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'.

 

[Parmandur]

3e had the iconic characters of Ember the Monk and Hennet the Sorcerer who are Humans from Oerth, and do not resemble any of the typical ethnic groups that the Flan, Oeridians, Baklunish, Suel, Olman and Rhennee are often compared to.

Well, first, Ember looks Fland and Hennet looks Baklunish to me.

Second, the four broad cultural groups are all spread across the Flannaes and inter.oxed very freely, so even Gary Gygax in 1983 made it clear that people who looked any way could be found uncontroversially everywhere.

 

[Parmandur]

I don't have problem with the size of places, more with the lack of places. For instance, in the Nentir Vale dragonborn are uncommon, they have no city or town of their own. However, the setting has a place for them: they are said to come from the far southern lands and to be nomadic folk, moving in small clan groups.

And that is what I want: a place for them in the lore, however small. Not the "it's up to the DM" answer.

I mean, there is likely to be about that much info, sure, using the low bar of the Nentor Vale descriptions. But not much h, just an assumption thst all Species arr present.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

But but but but...where will I put my very innovative country of samurai, ninja and geisha fighting lung dragons overs the great stone wall separating them from the fur-wearing barbaric nomad riders coming from the steppes to flee the troops of the Kingdom of 1000 Pagodas coming from the southern marshland?

In the Forgotten Realms.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

I've played one bard in the last thirty years and he died in the very first adventure. The next time I play, I'm going to create a bard and name him Snarf.

The monster that killed him was Snarf in disguise!

I'm beginning to think I lost an important context about bards somewhere...

I wouldn't call it important. It's just that Snarf hates bards! Like... more than anyone else hates bards.

 

[Henadic Theologian]

I'm beginning to think I lost an important context about bards somewhere...



An interesting name. However the super continent is named Bharyar. I mean, is a Greenwood setting, things are already named.

I looked it up, I found 1 use of the word Bharyar in regards to FR, in a post in the Candlekeep Forums. So that is some obscure lore.

 

[KoolMoDaddy-O]

I don't have problem with the size of places, more with the lack of places. For instance, in the Nentir Vale dragonborn are uncommon, they have no city or town of their own. However, the setting has a place for them: they are said to come from the far southern lands and to be nomadic folk, moving in small clan groups.

And that is what I want: a place for them in the lore, however small. Not the "it's up to the DM" answer.

Nafas has granted your wish.

From “Part Dragon, All Hero,” an article in Dragon Magazine 206 (June 1994) by Carl Sargent about using half-dragon characters from Council of Wyrms in other game worlds:

“Oerth is a more cosmopolitan setting than many, its peoples long accustomed to magical displays and unusual beings in their midst. Individual power, both physical and magical, is respected and sought; the people of the Flanaess are on the whole practical, calculating, materialistic, and prone to looking out for their own interests first. This dark flavor has promoted a certain freedom from bias among its peoples, especially in the City of Greyhawk. One wag has commented that a stranger can be as strange as he wants, so long as he obeys the rules of the game.

“… Half-dragon offspring who survive to adulthood encounter few social stigmas in enlightened areas, which unfortunately are few in the postwar Flanaess. Most half-dragons will in time congregate in the City of Greyhawk, which has become a haven for them.”

 

[Kobold Avenger]

Well, first, Ember looks Fland and Hennet looks Baklunish to me.

Second, the four broad cultural groups are all spread across the Flannaes and inter.oxed very freely, so even Gary Gygax in 1983 made it clear that people who looked any way could be found uncontroversially everywhere.

People have generally described Flan as being like Indigenous North Americans, and Baklunish as being Turkish, so that's what I generally associate them with.

 

[Parmandur]

People have generally described Flan as being like Indigenous North Americans, and Baklunish as being Turkish, so that's what I generally associate them with.

Well, culturally, yeah there is a heavy dose of Native American for the Flan (and some Celtic, such as druidism), and all sorta of Middle Eastern and Central Asian ideas for the Baklunish. However, juat going by the descriptions, rather than which real cultures are implied by different nations:

• "The Flan race have a bronze-colored complexion. This varies from a lighter, almost copper shade to a very dark shade which is deepest brown. Eye color is commonly dark brown, black, brown or amber (in declining order of occurrence). Hair coloration is black, brown-black, dark brown, or brown. Also, Flannae tend to have wavy or curly hair".
• "The Baklunish people have golden-hued skin tones. Eye color is commonly grey-green or green, with grey uncommon and hazel rare. Hair color ranges from Blue-black to dark brown."

 

[Demetrios1453]

Old school fans don’t like people “officially” messing with Greyhawk. Like, I’m sure these little changes alone will cause consternation.

Heck, there are those who can't countenance tieflings, even though Iuz and the Great Kingdom make it obvious that tieflings should exist in the setting.

 

[Demetrios1453]

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 wasn't even  half that number!