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

[MonsterEnvy]

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]

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]

...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]

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]

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".

 

[Parmandur]

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

I mean, or go with the name from the lore?

 

[grimslade]

Late to the party, but mark me down for excited to see this. New Greyhawk material is always welcome and good to see Luke involved.

 

[Clint_L]

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).

My miniatures collection would drive you nuts, then. I use them for the D&D Club at my school, so I make a point of painting all my playable species to be as diverse as possible, to make it more likely a kid can find just the right one for their character vision.

Which I think is what WotC is going for as well, with their art. They recognize that their player base is diverse, and want to keep possibilities open. Then individuals can decide what works best for them, as you have done.

 

[Dire Bare]

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).

Paynim, I found just means "heathen," i.e., non-Christian, so with the current culture, it's no surprise it went. Similarly, they renamed the Caliphate because they presumably feared offending Muslims and I want to say some terrorist organization referred to themselves as the successor to some Caliphate from history. IIRC it was renamed to Emirate which sounds more accurate anyway

Why should D&D limit itself to Tolkien's ideas and European folklore?

Why should "good" elves be white, and "evil" elves be dark-skinned? Do you not see the problem with that classic trope?

Personally, I'm glad WotC has decided to show a diversity of skin colors in D&D elves (and dwarves, halfings, etc).

We don't have to accept the problematic limitations of the past for "tradition" or "canon".

 

[VashVet]

Greyhawk was one of my first campaign settings back in the day, and we played pretty much every classic adventure we could at the time, using 2e rules.

I’d love to see some throwback rules for 5th edition and maybe some more Greyhawk content - the old folio was the first of its kind but it was pretty spare on content by today’s standards. Also I see Anna Meyer is working this one as well, and her details are incredible but I’d love another Darlene map. Something about the font, the artwork on the mountain ranges felt very evocative of the fantasy books I was reading at the time.

Really looking forward to this!