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'.

 

[Zeromaru X]

No, they do not. It's just that YOU would like every race to have a homeland.

Oh, sure. I would have liked if all were tied to the starting region somehow. That would have been ideal, because each option in the PHB would have had an example of how they fit in the setting. Again, this is supposed to be the example setting for the new DM to start homebrewing.

But as I said, that is not necessary, so as long as they are acknowledged within the setting in a canonical form.

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

To me, probavly more interthan the Species substitutions are some of the other changes: the Prince of Ulek is now the Princess of Ulek, for starters, and the brief description makes her sound like the international Dwarven Galadriel figure...and that is cool.

Mos def. That's change I am certainly good with, especially given the, um, priors of the creator.

 

[Parmandur]

Mos def. That's change I am certainly good with, especially given the, um, priors of the creator.

I haven't gone over this woth a fine tooth comb yet, so I dunno if they lampshade the retcons, either within or without the fiction. But they all seem like they could easily be explained by classic Zelanzyian Gygaxian multiverse shenanigans.

Personally, I suspect Vecna...who is now a God, despite not being one in the original set-up...amd who is canonically screwing around with both time travel and reality distortion in recent WotC products...

 

[mamba]

But every race needs a homeland.

why? Could be lost to time, could have never existed. People travel all over the place, they live amongst other races, there is no homeland then (what is the homeland for humans?).

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

I haven't gone over this woth a fine tooth comb yet, so I dunno if they lampshade the retcons, either within or without the fiction. But they all seem like they could easily be explained by classic Zelanzyian Gygaxian multiverse shenanigans.

Personally, I suspect Vecna...who is now a God, despite not being one in the original set-up...amd who is canonically screwing around with both time travel and reality distortion in recent WotC products...

No worries. I have the hand and eye, I just need the head to complete my Artifact Set!

And I thought the teeth of Dahlver-Nar were a tough ask.....

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

(what is the homeland for humans?).

Buc-ee's.

Imagine if someone said, "I want the greatest convenience store ever, but make it so 'Murikuh that giant monster trucks look at it and say, 'You've gone too far.'"

Whatever you think it is, you're wrong. It's more. It's Florida Man slamming a keg of Bud while singing the national anthem and watching football, while slowly walking away from an explosion. Except as a convenience store.

It's not the homeland we might want, but it's DEFINITELY the homeland humans deserve.

 

[Parmandur]

what is the homeland for humans?

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

View attachment 384395

I mean ... at the time it seemed like a good idea to have Charlton Heston play a Mexican Federale (special prosecutor), right?


....times, they have a-changed.

 

[Zeromaru X]

why? Could be lost to time, could have never existed. People travel all over the place, they live amongst other races, there is no homeland then (what is the homeland for humans?).

Isn't that the Flanaess? The main ethnic group are called the Flan*, don't they?

*which is a funny name if you know Spanish...

 

[TiQuinn]

Buc-ee's.

Imagine if someone said, "I want the greatest convenience store ever, but make it so 'Murikuh that giant monster trucks look at it and say, 'You've gone too far.'"

Whatever you think it is, you're wrong. It's more. It's Florida Man slamming a keg of Bud while singing the national anthem and watching football, while slowly walking away from an explosion. Except as a convenience store.

It's not the homeland we might want, but it's DEFINITELY the homeland humans deserve.