D&D General Greyhawk book is NOT 'Shield Lands' but 'Borderlands of Iuz' according to team member

Whizbang Dustyboots · 2026-04-08T21:22:35+0100

Mort said:
One big difference: in the DMG the Baklunish hit first (with the Rain of colorless fire) and the Suel retaliated (with the Invoked Devastation) - as opposed to pretty much every prior source I've seen, where the Suel were the initiators/aggressors.

Doubt that will make a difference in your average campaign, but it certainly sets a different tone. I wonder why they decided to change this - or if it was just a mistake that they didn't bother fixing.

I'm not sure how much the actual order matters for most games.

Anyone who knows the truth for sure in the Oerth setting is probably too powerful and crazy for the players to stick around and talk to.

Mort · 2026-04-08T21:42:00+0100

Whizbang Dustyboots said:
I'm not sure how much the actual order matters for most games.

I would suspect, in most games, it doesn't matter at all, except those that play into the Suel victim complex. Just struck me as an odd change.

Whizbang Dustyboots said:
Anyone who knows the truth for sure in the Oerth setting is probably too powerful and crazy for the players to stick around and talk to.

Speaking of old and powerful, there was ONE change that was a bit closer to the PCs. I'll put it in spoilers on the very odd chance it could matter:

The Grandfather of Obedience , Korenth Zahn. The DMG has him as an immortal, possibly draconic, being. Whereas, tradionaly, he's just a gifted monk and administrator and latest in a long line of rulers. Having the head of a human supremacist organization actually be a non-human immortal being - that's a big difference that can completely change the tone of the organization!

So they've definitely changed some stuff that can hit close to the PCs - at least eventually.

Whizbang Dustyboots · 2026-04-08T22:20:49+0100

I did notice, thumbing through the section last night, that WotC made sure to sprinkle in tiefling and dragonborn leaders into the setting. They weren't always the choices I would have made, but that might be the point -- they want to fully integrate the 5E PHB races, not just have the newbies lurking around the edges of the map and subjected to "what are yoooou" stuff from every NPC they meet.

Mort · 2026-04-08T22:29:08+0100

Whizbang Dustyboots said:
I did notice, thumbing through the section last night, that WotC made sure to sprinkle in tiefling and dragonborn leaders into the setting. They weren't always the choices I would have made, but that might be the point -- they want to fully integrate the 5E PHB races, not just have the newbies lurking around the edges of the map and subjected to "what are yoooou" stuff from every NPC they meet.

Tieflings are actually a pretty natural fit in Greyhawk, Dragonborn not as much - but I'm pretty inclusive and won't quibble.

I am curious to see if this book goes with or even mentions the heavy Chromatic Dragon threat brought up in the DMG writeup - because, as far as I'm aware, that's totally new and I suspect Gygax would only put it in if forced.

Jeffzilla · 2026-04-08T22:41:59+0100

Lord_Gosumba said:
With me DMing my Greyhawk Campaign since the beginning when released in 1980, I know one overlooked thing. While there were many series of great Adventures out then (A1-4, G1-3, D1-3, U1-3, T1-4, N1, etc.) most of Greyhawk is empty. You did not get to know anything else about the setting until at first Gary and Rob Kuntz's Events of the Eastern & Southern Flanaess articles in Dragon Magazine. Then it was a wait until Greyhawk Adventures in 1988 and the Free City of Greyhawk Boxed Set in 1989.

Before that, Greyhawk was very empty as far as published source lore. There is plenty of room to tell those stories from the 570s era. This first book will be a telling of this area from Melf's perspective. All of us involved in this consider it a true honor to bring our Greyhawk Community, and hopefully some new fans of the setting we cherish, this new (old) content.

This is the thing that most disappointed me about Greyhawk as a kid. I wanted to know what was out there in 'the D&D world' so that I could integrate my adventures and my adventurers in that living breathing place. Greyhawk felt... unfinished.

It was only years later, after running and playing games in some of the 'established' game settings, that I started to reappraise Greyhawk and appreciate it for this very reason. It's nice having some of the work done for you and having some of the broad strokes of geography and world history filled in for you, but the best thing about Greyhawk is being able to lay claim to some dusty undefined canon-free corner of the world and proclaim "here's the situation there..." because that's what works best for me in this particular campaign.

Mecheon · 2026-04-09T04:12:00+0100

Mort said:
Tieflings are actually a pretty natural fit in Greyhawk, Dragonborn not as much - but I'm pretty inclusive and won't quibble.

There's a completely unused Land of Dragons in Greyhawk lore that's been an easy Dragonborn fit for decades

(yes I know about the French comic that people say happens there but there's no way in hell WotC are making a random French comic canon)

Whizbang Dustyboots · 2026-04-09T04:14:58+0100

Mecheon said:
there's no way in hell WotC are making a random French comic canon

And if they are, they should start with Asterix.

Ondath · 2026-04-09T09:24:32+0100

Whizbang Dustyboots said:
And if they are, they should start with Asterix.

The year is 576 C.Y. The Shield Lands are entirely occupied by the the Empire of Iuz. Well, not entirely... One small community in the New Shield Lands still holds out against the invaders!