D&D General Melf's Guide to Greyhawk Coming From Luke Gygax & WotC

MonsterEnvy · 2026-03-24T00:28:20+0000

Nobleshield said:
The above is the art I'm thinking of, but I'm firmly in the camp that Elves should be pale/white-skinned (Drow excluded), in the style of Tolkien, who was influenced by Scandinavian folklore (see also Poul Anderson). But that's neither here nor there, and I will add that art is just terrible either way which is a huge issue no matter what (the heroes look like they are being held at gunpoint and told to smile or that Yoland is whispering "Remember to make a big smile or you won't get your reward" or something lol).

That's just a artstyle thing

I think she looks pretty good in her main key art.

Nobleshield · 2026-03-24T00:30:26+0000

That art style is decent, my personal feelings about her being a black elf notwithstanding. I do find a lot of the art in the new books is hit or miss. Some are decent, but some look like the sort of thing someone would commission for their World of Warcraft character off of DeviantArt. They can clearly contract good artists (why they don't just have in-house artists like the old days IDK). Forge of the Artificer's art is great (a bit too sci-fi/Bioshock for my thoughts on Eberron's visual style, but the art is GOOD).

kronovan · 2026-03-24T00:40:42+0000

Parmandur said:
...The name of the actual territory being called Shar us from the 2E Scarlet Brotherhood book.

OK cool - makes sense I wouldn't know that, as I missed much of the 2e era raising a young family. I still think the idea of...a long plateau, isolated by water, sheer cliffs, rocky hills and a vast swamp, for which other people only know it by the name of the feared brothehood who's rumored to dwell there...is a cool idea.

Baring in mind I haven't read the book you listed, so maybe there's more to the Greyhawk canon that would make cartographers, geographers and mariners know it to be the Kingdom of Shar.

Thanks to all for posting the new images and comments on Queen Yolande. This the face from the Queen Yolande illustration:

In that picture, she could have a dark skin tone - who's to know. A smaller mouth though and the big difference is her eyes. In my thinking those eyes are very Elvish, kind of like the eyes of Woodland Elves in Rankin & Bass's 1977 The Hobbit - if you know that cartoon.

Parmandur · 2026-03-24T00:46:17+0000

kronovan said:
OK cool - makes sense I wouldn't know that, as I missed much of the 2e era raising a young family. I still think the idea of...a long plateau, isolated by water, sheer cliffs, rocky hills and a vast swamp, for which other people only know it by the name of the feared brothehood who's rumored to dwell there...is a cool idea. Baring in mind I haven't read the book you listed, so maybe there's more to the Greyhawk canon that would make cartographers, geographers and mariners know it to be the Kingdom of Shar.

That's a weird thing in world in the OG...there aren't really rumors about them. Pure DM secret. So putting a name on the player facing map that isn't a DM secret makes a lot of sense to me.

kronovan · 2026-03-24T01:39:12+0000

Parmandur said:
That's a weird thing in world in the OG...there aren't really rumors about them. Pure DM secret. So putting a name on the player facing map that isn't a DM secret makes a lot of sense to me.

They should probably just label it as "the Unnamed Kingdom" or "Kingdom without Name".