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'.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Has anyone actually had a player who wanted to play a Dragonborn? I’m not joking, as I’ve never seen one in a game since I started 5E in 2017.

I haven’t. Lots of warforged, orcs, a couple of bugbears and tabaxi, but no one has ever shown the slightest interest in Dragonborn. Boringly conventional I suspect.

 

[Zeromaru X]

I haven’t. Lots of warforged, orcs, a couple of bugbears and tabaxi, but no one has ever shown the slightest interest in Dragonborn. Boringly conventional I suspect.

Not boring, but mechanically not as good as some of the other 5e races. In fact, they are among the worst races in 5e, mechanically speaking (at least, in their 2014 version), which would make people interested in mechanical advantages not interested in them. Something that I find funny, because most old school DMs say they dislike dragonborn because people only chose them to get mechanical advantages...

People who play dragonborn do it because they genuinely like them (either because they like dragons, or they are furries; or both).

So what has happened to Kelanen, the Prince of Swords?

I don't think he was mentioned in the 5e version of Greyhawk. But I guess that, if he is converted, he may be stated as a demigod or something.

I gather that 5e has moved on to a new metaphysics of deity-hood

Yes. Quasi-deities in 5e are just beings that are not true gods yet.