D&D (2024) A Reintroduction to Greyhawk

[Yaarel]

True, but I interpret that to mean "homebrew, and we will offer you a menu of usable parts".

That is a great way to characterize 5e 2024.

The "default setting" is homebrew.

Everything else is a menu.

 

[Charlaquin]

That is a great way to characterize 5e 2024.

The "default setting" is homebrew.

Everything else is a menu.

Sure, but both the homebrew and all the menu options are assumed to exist in a shared meta-setting, which includes a whole slew of worldbuilding assumptions that the prospective homebrewer would need to make a specific choice to excise if they so desired.

 

[Yaarel]

There is much room for a DM to invent setting assumptions. For example.

Sure, but both the homebrew and all the menu options are assumed to exist in a shared meta-setting, which includes a whole slew of worldbuilding assumptions that the prospective homebrewer would need to make a specific choice to excise if they so desired.

I think it’s a bit more specific than that. It means all the official settings, along with all homebrew settings that don’t explicitly claim otherwise, are parallel Prime Material planes, which exist in a shared multiverse and connect to the same outer planes.

I view a single Material Plane. All of the planets like Toril, Oerth, and Krynn, are planets that are somewhere in outer space. Practicably, the main way to reach them is by a spelljammer via the Astral Plane hyperspace, where one can travel at the speed of thought where the domains of dread also are.

Athas is a bit weird, since it is somehow cloaked and isolated by the Shadowfell. "The Gray" is the Border Shadowfell, while "The Black" is the Deep Shadowfell.

 

[Yaarel]

I am leaning toward there not being any Elemental Planes. Or rather, the Elemental areas are "local" areas, where the Ethereal Plane is under heavy influence from a region in the Material Plane, such as Water Elementals being frequent in the Ether that overlaps the oceans.

 

[Charlaquin]

There is much room for a DM to invent setting assumptions. For example.


I view a single Material Plane. All of the planets like Toril, Oerth, and Krynn, are planets that are somewhere in outer space. Practicably, the main way to reach them is by a spelljammer via the Astral Plane hyperspace, where one can travel at the speed of thought.

Athas is a bit weird, since it is somehow cloaked and isolated by the Shadowfell. "The Gray" is the Border Shadowfell, while "The Black" is the Deep Shadowfell.

Right, but those are not the assumptions of the default muliverse setting. Obviously your games, your setting, and you are free to make those changes. But, you’re then not using the default setting presented in the books.

 

[Yaarel]

Right, but those are not the assumptions of the default muliverse setting. Obviously your games, your setting, and you are free to make those changes. But, you’re then not using the default setting presented in the books.

The "multiverse" gives the DM more discretion. For example, the Astral Plane is infinite, and potentially inlcudes other "multiverses" that accommodate the Planescape settings, like Theros and Ravnica.

As far as I am aware, Toril, Greyhawk, and Krynn share the same Material Plane. Spelljammers are literally visiting other "stars", other suns in the same outer space.

 

[Stormonu]

There is much room for a DM to invent setting assumptions. For example.


I view a single Material Plane. All of the planets like Toril, Oerth, and Krynn, are planets that are somewhere in outer space. Practicably, the main way to reach them is by a spelljammer via the Astral Plane hyperspace, where one can travel at the speed of thought where the domains of dread also are.

Athas is a bit weird, since it is somehow cloaked and isolated by the Shadowfell. "The Gray" is the Border Shadowfell, while "The Black" is the Deep Shadowfell.

I go the other direction. Each campaign setting is its own Crystal Sphere, in a separate reality from each other, bobbing in a medium called the Phologiston. Not only that, but there are multiple different versions of each setting - for example, there's a Forgotten Realms where the Spellplague never happened, A Flaness where Iuz won The Great Greyhawk War and a Flaness that is our Earth 10,000 years later.

 

[Yaarel]

I go the other direction. Each campaign setting is its own Crystal Sphere, in a separate reality from each other, bobbing in a medium called the Phologiston. Not only that, but there are multiple different versions of each setting - for example, there's a Forgotten Realms where the Spellplague never happened, A Flaness where Iuz won The Great Greyhawk War and a Flaness that is our Earth 10,000 years later.

For 5e, I suppose "phlogiston" is something like the same thing as the "Astral Sea". Perhaps more specifically, phlogiston is the part of the Deep Ether that borders the thoughtscapes of the Astral Sea.

This deep aspect of the ether has no direct connection to the Material Plane. It is unanchored forces.

In any case, the Astral Plane overlaps any and all of these realities, including the alternate realities, and including the phlogiston.

I view a "crystal sphere" as the literally that gravitational force of a sun, planets, and solar system. The force of gravity is subtly visible as if a "haze" within the ethereal plane. From a distance the gravity looks like a glassy sphere.

 

[Yaarel]

In the YouTube interview, Perkins defines the "multiverse".

"The multiverse to D&D, its extremely important. It is the default setting for D&D. It is ALL of our worlds. It is all of the worlds that our fans create. They are all part of this multiverse, and they are all welcome, and they are all important."

It seems fair to characterize the "default setting" is homebrew. The multiverse is the constellations between these infinite number of worlds.


It seems to me, the DMs Guide and its chapter on "lore", is the more cohesive, shared reference point between the many homebrew worlds, rather than the cartography and ethnography of any particular world.

The DM decides what aspects of the multiverse "cosmology" are relevant, and how they are in play.

 

[Plaguescarred]

Welcome back GREYHAWK, i missed you! ♥

I'm happy to see the return of GREYHAWK, especially as a complete setting in the DMG if they were to introduce a setting in it, i prefer it over new one. Nice gift for D&D 50th anniversary!

It should make it discovered or rediscovered by many lasped or new players and DM.... Also like how they chose to do it, going back to origin form with slight must-do changes probably they had to do to pull it off so i'm good with them really. Map is great too! Using different iterations of the setting might have not been as well received thus it may be the best they could do in the circumstances so i'll gladly take it.