Dungeons & Dragons May Not Come Back to Greyhawk After 2024 Dungeon Master's Guide

Wizards of the Coast does not appear to have future plans for the Greyhawk setting past the 2024 Dungeon Master's Guide. Speaking at a press event earlier this month, Dungeons & Dragons game architect Chris Perkins explained that the inclusion of Greyhawk campaign setting material in the upcoming rulebook was meant to stand on its own. "Basically, we're saying 'Hey DMs, we're giving you Greyhawk as a foundation on which you can build your own setting stuff,'" Perkins said when asked about future Greyhawk setting material. "Whether we get back to Greyhawk or not in some capacity I cannot say, but that's our intention for now. This is the sandbox, it's Greyhawk. Go off and run Greyhawk or Greyhawk-like campaigns with this if you wish. We may not come to this version of Greyhawk for a while because we DMs to own it and play with it. This is not a campaign setting where I think we need to go in and start defining large sections of the world and adding more weight of content that DMs have to sit through in order to feel like they're running a proper Greyhawk campaign."

The 2024 Dungeon Master's Guide includes a campaign setting gazetteer focused on the Greyhawk setting, one of D&D's earliest campaign settings. The use of Greyhawk is intended to be an example for DMs on how to build a full-fledged campaign setting, with an overview of major conflicts and places to explore within the world. New maps of both Oerth and the city of Greyhawk are also included in the rulebook.

However, while it seems like Wizards isn't committing to future Greyhawk campaign setting material, Perkins admitted that the fans still have a say in the matter. "We're not so immutable with our plans that if the fans rose up and said 'Give us something Greyhawk,' that we would say 'No, never,'" Perkins said. "That won't happen."

Perkins also teased the appearance of more campaign settings in the future. "We absolutely will be exploring new D&D worlds and that door is always open," Perkins said.

 

[Stuart Kerrigan]

You almost made me imagine some ancient desserts scattered in the desert...

Bright Desserts is a different supplement. Also I am starting to think from your picture you secretly are a Dragonborn.

 

[Hussar]

Already done - I wrote this article on DM's Guild. There will be more. It contains suggestions for incorporating Tieflings into the setting. Get it for free, read it, let me know what you think. Perhaps I can spin straw into aluminium as well as anyone.

It was bound to happen eventually good sir.

I do want to apologize here for over reacting. Endlessly negativity made me really grumpy. Not yours and rereading what you posted shows me that. My bad.

 

[Zeromaru X]

I'm also over this as well. I'm grateful with those who indulged me, lol.

Now, I have the 2024 info, Living Greyhawk Gazetter and the 1983 World of Greyhawk book. Do I need something more, or this is enough to have "the basics"

 

[Hussar]

I'm also over this as well. I'm grateful with those who indulged me, lol.

Now, I have the 2024 info, Living Greyhawk Gazetter and the 1983 World of Greyhawk book. Do I need something more, or this is enough to have "the basics"

Between those three, if you can't build a campaign, I don't think you ever could.

That's still probably about a hundred pages more material than you need.

Then again, I'm not a world builder particularly. Give me hooks. Give me places for adventure. That's what I want. I long for the days when settings were presented in adventures and lore books were not a thing.

 

[Parmandur]

I'm also over this as well. I'm grateful with those who indulged me, lol.

Now, I have the 2024 info, Living Greyhawk Gazetter and the 1983 World of Greyhawk book. Do I need something more, or this is enough to have "the basics"

There was a box set for the Free Coty of Greyhawk, haven't read it myself (itbis post-Gygax, so of questionable use to my mind: I would stick with the 1983 box set and the new DMG and fill in any blanks) but it might have some extra local color if you want to go deep into the Free City proper.

 

[mamba]

I long for the days when settings were presented in adventures and lore books were not a thing.

sounds like 5e for the most part… it’s funny, I did not care about lore books then, but now I do not mind so much (granted, more world and locations than just lore…)

 

[pemerton]

Greyhawk has this weird thing where the fans are super tight-lipped about the actual setting.

I think I've been pretty forthright in the various GH threads over the past few months.

It's a highly playable FRPGing setting:

*It has all the tropes, right in the centre of the map: Dwarves, an isolated Elven kingdom, the Pomarj overrun by Orcs, pirates on the Wild Coast, desert and arid hills, urban adventure (Greyhawk, Hardby, Dyvers), etc.

*It has REH-esque ancient empires whose liches, ruins, magic, etc can still be found throughout the land.​

So at least for a fairly mainstream approach to FRPGing, it has everything one needs to start playing! (As far as a setting is concerned.)

The politics of the Great Kingdom, the plots of the Scarlet Brotherhood, the knights of Veluna and Furyondy, etc are all added bonuses.

 

[pemerton]

Evil. Windmill.

There is an evil windmill in the setting and that isn't mentioned in the first sentence and first post of every Greyhawk thread. I've been playing this game for quarter century and this is the first time I've ever heard that.

My recollection is that it's not an especially well-regarded module.

 

[QuentinGeorge]

No, the points he makes are:-

• Queen Yolande of Celene was a complex character in the original setting. She is a proud and distant character, affected by the loss of her consort to Lortmil orcs a few centuries ago, which spurred her to initiate the brutal Hateful Wars, ultimately causing the fall of the Pomarj. Now she refuses to aid to neighboring lands to avoid further elven deaths. He contrasts this with the new version who is a happy-go-luck ex-adventurer hiring outside PCs to do adventures.
• In the original, Jallazari joined the Circle of Eight, as one of its nine elite wizards - it's a society of wizards, not an adventuring company open to any class with magic abilities - that more resembles its predecessor the Citadel of Eight. In the revised version, however, Jallazari is a warlock who gained her power by making a pact with a Celestial, rather than becoming an archmage through rigorous study. This change arguably reduces the theme of female empowerment in her character.
• The World of Greyhawk boxed set or folio are set in 576 CY. The City of Greyhawk boxed set is set later in 581 CY (which is why Jallazari is a member on probation, replacing Bucknard). The guys making Greyhawk 2024 appear to have smudged them together to make their new 576 CY gazetteer. Incidentally the text in boxed set, which was written in 1989, even has the archmage Tenser call out the fact that the Circle of Eight has until her acceptance been an "old coot's drinking club" or some such.

Oh you mean they arbitrarily and for no reason completely broke Greyhawk's timeline? Put NPCs in time periods they didn't belong in? Completely changed NPCs so they share only a name with their previous incarnation? Ravenloft says hello!

 

[pemerton]

They were made in the past 30 years and aren't humans of variable height and hairiness.

Surely variable ear-shape matters too!