D&D 5E Greyhawk: Pitching the Reboot

[dave2008]

It's all good. Besides, I have been isolated going on six years on a mountain in France in a very small hamlet and have no opportunity to game period, unless it is with my wife.

I'm jealous, I only had 2-weeks in Paris with my wife for our 25th wedding anniversary and I keep wanting to go back.

 

[Rob Kuntz]

Me too, but I understand the sentiment from a lore writer's perspective.

Heh. I am approaching the analysis from a system's perspective first and foremost. You can talk of lore when I'm in the dirt. Besides, I did say, "The system should be neutral regarding the inputs of fantastic expression..." thus inferring that systems are either not neutral (worse case) or that they are gradated (lesser/greater), etc. The most neutral system IME is Original D&D; and so I have been able to forwardly mark system limitations, contractions and in some cases, expansions. As I have no idea of the 5E build I will have to wait to include that in my ongoing system's assessment. But writing a novel and crafting screen treatments have displaced such research as of late.

 

[Rob Kuntz]

I'm jealous, I only had 2-weeks in Paris with my wife for our 25th wedding anniversary and I keep wanting to go back.

My wife and I will toast to you and yours. I've only spent 5 days in Paris, my wife has been there a lot, of course.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

We have to remember we don't know their plans and future projects. Maybe Gh is in the list, but it hasn't to be in this phase yet. Maybe there is in Oerth an event like the Sundering in Abeir-Toril, and now crystal spheres are next.

Gh hasn't been totally forgotten, at all, the fact is some characters are mentioned, even in some titles, for example Tasha and Moderkainen.

The dark powers could cause troubles against using Mazzell's soul, Vecna's mother as bait), and Rary a powerful antagonist, with his own "evil empire" as a good example of "tyrant with his own leader cult".

 

[jgsugden]

If I were going to release Greyhawk in 5E, I'd do it as the setting that is released with 'Epic Rules' for advancement from levels 21 to 30. One of the key elements of the Greyhawk setting is that the wizards were insanely powerful forces in that setting. While a 20th level wizard in 5E is very strong, they do not have the feel of the classic Archmage with multiple 9th level spells. I believe Greyhawk would best be served by being partnered by the release of rules that get us into that feel.

 

[fearsomepirate]

I would like to see a Greyhawk DIY kit, not a storybook adventure. Basically, take the 1e Greyhawk box, update it to 5e, and fill in things provide other materials that made it something of a disappointment, particular more detail on the different countries and what's in them. I would include, in addition to updates of the original two books, a rules booklet containing material for

• hex-crawling.
• domains & warfare.
• Name Level benefits loosely inspired by AD&D.
• A revised level schedule with gold-based XP.

Essentially, make it a more thorough DIY kit than the DMG for running adventures in a setting that's about 50% homebrew, 50% published.

 

[hopeless]

Just a thought, but what if Rary's betrayal wasn't actually an act of evil but a response to events he took personally?
That 1e reprint of the Slave Lords included a new scenario A0 how about use that it introduce new players to Greyhawk?
A major upheaval that's only being felt world wide as a group of adventurers' are asked to investigate a mining outpost linked to an organisation in the Bright Desert.
Unknown to anyone the Circle of Eight has suffered greatly due to the deaths of two of their members by people as yet unrevealed.
Its only after the game reaches the end of A1 that the party learn that both Rary and Robilar have apparently been replaced by copies courtesy of a series of Mirrors of Opposition being used by the true villain to replace key people in positions of authority.
You then have a reason for their turn and a series of scenarios to explain why they turned evil with a useful means of creating new bad guys as they have to locate where the originals are if still alive and who is ultimately behind this.
You probably have a better grasp of Greyhawk than I do since I'm just working on what I've been reading for the most part, but this sounds like a possibly good entry point into the setting.
What do you think unfeasible or outright absurd?

 

[Hussar]

Well, speaking of Greyhawk stuff, I just ran the module from the DM's Guild, the Second Life Charity module - Infernal Machine Rebuild (5e) - Wizards of the Coast | D&D 5th Edition | Dungeon Masters Guild Infernal Machine Rebuild.

Now, there was a MASSIVE nostalgia trip. In the module, you travel through time to when the Tomb of Horrors was first being constructed as well as traveling to the Temple of Moloch featured on the cover of the 1e PHB. They name drop all sorts of NPC's and whatnot throughout the module. It was an absolute blast to run. Even though my players didn't really know much of the background, I kept giggling like a mildly concussed monkey as I ran the adventure. Total, total blast.

And, frankly, I think that's how a revised Greyhawk should be approached - through adventures. Greyhawk, to me, was never the Folio or the boxed set. That stuff all came YEARS later after I'd been introduced to Greyhawk through Dragon magazine, and the G series and A series and various other bits and bobs. My cousin's 1e barbarian that was a son of Kord (using rules from Dragon) was a particular favorite.

But the folios and novels? Pshaw. That's how Forgotten Realms is presented. A big old encyclopedia of knowledge that you have to mine in order to build adventures. Greyhawk? Naw, we played Greyhawk for years without even knowing what a Furyondy was beyond a mention in Temple of Elemental Evil.

To me, the recent Ghosts of Saltmarsh is EXACTLY how GH should be brought back into print. Give me more like that. How about a Ghosts of the Slave Lords? or a Ghosts of the S series? Sure, they mined the G series and put it into FR, but, why not go back to the D series and do Greyhawk style drow? Redo the I series. There is lots to mine here.

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

And, frankly, I think that's how a revised Greyhawk should be approached - through adventures. Greyhawk, to me, was never the Folio or the boxed set. That stuff all came YEARS later after I'd been introduced to Greyhawk through Dragon magazine, and the G series and A series and various other bits and bobs. My cousin's 1e barbarian that was a son of Kord (using rules from Dragon) was a particular favorite.

Everyone gets introduced to things, and everyone has a their own personal connection with a setting.

That said, I have to make a brief historical correction to this.

The "core three" for AD&D was not finished until the publication of the DMG in the summer of '79.
The Folio (essentially, the complete Greyhawk) was published in the summer of 1980.

The A series of modules were published from 1980 on.

The hints of Greyhawk that were evidence in, inter alia, Dragon #1 and the name of that certain OD&D supplement as well as the original printing of B1 were solidified by 1980- at the beginning of the time most people had begun playing AD&D "by the rules."

In addition, it definitely set the standard for having a "Folio" or "guide."

 

[hopeless]

How much detail is there in that original folio when compared to the Greyhawk boxed set?