Which Greyhawk in D&D 2024

[vagabundo]

I think my game is now in the 1680s. The Greyhawk Wars are history, Nyrond is an emerging superpower, the north part of the old Great Kingdom is a puritanical Pholtus-dominated republic of Andorian borrowed from Pathfinder and northern Furyondy might be moving into Fairy soonish. Everyone ought to be fearing Iuz's return after having been banished for 100 years and a day by the crook of Rao, but most people forgot, and likely Iuz will have problems with the modern armies of the restored crusader nations Shield Lands and The Horned Society. Of course satanists too can crusade against demons!

Now I'm trying to imagine GH in 1680s.

 

[HausPeters]

I am a fan of Carl Sargent era....specifically the Great Kingdom...Aerdy. While the 1983 is fine and all, it belies the war gamer tradition that AD&D was spawned from. The 1983 box set lists lots of troop numbers (strengths) and such, but not much detail on individual NPCS (such as IVID V). The Carl Sargent era (From the Ashes, and follow ups such as Ivid the Undying), fleshed out a lot of needed details.

 

[Stormdale]

My Greyhawk diverged from the official timeline in 1986-88 with an epic campaign that resulted in the giants overthrowing the Yeomanry, Sterich and Geoff and has been merrily been plotting its own course ever since. I prefer the 83 boxed sets to other versions as none of the others captures the broadstrokes in the way Gygax did so the 83 boxed set is my default to go back to. I found the Living Greyhawk/3e era dull as dishwater to read. I like some of Sergeant's ideas in 2e but his wars never happened in my version in the same way as we'd already gone in another direction.

 

[Gus L]

My suspicion is that it will be an entirely NEW Greyhawk...

The trappings of Greyhawk ... and Forgotten Realms, Blackmoor, and The Known World (Mystara)... are rather interchangeable at the basic level. There are of course distinctions, but the peoples, factions, technology, magic, and monsters all remain firmly rooted in a sort of post-Tolkien Gygaxian vernacular fantasy. Names may very but they are generally the same. Everything is anachronistically medieval, elves are nobles, dwarves are gruff miners, and orcs are warlike almost-monstermen. There's nothing especially unique about Greyhawk that can force its way through that 50 years of ossification or through the expectations of the public.

I expect that bits and pieces of various prior Greyhawk scenarios will make their way into Greyhawk 2025, but that as a setting it will be largely indistinguishable from the very successful Forgotten Realms IP. The switch to Greyhawk may have more to do with cheering the 50th anniversary of D&D and wanting to expand on a less densely written world. Nothing wrong with any of that, but I wouldn't hope too hard for a glimpse into Gygax's creative soul here.