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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[Vaalingrade]

Why are we getting excited about something that's likely going to be around 10 pages? This isn't like a full Greyhawk campaign setting. It's going to be a section of what's traditionally the most anemic book in the line - put in largely to pander to old-timers who wouldn't have purchased the book without it.

I mean for Greyhawk fans, ten pages is more than it got in 3e when it was meant to be the default. So we're talking 25 years of drought, so every drop matters.

 

[MerricB]

I think this is awesome. (I also am very, very hopeful it means that Greyhawk opens up for the DMs Guild).

The original release of Greyhawk was very bare bones. This was intentional. It's a springboard that DMs can set their existing campaigns in, and provides inspiration for what might lie outside the borders of the small town and dungeon the DM has.

And, honestly, this is exactly what the DMG needs. Not too much detail, but just enough to provoke the imagination of the DM. When you look at the 1983 boxed set and 1980 folio, there's stuff in there that isn't really necessary. (Gygax is more interested in troop numbers than D&D players typically are). But then you have the history of the world, recent conflicts (Elemental Evil), and other things that provide inspiration for games.

I've been running games in Greyhawk for a very long time now; I was playing there even longer ago. When I run a campaign, I take the basics of the 1983 boxed set, look to see if there's anything from later publications (like the Living Greyhawk Gazetteer) that I can use, and synthesize something new. It starts in published Greyhawk, it becomes MY Greyhawk.

(There's a lot of the LGG I just discard. It doesn't fit with my world).

Does Wizards need to do much more with Greyhawk than a slim presentation of a campaign world in the DMG? I would say not. (Allow DMs to show their creativity on the DMs Guild!) When you compare to a place like the Forgotten Realms, Greyhawk is always less detailed - and that's its strength. I want both approaches. I want more detailed settings for some games, and less detailed settings for others.

Knowing that there's a nation called Iuz, and that the evil demigod leader of that realm contends with a good realm known as Furyondy opens up many an adventure possibility. To the east is the fading, corrupted land of the Great Kingdom. What treasures and horrors lie within its borders?

Not everything needs to be detailed to the nth degree in this presentation, just enough to allow DMs to build from there.

Cheers,
Merric

 

[GothmogIV]

View attachment 363050

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 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.

​

View attachment 363051​

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​

​

So...that makes me want to buy it. That's awesome. Hopefully they won't ruin it by filling it with sparkle-trolls. Greyhawk is gritty.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Hopefully they won't ruin it by filling it with sparkle-trolls.

They also released new art of trolls from the 2025 Monster Manual:

 

[Demetrios1453]

I love new settings, but I would rather a new setting be in its own book, like Ravnica. Greyhawk makes a lot of sense for the 50th anniversary. It is also a nice, rather generic, light setting that can be summarized and presented as a build your own world kit/example.

This is what we should be most excited about. Since it will be in a core book, I'm optimistic that they'll open it to DMs Guild. Die hard fans have done great work on building upon Greyhawk over the years and this could lead to some great Greyhawk setting books and adventures by TPPs and fans.

Kids these days are likely not going to have the nostalgia to be excited about Greyhawk, but there is not reason why they wouldn't enjoy having a world available in broad strokes that they can use as a launch pad for homebrewing their own campaign (yeah, mixed metaphor, but I'm tired, and y'all know what I mean).

There is no way that it will not disappoint anyone expecting anything more than a broad outline. But if this opens it to DMs Guild, then those fans who have been carrying the torch can make their excellent work available on DMs Guild.

Now I want to make a goblin character named "Grognip."

There's zero chance they they don't open the setting to the DM's Guild. Opening it up there is probably one of the more significant reasons for adding it to the DMG.

 

[Micah Sweet]

The 5E versions of Dragonlance, Planescape, Ravenloft & Spelljammer have each pissed off a contingent of players because they weren't exactly like the material found in each of their original books. But in order to know that the 5E versions were not the same as the older versions, each of those players would have had to own the material from way back when. So if you owned the old material and preferred the old material, you didn't need the 5E version in the first place!

No one who is a Greyhawk fan should want the 5E24 DMG for its Greyhawk material. There's not going to be anything in the book that will be useful to you, other than it possibly getting opened on DMs Guild or you want the huff of nostalgia seeing 21st century art and maps styles. But the actual nitty-gritty of the setting? You should have been using the World of Greyhawk boxed set you own this entire time, because the 5E24 is going to change a crapton of stuff that most modern gamers just wouldn't be thrilled about seeing from what was going on back in '80.

Except for the rules updates.

 

[MonsterEnvy]

I can understand the that kind of treatment for a small fishing village. But we're talking about an entire campaign setting, a world with 40+ years of gaming history.
I can't imagine it being anything other than a disappointment - a crumb of what we've been wanting for 20 years.

I imagine it will get 32 or so pages

 

[Micah Sweet]

Well played, WotC. This will likely change some votes, and getting the setting on the Guild is the real prize here. A solid business move.

 

[Yaarel]

I am already getting the DMs Guide and other core books to have the updates in one place.

I love being mindful of the history D&D. A new vision of the Oerth of Greyhawk (and Blackmoor) for this century is awesome.

I am curious, what aspects of the legacy content they will mine and which they will tweak for sensibilities today.

 

[Kurotowa]

Kids these days are likely not going to have the nostalgia to be excited about Greyhawk, but there is not reason why they wouldn't enjoy having a world available in broad strokes that they can use as a launch pad for homebrewing their own campaign (yeah, mixed metaphor, but I'm tired, and y'all know what I mean).

Kids these days, the ones playing D&D at least, are still geeks. And geeks just love doing deep dives on history and lore, and learning all the hidden details and callbacks in a rich fictional setting. You don't have to nostalgia bait them to get them interested. You just have to dangle the promise of rewarding their effort in mastering lots of detailed facts, and it'll be like catnip.

The big hurdle is that you have to properly update the material for the current day. Preferably by someone who knows it inside and out, and cares deeply about it, and is slightly ruthless about pruning all the old bad ideas that slipped in because there was a deadline and a budget. It's like refurbishing antiques. You want something with history and tradition, but you don't want something that's rusty and broken.