Every edition ofDungeons & Dragonscomes with its associated setting, and the new2024 printing of theDungeon Master’s Guideis no exception. Although it was introduced during the first edition’s reign,the Forgotten Realms settinghas become near-ubiquitous in recent years. It was featured as the flagship setting in both 4 and 5e, and it only became more popular with its recent inclusion inBaldur’s Gate 3.
Butthe new printing returns to Greyhawk, one of the original settings designed forDnD, and a far cry from the Forgotten Realms in every conceivable way. In doing so, it expands on much of the original lore while keeping its core conceit intact. But it does so while avoiding a major misstep that previous officialDnDsettings (and RPG settings in general) have historically been prone to, in a way that elevates it above previous editions of Forgotten Realms.
The History Of D&D’s Forgotten Realms Is Chaotic
Spellplague & The Second Sundering Are Overcomplicated
In short,the 2024DMGdoesn’t introduce some calamitous, world-changing event to the Greyhawk setting, completely altering its face from what players know and love from previous editions. Instead, it simply transfers the classic version of the setting, almost entirely intact, into the current edition.
That makes it unique amongofficial recurringDnDsettings, which tend to undergo massive changes between editions. The Forgotten Realms have been around since the first edition, and have evolved, both naturally and unnaturally, in the intervening years. For example, 4e introduced an entirely new chapter in the Realms' world history: the controversial Spellplague. This event began with the assassination of the goddess Mystra by the god of trickery, Cyric, and the Mistress of the Night, Shar. It resulted in the disappearance of arcane magic from the world, as well as the death of several gods and some serious geographical upheaval.
The Spellplague wasn’t introduced in the 4eDMG, but in theForgotten Realms Campaign Guide.
That’s not an inherently bad or uninteresting concept for a setting; plop an adventuring party down in the middle of that world, and there’s plenty of ancient intrigue for them to dig into, lots of terraformed land for them to explore. The problem is,for a DM looking to build a campaign of their own, it’s too specific.
If they want to craft a story around literally anything else but the death of Mystra and the dissolution of magic as the world knew it,they’ll have to discard large portions of the setting’s details, or whatever errands they send their players on will seem trivial or disjointed in proportion. That’s not even to mention all the little details of the Forgotten Realms that no longer exist, or have been changed irreparably by the ravages of the Spellplague.
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5e then repeated this mistake by introducing the Second Sundering, another series of events that completely altered the Forgotten Realms with a spate of natural disasters mainly caused by infighting among the gods. The Second Sundering effectively reversed the changes introduced by the Spellplague, butit caused the same issue: 5e’s most popular official setting was too specific, and as a result, could no longer function as an adaptable backdrop for any and every kind of campaign.
D&D’s 2024 Dungeon Master’s Guide Keeps Greyhawk Classic
Greyhawk As You Remember It
By comparison, though,Greyhawk appears completely unchanged in the 2024DMG. The included guide to this setting, which makes up the second half of Chapter 5, is set in 576 Common Year (CY, in the date format used by the Greyhawk setting) - literally right where previous versions of Greyhawk left off. No apocalyptic changes have rent the fabric of reality in the meantime. It’s the same old Oerth players have come to know and love.
More importantly, though,this version of Greyhawk is flexible, and can be tailored to fit almost any kind of campaign with very little alteration. Although theDMGsuggests a series of drawn-out campaigns, central plot points, influential factions, pivotal locations, and omnipotent gods, these are just that - suggestions. If they don’t fit the kind of story a DM and their players want to tell, it’s easy to tone these elements down, turning them into smaller arcs within a larger saga, or skip past them entirely, borrowing only the very basic information about the world and its factions.
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The point is thatthis new version of Greyhawk doesn’t hand the DM a campaign on a silver platter. Instead, it gives them a well-stocked pantry of ingredients, and lets them cook up whatever kind of story they want. Sure, it offers flavorful suggestions along the way, but keeps them distant enough from the core concept that they can easily be substituted or omitted. The result is that the final product feels like the DM’s own work, not a ready-made creation of someone else’s that they’ve just plopped the players down into.
A Simple Campaign Setting Is Sometimes For The Best
Adaptability Is Key
Look, there’s something to be said for the specific approach. Thousand-page campaign setting guides that detail every square foot of their worlds, the creatures that inhabit them, their heights, weights, daily schedules, likes, dislikes, wants, needs, fears: these are feats of game design and world building. They’re undeniably impressive, and situationally useful.It’s perfectly fine to use a prefab campaign- sometimes, a published campaign book just perfectly encompasses the kind of story a DM wants to tell, or they don’t have the time and energy to pore over custom maps and lore conundrums.
ButDnDis a big game, bigger than any single campaign played within it, or all of them combined. It contains near-infinite possibilities. Its races, classes, feats, and items are designed to serve as the building blocks for any number of fantasy stories -shouldn’t its official setting do that, too?There’s plenty of room for those hyperspecific settings in the wider world ofDnD. But if any setting details are going to be included in theDMG, or hailed as the game’s flagship setting (official or unofficial), they need to be malleable enough to slot into any campaign.
There’s still plenty of time for 5e to get Greyhawk wrong. Right now, it’s just a few pages in theDMG. Future printings could see a full-fledged setting guide that turns Oerth on its head when The Happening causes goblins to rain from the sky. For now though, its current iteration might be the best thing that’s ever happened toDungeons & Dragons, and is certainly worth a look when designing a campaign.
Dungeons and Dragons
Dungeons and Dragons is a popular tabletop game originally invented in 1974 by Ernest Gary Gygax and David Arneson. The fantasy role-playing game brings together players for a campaign with various components, including abilities, races, character classes, monsters, and treasures. The game has drastically expanded since the ’70s, with numerous updated box sets and expansions.
