Greyhawk from the 1980s makes a huge comeback in new D&D book

The world of Greyhawk is back. Sort of. Almost.

Greyhawk is the original campaign setting for Dungeons by D&D founding father Gary Gygax. Greyhawk appeared frequently in Dungeons & Dragons until 2008. After that, Gygax’s creation appeared only sporadically – but it was always there. In D&D 5th Edition (the edition that has been on shelves since 2014), Greyhawk is sprinkled throughout several supplemental sourcebooks and adventure compilation books.

Ghosts of Saltmarsh is a collection of adventures set in Greyhawk’s setting, Saltmarsh. Tales From the Yawning Portal is a collection that reprints The Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan and White Plume Mountain, two adventures from Greyhawk.

And Greyhawk characters have appeared in the titles of D&D 5e books. Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything is led by Tasha, a character created by Gary Gygax for Greyhawk. The same goes for Mordenkainen from Mordenkainen Presents Monsters of the Multiverse. Bigby from Bigby Presents Glory of the Giants. And I know at least one of these characters appears in the popular D&D 5e adventure Curse of Strahd.

So Greyhawk has always been in 5e. But not to the extent that it will be included in 2024 D&D. In the 2024 Dungeon Master’s Guide, there are several episodic adventures that take place in Greyhawk while guiding a Dungeon Master through the Dungeon Mastering process. Greyhawk’s resurgence is further reinforced by a fold-out map of Greyhawk in the Dungeon Master’s Guide.

While this isn’t what I’d call a full “campaign setting,” a huge map and a handful of adventures go a long way. It doesn’t hurt that Warduke, that handsome guy with the flaming sword on the cover of the Dungeon Master’s Guide, is also a character who, while created to sell 1980s D&D action figures, later found his way into Greyhawk.

I can’t wait. But I have to. Of the core rulebooks for 2024, the first to come out is the Player’s Handbook on September 17th. Then the Dungeon Master’s Guide comes out on November 11th. (Followed by the Monster Manual on February 18th, 2025, making the 2024 Monster Manual officially a book that isn’t coming out in 2024.)