D&D 5E Greyhawk: Pitching the Reboot

[Parmandur]

The very tail end of the 1e era and all after Gygax left TSR.


Still, if Greyhawk had been given the same focus as other settings, it would seem just as magical as FR is.

Yeah, I don't think that FR5 The Savage Frontier is any more or less magical than the Flannaes.

 

[Voadam]

The very tail end of the 1e era and all after Gygax left TSR.


Still, if Greyhawk had been given the same focus as other settings, it would seem just as magical as FR is.

I think FR feels a bit more high magical for the setting than Birthright even though Birthright has domain magic. FR has descriptions of common magic at the local levels and lots of magically competent people in lots of places and their mythal magic and magical countries like Thay. Mystara has two big magocracies with lots of powerful magic users and governments harnessing magical power. It has supplements on magic mundane and powerful in the setting. Birthright has lots of regional player's guides for individual kingdoms but my reading of them does not feel as high magic to me as a setting as FR or Mystara does.

Greyhawk has Iuz, a literal demigod ruling a kingdom/empire, it has Mordenkainen and fellow named mages, it has the Vale of the Mage, and Celene, and some high priest run areas and 2e Greyhawk which can definitely be high magic spots and elements, but Greyhawk in how it is done even in 2e regional supplements can be open to different implementations of high versus not so high magic in a lot of the setting. 2e Greyhawk setting supplements do not seem as pervasively high magic as FR does.

 

[TiQuinn]

it has Mordenkainen and fellow named mages

It’s funny that we’ve got the names of these wizards who everyone has heard of because of the spells but we know almost nothing about their characters or personalities. Had they been FR characters, we’d have more material than we could possibly want.

 

[Wolfpack48]

It’s funny that we’ve got the names of these wizards who everyone has heard of because of the spells but we know almost nothing about their characters or personalities. Had they been FR characters, we’d have more material than we could possibly want.

Actually a book on the personalities of Greyhawk would be a fascinating read.

 

[Parmandur]

Actually a book on the personalities of Greyhawk would be a fascinating read.

The new DMG will have a D&D Lore Gloasary, including prominent NPCs like the named males from the PHB (Melf, Yolande, Mordenkainen, etc.)

 

[LordBP]

I think it is fair to say that the dungeons of Castle Greyhawk, the demiplane layers created by the demigod of chaos magic, are fairly high magic. That covers Dungeonland, Beyond the Magic Mirror, and I believe Isle of the Ape. The archmage Keraptis' dungeon in White Plume is high fantasy as well. The D series drow cities seem decently high magic high fantasy as well.

In 1e Greyhawk mostly we have adventures with strong magic loot, often spellcasting NPC adversaries, and some sample PCs in the modules starting off with some magical items. These are adventure sites though and it is tough to say how high fantasy or high magic most of the setting is in say a village in the Shield Lands or the Prelacy of Almor.

We never got Gygax's version of Greyhawk City beyond the few paragraphs in the folio and boxed set which makes it look like a version of Lankhmar. The 2e box set for the city gives a fairly high magic D&D mages guild with a bunch of individual mages as well.

The Gord the Rogue series has quite a bit of information about Greyhawk throughout the series.

 

[Wolfpack48]

The new DMG will have a D&D Lore Gloasary, including prominent NPCs like the named males from the PHB (Melf, Yolande, Mordenkainen, etc.)

Something more in depth than a paragraph or two about each personality would be welcome. These are legendary characters, surely they could take a page or three each.

 

[TiQuinn]

Something more in depth than a paragraph or two about each personality would be welcome. These are legendary characters, surely they could take a page or three each.

I’d be good with a couple of paragraphs (and I’m a sucker for stat blocks but I know they’re not doing that now). Multiple pages per PC is just a lot. We didn’t need that for Drizzt or Elminster, and I think back in the 2e splatbook days, expounding ad nauseum about NPCs was a problem when it was supposed to be the PCs who took center stage. I wouldn’t want that for these characters, though they’d be hard pressed to come up with a full page anyways - there’s that little info existing in all the history of the game!

 

[Wolfpack48]

I’d be good with a couple of paragraphs (and I’m a sucker for stat blocks but I know they’re not doing that now). Multiple pages per PC is just a lot. We didn’t need that for Drizzt or Elminster, and I think back in the 2e splatbook days, expounding ad nauseum about NPCs was a problem when it was supposed to be the PCs who took center stage. I wouldn’t want that for these characters, though they’d be hard pressed to come up with a full page anyways - there’s that little info existing in all the history of the game!

It'd be interesting to see which adventures (modules) they have appeared in historically and what they were doing there. Perhaps a little color about the spells they created and how they were used!

 

[Voadam]

You can find stat blocks and lore in a bunch of modules throughout D&D.

1e has versions of Mordenkainen in the Rogues Gallery, in the parody Castle Greyhawk module, and in Mordenkainen's Fantastic Adventure where you can play Mordenkainen, Bigby, Lord Yrag, and Riggby as pregens. The rogue's gallery also has Bigby, Erac's Cousin, Riggby, Robilar, Serten, and Tenser. Stats vary wildly, Modenkainen is 12th level in the Fantastic Adventure, 14th in the Rogue's Gallery, and 29th in Castle Greyhawk. Bigby is 10th level in Fantastic Adventure, you need to be 18th level in 1e to cast the 9th level Bigby's Crushing Hand spell, and at 10th he cannot even cast the 6th level Bigby's Forceful Hand spell.

You can find stat blocks for most of the Circle of Eight (not Mordenkainen though) in the 2e module Vecna Lives! where you also get to play them (Bigby, Drawmij, Nystul, Otiluke, Otto, Rary, Tenser).

2e City of Greyhawk has six pages covering stat blocks and paragraphs of lore on the Circle Wizards pre-Greyhawk Wars.

2e Rary the Traitor has a bunch more to say on Rary and Lord Robilar post-Greyhawk Wars.

3.5e's Expedition to the Ruins of Castle Greyhawk has some lore on Mordenkainen and Robilar (and Iggwilv) as well.