D&D (2024) Greyhawk Confirmed. Tell Me Why.

[Parmandur]

I think that’s the other thing - for me, there was nothing to distinguish the Horned Society from Iuz. They both peddled in summoning demons, both had their evil armies, both had cults, etc.

Nope,the Horned Society is an Infernal cult dedicated to Devils, Iuz is a Demonic Cambion seeking personal power. It the Blood War in miniature, over a decade before Planescape focused on thw Blood War on thw cosmic scale.

 

[Micah Sweet]

I think it's ridiculous.

(1) Greyhawk is not great literature. It's a a grab-bag of fantasy ideas and D&D mechanical elements merged together on some adaptation of an old wargame club map.

(2) A commercial publisher like WotC will publish stuff it thinks will sell. If you don't like the stuff, you don't buy it.

(3) The setting has no independent existence. It can't be "blown up". Either you enjoy and make use of what they publish, or you don't.

In the 1990s I was using GH material that referred to the Horned Society taking over the Shield Lands (the City of GH boxed set) and other GH material that just ignored those events even though set later in the imaginary timeline (the post-GH Wars stuff). I just picked and chose what I wanted to use. It's not hard!

That attitude is condescending and elitist. You don't get to decide that anything is or isn't "great literature" and therefore can be manipulated and rewritten with impunity, or at least without complaint. None of us are that important.

 

[Parmandur]

Except when they make a wonderful product like VRGtR.

As I said, some folks aren’t happy unless their settings are preserved in amber.

Van Richten's Guide is so good.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

There is a viable way to keep the restrictions and allowances within in certain settings while not breaking the current game mechanics. We do it all the time, I've run many 5e GH games and it totally works. Heck there are whole communities and tons of content that do just that. 5e D&D but in Greyhawk with all the sensibilities and flavor of the setting intact but with 5e mechanics. It totally works, it's already working for years. Just do a quick search for Greyhawk 5e and you will find a TON of great content.

The rules work if you change the rules so that they are different rules.

 

[TiQuinn]

Nope,the Horned Society is an Infernal cult dedicated to Devils, Iuz is a Demonic Cambion seeking personal power. It the Blood War in miniature, over a decade before Planescape focused on thw Blood War on thw cosmic scale.

Ahhh, now that’s an interesting take on them I can get behind!

 

[Micah Sweet]

Except when they make a wonderful product like VRGtR.

As I said, some folks aren’t happy unless their settings are preserved in amber.

Like I said, the fact that some people like VGtR is irrelevant to my view. And material can easily be added to a setting without completely changing it. Several folks here, including some I often disagree with, have done just that satisfactorily.

 

[Mecheon]

I think there is a viable way to keep the restrictions and allowances within in certain settings while not breaking the current game mechanics

This is being published as a "Hey here's an example setting thing" in the book that's introducing people to the game for the first time. Its going to be doing an absolutely poor job of that if it goes "Okay remove 50% of the races of the game because they didn't exist before 90% of the people reading this book were born"

Plus, well, we are talking, y'know. Greyhawk. Its not like Greyhawk hasn't just spat new things into existence every single time there was a new monster book to sell. This is the setting where, due to someone reading a book, decided there are now Dark Elves who were totally around the whole time and actually there's this big mysterious underground you've never herad about, and despite these being a functioning civilisation no one has ever encountered them before (with all of the grace of an MMO introducing a new expansion zone)

 

[Parmandur]

Ahhh, now that’s an interesting take on them I can get behind!

Also, to be honest making the Horned Society a Tiefling Warlock magocracy would require changing...not much.

 

[AstroCat]

The rules work if you change the rules so that they are different rules.

It's not all or nothing, you can make some adjustments to some "rules" while 100% maintaining the integrity of the setting. I never said you can't, you did.

 

[Micah Sweet]

What's the danger?

I mean, I had Orc PCs in a GH game in the first half of the 1990s. We worked it out. I'm sure contemporary RPGers are as imaginative as we were back then.

To be honest, I'm not convinced WotC/Hasbro corporate allows its designers to be as imaginative as they've been in the past.