Greyhawk Rebooted - 576CY

While I’m no JJ Abrams, I tried to re-imag-

So who is this book for? ine the setting through an Abrams-like
Greyhawk Rebooted began as a project
lens. Just like his re-imagined Star Wars
to codify and update my on-and-off 30+
and Star Trek universes are very familiar,
year campaign to the current edition of
they are also new and exciting in many re-
the game. As new 5e publications were
spects. Kirk and Spock are still there but
released, I added new classes, races and
Abrams blew up the plant Vulcan for ex-
other features to my Greyhawk. Let me
ample!
repeat that... this is MY version of The
World of Greyhawktm; there are many like
So what was the process? First let me ex-
it, but this one is mine.
plain my overall approach to world build-
ing, something I’ve been doing for over 40
And now it can be yours too. Originally
years. My formal education is in anthro-
this book was intended for my players, to
pology and history so my natural inclina-
put all of the player options in one place
tion is to give the world an organic feeling.
for them simply for ease of use. It served
I ask myself “why” and “how” a lot. Why
as an introduction to the setting for new
is this population where it is? How did it
players over the years and it showed old
get there? What kind of society would they
Grognards who played at my table to un-
build and what impact would magic and
derstand how this Greyhawk differs from
the supernatural have on their develop-
what they might already know.
ment? I looked to real world history and
migration patterns of populations for in-
Since Greyhawk was Gary Gygax’s home
spiration. I wanted to recreate the Oerth
campaign setting, it also became the de-
version of the Indo-Europeans and similar
fault D&D setting for much of the early
groups and let them evolve on Oerth in a
history of the game. It also served as the
natural manner. I applied this questioning
default setting for much of 3rd edition.
to nearly all aspects of Greyhawk but I did
An executive decision was made early that
not want to fundamentally change the na-
only source material extant during Gygax’s
ture of the setting. The last thing I wanted
creative leadership of the setting would be
to do was turn Greyhawk into a “kitchen
adopted as canon for our rebooted version
sink” setting just so 5e material could be
of the setting. That is the starting point.
shoe-horned in.
So what does that mean? Well for starters,
This required a complete re-imagining
it means things like the Greyhawk Wars
of Oerik prehistory. I’ve reviewed many
or the rise of Turosh Mak simply have not
fan-created histories, including that of for-
happened. The Vatun ruse Iuz used to ma-
mer TSR writer, Len Lakofka, and I adopt-
nipulate the northern barbarians hasn’t
ed some of this material but found that an
happened. The Great Kingdom has not
entirely new history was required for the
self-destructed and the Scarlet Brother-
reboot. Drawing on some obscure canon
hood is still an enigma to most people on
lore from the history of the Githyanki, I
the Flanaess.
stumbled upon the notion that the Gith
were once human, their original home
We’ve reset the clock to 576 CY which
world being Oerth where they lived in an
is the default starting time presented in
nation called Zarum that was subsequent-
the original folio and the 1983 boxed set.
ly conquered by Mind Flayers. From this
From this starting point we have set about
canon nugget, I began reworking the histo-
re-imagining the setting with as little bias
ry of the world, weaving in other previous
from later published materials as possible.
lore and background material as needed.

10 Greyhawk Rebooted 576CY is unofficial Fan Content permitted under the Fan WotC Content Policy.