D&D (2024) How Does Greyhawk Fit In To The New Edition?

According to Game Informer — “the surprising importance and inclusions of what is arguably the oldest D&D campaign setting of them all – Greyhawk.”

So how does Greyhawk fit in? According to GI, the new 2024 Dungeon Master’s Guide contains a sample setting—and that setting is, indeed, Greyhawk. Not only that, but the book will come with a double-sided poster map with the City of Greyhawk on one side and the Flannaes on the other—the eastern part of one of Oerth’s four continents.

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Even as the multiverse of D&D worlds sees increased attention, the Dungeon Master's Guide also offers a more discrete setting to get gaming groups started. After very few official releases in the last couple of decades, the world of Greyhawk takes center stage. The book fleshes out Greyhawk to illustrate how to create campaign settings of your own. Greyhawk was the original D&D game world crafted by D&D co-creator Gary Gygax, and a worthy setting to revisit on the occassion of D&D's golden anniversary. It's a world bristling with classic sword and sorcery concepts, from an intrigue-laden central city to wide tracts of uncharted wilderness. Compared to many D&D campaign settings, it's smaller and less fleshed out, and that's sort of the point; it begs for DMs to make it their own. The book offers ample info to bring Greyhawk to life but leaves much undetailed. For those eager to take the plunge, an included poster map of the Greyhawk setting sets the tone, and its reverse reveals a map of the city of the same name. "A big draw to Greyhawk is it's the origin place for such heroes as Mordenkainen, Tasha, and others," Perkins says. "There's this idea that the players in your campaign can be the next great world-hopping, spell-crafting heroes of D&D. It is the campaign where heroes are born."

- Game Informer​

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[Micah Sweet]

Greyhawk is very Human centric and also very much based on Medieval Fantasy. I don't think this is going to fly well with the current player base that prefers Tieflings, Tortles, and Top hats.

I don't think Greyhawk could survive the new player base and still keep the flavor people want from Greyhawk.

Agreed, which is why corporate has certainly decided that the flavor has to go!

 

[Micah Sweet]

Greyhawk survived 3e with gnomish Necromancers and halfling paladins. It will survive this.

Did it though? 3e Greyhawk was so integrated into the core rules that it practically ceased to be Greyhawk, and instead became a series of idiosyncratic names for gods, spells and artifacts. There were I recall very few actual branded Greyhawk products during the 3e era.

 

[Azzy]

Did it though?

Yes, it did.

3e Greyhawk was so integrated into the core rules that it practically ceased to be Greyhawk, and instead became a series of idiosyncratic names for gods, spells and artifacts. There were I recall very few actual branded Greyhawk products during the 3e era.

Same as it ever was.

 

[Remathilis]

Agreed, which is why corporate has certainly decided that the flavor has to go!

That flavor already died in 2000. Attempts to retroactively add limitations to species and classes in Greyhawk have been created by grognards who want to use Oerth as a battleground for a type of play that hasn't been dominant for 20+ years. It was never the intent of Gary nor any of the writers who worked on it since.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Yes, it did.

Same as it ever was.

Settings have locations and histories, not just proprietary names. How much of that was evident in the 3e era? How many Greyhawk-branded products were there? Anything beyond Living Greyhawk? I'm not sure, but I know it was a lot fewer than any other supported major setting at the time.

 

[Micah Sweet]

That flavor already died in 2000. Attempts to retroactively add limitations to species and classes in Greyhawk have been created by grognards who want to use Oerth as a battleground for a type of play that hasn't been dominant for 20+ years. It was never the intent of Gary nor any of the writers who worked on it since.

Do we have evidence of Gary's intent?

 

[Parmandur]

That flavor already died in 2000. Attempts to retroactively add limitations to species and classes in Greyhawk have been created by grognards who want to use Oerth as a battleground for a type of play that hasn't been dominant for 20+ years. It was never the intent of Gary nor any of the writers who worked on it since.

Yeah, no way they so much as bring it up here.

 

[Remathilis]

Did it though? 3e Greyhawk was so integrated into the core rules that it practically ceased to be Greyhawk, and instead became a series of idiosyncratic names for gods, spells and artifacts. There were I recall very few actual branded Greyhawk products during the 3e era.

Yes, and?

Crack open your 1e core books. That's about all Greyhawk was in them. A few names, spells and artifacts. The Folio certainly doesn't give much more than a thumbnail sketch and most of the classic modules were retroactively added to Oerth (ToH, AtG, KotB, etc) to flesh out the world. Outside Dragon Magazine and the ever so beloved From the Ashes, Greyhawk was never more than a map and a list of proper nouns. Attempts to make it a fully fleshed out world with a definitive vision and canon almost betray Gray's vision. He put things in it because he thought they were neat. In that regard, 3e and 5e versions of Greyhawk carry on the spirit of the setting.

 

[Remathilis]

Do we have evidence of Gary's intent?

I have neither the time nor the resources to dig through decades of Dragon Magazine and col-pladoh posts, but I will say if Gary had a definitive vision of the setting, he has plenty of opportunities to express it and didn't. I think a lot of fans have spent a lot of time retroactively trying to assign greater design and meaning to Greyhawk that wasn't considered at the time.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Yes, and?

Crack open your 1e core books. That's about all Greyhawk was in them. A few names, spells and artifacts. The Folio certainly doesn't give much more than a thumbnail sketch and most of the classic modules were retroactively added to Oerth (ToH, AtG, KotB, etc) to flesh out the world. Outside Dragon Magazine and the ever so beloved From the Ashes, Greyhawk was never more than a map and a list of proper nouns. Attempts to make it a fully fleshed out world with a definitive vision and canon almost betray Gray's vision. He put things in it because he thought they were neat. In that regard, 3e and 5e versions of Greyhawk carry on the spirit of the setting.

I seem to recall a 1e/2e book called, "Greyhawk Adventures" that had a good deal of setting material.

Its where the picture at the top of the thread came from.