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'.

 

[Zeromaru X]

Interestingly, the "Elegy of the First World" is basically a retelling of the Dawn War.

As the guy who compiled a 150+ document about the Dawn War lore, I can safely assure you: is not even remotely close in any way to the Dawn War. And don't remind me of how they murdered the Raven Queen with her extremely lame Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes lore. I get depressed every time I remember what they did to her in that book...

 

[dave2008]

As the guy who compiled a 150+ document about the Dawn War lore, I can safely assure you: is not even remotely close in any way to the Dawn War. And don't remind me of how they murdered the Raven Queen with her extremely lame Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes lore. I get depressed every time I remember what they did to her in that book...

It is all one of perspective.

1. You quibbled about 2 of the 6 rather major setting things I mentioned. So I assume the other four you agree with?
2. I love 4e, the Dawn War, Primordials, etc. However, I was never a big fan of the Raven Queen (not going to discuss why unless you ask). Nonetheless, she was brought over (but no Torog ) and you are free to use her 4e lore. In fact, in the video about the lore chapter in the 2024 DMG they said she is specifically enigmatic. We don't know if she is a god, archfey, or something else. They leave it up to you. So no, her lore wasn't butchered, they just added more to her mystery.
3. IMO, the First World bears a lot of resemblance to the creation story in the Dawn War. Tiamat and Bahamut are referred to as "primordial" dragons, different from but on par with gods. They created the First World and then the gods came and war broke out, which ended up creating the Prime Material and its echoes. This shares a lot of similarities to the Dawn War. We had a lot more specifics of the Dawn War, but there just hasn't been much written on the First World (yet). Also, WotC has been very clear that the version in Fizban's is what dragon believe, not necessarily the truth (Bigby's implies giants have a different version). For me they are sufficiently close to merge the two ideas as different perspectives on the same conflict.

I will say I treat lore very loosely. I use what I like, drop what I don't, and enjoy blending different versions of lore across the editions.

 

[Stormonu]

As for Dragonborn in Greyhawk, the 3E Chainmail game had a land of Dragonmen from Southwest Flaness, beyond the Sea of Dust.

Ghosts of Saltmarsh indicates there's a fair number of Tieflings who hail from Iuz. There could also be Teifling families among the nobility of the Great Kingdom, considering the dabblings of the Mad King Ivid and his court.

Aasimar are probably one-off beings, much akin to half-elves, from celestial beings mingling with various humanoids, possibly "popular" among worshipers of St. Cuthbert or Pholtus.

There's nothing I know of for lore for Goliaths, but considering the past of G1-G3 giant series, the A slave lord series and Five Shall Be One adventures, goliaths could easily be giant-kin in the Pomarj or perhaps from the Yatil Mountains or among the Griff/Rakers/Corusk Mountains.

 

[Hussar]

Let's be honest here, goliaths are not hard to parachute into a setting. Hrm, honking big dudes that live in mountains. When you already have entire giant kingdoms, the idea of goliaths becomes a pretty easy sell.

Now, considering we have Yakfolk in Greyhawk, parachuted in whole cloth long, long after the setting was established, I'm thinking Dragonborn are, again, not a hugely difficult sell. There's tons of scaly folk in Greyhawk and LOTS of empty spaces.
But, even though Greyhawk was always the setting where you were supposed to have everything D&D in, long before Eberron took up that mantle, people will STILL endlessly kvetch about how these strange species cannot possibly fit in the setting.

 

[amethal]

Where would Sasserine fall on Greyhawk? I'm about to run Savage Tide adapted to 5e, and I didn't find it on the map.

Anna Meyer's map has Sesserine marked on it. I don't know if you are familiar with it, but it's a great map.

Anna Meyer Greyhawk Map

Obviously, you need to know where to look on it for Sesserine, but the earlier posts on this thread have shown its location already.

 

[BMaC]

They need to allow Greyhawk content to be published on DM's Guild. Otherwise the thirty pages here is a wasted opportunity.

 

[Azzy]

They need to allow Greyhawk content to be published on DM's Guild. Otherwise the thirty pages here is a wasted opportunity.

They already have.

 

[Shiroiken]

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

But those places need not be large. Halflings and gnomes lack any kingdoms or nation states; they live in small communities scattered throughout other people's lands. The new races can easily be the same.

 

[Autumnal]

It’s a good thing they already have, then. There’s a thread about it in this forum.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

But those places need not be large. Halflings and gnomes lack any kingdoms or nation states; they live in small communities scattered throughout other people's lands. The new races can easily be the same.

According to Terry Pratchett, the greatest number of dwarves live in Ankh-Morpork, not the traditional dwarven homelands.