D&D General Melf's Guide to Greyhawk Coming From Luke Gygax & WotC

[Professor Murder]

...i can't tell whether this is more akin to quasi-sanctioned eberron / realms books from keith baker and ed greenwood or a fully-sanctioned D&D supplement...

Honestly, this is my assumption.

 

[Azzy]

Cool. I can't wait to se what this entails. I might have to pick it up.

 

[mamba]

So, now we're nitpicking the use of "rift"? Sheesh.

You're right, Gygaxes haven't been involved with official D&D for quite some time . . . which is part of the "rift", part of Ayoub's point.

I thought you meant OSR vs 5e to be a rift that this somehow is supposed to help address. If this is just Gygax and WotC then sure, call it whatever you want, doesn’t matter to me

For WotC, this is a way to get some more nostalgia into the new releases. Gygax? Greyhawk? Melf? Of course part of the purpose is marketing and sales, $$. For Luke, this is a chance to be directly involved in the game his father created, and that was a huge part of his childhood.

all true

I'm happy that Luke is getting this opportunity, he's good people. And I'm fine with WotC banking on nostalgia. I'm excited for this project.

I have no opinion on Luke, don’t know anything he did before this (not that there is all that much going by Wikipedia), but to me it feels like he got this gig because of his last name rather than because of qualifications. If so, I am no fan of that

 

[Sulicius]

More Greyhawk? I had hoped we had seen the last of it crammed into the DMG. There is nothing inspiring to me about the setting, and I don’t see any reason to be excited about the son of the guy who drove the original company into the ground.

They’ll release it and the same people who are excited for it now will complain little changes. Same as it ever was.

 

[Clint_L]

Greyhawk was the first setting guide I bought; this was the boxed set back in the early 80s. I cannot express how much I loved it. So this announcement makes me very happy.

But that’s just me being selfish. My second thought is: how wonderful for Luke Gygax! Imagine getting to go back and revisit all those places you first explored in your dad’s home campaign. And now getting to put your stamp on them, and pass them on. This will be a very emotional journey for him. I am very happy for him; he sounds thrilled.

 

[Azzy]

More Greyhawk? I had hoped we had seen the last of it crammed into the DMG. There is nothing inspiring to me about the setting

That's how I feel about Dark Sun, Ravenloft, the Forgotten Realms, Spelljammer, Planescape, Dragonlance, and Mystara... But, you know, other people like those settings and I'm not the only person in the universe that matters.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

What about a "return to castle Greyhawk", a sequel of the 1988 parody module? the deity Zagyg has created several demiplanes, and some times teasing and jokes are the best way to discourage any adventurer from continuing to go all the way to the cursed chest that must not be opened. Some times there is some reward after defeating the dungeon boss but this is only a decoy to trick and avoid the discovery of the secret and cursed threasure that has to keep hidden.

Some times Zagyg created dungeons for children but don' worry, these are harmless like a children TV contest. Usually is the tipical haunted house.

* I miss the iconic characters from 3e

 

[R_J_K75]

More Greyhawk? I had hoped we had seen the last of it crammed into the DMG. There is nothing inspiring to me about the setting, and I don’t see any reason to be excited about the son of the guy who drove the original company into the ground.

They’ll release it and the same people who are excited for it now will complain little changes. Same as it ever was.

Personally, I don't like Greyhawk. I had people over the years praise Greyhawk, they ran me through a few games...I even bought and read the 2 books that came out in the 2000 3E era. I played in a game where I pulled a "Frank Drebin, from Police Squad" and made my way into a group of Monks of Iuz. I snuck up behind a monk, did the old Frank Drebin/Capt Kirk karate chop to the back of the neck, KO'd him, took his robe and made my way into the monk procession. I could have done that in any game. That's all I remember of Greyhawk.

My conclusion of Greyhawk was, it's not interesting. Until 3E, Forgotten Realms was a more thought-out, well-rounded setting. I read the '24 section of the DMG and it was so bare bones that I used some of it; but nothing stood out that made me want to expand on or revisit any area.

Done well, it would get a lot of money from a selected niche customer, but it's not for me.

 

[Sulicius]

I had the same experience with the 5.5e DMG. It was so generic that I just saw it as something I could steal some stuff from, but nothing more than that.

My hope is that there won't be a Greyhawk book released, but something like Keith Baker's stuff getting on DNDBeyond and DMsGuild.

 

[Starmaster]

"Modules" is used multiple times. Hints at the return of shorter adventures.

Yes, they discussed this format quite a bit starting at 43:50. It sounds like these modules will support the anchor product and tie in with each other forming a series just like the old 1e modules, so you will be able to play them individually or as part of the series. If that's going to be the case, then I say, "HOODY HOO!!!" (as long as they are real print modules and not D&D Beyond packets).