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'.

 

[mamba]

In the new DMG, demi-god is explicitly a subcategory of quasi-deity (as is Titan). This rant is sloppily written.

or that is what they are ranting about, I never really concerned myself with this distinction or what it is. I assume a demi-god is born that way while a quasi-deity is some normal creature ascending in power to near-godhood levels

 

[mamba]

Greyhawk has supertech space aliens! What does it take to qualify as "kitchen-sink gonzo"?!

dragonborn and tieflings

 

[Yaarel]

dragonborn and tieflings

So. If the space aliens look like dragonborn, then Greyhawk is not a kitchen-sink gonzo setting?

 

[Parmandur]

or that is what they are ranting about, I never really concerned myself with this distinction or what it is. I assume a demi-god is born that way while a quasi-deity is some normal creature ascending in power to near-godhood levels

No, they are conflating older editions definitions and assuming they apply and then calling it "bad editing".

In the 2024 DMG, the term "quasi-deity" is for anything divine that can be stated up and killed by PCs. They can't kill the Sunz or Justice, but Iuz or a Kraken can be killed.

 

[mamba]

So. If the space aliens look like dragonborn, then Greyhawk is not a kitchen-sink gonzo setting?

you should not take that comment too seriously, I did not either

 

[Yaarel]

you should not take that comment too seriously, I did not either

Heh, the internet is a poor communicator of sarcasm. And you know, out there in the internet, there is someone who says the exact same thing and is serious.

 

[Zeromaru X]

we can do whatever we want with Greyhawk, including ignoring everything in the DMG about it. I see no reason why anyone would be required to accept something they do not like at their table just because WotC published something

Oh, sure. But that was true even in the 80s. Everything can be ignored, even stuff from the 1980 folio. That's not the point here.

The point here is that the option for these things to be in Greyhawk are there, for those who want them, in an official manner. That's what people doesn't seem to understand. That they are official now, regardless of it they are going to use them or not.

And really, if you are going to ignore them, then why are you complaining?

 

[pemerton]

Does the setting breaks because they added dragonborn to it?

Obviously it doesn't!

I mean, Lost Caverns/MM2 added all sorts of beings to GH. And that didn't break it. Why would Dragonborn be any different?

Does the feel of the setting change by dropping a bunch of creatures that never existed into it

No. See Lost Caverns/MM2.

 

[pemerton]

OK, this thing is just dumb:

"This conflates quasi-deities and demi-gods, which in Greyhawk and D&D mean different things. Iuz is a demi-god, but not a quasi-deity like Murlynd or Keoghtom. This distinction is important if you’re trying to introduce the setting to new players and you don’t want to confuse the crap out of them."

In the new DMG, demi-god is explicitly a subcategory of quasi-deity (as is Titan). This rant is sloppily written.

But what if someone confuses Heward's AD&D metaphysical status with Iuz's AD&D metaphysical status? They'll inadvertently spoil their whole RPG experience!

 

[Hussar]

@Stormonu - I'd point out that Kenku actually are native to Greyhawk. They didn't have to come from a portal. The Kenku backstory with Graz'zt fits perfectly well in Greyhawk as anywhere else, and, since kenku first appeared in the first Fiend Folio, they were assumed to be in Greyhawk. (Note, this is me being needlessly pedantic, not arguing. )

My Ghosts of Saltmarsh campaign had a full blooded orc PC (using the half-orc stats from the PHB - funny how we managed to anticipate WotC by about 5 years or so) and a Firbolg from the Dreadwood. Not sure when Firbolg first appeared in the setting. But I would fight with knives anyone who tried to complain that my game wasn't really Greyhawk.

Good grief, my Savage Tides game back in 3e featured a Grippli and a Tiefling. And that was about as Greyhawk a game as anything else.

We've been playing 5e Greyhawk since about 2006.