17 April 2022

No new Greyhawk setting book? Phew!

Every so often on the inter-tubes I encounter laments about the dearth of 5th edition (D&D) material for settings other than the Forgotten Realms.

Fair enough, I guess. But personally, I’m fine with the limited amount of material that’s been produced for the World of Greyhawk. There’s Ghosts of Saltmarsh, which includes some helpful material on southern Keoland, but not much information on the larger world. And there are some converted 1st edition (AD&D) adventures in the Tales from the Yawning Portal adventure collection. (The core “Saltmarsh” components, U1 – U3, of course, also are converted 1st edition adventures set in the world of Greyhawk.) 

Overall, I'm kind of grateful for the lack of “official” Greyhawk material. It means that WotC can't wreck the setting (a la 4e FR) or smother it with too much "official" detail (a la FR – all editions).

I prefer Gary Gygax's version of Greyhawk to later versions. (The original Darlene map alone is inspiring.) So, I am relying on the 1983 box set as my “setting bible” for my current campaign, adding things from later editions to taste. And I’m filling in the “gaps” and modifying things as I see fit (e.g., my “Mage of the Vale” is loosely inspired by the version found in Gygax’s “Gord” novels, and hence is entirely different from the "official" version). 

The 5th edition Greyhawk material that has been published has been quite easy to "plug in" directly, as are the 5th edition updates and expansions from Goodman Games, namely, Expedition to the Barrier Peaks and the Temple of Elemental Evil (the latter of which I’m using right now for my campaign). Of course, since most of that material was designed for 1st AD&D, much of it by Gygax himself, it’s not surprising that it all meshes readily with classic Greyhawk.

With PDFs (and in many cases print-on-demand books) available for pretty much all the older material, as well as the Greyhawk Wiki (and this resource that draws upon Gygax’s “Gord” stories), I frankly have more Greyhawk material than I know what to do with. 

By Boccob, when it comes to the Oerth, I’m laughing with good old Zagyg.


1 comment:

  1. I had some problems with the formatting with this post -- hopefully it reads okay now.

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I'm a Canadian political philosopher who lives primarily in Toronto but teaches in Milwaukee (sometimes in person, sometimes online).