D&D (2024) Greyhawk Confirmed. Tell Me Why.

[billd91]

So back to the question of what the campaign setting design is going to look like and how they are going to use Greyhawk to show it:

Do you think they will be using the design philosophy of starting ina limited region and expanding out, which means we will only be getting a small portion of GH (like the Saltmarsh region, as an example) or do you think they will be advocating top down design and we will be getting Oerth?

I doubt it will be top down. But whether or not they talk about starting in a limited region and expanding out, there are still plenty of options that could be covered.

A lot of people may expect them to use the Free City of Greyhawk as an example - and they might. It would certainly be a useful example of a large city near a major dungeon adventuring site. Big cities, however, are pretty complex to start with. So maybe they'll start even smaller.

They would have a pretty good reason to use the village of Hommlet as an example starting location. It's small and easily defined and has a well-known adventuring site not too far away. Radiating outward we've got places like Nulb and the city of Verbobonc offering support. Outward from there we've got places like Greyhawk and Dyvers as well as the international political situation between Veluna/Furyondy and Iuz, the trade rivalry between Dyvers and Greyhawk, etc.

 

[Yaarel]

I doubt it will be top down. But whether or not they talk about starting in a limited region and expanding out, there are still plenty of options that could be covered.

A lot of people may expect them to use the Free City of Greyhawk as an example - and they might. It would certainly be a useful example of a large city near a major dungeon adventuring site. Big cities, however, are pretty complex to start with. So maybe they'll start even smaller.

They would have a pretty good reason to use the village of Hommlet as an example starting location. It's small and easily defined and has a well-known adventuring site not too far away. Radiating outward we've got places like Nulb and the city of Verbobonc offering support. Outward from there we've got places like Greyhawk and Dyvers as well as the international political situation between Veluna/Furyondy and Iuz, the trade rivalry between Dyvers and Greyhawk, etc.

Why have a map of the City of Greyhawk, if the text addresses the village of Hommlet?

 

[el-remmen]

Also, it's already been asked to start a really great other thread with the "is psionics core?" argument stuff instead of continuing it on the thread about Greyhawk in the DMG.

I must have missed that. My bad.

 

[billd91]

Why have a map of the City of Greyhawk, if the text addresses the village of Hommlet?

One would hope, if they are doing a Points of Light campaign, that they're NOT starting with a massive, cosmopolitan city. Save that for a section on designing urban adventures. Use a smaller locale for an example of PoL or bottom->up setting design like Hommlet and the Free City of Greyhawk can be that "bright, shining city" everyone aspires to get to. <cue gnomish bard Phrank Cyn Atra and his music "If I can make it there, I'll make it anywhere...">

 

[Parmandur]

Are Zoomers aging out of the D&D market?? I was thinking the opposite. I always assumed D&D's core demographic was high-school/college aged people moving up through young professionals, which would be Gen Z. The former is the group that has the time and the passion to play the game, with the latter being the older version of the same group, but now with the spending power to buy all the content they wish they still had time to play.

How old are the older Gen Alpha kids? 10? 12? I can see this generation getting into D&D, but probably mostly through the influence of older, Zoomer siblings, or Millennial parents.

WotC longterm target for D&D (consistant since the build-up to 3E) is 12-24 year olds, whereas Zoomers are currently ~14-28 year olds. Certainly still the main target, but over the next decade phasing out. A lot of WotC marketing efforts are moving towards Alphas now.

Either way, trying "WhatUp, Fellow Kid" is less effective than refreshing something rooted.

I think this is possibly a big selling point. This is the 50th anniversary.. So they can offer nostalgia for those looking for that, they can offer history for the people looking for that, and then at the same time, to a new player who doesn't know or care about Gygax, or Greyhawk.. It can all still be used as reference material. It seems like a good choice for casting a wide net.

Well stated, agreed 100%

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Not if you're not a newbie. At least I never had an issue with that aspect of it.

Well I didn’t see any useful worldbuilding advice for experienced worldbuilders in the 2014 DMG.

That doesn’t mean it wasn’t there of course, just the 2014 DMG was laid out so brilliantly that it is impossible to find the thing you are looking for.

 

[Parmandur]

The point is, most versions of "fantasy Aztecs, but they are orcs!" is garbage and settings that rely on that stuff are outmoded and should be altered or, better, scrapped.

Yup, which WotC has already done with Greyhawk in 3E and Ghists of Saltmarsh, but would he much harder to do with Mystara.

 

[Parmandur]

I think you're overestimating what's going to be in the chapter. It probably just going to be bare-bones info. There's probably going to be very little "tone" involved.

EDIT: actually, from further responses, it looks like a lot of posters are overestimating what we're going to see in this chapter.

Hard to know exactly, but "about as much as the 1980 Folio" is quite reasonable: that was a terse product.

 

[GuyBoy]

Just got home from tough day at work and found this thread.
Greyhawk! Today is a good day!

 

[Parmandur]

So back to the question of what the campaign setting design is going to look like and how they are going to use Greyhawk to show it:

Do you think they will be using the design philosophy of starting ina limited region and expanding out, which means we will only be getting a small portion of GH (like the Saltmarsh region, as an example) or do you think they will be advocating top down design and we will be getting Oerth?

So, some Bloggers and influences have been doing the "Gygax 75 Challenge" fir the past half decade, based on a 5 step campaign setting development program laid out by Gary Gygax in an article in the fanzine Europa in 1975...an article that WorC is actively printing and selling next month.

The 5 steps as outlined by Gygax:

That's right, folks.
The referee of the campaign must structure the game so as to have
something to play. He must decide upon these things:
1) The overall setting of the campaign;
2) The countryside of the immediate area;
3) The location of the dungeon where most adventures will take
place;
4) The layout and composition of the nearest large town; and
5) Eventually the entire world - and possibly other worlds, times,
dimensions, and so forth must be structured, mapped and added.

Gary Gygax in Europa Newsletter 1975: On D&D and Castle Greyhawk

Extracted From Europa WEB ARCHIVE, issues 6-8, April 1975. Page 20 E 6,8, page 18 GABT GÏGAX: D&D HPV TO SET UP YOUR DÜNGEONS & DRA...

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