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'.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

The dragonborn as PC specie appeared in "Races of Dragons", in 3.5 Ed, with a different origin. And the goliaths in "Races in Stone", when Greyhawk was the default setting during 3.5 ed. In 5e ordinary humans or humanoids could become dragonborn because the influence of magic dragon power, like the increible Hulk with the Gamma radiations.

Aasimars and tielflings appeared in Planescape 2nd. These can appeared in Greyhawk, only they are "rarer than a green dog".

* I hope they allowed enough space for the return of the martial schools of "Tome of Battle: Book of the nine Swords".

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

I once had an NPC engage the players in a rap battle since guild rules prohibited out and out combat among its members. One of the players wasn't a member of the guild and simply zapped the rapper with a lightning spell.

This Greyhawk setting is the first thing that's gotten me excited about D&D in a long, long time. Okay, since the release of Curse of Strahd in 2016. Has it really been eight years since I've been looking forward to something D&D related?

I think I'm going to run a campaign set in Greyhawk and run some classic adventures I've never actually played. I've never played Expedition to Barrier Peaks and that's going to change.

I know it's nearly impossible, but if your group doesn't know about Barrier Peaks, it is 100x more awesome.

I still remember the first time I went through it, and I had no idea what was happening, and as I slowly caught on, the sense of wonder enveloped me.

Those are the memories that stay with us.

 

[Kobold Avenger]

Mimes are Undead Bards, it's a fact that I read somewhere.

 

[Imaro]

Incomplete is a relative term. The Nentir Vale has a main campaign hub fully described (Fallcrest), and a description of the surrounding terrain with just enough information to know about these locations while leaving room for full creative freedom.

It may be a small setting, but it is still a complete campaign setting. So, yeah, Perkins was wrong in this video. But given their disregard of 4e since they started 5e, it doesn't surprises me anymore.

Its not a relative term. The Nentir Vale is a complete region of an entire campaign setting. Going by your statement above... Keep on the Borderlands is a complete campaign setting as are many adventures that feature a town and surrounding areas but leave the wider setting unexplored. And please let's not make it seem like this is some agenda to ignore 4e... its not, it's just stating the truth.

 

[Zeromaru X]

The Nentir Vale is a complete region of an entire campaign setting. Going by your statement above... Keep on the Borderlands is a complete campaign setting as are many adventures that feature a town and surrounding areas but leave the wider setting unexplored.

It is different. Keep on the Borderlands is an add-on to an already existing setting (Mystara, IIRC. But I'm not sure). While the Nentir Vale is basically the starting point for the Dawn War setting. This setting was created from the Nentir Vale, not the other way around.

But yes, both are completely valid settings on their own right. The only difference with Greyhawk is that Greyhawk covers a bigger region.

And please let's not make it seem like this is some agenda to ignore 4e... its not,

Seeing is believing. Given how they have actively ignored the setting in the whole publication of 5e, you'll forgive me if I'm a bit paranoid in this respect.

The dragonborn as PC specie appeared in "Races of Dragons", in 3.5 Ed, with a different origin.

If they introduce dragonborn in Greyhawk, I think they'll go with the lore in the PHB.

 

[MonsterEnvy]

Nothing about the player species requires any justification. The Dragonborn needs no more explanation than a dwarf.

 

[Zeromaru X]

They need a place to come from. Dwarves have the dwarf cities. Elves the elven kingdom, etc. Cultures doesn't exist in a vacuum.

 

[MonsterEnvy]

They need a place to come from. Dwarves have the dwarf cities. Elves the elven kingdom, etc. Cultures doesn't exist in a vacuum.

There are not very many of those in the Flanness. The most notable Dwarven ruled nation the Principality of Ulek is mostly human in population.

Stuff like Dragonborn and Goliaths need no explanation more than the other creatures found in the area.

 

[dave2008]

Seeing is believing. Given how they have actively ignored the setting in the whole publication of 5e, you'll forgive me if I'm a bit paranoid in this respect.

Not true. The Dawn War pantheon is reproduced in the 2014 DMG as an example pantheon. Also the Raven Queen carried over into default 5e. Interestingly, the "Elegy of the First World" is basically a retelling of the Dawn War. Additionally, 5e kept the Fey Wild, Shadowfell, and Elemental Chaos from 4e. It also morphed the 4e version of the Astral Sea into 5e as well.

 

[dave2008]

They need a place to come from. Dwarves have the dwarf cities. Elves the elven kingdom, etc. Cultures doesn't exist in a vacuum.

In D&D there doesn't need to be a culture on a particular world for a species to exist somewhere. They can always be immigrants from another world or dimension. In fact, that is exactly how they have framed in some settings. I believe that is what they did for Theros and Dragonlance in 5e.