn't step on the players imagination to roll their own Greyhawk.

 

[haakon1]

Not super hard: Nerath could just be the Great Kingdom, and the Nentir Vale can probably fit in somewhere to the West.

The Rieflings can come from the ancient Suel empire, and Dragonborn primeval empire could be Baklun easily enough.

I’d add them in W, S, or central Oerik.
Or as a reboot of the New Empyrea continent that’s only marginally Greyhawk.
Or just a new continent. Their existence is mentioned, but nothing is known about them.

Greyhawk abounds with the unknown and unexplored.

HERE THERE BE DRAGONS!

 

[haakon1]

There’s a sixth or seventh level wizard hanging around in Hommlet.

“Hanging around” isn’t how I’d characterize it. It’s not like they’re rando bar patrons.

Rufus & Burne own the Tower of Hommlett and are there looking after a critically important site of supposedly looked in evil.

 

[haakon1]

Greyhawk might not be as high magic as, say, Faerun, fair enough. But that hardly makes it low magic.

Fair, I suppose.

As for why it persists: Forgotten Realms is the only D&D setting most players and multimedia consumers have seen. They think NOT having magic for mundane uses and Elminster popping by is odd!

“Elminster’s not around, so why not?” - Gale, BG3

 

[TiQuinn]

“Hanging around” isn’t how I’d characterize it. It’s not like they’re rando bar patrons.

Rufus & Burne own the Tower of Hommlett and are there looking after a critically important site of supposedly looked in evil.

And doing a pretty terrible job of it, I might add!

 

[Hussar]

“Hanging around” isn’t how I’d characterize it. It’s not like they’re rando bar patrons.

Rufus & Burne own the Tower of Hommlett and are there looking after a critically important site of supposedly looked in evil.

Not the point.

 

[haakon1]

Not the point.

My point is Rufus is an outlier.

As in not relevant to the demographics of the setting.

 

[Hussar]

My point is Rufus is an outlier.

As in not relevant to the demographics of the setting.

My point was that in every printed example of a settlement in Greyhawk, you have characters like Rufus. It's hard to claim that these are outliers when they appear in every single settlement. Orlane has a 6th level wizard.

In Hommlet, in addition to Rufus and Burne, there's a 4th level ranger (Elmo) whose brother is a 10th level ranger, a 3rd level Druid, a 10th level thief, a 7th level assassin, the church has a 3rd and 6th level priest, there is a 7th level druid, and Spugnoir, 2nd level MU.

Doesn't seem like casters are particularly rare. That's 5 spellcasters, in addition to Burne, in a village.

Which is the point I was making. If Rufus is the outlier, what about the other 5 spellcasters who are specifically part of the town?