D&D: Greyhawk finally coming to 5th Edition?

The original World of Greyhawk Folio,
published in 1980 by TSR, included
the famous Darlene maps.

The most recent revelations further indicate a Greyhawk update may be pending for D&D 5th Edition.

UPDATE 02/27: The latest issue of Dragon+ had an article about playing 5th Edition in the World of Greyhawk!

UPDATE 02/25: From the Wizards.com press release.
 "Nestled on the coast of the Azure Sea is Saltmarsh, a sleepy fishing village that sits on the precipice of destruction."

UPDATE 05/08: A Ghosts of Saltmarsh sidebar officially states the location of Saltmarsh in the World of Greyhawk, as well as optional locations for Eberron, Forgotten Realms, and Mystara!

The Azure Sea is in the World of Greyhawk, not the Forgotten Realms. The WotC press release drops a bomb in the first sentence. It looks like my initial impressions have been on the right track.

Original post:

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Last week, there was news that the Stranger Things D&D Starter Set adventure was not set in the Forgotten Realms. This started speculation that Greyhawk setting update may be coming.

This week, Wizards of the Coast (or rather Amazon) announced Ghosts of Saltmarsh, the new adventure campaign that will revamp the original AD&D Saltmarsh adventures (U1 - U3) as well as include several other sea-faring based adventures.This has furthered the speculation around Greyhawk.

This, in itself, does not necessarily confirm Greyhawk as a 5th Edition setting. After all, Tales from the Yawning Portal also included Greyhawk setting-specific adventures such as White Plume Mountain, Against the Giants, and the iconic Tomb of Horrors.

The Ghosts of Saltmarsh
adventure will be released in May.

However, the trail of clues continue. A recent segment in the Dragon Talk podcast (02/07/2019) with Mike Mearls talking about his love of the Greyhawk campaign setting and the desire to publish something for the setting. To quote, "I would love to bring Greyhawk back, but I want to bring it back in a way that does justice to it and that makes everyone fall in love with it the way I love it."

In the intro for the episode, the hosts also dropped teasers about all the things they could not talk about that were coming. Could the Greyhawk interview been set up as a secret teaser for upcoming releases?

Am I grasping at straws? Quite possibly...

But there is a strong case to be made that a DMs Guild update on the World of Greyhawk would fit well with recent (and upcoming) releases... and based on #DnD Twitter, people are dying for a Greyhawk supplement akin to the Eberron update for 5th Edition. Financially, it makes a lot of sense. Greyhawk would jump to the top of the DM's Guild best seller list just as the Eberron guide did.

In Summary

The evidence is starting to mount that something is going on with the Greyhawk setting. Even if you set aside the Stranger Things and Ghosts of Saltmarsh as clues (yes, they both could be "setting neutral"), Wizards of the Coast appears to be doing Greyhawk marketing.

• Dragon Talk podcast segment with Mike Mearls
• Dragon+ Greyhawk retrospective article co-authored by Luke Gygax

This is marketing, people! It has the hallmarks of an opening salvo. There are at least as many Greyhawk fans as Eberron fans, if not more. What do you think?  Leave a comment and let me know!