D&D 5E Iggwilv/Tasha To Join Volo, Xanathar, and Mordenkainen? [UPDATED!]

Is WotC teasing a new announcement? There have been a few D&D books named after famous personalities from the game's extensive lore - Vole's Guide to Monsters, Xanathar's Guide to Everything, Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes. It looks possible that the next such personality might be Tasha of Tasha's Hideous Laughter fame -- which was an adventuring alias of the Greyhawk villain Iggwilv.

UPDATE -- A page has appeared on Amazon entitled Dungeons & Dragons November Title (Announced August 24). It's a hardcover, $49.95, November 17th release date.

On their Discord channel, WotC posted a short audio clip; it features some female-sounding voices laughing, and it is titled "Feather and Tart". It also has a metadata info which says August 24th, 2020, which is Monday. But in addition to that, a WoTC staff member on Reddit's avatar was changed to an image of Iggwilv.

Iggwilv was an evil magic-user, a villain created by Gary Gygax. When adventuring with the Company of Seven, she used the alias Tasha. The lore has it that the witch Baba Yaga adopted her as a child and named her Natasha, and she soon became Natasha the Dark (Baba Yaga also adopted Elena the Fair).

Iggwilv has two forms, one old and one young. You can read more about the character on Wikipedia.


What does seem clear is that WotC is teasing an impending announcement! I assume that the announcement they are teasing will be the announcement of an upcoming announcement, or I'll be disappointed.

 

[Remathilis]

I had a Greyhawk fan argue on a thread here, apparently with a straight face, that, yes, fiendish descendents like tieflings did likely exist in Greyhawk, and they could very well have the same stats as tieflings, but they couldn't be called tieflings, since those don't exist in Greyhawk.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Polite disagreement is not dismissive or contempt, Mist. I'm sorry you're so sensitive on this topic you take it that way.

“I’m sorry you’re so sensitive” isn’t an appropriate response to someone calmly telling you that you’ve been a jerk.

 

[lkj]

Oh, bless your heart: nothing short than a verbatim reprint of the original Folio would appease most of those fans. There were fits raised that Saltmarsh dared to mention dragonborn and have a tiefling NPC. Greyhawk is second only to Dark Sun in its fandom actively resisting any addition, change, or retcon to the setting as a result of edition changes.

I am a big Greyhawk fan. And I really liked how they handled it in Saltmarsh. It's understandable that people have different opinions, but I suspect WotC is well aware that internet messageboard arguments are not necessarily a good gauge of the actual opinion of fandom as a whole.

I don't know how Ghosts of Saltmarsh did, but I had the impression it did well. I hope so. Because that's the best bet for me seeing more Greyhawk material. I also have thought that the fact that they still haven't made Greyhawk generally available on the DM's Guild might be a good sign that they still have plans.

But then, I'm an optimist.

AD

 

[EthanSental]

it would be cool if they let the designers who helped with older Greyhawk products up things out on the DMs guild like Keith is doing for Eberron and Ed for FR. I don’t recall the authors without looking them up but let those familiar with Greyhawk play in the playground again.

 

[Todd Roybark]

WotC is likely going to use Tasha in the title for the primary reason that Tasha is a way easier word to pronounce than "Iggwilv."

The day a D&D product selects an "easier to pronounce name" over a name that has a surplus of repeating consonants is the day the Dread Pentacle is broken, Death then dies, and Cthulhu eats the universe.

It is Dragon #359, the article is "Unsolved Mysteries of D&D." However, the only connection it makes between Tasha and Iggwilv is the reveal of this connection in Expedition to the Ruins of Greyhawk and commenting that the description of Natasha in Dragon #58's adventure The Dancing Hut is very similar to Iggwilv. Suggesting Natasha = Tasha = Iggwilv all along

I actually own the issue..(picture bellow). So in the final issue of Paizo Dragon this little paragraph of Erik Mona, Editor in Chief of Dragon, is pointing out that Erik Mona, author of Expedition to the Ruins Greyhawk (awful title), got to add his Authorial Signature to Greyhawk.
This issue of Dragon and Exp to the Ruins are the last ties Paizo had to D&D I believe.

This little bit of Trivia from what essentially is Erik Mona's game table, was not even memorable to me. Especially not in the final issue of Paizo Dragon, which I was very saddened to see ending.

One of the design goals of 5e was to escape the trap of Authorial Identification in 5e.
5e wasn't meant to be Mike's game, or Jeremy's game...the way 1e was Gary's, 2e was Zeb's, 3e was Monte's, etc, etc.

Erik has Pathfinder....he doesn't need this bit of Greyhawk lore. Greyhawk doesn't need it either, it is not essential.

Greyhawk hasn't been relevant for over 30 years

I only have the original Greyhawk box set and many of the modules penned by Gygax.
The value of the first box set was that in two thin booklets, you got a barebones world, with adventures ready to go, that you can make your own.

Good products are always relevant...see 5e Eberron for proof of this.

groggiest of Internet grognards

I started playing AD&D in 1980. I started wargaming in 1981.
As I was told in no uncertain terms in 1981 by older, adult wargamers...true grognards:
The term grognard applies only to Table Top Wargamers, and "Only applies to people that started wargaming in the 1970s or earlier."

So, I don't think the term means what you think it means. Unless you mean to appropriate the culture of others, whom likely are not represented here.

How many ENworld-eras started playing Wargames in 1979 or earlier?🕹

 

[Kurotowa]

it would be cool if they let the designers who helped with older Greyhawk products up things out on the DMs guild like Keith is doing for Eberron and Ed for FR. I don’t recall the authors without looking them up but let those familiar with Greyhawk play in the playground again.

Is there anything stopping them? I mean, I know there are sometimes limits on what can go up on DMs Guild, I have vague memories of some sort of Eberron embargo being lifted when Wayfinder's Guide came out or something. But do we actually know that you can't put up Greyhawk stuff there or is that just speculation?

 

[Kurotowa]

I started playing AD&D in 1980. I started wargaming in 1981.
As I was told in no uncertain terms in 1981 by older, adult wargamers...true grognards:
The term grognard applies only to Table Top Wargamers, and "Only applies to people that started wargaming in the 1970s or earlier.

The only people who can claim to be the true original grognards (lit: old guard) were the elite veterans of Emperor Napoleon's Imperial Guard. Everyone since then has been repurposing the term to apply it to the old guard of their time and place, who share a universal habit of complaining about how things were better back in their day and everything's gone downhill now. So your description is 100% accurate for who would be a grognard in the wargaming community of 1981 and rather out of date in the here and now of 2020.

Also, I know I bounce between a lot of Internet communities and sometimes lose track of the particular sub-cultural mores and traditions of a single particular forum, but is "grognard" a killing word or something on ENworld? Honestly, I meant it as a light rib on someone I thought was being a bit overblown, not a challenge to an honor duel.

 

[Chaosmancer]

So, just in case I've missed the boat on this, I want to confirm.

The issue isn't Iggwilv's lore, everyone agrees on everything attributed to her.

The issue isn't Tasha's Lore, whoever she was, I guess a member of this Seven group, everyone agrees on that.


The only issue is that there is lore that some people don't think is canon that says Iggwilv took on the appearance of Tasha, and they were secretly the same person.

That's it. That is the only problem people have with the situation.

 

[billd91]

I started playing AD&D in 1980. I started wargaming in 1981.
As I was told in no uncertain terms in 1981 by older, adult wargamers...true grognards:
The term grognard applies only to Table Top Wargamers, and "Only applies to people that started wargaming in the 1970s or earlier.

So, I don't think the term means what you think it means. Unless you mean to appropriate the culture of others, whom likely are not represented here.

How many ENworld-eras started playing Wargames in 1979 or earlier?

Funny thing about time. It keeps moving on. I don’t think most people would accept grognard as just applying to guys who were wargaming in the 1970s (particularly not the guys wargaming in the 1960s who probably still consider the guys who started in the 1970s newbies). As long as you‘ve been around the block more than a few times and grumble about change, the term fits. There’s no ’appropriation‘ going on.

Frankly, I’m getting a bit sick of the ad hominems directed as Erik Mona as if all his work with Greyhawk since the mid 1990s means nothing. The man has credibility that the owners of the IP that is Greyhawk obviously endorsed.

 

[Parmandur]

it would be cool if they let the designers who helped with older Greyhawk products up things out on the DMs guild like Keith is doing for Eberron and Ed for FR. I don’t recall the authors without looking them up but let those familiar with Greyhawk play in the playground again.

If anyone, it should be Luke Gygax: and he has an active relationship with WotC, so that is not implausible.