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'.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

For example maybe the PCs are going be the first people from Flanaess to encounter Tortles. It wouldn't make sense for a PC to start out as a Tortle.

A better example might be if the DM intends to run Danger at Dunswater. They are not going to allow lizard folk PCs because the adventure is about learning about lizard folk. Since upcoming adventures are a surprise, the DM cannot explain why thy are not allowing them. After the adventure is complete the players can make lizard folk PCs if they wish.

 

[Zardnaar]

A better example might be if the DM intends to run Danger at Dunswater. They are not going to allow lizard folk PCs because the adventure is about learning about lizard folk. Since upcoming adventures are a surprise, the DM cannot explain why thy are not allowing them. After the adventure is complete the players can make lizard folk PCs if they wish.

Drow were originally a hidden menace.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Drow were originally a hidden menace.

Yeah, playing the Giants, Decent etc series is very different now everyone knows about drow than when it was first published.

It’s hard to surprise players with Barrier Peaks in the same way too.

 

[Zardnaar]

Yeah, playing the Giants, Decent etc series is very different now everyone knows about drow than when it was first published.

It’s hard to surprise players with Barrier Peaks in the same way too.

I've been reading old lorevfrom the FR wiki. A few contenders for hidden menace.

 

[DrunkonDuty]

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

Zeromaru has already said what I wanted to.

Most fantasy and science fiction the protagonists are unfamiliar with the world(s), and much of the drama stems from the discovery.

Some protagonists are written to be unfamiliar with the world they live in. But most? I doubt that very much.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Some protagonists are written to be unfamiliar with the world they live in. But most? I doubt that very much.

Most people know very little about the world they live in. Some stories might choose not to focus on the protagonists discovering things they don’t know about the world, but that would be unusual in the fantasy genre, which typically removes the protagonists from their familiar world early in the story.

 

[mamba]

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 you are a player at their table, chances are you did consent

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.

banning some race(s) does not mean the game only appeals to the DM. I see no correlation there.

 

[mamba]

I don't think this describes any D&D game, or FRPG, that I've GMed ever. Unless you count dungeon-crawling as "discovering surprises during play".

Might depend on what you consider a surprise… did everyone know all locations, monsters, NPCs and plot they encountered in the game beforehand?

 

[pemerton]

Most fantasy and science fiction the protagonists are unfamiliar with the world(s), and much of the drama stems from the discovery.

Ged, in the Earthsea books, is unfamiliar with some parts of the world, but not others. What is dramatic is not generally his discovery of the world - it's the relationships he needs to establish or to re-assess.

Conan is often - not always - familiar with the places he is in. Little of the drama in Conan comes from discovering the world, as opposed to discovering people, enemies etc.

 

[TiQuinn]

I don’t think there’s anything wrong with limiting species - I’ve done it before for campaigns, and the last campaign I played in was an all-human campaign. The key is, once again, sing it with me - Session Zero.

We give the group the choice of campaign styles and systems that the DM is interested in running, themes and rules that they’d want to run for it, and everyone is well-informed and happy.