Thursday, May 21, 2020

Two D&D Announcements

Heya Greyhawk enthusiasts! Quick post today. If you followed Legends & Lore yesterday you'll know a virtual con was announced for the Greyhawk community! Check it out:


I really don't have any details on this even yet, but it's in the works. When I know more I'll be sure to promote it! And for those who worry, will Wizards be concerned a con is being put on with the Greyhawk name? I think it's extremely doubtful. Why? Because of this bit of news from Wizards reported today on ENWorld:

"Early this week, WotC announced on Twitter that today there would be some kind of announcement on their Twitch channel. Those who tuned in were treated to an an announcement that the new storyline will be announced at a live event in June.

The press release announcing the impending announcement also mentions a new setting, as well as the storyline, so it sounds like it won't be set in the Forgotten Realms. Recently, they've released a bunch of settingsEberron, Ravnica, Wildemount, and the upcoming Theros.

The new storyline specifically will be revealed at 12pm PST (8pm GMT) on Thursday, June 18th."

So a celebrity D&D charity stream will announce the next big story line (always a hyped event) and this one will include a new setting? My my, with all these game worlds being thrown around it suddenly feels like 2nd Edition era again! 

No need to speculate on what this world will be like, though if Chris Perkins is involved it'll have Greyhawk DNA. Cynically, this news puts even more distance between the fan community and the current powers that be in D&D. So yeah, by October Virtual Greyhawk Convention should be good to go!



5 comments:

Richdenver88 said...

Remember. It's not about who will let you. It's about who will stop you.

Pat Payne said...

Given that they let Goodman Games do the 5E conversion of TOEE (one of the Greyhawk crown jewels -- and don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining, Goodman did right by Keep on the Borderlands, so I'm waiting with excitement to see the TOEE conversion), something tells me that the World of Greyhawk is dead to WoTC. Sacrificed on the altar of "brand synergy" to summon up the dread powers of EmTeeGee for more moolah. Like you said, shades of 2E, where D&D/Greyhawk was increasingly treated as the red-headed stepchild so that TPTB could heavily promote their own star IP (in 2E, of course it was Buck Rogers overall, today it's Magic)

Mike Bridges said...

Good call Pat! I am in the same mindset, yet what we keep complaining about is they won't open GH to DMsGuild. Maybe Goodman is the reason. Could they have a deal, a sort of defacto licensing agreement?

Pat Payne said...

I'm not sold that it's that either, truth be told at least as far as no GH on DM's Guild... from what I understand, DM's Guild is open only to the universes explicitly being serviced by WoTC in their sourcebooks and adventures (that's why no Dragonlance, or Al-Qadim, or Birthright or Mystara or Spelljammer alongside no Greyhawk that isn't Saltmarsh), because the idea seems to be a kind of OGL-as-originally-intended-2.0 -- outsource the low-profit stuff (peripheral supplements and smaller adventures) out to the fandom and smaller third parties while keeping the big-ticket, big-potential-profit items in-house (or as with TOEE, with known companies for a cut of the take), and use DM's Guild as a supplement to, rather than competition for, the big stuff.

Pat Payne said...

BTW, sorry about the epic run-on sentence there...