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]

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

Ed Greenwood has said over the years that FR Tyr is not Norse Tyr. But he admitted that it was inspired by the Norse one.

 

[Parmandur]

Ed Greenwood has said over the years that FR Tyr is not Norse Tyr. But he admitted that it was inspired by the Norse one.

Well, the FR originally had Aslan and all sorta of other funny stuff...because it was his youthful crossover fiction Setting.

 

[MonsterEnvy]

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

Yeah, but he's pretty divorced from that one at this point. He even lost his hand to a different wolf.

 

[Zardnaar]

It says nothing. But, Greyhawk has a lot of resources talking about the old school races, so they don't need info about their place in the setting. The new gen races, on the other hand, need at least one paragraph about their placement in the setting (they did it with the Nentir Vale, there was a small paragraph for each race in the 4e PHB, so I wasn't asking something farfetched).

And this is a big difference. I know my Old School DMs™. They are going to use this as an excuse to ban the new gen races and allow only the "One True Way of playing Greyhawk".

That's within their right to do that.

I plan on a curated list myself. New Stuff will be allowed but not all of it.

 

[pemerton]

Ed Greenwood has said over the years that FR Tyr is not Norse Tyr. But he admitted that it was inspired by the Norse one.

I'm not sure exactly what this means - when we're talking about relatively ancient folk beliefs, what's the difference between is and is inspired by?

 

[Zardnaar]

I'm not sure exactly what this means - when we're talking about relatively ancient folk beliefs, what's the difference between is and is inspired by?

Multispheric powers.

Sune is love goddess on Faerun she's a backwater deity for Aphrodite.

So is Tyr the Norse Tyr?

 

[Zeromaru X]

That's within their right to do that.

While this is true, let's not forget that this is a group game. And both, DMs and players, should enjoy it. Old school DMs often forget that.

 

[pemerton]

Multispheric powers.

Sune is love goddess on Faerun she's a backwater deity for Aphrodite.

So is Tyr the Norse Tyr?

I don't think people who get upset by the use of real religious figures in D&D publications are interested in the metaphysical minutiae of D&D's imaginary worlds.

I think the point, rather, is that Ed Greenwood has taken the real-world religious figure Tyr and made that figure a component of a fantasy game.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

There will be GMs who will use the lack of explicit mention as an excuse to say "nope.

So what?! It’s their game, so their version of the setting.

 

[Zeromaru X]

So what?! It’s their game, so their version of the setting.

There is where you are wrong, because it's not their game. Is the game of their gaming group. That's the thing. All should enjoy the game, not just the DM. So, the banning of elements from the game should be a decision taken by consensus, not by the bias of an specific individual.

If that person is so determined to make a setting that only appeals to themself, then that time and energy is better expend learning to write a novel.