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]

Gate keeping is when you make it difficult for someone to participate in an activity. Limiting what species are available in Greyhawk is not gate keeping. I get mixed messages on this forum. On one hand D&D is flexible enough for you to do what you want at the table. Your D&D isn't necesarily my D&D. But as soon as someone does something, like limit species, suddenly your D&D is wrong.

There's absolutely nothing wrong with limiting what species a player can choose for a campaign. This applies not only to Greyhawk but every other campaign setting as well.

It's not wrong per see, it's just not my style. I prefer more open minded settings. Because, there is nothing wrong with players wanting to use races not from among the Tolkien 4, specially if these races are in the PHB.

 

[Hussar]

But halflings have a place. Sure, there is not The Shire[emoji769], but we know they live in which and which city, and how they get with humans. They are not up in the air for the DM to decide.

Not really. Take Ghosts of Saltmarsh. In the setting guide it mentions that there are halfling communities near Saltmarsh. But those communities are not detailed at all nor is there a single halfling npc in Saltmarsh IIRC.

So it’s not like it’s given in any detail. Other than that”here be some halflings” and not much else.

 

[Zeromaru X]

Not really. Take Ghosts of Saltmarsh. In the setting guide it mentions that there are halfling communities near Saltmarsh. But those communities are not detailed at all nor is there a single halfling npc in Saltmarsh IIRC.

So it’s not like it’s given in any detail. Other than that”here be some halflings” and not much else.

At least you know there are communities of halflings near Saltmarsh. That's more than goliaths and dragonborn have.

 

[Parmandur]

At least you know there are communities of halflings near Saltmarsh. That's more than goliaths and dragonborn have.

They are in the PHB, and in the art for Greyhawk in the DMG. It doesn't need to be spelled out, that's my job (and I outlined how I will do so upthread).

 

[Demetrios1453]

For those who want the religions that are prominent in the City of Greyhawk:

What's interesting is that there are no alignments listed on the table (although those could usually be inferred from the home plane listed). I do wonder if this is an out for using real-life pantheons like the Greek, Norse, or Egyptian, since alignment was definitely one of the big sticking points of such lists recently (like listing Hecate as an evil god in Spelljammer, which caused something of a ruckus). Listing just home plane, worshipers, and symbols is far less of a minefield.

 

[Parmandur]

What's interesting is that there are no alignments listed on the table (although those could usually be inferred from the home plane listed). I do wonder if this is an out for using real-life pantheons like the Greek, Norse, or Egyptian, since alignment was definitely one of the big sticking points of such lists recently (like listing Hecate as an evil god in Spelljammer, which caused something of a ruckus). Listing just home plane, worshipers, and symbols is far less of a minefield.

Their notes about God's, Demigods, and Heroes in the OD&D compilation made it pretty clear that real world deities are purely off-limits now. They won't touch them with a ten-foot pole.

However, yeah, this method of presentation is much more fluid and interesting: no need to corner every deity into a specific Cleric Domain role, makes that aspect a lot more nuanced.

 

[Demetrios1453]

Their notes about God's, Demigods, and Heroes in the OD&D compilation made it pretty clear that real world deities are purely off-limits now. They won't touch them with a ten-foot pole.

However, yeah, this method of presentation is much more fluid and interesting: no need to corner every deity into a specific Cleric Domain role, makes that aspect a lot more nuanced.

Which will make it interesting for the Forgotten Realms. Mulhorandi pantheon aside (and alternate names already exist in their cases), are the real-world crossover gods considered different enough in the setting to not cause issues? Most are fairly obscure, but it's going to be harder to differentiate with more well-known crossover gods like Tyr.

 

[Parmandur]

Which will make it interesting for the Forgotten Realms. Mulhorandi pantheon aside (and alternate names already exist in their cases), are the real-world crossover gods considered different enough in the setting to not cause issues? Most are fairly obscure, but it's going to be harder to differentiate with more well-known crossover gods like Tyr.

We will find out soon!

 

[MonsterEnvy]

Which will make it interesting for the Forgotten Realms. Mulhorandi pantheon aside (and alternate names already exist in their cases), are the real-world crossover gods considered different enough in the setting to not cause issues? Most are fairly obscure, but it's going to be harder to differentiate with more well-known crossover gods like Tyr.

Well FR Tyr is fairly different from the Norse version. Like being the fair, blind and maimed god of justice, as opposed to his Norse Counterpart being a god of war and tactics.

 

[Parmandur]

Well FR Tyr is fairly different from the Norse version. Like being the fair, blind and maimed god of justice, as opposed to his Norse Counterpart being a god of war and tactics.

Not originally: the Grey Box straight up says he is an interloper from the Norse Mythos...