D&D (2024) How Does Greyhawk Fit In To The New Edition?

According to Game Informer — “the surprising importance and inclusions of what is arguably the oldest D&D campaign setting of them all – Greyhawk.”

So how does Greyhawk fit in? According to GI, the new 2024 Dungeon Master’s Guide contains a sample setting—and that setting is, indeed, Greyhawk. Not only that, but the book will come with a double-sided poster map with the City of Greyhawk on one side and the Flannaes on the other—the eastern part of one of Oerth’s four continents.

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Even as the multiverse of D&D worlds sees increased attention, the Dungeon Master's Guide also offers a more discrete setting to get gaming groups started. After very few official releases in the last couple of decades, the world of Greyhawk takes center stage. The book fleshes out Greyhawk to illustrate how to create campaign settings of your own. Greyhawk was the original D&D game world crafted by D&D co-creator Gary Gygax, and a worthy setting to revisit on the occassion of D&D's golden anniversary. It's a world bristling with classic sword and sorcery concepts, from an intrigue-laden central city to wide tracts of uncharted wilderness. Compared to many D&D campaign settings, it's smaller and less fleshed out, and that's sort of the point; it begs for DMs to make it their own. The book offers ample info to bring Greyhawk to life but leaves much undetailed. For those eager to take the plunge, an included poster map of the Greyhawk setting sets the tone, and its reverse reveals a map of the city of the same name. "A big draw to Greyhawk is it's the origin place for such heroes as Mordenkainen, Tasha, and others," Perkins says. "There's this idea that the players in your campaign can be the next great world-hopping, spell-crafting heroes of D&D. It is the campaign where heroes are born."

- Game Informer​

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[Scott Brumage]

True, but after the first half of the decade of "Ugh, Forgotten Realms again?" I sort of expected it. Also after neglecting Greyhawk since basically 3rd edition, I'm certainly surprised to see it return!

Getting a new map is exciting, I wonder who will do the cartography and if we'll be able to get a digital print of it somewhere, like with Blando or Schley. Though I guess it will probably be included in D&D Beyond.

The cartography of the World of Greyhawk has been mapped out in exquisite detail by Anna B. Meyer. With like fractal levels of detail. She should have her own hagiography some day.

 

[Eyes of Nine]

The cartography of the World of Greyhawk has been mapped out in exquisite detail by Anna B. Meyer. With like fractal levels of detail. She should have her own hagiography some day.

Links or it didn't happen!
(Or maybe I'm too lazy to go look it up tbh...)

NM, I forgot I had been here before and bookmarked it

Anna B. Meyer - Fantasy Cartography

 

[Demetrios1453]

The cartography of the World of Greyhawk has been mapped out in exquisite detail by Anna B. Meyer. With like fractal levels of detail. She should have her own hagiography some day.

I hadn't looked at her site recently, and I see she's decided to tackle Western Oerik. That's a brave decision given the fact there's so little canon info on that region, with much of it potentially contradictory!

 

[RedSquirrel]

erm, from the Ashes, Living Greyhawk both made a lot of changes to the setting. The setting was originally static and a lot of us prefer it that way what happens can be focused on the PCs and not keeping up with what WOTC is going to do with the setting.

This was never, ever the case—not even once. Gygax and Kuntz wrote Dragon magazine articles in an ongoing article column that updated the events of the Flanaess continuously in every article, leading from the folio in 1980 to the World of Greyhawk boxed set in 1983. And it was updated more in '85, '89, '91, '92, 98, etc.
And that's just counting major setting sourcebooks, not even adventures or other sourcebooks along the way.

And the introduction itself in both WoG folio and boxed set clearly mean it to not be static. It specifically says that it's not meant to remain a single thing, and should be evolved.

... I felt like LG was incredibly boring though.

I offer for your consideration ... that had more to do with the adventures you played or the group you played with, or perhaps just your own personal engagement, rather than the setting.

 

[teitan]

I offer for your consideration ... that had more to do with the adventures you played or the group you played with, or perhaps just your own personal engagement, rather than the setting.

I offer for your consideration that the book, The Living Greyhawk Gazetteer was a boring read that I slogged through. I enjoyed the Journal but the book was boring, offered nothing really and the little thin Gazetteer that they put out a few months before was a much better presentation. Had nothing to do with the any games I played. Thank you for your assumption though.

 

[Parmandur]

I offer for your consideration that the book, The Living Greyhawk Gazetteer was a boring read that I slogged through. I enjoyed the Journal but the book was boring, offered nothing really and the little thin Gazetteer that they put out a few months before was a much better presentation. Had nothing to do with the any games I played. Thank you for your assumption though.

I like Greyhawk, and have 3E era noatalgia...but that book did not spark joy.

 

[TiQuinn]

The Living Greyhawk Gazetteer was a boring read that I slogged through.

Good lord, yes. It was like reading a history textbook.

 

[Parmandur]

Good lord, yes. It was like reading a history textbook.

I think that is unfair to history textbooks.

 

[teitan]

I like Greyhawk, and have 3E era noatalgia...but that book did not spark joy.

Greyhawk is my favorite D&D setting and yeah joy is not the word for it! It was practical to the point of asking “did Ben Stein write this in the voice of his Ferris Bueller character?”

 

[Demetrios1453]

Good lord, yes. It was like reading a history textbook.

I loved the LGG. But then again, I love history books.