D&D 5E Greyhawk is the official setting for Ghosts of Saltmarsh

[lkj]

okay. I have to admit, I always preferred the older versions of GH, everything before the Wars (I like to pretend they didn't happen). Mainly because GH was a very 'build it yourself' world that the PCs could actually have an affect on. FR was amazingly detailed, but there was always a lot of stuff going on that the PCs couldn't affect... which is one of the reasons I didn't like the whole GH Wars thing....

Mike Mearls shares your preference, based on an interview awhile back. What that means for the setting when they release it in some form? Who knows.

AD

 

[Telvin]

okay. I have to admit, I always preferred the older versions of GH, everything before the Wars (I like to pretend they didn't happen). Mainly because GH was a very 'build it yourself' world that the PCs could actually have an affect on. FR was amazingly detailed, but there was always a lot of stuff going on that the PCs couldn't affect... which is one of the reasons I didn't like the whole GH Wars thing....

I totally agree with you on this. I ignored the wars as well. What I did do though, was when my party failed at saving The City of Greyhawk while I was running Age of Worms (part 6 I believe), I left it like that. The city is now known as The City of the Dead. Nothing like leaving their mark on the world, whether it was through success or failure.

 

[lowkey13]

*Deleted by user*

 

[Aaron Litz]

I am happily flabbergasted.

There has been too much transplanting of cool things from Oerth onto Toril, doing a disservice to both settings by robbing each of its distinctive flavor (separating Castle Greyhawk from Oerth and Evermeet from Toril so that anyone from any setting can visit them? Seriously WotC? That's pure cheese.) Every exchange makes both settings more generic and less interesting.

They started out doing a good job in the DMG explaining how the various established settings have different flavors and belonging to different sub-genres, describing how the Forgotten Realms is High Fantasy while Greyhawk is Swords & Sorcery, even though after that they just ignored their own words and kept transplanting iconic Greyhawk themes to the 'Realms despite the differences in flavor between the settings.

I'm glad to see they're using some restraint and taste. For a while I was worried they were going to try to transplant the Free City of Greyhawk to the southern edge of the Sea of Fallen Stars to be a rival of Zhentil Keep or something.

 

[Mercurius]

Why does this matter? At all? You can place it wherever you want to. It is in your setting (or, for most folks, on your bookshelf).

 

[gyor]

Mike Mearls shares your preference, based on an interview awhile back. What that means for the setting when they release it in some form? Who knows.

AD

Honestly if I was a GH fan, I'd be more concerned how tightly GH has been bound to the Forgotten Realms with so many NPCs visiting FR and being effected by events there.

 

[Shiroiken]

Honestly if I was a GH fan, I'd be more concerned how tightly GH has been bound to the Forgotten Realms with so many NPCs visiting FR and being effected by events there.

This has been going on since the TSR days after Gary was ousted. As they were planning Spelljammer, they liked the idea of having powerful NPCs be able to travel and visit each other. Ed Greenwood did a series of articles in Dragon Magazine where "he" hid while Elminster, Mordenkiden, and the Dark Elf Master of the Black Robes from Dragonlance (forgot his name) would visit at his home, since it was neutral ground.

 

[jasper]

Why does this matter? At all? You can place it wherever you want to. It is in your setting (or, for most folks, on your bookshelf).

WRONG WRONG WRONG. It will be on my nightstand. With Rupebert the Bear guarding it.

 

[TarionzCousin]

I mean, I love the Forgotten Realms and all, but I’ve been feeling a Greyhawk itch of late.

Careful: you may have incurred the Rash of Vecna™.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

If I could give two laughs for this, I would!

Careful: you may have incurred the Rash of Vecna™.

 

[lowkey13]

*Deleted by user*

 

[Parmandur]

You may think this is impossible, but the articles are even worse than the one sentence description.

I find that plausible: Perkins has dubbed them canonical for D&D story purposes, at least.

 

[lowkey13]

*Deleted by user*

 

[togashi_joe]

I haven't followed anything about GH or FR since 2E days, so a question... has GH ever been officially updated since the days of Living Greyhawk? I know it gets mentioned a lot in the later editions, but has anyone actually updated it?

Yes, actually, you can find more info here. Some northeast conventions run a lot of Greyhawk Reborn (Living Greyhawk 5e) and they'll be at Origins as well: http://greyhawkreborn.net/documents/

It's a lot less limiting than Adventurer's League as well in my opinion and a better-run, cohesive campaign.

 

[zenopus]

Some preview "flip thru" videos are up on YT now. The area map for Saltmarsh is simply a color updating (redrawn) of the original one from U2 Danger at Dunwater, and includes the Greyhawk features of the Azure Sea, the Dreadwood and the Hool Marshes. It even includes the original hexes, which in U2 were coded to specific WoG hexes! As shown in the first post in this thread, the text also mentions the Kingdom of Keoland, a Greyhawk domain going back to the pre-Greyhawk Great Kingdom map.

In a further twist, the've also placed the Tower of Zenopus from the Sample Dungeon in the original (Holmes) Basic Set across the river mouth from Saltmarsh, and there are four paragraphs setting it up as an adventure locale to be designed by the DM. It's the first time the Tower of Zenopus has been given an official Greyhawk location! My thoughts on this are here:

The Tower of Zenopus in Ghosts of Saltmarsh

 

[DMZ2112]

I want nothing more than to just shut up and applaud. It is nice to see this sidebar any time it turns up. It is nice to see Greyhawk as the "default" rather than one of the "options."

But my question is this: what does the rest of the book say on the topic? Does it actually matter? Does the lore of the sourcebook reflect this choice, or is it all just sandpapered down to generic fantasy?

Greyhawk isn't just a fancy logo. This sidebar is nice, but no matter which setting is listed at the top, it's just fanservice. Where's the beef?

 

[Demetrios1453]

I want nothing more than to just shut up and applaud. It is nice to see this sidebar any time it turns up. It is nice to see Greyhawk as the "default" rather than one of the "options."

But my question is this: what does the rest of the book say on the topic? Does it actually matter? Does the lore of the sourcebook reflect this choice, or is it all just sandpapered down to generic fantasy?

Greyhawk isn't just a fancy logo. This sidebar is nice, but no matter which setting is listed at the top, it's just fanservice. Where's the beef?

We know from previews that all deities mentioned are Greyhawk ones. There's a location that was a temple of Procan that is now overrun by worshipers of Erythnul, for example.

 

[DMZ2112]

We know from previews that all deities mentioned are Greyhawk ones. There's a location that was a temple of Procan that is now overrun by worshipers of Erythnul, for example.

Thanks for bringing me up to speed. I'll, uh, just be over here in the corner crying quiet tears of joy.

 

[Demetrios1453]

It's up on D&D Beyond. Starting my read-through now...

 

[mach1.9pants]

DLing now

Edit: I think DDB uses dial up...

Edit 2: then it crashes my iPad, which is a first, and now has started downloading again!