D&D (2024) WotC Invites You To Explore the World of Greyhawk

This week a new D&D Dungeon Master's Guide preview video was released. This one features the sample setting chapter in the book, which showcases the World of Greyhawk.

One of the earliest campaign settings, and created by D&D co-founder Gary Gygax, Greyhawk dates back to the early 1970s in Gygax's home games, receiving a short official setting book in 1980. Gyeyhawk was selected as the example setting because it is able to hit all the key notes of D&D while being concise and short. The setting has been largely absent from D&D--aside from a few shorter adventures--since 2008. Some key points from the video--

• Greyhawk deliberately leaves a lot for the DM to fill in, with a 30-page chapter.
• Greyhawk created many of the tropes of D&D, and feels very 'straight down the fairway' D&D.
• This is the world where many iconic D&D magic items, NPCs, etc. came from--Mordenkainen, Bigby, Tasha, Otiluke and so on.
• The DMG starts with the City of Greyhawk and its surroundings in some detail, and gets more vague as you get farther away.
• The city is an example of a 'campaign hub'.
• The sample adventures in Chapter 4 of the DMG are set there or nearby.
• The map is an updated version, mainly faithful to the original with some tweaks.
• The map has some added locations key to D&D's history--such as White Plume Mountain, the Tomb of Horrors, Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth, Ghost Tower of Inverness.
• There's a map of the city, descriptions of places characters might visit--magic item shop, library, 3 taverns, temples, etc.
• The setting takes 'a few liberties while remaining faithful to the spirit of the setting'--it has been contemporized to make it resonate in all D&D campaigns with a balance of NPCs who showcase the diversity of D&D worlds.
• The backgrounds in the Player's Handbook map to locations in the city.
• Most areas in the setting have a name and brief description.
• They focus on three 'iconic' D&D/Greyhawk conflicts such as the Elemental Evil, a classic faceless adversary; Iuz the evil cambion demigod; and dragons.
• There's a list of gods, rulers, and 'big bads'.

 

[Iosue]

It is different. Keep on the Borderlands is an add-on to an already existing setting (Mystara, IIRC. But I'm not sure). While the Nentir Vale is basically the starting point for the Dawn War setting. This setting was created from the Nentir Vale, not the other way around.

KotB, in conception and as published, was not part of any existing setting, as it was intended, like Nentir Vale, to be slotted into the DM’s homebrew. To the point that it was added, long after release, to both Greyhawk and the Known World of the Expert Set, itself intended to be slotted into the DM’s homebrew, until it got its own name in 1991 with Bruce Heard’s Voyage of the Princess Ark series in Dragon magazine.

I mean, if we’re going to count Nentir Vale in the 4e DMG as a complete campaign setting, then the first complete campaign setting was the Grand Duchy of Karameikos in the Expert Set. Or maybe we can concede that nothing has ever been put in the core rules of the scale of Greyhawk in this DMG.

 

[Jacob Lewis]

People who literally know better continuing to say this is the first time a campaign setting was included in a DMG. Both James Wyatt and Chris Perkins are credited in the 4E DMG. Le sigh.

"We've never included a campaign hub before. Here's one with maps."

Again, the 4E DMG would like a word.

This is not the first time they've made claims over a selective or revised interpretation of their own legacy. Remember how Tyranny of Dragons was presented as the first time players would get to face Tiamat? Just pretend they weren't the BBEG in the Scales of War campaign published in the official Dungeon magazine (4e). And ignore the fact that it was a spiritual sequel to the beloved Red Hand of Doom adventure (3e), which also featured Tiamat as the BBEG. Likewise, we're just going to gloss over the obvious connection that Takhisis is literally a knock off clone or reimagined equivalent of her as the major villain for all of Dragonlance (starting with 1e).

No. WotC has no shame or reservations when it comes to over-hyping and sensationalizing everything they put out, more so in this edition than any other. They couldn't be satisfied to just say, "Look! This time we included a mini-campaign primer for one of the oldest and most iconic settings in D&D!" Nope. Let's pretend 4e didn't include the first original setting designed around a lore and cosmology that makes D&D make sense! Or that DMG2 in 3e/3.5e didn't include the town of Saltmarsh in detail as a campaign starter within the already implied default setting for that edition. Nope. Everything is new and innovative, just like how we recycle and reimagine old products, ideas, and even cartoon shows to make everything old, new again!

It doesn't bother me if stuff like this doesn't bother you and you're happy with whatever they want to feed you. I moved on from all of this, though I am still (and always will be) a fan of D&D. I have so much lore and content from settings and systems that have served me well for decades. They can spin their narratives and peddle snake oil for all I care. My D&D that I play and enjoy at home is not influenced by a company who no longer sees my passion as anything more than an entitlement for dues owed for goods and services bought long ago.

 

[Rossiland]

This is not the first time they've made claims over a selective or revised interpretation of their own legacy. Remember how Tyranny of Dragons was presented as the first time players would get to face Tiamat? Just pretend they weren't the BBEG in the Scales of War campaign published in the official Dungeon magazine (4e). And ignore the fact that it was a spiritual sequel to the beloved Red Hand of Doom adventure (3e), which also featured Tiamat as the BBEG. Likewise, we're just going to gloss over the obvious connection that Takhisis is literally a knock off clone or reimagined equivalent of her as the major villain for all of Dragonlance (starting with 1e).

No. WotC has no shame or reservations when it comes to over-hyping and sensationalizing everything they put out, more so in this edition than any other. They couldn't be satisfied to just say, "Look! This time we included a mini-campaign primer for one of the oldest and most iconic settings in D&D!" Nope. Let's pretend 4e didn't include the first original setting designed around a lore and cosmology that makes D&D make sense! Or that DMG2 in 3e/3.5e didn't include the town of Saltmarsh in detail as a campaign starter within the already implied default setting for that edition. Nope. Everything is new and innovative, just like how we recycle and reimagine old products, ideas, and even cartoon shows to make everything old, new again!

It doesn't bother me if stuff like this doesn't bother you and you're happy with whatever they want to feed you. I moved on from all of this, though I am still (and always will be) a fan of D&D. I have so much lore and content from settings and systems that have served me well for decades. They can spin their narratives and peddle snake oil for all I care. My D&D that I play and enjoy at home is not influenced by a company who no longer sees my passion as anything more than an entitlement for dues owed for goods and services bought long ago.

To be honest, I'm more concerned about what WotC does than what they say.

 

[Yaarel]

Heh. I'm thinking that Sea of Nippon and Nippon Dominion is perhaps not going to fly.

Possibly, the area of "Nippon" will have a rename. But I hope it remains the place for Japan-esque setting content.

Note, the peninsula of Gigantea is moreorless identical with reallife Norway. Referencing its cultural concept of jǫtnar (giants) via the "Jotnumheim Sea" is a great way to name the area for a Norse-esque setting. The northern part of Gigantea merging into the "Hyperboria" polar ice cap is great for a Sámi-esque setting. Meanwhile the peninsula of "Elven Lands" is for settings relating to Denmark, Sweden, and Finland. The NW corner of Oerik is solidly Nordic.


Likewise, the alternative name for "Nippon" should still emphasize Japanese cultural flavor.

 

[Yaarel]

How do you differentiate between a simple musican and a bard?

A "musician" is a background. A "Bard" is spellcaster class.

Compare "acolyte" and "Cleric", or "soldier" and "Fighter".

 

[Paul Farquhar]

How do you differentiate between a simple musican and a bard?

Smash them, then compare the cross section.

 

[Emerikol]

Was the Nentir Vale a complete setting? I remember it being a piece of a setting without anything beyond the vale being described, no world map, no framework for how the Nentir Vale fit into whatever the wider world of the campaign setting was called...

If Nentir Vale was a complete setting then so was B2 Keep on the Borderlands. It was a set of broad assumptions.

 

[Henadic Theologian]

I mean the 2024 PHB is ~380 pages, so 320 seems not-unreasonable. You are right, it's an unusually specific number.. pretty sure the sword coast adventurer's guide from early in the 5e days wasn't close to that number.

It's also the same size as the Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting from 3e, which is generally seen as the high watermark by Realms fans, an award winning book. I think its likely they looked for guidance at the last era FR fans were really happy for guidance.

 

[Azzy]

Regarding the map of the Oerik from Dragon Annual 1996, it became canon, but has mixed reviews among Greyhawk setting fans.

Yup. I hate that world map with a passion.

 

[Twiggly the Gnome]

The "Dragons Island", which is only mentioned briefly as rumors, but in a prominent location and context, is a great candidate for the origin of a Dragonborn community. In the supercontinent of Oerik, Dragons Island is Central, in the Celestial Sea.

North-west Oerik got "updated" in the Chainmail miniatures game...