D&D 5E Revisited Setting News: Its not the 2023 Classic setting, but rather for 2024

[Henadic Theologian]

But any of the classic settings they will revisit is in the same boat as Greyhawk, so WoTC will have their reasons to release some, be it nostalgia, hallmark tribute, origin or whatever other reasons.

No, Greyhawk has some unique issues that make selling harder.

 

[Bolares]

I started playing just as 3.5 was comming out. I have zero nostalgia for greyhawk. I learned about the setting afterwards, and FR, Dragonlance and Eberron were much more prevalent for me as a player.

 

[Bolares]

With that said, I'd like to ask you, other than nostalgia, and being EGG's setting, what makes Greyhawk interesting as a setting to be released now?

 

[Plaguescarred]

No, Greyhawk has some unique issues that make selling harder.

What issues?

I'd say it also has things going for it to make selling easier than other settings, such as being an original campaign setting designed by the founder of the game and the fact that it was used as official campaign setting for 3E and the Organized Play.

 

[Henadic Theologian]

among older fans, who make up the majority of those who did the original survey on classic settings, the Forgotten Realms vastly out did Greyhawk, so I think people are vastly over stating the amount of old fans pining for Greyhawk, which makes borrowed nostalgia even harder if you can't even generate it among older fans.

Any it doesn't really matter to me, because Greyhawk can't be the revisit setting so it no threat to what I want.

Folks keep talking about Greyhawk nostalgia, but I don't see much evidence for it, I think the devs are more nostalgic for Greyhawk then most of the fan base is.

BUT they could just say **** it,it's the anniversary so we'll do Greyhawk as well anyways, I mean they will be out of T1 setting by that point anyways...

 

[Plaguescarred]

With that said, I'd like to ask you, other than nostalgia, and being EGG's setting, what makes Greyhawk interesting as a setting to be released now?

Greyhawk has a rich unique history. Unique dieties, characters, factions, kingdoms etc...

It also has connection to D&D that few other classic settings not already in print has. No other classic settings other than Dark Sun was used as setting for Organized Play.

Compared to Dragonlance, it also may not have royalties issues as much. (i don't know all the details about this though)

I don't know what else more right now i'm not a Greyhawk Grognard, just a old timer that loves many of the classic settings and think Greyhawk has a chance to be revisited.

I know Mike Mearls originally wanted 5E Greyhawk but it never got traction. Neither during 4E. So Greyhawk was not published as an official campaign setting since 3E so it lasted 3 editions and haven't seen print since 2.

 

[GuyBoy]

It’s going to be the 50th Anniversary.
FR was not around 50 years ago.
Neither was DL, Mystara, Eberron, Planescape or Dark Sun (regardless of my personal fondness for the latter two).

Greyhawk was. So was Blackmoor.

All the arguments on this post about market share may well apply. They may preclude GH as some people argue for marketing reasons. That’s ok.

But it remains the case that a Greyhawk reflects the 50 year history of D&D better than any other setting.

 

[Urriak Uruk]

I just don't buy that this nostalgia exists for GH in a broad enough way. I see no evidence of it whatsoever outside of 40+ year-old players.

Borrowed nostalgia is totally a real thing, let's be clear. Everyone saw that recently with the '80s and Stranger Things and so on, but I think what you're not accounting for is that to borrow nostalgia you need a strong theme, strong visuals, hopefully strong sound/music, and so on, and GH has literally none of that. It doesn't have a distinctive and attractive associated art style (most of the borrow-able nostalgia-type '80s D&D art relates to DL or the FR). It doesn't have a compelling theme (nor does the FR, but no-one is trying to borrowed-nostalgia it!). It doesn't have music/sound people have already heard associated with it in any meaningful way.

You could do an "'80s D&D" push, but even then, the really big, memorable stuff from the '80s for D&D is all DL and FR.

There's no doubt some nostalgia for the start of 3E - though most players who feel that will also be 40+ now, because it's 21 years later. Those who aren't will be mid-late 30s. And I think Spiked Chains or similar idiocy probably have more tradeable nostalgia than GH from the 3E era.

None of this is to say WotC won't try to make it happen. They have an unfortunate history of failure in trying to make GH happen even when it obviously wasn't going to. They may well of course try to do what they did on the 25th anniversary and release a bunch of GH adventures, updated for 5.5E, and try to justify a 5.5E GH setting book with this, but unless they've done the update to end all updates, and one which will have 90% of people who "fondly remember" GH throwing tantrums, it'll be dead in the water.

Yeah I think we are talking more about "borrowed nostalgia" than true nostalgia. Meaning, WotC may try to sell a 50th anniversary of Greyhawk, and while most current D&D players were not playing then and don't have memories of that, they may be interested anyway as it's viewed as classic and "vintage."

 

[Parmandur]

Yeah I think we are talking more about "borrowed nostalgia" than true nostalgia. Meaning, WotC may try to sell a 50th anniversary of Greyhawk, and while most current D&D players were not playing then and don't have memories of that, they may be interested anyway as it's viewed as classic and "vintage."

That's my point: newer players might not have any nostalgia for Greyhawk, but they love D&D, and "history of D&D" products have taken off: my kids love those art books, for example. Positioning Greyhawk as the buy-in for learning the history of one's hobby...particularly if they include a Ruins Castle Greyhawk Adventure...I see a real market for it. And it makes more sense as a 50th Anniversary tie-in than the Forgotten Realms. The questionable nature of whether such a product would work would be why it's not set in stone yet, but whatever this project is, it is something that WotC is considering three years in advance for the 50th Anniversary, so it has to be something fitting for that while simultaneously being something they are unsure of: for the very reasons proposed against Greyhawk here by @Ruin Explorer or @Henadic Theologian among others, which are valid, that makes it fit the bill for the "revisit" in my mind. A Greyhawk product would be a perfect fit for a celebration of the history and origins of the game, but maybe it wouldn't sell: so WotC is still considering it and researching how it would work and be received.

 

[dave2008]

Compared to Dragonlance, it also may not have royalties issues as much. (i don't know all the details about this though)

There are no issues with Dragonlance, WotC owns all the rights to the IP.