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

lkj · May 9, 2019

David Howery said:
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 · May 9, 2019

David Howery said:
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 · May 9, 2019

*Deleted by user*

Aaron Litz · May 10, 2019

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 · May 10, 2019

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 · May 10, 2019

lkj said:
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 · May 10, 2019

gyor said:
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.