Sneaky developers sprinkled a level 1-13 Greyhawk campaign across the last 10 years of D&D

There is a Greyhawk campaign setting stuck right in the middle of the new Dungeons & Dragons 2024 Dungeon Master's Guide. Read our review here. It's a modest 28 pages of the DM's Guide's 384 pages, cover to cover. But don't let that number fool you. The Greyhawk setting tastes great, and is less filling (like that old '80s Miller Lite commercial). As a Dungeon Master, I do want content—but not too much content. Were you to give Greyhawk its own 384-page book, I would have to say thanks, but no thanks. Ain't nobody got time for that.

What you want is just the right amount of content to spark your imagination without leaving you bloated and immobilized on the living room floor. And I think that's exactly what we get in those 28 pages inserted into the center of the DM's Guide.

No, the "welcoming and non-threatening" world of Greyhawk didn't get anything like an official sourcebook. Only the Forgotten Realms' Swordcoast Adventurer's Guide provided that experience in 5th Edition. But keep in mind that the original Greyhawk campaign setting in 1980 was itself only 32 pages—and some of that addressed playing with large-scale army tactics and a whole lot of gods.

Adding to 2024's Greyhawk campaign setting are also several old school Greyhawk adventures already released in 5e. Princes of the Apocalypse, released in 2015, takes place in the Forgotten Realms, but draws inspiration from the Temple of Elemental Evil. That temple originated in Greyhawk.

More standalone Greyhawk adventures appeared in 5e adventure anthologies: Ghosts of Saltmarsh, Tales From the Yawning Portal, and Quests From the Infinite Staircase all feature cleaned-up versions of old Greyhawk adventures. While it's well within your rights to move these adventures into whichever D&D setting you choose (including your very own homebrewed worlds), the ones in Saltmarsh, Yawning Portal, and Infinite Staircase take place right on the Greyhawk map; even if the Yawning Portal itself isn't physically located in Greyhawk.

Using these modules, you can piecemeal a Greyhawk campaign together from level 1 to 13. It's like Wizards of the Coast was assembling a secret Greyhawk campaign throughout the entirety of 5e. It's not a perfect campaign run. You can see the stitches. But if you already have these resources—including a D&D Beyond account—the Greyhawk campaign is there, with minimal tweaking on your part as a Dungeon Master.

You have a branch or two that cover the same levels; so you can pick which one of the two (or three) you'd like to run, in some cases. There are also some levels that look empty (level 2 for instance), but is covered by the larger level 1-4 spread from The Lost City.

• Level 1-3: The Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh (Ghosts of Saltmarsh)
• Level 1-4: The Lost City (Quests From the Infinite Staircase)
• Level 2: see above
• Level 3: Danger at Dunwater (Saltmarsh)
• Level 4: Uni and the Hunt for the Lost Horn (standalone on D&D Beyond)
• Level 4: Scions of Elemental Evil (D&D Beyond)
• Level 4-6: When a Star Falls (Staircase)
• Level 5: The Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan (Tales From the Yawning Portal)
• Level 6: see below
• Level 6-7: Beyond the Crystal Cave (Staircase)
• Level 7: The Final Enemy (Saltmarsh)
• Level 7-9: Pharaoh (Staircase)
• Level 8: see above
• Level 9: see above
• Level 9-11: The Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth (Staircase)
• Level 10: Tomb of Horrors (Yawning)
• Level 11: The Styes (Saltmarsh)
• Level 11-13: Expedition to the Barrier Peaks (Staircase)

While it would be wonderful to have a campaign running from level 1-20, rather than petering out at level 13, the vast majority of published D&D 5e adventures do end somewhere in the low teens. I know it's messy. Do you play level 1-3 Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh, or level 1-4 The Lost City? Running both wouldn't work without a lot of tweaking. So, save the second route for next time, regardless of which way you choose.

Again, you could shoehorn any D&D 5e adventure into any campaign setting you want. But I wanted to look at what had already been released specifically for Greyhawk that would take little or no tweaking whatsoever to appear in a D&D 2024 Greyhawk campaign.