Only the Lonely: Why We Demand Official Product

[Oofta]

Yep.

Explain why Mysteries of the Moonsea and Sons of Gruumsh aren't consistent in describing who the city of Melvaunt's leaders are even though they were published lead than a year apart from each other. The only way to know which is closer to "authoritative" is to go back and read the 2e The Moonsea. A DM may not have time, access to the info to know which older products to look at, or the older products may also need to be adjudicated to get to ground truth.

If your players are casual, maybe not a problem. If your players are hard-core into the setting, it can lead (and has led) to disputes at the table.

Here's a radical concept. In the unlikely chance that it comes up make a decision. Done.

In the case of succession, pick a likely NPC. Use a random name generator if you can't think of one. Make it an ex PC. Maybe the old king didn't really die and you have a fun side quest to figure out why he faked his own death.

It's your campaign, make it your own. You don't just run pre-published adventures do you? So you're already "making stuff up".

 

[jasper]

They can't do basic maths? In actual play, its extremely fast since you only have to roll to hit and not roll damage dice and add them up.

SBEEEEEEEP Half my players can't even keep both d20 twenties on the table. Now you want 3 or more. How about you go create your own game. All this would do is add more rolling and SLOW down the game.
Some have difficulty. BUT YOU MISS THE PIONT. They roll off the table lots and lots of times. Standard closing practice at the game store before I leave is to remove chairs way away from the table and check for runaway dice. Currently I have two in my glove compartment waiting to get back home.

 

[jasper]

So, a tablet and D&D Beyond?

Stone, sand stone, wax tablet. I want to know!

 

[Fenris-77]

GH is almost a special case. It exists in a state of veneration unlike Dark Sun, or some of the other settings that come up as prime for reissue. The problem WotC faces is that hardcore Greyhawk players don't really need the setting book. They are probably already playing in the setting and may or may not be playing 5e. The veneration for the setting also derives from it's Ur status as the first D&D setting, written and developed by the man himself. So between the enormously diehard fans and the setting's status, I think that for GH the internet shouting would be magnified no matter what the 5e book looked like. On top of that GH doesn't really have anything to offer new players, or at least anything new. Don't get me wrong, I love Greyhawk, but there's nothing different about it, or at least IMO different enough that the rules or crunch would be enough to sell the book to people not interested in the setting, and the setting itself perhaps isn't different enough to attract enough new players. Anyway, my point is that I think GH presents some additional difficulties for WotC and as a result may not be as high in the design queue as people would like.

 

[jasper]

Jasper grabs an anchor and throws to @3catcircus a lifejacket. OOPS.
…So - which do we convert to 5e? The AD&D 1e Rgr14 or the 3e Rgr15….AD&D Rgr14 gets 3/2 attacks per round and a Rgr15 gets 2/round. In 3e, a 15th level ranger gets access to 4th level spells beyond….
First what is Sam Heck is LGG. Oh Living greyhawk gazette. You totally missed the point of Greyhawk.
1.Jasper never hearing of LGG and doing a straight convert of AD&D would make him a 14th ranger and move on.
2.Doctorbadwolf who started in 3e would straight convert the ranger 15.
3. 3Catcircus is wasting time deciding which to use.
4. Bob my original DM who has never purchase the folio but knows the name will use 14 fighter assassin monk thief with a +8 to AC braces. (converting the ac 2 bracers to 5E)
Choices 1 to 4 are totally correct.
And even if we all played together and rotated through each campaign, we wouldn’t have a problem. Ok so I left my green trapper keeper at home which contains my DoctorBadWolf PCs. Hey wolf give 10 minutes while i covert bob my 12 level barbarian from 3catcircus to bob my 10 level barbarian in your campaign. What you mean you have a copy. Oh yea. You took a photo of it on your phone last month.

.. Explain why Mysteries of the Moonsea and Sons of Gruumsh aren't consistent in describing who the city of Melvaunt's leaders are even though they were published lead than a year apart from each other. The only way to know which is closer to "authoritative" is to go back and read the 2e The Moonsea…..
Because the writers and production crew did not do their jobs and edit the works together. You’re the DM choose one. And since I never heard of them. Rick and Morty are the leaders. Or you want an in game reason. The people giving you the names are lie. Or the names are alias. Or as flying babe in the Simpson said, “A wizard did it!”

 

[Maxperson]

Here's a radical concept. In the unlikely chance that it comes up make a decision. Done.

In the case of succession, pick a likely NPC. Use a random name generator if you can't think of one. Make it an ex PC. Maybe the old king didn't really die and you have a fun side quest to figure out why he faked his own death.

It's your campaign, make it your own. You don't just run pre-published adventures do you? So you're already "making stuff up".

Here's the thing. I have very, very limited time and I don't even had time to prepare everything for my adventures, let alone the rest of the game world. If you do, great. Now, I'm very good at improvisation, so it doesn't bother me to make something up on the fly. However, many DMs are not good at improvisation and need those details figured out in advance.

I generally only have time to create an outline for my adventures with some encounters and have to improvise everything in-between. Were I one of the many DMs who wasn't good at improvisation, I wouldn't be able to DM a game that wasn't pre-made. Having an updated version of Greyhawk with those details filled in by WotC would allow those DMs to run Greyhawk.

You can't just expect those sorts of DMs to just "make a decision" when it comes up. Creativity is not the same as making a ruling on a rule.

 

[Maxperson]

4. Bob my original DM who has never purchase the folio but knows the name will use 14 fighter assassin monk thief with a +8 to AC braces. (converting the ac 2 bracers to 5E)

If he smiles that much, he probably should have been made a bard.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Here's the thing. I have very, very limited time and I don't even had time to prepare everything for my adventures, let alone the rest of the game world. If you do, great. Now, I'm very good at improvisation, so it doesn't bother me to make something up on the fly. However, many DMs are not good at improvisation and need those details figured out in advance.

Time is frequently the biggest obstacle for a DM. In which case, here are some tips:

A small, simple campaign world is preferable than something big, epic and sprawling.

NPCs are ignorant. If the PCs ask who the king is, the peasant hasn't the foggiest notion.

History is unreliable: true in the real world, should certainly be true in a fantasy world.

It's faster to make something up than look something up. Using a homebrew setting can actually be a timesaver.

 

[jasper]

If he smiles that much, he probably should have been made a bard.

Shht, Bob will blue blot you if you bring that up. Remember he got them when he was 15 and they came off when he was 19.

 

[jasper]

.....

It's faster to make something up than look something up. Using a homebrew setting can actually be a timesaver.

That is crazy talk.