D&D 5E Sell me on the World of Greyhawk please

[Raith5]

The world is more morally grey, as there are many evil empires and nations ruled by dicks.
There are tonnes of dungeons and ruins, as every part of the continent was ruled by two or three long fallen empires or claimed by a mad wizard.

But, mostly, there's a lot of sparse details. Some nations only received a couple paragraphs of detail, while others have a couple pages. As such, it's open to customization from DMs.
It's a world you can make your own without having to create your own map and history. Because so many nations are "evil" it's easy for players to take down the leaders, or claim territory in the empty patches, or otherwise make a difference in the world. So changes are almost encouraged.

Well said. I also dig the morally grey nature of greyhawk. It is a nice mesh of swords and sorcery aka Conan and LOTR style high fantasy. I also like Iuz and the elemental evil dynamics.

But I havent played a game in Greyhawk for over 25 years or so, so it just may be nostaglia colouring my take on it. One thing I seem to remember as a DM was a range of Kingdoms to the west of the world which were too similar - I remember changing them around a bit and making one or two of them overun by monsters.

 

[Lidgar]

The Oerth Journal is another great Greyhawk resource, and it's free!

http://oerthjournal.blogspot.com/p/oerth-journal-downloads.html

 

[painted_klown]

Having not been arooud to see Greyhawk in the past, I am very interested in the setting due to it's heritage, so-to-speak.

Additionally, I must say this very thread now has me yearning for a campaign set in the Greyhawk world. It sounds really cool, and like there would be plenty of things to keep your adventurers busy for years.

I like the idea of solving the mystery to see who is being the "evil shenangans" and working to make the world a better place. Sounds fun IMO!

 

[Parmandur]

I was just reading through the DMG last night, and the genre section "Crossing the Streams" had four examples, three of which are Greyhawk. Having only seen GH as the bare minimum "generic" for 3E, gotta say that paragraph was a real seller for the setting.

 

[JWO]

I guess the problem with Greyhawk is that nothing really exists for it outside of the game books, whereas "generic fantasy D&D setting #2", AKA Forgotten Realms has video games, novels, comics, board games etc. using it so it's more likely to entice new D&D players, and it's generic enough for the old-school D&Ders to use its rules for playing in Greyhawk without any mechanical changes. It just makes more sense for WotC to use FR as its default setting.

 

[Hand of Evil]

While nostalgia may play a big part, I have to say it is the background of the setting. Greyhawk did not over extend itself, it was a large area to campaign in and it matched up with D&D source material and allowed user created material. Overall a balanced setting.

 

[Parmandur]

I guess the problem with Greyhawk is that nothing really exists for it outside of the game books, whereas "generic fantasy D&D setting #2", AKA Forgotten Realms has video games, novels, comics, board games etc. using it so it's more likely to entice new D&D players, and it's generic enough for the old-school D&Ders to use its rules for playing in Greyhawk without any mechanical changes. It just makes more sense for WotC to use FR as its default setting.

But it is not the default; Eberron, Dragonlance, and Greyhawk get equal "screen time" in the PHB, and the books are clear the multiverse, 2E style, is the only "default" there is no.

They most likely plan to build the less exposed properties, as they are the much ballyhooed brand.

 

[JWO]

But it is not the default; Eberron, Dragonlance, and Greyhawk get equal "screen time" in the PHB, and the books are clear the multiverse, 2E style, is the only "default" there is no.

They most likely plan to build the less exposed properties, as they are the much ballyhooed brand.

Well it might not officially be the default but there's a definite leaning towards the Realms, and all of the adventure material has been for the Realms so far.

 

[Barantor]

Realms gets a lot more service because the setting is popular and has become popular since Greyhawk was the setting that was putting TSR in the hole before WoTC took over.

I love the setting though since it is vague. I don't have to worry too much about someone pulling some obscure piece of lore from a video game and asking if it can be at our table.

There are ways to find out more information, but compared to FR they take a bit more google fu.

Best Map of Greyhawk: http://ghmaps.net/onlinemap/onlinemaphd.html You can zoom in just like google maps, it is great.

Forum for asking Grognards questions: http://www.canonfire.com/cf/index.php

Wiki: http://www.canonfire.com/wiki/index.php?title=Main_Page

Go on DnDClassics and buy the Greyhawk source books from 1st and 2nd edition.

I find that after playing several settings Greyhawk allows me the most freedom while still giving me a really good foundation to put all the adventures in. All those named spells in the PHB are named after famous wizards from Greyhawk anyway, so it makes more sense than casting them in FR.

 

[Mercurius]

My sales pitch: QUASI-DEITIES.

/Thread.