2024 has been a big year for Dungeons & Dragons so far, marking both the game's 50th anniversary and an extensive revamp of the game's core rulebooks. Even with all the new elements being added to the game, it’s the return of an old one that most excites my Gen X soul. The 2024 Dungeon Master's Guide includes a fully customizable Greyhawk setting guide, complete with a double-sided poster map of the continent of Oerik and the City of Greyhawk itself.
Greyhawk isn’t just one of the first campaign settings ever published for the game; it’s based on the home campaign of Gary Gygax, the game’s co-creator, so let's dive in to see what you can expect from a return to this legendary setting!
- Getting into Greyhawk
- Legends in the Making
- Life During Wartime
- A Down to Oerth Setting
- Keeping It Real
- Grimdark Greyhawk
- Giving Greyhawk: DMing in Gygax’s World
Getting into Greyhawk
I caught my first glimpse of the World of Greyhawk box set—which the campaign setting in the 2024 Dungeon Master's Guide is largely based on—in my grade school friend Danny’s basement, and it was the poster map that hooked me then as well. It looked like it had actually been drawn by a cartographer in a medieval fantasy world. I remembered examining the full-color heraldic crests of its many nations, imagining what sort of lands they were. Despite my begging, however, Danny wouldn’t let me borrow the box set, and the gates of Oerth were shut for seven years.
Then, in a Chicago bookstore in 1993, I spotted a Greyhawk supplement called Iuz the Evil. At first skim, Iuz seemed like a standard-variety dark lord, ruling a cold, harsh section of a planet called Oerth with his army of demons.
Where most fantasy tyrants pursue their war of conquest to the end with fanatical self-destructive zeal, the more sensible Iuz had conquered a manageable amount of territory, signed a peace treaty with the “good guys,” and was attempting to build a functional nation.
It was a practical-minded take on the “land of darkness” trope that also managed to be, despite the PG-13 guidelines of 90s D&D, truly horrific.
Author Carl Sargent was a master at implying terrifying things with a few carefully chosen words that suggested more than they described. I knew right then that this was the game world for me.
Among D&D settings, Greyhawk is a unique blend of dark, shadowy sword and sorcery, wide-screen high fantasy, and historical realism. It was the birthplace and first testing grounds of most of the game’s concepts, which gives it a timeless allure.
Legends in the Making
Indeed, D&D’s iconic Wizard and book-cover regular Mordenkainen began life as a player character in the original Greyhawk sessions. He was rolled up at level 1, like any other D&D adventurer, by none other than Gary Gygax, who created Dungeons & Dragons together with Dave Arneson.
Infamous Monsters and Legendary Adventurers
Gygax’s early 70s Lake Geneva, Wisconsin campaign was where the game we know took shape. The first people to ever check for secret doors or fire off Magic Missiles did so in his basement as they explored Oerth.
Most of the unique D&D monsters, like the Owlbear, Bulette, Mind Flayer, Mimic, and Beholder inflicted their first damage in the dungeons beneath Castle Greyhawk, controlled by Gygax and alternate Dungeon Master Rob Kuntz.
Otto’s Irresistible Dance, Bigby’s Hand, and Tenser’s Floating Disk were custom spells written by Gygax’s players.
Influence Across the Ages
The setting’s influence is widespread. Critical Role's gods, the Dawn Father, the Spider Queen, The Storm Lord, and the Chained Oblivion, first appeared in Oerth’s pantheon and are covered in detail in chapter 5 of the 2024 Dungeon Master's Guide.
Demon Lord Fraz Urb'luu was imprisoned beneath Castle Greyhawk, and Zuggtmoy was first defeated in Gygax’s Temple of Elemental Evil. Iconic magic items like the Eye and Hand of Vecna got their start there as well.
Life During Wartime
Greyhawk embodies D&D's historical wargaming origins.
Indeed, Greyhawk’s saga starts with war—with masses of refugees fleeing the Rain of Colorless Fire and Invoked Devastation that destroyed their homelands. Unlike similar events in other settings caused by the gods or cosmic forces, these disasters were caused by weapons of warring human civilizations. Rather than absorb the obvious lesson and change their destructive ways, humanity’s survivors brought their resentments with them to Oerik, kicking off centuries of violence.
A Battle-Ready World
Befitting the interests of its war-gamer creators, Greyhawk is a setting optimized to produce battles. Everywhere. The Greyhawk campaign setting in the 2024 Dungeon Master's Guide presents the DM with various mass conflicts, allowing DMs to invoke the feeling of a world reaching the boiling point.
You'll find descriptions of Oerth’s nations in the chapter's Greyhawk Gazetteer, along with their history of conflict and what strife they're currently facing. As Gygax would have wanted, DM’s should know that it’s only a matter of time before the cavalry charges start.
A Down to Oerth Setting
Unlike inhabitants of fantastical Eberron or even the Forgotten Realms, the common person of Oerth lives much like someone from our own late Middle Ages did. While individual Oerth mages rank among the most powerful in the multiverse, magical conveniences common in other settings rarely reach the common people here outside of bastions of civilization and knowledge, like the City of Greyhawk.
You aren't likely to see ships kept aloft by magic, hovering citadels made of gemstone, or enchanted street lamps—though you may encounter dragons, demons, and other monsters.
Oerth is a world where magic exists, but it is elusive, often locked behind ancient rituals or controlled by the elite. Everyday life is governed by the sword and plow, and when it comes time to raise the banners of war, armies meet each other in fields and lay siege to fortresses. The few magic items powerful enough to sway the tides are hidden away in forgotten dungeons that only the bravest dare enter, leaving kingdoms and nations to rely on steel and strategy to survive.
Keeping It Real
Applying his wargaming principles to the sword and sorcery tales he loved, Gygax worked to build a fantasy world that ran according to consistent, believable rules, and that's mirrored in the latest iteration of Greyhawk.
His settlement populations and locations followed real-world economic maxims. Gygax laid out not only the current nations of Oerik but also the historic migration patterns of the great human tribes that settled them. He provided each nation's imports and exports and the trade routes they used to transport them, providing resources for rulers to fight over and flashpoints where such fights were likely.
The Gazetteer included in the chapter provides Dungeon Masters with the tools to continue running games with this detail. It highlights dozens of locations across the Flanaess and provides an in-depth overview of the City of Greyhawk.
Grimdark Greyhawk
Another thing that sets Oerth apart is that evil is ever-present. If something isn't done by heroic adventurers, the free lands will fall under tyrannical rule.
No One To Save You
If your characters want to change any of that, they must do it themselves. What meager forces of good remain are stretched thin, trying to curtail the various conflicts that insidiously creep forward.
With Friends Like These
No benevolent Laeral Silverhand type governs the City of Greyhawk.
Instead, its leaders are a mobbed-up coalition of rich opportunists who literally call themselves the Directing Oligarchy, led by a lord mayor with a nefarious side hustle. You can appeal to the archmages of Mordenkainen’s Circle of Eight if you like, but they are concerned primarily with Balance, not justice. If they feel your goal is disruptive to world order, they may even oppose you.
Maximum Villainy
Evil’s ranks, by contrast, are full and active. A Greyhawk DM has more potential villains than a Batman writer, and all are equally as colorful, from the Cult of Elemental Evil to powerful, pragmatic Iuz in his icy castle in the north.
If braving immense resistance with little help makes you a hero, your players will find no greater opportunity than the fight to save Oerth.
Giving Greyhawk: DMing in Gygax’s World
Don’t let the setting’s history and age intimidate you. Take it from a lifetime Greyhawk DM: A few choice elements are enough to capture Oerth’s unique flavor without spending hours studying the past 50 years of lore.
Describe Oerthlings’ Hardships
First, in your descriptions to your players, emphasize that this is a world much like our own in the late Middle Ages. Remember, the lives of Oerth's civilians are generally as difficult as the lives of those from our history. Make sure some of the NPCs the characters meet have appropriately hard-scrabble stories. In Gygax tradition, a good number of them should also be less than trustworthy and open to betraying the characters if the moment presents itself.
Don’t Be Afraid to Challenge the Party
Patrol encounters are a great way to emphasize Greyhawk's wartime nature, and side quests in which the characters must protect unfortunate NPCs against stiff odds can give a taste of how robust the forces of darkness are.
When placing dungeon and wilderness encounters on Oerth, not every opponent needs to have a CR the players can handle. Greyhawk adventures written by Gygax, like Against the Giants, sometimes feature monsters the characters are meant to avoid, and knowing when not to fight is considered an essential player skill.
Get Tactical
Help your players acclimate to this reality by strongly hinting in your descriptions that an alternate plan of action might be advisable until they adjust. Greyhawk’s focus on realism can be emphasized by picking a moment or two in a session when environmental rules like darkness, Difficult Terrain, Carrying Capacity, and cover make a meaningful difference to character survival or mission success.
Overcoming truly challenging obstacles was one of the main joys of Gygax’s campaign and of old-school wargamers in general. When DMing other settings, you might occasionally fudge dice rolls or have monsters ignore Unconscious characters to give your players a break. If you want your Greyhawk adventures to invoke the spirit of that Lake Geneva basement in 1974, however, I strongly encourage you to let the dice fall where they fall. Gygax and Kuntz wouldn’t want it any other way.
The Adventure Continues
The world of Greyhawk was created by a group of historical wargamers to simulate, with probability and arithmetic, the sword and sorcery fiction of the twentieth century, where courageous but often morally complicated characters like Conan, Fafhrd, and Elric battled strange horrors, cunning thieves, and dark magic in violent realms based on Earth’s past.
The game we love was shaped in this volatile setting fifty years ago, and its gates remain open to those bold enough to enter. The 2024 Dungeon Master's Guide will soon give every D&D player enough information to walk through them whenever they like. If you love D&D, you owe it to yourself to take at least one trip to Gygax’s original world. My guess is you’ll want to go back again and again.
Comedian and writer John Roy (@johnroycomic) has appeared on Conan and The Tonight Show and written for Vulture and Dragon Plus. He is the co-host of the comedy/war gaming podcast Legends of the Painty Men. His albums can be found on Apple Music and Spotify. He splits his time between Los Angeles and the Free City of Greyhawk.
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I remember the old World of Greyhawk boxed set fondly. I'm intrigued to see just how much they present and how campaign-ready the information will be. This seems like a great way to show people how to build a campaign world from the bits I have seen and heard about the Greyhawk content in the DMG.
So excited to finally get a taste of greyhawk. I’ve been itching to learn more about it, having only started in the 5e era
It would be nice to have a free set of dice or a mini adventure from DnD
I don't need the new pbh that much and I dislike the new spellcasting format of monsters too much to consider the upcoming Monster Manuel, but the DMG and it's delve into a world i've been interested in learning more about... maybe.
Now that I see the overview, it looks kinda off for a setting to show new players. It has wargame-y approaches with too much focus on realism which new player might feel compelled to follow when it's actually optional.
Dont worry, I believe the DMG will also be having some mini-adventures that can be played sequentially! Iirc they're all based upon dragons but I COULD be wrong there
Nice summary of GH. This type of “what makes Greyhawk Greyhawk” is often debated amongst GH fans. John has done a good job.
The fans have kept the flame burning over the years. There is a lot of good fan made material out there for Greyhawk on sites like Greyhawk Online; CanonFire, etc. These include great fanzines like Oerth Journal, Visions of Greyhawk and The Grey Grimoire. Anna Meyer has also done some beautiful digital maps.
This is a really great way of describing the appeal of Greyhawk - I'm very excited for new players to dig in to this setting. That first boxed set is a really great campaign setting, and I'm glad to hear that they looked at what that boxed did for this iteration of the setting.
This is a refreshing and exciting forward for the setting! Thank you for the framing of the world, and how exciting it can be for us DMs!
Oerth seems a bit too dour for my tastes.
Haha I can see that. Author of the piece here. I hope I didn’t put you off too much - there are perfectly delightful and fun places on Oerth like the elf/human community Highfolk, the gnome community of grossetgrottel, any temple of Olidamarra the Laughing Rogue, the elven kingdom of Celene and the ranger/ druid/ and friendly werebear inhabited Gnarley Forest which are all wonderful places to visit but yeah, they’re all in a lot of danger and it’s not looking good for them unless your characters step in and help I’m not gonna lie to you.
This is just beyond pure excititement! I love Greyhawk, and I have discovered it only 5 years ago. I want to specify something that many Greyhawk's fans forget to mention: the setting does include A LOT of dark and high fantasy and magical creatures, but it is for the brave, the curious and the temerarious ones to unveil it, for it lays very well hidden behind a more realistic scenario.
YES YES YES
From a long-time fan of Greyhawk, this is great and succinct summary of a sprawling topic and setting. Bravo, John!
I really love that D&D is revisiting Greyhawk. The setting has a fantasy "realism" that combines most of the elements that constitutes a world where a trusty sword actually makes a difference. I also love that the evil guys are evil, as in, opposed to the PCs. Can't wait to read more about it.
Amazing article! Even with my extensive Greyhawk knowledge I found a lot of interesting and inspiring details!
Love the return to the first setting. I'm curious to see if we're just going to get reprints of old classics, or if we'll get new modules and campaign lines to follow.
To me Greyhawk has the best of two things for DMs. A fantastic base of places and potential adventures, but still even more areas open for DMs to drop in their own towns, villages or adventures.
Good article and wonderful the fabled Grayhawk is getting an update. Looking forwards to it but can't help but wonder why it's in the DMG - were they that short of material that they needed to pad it out with a setting. Hard to believe full justice will have been done to either rules or Greyhawk. Many people won't use it, so it sits there consuming space in the core rulebook. Nice nostalgic trip but a separate supplement probably made more sense.
Still looking forward to it like an excited child at Xmas though. Just keeping fingers crossed I am not building castles out of the packaging by midday 😉.