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'.

 

[MonsterEnvy]

Ancestors of Cambions can be tieflings.

Not exactly consistent in the lore though.

If a tiefling from a decently long tiefling line directly reproduced with a demon then yeah a cambion could have tiefling ancestors.

 

[MonsterEnvy]

The Lower Planes are part of the Astral Plane.

The Astral Plane is a realm of thoughts, symbols, paradigms, and ideals. The alignment planes are more specifically ethical thoughts and ideals.


The 2014 Monster Manual stats the Cambion as a full "Fiend". It is hard to say what the children of a Cambion and a Human would be. They might be Humans, Cambions, or Tieflings, or possibly atavistically a full Demon.

The Astral Plane is not the same thing as the Outer Planes. They are connected, but not the same thing.

A Cambion is typed as a full fiend, but explicitly they are half fiend in origin, one parent was a mortal humanoid, and the other a fiend. Going by past editions and the current lore that does not contradict it, their children are tieflings.

 

[Zardnaar]

The Astral Plane is not the same thing as the Outer Planes. They are connected, but not the same thing.

A Cambion is typed as a full fiend, but explicitly they are half fiend in origin, one parent was a mortal humanoid, and the other a fiend. Going by past editions and the current lore that does not contradict it, their children are tieflings.

Children can be tieflings. Sometimes skips generations.

Eg cambion+human= human. That human +human=tiefling.

Lore hasn't been consistent though. Parent is a cambion or tiefling way higher chance of a tiefling child imho (100% tiefling+tiefling).

IMHO of course.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

The Lower Planes are part of the Astral Plane.

Where are you getting this from?

 

[TiQuinn]

There's a wide gap between a tiefling and a cambion. Just like a Dragonborn isn't a half-dragon and a dhampir isn't a vampire spawn.

Honestly, I’ve always seen these as being repackages of each other from across different sources and editions. The entries for tieflings and dhampirs, for example, don’t really take into consideration cambions or vampire spawn at all, despite their similarities and overlaps. Distinguishing one from the other is another thing that’s put on the DM.

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

Just watched the WotC video on the Greyhawk setting in the DMG. Chris Perkins states that this is the first time a "campaign hub" has been detailed in a DMG.

Isn't that not true? Wasn't Saltmarsh in an earlier DMG?

A campaign hub doesn't need to be a mega-city like Greyhawk or Waterdeep to start a campaign. I find small villages or towns work better personally unless you're going for an urban campaign.

 

[Tales and Chronicles]

Honestly, I’ve always seen these as being repackages of each other from across different sources and editions. The entries for tieflings and dhampirs, for example, don’t really take into consideration cambions or vampire spawn at all, despite their similarities and overlaps. Distinguishing one from the other is another thing that’s put on the DM.

My head canon for these kind of things is that the Soul is what makes a difference. Tieflings and Dhampir still have a soul or their own, while their non-playable equivalent dont have one or aren't in possession of it.

 

[Parmandur]

@overgeeked was specifically referring to adventure hubs / home bases, which those two clearly are.

Perkins and Wyatt aren't saying this is the first DMG ti have a hub, but that it is the first to have a complete Setting.

 

[Parmandur]

The Lower Planes are part of the Astral Plane.

The Astral Plane is a realm of thoughts, concepts, symbols, paradigms, and ideals. The alignment planes are more specifically ethical thoughts and ideals.

No, not in the D&D Cosmology....

 

[TiQuinn]

My head canon for these kind of things is that the Soul is what makes a difference. Tieflings and Dhampir still have a soul or their own, while their non-playable equivalent dont have one or aren't in possession of it.

Oooh yeah, that makes sense. I like that.