D&D 5E (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'.

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

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I know what @Zeromaru X is getting at (re: the Scarlet Order), but this is definitely a topic we don't want to delve into given the board rules.

 

[TiQuinn]

I know what @Zeromaru X is getting at (re: the Scarlet Order), but this is definitely a topic we don't want to delve into given the board rules.

My point was that WotC is sensitive to negative press regarding some of its older material and how it can be construed today. Heck, they still make their own missteps like the Hadozee in the Spelljammer book.

 

[Hussar]

I know what @Zeromaru X is getting at (re: the Scarlet Order), but this is definitely a topic we don't want to delve into given the board rules.

He does have a point though.

Why are fantasy nazis ok in the setting but Dragonborn aren’t? It’s a valid question.

 

[Parmandur]

He does have a point though.

Why are fantasy nazis ok in the setting but Dragonborn aren’t? It’s a valid question.

...but there are Dragonborn NPCs and art in the Setting?

 

[Zeromaru X]

He does have a point though.

Why are fantasy nazis ok in the setting but Dragonborn aren’t? It’s a valid question.

Or tieflings, or goliaths, or tabaxi. I just use dragonborn as the example because they are the ones who usually get more rejected by old school gamers.

 

[Hussar]

...but there are Dragonborn NPCs and art in the Setting?

But, let’s be honest, they don’t quite have the word count. Because the fantasy nazis have had entire sourcebooks devoted exclusively to them. They’ve featured prominently in Ghosts of Saltmarsh. They continue to feature prominently in various sources.

But phb races get an npc and a picture or two?

It’s not an unreasonable issue. We absolutely cannot change the setting to accommodate phb races but we can still have a homeland for fantasy nazis?

I’m saying that I want both. My Greyhawk will certainly have both.

 

[MGibster]

It’s not an unreasonable issue. We absolutely cannot change the setting to accommodate phb races but we can still have a homeland for fantasy nazis?

I don't understand where this is coming from. Who said you can't change the setting to accommodate PHB races? It wasn't WotC. Old school DMs and players? If that's the case, who cares what they think?

 

[Zeromaru X]

...but there are Dragonborn NPCs and art in the Setting?

The art doesn't confirm anything. You can easily say that the tavern from the picture where you can see a dragonborn and some tieflings alongside Tasha is just a place in Sigil or whatever (someone already used that argument when I show them that picture, that's why I'm using it as an example of why the art can be easily dismissed). That's why I would have preferred a confirmation in lore.

As for the NPCs, do we have confirmation of that?

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

He does have a point though.

Why are fantasy nazis ok in the setting but Dragonborn aren’t? It’s a valid question.

I'm not sure I'm the right person to ask? I think I've been on the record as both saying Dragonborn are fine, and also people can do whatever they want at their own table. Been pretty consistent. For me, I don't want them to retcon an entire part of the Flanaess (suddenly making, inter alia, the Yeomanry the retconned "Dragonborn Kingdom") but there's lot of space both in the Flanaess, and in Oerth, for Dragonborn- or whatever!

As for the Scarlet Order? I really like the idea of mysterious and evil Monks and Assassins that are also Nazis (of a sort). It's both familiar and different, and very pulp.

(I never read or wanted to read the additional lore after 1983. The short and sweet description in the Boxed Set was enough to light my imagination on fire.)

 

[MonsterEnvy]

The art doesn't confirm anything. You can easily say that the tavern from the picture where you can see a dragonborn and some tieflings alongside Tasha is just a place in Sigil or whatever (someone already used that argument when I show them that picture, that's why I'm using it as an example of why the art can be easily dismissed). That's why I would have preferred a confirmation in lore.

As for the NPCs, do we have confirmation of that?

Yes I posted earlier some of the NPCs. The Knight Commander of the Shield Lands is a Dragonborn.