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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[Parmandur]

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

It wasn't bad stuff, but...it didn't spark much when I gave it a go. Not like the OG Greyhawk material, or the Grey Box, or notably the FRCS.

If WotC had put out something like the FRCS for Greyhawk and early in 3E, it would have had a better run as "default Setting" IMO.

 

[Micah Sweet]

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

I love a good history textbook. Truth be told, a concordance or otherwise informational text about an imaginary world is just my game.

 

[TiQuinn]

It wasn't bad stuff, but...it didn't spark much when I gave it a go. Not like the OG Greyhawk material, or the Grey Box, or notably the FRCS.

It needed something to punch it up. Instead of strictly being a Gazeteer, throw in some monsters, items, NPCs…something. But I recall it really was afraid of doing much of anything because it was leaving the actual work to the RPGA.

 

[Demetrios1453]

It needed something to punch it up. Instead of strictly being a Gazeteer, throw in some monsters, items, NPCs…something. But I recall it really was afraid of doing much of anything because it was leaving the actual work to the RPGA.

Yeah, a bit on monsters and NPCs would have been nice, but, conversely, the lack of those (or more precisely, the lack of stats for those) the means that the book is pretty edition-neutral.

My big complaint, however, is the absolutely atrocious art in the book. I'm not usually one to go on about the art, but the illustrations in the LGG were just egregiously bad.

 

[AdmundfortGeographer]

It needed something to punch it up. Instead of strictly being a Gazeteer, throw in some monsters, items, NPCs…something. But I recall it really was afraid of doing much of anything because it was leaving the actual work to the RPGA.

Not exactly true based on what I remember from what I recall authors like Erik Mona and Gary Holian saying, I think even Sean Reynolds was involved with writing the deities section and said as much, the LGG was being written while 3e rules was still under development. There was almost nothing the rules dev team could give the LGG authors to work with for anything that needed mechanics.

 

[TiQuinn]

One thing I will give the Greyhawk era in the late 90s - those maps, while totally different than the Darlene style overland map of the 80s - were some of the most detailed and aesthetically gorgeous maps I’d seen them produce up to that time.

 

[Remathilis]

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

I remember in 3e when Kingdoms of Kalamar got semi-official status, I was excited because it was described as a richly detailed fantasy setting. And it was, but God it was so detailed that I could not absorb any of it! It was the driest read I've ever done for pleasure.

There is a thing as "too much lore" apparently!

 

[TiQuinn]

. And it was, but God it was so detailed that I could not absorb any of it!

With lore dumps, there needs to be a place where the author pauses and says “Here’s where you, the DM or the PCs, come in.” And these books just didn’t do that.

 

[Stormonu]

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 think this is something I struggle with when I'm doing write-ups of my campaign worlds, they end up being a catalog of places and things that are somewhat dry.

Asking everyone, what campaign setting(s) write up (book specifically) has been the most engaging, both in being enjoyable to read and inspiring you to run a game in the world? I know the grey box FR has been mentioned for the "adventure seed on every page" are there others?

 

[Voadam]

I like having both shorter gazetteers to get an overview and a longer in-depth one where you can get more details on everything.

For instance for the Scarred Lands there is a 48-page Ghelspad Gazetteer where you get a couple paragraphs on each city state and then there is the 224-page Ghelspad Campaign Setting hardcover which will provide about three pages on each.

It is a lot more manageable to read a whole gazetteer and get a sense of everything then read the in depth details of the area you will be working in. Paizo did this with Golarion as well, plus added in a lot of regional sourcebooks of various lengths for even more zoomed in details as desired.

3e Greyhawk had this format for their 32-page D&D Gazetteer and the 196-page Living Greyhawk Gazetteer. I mostly stuck with my 1e boxed set and did not get the 32 page gazetteer during the 3e period but I was happy to use the 3e LGG as a reference book when I wanted to look up specific stuff like information on the sea god Procan.