D&D (2024) WotC Invites You To Explore the World of Greyhawk

This week a new D&D Dungeon Master's Guide preview video was released. This one features the sample setting chapter in the book, which showcases the World of Greyhawk.

One of the earliest campaign settings, and created by D&D co-founder Gary Gygax, Greyhawk dates back to the early 1970s in Gygax's home games, receiving a short official setting book in 1980. Gyeyhawk was selected as the example setting because it is able to hit all the key notes of D&D while being concise and short. The setting has been largely absent from D&D--aside from a few shorter adventures--since 2008. Some key points from the video--

• Greyhawk deliberately leaves a lot for the DM to fill in, with a 30-page chapter.
• Greyhawk created many of the tropes of D&D, and feels very 'straight down the fairway' D&D.
• This is the world where many iconic D&D magic items, NPCs, etc. came from--Mordenkainen, Bigby, Tasha, Otiluke and so on.
• The DMG starts with the City of Greyhawk and its surroundings in some detail, and gets more vague as you get farther away.
• The city is an example of a 'campaign hub'.
• The sample adventures in Chapter 4 of the DMG are set there or nearby.
• The map is an updated version, mainly faithful to the original with some tweaks.
• The map has some added locations key to D&D's history--such as White Plume Mountain, the Tomb of Horrors, Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth, Ghost Tower of Inverness.
• There's a map of the city, descriptions of places characters might visit--magic item shop, library, 3 taverns, temples, etc.
• The setting takes 'a few liberties while remaining faithful to the spirit of the setting'--it has been contemporized to make it resonate in all D&D campaigns with a balance of NPCs who showcase the diversity of D&D worlds.
• The backgrounds in the Player's Handbook map to locations in the city.
• Most areas in the setting have a name and brief description.
• They focus on three 'iconic' D&D/Greyhawk conflicts such as the Elemental Evil, a classic faceless adversary; Iuz the evil cambion demigod; and dragons.
• There's a list of gods, rulers, and 'big bads'.

 

[Parmandur]

Sold!

One more thing to add: the country Celene to the Southwest in that area is the sort of Lothlorien of Greyhawk, and the Queen Yolande is actually on the cover of the new Player's Handbook:

 

[Charlaquin]

To build on that (sorry if the idea is unwanted) I made a nice Phandelver-》Prince of the Apocalypse campaign once, using the magic forge of the mine as the place the elemental weapons key to PotA were created, and the drow mage at the end of LMoP be the apprentice of the mad drow mage who forged then. You can even use the level 1-3 sandbox events in PotA original village to flesh out the Phandelver's sandbox.

One step ahead of you there, but I so appreciate the suggestion!

 

[MarkB]

Plus, it's close to the Nyr Dyv, which is a great place to dump all those bard corpses!

You dump your bard corpses? I thought they were supposed to be nailed up to discourage the others.

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

You dump your bard corpses? I thought they were supposed to be nailed up to discourage the others.

NO! You don't want them to see the dead bards. Because then they don't come to you.

I find it helpful to just wander around, saying things like, "I wish someone would sing some heroic tales," or "I'm really bad at rhyming, if only someone could help me!"

If that doesn't work, there's always the go-to. "I really don't think I have the stamina to keep up with all the desires of that village of incredibly attractive and polyamorous people. What shall I do?"

 

[Parmandur]

Oh, one thing new they said in the video is that they provide sample hooks for each PHB Backgroind in the Free City of Greyhawk, so it is possible to have contacts and a grounded place in the Srtting, to show dMs how to integrate those in their own games.

Also, all the sample Adventures will have locations in/near/around Greyhawk.

 

[Zeromaru X]

Was the Nentir Vale a complete setting? I remember it being a piece of a setting without anything beyond the vale being described, no world map, no framework for how the Nentir Vale fit into whatever the wider world of the campaign setting was called...

Yes and no. It started as you said, a piece of land to plug into whatever place you wanted in your campaign. However, as 4th edition advanced, the Nentir Vale started to grown into its own setting, with its own lore and stuff (though, it shares a lot of places with Greyhawk and Mystara). The only thing is that this lore was never compiled into a single product.

 

[Zeromaru X]

Oh, one thing new they said in the video is that they provide sample hooks for each PHB Backgroind in the Free City of Greyhawk, so it is possible to have contacts and a grounded place in the Srtting, to show dMs how to integrate those in their own games.

Also, all the sample Adventures will have locations in/near/around Greyhawk.

If only they do the same with the species, I will be more optimistic. I know DMs, specially old school DMs, to wish species roles to be specifically mentioned in the rules.

 

[Azzy]

Sold!

It is so heartening to see someone new getting into Greyhawk.

I hope that you and your group enjoy making the setting your own and playing there.

 

[Parmandur]

Yes and no. It started as you said, a piece of land to plug into whatever place you wanted in your campaign. However, as 4th edition advanced, the Nentir Vale started to grown into its own setting, with its own lore and stuff (though, it shares a lot of places with Greyhawk and Mystara). The only thing is that this lore was never compiled into a single product.

Right, but most of that was not in the DMG.

 

[overgeeked]

Yes and no. It started as you said, a piece of land to plug into whatever place you wanted in your campaign. However, as 4th edition advanced, the Nentir Vale started to grown into its own setting, with its own lore and stuff (though, it shares a lot of places with Greyhawk and Mystara). The only thing is that this lore was never compiled into a single product.

If only they'd published the Gazetteer of Nentir Vale. Thanks for your History of Nentir Vale.